Pellew sights/Age of sail cannon sights

[admin]

Question of the day

How did pellew sights or any other cannon sights looked like?

please post pictures in this topic.

[Ned Loe]

http://www.cerberus.com.au/armament5.html

 

 

 

 

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http://www.civilwarartillery.com/equipment/cannonsights.htm

 

http://www.icollector.com/COLLECTION-OF-SEVEN-CANNON-SIGHTS_i5323204

[BramtheDutch]

Most of the cannons of that time didn't have aiming tools except from the knowledge of the senior gunner operating his cannon squad.

With the coordenation of the captain and the gunnery officer they adjust there aim, By firing a ranging shot they see what they are aiming at and adjust the firing ark, and most of the senior gunners knew there cannons because they have had lots of exercising with it, so sorry but the most cannons looked like this, without any aiming mechanism:

(Talking about 1750-60 Era.)

Edited February 16, 2016 by bramluijken

[maturin]

http://www.cerberus.com.au/armament5.html

 

Pretty sure this stuff is way too modern.

 

And it's a Civil War site.

[BramtheDutch]

http://www.cerberus.com.au/armament5.html

 

 

 

 

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http://www.civilwarartillery.com/equipment/cannonsights.htm

 

http://www.icollector.com/COLLECTION-OF-SEVEN-CANNON-SIGHTS_i5323204

This looks more like something from the civil war then from the age of sail.

[Ned Loe]

Pretty sure this stuff is way too modern.

 

And it's a Civil War site.

Dumped all I got, so devs can pick what they need. You need to go into deep research to find sights for specific guns and that can take long time. 

 

This would be the closest to that age, 

 

 

Unfortunately, early guns had only adjustment on the back. You can also see carriages were built with the same design in mind as sights above.   

 

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

At the age represented by NA, roughly 1670 to 1820/30 ( Am I correct ? ) it was simple.
 
Wood wedges for elevation and a simple gunner quadrant ( not different from those used in construction but simply with markings regarding the gun and ship roll angles )  on the barrel for fine tuning but other than the wedges nothing else was that much used in full combat.
 
During engagements the "fire as she uprolls" and other similar commands left aiming to individual guns masters.
As such the RN gunner crews main aiming point was the entire area between the waterline and the railings.
 
Some rather inventive individuals did manage to get their own devices but always based on the casting rivets 3 points of convergence ( which manufacturers actually standardized ).
 
Gunner glasses were pretty much used since the 16th century and got perfected but was for distance finding. ​Tangent Scales were used after 1760 or so but could not be used on its own without a dispart sight for convergence. The tangent composed "iron sights" presented up are post 1839.

 

 

 

Several versions can be found here, page 375 onwards along with explanatory text.

[Ned Loe]

Found interesting info here:

 

http://www.thepirateking.com/historical/cannon_tools.htm

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

Yeah, that quadrant was pretty much standard for land, the level variant was way more useful at sea as the "land" was constantly moving

[Powderhorn]

This is a bit before the time period we're looking for, but it is a starting point.  (Well, more of a middling point for me )

 

Opportunity may be taken here to mention a cannon sight exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries, London, by Mr. Pritchett, F.S.A.  It was made by Jost Miller, at Strasbourg, A.D. 1609.  The sight is applicable to 10-prs., 20-prs., 30-prs., 40-prs., and the graduated scales slide in and out:  the feet at the base of the sight fold in or out, according to the size of the breech of the cannon; the swinging quadrant at the side shows the elevation of the gun, and the folding upper leaf has an arrangement for a plumb-line, to show the verticality of the cannon.  The whole of the upper sight moves to the right or the left, and is fixed by two set screws, the action and intention being the same as brought forward in modern rifles.  The elevating sides are also adjusted by screws, moving up and down with facility, and the sight is taken through small holes for the purpose.  The whole is of gilt work, in excellent preservation, and it was evidently intended for some director of artillery, as a verifying instrument, to see that the guns of various calibres were laid acordingly.  (See Proceedings of Soc. Antiq., vol. ii., No. 4, p. 198)

 

Underneath is the name of Wolfgang, and some letters obliterated, thus-

 

"Wolffang . . arn . . ister . arg . posidet."

 

The plumb-line at the top shows the verticality of the gun.  The little quadrant at the side, the angle of elevation.  A B C D shows the elevations from 10, 20, 30, 40-punders up to 1,200 yards.  It is figured on Plate XX.

Link to source.

 

[Powderhorn]

Further, James Bodmer invented some sort of breech loading cannon with movable sights in 1813, but I cannot find any description of how they worked or what they looked like.

[maturin]

Of course I just returned Guns at Sea to the library.

 

D'oh.