armament for HMS Sherbourne

[Gordon234]

Hello!

I am considering purchasing the Caldercraft HMS Sherbourne cutter kit as my second go at a wooden ship model, and was wondering about the armament that goes with this model. The kit itself comes with 8 carriage guns and 10 swivels. Would it be realistic to add a couple of carronades to this array, and do away with the swivel guns, or would it make the cutter look too overgunned? I was going to rename my fictitious cutter HMS Greyhound, and wanted just a bit of difference to it. Thanks for any advice you can give me.

[ccoyle]

Carronades weren't available when Sherbourne was launched. Take a look at the Sherbourne logs here if you haven't already -- you'll find lots of ideas for super-detailing the kit.

[allanyed]

Gordon,

 

I found your post interesting so did a little searching.  There were 15 ships named Greyhound in the British Navy, including a 15 gun cutter 1763, and a 14 gun cutter 1780.  But, I believe these are a bit large compared to the Sherbourne of 1763.  The kit gives it as an 8 gun, but the National Maritime Museum written description for the Sherbourne of 1763, (and cited in Winfield's British Warships in the Age of Sail)  say she carried six 3 pounders and 8 swivels.   However, the original drawings show 4 gun ports on each side which would seem to indicate an 8 gun vessel.   Wonder if it is a mistake in the description or there is a reason for the discrepancy.  The drawings actually show another port at the bow, but not likely a gun port.  These two forward most ports are not shown on the deck plan.   

 

Allan

[druxey]

Often there were more ports than guns on smaller vessels. This allowed them to be shifted as required. Shifting a three or four-pounder was a lot easier and less risky than a 24-pounder!

[Jim Lad]

My revenue cutter 'Stag' has four ports on each side plus the bow ports.  While researching for the model I found a newspaper report from several years after she was built stating that the 'Stag's' armament had been increased to six guns.  So as Druxey says, the number of ports doesn't necessarily indicate the number of guns.

 

John

[tkay11]

I went with 8 3-pounders rather than 6, more to fill the ports! There was lots of discussion about this in MSW1.0. Lots of discussion too about whether to fit gunport lids. Some of those discussions are in a few of the existing logs.

 

The kit barrels are too large for 3-pounders and the carriages not at all to scale or correct proportion, so if you're after a truer representation you have to make your own. There are plans in the resources section for an Armstrong 3-pounder.

 

Tony