A finely executed model engraved 'Friend Patentee.00' for the patent of Richard Friend, patent number 3005, 29 January 1807. Making and working Gun Carronade Carriages. The back most edge engraved in gothic script "Builder". As a light weight gun it was possible to move the carronade from ship to ship and it would seem that this patent was to fascilitate this versatlity. The carronade was designed as a short-range naval weapon either invented by Lieutenant General Robert Melville in 1759, or Charles Gascoigne of the Carron Company. It was Lord Sandwich who began mounting them in place of the light guns on the forecastle and quarterdeck of ships of the Royal Navy and they were initially very successful. (During earlier years merchant ships only used them). 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. The carronade disappeared from the Royal Navy from the 1850s after the development of steel-jacketed cannon by William George Armstrong and Joseph Whitworth. 10 in x 5 in
10 in x 5 in
Item Code: 1670
£ 2250
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