Turkish Bombard

[HuecoDoc]

My search didn't turn up any old Turkish Bombard posts, so I thought I'd share this from wikipedia.  There were 42 of these, and they were not only functional but were used:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Turkish_Bombard

[KABAR2]

I memory serves me one of these was used against the British Navy in either in the 19th C. or as late as WWI.

[seacoastartillery]

     Thanks, HuecoDoc for posting this great photo of this huge Turkish Bombard.  Mike and I have always been impressed by this one.  But what we have wondered about the most is this:
How did the artillerymen screw the two halves together when preparing the gun for battle?  We think three or four men on four sets of handspikes might possibly turn the right hand section into the left hand one, but even with well greased v-blocks and tube section, it would really be a struggle.  How about two teams of oxen pulling thick leather straps anchored into one of those recesses on each of the mating collars nearest the giant screw threads.  They would pull in opposite directions of course, turning and drawing up the large bronze sections until the flange faces met.  Maybe??  Mike says, "If we ever attempt a full scale gun, then this has to be the one."  I said, "There isn't enough bronze in the whole country to cast one of these!"

Regards,

Tracy and Mike

[HuecoDoc]

It apparently took dozens of oxen and hundereds of men to move one, and a week to prepare it for firing.  I guess they would fire it on it's side on an incline?

From the wikipedia article:
"These superguns played a crucial role in the Fall of Constantinople. Each gun was moved into position by 60 oxen and 400 men: half the force of men prepared a roadway for the guns while the others pulled on ropes to keep the huge weapons from falling over as they were moved along the road. Mehmed's men took seven days to prepare the guns before they opened fire.[2]

Seven times a day, the guns fired a granite stone that crashed into the walls of Constantinople. After about 90 days, on May 29, 1453, the guns breached the walls and the infantry attacked through the breach, storming the city and capturing it."

and further down:

"In 1464, Mehmed II commissioned 42 of the monster cannons to guard the Dardanelles. Each weighed 18.29 tonnes with a 762 mm (30 in) bore.

These huge cannons were still present for duty more than 300 years later in 1807, when a Royal Navy force appeared and commenced the Dardanelles Operation. The ancient relics were filled with propellant and projectiles, then fired. Instead of exploding, they worked just as well as when they were new. One shot alone killed and wounded more than 60 sailors on one of the British ships.[3]"

[seacoastartillery]

     We downloaded these pics from one of Don Krag's threads a long time ago, last spring maybe, but they are really appropriate for this thread too.  Wow, look at those FLAMES!!

M&T

[cannonmn]

I wonder how he made the black mortar tube in the last picture.  Either the bore is way offcenter or my eyes are miscalibrated.  Maybe they cast it on a core and the core floated offcenter?

[jeeper1]

The muzzle on that mortar looks to be cone shaped not flat so it would look off center when viewed from an angle.

[Frank46]

Many years ago there used to be a huge cannon on one of the docks in istanbul turkey. Don't have any pictures, but memory seems to remember it being on huge wheels and an extremely large bore. Maybe this will serve to jog someone's memory. We were in the dardenelles strait if I remember correctly and had to answer an emergency backdown (emergency full astern) later we found out that there was a huge rock that was not on the charts. Guess a 55,000 ton carrier would have made the news had it hit it. Frank

[dan610324]

thats not an cannon , its an monster   

but this one aint sh ! t   either   

nooo Jeeper

if you think an line from where the photo is taken to the mortar and all the way to the other side , then you start from the center and think two lines from center in an 90 degree angle to the other sides of the muzzle . if you look at the length of the lines where they cross the muzzle wall you clearly see that the upper ( right ) line is longer then the lower ( left ) line where they cross the wall . it must mean that the bore is of center , cant be an conical muzzle shape .

