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Historic Guns of British India

28 bytes removed, 12:31, 20 December 2011
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from 'MANDALAY' by Rudyard Kipling<br />
These two guns are similar, but cast by different foundries. They are Royal Navy cast iron smooth bore muzzle-loading cannon, as are the other pair, and the they bear the Crown and 'P' signifying they have passed proof, that is to say test fired, and they are stamped with the Royal Cipher of George ll (reigned 1727-1760). One gun has a weight of 57cwt-0qrs-8lbs. Quarters refer to one (cwt = hundred weight = 112lbs; qrs = quarter of one hundredweight (20cwt. equals one ton= 28lbs). The other gun would seem to be of very similar weight. Both are 32pdr. 32-pounder demi-cannon of nine and a half feet.<br />
The cannon at Entrance 1, marked W on the trunnion (the trunnions are short iron protuberances which balance the cannon on the gun carriage enabling it to be tilted upwards as necessary) was cast at the Waldron foundry near Heathfield in Sussex, at the time of John Harrison, Ironmaster. The cannon at Entrance 2 was cast a short distance away at the Heathfield foundry by John Fuller (marked JF on the trunnion). This trunnion mark was used between 1722 and 1745. Gun founders were a tight-knit community, often inter-related, and were in the habit of sub-contracting work to a neighbouring foundry if they were over-committed with orders. This may well have happened with these two cannon.
The question that we all want to know, of course, how did these two pairs of Royal Navy cannon find themselves guarding a Burmese potentate's palace in Mandalay ? Well, that will be another story .......... work in progress!

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