686 Extract from Stalkartfs Naval Architecture. 



pieces will be but half as great as that of the thirty-two 

 pounders now in use ; and therefore there can be no 

 doubt but they may easily be managed. 



The quarter-deck guns are formed upon the same 

 principle, and are just half the weight of the heaviest 

 twelve-pounders in the service. 



In order to facilitate the working of the guns, it is 



O O 



proposed to mount them all on sliding carriages, the 

 bed upon which the carriage runs to be movable upon 

 a hinge fastened to the sill of the port in such a man- 

 ner that the bed may be always kept in a horizontal 

 position, however the ship may lie along, by which 

 means the weather guns may be fought at all times, 

 and the lee guns till their muzzles come down to the 

 water ; and that with as much ease and expedition as if 

 the ship was upright upon her keel. 



Instead of small arms for the tops, and for the quar- 

 ter-deck and forecastle, it is proposed to make use of 

 musketoons, on such a construction as to mount on 

 swivel-stocks, and to be used occasionally, either on 

 shipboard or in a boat. These pieces, having a bore of 

 about three feet in length and one inch and a half in 

 diameter, will carry a grape of nine musket-bullets, or 

 eighteen or twenty-four pistol-bullets, as the object is at 

 a greater or less distance, or occasionally a single leaden 

 bullet of twelve ounces, if execution is meant to be done 

 at a very great distance. 



