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
[hide]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 By that time such muzzle-loading guns were already obsolescent and were being superseded by a new generation of breechloading guns.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
Cite error: Invalid <references>
tag;
parameter "group" is allowed only.
<references />
, or <references group="..." />
References
- 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]
- Jump up ↑ Brassey 1882, Page 95
- ↑ Jump up to: 2.0 2.1 2.2 Text Book of Gunnery 1887, Table XVI
- Jump up ↑ 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".
- Jump up ↑ 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.