Making Cannon

[-Waldemar-]

Do you think i should leave the low-caliber guns undecorated and only include a 24-gun as the main decor gun?

No, no, no. You can't pass that decision on to me, sorry .

Do you perhaps have a 16pdr or 24-gun from this period?

The 16-pound calibre is not a system calibre in Spanish naval artillery. Instead, I am sending you a standard, i.e. system 18-pound cannon. In addition to the 24-pound one, as requested. Both are from the same 1783 system as the earlier reproduced 36-pound gun (all Spanish archives ).


24-pounder of the system 1783:

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18-pounder of the system 1783:

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[kuba91nt]

No, no, no. You can't pass that decision on to me, sorry

Lesson learned. The most interesting thing is that none of them are decorated.
This site is amazing. Thank you.

1805
30 × 36pdr cannon
32 × 24pdr cannon
32 × 12pdr cannon
10 × 8pdr cannon

10 × 48pdr obuses
2 × 32pdr obuses
6 × 24pdr obuses

4 × 4pdr swivel

 

[-Waldemar-]

This site is amazing.

A treasure trove, isn't it? And I see you're becoming even more adept than me at quickly finding the things you need. For a change, I'm getting slower and slower at these things . Good luck!

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[KAYA61]

There is a book on this subject, "Naval Patternmaking Technique and Application" by Isidre Oliveras Parera, which belongs to the Barcelona Museum.

 

[kuba91nt]

There is a book on this subject, "Naval Patternmaking Technique and Application" by Isidre Oliveras Parera, which belongs to the Barcelona Museum.

Is this that book? There's probably no way to access it...

 

[AllanKP69]

Here you go. Link to the archive.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!

Allan

 

[KAYA61]

Is this that book? There's probably no way to access it...
View attachment 561643

yes, this is that book.

 

[KAYA61]

@kuba91nt A friend of mine came across a copy of this book at a fair during his trip to Argentina and took photos of some of the pages and sent them to me. I also searched the internet but couldn't find anything.

 

[kuba91nt]

@kuba91nt A friend of mine came across a copy of this book at a fair during his trip to Argentina and took photos of some of the pages and sent them to me. I also searched the internet but couldn't find anything.

This is valuable information. If you ever see a description of the 36-pounder gun somewhere, let me know out of curiosity.

 

[KAYA61]

Of course. I'm still researching.

 

[AllanKP69]

Here you go. Link to the archive

Thank you. Unfortunately it does not open for me.
Allan

 

[-Waldemar-]

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Thank you. Unfortunately it does not open for me.
Allan

I am sorry, Allan, but I cannot explain it. As one can see from post #282, Kuba (@kuba91nt) had no problem finding and downloading the documents he needed from this Spanish archive. My attempt to access it today was also successful, as were all the others. Perhaps there are some access restrictions related to the general political situation, I really do not know...

 

[kuba91nt]

This website works so well, and is so much information there, that i have to go to my neighbor's wife's at night to learn Spanish, so i can translate it because i can't sleep...

Buenas noches señora. Canon español para traducir.

 

[RussF]

The most interesting thing is that none of them are decorated.

Some of them are - quite lavishly, I might add.

 

[kuba91nt]

Some of them are - quite lavishly, I might add.

View attachment 562645

Yeah but i'm mainly referring to the year after 1780, cast iron cannons shown in these illustrations no longer had any ornamentation. The cannon you're showing is clearly from before 1780 and is made of bronze.

 

[RussF]

Yeah but i'm mainly referring to the year after 1780, cast iron cannons shown in these illustrations no longer had any ornamentation. The cannon you're showing is clearly from before 1780 and is made of bronze.

Oops, sorry, I missed your post stating that you were looking for cannons for the Santa Ana model for 1784-1805. The above image is indeed bronze from 1747.

 

[-Waldemar-]

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Yeah but i'm mainly referring to the year after 1780, cast iron cannons shown in these illustrations no longer had any ornamentation. The cannon you're showing is clearly from before 1780 and is made of bronze.

Yep, I guess it's a Spanish copy of the French land-service bronze cannon of the Vallière system from 1732. It's a pity that the archival descriptions for verification have been cut off.

 

[kuba91nt]

Oops, sorry, I missed your post stating that you were looking for cannons for the Santa Ana model for 1784-1805. The above image is indeed bronze from 1747.

Allan mentioned that the gun barrels could have been engraved, cast iron is much heavier, and they weren't decorated due to their weight.
On other hand, many people use decorated guns on every Spanishs vessel.
It's hard to say whether this is visually or technically correct.

 

[-Waldemar-]

On other hand, many people use decorated guns on every Spanishs vessel.
It's hard to say whether this is visually or technically correct.

The explanation for this phenomenon seems simple — many enthusiasts, especially those with romantic tendencies, just want these decorations no matter what .

 

[-Waldemar-]

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In the context of the (lack of) decoration of Spanish naval cannons from this era, I searched through and selected some photographs of a few genuine specimens from this period from the work La Artillería Naval Española en el Siglo XVIII by Enrique García-Torralba Pérez. There is perhaps really nothing to comment on, except perhaps that the lack of decoration also applies to the cannons of earlier Spanish naval artillery systems. Just usual markings on the trunnions or elsewhere.


Spanish cast iron naval-service 8-pdr gun of the 1773 system (395 pieces cast):

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Spanish cast iron naval-service 18-pdr gun of the 1773 system (701 pieces cast):

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Spanish cast iron naval-service 24-pdr gun of the 1773 system (1057 pieces cast):

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Spanish cast iron naval-service 36-pdr gun of the 1783 system:

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Spanish cast iron naval-service 24-pdr gun of the 1783 system:

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