RML 16 inch 80 ton gun
| Ordnance RML 16 inch 80 ton gun | |
|---|---|
| File:HMS inflexible port 16 inch gun turret 1896 photograph.jpg Port/forward turret on HMS Inflexible | |
| Type | Naval gun |
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1880 - 1902 |
| Used by | Royal Navy |
| Wars | Bombardment of Alexandria (1882) |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Royal Gun Factory |
| Designed | 1874 |
| Manufacturer | Royal Arsenal |
| Unit cost | £10,000[1] |
| Number built | 8 |
| Variants | Mk I |
| Specifications | |
| Barrel length | 288 inches (7.3 m) (bore)[2] |
| | |
| Shell | 1,684 pounds (763.8 kg) Palliser, common, Shrapnel[2] |
| Calibre | 16-inch (406.4 mm) |
| Muzzle velocity | 1,590 feet per second (480 m/s)[3] |
| Maximum range | 8,000 yards (7,300 m)[4] |
The RML 16 inch 80 ton guns were large rifled muzzle-loading guns intended to give the largest British battleships parity with the large guns being mounted by Italian and French ships in the Mediterranean Sea in the 1870s.
Contents
Design and history
The gun was constructed of a toughened mild steel inner "A" tube surrounded by multiple wrought-iron coils, breech-piece and jacket. Rifling was of the "polygroove plain section" type, with 33 grooves increasing from 0 to 1 turn in 50 calibres (i.e. 1 turn in 800 inches) at the muzzle.[2]
After a long design and experimentation period beginning in 1873, HMS Inflexible with 4 guns became the only ship to mount them, in 1880. By that time such muzzle-loading guns were already obsolescent and were being superseded by a new generation of breechloading guns.
2 more guns were mounted for coast defence in the Admiralty Pier Turret at Dover.
Ammunition
- RML 16 inch 112.5 lb quarter charge prism brown cartridge diagram.jpg
112½-pound ¼ charge brown prism powder cartridge
Surviving examples
The only 2 surviving examples are in the ruins of the Admiralty Pier Turret, Dover, Kent, UK.
See also
- 12px Media related to RML 16 inch 80 ton naval gun at Wikimedia Commons
- List of naval guns
Notes
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- Text Book of Gunnery, 1887. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE
- Text Book of Gunnery, 1902. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE
- Sir Thomas Brassey, The British Navy, Volume II. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1882
- N.J.M. Campbell, BRITISH SUPER-HEAVY GUNS
External links
- Flickr photos of the guns in the Dover turret : [1] [2] [3] [4]
- ↑ Brassey 1882, Page 95
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Text Book of Gunnery 1887, Table XVI
- ↑ 1590 feet/second firing a 1684-pound projectile, with a charge of 450 pounds Prismatic brown powder (gunpowder). Text Book of Gunnery 1887, Table XVI. The original charge was 450 pounds of prismatic black powder giving a muzzle velocity of 1604 feet/second, but this damaged the barrels and was replaced by brown powder from April 1885. N.J.M. Campbell, "British Super-Heavy Guns".
- ↑ Text Book of Gunnery 1902, Table XII. This was the maximum practical range at the low elevations used for firing armour-piercing projectiles on a flat trajectory intended to pierce the armoured sides of ships. Longer ranges would have been attained at higher elevations, but the armour-piercing properties would have been diminished at the lower terminal velocity and oblique angle of impact.
