The RML 64-pounder 71 cwt guns (converted) were British rifled muzzle-loading guns converted from obsolete

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. Some examples of smoothbore weapons are muskets, blunderbusses, and flintlock pistols. ...

8-inch 65 cwt shell guns in the 1860s-1870s."71 cwt" refers to the gun's weight rounded up to differentiate it from other "64-pounder" guns : 1 cwt = 112 pounds.

Design

64 pounder rifling grooves Mays Hill NSW

When Britain adopted

rifled Rifling is the term for helical grooves machined into the internal surface of a firearms's barrel for imparting a spin to a projectile to improve its aerodynamic stability and accuracy. It is also the term (as a verb) for creating such groove ...

ordnance in the 1860s, it still had large stocks of serviceable but now obsolete

guns. Gun barrels were expensive to manufacture, so the best and most recent models were selected for conversion to rifled guns, for use as second-line ordnance, using a technique designed by

William Palliser Sir William Palliser CB MP (18 June 1830 – 4 February 1882) was an Irish-born politician and inventor, Member of Parliament for Taunton from 1880 until his death. Early life Born in Dublin on 18 June 1830, Palliser was the fourth of the eig ...

. The Palliser conversion was based on what was accepted as a sound principle that the strongest material in the barrel construction should be innermost, and hence a new tube of stronger wrought iron was inserted in the old cast iron barrel, rather than attempting to reinforce the old barrel from the outside.Treatise on Construction and Manufacture of Service Ordnance, 1879, pages 233-238, 292 This gun was based on the

cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

barrel of the Millar Pattern 8-inch 65 cwt gun, originally designed in 1834.Blackmore, H L, (1976). The Armouries of the Tower of London: The Ordnance, (HMSO, London), p90 This was designed to fire a smooth bore spherical shell weighing . The gun was bored out to and a new built-up

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

inner tube with inner diameter of was inserted and fastened in place. The gun was then rifled with 3 grooves, with a uniform twist of 1 turn in 40 calibres (i.e. 1 turn in ), and proof fired. The proof firing also served to expand the new tube slightly and ensure a tight fit in the old iron tube.

Ammunition

The 64-pounder used three types of ammunition. This ammunition was common to the other natures of 64 pounder gun - the 58 cwt converted gun and the 64 cwt gun. Although issued for sea service and many being sited on coastal artillery positions, their effectiveness against armour of heavily armoured ships was limited. Common shell could be used against buildings or fortifications,

shrapnel shell Shrapnel shells were anti-personnel artillery munitions that carried many individual bullets close to a target area and then ejected them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike targets individually. They relied almost ...

(for use any Infantry or Cavalry) and case shot (for close range use against 'soft' targets. Ignition was through a copper lined vent at the breech end of the gun. A copper friction tube would be inserted and a lanyard attached. When the lanyard was pulled the tube would ignite, firing the gun. A number of different fuzes could be used enabling shells to either burst at a pre-determined time (and range), or on impact. Guns were fired using a silk bag containing a black powder propellant. A typical rate of fire was one round every three minutes.

Deployment

This nature of gun was initially issued for Sea Service (SS), but by 1886 were obsolete in that role and were being returned to store for re-issue for Land Service (LS). In Naval service they were deployed on many smaller British cruising warships around the world. In Land service many were mounted for coast defence in both British and colonial locations. They were mounted on a wide variety of iron and wooden carriages. They became obsolete for coast artillery use in 1902, whereupon most of them were scrapped and disposed of.

Surviving examples

Gun number 142, dated 1869
at

St Helier St Helier (; Jèrriais: ; ) is the Capital city, capital of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. It is the most populous of the twelve parishes of Jersey, with a population of 35,822, over one-third of the island' ...

, Jersey * Gun Numbers 308 and 672 near the Lighthouse,

Fredericton Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy), Saint John River, ...

, New Brunswick, Canada * Gun numbers 398 and 407 at the Royal Australian Artillery Memorial, Mount Pleasant, Canberra, Australia
Gun number 483, dated 1870. One of two at the Old Battery
Dartmouth Castle, Devon, UK * Gun number 574, dated 1871 at the

Royal Armouries The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom's national collection of arms and armour. Once an important part of England's military organization, it became the United Kingdom's oldest museum, and one of the oldest museums in the world. It is als ...

Fort Nelson, Hampshire 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 ...

Blackmore, H L, (1976). The Armouries of the Tower of London: The Ordnance, (HMSO, London), p91 * Gun number 581, dated 1871 at the Royal Armouries, Fort Nelson
Gun number 681, dated 1871, Royal Armouries

Gun number 709, dated 1872
at

Southsea Castle Southsea Castle, historically also known as Chaderton Castle, South Castle and Portsea Castle, is an artillery fort originally constructed by Henry VIII on Portsea Island, Hampshire, in 1544. It formed part of the King's Device programme to pr ...

, UK
Gun number 721, dated 1874 at the old battery
Dartmouth Castle, Devon * A gun at Mays Hill Cemetery,

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

, New South Wales, Australia
A gun outside the wardroom
at HMNZS Philomel, Auckland, New Zealand
A gun on a locally-made carriage
at Army Memorial Museum,

Waiouru Waiouru is a small town in the Ruapehu District, in New Zealand's Manawatū-Whanganui region. It is located on the south-eastern North Island Volcanic Plateau, north of Palmerston North and 25 kilometres south-east of Mount Ruapehu. The tow ...

, New Zealand * Gun at Fort St. Catherine, St George, Bermuda * 2 Guns (1 complete with carriage) at

Collins Barracks, Cork Collins Barracks () is a military barracks on the Old Youghal Road on the north side of Cork in Ireland. Originally serving as a British military barracks from the early 19th century, it was handed-over to the Irish military following the I ...

Ireland

Notes

References

Bibliography

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

External links

Handbook for the 64 – pr. R. M. L. converted guns of 58 and 71 cwt. L. S., 1887, 1892, 1898, 1902
at State Library of Victoria * WL Ruffell

{{VictorianEraBritishNavalWeapons Naval guns of the United Kingdom 160 mm artillery Coastal artillery Victorian-era weapons of the United Kingdom