| Ordnance RML 16 inch 80 ton gun | |
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Port/forward turret on HMS Inflexible |
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| Type | Naval gun |
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1880 - 1902 |
| Used by | Royal Navy |
| Wars | Bombardment of Alexandria (1882) |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Royal Gun Factory |
| Designed | 1874 |
| Manufacturer | Royal Arsenal |
| Unit cost | £10,000[1] |
| Number built | 8 |
| Variants | Mk I |
| Specifications | |
| Barrel length | 288 inches (7.3 m) (bore)[2] |
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| Shell | 1,684 pounds (763.8 kg) Palliser, common, Shrapnel[2] |
| Calibre | 16-inch (406.4 mm) |
| Muzzle velocity | 1,590 feet per second (480 m/s)[3] |
| Maximum range | 8,000 yards (7,300 m)[4] |
The RML 16 inch 80 ton guns were large rifled muzzle-loading guns intended to give the largest British battleships parity with the large guns being mounted by Italian and French ships in the Mediterranean Sea in the 1870s.
Contents |
The gun was constructed of a toughened mild steel inner "A" tube surrounded by multiple wrought-iron coils, breech-piece and jacket. Rifling was of the "polygroove plain section" type, with 33 grooves increasing from 0 to 1 turn in 50 calibres (i.e. 1 turn in 800 inches) at the muzzle.[2]
After a long design and experimentation period beginning in 1873, HMS Inflexible with 4 guns became the only ship to mount them, in 1880. By that time such muzzle-loading guns were already obsolescent and were being superseded by a new generation of breechloading guns.
2 more guns were mounted for coast defence in the Admiralty Pier Turret at Dover.
The only 2 surviving examples are in the ruins of the Admiralty Pier Turret, Dover, Kent, UK.
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