Читать книгу The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 346, December 13, 1828 - Various - Страница 4

(For the Mirror.)

The Turks use the largest cannon of any people in Europe. In our ships, and I believe in our batteries, we seldom use a heavier gun than a 32-pounder. No man-of-war carries a gun of a larger calibre; but the Turks make use of 800-pounders. Mahommed II. is stated to have used at the siege of Constantinople, in 1453, cannon of an immense calibre, and stone shot. When Sir J. Duckworth passed the Dardanelles to attack Constantinople, in 1807, his fleet was dreadfully shattered by the immense shot thrown from the batteries. The Royal George (of 110 guns) was nearly sunk by only one shot, which carried away her cut-water, and another cut the main-mast of the Windsor Castle nearly in two; a shot knocked two ports of the Thunderer into one; the Repulse (74) had her wheel shot away and twenty-four men killed and wounded by a single shot, nor was the ship saved but by the most wonderful exertions. The heaviest shot which struck our ships was of granite, and weighed 800 pounds, and was two feet two inches in diameter. One of these huge shots, to the astonishment of our tars, stove in the whole larboard bow of the Active; and having thus crushed this immense mass of timber, the shot rolled ponderously aft, and brought up abreast the main hatchway, the crew standing aghast at the singular spectacle. One of these guns was cast in brass in the reign of Amurath; it was composed of two parts, joined by a screw at the chamber, its breach resting against massy stone work; the difficulty of charging it would not allow of its being fired more than once; but, as a Pacha said, "that single discharge would destroy almost the whole fleet of an enemy." The Baron de Trott, to the great terror of the Turks, resolved to fire this gun. The shot weighed 1,100 pounds, and he loaded it with 330 pounds of powder: he says, "I felt a shock like an earthquake, at the distance of eight hundred fathoms. I saw the ball divide into three pieces, and these fragments of a rock crossed the Strait, and rebounded on the mountain."

W.G.C.