Carronade
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Carronade | |
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American Revolution War, French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleonic Wars, War of 1812, American Civil War, First Boer War | |
Production history | |
Designer | Robert Melville |
Designed | 1778 |
Manufacturer | Carron Company |
Specifications | |
Mass | 12-18 pounders |
Part of a series on |
Cannons |
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A carronade is a short smoothbore cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range, anti-ship and anti-crew weapon.[1] The technology behind the carronade was greater dimensional precision, with the shot fitting more closely in the barrel thus transmitting more of the propellant charge's energy to the projectile, allowing a lighter gun using less gunpowder to be effective.
Carronades were initially found to be very successful, but they eventually disappeared as naval artillery advanced, with the introduction of rifling and consequent change in the shape of the projectile, exploding shells replacing solid shot, and naval engagements being fought at longer ranges.
History
The carronade was designed as a short-range naval weapon with a low
Its invention is variously ascribed to
Theory of design
The advantages for merchant ships are described in an advertising pamphlet of 1779.[4] Production of both shot and gun by the same firm immediately allowed a reduction in the windage, the gap between the bore of the gun and the diameter of the ball. The smaller gunpowder charge reduced the barrel heating in action, and reduced the recoil. The mounting, attached to the side of the ship on a pivot, took the recoil on a slider, without altering the alignment of the gun. The pamphlet advocated the use of woollen cartridges, which eliminated the need for wadding and worming, although they were more expensive.[citation needed]
Simplifying gunnery for comparatively untrained merchant seamen in both aiming and reloading was part of the rationale for the gun. The replacement of trunnions by a bolt underneath, to connect the gun to the mounting, reduced the width of the carriage enhancing the wide angle of fire. A merchant ship would almost always be running away from an enemy, so a wide angle of fire was much more important than on a warship. A carronade weighed a quarter as much and used a quarter to a third of the gunpowder charge as a long gun firing the same cannonball.[5]
The reduced charge allowed carronades to have a shorter length and much lighter weight than long guns. Increasing the size of the bore and ball reduces the required length of barrel. The force acting on the ball is proportional to the square of the diameter, while the mass of the ball rises by the cube, so acceleration is slower; thus, the barrel can be shorter and therefore lighter. Long guns were also much heavier than carronades because they were over-specified to be capable of being double-shotted, whereas it was dangerous to do this in a carronade. A ship could carry more carronades, or carronades of a larger caliber, than long guns, and carronades could be mounted on the upper decks, where heavy long guns could cause the ship to be top-heavy and unstable. Carronades also required a smaller gun crew, which was very important for merchant ships, and they were faster to reload.[citation needed]
Early use
Carronades initially became popular on British merchant ships during the American Revolutionary War. A lightweight gun that needed only a small gun crew and was devastating at short range was well suited to defending merchant ships against French and American privateers. The French came in possession of their first carronades in December 1779 with the capture of the brig Finkastre by the frigate Précieuse, but the weapon was judged ineffective and was not adopted by them at the time.[6] However, in the action of 4 September 1782, the impact of a single carronade broadside fired at close range by the frigate HMS Rainbow under Henry Trollope caused a wounded French captain to capitulate and surrender the Hébé after a short fight.[7]
The carronade was a popular armament among Anglo-American opium traffickers.[8]: 11 Its light weight meant that opium traffickers could maintain both speed and asymmetrical force projection in Asia.[8]: 11–12
The Royal Navy was initially reluctant to adopt the guns, mainly due to mistrust of the Carron Company, which had developed a reputation for incompetence and commercial sharp dealing.[9] Carronades were not even counted in numbering the guns of a ship. Lord Sandwich eventually started mounting them in place of the light guns on the forecastle and quarterdeck of ships. They soon proved their effectiveness in battle. French gun foundries were unable to produce equivalents for twenty years,[9] so carronades gave British warships a significant tactical advantage during the latter part of the 18th century—though French ships mounted another type of weapon in the same role, the obusier de vaisseau. HMS Victory used the two 68-pounder carronades which she carried on her forecastle to great effect at the Battle of Trafalgar, clearing the gun deck of the Bucentaure by firing a round shot and a keg of 500 musket balls through the Bucentaure's stern windows.[citation needed]
The carronade was initially very successful and widely adopted, and a few experimental ships were fitted with a carronade-only armament, such as HMS Glatton and HMS Rainbow.[9] Glatton, a fourth-rate ship with 56 guns, had a more destructive broadside at short range than HMS Victory, a first-rate ship with 100 guns. Glatton and Rainbow were both successful in battle, though the carronade's lack of range was a tactical disadvantage of this arrangement against an opponent who could keep out of carronade range, but within the range of his long guns.[citation needed]
Decline
In the 1810s and 1820s, tactics started to place a greater emphasis on the accuracy of long-range gunfire, and less on the weight of a broadside. Indeed, Captain David Porter of USS Essex complained when the navy replaced his 12-pounder long guns with 32-pounder carronades.
