Brighton Marina Site. Likely to be from a French Warship of ...

Estimate

£400 - £600

Brighton Marina Site. Likely to be from a French Warship of the Early 15th century A Tudor period gun fragment that once formed part of the Royal Armouries collection With a bore of approximately 50mm. 65cm long. This gun is similar to those found on The Mary Rose which is thought to have had 76 guns of this type and made of iron which was locally available and much cheaper than imported copper. These guns were made by heating and hammering billets of iron in a blacksmith’s forge to form long staves of iron laid side by side to form a tube. Bands of iron were bent and welded and these were positioned over the tube whilst still hot. As the metal cooled, the bands shrank, pushing the staves together. Unlike the bronze guns, these guns were loaded from the rear (breech loading) The shot would be put in the back of the barrel, then a chamber (of similar construction to the barrel) containing a charge of gunpowder was added. Two chambers were listed for each gun, so re-loading these guns was much faster than reloading the bronze guns. The largest guns fired shot made of stone, or sharp flakes of flint in wooden canisters. Some had double sets of staves, these were stronger and could fire iron shot. Seven sizes of these were mounted on carriages. These were large solid blocks of wood mounted on two large, spoked wheels or two smaller solid wheels depending on where they were placed on the ship. The bores of those found ranged from 50mm – 200mm. The largest are three metres long and weigh 1.1 tonnes including their carriage. Length 65cm. Brighton Marina (No longer designated but designated at the time of acquisition) - The wrecksite covers an area of seabed from which four guns including one rare bronze haquebut , stone cannonballs, wrought iron breach chambers, wooden tompions and other material that indicate the possible remains of a vessel believed to date to the early sixteenth century. A Bronze Minion gun is preserved at Fort Nelson, Portsmouth. Of the two banded, wrought iron cannon recovered from the site, one is on display in Charlestown and one is believed to be in Essex.