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However, at the short range of many naval engagements, these "smashers" were very effective. Their lighter weight and smaller crew requirement allowed them to be used on smaller ships than would otherwise be needed to fire such heavy projectiles. It was used from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century.
The 32-pounder 56 cwt cannon was an artillery piece designed and used by the British Armed Forces in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was by far the most common 32-pounder used by the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, with 1,961 guns being recorded as in use and 1,733 being in storage at the end of March 1857.
An 18th-century ship of the line typically mounted 32-pounder or 36-pounder long guns on a lower deck, and 18-or 24-pounders on an upper deck, with some 12-pounders on the forecastle and quarterdeck. From the late sixteenth century it was routine for naval ships to carry a master gunner, responsible for overseeing the operation of the cannon on ...
The history of cannon spans several hundred years from the 12th century to modern times. The cannon first appeared in China sometime during the 12th and 13th centuries. It was most likely developed in parallel or as an evolution of an earlier gunpowder weapon called the fire lance. The result was a projectile weapon in the shape of a cylinder ...
The 12-pounder long gun was an intermediary calibre piece of artillery mounted on warships of the Age of Sail.They were used as main guns on the most typical frigates of the early 18th century, on the second deck of fourth-rate ships of the line, and on the upper decks or castles of 80-gun and 120-gun ships of the line.
The Royal Navy told its 32-pounders apart by noting the weight of the piece in hundredweight (cwt). A 32-pounder 56 cwt was a heavy gun for ships of the line. It had a long range, a high chance to hit the target and had a high power of penetration. A 32-pounder 25 cwt fired the same shot, but with less gunpowder.
The lower tier of English ships of the line at this time were usually equipped with demi-cannon – a naval gun which fired a 32-pound solid shot. A full cannon fired a 42-pound shot (and in fact there was a so-called "royal cannon" that fired a 60-pound shot), but these were discontinued by the 18th century as they were seen as too unwieldy. [8]
The 18-pounder long gun was an intermediary calibre piece of naval artillery mounted on warships of the Age of Sail.They were used as main guns on the most typical frigates of the early 19th century, on the second deck of third-rate ships of the line, and even on the third deck of late first-rate ships of the line.