Typical of a ship's battery in the palmiest days of our Wooden Walls. The thick rope "breechings", the blocks and tackles for running the guns in or out, and securing them for sea, are clearly shown. So also are the "trucks" or wheels, and the "quoins" or wedges for elevating or depressing the guns. Overhead are suspended the Sponge, Rammer, and Worm, for each gun. The latter is the implement with a double corkscrew for withdrawing a cartridge.
The British ship, whose armament consisted of a main battery of 68-pounder carronades, with 32-pounders on her upper deck—fifty guns in all—completely defeated and drove off her six assailants, who retreated to Flushing with their decks ripped up, besides other terrible damages, one of them being so badly mauled that she sank on arrival in port. Had not the Glatton been a very slow sailer she could have destroyed the lot. As it was, she effected her victory with only two casualties—Captain Strangeways of the Marines mortally, and a private marine slightly wounded.
It may be interesting to note the armament carried by Nelson's Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, in order that it may be compared with that of some earlier ships of which particulars have been given and with those of our modern battleships, which will be found in a later chapter.
On that memorable day the famous old three-decker which still swings at her buoy in Portsmouth harbour mounted—
On her lower deck, thirty 32-pounders;
On her middle deck, thirty 24-pounders;
On her main deck, thirty-two 12-pounders;
On her upper deck, eight 12-pounders, and four 32-pounder carronades.
The upper-deck 12-pounders were 2 feet shorter than those on the main deck, and only weighed 21 cwt., as against their 34, but the 32-pounder carronades only weighed 17 cwt. This will give an idea of the comparative lightness of these weapons. The guns at this period, and indeed since Elizabethan times, were mounted on carriages formed of two wooden sides or cheeks strongly connected together by timber cross-pieces or "transoms", and placed on four solid wooden wheels or "trucks". They were secured to the ship's side by thick ropes or "breechings" passing round the breech of the gun, and long enough to allow of a certain recoil on being fired. The gun was run out again by blocks and tackles, which could also be used to haul it inboard without its being fired, in order to secure it for sea and close the port. It was trained from side to side by means of hand-spikes or levers placed under the rear of the carriage, and elevated in a similar manner, the hand-spikes being used to raise or lower the breech of the gun, while the "quoin", or wedge, supporting it was being adjusted. Similar carriages remained in use in our navy far into the 'eighties of last century, being used for the "converted 64-pounder", which was the old smooth-bore 68-pounder lined with a rifled steel tube. I have drilled at such guns myself. It was fine exercise, and it was necessary to be pretty smart and have all one's wits about one to get outside the breeching, if a loading number, before the gun was run out. The 13·5-inch gun of to-day is, thanks to hydraulics, manipulated with a tithe of the exertion required to serve a truck gun. Here are the orders for "Exercise at the Great Guns" which obtained in 1781, and are considerably simpler than those previously in vogue:
1. "Silence."
2. "Cast loose your guns."
3. "Level your guns."
4. "Take out your tompions."
5. "Run out your guns."
6. "Prime."
7. "Point your guns."
8. "Fire."
9. "Sponge your guns."
10. "Load with cartridge."
11. "Shot your guns."
12. "Put in your tompions."
13. "House your guns."
14. "Secure your guns."
"Tompions" are a species of plug used to close the muzzle of a gun when not in action. In the "days of wood and hemp" they were usually painted red, but in modern guns they are generally faced with gun-metal, decorated in some cases with the badge of the ship. "Prime" means to place loose powder in the pan after having pierced the cartridge with a "priming wire" thrust through the touch-hole or vent. To "house" was to haul the gun inboard ready for securing.
The smooth-bore gun remained the naval weapon right up to the Crimean War, though explosive shells gradually began to be used as well as the old solid round shot. The rifling of muskets and cannon had often been suggested by inventors as far back as Tudor times, and occasionally a few experimental rifled muskets were made. But in the war with Russia, in which most of the combatants were armed with muzzle-loading rifles, rifled cannon began to make their appearance. The Lancaster gun, with a twisted oval bore, was the first rifled naval gun, and was thought a great deal of in its day. Then came the breech-loading Armstrong guns. These were very finely turned out weapons with poly-groove rifling, and closed at the breech by a species of block which lifted in and out and had somewhat the appearance of a carriage clock. It was held in position by a hollow screw through which the charge and projectile were loaded into the gun, and which was screwed up tight against the breech-block before firing. This was not a very satisfactory system, since, if not properly screwed taut, the block had a habit of blowing out, sometimes with unfortunate results. It was probably for this reason that none of these guns was made bigger than a 100-pounder. The projectiles for the Armstrong gun were covered with leaden jackets in order to take the rifling. This jacket every now and again flew off, which rendered these guns very unsafe to use over the heads of our own troops.
