Editing Carronade (section)

== History ==
[[File:68carronade.jpg|thumb|left|68-pounder British naval carronade, with slider carriage, on {{HMS|Victory}}]]
The carronade was designed as a short-range naval weapon with a low [[muzzle velocity]] for merchant ships, but it also found a niche role on warships. It was produced by the Carron [[ironworks]] and was at first sold as a system with the gun, mounting, and shot all together. The standard package of shot per gun was 25 [[roundshot]], 15 [[barshot]], 15 [[Angel shot|double-headed shot]], 10 "single" [[grapeshot]], and 10 "single" [[canister shot]]. "Single" meant that the shot weighed the same as the roundshot, while some other canister and grapeshot were also included which weighed one and a half times the roundshot.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Its invention is variously ascribed to [[Lieutenant General]] [[Robert Melvill]]e in 1759, or to [[Charles Gascoigne]], who was manager of the [[Carron Company]] from 1769 to 1779.<ref name=evo>{{cite book|title=The evolution of naval armament|url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionnavalar00robe|date=1921|publisher=London Constable|page=[https://archive.org/details/evolutionnavalar00robe/page/n147 126]}}</ref> In its early years, the weapon was sometimes called a "mellvinade" or a "gasconade".<ref>Kincaid (2007), 116.</ref>  The carronade can be seen as the culmination of a development of naval guns reducing the barrel length and gunpowder charge. The Carron Company was already selling a "new light-constructed" gun, two-thirds of the weight of the standard naval gun and charged with one sixth of the weight of ball in powder before it introduced the carronade, which further halved the gunpowder charge.<ref name="description1"/>

===Theory of design===

[[File:T3- d423 - Fig. 300. — Caronade de 30 de l’artillerie de la marine française.png|thumb|right|A cross-section diagram of a carronade, from a 1869 French book]]The advantages for merchant ships are described in an advertising pamphlet of 1779.<ref name="description1">. An Attempt to improve the Method of Arming Trading Vessels. With a description of the carronade, and some hints concerning shot. The third edition Falkirk, 1779.</ref> Production of both shot and gun by the same firm immediately allowed a reduction in the windage, the gap between the bore of the gun and the diameter of the ball. The smaller gunpowder charge reduced the barrel heating in action, and reduced the recoil. The mounting, attached to the side of the ship on a pivot, took the recoil on a slider, without altering the alignment of the gun. The pamphlet advocated the use of woollen cartridges, which eliminated the need for [[wadding]] and [[Worm (artillery)|worm]]ing, although they were more expensive.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Simplifying gunnery for comparatively untrained merchant seamen in both aiming and reloading was part of the rationale for the gun. The replacement of [[trunnion]]s by a bolt underneath, to connect the gun to the mounting, reduced the width of the carriage enhancing the wide angle of fire. A merchant ship would almost always be running away from an enemy, so a wide angle of fire was much more important than on a warship. A carronade weighed a quarter as much and used a quarter to a third of the gunpowder charge as a long gun firing the same cannonball.<ref>p 84 J. Guillmartin "Ballistics in the Black Powder era" p 73-98 in ROYAL ARMOURIES CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS.; British naval armament 1600–1900; London, 1987; Nov, 1989,</ref>

The reduced charge allowed carronades to have a shorter length and much lighter weight than long guns. Increasing the size of the bore and ball reduces the required length of barrel. The force acting on the ball is proportional to the square of the diameter, while the mass of the ball rises by the cube, so acceleration is slower; thus, the barrel can be shorter and therefore lighter. Long guns were also much heavier than carronades because they were over-specified to be capable of being double-shotted, whereas it was dangerous to do this in a carronade. A ship could carry more carronades, or carronades of a larger caliber, than long guns, and carronades could be mounted on the upper decks, where heavy long guns could cause the ship to be top-heavy and unstable. Carronades also required a smaller gun crew, which was very important for merchant ships, and they were faster to reload.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

