Round Shot

This stash of round shot or ancient cannon balls was found by my camera when exploring ancient Lycian site of Caunus, a beautiful ancient site and... more

by Phyllis Taylor

Title

Round Shot

Artist

Phyllis Taylor

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

This stash of round shot or ancient cannon balls was found by my camera when exploring ancient Lycian site of Caunus, a beautiful ancient site and ruins.

Round shot (or solid shot, or a cannonball, or simply ball) is a solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun from which it is fired.

Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, referred to as gunstone (Middle English gunneston, from gonne, gunne gun + stoon, ston stone) but by the 17th century, from iron. It was used as the most accurate projectile that could be fired by a smoothbore cannon, used to batter the wooden hulls of opposing ships, fortifications, or fixed emplacements, and as a long-range anti-personnel weapon. However, masonry stone forts designed during the early modern period (known as star forts) were almost impervious to the effects of roundshot.

Uploaded

May 9th, 2016