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Sunchado Cannons
Sunchado cannons (or ''zunchado''), meaning wrapped, belted, banded, or Built-up gun, built-up, described Spanish coastal artillery weapons constructed in the third quarter of the 19th century. Some, such as the 150mm (5.9") caliber rifled guns, were breech-loading. However others, such as the Model 1872 210mm (8.3") rifled howitzers, were muzzle-loading. The Spanish installed these guns in their North African enclaves such as Melilla, and their New World colonies of Puerto Rico and Cuba. Some of the ''sunchado'' cannons finally saw action during the Spanish–American War, when they were at best obsolescent, and in the case of the M1872, totally obsolete. During the American bombardment of San Juan, the San Fernando Battery, with its four M1872 210mm (8.3") ''sunchado'' howitzers, the Santa Elena battery with three more, and the San Agustin battery with three almost as obsolete 150mm ''sunchado'' guns, returned fire. Neither American nor Spanish gunnery was particularly effective, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Built-up Gun
A built-up gun is artillery with a specially reinforced barrel. An inner tube of metal stretches within its elastic limit under the pressure of confined powder gases to transmit stress to outer cylinders that are under tension.Fairfield (1921) p.161 Concentric metal cylinders or wire windings are assembled to minimize the weight required to resist the pressure of powder gases pushing a projectile out of the barrel. Built-up construction was the norm for guns mounted aboard 20th century dreadnoughts and contemporary railway guns, coastal artillery, and siege guns through World War II. Background The first built-up gun was designed by French artillery officer Alfred Thiéry in 1834 and tested not later than 1840. Also about 1840 another one was made by Daniel Treadwell, and yet another one was produced by Mersey Iron Works in Liverpool according to the John Ericsson's design. Sheffield architector John Frith received a patent on their manufacture in 1843. However, all these guns (w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coastal Artillery
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of cannons were highly important to military affairs and generally represented the areas of highest technology and capital cost among materiel. The advent of 20th-century technologies, especially military aviation, naval aviation, jet aircraft, and guided missiles, reduced the primacy of cannons, battleships, and coastal artillery. In countries where coastal artillery has not been disbanded, these forces have acquired amphibious capabilities. In littoral warfare, mobile coastal artillery armed with surface-to-surface missiles can still be used to deny the use of sea lanes. It was long held as a rule of thumb that one shore-based gun equaled three naval guns of the same caliber, due to the steadiness of the coastal gun which allowed for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muzzle-loading Sunchado Howitzer, Melilla (Oct 2010)
A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the projectile and the propellant charge is loaded from the muzzle of the gun (i.e., from the forward, open end of the gun's barrel). This is distinct from the modern (higher tech and harder to make) designs of breech-loading firearms. The term "muzzleloader" applies to both rifled and smoothbore type muzzleloaders, and may also refer to the marksman who specializes in the shooting of such firearms. The firing methods, paraphernalia and mechanism further divide both categories as do caliber (from cannons to small-caliber palm guns). Modern muzzleloading firearms range from reproductions of sidelock, flintlock and percussion long guns, to in-line rifles that use modern inventions such as a closed breech, sealed primer and fast rifling to allow for considerable accuracy at long ranges. Modern mortars use a shell with the propelling charge and primer attached at the base. Unlike older muzzleloading mortars, which were loaded the same way ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melilla
Melilla ( , ; ; rif, Mřič ; ar, مليلية ) is an autonomous city of Spain located in north Africa. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was part of the Province of Málaga until 14 March 1995, when the Statute of Autonomy of Melilla was passed. Melilla is one of the special member state territories of the European Union. Movements to and from the rest of the EU and Melilla are subject to specific rules, provided for ''inter alia'' in the Accession Agreement of Spain to the Schengen Convention. As of 2019, Melilla had a population of 86,487. The population is chiefly divided between people of Iberian and Riffian extraction. There is also a small number of Sephardic Jews and Sindhi Hindus. Regarding sociolinguistics, Melilla features a diglossia between the official Spanish (strong language) and Tarifit (weak language). Melilla, like the autonomous city of Ceuta and Spain's ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated territories of the United States, unincorporated territory of the United States. It is located in the northeast Caribbean Sea, approximately southeast of Miami, Florida, between the Dominican Republic and the United States Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, and includes the eponymous main island and several smaller islands, such as Isla de Mona, Mona, Culebra, Puerto Rico, Culebra, and Vieques, Puerto Rico, Vieques. It has roughly 3.2 million residents, and its Capital city, capital and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, most populous city is San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan. Spanish language, Spanish and English language, English are the official languages of the executive branch of government, though Spanish predominates. Puerto Rico ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet. Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the American state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola ( Haiti/Dominican Republic), and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. The official area of the Republic of Cuba is (without the territorial waters) but a total of 350,730 km² (135,418 sq mi) including the exclusive economic zone. Cuba is the second-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti, with over 11 million inhabitants. The territory that is now Cuba was inhabited by the Ciboney people from the 4th millennium BC with the Gua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clockwise from top left) , date = April 21 – August 13, 1898() , place = , casus = , result = American victory *Treaty of Paris (1898), Treaty of Paris of 1898 *Founding of the First Philippine Republic and beginning of the Philippine–American War * German–Spanish Treaty (1899), Spain sells to Germany the last colonies in the Pacific in 1899 and end of the Spanish Empire in Spanish colonization of the Americas, America and Asia. , territory = Spain relinquishes sovereignty over Cuba; cedes Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands to the United States. $20 million paid to Spain by the United States for infrastructure owned by Spain. , combatant1 = United State ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bombardment Of San Juan
The Bombardment of San Juan, or the First Battle of San Juan, on 12 May 1898 was an engagement between United States Navy warships and the Spanish fortifications of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was the first major action of the Puerto Rican Campaign during the Spanish–American War. Background Under the command of Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, a U.S. fleet—consisting of the flagship armored cruiser , battleships and , the unprotected cruisers and , the monitors and , the torpedo boat , the auxiliary cruiser , the collier , and two unarmed yachts transporting officials and the press,—prepared to attack Puerto Rico. Their mission was to intercept the Spanish Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete and his fleet steaming from the Cape Verde Islands to the Antilles. American commanders believed the Spanish fleet was steaming for Puerto Rico. With this understanding, Sampson set steam from Key West and lifted anchor at about noon on 2 May, for the Spanish province. The Flee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Clara Battery
The Santa Clara Battery, with its two remaining coastal guns, one a caliber 305mm (12") Ordóñez HSE Modelo 1892 rifle and the other a 280mm (11") Krupp, stands on the grounds of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, in Vedado, Havana. UNESCO in 1982 included the battery, together with Old Havana, in its list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. There is a small museum featuring the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis in the battery. During the crisis, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara set up their headquarters there to prepare the defense of Havana from aerial attack. The museum is in tunnels there known as the ''Cueva Taganana'' (Taganana Cave), for the hill on which the battery stands. Overview The first battery on this site was built between 1797 and 1799, and was named for Juan Procopio Bassecourt y Bryas, Count of Santa Clara, the Spanish governor of Cuba from 1796 to 1799. The battery was modernized in 1895, when it received new guns. It was armed with three 11" Krupp and two 12" Ordóñez guns, as wel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba ''''. . The city has a population of 2.3million inhabitants, and it spans a total of – making it the largest city by area, the most populous city, and the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coastal Fortifications
The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in natural ecosystems, often home to a wide range of biodiversity. On land, they harbor important ecosystems such as freshwater or estuarine wetlands, which are important for bird populations and other terrestrial animals. In wave-protected areas they harbor saltmarshes, mangroves or seagrasses, all of which can provide nursery habitat for finfish, shellfish, and other aquatic species. Rocky shores are usually found along exposed coasts and provide habitat for a wide range of sessile animals (e.g. mussels, starfish, barnacles) and various kinds of seaweeds. Along tropical coasts with clear, nutrient-poor water, coral reefs can often be found between depths of . According to a United Nations atlas, 44% of all people live within 5 km (3.3mi) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
