The Gunners' EquipmentIn Part One, where we established the background to building our replica cannon. In describing the firing drills a number of pieces of equipment were needed for the crew to serve the gun. In Part Five, therefore, we explore how to recreate the gunners' equipment. Each item will be addressed in the order a gun crew would use them, starting with the sponge.The Sponge was a long staff, often combined with a rammer, that has a piece of sheep's fleece or lambskin wound about it| Tastes Of History
The TackleIn Parts One, Two and Three of this "How to:" series we established the background and how we went about building our scale replica cannon. In Parts Four and Five, respectively, we looked at how we recreated the projectiles and gunners' equipment needed to perform mock "firing" drills. The final stage is to recreate the tackle used to haul the cannon inboard for loading and outboard for firing through the ship's gun ports.Typically tackle is a mechanism consisting of ropes, pulley bloc| Tastes Of History