Cannon

Cannon

A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

 operation required specialised crew and gunners, who were first enlisted by the Spanish in the 14th century. The nature of cannon operation often depended on the size of the cannon and whether they were breech-loading

Breech-loading weapon

A breech-loading weapon is a firearm in which the cartridge or shell is inserted or loaded into a chamber integral to the rear portion of a barrel....

 or muzzle-loading. English cannon

English cannon

The first recorded usage of cannon in Great Britain was in 1327, when they were used in battle by the English against the Scots. Under the Tudors, the first forts featuring cannon batteries were built, while cannon were first used by the Tudor navy...

 of the late 14th century became mobile, while the largest cannon (such as the heavy siege cannon of the Ottoman Turks

Ottoman Turks

The Ottoman Turks were the Turkish-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire who formed the base of the state's military and ruling classes. Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks is scarce, but they take their Turkish name, Osmanlı , from the house of Osman I The Ottoman...

 or the Jaivana cannon

Jaivana cannon

The Jaivana cannon is a wheeled cannon.It is located at the Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur at .It was cast in 1720, by Jai Singh II of Jaipur the administrator of Jaigarh Fort during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah...

 of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

) required huge crews to transport and operate them.

As the "giant gun" trend disappeared in Europe, in favour of lighter, more manoeuvrable pieces in larger numbers, and cannon operating crews became smaller, heralding the early use of true field artillery. While the medieval Dardanelles Gun

Great Turkish Bombard

The Dardanelles Gun or Great Turkish Bombard is a 15th century siege cannon, specifically a super-sized bombard, which saw action in the 1807 Dardanelles Operation.- History :...

 had required 200 men just to operate it, 18th century English cannon required only a dozen men, including two gunners, while during the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

 five gunners were used.

Overview

Cannon operation is described by the 1771 Encyclopædia Britannica

Encyclopædia Britannica

The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...

. Each cannon would be manned by two gunners, six soldiers, and four officers of the artillery. The right gunner was to prime the piece and load it with powder, while the left gunner would fetch the powder from the magazine

Magazine (artillery)

Magazine is the name for an item or place within which ammunition is stored. It is taken from the Arabic word "makahazin" meaning "warehouse".-Ammunition storage areas:...

 and keep ready to fire the cannon at the officer's command. Three soldiers stood on each side of the cannon, to ram and sponge the cannon, and hold the ladle. The second soldier on the left was charged with providing 50 rounds

Cartridge (firearms)

A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...

.
Prior to loading, the cannon would be well cleaned with a sponge to remove all sparks, filth, and dirt. The powder was added, followed by a wad of paper or hay, and the ball was thrown in. After ramming, the cannon would be aimed with the elevation set using a quadrant and a plummet. At 45 degrees the ball had the utmost range – about ten times the gun's level range. Any angle above the horizontal line was called random-shot. The officer of artillery had to ensure the cannon was diligently served. Water was available to dip the sponges in and cool the pieces every ten or twelve rounds.

In the late 1770s it was said that a 24-pounder could fire 90 to 100 shots a day in Summer, or 60 to 75 in Winter. However, French artillery officers managed to have a cannon fire 150 shots daily during siege. A 16 or 12 pounder would fire a little more, because they were more easily served. The Encyclopædia Britannica mentions "some occasions where 200 shots have been fired from these pieces in the space of nine hours, and 138 in the space of five."

Cannon instruments

Several instruments are used to service a medieval style cannon, as noted in the 1771 Encyclopædia Britannica

Encyclopædia Britannica

The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...

.

• The sponge is a long staff or rammer with a piece of fleece
  Wool
  Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
  
   sheep or lambskin
  Sheepskin
  Sheepskin is the hide of a sheep, sometimes also called lambskin or lambswool.Sheepskin may also refer to:* Parchment, a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin** Diploma, originally made of sheepskin...
  
   wound about its end, to serve for scouring the cannon when discharged, before it is to be charged with fresh powder. This cleaning prevents any spark or fire from remaining in the piece, which would endanger the life of the loading crew. Sponges were the most commonly used cannon cleaning instruments.

• A wad-screw is two points of iron in the shape of a corkscrew, to extract the wad out of the piece. Used when the cannon has to be unloaded or dirt must be removed.

• The lantern or ladle serves to carry the powder into the piece. It consists of a wooden box appropriated to the caliber of the piece for which it is intended with a length of a caliber and a half with its vent, and of a piece of copper nailed to the box at the height of a half caliber. This lantern must have three calibers and a half in length, and two calibers in breadth, being rouned on the end to load the ordinary pieces.

• The primer must contain a pound of powder at least, and is used to prime the pieces.

• A rammer is a round piece of wood, commonly called a box, which serves to drive home the powder and ball to the breech. It is fastened to a stick twelve feet long, for the pieces from twelve to thirty-three pounders, and ten for the eight and four pounders.

• The botefeux is used to hold a winding of match with which to fire the cannon. May be a stick two or three feet long with a split to hold one end of the match.

• A priming iron is a pointed iron rod, used to clear the touch hole of the pieces of powder or dirt. Also used to pierce the cartridge, that it may sooner take fire.

