The archaeology group of which I am a member did a walk round Leeds looking at the remains of the Linen textile industry last Friday. Very interesting to!


Part of the walk took us past the Royal Armouries. They have a number of large weapons on display outside along the banks of the canal. Typical of the Royal Armouries they are more concerned with visual effect than actually providing any useful details but I would guess the cannon barrel near the canal is probably a long 9pdr or possibly a 12 pdr. I wonder what others think?

I took some pictures including the Royal Cypher which is very much the same as Capt Stedders is offering on his cypher post. There is also a picture showing an elevation scale on the side of the cannon but to scale this might be a bit hard to reproduce!





There was also a 24pdr carronade on the side of Clarence Dock. This is easier to identify because the iron carriage is stamped 24pdr!! There is also what looks like a date stamp 10-3-14, so I assume it was an 1814 pattern carronade. I have read somewhere that some later carronades were mounted on a wheeled carriage rather than the slide mounting as used on Victory.





Hope these are of interest

Mike T

Nice pictures Mike

Hi Rob

Thanks for your reply. When I was writing the post last night, I simply guessed at what the gun might be. To take up your point, the gun in the photo is an iron gun, I know the pictures are a tad over exposed which is slightly surprising because I was using the reliable auto setting on my P880.

Your comment about always being bronze has got me thinking so I had a look on Google and some of my reference books this morning.

The Age of Sail

Judging from the above Patrick O'Brian might be guilty of confusing the issue because he refers to the bow chasers on Surprise as being brass and they may well have been but gives the impression that all long nines were the same.

I have a distant memory of visiting the NMM and seeing an iron cannon on display outside and being impressed that I was actually looking at a long-nine chase gun.

From what I have read this morning, I believe that there were probably more iron long nines than brass and because of weight distribution I guess that if a Captain could acquire brass chasers then they would be better in the bows of a ship.

This is what I like about the forum, as well as the build side of things it keeps me thinking about the detail of the historical side. That's why I choose to build 18th century warships rather than more modern ships.

Mike T

Sorry I must stop multi-tasking when replying to forums -- I meant bronze not brass throughout my reply.

Should concentrate more at my age, will get on with paid work now and focus!!

Mike T

Tell my wife that!!