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50 MARINE BRE $3 K THE RESTORED SLOOP OF WAR NIAGARA SHOWING MOUNTING OF HER CARRONADES Guns of Old Ironsides (Continued from Page 18) undoubtedly started long before 1812 and probably extends back at least to 1800. Writers for years past ,have often mentioned “long 24 pounders” in con- nection with the battery of the Con- STITUTION and*other vessels of her date. Marshall’s table shows no such gun. The designations of “long! and “short” apply only to 6 pounders, 9 pounders, and 12 pounders. Tt. is possible of course that all guns from 18 pounders and upward, were ac- tually long guns. The size of the bores of these cannon were slightly more than the size of the “round shot?” used in them; this difference in size allows the powder flame to en- velop the shot, and this insures the ignition of the fuse. The term ““wind- age” is given to the clearance space between bore and the shot. The diameter of the bore of a 24 pounder for example, was 5.8 inches, and of the round shot 5.7 inches; the “wind- age” is therefore one-tenth of an inch. Howitzers for firing shells at long range were invented in 1812 by Colonel Bomford, but none were in- stalled on the CONSTITUTION. It was not until some 28 years later that these “novelties” were again used. Capt. William H. Parker tells us in his Recollections, that at that late day 1839-40, naval officers regarded howitzers with suspicion. It was often a matter of grave discussion with the division officers whether the fuse went in first or the “sabot’; whether the fuse should be ignited before putting the shell in the gun or not! Cage de: Desenhed The carronade which is so often spoken of in connection with the battery of the CONSTITUTION and other vessels of her day was “a cannon of peculiar. construction, much shorter and lighter than the common cannon and having a chamber for the powder like a mortar; they are generally of large caliber and carried on the upper works as the poop and forecastle. They derive their name from Carron in Scotland, where they were first made” (Mariners’ Dictionary, 1805). The guns shown in view of the spar deck of the sloop NIAGARA, one of Perry’s fleet that fought at the Battle of Lake Evrie—since raised and restored—gives a good idea of this type of gun. VIEW February, 1927 The time honored method of in- struction by question and answer was used in George Marshall’s book. We thus find out how to cut “flannel cylinders” and how to preserve them from being moth eaten on_ board. When a gun broke loose in a gale at sea, danger to the ship, and pos- sibly to the entire ship’s company, had to be faced and overcome. The ready answer given when asked how to meet such a situation was “im- mediately cut down some of the ham- mocks and get such other like things to choak the gun and trip it if pos- sible, and secure it with some good rope until the gale abates.” If in service on a line of battleship in- stead of OLD IRONSIDES, we learn that “if a shot fetched away in a gun in bad weather and the tampion is secured above the sill of the port” we should at once “drown the powder with vinegar.” Experience might or might not have taught us, according to our habits of observation, that “with a proper al- lowance of powder to a 9-pound shot, it flies at the rate of 1 mile in 4 seconds—the elevation 2 degrees.” In 1812 the CONSTITUTION did not carry any 9 pounders hence possibly the lack of accurate knowledge that this flight meant 1320 feet in one second of time would not have .been dis- astrous. We would not have been disturbed at all by finding only 90 pounds of powder in a _ 100-pound barrel or 45 pounds in a half barrel, for it was the practice not to fill them entirely full. But had the dimensions of these barrels varied a_ hair’s breadth from a standard length of 1 foot 9% inches or had the “bilge” diameter been less than 1 foot 5 inches we might have been so perturbed as to refuse to accept the assignment of powder at its invoiced amount. The idea of turning one’s back to a light in the powder room when “offering to strike the copper hasp of a barrel, lest when facing the light the mallet fly out of one’s hand ORDNANCE OF 1800—A CARRONADE