Research Note

Photo 1. A 32-pound true Carronade aboard the USS Constitution. The Navy plans to replace all of the spar deck slide guns with these. (Photo by Don Seltzer.)

Because it was so pervasive in the final years before steam and paddle- wheel began supplanting sail and oar, it was present on many ships that are popular as models today, from cutters to ships-of-the-line. Carronades are most often on the upper decks where they are visible. Since they form a visual focus on many models, it pays to do them right.

Carronades are short-barreled guns, but not all short-barreled guns are Carronades. The true Carronade was made to closely resemble a short- barreled weapon developed by the Carron Company of Falkirk, Scotland. True Carronades share five characteristics:

1. The chamber (for the powder) is smaller than the bore for the ball.
2. The bore has a smaller windage than a conventional 18'" century long gun for the same size ball.
3. There is no muzzle swell.
4. The gun has a sleeve with a screw lack on the cascable used to elevate and Lower the gun
5. The gun attached to the carriage with a lug rather than a trunnion.

Photo 2 Showing muzzle of a 12-pound Carronade on a field carriage. Carronades were not exclusively sea creatures. Their lightness made them popular on the battlefield, too. The British used 68-pound Carronades as siege guns. This Carronade was used by a Utah militia unit in the 1850s (Photo Credit: Museum of Church History and Art).

Photo 3. Showing breech of the 12-pound Carronade field carriage (Photo Credit: Museum of Church History and Art).

The Carronade was probably the world's first scientifically designed gun, and perhaps the first artillery piece designed as part of a weapons system. When Carron first began casting cannons in the 1760s, many burst during acceptance testing. By 1771, the Board of Ordinance was ready to blacklist Carron. In response, the Carron Company investigated casting and gunfounding technology to overcome their failures. These studies led Carron's director, Charles Gascoigne, to develop a new gun that incorporated the lessons of these studies. A new method of boring metal allowed Carron to produce guns with tighter tolerances between the barrel and the ball. Reducing this difference, or "windage" as it was termed, permitted a smaller powder. Less gas escaped, providing more thrust with a smaller charge. It increased the accuracy of the shot because the hall had less space to bounce around in the barrel, and a shorter barrel could be used.

The smaller charge allowed the combustion chamber for the gunpowder to be smaller than the bore for the shot, which in turn, reduced the amount of metal needed at the breech. The muzzle swell--the widening of the barrel at the end of a conventional gun—proved unnecessary in a shorter piece, further reducing the metal. The result was a lightweight piece that could throw a heavy shot. A 24-pound Carronade weighed less than a conventional 4-pound gun, the 12-pound and 18-pound Carronade was so light that either could be mounted on decks too weak to support the smallest long gun.

Carron developed a slide mounting for the gun in order to minimize the space required for each gun and reduce the crew needed to fire the piece. The slides were designed to move the gun up a slope when it fired so that the crew could use gravity to help when the guns were run out. To optimize the slide carriage, Carron used a lug beneath the gun to attach it to the carriage instead of conventional trunnions. Carron replaced the ball cascable with a sleeve fitting that had a screw thread inside. This allowed the gun to be elevated with a screw jack. The resulting system required little space and allowed a small crew to operate a light gun that could fire a heavy ball. Carron planned to sell these guns to merchant ships and released 12-pound and 18-pound versions in 1778. They were quickly dubbed Carronades, and proved enormously successful, especially after Carronade-armed merchantmen drove off French privateers.

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Figure 1. Anatomy of a Carronade.

Figure 2. Standard Carronade sizes.

Figure 3. Evolution of the Carronade.

Figure 4. The imitators. The Carronade was widely imitated, both in Britain and throughout the world. American-pattern 18-pound Carronade, probably circa 1810. French brass 36-pound Carronade 1789-1800. French iron 36-pound Carronade 1800-1815. 18-pound gunnade. This was a gun on the privateer Salem, owned by the Crowninshield family. It was probably cast in Britain.

The gun soon proved popular with the Royal Navy. Initially, the Royal Navy placed Carronades on forecastles, quarterdecks, and poops that could not carry conventional artillery. While there were objections at first, it wasn't long before the pieces gained favor with the Navy. Carron began producing Carronades capable of firing 24, 32, 42, and G8-pound shot.

