- Joined
- Aug 25, 2012
Parrott guns seem to have had a poor reputation for safety. It does appear that some burst or had shell explode in them. Is the view of them warranted? We must have some artillery folk who can clue us in.
It's important to think about what they're to be compared to. For example, the British Armstrong gun also had a poor reputation for reliability, but nobody ever seems to have been killed or even seriously hurt by an Armstrong vent piece blowout while the Parrott guns sometimes inflicted a fearful toll in dead on their own side.Parrott guns seem to have had a poor reputation for safety. It does appear that some burst or had shell explode in them. Is the view of them warranted?
Probably because the BLR danger zone was directly above the breech, whereas with a bursting parrott it could be and was all around the gun.It's important to think about what they're to be compared to. For example, the British Armstrong gun also had a poor reputation for reliability, but nobody ever seems to have been killed or even seriously hurt by an Armstrong vent piece blowout while the Parrott guns sometimes inflicted a fearful toll in dead on their own side.
Most likely. The vent piece was to some extent designed for that purpose, as I understand it - it was, literally, a vent piece and as such it would blow before anything else (thus why each gun came with two spares).Probably because the BLR danger zone was directly above the breech, whereas with a bursting parrott it could be and was all around the gun.
Welded to the extent that it was heated and forced over the breech. I have read accounts where the band would slip and block the vent rendering the gun useless.Redbob, are you sure the Parrott reinforcing band was welded on? I have hear a different story on how it was attached.
Indeed that was the standard method of attaching reinforcing bands in both Parrott and Brooke MLR. In the case of the Brooke guns Tredegar seemed to have got it down to a fine art, whereas Selma didn't always and there are surviving examples where the reinforcing bands have separated. Having said that Armstrong / Woolwich guns sometimes had the tube loosen inside the reinforcing ,but this was always, as far as I know discovered on proofing.Welded to the extent that it was heated and forced over the breech. I have read accounts where the band would slip and block the vent rendering the gun useless.