But to return to our early naval cannon. As I have already pointed out, the casting of bronze guns in Germany and Flanders had reached a great pitch of perfection long before anything of the sort was made in England. Germany, in fact, may be said to have led in gunnery for a considerable period. The master gunners in most armies seem to have been Germans, and at the accession of Queen Elizabeth we were buying our powder from the German Hansa Company established in the Steel Yard in London, instead of making sufficient for ourselves. There were many brass guns afloat in Henry VIII's navy besides the wrought-iron breech-loaders. Some of fine workmanship were found in the wreck of the Mary Rose, as well as those of the latter class which have been already mentioned. As an indication of the cost and labour expended on such weapons, it may be instanced that a bronze gun cast in Germany in 1406 took from Whitsuntide to Michaelmas to finish, and required 52½ hundredweight of copper and 3½ hundredweight of tin. The metal cost 422 florins, while the master gun-founder received 86 florins for his pains.
The heaviest weapon afloat in Tudor times was the curtall or curtow, generally of brass, and firing a 60-pound shot. The culverin was rather lighter and longer. There were a whole host of fancy names—and doubtless fancy types—for ordnance at this time, several of which have already been referred to as forming the armament of the Great Michael. Space forbids further enumeration or description, which, in any case, would be impossible on account of the very different guns which are called indiscriminately by the same name. But by the Armada days the following were the principal guns used afloat:—
| Name. | Bore. | Weight of Shot. | ||
| Double cannon | 8½ | inches | 66 | pounds |
| Whole cannon | 8 | " | 60 | " |
| Demi-cannon | 6½ | " | 32 | " |
| Whole culverin | 5½ | " | 17 | " |
| Demi-culverin | 4½ | " | 9 | " |
| Saker | 3½ | " | 51 | " |
| Minion | 3 | " | 4 | " |
| Falcon | 2½ | " | 2 | " |
| Falconet | 2 | " | 1½ | " |
| Robinet | 1 | " | 1 | "[38] |
The "double cannon" is sometimes called a "cannon royal" or a "carthoun". The "saker" is often spelt "sacre". The "culverin"—a name that occurs rather more frequently than any other at this time—was so called from the lugs or handles for hoisting it in and out of its carriage, which were made in the form of an ornamental serpent.[39]
Although the English cast-iron cannon almost at once achieved such a reputation that they sold in Amsterdam for £40 a ton, for £60 in France, and for no less than £80 in Spain, though costing only £12 a ton in this country; and though they were bought so freely at these high prices by foreigners that in 1574 their export was totally forbidden, yet it would appear that the Royal Navy was then using nothing but brass guns, except perhaps in the case of the smaller pieces. But the merchantmen used iron guns. Thus when James I sent an expedition of six men-of-war and a dozen armed merchant-ships against the Algerines in 1620, all the former carried brass and all the latter iron guns. The men-of-war were heavily gunned, so much so, indeed, that it was not unusual for their captains to dismount a few of their heaviest pieces and stow them as ballast for the safety of the ship. The Prince Royal, for instance, carried a battery of two "cannon perriers" (i.e. throwing stone shot), six demi-cannon, twelve culverins, thirteen sakers, and four light pieces. The famous Sovereign of the Seas in the next reign mounted twenty cannon, eight demi-cannon, thirty-two culverins, and forty-two demi-culverins—all brass guns—and probably some small iron falconets as well. On each gun was engraved the rose and crown, the sceptre and trident, anchor and cable. The engraving cost £3 per gun, but we must remember that the Sovereign was a "show ship".
According to an artilleryman who wrote in the first half of the seventeenth century, three shots an hour was about as much as an ordinary gun would stand, "always provided that after 40 shots you refresh and cool the piece[40] and let her rest an houre, for fear lest 80 shots should break the piece". But I think we may credit our seamen with being able to fire their guns a bit faster than that. Constant running out of powder seems to have been the great trouble in the English fleet engaged in the discomfiture of the "Invincible" Armada. And not only did the English ships carry heavier ordnance and fire heavier broadsides than the Spaniards, so that the British cannon "lacked them through and through", but our gunners are said to have fired their pieces three times to the Spaniards' one. This is a Spanish estimate, and it is abundantly evident that our gunnery proved at least as superior as it did over that of the Germans in Sir David Beatty's victory off the Friesland coast in January, 1915. Later on, at the battle of La Hogue (1692) the British ships were able to fire three broadsides to every two of the French.
Early Attempts at Maxim Guns
In all probability each barrel of the first gun had to be loaded separately and fired by hand, one after another. In the second case, the eight little cannon are apparently secured to a kind of turntable, to be revolved by hand.