Monck’s 56-pounder gun.
The gun which ranks next is Monck’s 56-pounder. Although not a chambered gun, it will be seen, from the [diagram] (see p. 117), to be an attempt (if not a perfectly successful one) to obtain uniformity of thickness in every part of the arc. The durability of these guns ranks as we have placed them.
The next in rotation is the [8-inch or 68-pounder] (see p. 114); which, although not the original sized gun that was rifled for the Lancaster shell, yet it was the one eventually used for that projectile up to the end of its very brief career.
10-inch or 86-pounder gun.
The 10-inch gun of 95 cwt., [delineated] at page 117, will be seen to be defective in its outlines when tested by the principles before laid down, and the fact of more 10-inch guns bursting at Sebastopol than any others (mortars only excepted), may be taken as exclusive evidence of its imperfection.
The bursting of mortars is quite notorious, especially the 13-inch mortars used for sea-service in the attack on Sweaborg. A slight examination of the [engraving] of one will be sufficient to convince any person that, if what has already been advanced on the form of guns can lay claim to being scientific, then this is of all guns the most unscientific that was ever manufactured. Its durability, too, like its shape, is of a very low order.