Cannon Barrel lengths. Are there any references on this subject?

[brunnels]

I'm currently working on The Pegasus kit from Amati/Victory models, and I have decided to print a set of new cannons to replace the cannons the kit came with.  While looking through the 3d Cannon print files in the NRG Resources, I noticed there were quite a few barrel lengths for the Armstrong-Fredrick 6 pounders.  How does one determine the barrel length appropriate for any certain vessel?  Are there any reference materials that will have this information?  I can't seem to find much info on the topic online or in any of my books.  I assume smaller vessels had shorter cannons due to deck size limitations and vice versa, but surely the English standardized this to some degree.

[barkeater]

There was some variation in length for a given ball weight. Larger canons were longer and would be placed on lower decks for stability. I have never heard of shorter gun barrels for small vessels in the same shot weight. Rather the shot weight determined the length with some manufacturing variation. Smaller vessels naturally had smaller weight canons and larger vessels would have multiple canon sizes with larger on the lower decks

Rich

ty. 

[Thukydides]

There was quite a bit of variation in length of the cannons and there is likely no way to know what exact lengths were on Pegasus. In fact it is likely there was more than one length of cannon on her. That being said, I would recommend taking a look at Caruana's book on English sea ordinance (it is very expensive but you might be able to borrow it through your local library). He discusses the issue in detail and makes some general observations as to which lengths were used on which ships at which times. I will try to remember to take a look when I get home to see if he has anything to say about sloops in the late 18th century.

 

The fully framed model books on the swan class ships which you can get from seawatch books likely have a discussion of the cannons. The authors did tonnes of research for those books so I would defer to whatever they have to say on the subject matter.

 

@thibaultron has made available some very nice models of guns which you can find here:

 

 

Finally, I have transcribed one set of dimensions from 1780 which I include part of below just in case you find them helpful. It has dimensions for three different sizes of 6pdrs.

1780 Gunnery Tables by Thomas Walton

Source: RAM G3n/35a; Caruana, English Sea Ordnance, 218-219.

Date: November 1780

 

DIMENSIONS of the EXTERNAL parts and CALIBRE of IRON GUNS of each NATURE and LENGTH in INCHES and DECIMALS.                  November 1780
Nature		9			6			4		3
Length in Feet		8½	7½	7	9	8	6	6	5½	4½
	On the Base Ring	17	17	17	15.88	15.8	15.5	13.6	13.6	11.6
	Before the Base Ring	15.16	15.3	15.4	14.3	14.[0]	13.85	12.1	12.05	10.55
	On the First Reinforce Ring	14.7	14.76	14.84	13.55	13.5	13.52	11.75	11.84	10.2
	Behind the First Reinforce Ring	11.2	14.36	14.2	12.97	13.0	13.02	11.3	11.34	9.8
	Before the first Reinforce Ring	13.34	13.42	13.4	12.2	12.25	12.18	10.57	10.57	9.3
	On the Second Reinforce Ring	13.15	13.25	13.22	12.0	12.05	12.05	10.52	10.57	9.15
	Behind the Second Reinforce Ring	12.63	12.75	12.8	12.52	11.55	11.55	10.25	10.07	8.75
	Before the Second Reinforce Ring	11.76	11.86	11.7	10.7	10.7	10.67	9.3	9.3	8.25
	At the Muzzle Astragal	10.16	10.15	10.5	9.2	9.2	9.35	8.18	8.18	7.15
	At the swell of the Muzzle	13.15	13.25	13.3	11.87	12.05	11.95	10.4	10.52	9.[?]
Thickness of Metal	Before the Base Ring	5.47	5.54	5.59	5.32	5.27	5.09	4.44	4.42	3.[?]
	At the Muzzle Astragal	2.97	2.97	3.14	2.77	2.77	2.84	2.48	2.48	[?]
	At Charging Cylinder above the Calibre	1.26	1.33	1.38	1.66	1.61	1.43	1.23	1.21	[?]
Distance	From behind the Base Ring to the hinder parts of the Trunnions	3:5:61	3:0:51	2:9:9	3:8:45	3:5:1	2:5:01	2:5:24	2:2:66	1:8:[?]
	From behind the Base Ring to the First Reinforce	2:5:14	2:1:7	2:0:0	2:6:8	2:3:4	1:8:56	1:8:56	1:6:8	1:5:[?]
	From behind the Base Ring to the Second Reinforce	2:0:93	1:9:5	1:7:8	2:3:18	1:11:76	1:4:9	1:5:35	1:3:63	1:0:5
Diameter of the Calibre		4.21			3.66			3.21		2.91
[???] equal [???] parts of the Calibre		4.8			4.175			3.68		3.312

Edited Thursday at 01:02 PM by Thukydides