Gun Wad
Description
Compressed and coiled mass of rope fibres – approximately egg shaped with flat upper and lower sides.
A gun wad. When loading the gun, it was essential that both cartridge and projectile were retained in place. The gun wads performed this and other necessary functions. The wad between the powder cartridge and the cannon ball was to momentarily absorb the pressure build up from rapidly burning black powder, thereby increasing the cannon ball’s velocity. The second was simply there to keep the cannon ball in place. The wad is composed of recycled rope fibres. Wads were usually made up on board the ship and the gunner was issued with pieces of old rope and cable, known as junk, for this purpose. HMS Invincible, a 74-gun ship, would have been issued with five tins of junk.
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Object Detail
Width: 160mm
Depth: 60mm (2 3/8")