===Early use===
[[File:Carronade 12 pounder.jpg|thumb]]
Carronades initially became popular on British merchant ships during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. A lightweight gun that needed only a small gun crew and was devastating at short range was well suited to defending merchant ships against French and American [[privateer]]s. The French came in possession of their first carronades in December 1779 with the capture of the brig ''Finkastre'' by the frigate [[French frigate Précieuse (1778)|''Précieuse'']], but the weapon was judged ineffective and was not adopted by them at the time.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=https://troisponts.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/napoleon-et-levolution-de-lartillerie-des-vaisseaux
 |title=Napoléon et l'évolution de l'artillerie des vaisseaux (Napoleon and the evolution of artillery ships)
 |date=10 December 2013
 |access-date=7 January 2016}}</ref> However, in the [[action of 4 September 1782]], the impact of a single carronade broadside fired at close range by the [[frigate]] {{HMS|Rainbow|1747|6}} under [[Henry Trollope]] caused a wounded French captain to capitulate and surrender the [[French frigate Hébé (1782)|''Hébé'']] after a short fight.<ref>{{cite web
 |title=Introducing the Carronade
 |url=http://ageofsail.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/introducing-the-carronade-all-carronades-all-the-time/
 |work=Age Of Sail · Life at sea during the age of wooden ships and iron men
 |date=22 February 2009
 |access-date=15 October 2013
}}</ref>

The Royal Navy was initially reluctant to adopt the guns, mainly due to mistrust of the Carron Company, which had developed a reputation for incompetence and commercial [[Sharp practice|sharp dealing]].<ref name="Rodger">Rodger (2004), p.420</ref> Carronades were not even counted in numbering the guns of a ship. [[John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich|Lord Sandwich]] eventually started mounting them in place of the light guns on the [[forecastle]] and quarterdeck of ships. They soon proved their effectiveness in battle. French gun foundries were unable to produce equivalents for twenty years,<ref name="Rodger" /> so carronades gave British warships a significant tactical advantage during the latter part of the 18th century—though French ships mounted another type of weapon in the same role, the ''[[obusier de vaisseau]]''. {{HMS|Victory}} used the two 68-pounder carronades which she carried on her forecastle to great effect at the [[Battle of Trafalgar]], clearing the [[gun deck]] of the {{ship|French ship|Bucentaure|1803|2}} by firing a round shot and a keg of 500 [[Musket#Ammunition|musket balls]] through the ''Bucentaure''{{'}}s stern windows.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

The carronade was initially very successful and widely adopted, and a few experimental ships were fitted with a carronade-only armament, such as {{HMS|Glatton|1795|6}} and {{HMS|Rainbow|1747|6}}.<ref name="Rodger" /> ''Glatton'', a [[fourth-rate]] ship with 56 guns, had a more destructive [[Broadside (naval)|broadside]] at short range than HMS ''Victory'', a [[first-rate]] ship with 100 guns. ''Glatton'' and ''Rainbow'' were both successful in battle, though the carronade's lack of range was a tactical disadvantage of this arrangement against an opponent who could keep out of carronade range, but within the range of his long guns.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

=== Decline ===
In the 1810s and 1820s, tactics started to place a greater emphasis on the accuracy of long-range gunfire, and less on the weight of a broadside. Indeed, Captain [[David Porter (naval officer)|David Porter]] of [[USS Essex (1799)|USS ''Essex'']] complained when the navy replaced his 12-pounder long guns with 32-pounder carronades.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

In the 1840s, the Royal Navy leased several carronade-armed [[Clipper|clippers]] from [[Jardine, Matheson & Co.]] in 1840 to supplement the steamships it used against [[Qing dynasty]] China during the [[First Opium War]].<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=12}}

The carronade was a popular armament among Anglo-American opium traffickers.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Driscoll |first=Mark W. |title=The Whites are Enemies of Heaven: Climate Caucasianism and Asian Ecological Protection |date=2020 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4780-1121-7 |location=Durham}}</ref>{{Rp|page=11}} Its light weight meant that opium traffickers could maintain both speed and asymmetrical force projection in Asia.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|pages=11-12}}

The carronade disappeared from the Royal Navy in the 1850s, after improved methods for building cannons had been developed by [[William George Armstrong]] and [[Joseph Whitworth]]. Carronades were nevertheless still used in the [[American Civil War]] in the 1860s.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}  The last known use of a carronade in conflict was during the [[First Boer War]]. In the siege of [[Potchefstroom]], the [[Boers]] used 'Ou Griet', an antique carronade mounted on a wagon axle, against the British fort.<ref>[http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol052dh.html] Major D.D. Hall: The Artillery of the First Anglo-Boer War 1880 – 1881</ref>