[cannonmn]

Dan's posted a picture taken at one of my favorite places, the Tower of London.  To see many photos taken there, including many of cannon, go here:

http://www.milesfaster.co.uk/gallery/tower-of-london/tower-of-london-pictures.htm

If you can ever get hold of a copy of THE ARMOURIES OF THE TOWER OF LONDON vol. I, The Ordnance, by Blackmore, ... hundreds of good photos and outline drawings of all kinds of cannon tubes...probably one of the top few cannon books ever published IMHO.  It is one of the only cannon books in which I can't recall ever finding an error, typographical or otherwise.

[dan610324]

now when I got this photo as an jpg I couldnt resist to show it for all of you ,
its from outside the swedish army museum in stockholm , they claim to have the worlds largest trophy collection of cannons .
its both iron and bronze guns , from 3 to 32 pounds . heres an small part of them , I borrowed that photo from their website .

[Don Krag]

I wonder how he made the black mortar tube in the last picture.  Either the bore is way offcenter or my eyes are miscalibrated.  Maybe they cast it on a core and the core floated offcenter?

I've talked to him a couple times via myspace and asked the same question. It's 18" cal, if I remember right, but he didn't comment on the apparent offset of the bore.

[Victor3]

 And all along I thought that Canadian guy pioneered this stuff...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Babylon

 Ecclesiastes 1:9

 "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

[shooter2]

cannonmn, you are going to cost me a fortune.     Every time I think I have a good collection of books, you mention another one that I just have to have.   

I have now found The Armouries of the Tower of London on Abebooks and ordered it from a UK bookseller. 

Heres one for you - The Fragile Forts - The Fixed Defences of Sydney Harbour 1788 to 1963 by Oppenheim.  This has to be one of the most complete books on colonial British fortress artillery with scaled line drawings of each gun and period photos.  It is in print and published by the Australian Army History Unit in Sydney.

Keep up the good work and how about a list of the best cannon and artillery books from you.  I have most of the ones in the list at the start of the forum but I never tire of reading more.

regards
Shooter2

[cannonmn]

The Fragile Forts

Thanks, I will look for that one.

Off the top of my head, my favorites include, in no particular order,

Peterson, ROUND SHOT AND RAMMERS

Manucy, ARTILLERY THOUGH THE AGES (avl on web)

Tucker, ARMING THE FLEET

Ripley, ARTILLERY AND AMMUNITION OF THE CIVIL WAR

Miller, volume ??, one of famous 10 vol series FORTS AND ARTILLERY

Blackmore, THE ARMOURIES OF THE TOWER OF LONDON

who? GUNS, AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ARTILLERY (see recent post for details)

Muller, A TREATISE OF ARTILLERY (avl in reprint and paperback)

Toussard, AMERICAN ARTILLERISTS COMPANION  (classic 3-vol set, reprint by Greenwood press, one large one of plates, vol 3, just the plates volume is well worth getting if that's all you can find)

Kiley, Kevin NAPOLEONIC ARTILLERY

Abels, Robert CATALOG OF THE BROWN COLLECTION of cannons (thin paperback on slick paper has a few large and hundreds of small cannons from wealthy Mr. Brown's collection that Abels was selling off in 1970's as I recall, long out of print but many copies floating around, it is well worth $20-$40 in my opinion)

South Bend Replicas CATALOG of replica ordnance (any edition, catalog has enough small pictures of cannons around the world for me to consider it a valuable reference book in itself, it even has pictures of stuff in my collection)

there are more but that's all I have time to put here now, that'll give you a start anyway.

[shooter2]

cannonmn, thanks for taking the time to list the books.  I have most but not all, the search continues.  Obviously as an Aussie I have an affinity for British colonial ordnance, but I love the US Civil War stuff no end and I am in the process of tooling up to make some smaller desktop models for my own amusement.
A few more books that I have and I have not seen listed:

British Artillery on Land and Sea by Robert Wilkinson-Latham.
British Smoothbore Artillery: A Technological Study by David McConnell. (published by Canadian Parks)
British Smoothbore Artillery by Maj General Hughes (Arms and Armour Press)
All worthwhile publications particularly the second one which is huge in scope and details.

As always cannonmn you have demonstrated yourself to be an officer and a gentleman, but be assured your secret is safe with me

Shooter2