Thirty Cannons

by John

HMS Bellerophon, the 1786 version, had 74 cannons (guns). It was a “ship of the line”. In other words it was big enough, adequately strongly constructed, and powerfully armed, to be part of a fleet which faced an opposition fleet, in a line, often at distances as little as 50 meters, blasting away until one side was victorious.

In the Napoleonic wars the British had several major advantages over the French navy, and consequently was usually the winner. First the Brits had fom India a plentiful source of saltpetre, the main limiting constituent of gunpowder. The French had to source their saltpetre from unhappy French farmers, who watched helplessly while their barns were largely destroyed and the accumulated manure was removed to access the saltpetre. More gunpowder meant that British gunners had more ability to practice their gunnery. Their reloads were faster and the resulting gun powerwas more accurate and devastating. Second, the French had removed (guillotined?) many experienced naval officers during the “Terror” of the French revolution.

The French ships were generally acknowledged to be better designed and constructed than the British, and the Brits would closely examine any captured ships closely to copy many aspects. As well of course incorporating the captured ships into the British navy, even continuing to use the French ships names.

Bellerophon was involved in many battles. Particularly “The Glorious First of June” 1794, the Battle of the Nile 1798, and Trafalgar 1805. After each of those three battles Bellerophon was so badly damaged that it was expected that she would be not repairable. But each time she was repaired and returned to service. Most famously, Bellerophon was used to transport Napoleon Bonaparte after his surrender in 1815, to England, leading eventually to his exile on the remote island of St Helena in the South Atlantic.

But again I digress.

I really wanted to talk about my 1:72 model of Bellerophon.

I am at the stage of making and inserting the fittings of the upper gundeck. Particularly the guns. I have previously detailed the capstans, hatch gratings, stair/ladders etc. Now I am facing the challenge of making the 28 18 pounder guns. The round cast iron shot balls each weighed 18 pounds and were about 5.3 inches diameter. The guns were 9.5 feet long, and each weighed about 2.5 tons.

18 pounders were sizeable guns. They were the main big guns on British frigates, until the advent of US “super frigates” which used 24 pr’s. On the 74’s like Bellerophon, the lower gundeck had 32 pounders, but we will come to them in a later post.

Hang on…. why “30 guns”. I will make 30, and discard the worst 2. Plus one or will inevitably be dropped or lost.

At my 1:72 scale, each gun is 35.4mm long and weighs a few grams.

I considered several methods of constructing the model 18pr’s. Barrels and carriages… 2 major components. Plus ropes, blocks, and maybe rammers, sponges etc.

Options:

Barrels: CNC turning the barrels in brass, then blackening them. 3D printing them in black PLA. Turning them in wood and painting them (like the current guns mounted on HMS Victory). Buying them premade.

Carriages: Cutting the parts from wood with my laser and assembling them. 3D printing them. Buying them premade.

Premade!!! Go and wash my mouth out with soap, like my dear mother did when I was a foul mouthed youngster (it didn’t work).

    So I am exploring all of these methods. (I did even check the cost of premade ones, but don’t tell anyone.)

    If I am to make these guns I need some decent plans. I have some books about artillery, and some specialist modelling books specifically about 74 gun ships, and some of these had diagrams of 18 pounders. But these were of the 18prs as initially installed in Bellerophon. I want plans of 18prs as were probably installed at the battle of Trafalgar, although no-one seems to really know just exactly what pattern was installed. But being just a little bit anal, I wanted 18pr plans of the Blomfield version of 18 prs. In the end, after spending a day searching all of my books and the Internet I gave up. Plus, at the 1.72 scale the entire gun will only be 35mm long, so minute details will not be discernable.

    From the best plans I laser cut the cheeks and wheels of a carriage, and 3D printed a barrel.

    The toothpick is 2mm diameter, for comparison. If I am to fabricate and assemble the carriages I would also need to make the axles, transom, bed, quoin, etc.

    Then I came across some stl’s (3D printing files) of 18prs by “Uhlan” on Thingiverse. I downloaded the files (free) and test printed one.

    Hmm. Not a perfect print, but I can improve it. Took about 30″ to print the 2 components, then abut the same again to roughly clean them. Would need to paint the carriage, and add ropes, blocks etc. Filament printer, PLA, 0.12mm layers.

    I reckon that will do.