Weaponry

Carronade
A short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon. While considered very successful early on, carronades eventually disappeared as long-range naval artillery led to fewer and fewer close-range engagements.

Chain shot
a chain-shot is an obsolete type of naval ammunition formed of two sub-calibre balls, or half-balls, chained together. Bar shot is similar, but joined by a solid bar. They were used in naval warfare in the age of sailing ships and black powder cannons to shoot down yards, masts, or to cut the shrouds and any other rigging of a target ship.



Culverin
A relatively simple ancestor of the musket, and later a medieval cannon, adapted for use by the French in the 15th century, and later adapted for naval use by the English in the late 16th century. The culverin was used to bombard targets from a distance. The weapon had a relatively long barrel and a light construction. The culverin fired solid round shot projectiles with a high muzzle velocity, producing a relatively long range and flat trajectory. There were three types of culverin in use, distinguished by their size: the culverin extraordinary, the ordinary, and the least-sized.

The culverin extraordinary had a diameter of 5½ inches (140 mm), a length of 32 calibers (14 ft 8 in; 4.5 m), and a weight of 4800 pounds (2200 kg); it carried a shot with a diameter of 5¼ inches (135 mm) and weight of 20 pounds* (9.1 kg). The ordinary culverin had a diameter of 5½ inches (140 mm), a length of 25 calibers (12 ft; 3.6 m), and a weight of 4500 pounds (2000 kg); it carried a ball of 5½ inches (140 mm) and 17 lb 5 oz (7.9 kg).

The culverin of the least size had a diameter of 5 inches (130 mm), a length of 29 calibers (12 ft; 3.6 m), and a weight of 4000 pounds (1800 kg); it carried a shot 3¼ inches in diameter, weighing 14 pounds 9 ounces (6.6 kg). There were also smaller versions, including the bastard culverin (4 inches (100 mm), 7 pounds (3.1 kg) shot and the demi-culverin or culverin-moyen (4½ inches (114 mm), 10 pound (4.5 kg) shot.

Falconet
The falconet or falcon was a light cannon developed in the late 15th century. Its barrel was approximately 4 feet (1.2 m) long, had a caliber of 2 inches (5 cm) and weighed 80 kilograms (176 lb)~200 kilograms (441 lb). The falconet used 0.5 pounds (0.23 kg) of black powder to fire a 1 pound (0.5 kg) round shot approximately 5,000 feet (1,524 m). They could also be used to fire grapeshot. The falconet resembled an oversized matchlock musket with two wheels attached to improve mobility. In 1620s Germany a breechloading version was invented, seeing action in the Thirty Years War.

Grape shot
a type of anti-personnel ammunition used in naval cannons. It was similar to its land cousin canister shot, although its slugs were much larger to punch through the hull of ships. Instead of solid shot, a mass of loosely packed metal slugs is loaded into a canvas bag. Grapeshot can also be improvised from chainlinks, shards of glass, rocks, etc. When assembled, the balls resemble a cluster of grapes (hence the name). On firing, the balls spread out from the muzzle at high velocity, giving an effect similar to a shotgun, but scaled up to cannon size.

Heated shot
The practice of heating round shot before firing from muzzle-loading cannons, for the purpose of setting fire to enemy warships, buildings, or equipment. The use of hot shot dates back centuries and only ceased when vessels armored with iron replaced wooden warships in the world's navies. It was a powerful weapon against wooden warships, where fire was always a hazard. Its use was mainly confined to shore batteries and forts, due to the need for a special furnace to heat the shot, and their use from a ship was in fact against Royal Navy regulations because they were so dangerous, although the American ship USS Constitution had a shot furnace installed, for hot shot to be fired from her carronades.

'Long Nine'
A proportionately longer-barrelled 9-pounder. Its typical mounting as a bow or stern chaser, where it was not perpendicular to the keel, allowed room to operate this longer weapon. In a chase situation, the gun's greater range came into play. However, the desire to reduce weight in the ends of the ship and the relative fragility of the bow and stern portions of the hull limited this role to a 9-pounder, rather than one which used a 12 or 24 pound shot.

Round shot
A solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.

Saker
A medium cannon slightly smaller than a culverin developed during the early 16th century and often used by the English. A saker's barrel was approximately 9.5 ft (2.9m) long, had a calibre of 3.25 inches (8.26 cm) and weighed approximately 1900 lb (860 kg). It could fire round shot weighing 5.25 lb (2.4 kg) approximately 7400 ft (2.3 km) using 4 lb (1.8 kg) of black powder. The shot was designed not to explode but bounce along to cause as much damage as possible. Tests performed in France during the 1950s show a saker's range was over 9000 ft (2.7 km) when fired at a 45 degree angle.



Swivel gun
The term swivel gun usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to switch between rifled and smoothbore barrels. Swivel guns should not be confused with pivot guns, which were far larger weapons mounted on a horizontal pivot.

A breech-loading swivel gun was a particular type of swivel gun and a small breech-loading cannon invented in the 14th century. It was loaded by inserting a mug-shaped device called a chamber, pre-filled with gunpowder and projectiles. It had a high rate of fire, as several chambers could be prepared in advance and quickly fired in succession and was especially effective in anti-personnel roles. It was used for centuries by many countries of Europe, Asia and Africa.


* According to Oleg, these numbers are wrong. His calculations show; 5" is roughly 16-pounder for iron shot & 8 pounder would be about 4"