Grape Shot
Description
Grape shot (ten pieces).
Grape shot was designed to clear the decks of enemy ships and prevent return fire. Grape is a bundle of sizeable lead or iron balls wrapped in tarred cloth and bound with twine until the result resembles a bunch of grapes. Due to angle and range, Grape was most commonly fired from the guns on the upper deck. It was fired with a low charge which causes the wrapping to split during its passage up the bore so as to release the balls in shotgun fashion. It was quite often added to ordinary shot to enhance the discharge. It was in use in 1725 and it remained in common use until 1815.
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