Cannonball
Description
Round shot was solid and dense so that it had good range and penetration power. Early shot was made of stone but by the end of the 17th century most shot was made of iron since it was cheaper than Lead. Balls were made using a simple spherical cast made of clay. One theory suggests that balls were painted black to help avoid rusting.Once made of iron, round shot could be reused as it remained intact on impact. Officers may have kept a table to convert different countries gun calibres so they could assign reused shot to the correct gun. In 1780, a 74-gun ship of the line would carry 2,800 round shot -far more than any other type of shot.
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