Bounty cannon balls

[Ian B]

Hi

 

Does anyone know or can give me an educated guess as to where and how the cannon balls were stored on deck for the main cannons? I would like to add this detail to my Billings Bounty.

 

Cheers Ian

[Stockholm tar]

Ian,

 

I think there would usually have been racks, ie. thick planks with hollows to take the balls, around the edge of the hatches. Check out some of the Bounty logs.

[Richard Griffith]

hi Ian, according to John McKay, in his AOS book 'The Armed Transport Bounty', ISBN 087021280x, there were no racks on the weather deck, at least my scanning of his book found none.  This makes sense as the Bounty was not a warship.  Hope this helps.     Duff

[UdoK]

Hi Ian,

Duff is right, a armed merchant ship at this time didn't carry any Canon balls or other Firing Equipment on deck.

[Ian B]

ah thanks Guys, that explains a lot.... so no cannon balls on deck

[JerseyCity Frankie]

people viewing your completed model will feel a tiny bit cheated if they can't see a cannonball somewhere. You could perhaps have all the guns save one housed or sea stowed or whatever, with lashings holding them in place as I image they would spend most of their time on Bounty, then have one run out for firing with the gear out of deck for the sake of the viewers expectations. Plausibly, the crew could be exercising with this gun.

[wq3296]

Greetings Ian,

 

Ever hear the expression "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey"? It does not mean what you may think. It is my understanding that a monkey was a brass holder with reliefs in it to accommodate iron shot. Apparently, when it got cold enough, the brass would contract more than the iron shot, causing the shot to roll off the monkey. Probably will not answer your question, but a good story.

 

wq3296

[Ian B]

And here I am in absolute blazing sunshine today ))))

[michaelpsutton2]

If you are going to have the cannon on the man deck . You might consider a small rack against the bulkwarks between the guns with 3 or 4 shot in each

one. But no more than that. I think it highly unlikely that there were shot garlands around the deck structures such as are found on Naval vessels. I don't think that the Bounty's carriage guns were ever fired except as signals.

[Ian B]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah now I am in two minds LOL!!! I just might make a small rack holding a few balls .. depends how easy I can get hold of them.. I shall first rummage in the garage for any old ball bearing races that might make a good doner..