Breaching walls and sinking ships: the performance of 17th-century artillery -Vasa

ropesfish

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Jun 3, 2007
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Sebastian, Florida
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Shipwrecks
I am a fan of historical weapons, particularly bronze guns. Nothing makes me quite as interested as stories that include the words "and then we saw (1or 2) bronze cannons off _____ Beach in (always less than 20) feet of water."
I ran across this video that I think will benefit some others who are interested in naval ordnance of the 1700 Here is the description from the YouTube video:
"In 2014, the Vasa Museum carried out an extensive field trial of a replica 24-pounder bronze demi-cannon, based on those found on the warship Vasa. The gun was developed in 1620 as a mobile heavy field piece, adapted to naval use in 1626 for Vasa and her sister ships. This gun later equipped both the largest warships and field artillery units during the Thirty Years War, ending it service career as a fortress gun in Sweden’s Baltic outposts. A two-week program of fire revealed not only the ballistic characteristics of this type of artillery, but trials against a replica section of ship structure demonstrated that conventional interpretations of the effect of cannon fire on warships is oversimplified. This paper presents the results of the tests in the context of how such guns might have been used against both ships and shore installations."
Smithbrown had posted an article about this gun in 2014, I thought I would update and expand the discussion.



A short video of the gun being fired and it's effect on the hull of a ship:

Another 2 videos of 9 and14 minutes on the Vasa gun...mostly in Svedish, though.,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9LBGIyv0Ys&t=12s

Some pics of the "Vasa Gun"
Replica-Vasa-gun.jpg


8437397831_95f0984623_z.jpg


bild_2.png
 

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