A cannon chainshot

[fernando]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

When coastal forts fired up a cannonball to furnace-red hot (a hotshot), they used small powder and a higher tragectory to essentially 'lob' the shot up and onto the deck of the enemy ship! This deadly shot could not be extinguished with simple buckets of sea water and its fearsome heat would smoulder and char the deck, threatening to set the whole vessel ablaze!...!

Mark, you would have certainly seen this contemporary aquatint of the 1782 Franco-Spanish attack on Gibraltar. A Spanish Floating battery is shown exploding after the British defenders set it on fire with heated shot.


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