The ''obusier de vaisseau'' was a light piece of

naval artillery Naval artillery is artillery mounted on a warship, originally used only for naval warfare and then subsequently used for more specialized roles in surface warfare such as naval gunfire support (NGFS) and anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) engagements. ...

with a large calibre mounted on French warships of the

Age of Sail The Age of Sail is a period in European history 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 int ...

. 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 last quarter of the 18th century to the mid-19th cen ...

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, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

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 The Musée national de la Marine (; "National Navy Museum") is a maritime museum located in the Palais de Chaillot, Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It has annexes at Brest, Port-Louis, Rochefort ( Musée National de la Ma ...

in Paris and in Brest.Obusier de 36, modèle 1787 ; Obusier de vaisseau, Mobilier de fouille du Golymin, 1814

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