Cannonball types
round shot:
Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, referred to as gunstone but by the 17th century, from iron. In land battles, round shot would often plough through many ranks of troops, causing multiple casualties. Unlike the fake gunpowder explosions representing roundshot in movies, real roundshot was more like a bouncing bowling ball, which would not stop after the initial impact, but continue and tear through anything in its path. It could bounce when it hit the ground, striking men at each bounce. The casualties from round shot were extremely gory; when fired directly into an advancing column, a cannon was capable of passing straight through up to forty men. Even when most of its kinetic energy is expended, a round shot still has enough momentum to knock men over and cause gruesome injury. This round shot smashed into the victory at the battle of Trafalgar and is still mounted on a piece of the timber in which it lodged. Even when warships were locked together, their gun crews continued to fire at point- black range.
chain shot:
chain shot:
In artillery, chain-shot is an obsolete type of naval ammunition formed of two sub-calibre balls, or half-balls, chained together. Bar shot is similar, but joined by a solid bar. They were used in naval warfare in the age of sailing ships and black powder cannons to shoot masts, or to cut the shrouds and any other rigging of a target ship. When fired, after leaving the muzzle, the shot's components tumble in the air, and the connecting chain fully extends. In past use, as much as six feet of chain would sweep through the target. However, the tumbling made both bar and chain shot less accurate, so they were used at shorter ranges.
chain shot was normally not used as an anti-personnel load; this role was fulfilled more effectively and at lower cost by canister shot or grapeshot. The military usefulness of chain shot died out as wooden sail-powered ships were replaced with armored steam ships—first among navies, and then among commercial fleets—which do not have rigging to serve as proper targets for chain-shot. Additionally, the conversion of naval armament from smoothbore, muzzle loaded, black powdercannons to rifled, breech loaded guns further slowed the production of new chain shot ammunition; the chain would damage barrels (degrading maximum range, and further degrading effective range by degrading accuracy), and the new breech loading guns and their ammunition were meant to be effective against armored vessels as well as wooden sailing vessels.
canister shot:
Canister shot (or case-shot) is a kind of anti-personnel ammunition used in cannons. It was similar to the naval grapeshot, but fired smaller and more numerous balls, which did not have to punch through the wooden hull of a ship. Canister shot has been used since the advent of gunpowder-firing artillery in Western armies; however, canister (or case) shot saw particularly frequent use on land and at sea in the various wars of the 18th and 19th century. Canister shot consists of a closed metal cylinder typically filled with round lead or iron balls, normally packed with sawdust to add more solidity and cohesion to the mass and to prevent the balls from crowding each other when the round was fired. At times when the supply of balls was limited, nails, scrap iron or lead, wire, and other similar metal objects were included. The canister itself was usually made of tin, often dipped in a lacquer of beeswax diluted with turpentine to prevent corrosion of the metal. Iron was substituted for tin for larger-calibre guns. The ends of the canister were closed with wooden or metal disks. Attached to the back of the metal canister was a cloth cartridge bag, which contained the round's gunpowder charge which was used to fire the canister from the gun barrel. A sabot of wood, metal, or similar material was used to help guide the round during firing from the cannon. The canister round is also known as a case (hence the alternative name of case shot sometimes used for canister shot) and is still used today in modern artillery, particularly in the main armament of tanks with smoothbore cannons.
- Shrapnel or spherical case shot:
Shrapnel shells were anti-personnel artillery munitions which carried a large number of individual bullets close to the target and then ejected them to allow them to continue along the shell's trajectory and strike the target individually. They relied almost entirely on the shell's velocity for their lethality. The functioning and principles behind Shrapnel shells are fundamentally different from high-explosive shell fragmentation. Shrapnel is named after Major-General Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), a British artillery officer, whose experiments, initially conducted in his own time and at his own expense, culminated in the design and development of a new type of artillery shell.
Shell:
A shell is a payload-carrying projectile which, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot (AP, APCR, APCNR, APDS, APFSDS and proof shot). Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used. Originally it was called a "bombshell", but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. "Bombshell" is still used figuratively to refer to an extremely sexually attractive woman and a shockingly unexpected happening or revelation.
All explosive- and incendiary-filled projectiles, particularly for mortars, were originally called grenades, derived from the pomegranate, whose seeds are similar to grains of powder. Words cognate with grenade are still used for an artillery or mortar projectile in some European languages. Shells are usually large-calibre projectiles fired by artillery and combat vehicles (including tanks), and warships.Shells usually have the shape of a cylinder topped by an ogive-shaped nose for good aerodynamic performance, possibly with a tapering base; but some specialized types are quite different.
Grapeshot:
In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of shot that is not one solid element, but a mass of small metal balls or slugs packed tightly into a canvas bag.
It was used both in land and naval warfare. When assembled, the balls resembled a cluster of grapes, hence the name. On firing, the balls spread out from the muzzle, giving an effect similar to a giant shotgun.
Grapeshot was devastatingly effective against massed infantry at short range. It was used to savage massed infantry chargesquickly. Cannons would fire solid shot to attack enemy artillery and troops at longer range and switch to grape when they or nearby troops were charged. When used in naval warfare grapeshot served a dual purpose. First it continued its role as an anti-personnel projectile. However, the effect was diminished due to a large portion of the crew being below decks and the addition of hammock netting in iron brackets intended to slow or stop smaller shot. Second, the balls were cast large enough to cut rigging, destroy spars, blocks, and puncture multiple sails.
Carcass:
A carcass was an early form of incendiary bomb or shell, intended to set targets on fire. It comprised an external casing, usually of cast iron, filled with a highly flammable mixture, and having three to five holes through which the burning filling could blaze outward.
Carcasses were shot from howitzers, mortars, and other cannons to set fire to buildings and defenses; on impact, the shell shattered, spreading its incendiary filling around the target. Congreve rockets were also sometimes fitted with carcass heads.
They were named carcass because the circles which pass from one ring, or plate, to the other, were thought to resemble the ribs of a human carcass.
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