RML 12-inch 35-ton guns were large rifled muzzle-loading guns used as primary armament on British battleships of the 1870s. They were the longer and more powerful of the two 12-inch British RML guns, the other being the 25-ton gun.
Design
This gun design originated in 1871 as an gun firing a projectile. Results were unsatisfactory, leading to the gun being bored out to and firing a shell.
Naval service Guns were mounted on: s of 1873
Note: The two 12-inch guns installed in 's forward turret were 12.5-inch 38-ton guns bored instead to 12 inches, and designated "12-inch 38-ton", as the necessary 12-inch 35-ton guns were not available. These 2 guns used the same charges and projectiles as the standard 12-inch 35-ton guns installed in Thunderers aft turret which simplified the supply of ammunition.Brassey 1882, pp. 81–85 It was one of these "12-inch 38-ton" guns that was accidentally double-loaded and exploded on 2 January 1879.
Ammunition
When the gun was first introduced projectiles had several rows of "studs" which engaged with the gun's rifling to impart spin. Sometime after 1878, "attached gas-checks" were fitted to the bases of the studded shells, reducing wear on the guns and improving their range and accuracy. Subsequently, "automatic gas-checks" were developed which could rotate shells, allowing the deployment of a new range of studless ammunition. Thus, any particular gun potentially operated with a mix of studded and studless ammunition.
The gun's primary projectile was "Palliser" armour-piercing shot, which were fired with a "battering charge" of of "P" (gunpowder) for maximum velocity and hence penetrating power. Shrapnel and common (exploding) shells weighed and were fired with a "full charge" of "P" or "R.L.G.".Treatise on Ammunition 1877, pp. 191, 194, 220
See also List of naval guns
References
Bibliography Treatise on the Construction and Manufacture of Ordnance in the British service. War Office, UK, 1877 Treatise on the Construction and Manufacture of Ordnance in the British Service. War Office, UK, 1879 Text Book of Gunnery, 1887. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE Sir Thomas Brassey, The British Navy, Volume II. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1882 "Handbook for the 12-in. R.M.L. Gun of 35-tons (Mark I.) Land Service", 1884, London. Published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office
External links
Handbook for the 12 in. R.M.L. gun of 35-tons (mark I) mounted on sliding carriage and platform. Land service. 1884 at State Library of Victoria