The ''obusier de vaisseau'' was a light piece of
naval artillery with a large calibre mounted on French warships of the
Age of Sail
The Age of Sail is a period that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th (or mid- 15th) to the mid- 19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in global trade and warfare culminated, particularly marked by the introduction of naval ...
. Designed to fire
explosive shells at a low velocity, they were an answer to the
carronade
A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main func ...
in the close combat and anti-personnel role. However, their intended ammunition proved too dangerous for the crew, and the French navy phased them out at the beginning of the
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
in favour of the carronade.
Accounts by British warships of the armament of captured French ships tend to describe them as carronades. However, when the description includes the remark that the weapon was brass, this suggests that it was an ''obusier''.
Several of the guns were recovered from the wreck of the
''Golymin'' in the road of Brest, and are now on display at the
Musée national de la Marine in Paris and in Brest.
Obusier de 36, modèle 1787 ; Obusier de vaisseau, Mobilier de fouille du Golymin, 1814
Musée national de la Marine
Citations and references
;Citations
;References
* Jean Boudriot et Hubert Berti, ''L'Artillerie de mer : marine française 1650-1850'', Paris, éditions Ancre, 1992 () (notice BNF no FRBNF355550752).
* Jean Peter, ''L'artillerie et les fonderies de la marine sous Louis XIV'', Paris, Economica, 1995, 213 p. ().
Napoléon et l’évolution de l’artillerie des vaisseaux
Nicolas Mioque
External links
*
{{French naval guns of the Age of Sail
Naval guns of France