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Guns & Gunnery, Old Ironsides-III. Historical Research on the Oldest Ship of the Navy —Interesting Facts on Her Cannons and Equipment LIST of the sea stores and outfits required to equip a man of war (like the Con- STITUTION) for a cruise, con- tains a host of objects whose names even have long since been discarded and forgotten. For instance, some of, the spare parts and allowances were: paper cartridge for- mers, 1 to every 20 guns; wad formers, 1 to every 10 guns; gun breechings, 1 to every 2 guns; notch staffs, 1 to every 10 guns; fort fire staffs, 1 to every 20 guns; wads, 100 to every gun, 200 to bow and stern chasers; round shot, 100 to each gun, 200 to bow and stern chasers; stands of grape, 30 to the gun; canister, 20 to each gun; double-headed shot, 15 to each gun; longrange, 10 to each gun; bar shot, 10 to each gun. Innu- merable articles like “powder horns”; “logger heads”; powder in quantity to correspond with the allowance of round shot; “match rope”; tomahawks; muskets, with buckshot, ball and blank cart- ridges; brass pistol molds; hog bristles, one half ounce to every 20 guns; gun and pistol flints; leather hose with cop- per pipe (nozzle) to each light room (near mag- azine). itis interesting ‘here to note that each ship had to make its own ink for writing bur- poses; to this end it was al- allowed _ two is in full view. papers of “ink powder.” False fires, rockets, captain’s gig at the stern. BY ELLIOT SNOW Rear Admiral (C. C.) U. S. N., Retired and colored lights were of course a necessary part of the signaling outfit. Just what the ship’s “tinker” did with a “buck horn” must be left to the reader’s research or imagina- tion. The cost of the guns, ammunition and military stores of the CONSTITU- TION was $32,175. Among “the mili- tary stores requisite for the frigates” sent to Samuel Hodgdon by the war office, June 12, 1797, are listed: 44 blunderbusses, 300 boarding pikes, 120 battle lanthornes, 670 barrels of powder, 10,000 round shot for 24 pounders, 1600 chain and _ double headed shot for 24 pounders, 2200 Model of the U. S. S. Constitution, at Navy Yard, Washington. The battery Note also the stowage of boats nested amidships and the The figurehead shown was not carried at during the War of 1812. The Andrew Jackson figurehead was carried from 1834 to 1874 17 round shot for 12 pounders, 720 double headed shot for 12 pounders, 900 stools of grape and canister shot for 12 pounders, 18 howitzers eight inch or of 4 or 6 pounders and 600 hand grenades. It is probable that many of the Sea Gunners Instructions established at the Court of St. James on Jan. 7, 1730, affecting the handling of am- munition and the care of the battery of his Majesty’s navy, were at first used in full by the navy of the United States and finally, with some developments, adopted and _ incorpor- ated in Marshall’s Practical Gunnery. We men of the sea borrow much from one another and hold on to old customs. From the Eng- lish Sea Gun- ners Instructions we learn IV. Phat: the powder in cop- per hooped bar- rels were lodged on the ground tier and last ex- pended. VII. That parch- ment cartridges were filled to not last above three weeks and but three rounds were kept filled at a time, paper being found more durable as well as less ex- pensive. X. That the gun- ner is not under any pretense to stave empty powder barrels but preserve them in order to shift such as may be decayed. XI. That an al- lowance of five changes of pow- der and five shot was made once a month for the exercise of the upper deck guns. SV... Phat: the guns were not to be scaled oftener than necessary and when loaded for service were -kept well tam- pioned and fidded the vents with oakum. XVI. That guns