In the 1840s, the Royal Navy leased several carronade-armed
The carronade disappeared from the Royal Navy in the 1850s, after improved methods for building cannons had been developed by
Design
The original design of the carronade included a different type of mounting on a wooden carriage, where the cannon itself had a projecting loop on the bottom that was pinned to the gun carriage, which was fastened to the side of the ship, with a pivoting mounting which allowed the gun to be rotated, while rearward recoil was contained, sometimes with a slider carriage. In some versions, a wedge was placed underneath the chamber to control elevation, while in later versions an elevating screw was used.[citation needed]
Carronades had a chamber that was one-caliber smaller than the bore; for example, an 18-pounder carronade had its chamber bored equal to a 12-pounder. This reduced the weight of the cannon, but also had the effect of reducing the velocity of the cannonball, and hence range. A factor mitigating the deficiency in range was that carronades could be bored with a much tighter windage than long guns, so that more of the propellant went to moving the shot, rather than bypassing it.[citation needed]
Naval artillery during the Age of Sail simply was not accurate, regardless of whether the cannon was a gun or a carronade. Almost all barrels were smoothbore, not rifled, and tolerances had wide variations on everything from the actual roundness and straightness of the barrel to shot size in relation to the bore (windage). Sights were rudimentary or non-existent, and elevation was controlled by wedges and guesswork. As a result, effective or decisive naval battles were generally fought at ranges under (100 yd (91 m)) where the carronade's heavier ball was useful and its shorter range was not a huge problem. Technological improvements changed the capabilities of naval armament by the nineteenth century, but muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon were still not very accurate. Consequently, naval tactics in line of battle counted on the effect of rapid broadsides at short range, to which the carronade could make a significant contribution. In smaller vessels such as frigates, privateers, and raiders, the captains still appreciated long guns for their increased range, since they were not expected to engage in fighting in line-of-battle, but rather often found themselves engaged in long chases or attempts to work to windward. It was often better tactically to attempt to shoot the opponent's rigging down at range rather than close in for direct combat, where the weaker hulls of lighter vessels were at risk. They also often found themselves far from home or harbors, where repairs and spare yards, masts or rigging could be found. Generally, although the power of the "smashers", as they were called,[2][11] was acknowledged, most captains continued to prefer long guns.[citation needed]
Ordnance
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A carronade was much shorter and a third to a quarter of the weight of an equivalent long gun. A 32-pounder carronade, for example, weighed less than a ton, but a 32-pounder long gun weighed over 3 tons. Carronades were manufactured in the usual naval gun sizes: 6-, 12-, 18-, 24-, 32-, 42-, and 68-pounder versions are known.
The smaller carronades served in three roles. First, they often constituted the entire armament of unrated vessels. For instance, the Ballahoo- and Cuckoo-class schooners were armed only with four 12-pounder carronades. Second, gunboats such as those that the Americans deployed at the Battle of Lake Borgne often had one large 18-, 24-, or 32-pounder gun forward on a pivot, and two smaller carronades aft. Finally, larger vessels carried a few 12-, 18-, or 24-pounders to arm their ship's boats—cutters, pinnaces, launches, barges, and the like—to give them firepower for boat actions. For instance, each of the 42 larger British vessels at the Battle of Lake Borgne carried a carronade in its bow; only the three gigs were unarmed.
