Modelers often ask questions about the Model Monkey carronades and cannons offered for the classic Revell 1/96 scale USS Constitution and USS United States. I thought it may be helpful to post some general information about carronades here and their close cousins, the gunade.
In addition to differences in color, note that USS
United States was fit with whopping 42-pounder carronades.*
Constitution was fit with 32-pounder carronades. Both are available from Model Monkey.
Below is a link to some interesting information regarding
Constitution's guns. The author describes how the ship's guns were changed significantly over time and why.
http://www.captainsclerk.info/speaks/book07.htmlNote that there is a difference between a "carronade" and a "gunade". A true carronade is fixed to a sliding block (called a "skid" or "skead") on its carriage with a pintle and block cast onto the bottom of the gun. During the War of 1812,
Constitution is reported to have been armed with 24 true carronades made by Henry Foxall at the Columbia Iron Works of Georgetown, Maryland circa 1808.
A gunade is short and stubby like a carronade and has a traversing carriage and rests on a sliding block similar to a carronade.
But unlike a true carronade, a gunade rests on its skead with conspicuous trunnions extending outwards from the sides of the gun. A gunade does not have a pintle like a carronade.
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Comparison of True Carronade vs Gunade on USS Constitution.jpg [ 249.63 KiB | Viewed 1621 times ]
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carronade with comment.jpg [ 145.31 KiB | Viewed 1617 times ]
Some or all of the fiberglass reproductions on
Constitution's spar deck today may be reproductions of 1840s-era gunades, not true 1808 carronades. Perhaps someone who has visited the ship recently can tell us if the reproductions on
Constitution today are of Foxall 1808 carronades or 1840s gunades.
Some plastic kits include 1840s gunades, not true carronades, probably patterned after reproduction gunades.
Further complicating matters, there is a third type of gun carried at times by
Constitution, called a "shifting gunade". A shifting gunade looks like a long cannon with a cannon's type of 4-wheeled carriage. Because a shifting gunade is a trunnioned gun on a 4-wheeled carriage, it does not look like a true carronade or true gunade.
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Gunade 12-pounder circa 1820.jpg [ 234.35 KiB | Viewed 1619 times ]
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Gunade fiberglass reproduction on USS Constitution.jpg [ 166.75 KiB | Viewed 1619 times ]
It is very easy to confuse the three types of guns.
In other news, nameplates for many Cannon class destroyer escorts, including USS Slater DE-766, USS Cannon DE-99, all six Free French DEs, three post-war French Navy DEs, one Dutch DE, three Italian DEs, two Taiwanese DEs, two Brazilian DEs, all Gangut class battleships, all Danton class battleships, and a nameplate for China's aircraft carrier Liaoning have been added to the catalog.* See also "The History of The American Sailing Navy: The Ships and Their Development" by Howard I. Chapelle, pg. 516