a 6 pounder called Susanna.

[Titus]

This is an old Voortrekker 6 pounder gunade. Here I am giving fire to her. This was a 350gram blank shot.

[cannonmn]

I'm interested in gunades and people ask about them frequently, since there is very little information published about them.  Could you tell us a little about gunades and how they were used in your country?

[Titus]

cannonnm, its actually quite interesting. I will explain how they were used here a bit later tonight, gotta pack up and head home now.

[cannonmn]

For anyone who's not familiar with the gunade, it is just like a carronade but instead of using a loop under the barrel for mounting, it has trunnions just like a typical cannon.  Most of them I've seen were made by Bailey and Pegg of London, and were marked with some combination of the two letters "B" and "P."   I've got a theory that this was Bailey and Pegg's "answer" to the carronade, so they could sell short, fat iron cannons without infringing on any patents the Carron foundry might have.

I'm anxious to hear how gunades like Titus has pictured were used on land.

[cannonmn]

And look at the carriage, I assume it is a replica of an original.  If so, I can get myself a log and some 4x4's and build an "authentic" gunade field carriage.

[Titus]

here in South Africa they were mounted on the front wheels of an ox wagon like this particular one. The voortrekkers were masters of improvising, thanks to a serious shortage of supplies in the untamed interior.

They prefered a round called a "beesvelbom" tr: cow hide bomb. This was a cylinder fasioned from leather, roughly sewn. The diameter of this cylinder was roughly the bore diameter of the intended cannon. they would then sew in a panel at the bottom, leaving the top open. The cylinder was then filled with any type of shrapnel they could get their hands on.Typically, pieces of broken iron pots, musket balls, nails, broken porcelain etc. Animal fat was then melted and poured into the container to fill the gaps between the sharpnel pieces. and left to set.

These were then fired at short range directly into the ground in front of the charging natives when in battle. The result was basically a early 19th century claymore.