H.
M. Royal Artillery
"Artillery lends dignity to
what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl"Projectiles
Over the years, a number of projectiles were developed for use in smoothbore muzzleloading cannons. Some of the most common of these are:
Cannonball or Solid Shot or simply Shot
A solid, round projectile that was originally made from dressed stone. By the 17th century, shot was made from cast iron. It was the most accurate projectile that could be fired by a smoothbore cannon and was used to batter the wooden hulls of opposing ships, forts, or fixed emplacements, and as a long-range anti-personnel weapon.
Chain Shot
Two sub-caliber round balls or half balls, linked by a length of chain. It was most often used in naval warfare to slash through the rigging and sails of an enemy ship so that it could no longer maneuver. The ship could then be boarded and captured. On occasion, chain shot was used in land warfare against infantry or cavalry and in this role it was devastating. Due to the fact it spins rapidly in flight, chain shot is not very accurate. However, since most naval battles took place at ranges of 100 yards or less, this lack of accuracy didn't matter to any great degree.
Bar Shot
Similar to chain shot but with a solid bar joining two round or half round balls. Bar shot was used in naval warfare for the same purpose as chain shot.
Canister Shot
An
anti-personnel
projectile which included numerous small round iron
shot or lead musket
balls
in a metal can. The can broke up when fired, scattering the shot
throughout the
enemy personnel like a large shotgun.
Grapeshot
An anti-personnel weapon, similar to canister shot, but with the lead or iron balls being contained in a canvas bag, and generally of a larger caliber. It was so named because of the resemblance of the clustered shot in the bag to a cluster of grapes on the vine. It was very effective against infantry in the open but, it had a relatively short range and was ineffective against infantry who had taken cover. Also used in naval battles for the same purpose as canister. Grapeshot was the starting point for the creation of shrapnel.
Shell
An
explosive
anti-personnel, anti-material
and counter-battery projectile. It consists of a hollow iron ball that
had its cavity packed with
an explosive bursting charge. While it's main use was to
destroy enemy wagons,
breastworks, or opposing artillery, it was also effective against
infantry. It used a time fuse cut to length
measured in seconds that was ignited by the flame from the
propellant charge.
Spherical Case Shot or Shrapnel
An anti-personnel projectile that has an interior cavity packed with round lead or iron balls and a small bursting charge. This charge has just enough force to break open the thin-walled iron projectile. A time fuse, with a powder train that was designed to be ignited by the flame from the propellant charge, was inserted into the projectile just before firing. Ideally the fuse would detonate the central bursting charge when the projectile was six to ten feet above the heads of enemy infantry and shower them with the iron or lead balls and fragments of the casing. This projectile was invented in 1784 by Lt. Henry Shrapnel of the British Royal Artillery. As with shell, spherical case was mainly fired from howitzers and mortars.
Hot
Shot
Hot
shot was simply a solid iron cannonball that was
heated red hot. Its main purpose was to set fire to enemy warships. The
use of
hot shot dates back centuries and only ceased
when vessels armored
with iron replaced
wooden warships in the
worlds navies. It was a powerful weapon against wooden ships where fire
was
always a hazard. It's use was mainly confined to shore
batteries and forts because of
the need for a special furnace to heat the shot. Due to the dangerous
nature of
this furnace as well as the red hot shot itself, very few
wooden ships ever had a shot furnace on board.
When loading hot shot, the ball had to be cushioned by dry wadding next
to the
powder followed by a good thickness of wet wadding. It then had to be
fired
while the ball was still red hot.
While we're on the subject of
cannon projectiles, we would
be remiss if we didn't mention an old saying that many people believe
is based
on fact. It's very doubtful you would ever hear this saying used here
in Sunny South
Florida but up North (aka 'The Frozen Wastelands') it's
a totally different story.
During the seemingly endless winter
months, you could very likely hear somebody
complain that it's "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass
monkey".
This saying is from the urban legend that in the days of
wooden
warships, there were brass plates, with hollows formed in
them, bolted
to the deck. These plates were called 'monkeys' and they
supported stacks of iron cannon balls. As the story goes, in very cold
weather
the brass contracted, causing the balls to fall off and thus
arose the
saying.
Sorry to be the bearer of
bad news but the explanation
for the origin of the saying is a complete myth. While on dry
land, the
obvious way to store cannonballs is to stack them, on board a
ship it’s an
entirely different matter.
With the 30 cannonball stack
alluded to in the legend; the
1st row is 16, followed by 9, then 4 and 1. It's also safe to
assume that
a warship would have more than one of these stacks on deck. The problem
with
such a stack is that as the ship pitched and rolled in heavy seas, it
would easily be dislodged resulting in 30 (or more) cannon
balls rolling
all over the deck. Not a situation a crew would want to deal with.
The reality is that cannonballs were stored in planks with circular
holes cut
into them. These planks were known as 'shot garlands' not 'monkeys'
and they date back to at least 1769 when they were first referred to in
Royal
Navy records. In fact, there is no historical record whatsoever of
cannonballs having ever been stacked on a brass plate on the
deck of
either British or US warships.
For those inquiring minds that crave more detail, here's the science
stuff ---
The coefficient
of expansion of brass is 0.000019 while that of iron is 0.000012. If
the base
of the stack of cannonballs was one meter (39.37 inches) long, the drop
in
temperature needed to make the 'monkey' shrink relative to the balls by
just one
millimeter (.039 inch),
would be 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit). Such a
small shrinkage wouldn't have had the slightest effect on the stack. In
any
case, in extreme weather like that, the sailors would have had
much more pressing matters to deal with than coining new phrases.
Today, solid cannonballs, and occasionally canister, are the only
projectiles that are normally shot during live fire events. Chain, bar
and hot
shot serve no purpose anymore. Because both shell and
spherical case
shot are explosive, they are classified as
destructive devices under the provisions of the National Firearms Act. As such they are not legal
to have in your possession
(let alone shoot) without a lot of paperwork and hassle.