Deck Cannons

[bandido]

I have been reviewing the rigging of the deck cannons on the Le Soleil, having been around artillery Cannons when in the Military. The recoil of these cannons how was the recoil absorbed I see they are tied down with block and tackle the ropes and tackle stopped the recoil? there are no wheel guides to keep the cannons straight there are no wheel chocks!! Just wondering

 

[Uwek]

I have been reviewing the rigging of the deck cannons on the Le Soleil, having been around artillery Cannons when in the Military. The recoil of these cannons how was the recoil absorbed I see they are tied down with block and tackle the ropes and tackle stopped the recoil? there are no wheel guides to keep the cannons straight there are no wheel chocks!! Just wondering

The recoil during firing was taken over by a strong rope called "breeching line or rope" (red arrows)
The gun tackles were mainly used only for moving the gun
towards outboard ready for fire (after loading) marked with the blue arrows
and not permanently rigged inboards to be able to load the gun marked with green arrow

I hope the sketches are helping

 

[Uwek]

the guns shown are partly french and english, so there are differences of the connecting points etc, but the principles were the same

 

[bandido]

The recoil during firing was taken over by a strong rope called "breeching line or rope" (red arrows)
The gun tackles were mainly used only for moving the gun
towards outboard ready for fire (after loading) marked with the blue arrows
and not permanently rigged inboards to be able to load the gun marked with green arrow

I hope the sketches are helping

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Uwek: Thanks for the info and the great pictures answers my question! but I don't think I would want to be a gunner in those days!!!! looks dangerous and tough

 

[Korsan]

Hi Bandido
I placed the cannons as seen in the attachments. It is the dutch ketch Dolphyn.The 2 side blocks serving for pulling the cannon back and forth and also changing for firing direction. The whole complex is secured with. 1 mm nail to the deck for modeling purposes( not in real life ofcourse).I hope these info will be helpful to give an idea for your model.
Kind Regards

 

[bandido]

thanks for the info and pictures

 

[Thomas]

I imagine the movement of the guns was fairly unpredictable and probably took out a few crew members from time to time.

 

[bandido]

Ya I Bet!!!

 

[Stuart Little]

Here's some photos based on Victory.

 

[Vfordyce]

The French did it differently. They used two rigs to haul the guns back instead of one. They also had the recoil rope go through the middle of the carriage instead of looping around the back of the cannon. If my memory serves me right, I think the carriages came with holes. If not, it's relatively easy to drill them for the main deck guns. The upper deck guns apparently didn't need recoil ropes because they were much lighter.