32 
THE B ROME-WALTON FAMILY. 
been fired at an angle of 45° (with charges up to 13 lbs. of powder); 
that the mortars were not intended for use in the open seas ; and that 
the guns were for “ protection against privateers!” 
Their size was not great, but the enormous strength of these vessels 
will be manifest; and, although many foundered by reason of the low 
free-board, their durability and sea-going qualities were such that the 
Grenado , Bomb, of 1693, crossed the Atlantic in March 1757, with the 
fleet destined against Louisbourg, as did also the Furnace of 1702, 
which went through the war in North America, under command of 
Lieut. Walton, who also fought it in the 1761 expedition in West 
Indies, while several of the Bombs with Nelson’s fleet, in 1803-5, had 
done good service at Louisbourg in 1757. Colonel Congreve also adds 
that “Bomb-ships, in having mortars on board, are more terrible to an 
enemy’s fleet than any other kind of vessel.” 
In 1796, Colonel Congreve’s experiments with the Vesuvius Bomb in 
replacing the two 13-in. mortars and eight 6-prs. by two 10-in. mortars, 
four 68-pr. and six 18-pr. carronades 1 were so successful that the entire 
fleet of bomb-ships and gun-boats was re-armed accordingly, and with 
this armament fought under Admiral Nelson. The illustrations of the 
Bomb-ship, now produced, are from the Official report of Colonel Con¬ 
greve, R.A., Comptroller of the Royal Laboratory. (The war-ship 
commanded by Captain Pyne, R.A., in 1663, has been illustrated in the 
Succession List of Master-Gunners of England). 
In 1797, Colonel Congreve reported that it would be improper, and 
not according to the usage of nations, to fire shell from H.M. Navy. 
The Bomb Tender was a smaller vessel of war, laden with ammuni¬ 
tion and shell, &c., to supply the Bo7ub-ship with fitted shell, &c.; but 
in 1797 the tender was abolished. 2 The Galiot or Fire-ship is accur¬ 
ately described and illustrated in Grose’s “ Antiquities,” Yol. I., p. 410 : 
for account of its employment during siege of Quebec, see Knox’s “Cam¬ 
paign in North America,” Yol. I., pp. 298, 300. 
Lieut. Joseph Walton’s fighting orders for Bomb-ship and Tender, 
in the American War (Louisbourg and Quebec), under Admiral 
Boscawen, and the like orders in the expedition to the West Indies, 
with Admiral Rodney’s fleet, 1761, are preserved, in original, with the 
Brome-Walton family documents, and will shortly be deposited in 
R.A. Institution. No other record of the kind is known to exist. 
In 1757, for the expedition to America, Marine Light Infantry were 
permanently organised. In 1824 the French, who had been so far 
behind us in naval armament, suddenly adopted great changes in 
naval artillery, and introduced shell ordnance on board their ships, in 
general, 3 which led to a Committee of Ordnance at Woolwich, in 
February 1826, appointed by the Duke of Wellington : and the Com¬ 
mittee reported that although the operation of live shells from guns on 
board ship is very objectionable, from its dangerous and destructive 
character, yet, as foreign Powers meditated this kind of warfare, we 
1 These were subsequently replaced by light, 32-pr., short carronades, designed by Colonel Sir 
Alexander Dickson, which were officially commended by the Admiralty. 
2 “ Military Dictionary ” (James). 
' A La Nouvelle Force Maritime , par Paixhans ; Paris, 1821. 
