RML 11-inch 25-ton guns were large rifled muzzle-loading guns used as primary armament on British battleships and for coastal defence. They were effectively the same gun as the RML 12-inch 25-ton gun, bored to 11 inches instead of 12.

Design

Mark I was introduced in 1867. Mark II was introduced in 1871 using the simpler and cheaper "Fraser" gun construction method which had proved successful with the RML 9-inch 12-ton Mk IV gun. In 1874 the process of development made a "New Eighty-one Ton Gun" available in Woolwich.

Naval service

Guns were mounted on: * HMS ''Alexandra'', commissioned 1877. * HMS ''Temeraire'', commissioned 1877.

Ammunition

When the gun was first introduced projectiles had several rows of "studs" which engaged with the gun's rifling to impart spin. Sometime after 1878, " attached gas-checks" were fitted to the bases of the studded shells, reducing wear on the guns and improving their range and accuracy. Subsequently, " automatic gas-checks" were developed which could rotate shells, allowing the deployment of a new range of studless ammunition. Thus, any particular gun potentially operated with a mix of studded and studless ammunition. The gun's primary projectile was 536 – 543 pound " Palliser" armour-piercing shot, which were fired with a "Battering charge" of 85 pounds of "P" (gunpowder) or 70 pounds of "R.L.G." (gunpowder) for maximum velocity and hence penetrating power.

Shrapnel Shrapnel may refer to: Military * Shrapnel shell, explosive artillery munitions, generally for anti-personnel use * Shrapnel (fragment), a hard loose material Popular culture * ''Shrapnel'' (Radical Comics) * ''Shrapnel'', a game by Adam ...

and

Common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

(exploding) shells weighed 532 – 536 pounds and were fired with a "Full charge" of 60 pounds "P" or 50 pounds "R.L.G.".Treatise on Ammunition 1877, pages 191,194, 205, 220

Surviving examples

RML 11-inch 25-ton gun at Fort George in Bermuda

* Two Mark II guns, number 12 and 14 a
Fort George, Bermuda

* Mark II gun number 30 at Fort Nelson, Portsmouth, UK * Three Mark II guns on Drake's Island, Plymouth, UK
Four guns outside
Fort Saint Elmo, Malta
Mark II gun dated 1871 outside

Fort St. Catherine Fort St. Catherine, or ''Fort St. Catherine's'' (as it is usually referred to), is a coastal artillery fort at the North-East tip of St. George's Island, Bermuda, St. George's Island, in the Imperial fortress British Overseas Territory, colony of ...

, Bermuda

Notes

References

Treatise on Ammunition. War Office, UK, 1877

Treatise on the Construction and Manufacture of Ordnance in the British service. War Office, UK, 1877

Treatise on the Construction and Manufacture of Ordnance in the British Service. War Office, UK, 1879

Text Book of Gunnery, 1887. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE

External links

{{VictorianEraBritishNavalWeapons Naval guns of the United Kingdom 280 mm artillery Victorian-era weapons of the United Kingdom Coastal artillery Disappearing guns