Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: bnr-di!borynec@watmath.waterloo.edu (James Borynec)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: What is a 6-pounder gun?
Summary: Carronades had trunnions
Message-ID: <7253@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 8 Jun 89 01:01:48 GMT
References: <7030@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7127@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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Organization: DI, Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Ont.
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From: bnr-di!borynec@watmath.waterloo.edu (James Borynec)

In article <7127@cbnews.ATT.COM>, mayse@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
> [mod.note:  I believe that the term "carronade" refers to a gun mounted
> on the ship's gunwales via a pintle mount, as opposed to being mounted
> on a carriage.   As they couldn't recoil, the powder charge had to be
> small, reducing the effective range of the gun.   Correct me if I'm
> wrong...  In any case, the name derives from the town of Carron, Scotland,
> which apparently had a fine ironworks. - Bill ]

Carronades had trunnions and looked much like shorter, thinner skinned
cannons.  They were mounted on carriages.  Their chief advantage was
that they were MUCH lighter than cannons and hence a ship could throw
a much larger weight of fire for a given weight of guns.  They also tended
to use shell and grapeshot ammunition more frequently because of their
shorter range.

As a side note,  it is interesting to note that solid iron shot was
not the projectile of choice in the early days of siege war, carved stone
shot was.  Stone on impact caused much more damage because it splintered.
Also, it could be thrown farther.  It was abandoned because of its 
expense.

James Borynec.  utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-di!borynec

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