In April my wife and I visited my 99 year old Uncle on his birthday. While we were in Eureka there were two tall ships in the harbor. One was the Lady Washington, a copy of a merchant vessel whose keel was layed around 1750, and the first Yankee trader to call in the Pacific Northwest.
The other was the Lynx, a copy of a two masted Balitmore Clipper Schooner, of the type that was use by the Americans as a "privateer" during the war of 1812. For further information and pictures of the ships, go to the "General" section. The Lady Washington is armed with 2 three pounders midships, and two swivel guns aft. The first picture shows one of the three pounders.
The next picture shows a close up of the same gun. Note the lead cover over the vent. This is called the "apron."
This is to keep the powder dry. The commands that involved firing the guns on a war ship, among others went like, "Remove Apron" "Prick and prime" "Replace apron" Then when it comes down to actually firing, the orders were, "Remove Apron" "Gunners, blow your matches" "Fire"
I don't remember all the commands involved, but you have to remove the restraints, load, roll the gun into battery and after firing you swabbed the bore, and loaded. All together there were 11 commands to fire one shot. I just don't remember the wording of all of them.
The next photo is the swivel on the Lady Washington.
Because I can only post 5 pictures at a time I'll do another post for the guns on the Lynx.
The other was the Lynx, a copy of a two masted Balitmore Clipper Schooner, of the type that was use by the Americans as a "privateer" during the war of 1812. For further information and pictures of the ships, go to the "General" section. The Lady Washington is armed with 2 three pounders midships, and two swivel guns aft. The first picture shows one of the three pounders.
The next picture shows a close up of the same gun. Note the lead cover over the vent. This is called the "apron."
This is to keep the powder dry. The commands that involved firing the guns on a war ship, among others went like, "Remove Apron" "Prick and prime" "Replace apron" Then when it comes down to actually firing, the orders were, "Remove Apron" "Gunners, blow your matches" "Fire"
I don't remember all the commands involved, but you have to remove the restraints, load, roll the gun into battery and after firing you swabbed the bore, and loaded. All together there were 11 commands to fire one shot. I just don't remember the wording of all of them.
The next photo is the swivel on the Lady Washington.
Because I can only post 5 pictures at a time I'll do another post for the guns on the Lynx.
