Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), February 1927, p. 18

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18 struck into the hold for any reason were to be payed all over with a cost of warm tar and tallow mixed together, and a good full wad, dipped in the same a foot with the muzzle and a tampion well fixed there- in, also a cork and oakum as well put into the vent to pre- vent their receiving. damage. XX. That there will be placed on all cannons for sea service notches or sights on the base and sec- ond reinforced or muzzle rings, for horizontal and vertical di- rections, for the better guiding the aim; and the notches are to be marked with white lead. That it appearing by experi- ence that double round _ shot, round and double headed shot or round and grape shot to- gether are dangerous, and more to the detriment than good of the service, the gunner is to take care to prevent that prac- tice in time of action, and to see that guns are not loaded with such mixtures; nor to suffer any iron grows to put into them. XXII. That when there is occasion to cut up any cordage, breechings, tackles, muzzle lashings, port ropes or port-tackle falls * * * the lengths are to conform as set down etc. As to rope sponges, they are to be made out of old breechings of the same nature of guns. Frugality in the use of Matches (lighted tow) was enjoined and no more than two were kept lighted at night to prevent a surprise at- tack. The match- es, thus’. kept burning were hung over tubs of water to re- duce the chance of fire. In com- parison with the English practice of marking the “sea service notches or lights” with white lead on certain parts of the guns “for better guiding the aim,” we know that’ the sighting arrange- ments on_ the guns of the Con- STITUTION were far in advance of those of the British. In Mr. Hallis’ book The Frigate Consti- tion we are told that the “Ameri- icans were clever enough to provide fair substitutes for modern sight bar. eXy. This is part III and completes the article on the Guns and Gunnery of Old Ironsides. Parts I and II appeared in the October and December issues of MARINE REVIEW, respectively. MARINE REVIEW In some cases tubes were placed along the top of guns with adjustments for various elevation. Beside this her guns crews were more thoroughly drilled and under better control. Long, long after the day of OLD IRONSIDES, the conservatism of those Save the Constitution A country wide campaign is now under way to raise the neces- sary funds to restore OLD IRON- SIDES and to maintain her as an historic shrine. Her officers and men in the early days of the Re- public, who by their deeds of skill and daring established proud traditions for our navy, were recruited from the merchant ma- rine. It is therefore particularly appropriate that the men of the American merchant marine of to- day should lend their material and moral support to save OLD IRONSIDES. This can be done by writing to the secretary of the navy, Washington. who go down to sea in ships pre- vented, for many years, the use of telescopic sight, from which our mod- ern sights are derived. Small won- der is it then that when the guns of the CONSTITUTION spoke, it was “Why use sights with telling effect. AN ARTIST’S CONCEPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION UNDER FULL SALE at all?” asked some naval officers of her day. Lord Nelson, great a sea- man as he was, objected to their use, and he is said to have remarked at one time, when a new plan for pointing guns was brought to his at- February, 1927 tention: “As to the plan for pointing a gun truer than we do at present, I shall of course look at it, or be hap- py if necessary to use it; but I hope we shall be able. as usual to get so close to our enemy that our shot cannot miss the object.” Then ‘too, the frigate CONSTITUTION was a steadier gun platform and had her guns higher above water than the 44-gun frigates of the British and her battery though rated at (44) was in reality (54). The Yankees who designed, and built OLD IRoN- SIDES as a 44-gun frigate so con- trived that she would safely carry 54 guns. Originally, 12 pounders were to have been a part of her battery as is shown by the letter from the war office to the governor of Massa- chusetts. At a much later date 42- pound carronades were under consid- eration for use on her gpar deck but because of the weight, the idea of using them had to be abandoned. From Marshall’s Practical Marine Gunnery we .may gather good and correct information as to the prac- tice of the art of gunnery at the end of the eighteenth century. This book “was strictly examined by some of the most experienced officers of the United States navy,” among whom was none other than Lewis Warring- ton. The author, in his’ preface, modestly says he is “an unlet- tered man” and even unacquaint- ed with the ‘““erammati- cal parts of the English §lan- guage.” Not- withstanding, he has left to pos- terity an. inter- esting, valuable and well ex- pressed record of gun design and gunnery practice in the days of 1812. That it does represent the practices of 1812 when the cannons of OLD IRONSIDES spoke so often is shown by the author’s statement that “the notes from which the book was compiled, multiplied with increasing years.” As the book left the hands of the printer in 1822, the period embraced by these “increasing years” (Continued on Page 50)

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