One shot stops: Old Skool

[BorisTheBlade]

Cannon.jpg

The unfortunate owner of this armor was Antoine Favreau, a soldier in the Mounted Carabiner (heavy cavalry) who fought for the French during the Napoleonic wars. It was during the infamous battle of Waterloo that Antoine suffered the misfortune of meeting a cannon ball going the other way.

The offending cannon may been of the "Blomfield" variety, typical of what the British were using at the time. The round shot of these cannons were cast iron balls weighing approximately 4kg's, traveling at around 1650 fps. Cannon balls were fearsome weapons capable of punching through up to 40 men. The rounds could travel about 1000 metres and after their initial kinetic energy waned due to air resistance, would continue the carnage by skipping along the ground for hundreds of metres crushing legs and ankles.

Interesting notes:

• A cannon ball did not have to make contact to cause casualties; a near miss could cause internal injury or concussion without leaving a mark on the victim (a condition known as 'wind of a ball')
• When attacking wooden ships or land-based structures, cannon balls would be heated red-hot (a 'heated shot')
• The largest black powder-fired cannon ever built was the British Armstrong 100-ton. It fired a 450mm, 910kg round and had a range of 6000m with a muzzle velocity of 1548 fps.

In case you were wondering, Antoine did not survive the encounter.

[pblaauw]

Almost as good as a old 303

[Brendank]

Cannon.jpg

The unfortunate owner of this armor was Antoine Favreau, a soldier in the Mounted Carabiner (heavy cavalry) who fought for the French during the Napoleonic wars. It was during the infamous battle of Waterloo that Antoine suffered the misfortune of meeting a cannon ball going the other way.

The offending cannon may been of the "Blomfield" variety, typical of what the British were using at the time. The round shot of these cannons were cast iron balls weighing approximately 4kg's, traveling at around 1650 fps. Cannon balls were fearsome weapons capable of punching through up to 40 men. The rounds could travel about 1000 metres and after their initial kinetic energy waned due to air resistance, would continue the carnage by skipping along the ground for hundreds of metres crushing legs and ankles.

Interesting notes:

• A cannon ball did not have to make contact to cause casualties; a near miss could cause internal injury or concussion without leaving a mark on the victim (a condition known as 'wind of a ball')
• When attacking wooden ships or land-based structures, cannon balls would be heated red-hot (a 'heated shot')
• The largest black powder-fired cannon ever built was the British Armstrong 100-ton. It fired a 450mm, 910kg round and had a range of 6000m with a muzzle velocity of 1548 fps.

In case you were wondering, Antoine did not survive the encounter.

Geez! May as well have been a 40mm.

[CorditeCrazy]

Thanks for sharing, quite interesting

[BEX]

• When attacking wooden ships or land-based structures, cannon balls would be heated red-hot (a 'heated shot')

I have read about this , but how would the cannon ball be loaded without setting off the charge?

[driepootx]

Must have put in quite a few wads to get the heat away from the powder

100 ton gun. There are a few videos of this gun.

[Spliffcat]

Back about 1994 when I visited Isla de Mozambique around the fortress on the island in the water were all sorts of cannon balls some had bits of metal bars welded onto them. In the fortress itself were pin guns and all sorts of muskets etc.
Lots of old canons on the ramparts.
When I went back in 1995 there was nothing left. Even the beautiful old antiques had vanished.
The UN had moved in and cleaned the place out.

[BorisTheBlade]

Must have put in quite a few wads to get the heat away from the powder

100 ton gun. There are a few videos of this gun.

Thanks, I hadn't seen this.

[BorisTheBlade]

I have read about this , but how would the cannon ball be loaded without setting off the charge?

Good question! Here's what I found:

"A cartridge bag of gunpowder was loaded first. A double bag was used with heated shot to prevent leakage of grains of gunpowder as the bag was rammed down the cannon. Once the bag was in place, a wad of moistened clay or cloth was rammed down against the bag to shield it from the heated shot, which was loaded next."

[Oddthomas10]

Another video on the Armstrong gun from a brilliant YouTube channel. According to this it took 10min to reload and was never fired defending the island.