At the other end, even a quite small vessel might carry the 68-pounders. For instance, Commander William Layman of the Cruizer-class brig sloop HMS Raven replaced her two forward 6-pounder guns and 32-pounder carronades with a single 68-pounder on a pivot, and then did the same with two of the aft 32-pounder carronades. By doing this, he replaced 70 pounds of broadside with 136 pounds (assuming that both 68-pounders would usually fire on the same side), and ensured that Raven would have less dead-space to her front and rear.
Carronades were not counted in a ship of the line's rated number of guns. The classification of Royal Navy vessels in this period can therefore mislead; they would often be carrying fewer guns but more pieces of ordnance than they were described as carrying. The same applied to the French and American navies when they adopted the carronade.[12]
The carronade, like other naval guns, was mounted with ropes to restrain the
In the late 18th century, a new type of cannon was developed in Britain which was a cross between a cannon and a carronade, called a "cannonade" (not to be confused with the term cannonade which refers to rapid and sustained artillery fire or the act of firing as such). An example was the "medium
The East India Company (EIC) also used carronades, and these appear to be larger, and heavier than those that Royal Navy used. In his discussion of the
Range
There was usually a considerable gap (known as
The air resistance of a spherical cannonball in supersonic flight is much greater than in subsonic flight. For a given weight of powder, a larger ball, having a large mass, has a lower maximum velocity which reduces the range of supersonic flight. But the increase in the distance of subsonic flight may have more than compensated, as the air resistance is proportional to the square of the diameter but the mass is proportional to the cube. The Victory's 68 lb carronade is reported to have had a maximum range of 1,280 yd (1,170 m) at an angle of 5 degrees with a 5 lb charge of gunpowder.
Diagram
Citations
- ISBN 0-670-81416-4.
- ^ a b The evolution of naval armament. London Constable. 1921. p. 126.
- ^ Kincaid (2007), 116.
- ^ a b . An Attempt to improve the Method of Arming Trading Vessels. With a description of the carronade, and some hints concerning shot. The third edition Falkirk, 1779.
- ^ p 84 J. Guillmartin "Ballistics in the Black Powder era" p 73-98 in ROYAL ARMOURIES CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS.; British naval armament 1600–1900; London, 1987; Nov, 1989,
- ^ "Napoléon et l'évolution de l'artillerie des vaisseaux (Napoleon and the evolution of artillery ships)". 10 December 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
- ^ "Introducing the Carronade". Age Of Sail · Life at sea during the age of wooden ships and iron men. 22 February 2009. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4780-1121-7.
- ^ a b c Rodger (2004), p.420
- ^ [1] Major D.D. Hall: The Artillery of the First Anglo-Boer War 1880 – 1881
- ^ Dahlgren, John Adolphus Bernard (1856). Shells and shell-guns. Philadelphia : King & Baird, printers. p. 8.
- ^ Chisholm 1911.
- ^ James, William (1878). The Naval History of Great Britain, from the Declaration of War by France in 1793, to the Accession of George IV. R. Bentley.
- ^ James (1837), Vol. 4, pp.239–44.
- ^ p 85 HMS Victory : 1765–1812 (first rate ship of the line) / Peter Goodwin. Somerset : Haynes Publishing, 2015.
- ^ p 84 HMS Victory : 1765–1812 (first rate ship of the line) / Peter Goodwin. Somerset : Haynes Publishing, 2015.
- ^ C. H. Firth Cromwell's Army 4th ed. p80
References
- Originally from http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/gen1.htm, with the author's permission. (Archived May 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine)
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 410.
- James, William; Chamier, Frederick (1837). The Naval History of Great Britain: From the Declaration of War by France In 1793 to the Accession of George IV. London, UK: R. Bentley. OCLC 656581450.
- Kincaid, Jeff (22007) Artillery: an illustrated history of its impact. (Santa Barbara Calif.: ABC-Clio). ISBN 978-1-85109-556-8.
- Lavery, Brian (1989). Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organisation 1793–1815. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-611-7.
- Roberts, William (1996). "That Imperfect Arm: Quantifying the Carronade". Warship International. XXXIII (3): 231–240. ISSN 0043-0374.
- ISBN 978-0-14-028896-4.