SHOT

The shot used in the sea-service is of various kinds, as bullets, bar-shot, chain-shot, case-shot, and grape-shot; all of which are used in the royal navy. There is besides other shot, of a more pernicious kind, used by privateers, and other piratical rovers; such are langrage, star-shot, fire-arrows, &c.

The first and most simple is the round-shot, which is a ball or globe of iron, whose weight is in proportion to the size of the cannon, or to the diameter of its bore.

The double-headed, or bar-Shot, fig. II. plate VII. are balls cut into two equal parts, and joined together by a kind of iron bar. In the French service the middle is sometimes filled with a composition, and the whole covered with linen dipped in brimstone; the cannon in firing also inflames the combustibles or composition of this ball, which sets fire to the sails of the vessel. One of the heads of this ball has an hole to receive a fuse, which, communicating with the charge of the cannon, sets fire to the bullet (Le Blond's Elements of War.).

Plate VII

The chain-shot, fig. 12. consists of two balls chained together, being principally designed to destroy the masts and rigging, which they are better fitted to perform than the single bullets.

Grape-shot is a combination of balls, fig. 13. Put into a thick canvas-bag, and corded strongly together, so as to form a sort of cylinder, whose diameter is equal to that of the ball which is adapted to the cannon. This shot is represented by fig. 13. on a larger scale, at the bottom of the plate.

Case-shot, fig. 14. is formed by putting a great quantity of musket-bullets into a cylindrical tinder-box called a canister. They are principally used by the French to scour the decks of the enemy.

Reference Works