• The quoin of mire are pieces of wood with a notch on the side to put the fingers on, to draw them back or push them forward, when the gunner points his pieces. They are placed on the sole of the carriage.

Leaden plates are used to cover the touch-hole, when the piece is charged, to keep dirt from entering the touch-hole.

Pre-Renaissance cannon

In 1248, Roger Bacon

Roger Bacon

Roger Bacon, O.F.M. , also known as Doctor Mirabilis , was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empirical methods...

's "Opus Maior" described a gunpowder recipe and recognised its military use:
In Spain, the specialised nature of cannon operation was first recognised, and the Spanish kings at the initial stages enlisted the help of Moorish

Moors

The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...

 experts:

"The first artillery-masters on the Peninsula probably were Moors in Christian service. The king of Navarre

Navarre

Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...

 had a Moor in his service in 1367 as maestro de las guarniciones de artilleria. The Morisques of Tudela at that time had fame for their capacity in reparaciones de artilleria."

Certainly cannon were used at the Battle of Crécy

Battle of Crécy

The Battle of Crécy took place on 26 August 1346 near Crécy in northern France, and was one of the most important battles of the Hundred Years' War...

, but how they were deployed, or how many crew were assigned, is unclear. It is known that in the 1380s, however, the "ribaudekin" clearly became mounted on wheels, offering greater mobility for its operation. Wheeled gun carriages became more commonplace by the end of the 15th century, and cannon were more often cast in bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

, rather than banding iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 sections together. There were still the logistical problems both of transporting and of operating the cannon, and as many three dozen horses and oxen may have been required to move some of the great guns of the period. Each had its crew of gunner, matross

Matross

Matross was a soldier of artillery, who ranked next below a gunner.The duty of a matross was to assist the gunners in loading, firing and sponging the guns. They were provided with firelocks, and marched with the store-wagons, acting as guards...

es and drivers, and a group of "pioneers

Assault Pioneer

An Assault Pioneer is an infantry soldier who is responsible for:* The construction of tools for infantry soldiers to cross natural and man-made obstacles as well as breaching of enemy fortifications;...

" were assigned to level to path ahead. Even then, the gunpowder mixture used was unstable and could easily separate out into sulfur

Sulfur

Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...

, saltpetre

Potassium nitrate

Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the formula KNO3. It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrate ions NO3−.It occurs as a mineral niter and is a natural solid source of nitrogen. Its common names include saltpetre , from medieval Latin sal petræ: "stone salt" or possibly "Salt...

 and charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

 during transport.

Once on site, they would be fired at ground level behind a hinged timber shutter, to provide some protection to the artillery crew. When the Ottoman Turks used stationary "falcons

Falconet (cannon)

The falconet or falcon was a light cannon developed in the late 15th century. During the Middle Ages guns were decorated with engravings of reptiles, birds or beasts depending on their size. For example, a culverin would often feature snakes, as the handles on the early cannons were often decorated...

" at the 1422 Siege of Constantinople, for example, they had to build barricades "in order to receive… the stones of the bombards." Timber wedges were used to control the barrel's elevation. The majority of medieval cannon were breechloaders, although there was still no effort to standardise calibres.

Larger cannon were used in greater numbers during the Fall of Constantinople

Fall of Constantinople

The Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which occurred after a siege by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, against the defending army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI...

: Sultan Mehmet II used 68 Hungarian-made cannons, the largest of which was 26 feet long and weighed 20 tons; this fired a 1,200 pound stone cannonball, and required an operating crew of 200 men, as well as 70 oxen and 10,000 men just to transport them. For the defenders, the Walls of Constantinople

Walls of Constantinople

The Walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople since its founding as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire by Constantine the Great...

 could not be adapted for the operation of artillery, and towers were not good gun emplacements. There was even worry that the largest Byzantine cannon could cause more damage to their own walls than the Turkish cannon. The changing needs of cannon operation thus led to the development of trace italienne of Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and the Tudor

Tudor dynasty

The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...

s' Device Forts

Device Forts

The Device Forts, also known as Henrician Castles, are a series of artillery fortifications built to defend the southern coast of England by Henry VIII. After his divorce of Catherine of Aragon England was left politically isolated, and the peace of Nice between France and Spain in 1538 aroused...

 in England, using specially built cannon batteries

Artillery battery

In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...

 to their greatest effect.

Renaissance to early 19th century

While "coal and sulfur" had been recognised as the best weapon for naval warfare

Naval warfare

Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers.-History:Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Land warfare would seem, initially, to be irrelevant and entirely removed from warfare on the open ocean,...

 as early as 1260, cannon saw their first real naval use in large numbers during the Renaissance. The French "culverin

Culverin

A culverin was a relatively simple ancestor of the musket, and later a medieval cannon, adapted for use by the French in the 15th century, and later adapted for naval use by the English in the late 16th century. The culverin was used to bombard targets from a distance. The weapon had a...

