| Military Terms and Equipment for the the Presidio of St. Augustine |
| arquebus - Invented about 1450 a firearm with a matchlock operated by a trigger. bomb - shell or hollow iron ball filled with explosive, detonated by a fuse, fired from a gun bombardier - operated mortars and howitzers breech - back part of a cannon coehorn - small mortar for throwing grenades fusil - a light musket or firelock (alternate) fire steel for a tinder-box galliot - small galley with both sails and oars grape-shot - combination of balls, put into a thick canvas-bag and corded together to form a cylinder the size of a cannon. gunner - worked the cannon. gunner's ladle - copper scoop fixed to a pole for measuring powder and loading it into a gun langrage shot - case-shot loaded with pieces of iron of irregular shap used in naval warfare to damage the rigging and sails of the enemy.. match - wick or cord chemically prepared to fire a charge of powder. matross - assistant to a gunner mortar - short piece of ordnance with a large bore and trunnions on its breech for throwing shells at high angles to break through the vaulted roofs of barracks and magazines. musket - smooth bore developed about 1540. muzzle - the end of a fire-arm where the shot is discharged pale - pointed stake piragua - canoe made of a hollowed tree trunk powder - mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal. (70 parts nitre, 18 parts sulphur and 16 parts of charcoal. Musket powder had more saltpetre than cannons. rammer - a pole with a wood head for raming the cannon ball or charge of a cannon. swivel gun - used mostly on the gunwale of a boat that enables the gun to be turned horizontally. tinder-box - box where tinder, flint and steel were kept to start fires touch-hole - a small tubular hole in the breech of a fire-arm (also called vent) trunnion - metal knobs on the breech that enable the cannon to turn on the carriage. wormer - a double screw on the end of a pole for extracting the wad or cartridge from a muzzle-loading gun. |