THE ART OF SHOOTING GREAT ORDINANCE

The term “great ordinance” was used throughout the seventeenth (and the late sixteenth and early eighteenth) centuries to mean “cannon” — as opposed to smaller guns such as harquebuses and, later, flintlock rifles and pistols. Maintaining and firing these large cannons was a complicated, demanding process (see the three-part Cannons posts here in this blog, in the Background section, posted in February 2018,  for details about operating cannons), and quite a few books were published on the subject. One of the more interesting is A Light to The Art of Gunnery, wherein is laid down the True Weight of Powder for Proof and Action, of all sorts of Great Ordnance, by Thomas Binning, first published in 1676.

Today, we tend to think of firing these old cannons as a sort of simple ‘point and shoot’ operation. It was sometimes that, but there was also a serious technical side to the process. Binning’s book focuses to a large extent on that technical side. There was a science to firing great ordinance.

Look at the following, for example:

“For the gunner’s further knowledge, that is yet in his minority, this work is begun with decimal arithmetic, which is very useful in the art of gunnery, the working and extracting of the square and cube roots; as also some definitions and problems of geometry, by which the gunner may the better make use of his compasses, for which he will have several needful uses.”

He goes on to provide a practical example of how to use math to determine the range of a cannon in terms of the elevation of the barrel:

“There is a demi-cannon shoots point-blank 200 geometrical paces, and horizontal with the metal 400 paces, this holds proportion as 2 to 1, the one half less: therefore, say by the rule of three, as 2 is to 1, so is 200 to 100 paces, that this piece shoots farther at every degree’s elevation. Yet not wholly through the table, for there is a rebating in every degree’s elevation. To find this, you shall yet divide 100 by 44, and you have 2 3/11: so as 3 times 11 is 33, and 11 is 44…”

It all rather sounds like gobbledygook to modern readers, but it was very serious business at the time. This was the period when the details of the science of ballistics were being worked out. Having the ability to calculate how high to elevate the barrel of your cannon in order to accurately lob a shot at a certain distance was—quite literally—a matter of life and death.

Accordingly, Binning devotes three quarters of his book to arithmetic and geometry—loading the text with detailed charts and tables—all aimed at teaching novice gunners the technical intricacies of their craft.

He also offers more straightforward practical advice, though, like the following on gunpowder:

“The quality of gunpowder may be judged in three ways. First, put your hand in a quantity of powder, and grip it hard; if it crack and make a noise in your hand, you may judge it is good; but if it cracks not in your hand, it is either not well wrought, or it is spoiled. The second way is by taking a little powder and putting it on a smooth plain board, or a piece of flat stone. Put fire to it; if it goes up quickly to smoke and leaves no marks behind it, you may judge it good; but if it burns slowly, and leaves white corns behind it, then you may suppose it is not well incorporated, and has too much salt-peter in it, or that there is too much dust and charcoal therein. The third method of judgement is by the taste. If the powder be too sharp in the taste, it is like to come moist; but if it taste a little niterish and sweet, and hard-corned, it is good.”

Binning offers practical advice for all sorts of situations, including the steps that ship’s gunners should take upon arriving for the first time aboard a ship that is new to them:

“The careful gunner coming into a new ship, should diligently and carefully measure his guns… and, with a ladle and sponge, draw and make clean all his guns within, that there remain not any old powder, stones, iron, or any other thing that may do harm… Then the gunner shall take half a ladle of powder for every gun, and blow them off, sponge them well; and finding them clean, load them then with their respective cartridges and powder; which being rammed home, with a strait wad after, then let the ball roll home to the wad, and set a wad close home to the ball, that the ball roll not out with the tumbling of the ship. Then the gunner must close off the piece at the muzzle with a wooden tampken, which he must tallow with hard tallow round about for preserving the powder from water. Likewise he must make a little tampon of oakum for the touch hole, which must be tallowed also against water.”

As you can see from the extracts above, Binning’s book provides a wealth of both technical detail and practical advice. All this procedural material is leavened with a touch of the spiritual, though:

“Many times it happens that men employed for gunners are very negligent of the fear of God. Many examples of this nature might be alleged and produced from the sad experience of preceding times. But I thought good to intimate only this one, for the terrifying of all godless, and the confirming of all godly gunners: which example I had from Seyger van Reghterne, General of the land of Overyssel, in his diurnal from Amsterdam to East-India, the which diurnal begun on the 8th day of December, in the year 1628, from Texel, and ended there at his return the 12th of July, 1633.

In the 38th folio of that book, he writes that in the year of our lord 1631, in the month of April, there was on the island of Nero a gunner, whose name was Cornelius Slime, a very godless and profane man, who at no time could speak but he would be cursing or swearing. When any would ask him what were his hopes for after this life were ended, his answer was: “It may be to Heaven, or it may be to Hell,” but, said he, “If I do go to Hell, there I will sell tobacco and brandy, and that would be good medicine for the devils.”

But one day this Cornelius Slime, in the presence of my author and many more, was cursing and swearing, and many times giving himself to the devil. In the meantime, in the presence of all those people, the devil lifted him up in the air, and let him fall to the ground with a great noise. But the second time being taken up by the devil, he was carried where never man living could find him.

From the like may the Lord deliver us all.”

And so Binning covered the three aspects of the art of great ordinance that every novice gunner needed to know by providing not only technical details and practical advice but also spiritual admonition.

For the edification of all novice gunners and the terrifying of the godless and the confirming of the godly.

Classic seventeenth century stuff.