Firing a 64-pdr RML en barbette, Queensland, Australia

[Cannoneer]

Informative clip showing a gun crew working a British 64-pounder rifled muzzle loader (manufactured 1878) at Fort Lytton in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

1500 x 1047
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garry61/2560815664/sizes/o/in/photostream/

[moose53]

How on earth do they keep their uniforms white shooting black powder , it gets everywhere when I shoot?

[Cannoneer]

I had the same thought, I'd have a hard time keeping the black off me if I was manning that gun. Notice how careful the men swabbing the bore with a flexible sponge were, in an effort to keep their tunics clean. 

[Cannoneer]

Some time ago we had a thread here with photos of another Aussie reenactment crew firing a 64-pdr at Fort Glanville, and they were using a friction primer of their own making, that had a line attached so they could retrieve and reuse the primer.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/64_pounder_gun_firing_-_fort_glanville.jpg/768px-64_pounder_gun_firing_-_fort_glanville.jpg

Good eye BoomJ!!!! 
Here is the response from  Fort  Glanville

Dear Douglas,

                                Congratulations on some great photographs – it’s not that easy to capture the flash, not to mention the lanyards etc.

                                I checked out your web site, and was intrigued by the discussion on the 64 pdr gun- some clever interpretations, some of which were correct! I’ll give you the facts, at the risk of spoiling a good argument!

                                The gun is NOT electrically fired. We use the SPIT system, which is a tongue-in-cheek name for “Sheldrick’s Patent Ignition Tube”, which is a modern adaption of the old friction tubes. It is a powder-filled brass tube, as were the originals. The fuse is fired by pulling a lanyard, as seen in the photo (we’ve never before seen the lanyard at the moment of firing, and can’t account for the “kinks”). The white streak below the skyward-moving ignition tube is a second lanyard we call the “retaining lanyard”, which is in no way connected to the firing lanyard. It is a non-historical method of keeping the ignition tube, so that it can be re-loaded and used again. Without the lanyard it would fly up to 30 yards!

                                In answer to other comments made, the gun is fired by No.5, he with the lanyard; No. 3 is the loader, obscured by the gun; No. 2 is the bloke apparently risking death near the muzzle; he does the ramming and is actually stationed in line with the forward rim of the wheel, not as close to the hot end as he appears; No.4 is behind him and passes the rammer etc, while behind him is the gun commander, No. 1.  The positioning of the men does have a safety aspect, but has nothing to do with the flying fuse and everything to do with the recoil of the gun. When firing a projectile, the gun would recoil  about 6 - 8 feet, and anyone standing behind it would have 7 tons of gun in his lap!

                                In its heyday the gun could fire a 64lb shell to a range of 5000 yards, and do it every 1 ¼ minutes. We don’t fire projectiles any more; apart from anything else, it would upset the local yachtsmen terribly! As far as we know, ours are the only remaining examples of this gun in firing condition; if we’re wrong, we’d like to know about the others!

                                I hope that this information is useful. Sometime you should observe the firing of our 10” gun, which was (and still is!) the biggest gun in Australia. We don’t fire it all that often because it costs about $500 even with a very reduced charge – we usually wait for someone else to pay for it! When it does fire, it is highly impressive.

 

                                                                Yours sincerely,

 

Russ Sheldrick

   (President, Fort Glanville Historical Assoc))

One of the things that sparked my interest in this video, was the firing device. It appears to be a screw apart chamber that fires a blank with a spring loaded firing pin. You can see the gunner place the tube down the vent, and then turn the device; so I’m guessing that it has a flange that locks it under the bar that’s screwed to the top of the barrel. Does anyone know about this device, and/or have any photos of one? Is it historically accurate?

[shooter2]

Fort Lytton is where I first started my ongoing love affair with ordnance of all kinds.  The Fort is at the mouth of the Brisbane river and was constructed at a time in the 1800s when the colonial authorities feared invasion by Imperial Russian Forces (Crimean War etc).  It was neglected for many years and was on property held by a Petrol Refinery and public access was restricted.  Since the Historical Society have gotten hold of the place the facilities have improved immensely.  There is a museum there showing photos from colonial times and include a mostly intact 4 barrel one inch Nordenfeldt Gun, a colonial era 9 pdr field gun on a cast iron carriage and a Carron Foundry 32 pounder Naval Gun (dated 1790) that was actually dug up at the site.  This Gun is much earlier than the establishement of the Fort and was probably sent there as a stop gap until more modern 64 pdrs could be obtained from England.  There are 2 x 64 pdrs on site.  The one in the film is fully restored the other, to the left ( when looking from the rear) is an ongoing project missing some carriage parts. 
The funny part about this fort and I is that when I lived in Brisbane I was only 10 kilometres from the fort and almost never went there.  Now I live over 100 kilometres away to the west I find myself going back more often.  Every Easter is a military history weekend at the Fort and include all types of recreationists from Knights in Armour to American Civil war to World War 2 events. 
 
Regards
Shooter2

[Cannoneer]

Good to hear from you shooter2, have you and Sue completely recovered from the cannon tour yet?

[shooter2]

I can report that the lovely Sue is still having some troubles with her arm.  The fractures at the top of the Humerus Bone have taken a very long time to heal, but every day she gets better.  She has also threatened to do terrible things to me if I ever take her to another fort anywhere ever again.  I believe her.
 
I have spent a lot of time since coming home collating, identifying and otherwise looking at the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of photos of ordnance that I took.  WE are planning another North American foray in 2015 but I shall have to be creative about what we visit and when.  This time we start in Washington DC and intend to drive south to Florida.  I amy accidentally stop at various places where a cannon or two is located.  Reseach has commenced.
 
shooter2

[beazld]

Was anyone else reminded of Monty Python's Flying Circus?

[Double D]

Was anyone else reminded of Monty Python's Flying Circus?

No not really.  They are reenactors of Her Majesty Coastal Artillery, not clowns

[Cannoneer]

Beazld,

Welcome to the forum. I know that it's simply a matter of preference, but I really like watching these historically accurate gun drill reenactments.