RML 64 pounder 58 cwt

The RML 64 pounder 58 cwt guns (converted) were British rifled muzzle-loading guns converted from obsolete smoothbore 32-pounder 58 cwt guns.^{[note 1]}

Design

When Britain adopted rifled ordnance in the 1860s it still had large stocks of serviceable but now obsolete smoothbore guns. Gun barrels were expensive to manufacture, so the best and most recent models were selected for conversion to rifled guns, for use as second-line ordnance, using a technique designed by William Palliser. The Palliser conversion was based on what was accepted as a sound principle that the strongest material in the barrel construction should be innermost, and hence a new tube of stronger wrought iron was inserted in the old cast iron barrel, rather than attempting to reinforce the old barrel from the outside.^[1]

This gun was based on the cast-iron barrel of the 32-pounder 58 cwt gun, which previously fired a 32 pound solid shot. The gun was bored out to 10.5 inches and a new built-up wrought iron inner tube with inner diameter of 6.29 inches was inserted and fastened in place. The gun was then rifled with 3 grooves, with a uniform twist of 1 turn in 40 calibres (i.e. 1 turn in 252 inches), and proof fired. The proof firing also served to expand the new tube slightly and ensure a tight fit in the old iron tube.^[1]

Deployment

2nd Hampshire Artillery Volunteers with 64 Pounder (58 cwt) gun at drill, Southsea, c1895 (IWM Q41452)

Unlike the 71 cwt converted gun, this nature of gun was issued for Land Service (LS) only. ^[3]

The gun mountings for coast defence in both British and colonial locations varied enormously. Carriages in both wood and iron varied in complexity – from a simple wooden garrison carriage, traversing carriages, right through to some guns mounted on Moncrieff Disappearing gun carriages.

They became obsolete for coast artillery use in 1902, whereupon most of them were scrapped and disposed of.

See also

• RML 64 pounder 64 cwt gun the equivalent new design frontline 64-pounder gun

Surviving examples

• Two examples in Royal Armouries, Fort Nelson, Hampshire, UK
• Guns on wooden traversing carriages, Royal Citadel, Plymouth, Devon, UK
• Gun number 237 dated 1874, one of a pair located in Digby, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Gun number 615, dated 1877 at Fort Cumberland, New Brunswick, Canada ^[4]
• Gun number 327 dated 1874 - one of a number of examples on iron depression carriages, Gibraltar - from Flickr
• Gun number 774, dated 1877 preserved at Scaur Hill Fort, Bermuda
  

  British 64 Pounder Rifled Muzzle-Loaded (RML) Gun on Moncrieff disappearing mount, at Scaur Hill Fort, Bermuda
• Gun number 798, dated 1877 at King's Square, St George Bermuda

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Treatise on the Construction and Manufacture of Ordnance in the British Service. War Office, UK, 1879

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to RML 64 pounder 58 cwt Gun.

• Handbook for the 64 - pr. R. M. L. converted guns of 58 and 71 cwt. L. S., 1887, 1892, 1898, 1902 at State Library of Victoria

British Empire Small Arms & Ordnance of the Victorian era
Side arms	Infantry swords 1897 Infantry sword Beaumont–Adams revolver Enfield revolver Webley .455" Revolver Mk I - IV
Muskets and Rifles	Brown Bess musket Baker rifle Brunswick rifle Pattern 1851 Minié rifle Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle-musket Snider-Enfield rifle Martini-Henry rifle Lee-Metford rifle Magazine Lee-Enfield (MLE) rifle
Artillery	Field Artillery SBML 9 pounder 13 cwt RBL 9 pounder RBL 12 pounder RBL 20 pounder RML 9 pounder 8 cwt RML 13 pounder 8 cwt RML 16 pounder 12 cwt BL 12 pounder 7 cwt BL 12 pounder 6 cwt QF 12 pounder 8 cwt BL 15 pounder QF 1 pounder pom-pom Mountain artillery RML 7 pounder Mountain Gun RML 2.5 inch Mountain Gun Howitzers, medium, and heavy artillery RML 6.3 inch Howitzer RML 6.6 inch howitzer BL 5 inch Howitzer BL 5.4 inch Howitzer Siege & garrison artillery SBBL 32 pounder SBML 24 pounder SBML 8 inch 65 cwt RBL 40 pounder RBL 7 inch RML 25 pounder 18 cwt RML 40 pounder gun RML 64 pounder 64 cwt gun RML 64 pounder 58 cwt RML 64 pounder 71 cwt gun RML 80 pounder RML 6.6 inch gun RML 8 inch howitzer BL 5 inch gun Mk I - V BL 6 inch 30 cwt howitzer BL 9.45-inch howitzer Coastal artillery QF 3 pounder Nordenfelt QF 4.7 inch BL 6 inch Mk III, IV, VI BL 6 inch Mk V RBL 7 inch RML 7 inch RML 8 inch BL 8 inch Mk VII RML 9 inch BL 9.2 inch Mk IV & VI BL 10 inch Mk I BL 12 inch Mk I, VI, VII RML 12.5 inch RML 16 inch RML 17.72 inch
Mortars	13 inch 36 cwt mortar 10 inch 18 cwt mortar 8 inch 9 cwt mortar
War rockets	Congreve 6-pounder Congreve 12-pounder Congreve 24-pounder Boxer Hales 9-pounder Hales 24-pounder
Machine guns	Nordenfelt gun 0.45" Gatling gun Gardner gun Maxim gun