"Were Breechloading cannons used in 1600’s?" Topic

Were breechloading cannons used during the late 1500's and into the 1600's? If so who had them.

Yep iirc the Spanish Armada used them. However these were a primitive type of breech loading, where powder (and ball?) go in a removable breech section then get fitted back into the gun.

I think everyone was using breechloading cannons by the 1500s.

The very first cannons of the Middle Ages were breech loaded, with gunpowder and shot contained in pots dropped at the back of the barrel, but the poor seals made them dangerous, and they wore quickly and could not be scaled to larger weapons. Until the 19th century, only muzzle-loaders were used.

In 1837 Martin von Wahrendorff patented a design for a breech-loader with a cylindrical breech plug secured by a horizontal wedge; it was adopted by Sweden in 1854. Independently, Giovanni Cavalli first proposed a breech-loader gun in 1832 to the Sardinian Army, and first tested such a gun in 1845.

from: link

Swivel-guns could be breech-loading from around 1400, give or take, but these tended to be used shipboard or on castle ramparts (referring to England). As far as I know, the Royal Artillery didn't adopt breech-loaders in the field until the late 19th Century (i.e. after the Zulu War). The Crimean War was fought with muzzle-loaders, for instance, though an experimental Armstrong breech-loader was knocking around at the same time but never procured.

It's funny that in the 19th century breechloaders became the higher-tech, more efficient guns and replaced muzzle-loaders. So we forget that there were breechloaders *before* there were muzzleloaders. All to do with metallurgy. Osprey's medieval cannon book covers all the details.

The earliest guns depicted in Europe were muzzleloaders and muzzleloaders continue in use throughout the period, particularly for guns of middling calibre.

The breechloading method of a separate powder chamber was also common but replaced by more powerful muzzleloaders with better cast barrels that could stand the extra pressure of an enclosed discharge. Some of the largest smoothbore guns ever fired were actually breech loaders (Turkish guns at the siege of Constantinople) firing a stone shot.

Small calibre 'hailshot' swivel pieces were still in use on naval and fortress mountings into the 19th century and some used pre-loaded chambers to achieve a rapid rate of fire.

Breechloading swivel guns were used until the early 18th century by European navies -- by which time they were considered decidedly unsafe. (Old fashioned breechloading swivel guns were still be produced in places like North Africa well into the 19th century). I know ships like the Mary Rose had some larger breechloaders, but I think such guns were already being phased out at the time.