Author Topic: Big mortar, what is it?  (Read 811 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Double D

  • Trade Count: (3)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12609
  • SAMCC cannon by Brooks-USA
    • South African Miniature Cannon Club
Big mortar, what is it?
« on: April 26, 2009, 06:12:11 AM »
Here is Rod Dickson leaning in a mortar a Gosport Navel Magazine in UK



Anybody know anything about this mortar?  What  is it?

Offline Max Caliber

  • GBO Supporter
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • A Real Regular
  • *****
  • Posts: 524
  • Gender: Male
Re: Big mortar, what is it?
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2009, 06:41:31 AM »
Looks like a 13 inch British Sea Service Mortar.
Max

Offline seacoastartillery

  • GBO Sponsor
  • Trade Count: (1)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2853
  • Gender: Male
    • seacoastartillery.com
Re: Big mortar, what is it?
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2009, 07:16:08 AM »
     Max, of course is correct, he answered a question correctly on our latest Historical Photo Contest directly related as to what they were.  Below is a photo of two of these guns being used at the siege of Sebastapol during the Crimean War in 1854.  This was one of eight contest photos.  The distance and the huge wooden mortar beds make the tubes look slightly smaller, but Double D's photo reveals exactly how huge they really were!

Regards,

Mike and Tracy

Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin'-cool,
I walks in my old brown gaiters along o' my old brown mule,
With seventy gunners be'ind me, an' never a beggar forgets
It's only the pick of the Army that handles the dear little pets - 'Tss! 'Tss!

From the poem  Screw-Guns  by Rudyard Kipling