Since writing “The Golden Hind’s Cannon”, and updating it, more information has come to hand via comments made by people on a Facebook post of mine. I am now going to work through those comments, including those made by Ed Fox in my previous update.
Starting again, the famous galleon the Golden Hind was captained by Sir Francis Drake during his circumnavigation of the world from 1577 to 1580. The Golden Hind was reportedly “barely 100 feet long (30m-long), …..
Ed Fox has said that “According to some sources, the Golden Hind’s dimensions were theoretically capable of containing 120 tuns (casks of a particular size). The lowest contemporary estimate of her size was 80 tons, the largest 400, but most agreeing on 100-120 tons. With the exception of the 400 ton outlier, the discrepancy between estimates of her size is not a problem as there were different ways of measuring."
Although Drake was reportedly knighted by Queen Elizabeth I after completing the circumnavigation, Ed Fox says that "Drake was knighted by the French ambassador, not Elizabeth."
I had previously posted on Facebook, "It seems that Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hind carried a main armament of 18 cannon."
As stated previously, ”According to https://goldenhind.co.uk/sea-battles.html , “When the English navy and the Spanish navy fought battles at sea the Admirals of each navy wanted to fight the battle a different way. The English navy had smaller, faster ships, and could fire cannons much faster than the Spanish. This was because their cannons were mounted on a kind of carriage called a truck carriage, which took up less room than the Spanish cannons on field carriages. The Spanish navy had bigger ships which carried more soldiers than the English ships, but less powerful cannons. This meant that in a battle the English wanted to keep a long way from the Spanish and use their cannons to sink an enemy ship, while the Spanish wanted to get close to enemy ships and board them. To board a ship means to send soldiers onto an enemy ship to try to capture it. Because the English ships were faster and had better cannons they could avoid getting close enough for the Spanish to board them, but still shoot the Spanish with their cannons.”
That web page features this diagram drawn by Ed Fox to illustrate the above details: -
“A truck carriage with a 24lb cannon and a field carriage with a 18lb cannon.”
Drawing by Ed Fox
(Source: https://goldenhind.co.uk/sea-battles.html )
The web page at https://goldenhind.co.uk/group-visits.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawGyEs9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTaG5avAjzarDDFIjH_qG6Ednlb57nql91dDN1e6spx28bH6WbW5KPGe8w_aem_4n3xHz3mziphlWYZwXnUEw features this photo of a cannon: -
According to Wikipedia, "a full-size reconstruction of the ship, was built by traditional methods in Appledore, Devon, and launched in 1973. ..... Since 1996, she has been berthed at St Mary Overie Dock, in Bankside, Southwark, London, where she is open to the public and hosts a range of educational programmes."
Now to get to the new details:
It seems that Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hind carried a main armament of 18 cannon. The replica vessel also carried 18 guns - 14 long-barrelled culverin in the gun-deck and 4 smaller Sakers or demi-culverin.
(Those on the replica "were reproductions of period pieces, cast by Cliff Matthews in his foundry on the Isle of Wight. They were engraved "E.R." and carried a Tudor rose on the upper side of the barrel.)
Dave Friestad says, “The 18 cannon on Drake’s Golden Hind consisted of 13 bronze and 5 cast iron Saker Drakes. During his circumnavigation we know he had all 18 cannon when he left Guatemala, but when he struck the reef in the Philippines he only had the 13 bronze left on board (of which he threw 8 overboard on the reef to lighten his ship). The only place he stopped in between was Nova Albion, the lost bay along the California coast, so presumably he left the 5 Saker Drakes there.”
Dave Friestad also says, “By the way I helped recover 5 Saker Drakes in 1983 in Goleta, California. You do the math!!!). The 5 cannon are currently housed at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, where they keep a couple on display. There are only a total of three markings on the trunnions of the 5 Saker Drakes: an H, a B, and an 89; believed to be from Hawley and Boyd. These may be the earliest cast iron cannon ever made (1570’s).”
I asked Dave Friestad, “Have any of the 8 thrown overboard ever been found and recovered?” His response was, “Yes, I believe they have been recovered but I don’t know where they are stored or displayed.” I then said, “Wow, all of them by chance?”
That was when Ruth Rhynas Brown became involved, saying “Well no. The guns recovered at Goleta are 18th century merchant pieces.” Dave Friestad responded with, “Based on the metallurgy studies they are pre-1750, other than that their provenance has not been fully verified. But check all the records of cannon known to have been lost on the west coast before 1750 and you’ll only find one.”
Things got very involved from that point on, with much ‘debate’ occurring:
“You cannot date cast-iron so puzzled by your metallurgy studies. But almost you have said is factually wrong. To start, drakes are not available in the 16th century- they were not invented until the 1620s. English cast-iron pieces of the 16th century did not have trunnion marks- they had initials engraved on the barrel, often in the 157os, with a date. Trunnion marks did not come into use until the 17th century, first in Sweden, from about 1660, then in England from about 1695. I have never heard of a gunfounders called Hawley or Boyd- so interested to know where that information came from. What you have is probably a Welsh short commercial merchant gun, cast by John Wilkinson at Bersham- that's the B, probably 1770-ish to 1795-ish. And more intriguingly a gun cast in Sweden in (17)89 for the British market, I think Huseby- that's the H. But none of them anything to do with Francis Drake.”
“Drake was believed to be carrying the first wrought iron cannon. The metal smelting process changed back to using wood for smelting as opposed to coal around 1750, so the metal is slightly different before and after this time. This was all information from an article in Santa Barbara magazine by a researcher involved in the recovery and conservation process, and the Marine Archaeologists that were helping us.”
“I think there is much confusion here. Drake may have been carrying wrought-iron guns- but certainly not the first- wrought-iron pieces had been around since the 14th century. Much more likely he was carrying cast-iron guns made in the Weald- like the ones I wrote about in this article Page 38 - https://drive.google.com/.../1kzKSKONHcNu8e5aFiswumE.../view ICOMAM-Magazine-14.pdf . But the guns still do not date from the 16th century, and certainly not with trunnion marks. Now I know the cannon you are talking about- I was asked about them back in the 1980s, when they were originally published- with an 18th century identification, although the gunfounders identified were wrong there, too. https://www.tandfonline.com/.../j.1095-9270.1987.tb00591.x But maybe you post some pictures so other people can see what we are talking about.”
“This is the "16th century" cannon, complete with trunnions marks and ball cascable: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/361765782545023113/"
"More photos of the Goleta cannon and a more realistic idea of their origins. But nothing to do with Harrison: https://daviddeley.com/deleytours/cannons1.htm"
There was still further debate (discussion), but nothing that seems to be important or relevant for me now.
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