Crownhill Fort's Guns
Crownhill Fort is famous for its collection of artillery. The cannon are maintained in working order and are fired on event days to recreate the sounds and atmosphere of a working fortress. In total, the fort has emplacements for 32 guns on its ramparts (including 5 Haxo casements and 2 Moncrieff pits) and 15 in its caponiers. Some of the guns that can be found at Crownhill Fort include:
- a Moncrieff Counterweight Disappearing Gun, the only working example of its kind in the world – the carriage uses a unique counterweight system to rise above the parapet to fire and then descend in a controlled manner, powered by the recoil.
- two 13-inch Mortars, on loan from the Royal Armouries, which were designed to fire 200-pound explosive shells. It is believed that they were used in the Crimean War, against Russia
- two 32-pound smooth-bore breech-loading guns from the 1880s, designed to fire case shot
- four replica 32-pound smooth-bore breech-loading guns dating from 1997
- two Armstrong 7-inch rifled breechloaders. These guns were first issued to the Navy in 1858, but were found to be not powerful enough, and so were sent instead to be mounted on the ramparts of land fortifications, such as Crownhill Fort.
- two muzzle-loading 32-pound cannon, which were rescued from Tregantle Fort in Cornwall, where they were being used as gateposts.
- a muzzle loading 2-pound cannon, from the 1790s
- a carronade made by the foundry Bailey, Pegg and Co Ltd, from Staffordshire that points towards the countermining gallery.
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Famous quotes containing the words fort and/or guns:
“‘Tis said of love that it sometimes goes, sometimes flies; runs with one, walks gravely with another; turns a third into ice, and sets a fourth in a flame: it wounds one, another it kills: like lightning it begins and ends in the same moment: it makes that fort yield at night which it besieged but in the morning; for there is no force able to resist it.”
—Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616)
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)