", adapted for naval use by the English in the late 16th century, was of relatively long barrel and light construction, and fired solid round shot

Round shot

Round shot is a solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron...

 projectiles at long ranges along a flat trajectory. The Tudor

The Tudors and the Royal Navy

The Tudor navy was the navy of the Kingdom of England under the ruling Tudor dynasty 1485-1603. The period involved important and critical changes that led to the establishment of a permanent navy and laid the foundations for the future Royal Navy.-Henry VII:...

 carrack

Carrack

A carrack or nau was a three- or four-masted sailing ship developed in 15th century Western Europe for use in the Atlantic Ocean. It had a high rounded stern with large aftcastle, forecastle and bowsprit at the stem. It was first used by the Portuguese , and later by the Spanish, to explore and...

 the Mary Rose

Mary Rose

The Mary Rose was a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. After serving for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany and after being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her last action on 1545. While leading the attack on the galleys of a...

 was equipped with 78 guns

Cannon

A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

 (91 after an upgrade in the 1530s), and was one of the first ships to have the theoretic ability to fire a full cannon broadside

Broadside

A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous fire in naval warfare.-Age of Sail:...

.

Its Scottish counterpart, the Great Michael

Michael (ship)

Michael was a carrack or great ship of the Royal Scottish Navy. She was too large to be built at any existing Scottish dockyard, so was built at the new dock at Newhaven, constructed in 1504 by order of King James IV of Scotland...

, mounted 36 great guns and 300 lighter guns, with 120 gunners. The former included Mons Meg

Mons Meg

Mons Meg is a medieval bombard which can be classed as a supergun, now located at Edinburgh Castle, Scotland. There are conflicting theories about its origins, but it appears from the accounts of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy that it was made to his order around 1449 and sent as a gift 8 years...

, making her the warship with the largest-caliber gun in history.

In Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian historian, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He is one of the main founders of modern political science. He was a diplomat, political philosopher, playwright, and a civil servant of the Florentine Republic...

's The Art of War

The Art of War (Machiavelli)

Art of War is a treatise by the Italian Renaissance political philosopher and historian Niccolò Machiavelli.The format of Art of War is a socratic dialogue...

, the Italian Renaissance

Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...

 writer observed that "small pieces of cannon… do more damage than heavy artillery. The best remedy against the latter is making a resolute attack upon it as soon as possible…" As was the case at Flodden

Battle of Flodden Field

The Battle of Flodden or Flodden Field or occasionally Battle of Branxton was fought in the county of Northumberland in northern England on 9 September 1513, between an invading Scots army under King James IV and an English army commanded by the Earl of Surrey...

 in 1513, the Scottish siege artillery could only fire one round a minute, while the English field gun

Field gun

A field gun is an artillery piece. Originally the term referred to smaller guns that could accompany a field army on the march and when in combat could be moved about the battlefield in response to changing circumstances, as to opposed guns installed in a fort, or to siege cannon or mortars which...

s could fire twice or even thrice as many. Guns also had to be moved back into position after recoil, and the speed of this would reflect the gunners' experience.

A description of the Gunner's techniques is given during the English Civil War period (mid-17th century) by John Roberts, covering the modes of calculation and the ordnance pieces themselves, in his work The Compleat Cannoniere, printed London 1652 by W. Wilson and sold by George Hurlock (Thames Street). In the 17th century, large wheels were typical of field guns, as opposed to the lighter carriages used for fortress and naval cannon. At coastal fortifications, furnaces would be used for heating red-hot shot

Heated shot

Heated shot is the practice of heating round shot before firing from muzzle-loading cannons, for the purpose of setting fire to enemy warships, buildings, or equipment. The use of hot shot dates back centuries and only ceased when vessels armored with iron replaced wooden warships in the world's...

 to be used against ships. The lower tier of English ships of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 at this time were usually equipped with demi-cannon

Demi-cannon

The demi-cannon was a medium sized cannon, similar to but slightly larger than a culverin and smaller than a regular 42lb cannon developed in the early 17th century. A full cannon fired a 42-pound shot but these were discontinued in the 18th century as they were seen as too unwieldy. The lower...

 — a naval gun which fired a 32-pound solid shot. A full cannon fired a 42-pound shot, but these were discontinued by the 18th century as they were seen as too unwieldy.
The introduction of carronade

Carronade

The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon...

s at the end of the 18th century also resulted in guns that were easier to handle and required less than half the gunpowder of long guns, allowing fewer men to crew them than long guns mounted on naval garrison carriages.

During the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, a British gun team consisted of 5 numbered gunners - fewer crew than needed in the previous century. The No.1 was the gun commander, and a sergeant, who aimed the gun. The No.2 was the "spongeman" who cleaned the bore with the sponge dampened with water between shots; the intention being to quench any remaining embers before a fresh charge was introduced. The No.3, the loader, inserted the bag of powder and then the projectile. The No.2 then used a rammer, or the sponge reversed, to drive it in. At the same time, the No.4 ("ventsman") pressed his thumb on the vent hole to prevent a draught that might fan a flame. The charge loaded, the No.4 pricked the bagged charge through the vent hole and filled the vent with powder. At the No.1s command the No.5 would fire the piece with his slowmatch.