The largest sizes, the 42-pound and 68-pound Carronades, never proved popular. The Victory's 68-pounders were rare exceptions. The Royal Navy even outfitted two ships exclusively with 42-pound and G8-pound Carronades, but the weight of the ball made these pieces difficult to use. Thirty-two pound Carronades and smaller were enormously popular. By the middle of the French Revolution, the Royal Navy was substituting Carronades for long guns on ships, especially sloops and small frigates.

Other navies, such as the United States Navy, quickly followed suit. By the Napoleonic era, especially after Trafalgar in 180i, virtually all single-deck British and American warships used Carronades as their main battery. Substituting Carronades for long guns made sense, if the Carronade barrel weighed as much as the long in replaced. A 24-pound Carronade was superior to a 4-pound long gun, and a 32-pound Carronade could best a 6 pound long gun. But when ~2-pound Carronades replaced a long 9-pound gun or 12-pound gun, the hitting power of the ship was reduced, especially at longer ranges. The added weight of metal failed a, compensate for the lower kinetic energy of the Carronade.

Another limitation of the Carronade was its short range. In the 18th century it hardly mattered. Warships rarely conducted target practice. In combat, commanders preferred to fight yardarm-to-yardarm to compensate for the lack of live-fire practice. But by 1800 some officers were experimenting with target practice and ranged fire. At the apogee of the Carronade's influence-l805 to 1810--visionary captains were sharpening range-firing skills that made the Carronade obsolete by 1820.

Good officers recognized these limitations. David Porter protested the substitution of the 12-pound long guns on the 32-gun frigate Essex with 32-pound Carronades. His protests were ignored. Commanding the Essex on an epic cruise during the War of 1812, he lost the ship in a battle in which its Carronades limited Porter's options.

Modeling the Carronade offers many challenges. Carronades were mounted in an amazing variety of ways, with a surprising number of variations. The popularity of the Carronade prompted many imitators-near-Carronades that differed in major or minor ways. Additionally, the Carronade itself changed over time. A Carronade mounted on a ship in 1779 differed from one cast in 1808.

The first challenge in modeling a Carronade is using the right size barrel. Most long guns, whether they fired a 12-pound ball or a 42-pound ball, had barrels between 9 and 10 feet Long. They differed in thickness, but the difference is often too small to be noticeable at modeling scales. Carronades varied in length; a 12-pound Carronade was Less than half the length of a 68-pound Carronade. Table 1 shows the overall length of different sizes of Carronades at 1:48 scale.

The first generation Carronades were short, so short that the muzzle of the gun did not extend beyond a ships sides. Carronades mounted near the shrouds frequently set rigging on fire-- the rigging of the ship on which it was mounted. Carron responded by lengthening the Carronade. By 1792, the 18-pound Carronade had grown in length from 2' 4': to 3' 4" in length. Carron added a nozzle at the end of the barrel to further shield a ship from its Carronades' muzzle blast.

Most model fittings of Carronades sold are based on fully developed, late-model guns. Using these on an American Revolution era model is inaccurate. Look For models without nozzles, or cut them off purchased fittings.

Carronades. except for early French 36-pounders, were always iron guns. The beautiful brass castings of Carronades sold by fittings companies must be blackened for accuracy.

Crews often disregarded the elevation screw, preferring to use wedges or quoins to elevate the gun. Carron added a wedge on the bottom breech of the gun to facilitate the use of quoins. In those cases, even a true Carronade could lack an elevation screw.

There were stylistic differences in barrels, too. British Carron-pattern Carronades had prominent reinforcing rings with breech moldings that looked like a pile of stacked dish plates at the breech end. The Americans favored a simpler design. The reinforcing rings were less ornate, and the breech resembled a flattened hemisphere. The French used two different Carronade designs, both 36-pound Runs. The early French Carronade was cast in brass, and had a cylindrical profile. It was produced between 1792 and 1800. The French replaced it with an iron Carronade that had a hemispherical breech and virtually no reinforcing rings.

Royal Navy ships almost certainly used Carron-pattern Carronades. The United States Navy initially purchased British Carronades before it began using Carronades cast in the United States. Many of the early American clones closely imitated Carron practices and were almost indistinguishable from Carron-made guns. As American gunfounders gained experience with Carronades, they established an American style for these guns. United States Navy vessels could have either Carron-pattern or American-pattern guns, although the later in the period, the more likely they were to use American-pattern Carronades. Ships equipped with Carronades after 1808 or built during the War of 1812 were most likely to have American-pattern guns. Most model Carronades sold as fittings are patterned on American practice, so getting Carronades appropriate for HMS Shannon or HMS Victory may be a challenge.

