Breaching walls and sinking ships: the performance of 17th-century artillery
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-01-26

In 2014, the Vasa Museum carried out an extensive field trial of a replica 24-pounder bronze demi-cannon, based on those found on the warship Vasa. The gun was developed in 1620 as a mobile heavy field piece, adapted to naval use in 1626 for Vasa and her sister ships. This gun later equipped both the largest warships and field artillery units during the Thirty Years War, ending it service career as a fortress gun in Sweden’s Baltic outposts. A two-week program of fire revealed not only the ballistic characteristics of this type of artillery, but trials against a replica section of ship structure demonstrated that conventional interpretations of the effect of cannon fire on warships is oversimplified. This paper presents the results of the tests in the context of how such guns might have been used against both ships and shore installations.

Author – PhD Hocker, Fred, Vasa Museum, Stockholm, Sweden (Presenting author)