Some curious guns were invented when the ordnance industry was in its infancy. The Scots in a southern raid in 1640 used guns of leather at their passage of the Tyne—which says more for the strength of the leather than of the powder. A composite affair called the “kalter” gun, introduced in the time of Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, is described:—
“A thin cylinder of beaten copper screwed into a brass breech, whose chamber was strengthened by four bands of iron, the tube itself being covered with layers of mastic, over which cords were laid firmly round its whole length and equalised by a layer of plaster, a coating of leather, boiled and varnished completing the piece.”[25]
Another peculiar weapon was a twin gun, in shape something like a stumpy tuning-fork, with parallel barrels and one touch-hole; another was a gun which could be fired at either end, the cavity in which the chambers were placed being in the middle. It must have been an awkward piece to handle. Hand grenades, used sometimes preparatory to boarding, were introduced in 1689 during William III.’s reorganisation of the artillery.
Even when the ships were provided with guns, opinion was by no means unanimous as to the extent to which the weapons should be employed, or the range at which they would be most effective. The method in vogue on the Atlantic was to shoot as soon as it was thought the enemy could be seriously damaged. A gentleman named Gibson, who reported on the condition of the British Navy in 1585-1603, is quoted by Charnock as saying:—
“Be sure it is your enemy before you shoot, and that you are in halfe gunnshott of your ennemy before you shoot. It is direct cowardice to shoot at greater distance, unless he is running away. British gunns being for the most part shorter, are made to carry a bigger shot than a French gun of like weight, therefore the French gunns reach further, and those of Britain make a bigger hole. By this the French have the advantage to fight at a distance, and we yard-arm to yard-arm. The like advantage we have of them in shipping (although they are broader and carry a better saile) our sides are thicker and the better able to resist their shott. By this they are more subject to bee sunk by gunnshott than wee are.”
GUNS OF THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES.
In the Tower of London.
ANCIENT DOUBLE GUN.