#carronade

Our whole time was now occupied in training our new ship’s company at the guns and learning them to pull together; and by the time that we had run down the trades, we were in a very fair state of discipline.

— Frederick Marryat, Peter Simple

A small carronade signal gun, c. 1840

A 32 pdr. carronade on its mounting on deck of HMS Trincomalee (x)

Its invention dates back to Lieutenant General Robert Melville in 1759 and was originally intended as a weapon to defend merchant ships against privateers. Because of its short range, it was best suited in the navy for laying ships alongside those of the enemy, defending against personal fire and disabling rigging, and because of its high shot weight, it could wreak havoc at short range. In addition, the Carronade was lighter than a normal gun, which meant that the mount was constructed differently. It rotates around a pin that attaches the end of the mount to the gun port - the fighting pin - and is easily aligned on the two wheels or mounts attached fore and aft. The actual carriage sits on a slide and the gun is raised by a screw through a screw box at the rear end of the tube. The hoists are the same as for the gun carriage and differ only in their arrangement.

One major innovation of the American war was the introduction of the carronade into the Royal Navy.

The short barrelled carronade entered the fleet in the 1780’s  In the 1770s invented  General Robert Melville a gun for use on ship carriages which was only five feet (1,5m) long and fired a 68-pound ball, with a charge of only 5,5 pounds of powder. Later there were different carronades which had different pound classes like canons 

A model of a carronade on a pivoting sea-service sliding carriage (early 19th century)

The carronade was the first gun to be cast, in the Carron Iron Works in Scotland, with a dispart, i.e. raised spur of metal set on top oft he mid-lenght reinforcing ring which, when sighted from the top oft he breech ring, gave the true line of the bore. The angle of the barrel was governed by a screw thread elevating once it had been set than the woodne wedges oft he cannon, and unlike them, was not liable to fly out when the gun was fired. It was a short barrelled gun capable of firing a very heavy shot at close range, and was consequently known by contemporaries as the smasher.

The carriage was a block of timber with a bolt at its outboard end parallel tot he ship’s side which fitted through a carronade loop, cast beneath the gun about midway along ist length. The carriage ran on a stationary timber slide. However, it did present a fire risk tot he lowest ship’s rigging and the hammocks which lined the upper deck, because the mouth of its short barrel only just protruded through the bulwarks. But they were also much lighter than ordinary naval guns and this allowed them to be mounted on the forecastles and poopdecks of ships where normal guns could not be placed.

Description and illustrations of a 24-Pounder Carronade on a Carriage

Carronade 1805 © Naval Museum of Québec