[6] Coamings are raised ridges round the hatchway openings, designed to keep the water from falling below in any quantity during foul weather. They also prevent the unwary from falling down the ladders.
CHAPTER II
The guns in use in our Navy—Their nature—How loaded and fired—Varieties—Carronades—Shot—Small-arms—Gun-ports
The cannon with which Nelson’s ships were armed were made of brass or iron. The iron guns were cast in a mould, and then bored, or tubed by the insertion of a powerful cylindrical gouge. They do not appear to have been cast round a core. The brass guns were made of a proportion of “metal fit for casting” (generally about five-sevenths of the whole), to which was added a seventh part of copper, a rather smaller quantity of brass, and a few pounds of tin. The exact proportions were kept secret by the founders. German founders used more tin than brass, while the French used two formulæ, in both of which more tin than brass was employed.
The guns in use in our service were distinguished and named by the weight of the balls they threw. The old names of demi-cannon, saker, curtal, cannon-perier, etc., had fallen out of use. The guns were spoken of as 6-, 12-, 18-, 24-, or 32-pounders. The 32-pounder was the largest gun in use. Until 1790 a ponderous gun, throwing a 42-pound round shot, had been mounted on ships of the line, but the gun was too unwieldy, and the shock of the discharge was too great to allow of its continued use. There were, however, 42-, and even 68-pounder carronade or “smasher” guns. These were mounted on improved carriages, the invention of Admiral Bertie.
The principal parts of a 32-pounder gun were the breech, which ended in a rounded iron ball called the pomelion, or cascabel; the trunnions or extended arms, which supported the cannon (in almost perfect balance) in its carriage; and the bore or calibre, the “concave cylinder” down which the charge was rammed. The trunnions were placed, not in the centre of the piece, but rather towards the breech, as the metal at the breech was thicker and heavier than at the mouth, to withstand the shock of the explosion, and to prevent the gun “from starting up behind” when fired. The bore was, of course, of the same size throughout. “Taper-bored” guns had fallen out of favour. All guns in use were mounted on strong wooden trucks or carriages. The carriages were composed of two “cheeks” or side pieces, held together by thick wooden cross pieces and iron axle-trees. The wheels on which the carriages rested were circular discs of strong wood, held to the axle by iron linch-pins. The trunnions of the guns rested on the top of the two cheeks, directly above the front wheels. They were placed in hollows cut to receive them, over which hinged iron clamps or cap-squares passed, to keep them from jolting out at the shock of the discharge. When placed on a carriage, and resting on its trunnions, the gun inclined to sag down towards its breech. It was kept from falling out of the horizontal position by a wedge of wood, called a coin (or quoin) which rested on the bed of the carriage. The withdrawal of the wedge caused the gun to elevate its muzzle. By means of graduated scales, cut upon the coins and upon the base-rings of the guns, the gunners could elevate or depress their piece with considerable accuracy, by the insertion and withdrawal of the supporting wedges.
At sea, where the ship was in continual motion, either rolling or pitching, the guns had to be secured with great care by means of tackles and breechings. These ropes enabled the gun’s crews to work their guns in action. A breeching was made of stout hemp rope of the finest quality. It passed through a ring or “thimble,” which was strapped to the round iron ball or pomelion of the gun.[7] The ends of it were secured or “clinched” to strong iron ring-bolts in the ship’s side, one at each side of the gun port. This breeching secured the gun from rolling backwards towards the inner part of the deck, while it checked the recoil of the piece when fired. A breeching was of such a length that, when the piece was fired, it checked the recoil directly the gun muzzle was immediately within the gun port. In this position the piece could be reloaded without difficulty. The gun or side-tackles were pulleys hooked to the sides of the carriages, and to ring-bolts in the ship’s side, to enable the gun’s crews to run the piece out when they had loaded it. The gun was kept from running out of itself with the roll of the ship by a tackle, called a train or preventer tackle, which was hooked to an iron ring-bolt in midships, and to a hook directly below the breech of the gun.[8] When not in action the guns were hauled close up to the ship’s side by means of the side-tackles. The two parts of the breeching were then lashed together, to allow no possible play to the piece. The coins were taken out, so that the muzzle of the gun just touched the upper part of the gun port, to which it was lashed with a length of cord. In very bad weather, when the ship’s rolling caused the guns to strain their fastenings, the tackles and breechings were doubled, and small wooden wedges were screwed under their wheels. A gun broken loose was a very terrible engine of destruction, for the two tons of iron, flying across the deck with the roll of the ship, would strike with fearful force against the opposite side. Such a force was more than likely to tear through the timbers, carrying with it any other gun it happened to strike. If a gun broke loose it was “tripped” or upset by hammocks or spare sails flung in its path; but the task of tripping a loose gun on a deck awash with the sea, and foul with all manner of floating gear, such as rammers and buckets, was by no means an easy one. It was like playing leap-frog on a see-saw under a shower bath, with the certainty of a horrible death if you missed your leap.
THE GUNS IN USE IN THE NAVY
When secured to the ship’s side, and at all times when not in action, the muzzle of a gun was stopped with a circular plug of wood or cork, known as a tompion.[9] This plug was carefully tallowed round its outer rim so that no water should pass by it into the bore of the piece. Over the touch-hole of the gun, when not in action, a thin sheet of lead was fixed. This sheet was about a foot square, and was known as the “apron,” because it was tied to its place by two white cords. It kept the vent or touch-hole dry, and defended the priming from chance ignition.[10]