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 "
Palliser" armour-piercing shot, which were fired with a "Battering charge" of of
"P" (gunpowder) or of
"R.L.G." (gunpowder) for maximum velocity and hence penetrating power.
Shrapnel and
Common
Common may refer to:
As an Irish surname, it is anglicised from Irish Gaelic surname Ó Comáin.
Places
* Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts
* Cambridge Com ...
(exploding) shells weighed and were fired with a "Full charge" of "P" or
"R.L.G.".
[Treatise on Ammunition 1877, pages 191,194, 205, 220]
See also
*
List of naval guns
List of Naval Guns by country of origin
List of naval guns by caliber size
Naval anti-aircraft guns
See also
*List of artillery
* List of the largest cannon by caliber
*Glossary of British ordnance terms
*Naval artillery
References
Ext ...
Surviving examples
* Two Mark II guns, number 12 and 14 a
Fort George, Bermuda* Mark II gun number 30 at
Fort Nelson, Portsmouth
Fort Nelson, in the civil parish of Boarhunt in the English county of Hampshire, is one of five defensive forts built on the summit of Portsdown Hill in the 1860s, overlooking the important naval base of Portsmouth and is a Grade I Listed Buil ...
, UK
* Three Mark II guns on
Drake's Island
Drake's Island is a island lying in Plymouth Sound, the stretch of water south of the city of Plymouth, Devon. The rocks which make up the island are volcanic tuff and lava, together with marine limestone of the Devonian period. For more th ...
, Plymouth, UK
Four guns outsideFort Saint Elmo
Fort Saint Elmo () is a star fort in Valletta, Malta. It stands on the seaward shore of the Sciberras Peninsula that divides Marsamxett Harbour from Grand Harbour, and commands the entrances to both harbours along with Fort Tigné and Fort Ri ...
, Malta
Mark II gun dated 1871 outside Fort St. Catherine, Bermuda
Notes
References
Treatise on Ammunition. War Office, UK, 1877Treatise on the Construction and Manufacture of Ordnance in the British service. War Office, UK, 1877Treatise on the Construction and Manufacture of Ordnance in the British Service. War Office, UK, 1879Text 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