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Outboard mounted carronade on the forecastle of a 1790's frigate by MikeR - FINISHED


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Carronades by Adrian B. Caruana  "The History of English Sea Ordnance"

The main reason for carronades mounted on the outboard principle is doubtless that throughout the American War and for most of the Revolutionary War the normal emplacement for carronades was on the forecastle, gangways or quarterdeck, where they were mounted en barbette in ports with no lids.

Anonymous drawings probably dating from the 1790's of a joint carronade mounted on the outboard principle, with all its fittings (R.A. Library)

I will be using cherry, dogwood, ebony, and ipe.  For the carronade I will turn it from 1" brass stock on my wood lathe,  but first I turned one out of wood for practice.

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Here is my attempt  to make a made up foremast,  I glued up two 1" dogwood boards and turned the 1 1/2" mast.  I then cut a 3/4" piece  off the mast.  To this I used rubber cement to  glue a pattern of the mast pieces i wanted to cut out.   On my scroll saw I used a 2/0 blade (.0087 X .0236) to cut the pieces of the made mast.  With this size blade I can cut sharp 90 deg. angles.  I then cut these pieces to different lengths  and glued them up and attached it to the mast.  The top copper band hides the seam.  I also added the mast bands, front fish, and rope woolding.

 

Mike R

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It is looking really good.

 

One question I have is regarding the type of carronade used. Most primary sources I have been able to find seem to use the older style carronade mount for the 1780s and 90s. For example see this image from the RMG.

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https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-86779

 

These were originally adempted to be mounted inboard, but that didn't work as you noted due to he problem of setting the shrouds on fire. So they started to mount them outboard. Even as late as 1802 similar styles appear still to be in use, for example see this one from the Museum of Wales. You can see how the shape is starting to resemble the later shape now, but they still don't have the pin mechanism of elevation on the go yet. They are also still using the old style of carriage with the carronade attached 

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There is also this one from 1796, which was made for a river barge that has a completely different configuration, but importantly note that there is no pin yet.

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https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-85086

 

What is the RA Library, I would be interested in seeing more info on the drawing as most examples I have seen of early carronades seem to not have the pin.

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There is little available on carronades mounted on the 'outboard principle'. Some years ago I researched these mounts from the early 1780's. Contemporary illustrations are reproduced in Caruana's The History of English  Sea Ordnance 1523-1875, Volume II, pages 195 et seq. (The actual model's carronades were cast in pewter.)

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Thukydides

The R.A. Library is the Royal Artillery Library.  The information I used was from "The History of English Sea Ordnance" by Adrian B. Caruana  and on page 185 it states that between 1782 and 1783 the design changed from trunnions to a carronade loop also called "joint" Which did away with the quoin and handspike for elevation  the alternative was using a screw for elevation.

Druxey

That is the same book I used for information.     The carronade that I made  was a 24-pdr cast by Carron in 1779 Length 32 inches.

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Congratulation for building this wonderful small model.

Regards Christian

 

Current build: HM Cutter Alert, 1777; HM Sloop Fly, 1776 - 1/36

On the drawing board: English Ship Sloops Fly, 1776, Comet, 1783 and Aetna, 1776; Naval Cutter Alert, 1777

Paused: HMS Triton, 1771 - 1/48

"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it." Salvador Dali

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