Authentic artillery can be challenging on a model of a privateer or armed merchantman. Many were equipped with counterfeit Carronades that were cut- down versions of long guns. Often called Carronades, these were actually insurance guns.

Carronades on the Constitution The Model Shipways Constitution kit comes with "trunnioned" Carronades. Modelers may conclude that the United States used these guns in 1812, but they are anachronistic. The Model Shipways kit faithfully represents the Constitution as it appeared in 1998. At some point prior to 1998, the Navy outfitted the Constitution with a set of 32-pound gunnades, first cast in the 1840s. Erroneously labeled Carronades these guns were not used prior to the 1840s. They create an incorrect impression about the artillery aboard the ship during its famous frigate battles. The Navy plans to replace these guns with period Carronades by 2003. Modelers have two choices: replace these gunnades with Carronades to reflect the ship's 1812 ordinance, or retain them and built the ship as it appeared in 1998.

Finally, Carronades were mounted in a bewildering number of ways. Although designed for use on slide carriages, the slide carriage was difficult to shift. Carronades were frequently mounted on trucked carriages, especially on armed merchant ships or privateers. There were naval applications for wheeled carriages. British Admiralty orders directed mounting the aftermost pair of 24-pound Carronades on a 74s quarterdeck on trucked carriages for use as chase guns. Boat Carronades were also mounted on wheeled carriages.

TABLE A: Carronade Lengths at 1:48 Scale
Carronade Size	Length
	inches	mm
12 pound	3/4	20
18-pound	15/16	24
24-pound	1 1/16	27
32-pound	1 3/16	30
42-pound	1 1/4	32
68-pound	1 7/16	37
(Overall length from muzzle to end of cascable)

Figure 5. Carronade on a slide. This period drawing of a 32-pounder omits the train tackle. Those would go through the rings on the bases. (Credit given to the Maritime Compendium).

The lug mounting gave a Carronade on a conventional carriage a high center of gravity that made it easy to upset. The solution? Gunnades, a near-Carronade, that used trunnions rather than lugs.

These are occasionally misidentified as Carronades. Early gunnades were cast in sizes smaller than 18 pounds, although the United States Navy cast 32-pound gunnades in the 1840s. Gunnades were often longer than Carronades and frequently used quoins for elevation.

Despite the bewildering assortment of sizes, styles, and mountings, it is worth getting the right configuration for your model. Anything less would be a "dud round."

by Mark N. Lardas
611 S. Sycamore
Palestine, TX 75801
Mlardas@flash.net

PUBLISHED SOURCES:

Photo 4. Gunnade aboard the USS Constitution (Photo by Don Seltzer.)

Figure 6. Carronade on a trucked carriage. This mature (mid-1790s) 12-pound gun was probably mounted on a merchant ship or privateer rather than a warship. (Credit given to The Maritime Compendium).

1. Campbell, R. H., Carron Company, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1961.
2. Marshall, Nicki, ed., The Maritime Compendium, An Encyclopedia of Designs and Motifs, Conway Maritime Press, London, 1')C)8 ISBN 0-85177-714-
3. Douglas, General Sir Howard, A Treatise C)n Naval Gunnery 41h Edition, London, Conway Maritime Press, London, 1982 (reprint of 1855 edition).
4. James, William, The Naval History of Great Britain from The Declaration of War By France in ]233 to the Accession of George IV in Six Volumes, Vol 1 and Vol 6, Richard Bentley London, 1850
5. I.avery, Brian, Arming and fitting of English Ships of War, 1600-1815, United States Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, December 1989 (ISBN: 0870210092).
6. Lavery, Brian ed., Shipboard Life and Organization, 1731-1815, Vol. 138 Naval Records Society Publications, Ashgate Publishing Company, October, 1998 (ISBN: 1840142286).
7. Padfield, Peter, Guns At Sea. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1974.
8. Tucker. Spencer, Arming The Fleet: U.S. Navy Ordnance in The Muzzle Loading Era, United States Naval Institute Press. Annapolis, MD, 1989 (ISBN 0-87021-007-6).

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