524 Modem British Ordnance and. Ammunition. [Oclober, 



the 600-pound shell to be lifted up and placed in the bore. 

 In another instance the same gun was fired three times in 

 four minutes and nineteen seconds. Compare this with the 

 ancient rate of firing heavy cannon two hundred years ago, 

 as given by William Eldred, sometime master gunner of 

 Dover Castle, during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth, 

 James L, and Charles I. " One may well make ten shots 

 an houre if the peeces be well fortifyed and strong ; but 

 if they be but ordinary peeces, then eight is enough, always 

 provided that after forty shots you refresh and cool the 

 peece, and let her reste an houre, for fear lest eighty shots 

 shall break the peece, being not able to endure the force and 

 heat."* The largest piece of British ordnance at that 

 period (1646), appears to have been the Canon Royall, 

 weighing 71*5 cwts., and throwing a 63-pound shot. 



From what I have mentioned above, therefore, it would 

 appear that our modern ordnance, although apparently 

 cumbersome, are very manageable, and much more handy 

 than the unprofessional observer would at first suppose. 



Captain Sharpe's ingenious models of "revolving guns," 

 now exhibited at the International Exhibition, Kensington, 

 cannot be passed by without the notice which they deserve ; 

 their economy of space is great, and the amount of dead weight 

 reduced to a minimum, whilst their extraordinary facility for 

 obtaining extreme angles of elevation is a prominent feature 

 of the system. Mr. Watts thinks the system admirably 

 adapted for gunboats, and two great naval authorities, 

 Sir Thomas Hastings and Sir Robert Smart, both agree in 

 praising it. At the same time I must demur to the 

 following paragraph in Commander Sharpe's pamphlet : f — 



" Our present 25-ton guns are but carronades on a large 

 scale, with a smashing rather than penetrating power, and 

 have not even the proportionate length of the old 32-pounders 

 of 56 cwts., which is about 19 diameters of bore in length. 

 Following the same proportion, the 25-ton gun, with its 

 12-inch diameter bore, ought to be 19 feet in length, whereas 

 it is little more than 14 feet " (p. 17). And again (p. 18), 



" The tendency of modern gunnery is to give wide diame- 

 ters of bore with low velocities to the shot — a practice the 

 very reverse of what the penetration of iron-plating plainly 

 requires. A velocity of 1600 feet in a second, on which the 

 old Woolwich ranges were estimated, is now rarely if ever 



* Proceedings of the Royal Artillery Institution, vol. vi., p. 283. On the 

 Field Artillery of the Great Rebellion. By Lieut. Hime, R.A. 



f A Description of Revolving Guns, Expanding Carriages, and Winged 

 Shot. By Commander Sharpe, R.N. 1871. 



