"The Carronade – Meet the Stout Little Deck Gun..." Topic

….That Struck Terror into the Hearts of Britain's Enemies

"IT WAS JUST after midday on Oct. 21, 1805 and the Battle of Trafalgar was in full swing.

Amid the withering broadsides, two massive carronades on the forecastle of HMS Victory suddenly leapt backwards with an ear-splitting roar unleashing perhaps one of the single deadliest salvos in the history of naval warfare.

Each of the two weapons launched an enormous 68-pound round shot and 250 pistol-size balls. The speeding metal tore through the stern of the French flagship Bucentaure from a range of exactly five yards and in a split second travelled the entire length of the Frenchman's gun decks shredding everything in their path. In one stroke, Victory had killed or wounded 400 men, half of the Bucentaure's crew…."

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Amicalement
Armand

The Carron company is still around but these days they make sinks, taps and baths and not cannon…

carron.com/about

I have a Carron granite sink in my kitchen – it's not as easy to clean as a stainless steel one.

Barrie

Thanks!

Amicalement
Armand

This article is a tad florid. HMS Victory carried only two 68-pounder carronades aboard at Trafalgar; they were located on the forecastle, one bearing to starboard and the other to port. This is not to say that a double-shotted 68-pounder was not a formidable weapon at five yards. But there were another fifty-one guns (also double-shotted) fired into Bucentaure on that occasion – representing a double-shotted broadside weight of 2,000+ lbs.

There is also (IIRC) some question among historians as to the number of casualties suffered aboard Bucentaure by this single raking broadside. More on this point later.

B