Cannon! Last update 6th February 2002

By the end of the 17th century, warships armament had been stabilised to the extent that each complete gun deck carried guns of only one calibre and successfully higher decks carried lighter guns. The gun type names also were changing to standard descriptions relating to the weight of the shot. For the 1700's, the general cannon sizes were 42lb, 32lb, 24lb, 18lb, 12lb, 9lb, 6lb, 4lb, 3lb and 1/2lb swivel guns, rather than culverin, demi culverin, saker, falconets etc of the 1600's. At this point in time the guns were generally still brass & bronze, though through the 18th century cannon were increasingly made of iron. Cannon were prefereably made of bronze, as they were lighter and less affected by overheating, rust and were hence longer lasting. However, as the navies and armies of Europe increased in size over the 1700's the demand for cannon was such that bronze was financially unviable (and were used by the army instead as a priority) so iron guns became common place. The process of making cast iron cannon was pioneered by the English, who made superior cannon which allowed them to achieve a slightly higher rate of fire in naval warfare. Apparently French cannon had an unfortunate reputation of exploding at the wrong moment. Russian, Swedish & American cast cannon were said to be excellent. Cannon from different nations for the same shot weight could be of different muzzle sizes, but for the simplicity of these rules I assume that all cannon and ammunition are interchangeable.

Cannon generally had a pair of handles at the centre of the gravity meant for lifting the guns about during construction, repairs, etc. These handles were known as the 'dolphins'. Cannon were rarely decorated, except on elaborate official vessels. Some cannon were built shorter than others of the same calibre (nominally called short and long versions in some books and miniatures) Short cannon were less accurate at range. This may or not matter as in fleet action, combat was undertaken at close range in a raking fire of attrition.

The Gun Establishment of 1703 gave details of guns for war ships of the British Navy:

Merchant ships of the time were lightly armed. The Adventure Galley, William Kidd's privateering vessel, was armed with 34 12lb cannon. For the number of cannon on different size ships, refer the ships section.

Firing a cannon was a fairly simple but strenuous task, laden with some danger. The larger 32lb cannon required a crew of 15 while the smaller guns needed a crew of down to 3, while the swivel gun nominally had one crew, but I would imagine 2 crew would be slightly more efficient, especially on pirate vessels. Nominally the deck itself was commanded by a deck captain, and each gun by a gun captain. Crews manned 2 cannon, one facing port, the other directly behind facing starboard. Action rarely saw both sides of the ship in operation, especially in pirate actions.

As ships were tight on space in normal conditions, usually the decks had to be cleared of equipment and clutter before action began, or work around the guns could be terribly restrictive and dangerous. This could take a quarter an hour or more (in the running battle of HMS Greyhound and Capt Low, the Greyhound cleared her gun decks and prepared the ship for some two hours prior to combat). If cannon exchange was expected to be significant, preventive measures like watering down timber decks, filling water buckets and such were done in preparation for trouble.

Firing a cannon consisted of:

Initially the cannon was removed from it's usual lashed in position and made ready in a position basically inside the hold such that the barrel is well within the hold to allow access to the mouth of the barrel. Firstly, a cotton wrapped powder charge was placed in the barrel, followed by the cannon ball and then a cotton wad to improve the seal between the ball and barrel. These were all rammed down tight while another crewman checked the charge was in place beneath the touch hole. The cannon was hauled by block and tackle up to the hold wall, it's barrel pointing out the gun port. One man aligned the cannon as best as possible by using a heavy lever under one of the wheels to shift the cannon (on smaller cannon). A wire was inserted into the touch hole and into the charge, making a hole in the charge wrapping. Once the charge was exposed, priming powder was inserted into the hole, followed by a slow buring taper. The crew backed away from the gun while the taper was set alight. The cannon went boom, the ball hopefully going straightish. The cannon recoiled violently, jumping about and back into the hold. In unlucky circumstances the barrel could explode, sending shrapnel throughout the deck. The explosion could also track fire back to the powder room, usually by a careless powder monkey leaving a sufficient loose powder trail for it to follow. Explosions in the ships powder room were catastrophic, with ships being blown literally to pieces. To fire again a sponge was placed down the muzzle to extinguish any embers prior to loading the next charge.

