Naval Guns
Naval Guns.Large‐caliber tube weapons firing projectiles propelled by chemical explosives, naval guns dominated the conduct of war at sea from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century.
Even in their earliest applications, naval guns were part of what would today be termed a weapons system, and their use was closely connected with other elements of ship design. The first guns were smoothbore cannon mounted in a ship's “castles,” where they could be fired down at the enemy deck. As improved metallurgy made heavier guns possible, however, it became necessary for balance to carry them closer to the waterline, a development that led to the cutting of gun ports into the sides of ships. Wheeled gun carriages followed, allowing the muzzle to be drawn back for reloading. Lowering the gun mountings to, and then below, the weather deck in turn made the ships themselves, rather than their crews, the immediate targets of gunfire—though...
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