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18-pounder short gun

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18-pounder short gun
1/4th Scale model of an 18-pounder short gun, model 1824. On display at the Musée national de la Marine, Paris.
TypeNaval gun
Place of originFrance
Service history
Used byFrance, Spain, Great Britain, Netherlands, Sweden, United States
Specifications
Shell weight8.8 kg
Calibre138.7 mm[1]

The 18-pounder short gun was an intermediary calibre piece of artillery mounted on warships and merchantmen of the Age of sail. It was a lighter version of the 18-pounder long gun, compromising power and range for weight.

In his discussion of the single-ship action in which the French frigate Piémontaise captured the East Indiaman Warren Hastings on 11 June 1805, the naval historian William James compared the 18-pounder medium guns on Warren Hastings with the 18-pounder long guns that the British Royal Navy used. The medium 18-pounder was 6 ft (1.8 m) long, and weighed 26+34 long cwt (3,000 lb; 1,360 kg); the Royal Navy's long 18-pounder was 9 ft (2.7 m) and weighed 42+12 long cwt (4,760 lb; 2,160 kg).[2]

Citations and references

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Citations
  1. ^ French naval regulation, 1786
  2. ^ James (1837), Vol. 4, pp.239-44.
References
  • James, William; Chamier, Frederick (1837). The Naval History of Great Britain: From the Declaration of War by France In 1793 to the Accession of George IV. London, UK: R. Bentley. OCLC 656581450.
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  • (in French) Jean Boudriot et Hubert Berti, L'Artillerie de mer : marine française 1650-1850, Paris, éditions Ancre, 1992 (ISBN 2-903179-12-3) (notice BNF no FRBNF355550752).
  • (in French) Jean Peter, L'artillerie et les fonderies de la marine sous Louis XIV, Paris, Economica, 1995, 213 p. (ISBN 2-7178-2885-0).