Where the ship was large enough to warrant it, the powder room was in the stern. Here was stored the casks of powder and the shot. Third rate and higher vesselss had another powder room at the fore of the ship. The fore room would supply the guns on the lower and middle decks, the stern room the main deck and the quarter and fore castle decks.

All guns on a ship side firing together is called a broadside. A skilled crew could fire once every 30 seconds at the beginning of an engagement, but the rate of fire fell off after as the decks filled with smoke, noise, confusion, and at times panic, and the men tired from the exertion. Cannon firing individually at targets was fairly ineffectual except in lucky circumstances. Where it was possible, the best place to broadside from was when sailing aross the enemies stern, where it was less protected and a piercing ball could travel the length of the gun deck causing more damage as it went.

Ammunition consisted of round shot, double round shot, bar shot, chain shot or grape. The intention of the cannon was not to sink the enemy vessel, which was mostly quite difficult to do unless lucky. Remember battelships could sit opposite each other for 10 hour battles and blast away and still survive. Cannon were meant to cause as much damage as fast as possible to reduce the enemy ships ability to fight back and act as a fighting platform. Some of the larger Spanish treasure vessels were immune to cannon fire, the light cannon of the pirate vessels not having the guts to do significant damage to them. One encounter in 1710, between one galleon of the Manila treasure fleet (in the Pacific) and 4 English naval vessels is a good example. Woodes Rogers wrote his 4 ships put 500 shots against the galleons hull without causing serious damage. The Spanish were also using firebombs from the crows nests, and in the end he had to give up or else seriously risk losing his own ships. They were using 6lbers, the Spanish - 12lbers.

Cannon balls were meant more to bring down masts to cripple vessels, and also to cause as much damage to crew as possible to frighten the enemy crew into submission or simply wear them down to a non functioning number. Chain and bar shot was particularly effective against crew, doing major damage to anything unfortunate enough to be in the way. Chain shot was also used against the sails and masts to make major holes to reduce the enemy speed, or pull down the masts to allow for boarding or escape. Round shot on the hull, when it achieved penetration, shattered the timber, sending splinters out at high speed to wound the crew. Double round shot was used only at close range to add a little extra damage, but was not, as imagined, twice as damaging. It is conjectured that Spanish cannon balls were of inferior quality and might be prone to shattering into pieces when it was fired, much as if it were cannister shot, and hence making it far less effective against hulls.

Swivel guns remained in use long after this period, and were usually mounted on rails and occassionally in the tops. They were intended primarily for anti personnel use, and taking on small boats. Generally the larger the vessel, the less swivel guns it had (or needed) in proportion to its normal cannon complement. Boarding actions were far more likely on smaller, lower to the water line vessels. A 20 gun ship of 1719 had 22 swivel guns - 12 in the waist, 6 on quarterdeck and 4 on the forecastle. Swivels were mounted in the jaws of an iron stirrup, which could be fixed into a timberhead or onto a post set on the deck and tied back to the rail. Generally the fixings were well iron bound to strengthen the timber to resist the recoil, or else they simply split to pieces making the whole thing unuseable. Swivels were rarely mounted in the tops, in the British navy this was rare due to the fear of setting the sails alight.

It is also worth remembering mention of cannons in ship descriptions was open to interpretation on what type of cannon it meant. Historical descriptions of pirate ships might mention a ship of 32 cannon, which on investigation might actually consist of 12, 9, 6, 4, 3lb and swivels guns totalling 32 cannon. It is best understanding on what the writer might have been relating to when writing the cannon list.

Pirate vessels did not use their cannon in the same way as naval vessels. Their intention was to capture a ship, not cripple or sink it. Cannon fire was meant to scare the opponent into surrender, and merchants often respected this enough to allow boarding and looting so they could live and be about their other business.

Excess captured cannon were stored in the hold or as low down as possible for ship stability. Pirates did modify captured ships to cater for more cannon where the ships design was capable of accomodating it. This may involve cutting the fore castle off, and also the stern castle so that the entire upper deck was one continuous work space open to the sky. This is expressly referred to in some historical pirate stories.