5th. “The considerations submitted to the Commander-in-Chief respecting the first landing of the ordnance and stores, were much approved, and happily executed with great despatch, notwithstanding some very serious impediments, arising from the manner of loading the ships by freight (carrying as much as possible without order), instead of being regularly assorted. The embarking troops also on board such ships is always attended with, not only great inconvenience, but considerable damage, from the quantity of water necessary to carry for them, the waste and leakage of which injures the carriages and stores considerably underneath, besides the difficulty it occasions of getting at them when required for service. In the preparations for landing at Cadiz, seventy tons of water were obliged to be first removed from one ship only. Great inconveniences were also found from the magnitude of some of the ships, which could not be brought within some miles of the shore. They should for such services never exceed 600 tons, and a moderate draught of water.”
6th. “Carronades might certainly be employed in the land service to considerable advantage in many situations, particularly on the flanks or firing over the parapets of fortifications and for field-works in general. It would also be very well worth while to have some experiments tried with them in breaching walls and earthworks. The common objection made to their shortness injuring the embrasures has more of imagination than reality in it. They may be advanced the extent of any gun mounted upon a travelling carriage, and much farther than the largest garrison howitzer, with less explosion of powder. If their present carriages are found to recoil too far, it is easily checked by only laying a few filled sand-bags upon them, and in the rear, as was practised in Egypt with perfect success; or it may be checked by small iron wedges with chains, placed to receive the fore-trucks upon.”
7th. “The arrangement made of the spare field-ammunition on the passage from Marmorice Bay to the coast of Egypt was very fortunate, as it proved impossible to have carried any quantity forward otherwise, for want of conveyance, excepting a few camels taken from the enemy on the first landing in Aboukir Bay.”
8th. “The 3-pounder light guns, patched up as they were, gave considerable confidence to the Dragoons. This calibre might be rendered very useful to Cavalry in general by an increase of dimensions, to 4½ feet in length, and about 4 cwt. in weight, with carriages upon a quick travelling construction, not overloaded with ammunition, which our service is rather liable to.
“Foreigners frequently observe the singularity of shafts being preferred in the British Artillery carriages to poles, made use of by all other nations as being simpler, lighter, and cheaper; added to which the experience of having travelled over the most difficult features of Europe, and ground of every description with them, fully evinces their perfect sufficiency. A strong instance of the inconvenience of shafts occurred to us at Rahmanich: just as one of the 6-pounders was limbering up, the shaft-horse was killed by the enemy; much time was lost in clearing the carriage from him, and the harness being also damaged, rendered it difficult to apply another in his place.
“In the marching of the 12-pounders to Grand Cairo (drawn by oxen with a horse in the shafts) the want of double or travelling trunnion-boxes was much regretted. Some few carriages were formerly so constructed for the Horse Artillery, but why discontinued remains unknown, as they are undoubtedly very advantageous to a heavy draught or indifferent horses.
“In moving the 24-pounder guns across the country from the first position near Cairo (where a bridge of boats to communicate with the Grand Vizier’s army was thrown over the Nile) for the attack of Gizeh, the axletrees of the sling-carts giving way, the medium 12-pounder carriages were appropriated to this purpose, the trench-carts carrying the mortars, standing carriages, &c.”
9th. “No carriage appears to want reform more than the common Artillery waggon. There is too much of it merely for carrying ammunition, and it is too narrow for baggage or bulky stores. In the alterations made for the proposed arrangement of spare ammunition, the boxes will require for hard roads to be more securely fixed than was necessary for travelling in Egypt.”
10th. “The inclined plane, or purchase for raising weights upon the trench-carts, might prove very useful, upon a larger scale, for mounting or dismounting heavy ordnance without being obliged to make use of a gin, which not only requires a number of men to work, and a carriage to convey it to a battery, but when fixed there becomes a considerable object to the enemy besieged. This proposed machine being quite free from all these inconveniences makes it extremely well worth while to try the experiment for such occasions.”
11th. “If the mode mentioned of preventing narrow wheels from sinking in deep sandy situations should have the appearance of possessing more fancy than judgment, it must be placed to the variety of obstacles which hourly presented themselves in Egypt, and called for every assistance the mind could catch at to surmount. And still perhaps the idea may lead to something useful even in a northern climate, passing over snow, &c.”