BL 6-inch 80-pounder gun

File:BL 6-inch Mk I gun construction diagram.jpg

Mk I of 80 cwt (4 tons) as originally built was an Elswick Ordnance design which was weakly made and fired only an {{convert|80|lb|kg|adj=on}} projectile. It consisted of a steel barrel with wrought-iron coils shrunk over it. A few guns were issued to the Royal Navy but most were replaced by the later versions. Mk I guns remaining in British service were rebuilt with "chase hoops" added around the barrel for strengthening, and the barrel was shortened by 3 inches to keep its centre of gravity at the trunnions. This resulted in the 81 cwt Mk I gun.Treatise on Service Ordnance, 1893, pages 257–265

The breech was rotated to the left to lock it, unlike standard British service BL guns made by the Royal Gun Factory which all rotated to the right to lock.

These guns are commonly referred to as "6-in. 81-cwt B.L.R." in contemporaneous publications such as Brassey's Naval Annual. The official designation in British ordnance manuals was "80-pounder BL" to differentiate it and its ammunition from the later marks of 6-inch BL guns which fired 100-pound projectiles.

File:HMAS Protector Quarterdeck & 6-inch gun 1903 AWM P00444.150.jpeg with aft 6-inch gun trained to port, circa. 1903}}]]

Australian colonies and New Zealand purchased various 6-inch guns direct from the manufacturers, usually Elswick Ordnance Company, and these versions do not correspond directly with the official "Marks" as adopted by the British government. Specifications of guns purchased by Australian colonies are similar to those of the original British Mk I 80 cwt gun, firing an 80-pound projectile.The Victorian Navy manuals of 1887, 1890 and 1895 quote an 80 cwt gun with a bore 156 inches, firing an 80-pound projectile (Shrapnel), 78lb 7oz (Palliser), 75lb (Common) or 77lb (segment) with muzzle velocity of 1880 ft/sec, using a 42-pound Pebble (gunpowder) "Full" or 30lb Pebble "Reduced" charge, which matches the Mk I gun specifications. Some tables in these manuals refer to the 42-pound charge as a "Battering" charge and the 30-pound charge as "Full" charge. Maximum range of 7,200 yards at 13° 5" elevation firing an 80-pound projectile with a 42-pound gunpowder charge.

The gun equipped some gunboats of the Australian colonial navies :

• HMQS Paluma
• HMQS Gayundah
• HMCS Protector
• HMVS Victoria of 1884
• HMVS Albert of 1884

Also on armed harbour vessels in Victoria :[http://www.cerberus.com.au/fclick/fclick.php?id=151 Victorian Naval Forces General Manual, 1890] from Friends of the Cerberus website

• Gannet : tug
• Batman : hopper barge / dredge
• Fawkner : hopper barge / dredge

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BL 6-inch 80-pounder common shell diagram.jpg|{{center|Common shell diagram}}

BL 6-inch 80-pounder powder cartridge diagrams.jpg|{{center|Full charge (top) and reduced charge (bottom) powder cartridges}}

• List of naval guns

• A 4-ton 80-pounder gun{{cite web |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/9977224%40N06/2053510328/in |title=6-inch 81 cwt B.L (80-pdr) |work=Flickr – Photo Sharing!|date=November 2002 }} at Fort Glanville, Adelaide, South Australia
• A 4-ton 80-pounder gun{{cite web |url=http://www.ammsbrisbane.com/documentation/armstrong_1.html |title=AMMS Brisbane |work=ammsbrisbane.com |access-date=21 September 2010 |archive-date=7 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707134104/http://www.ammsbrisbane.com/documentation/armstrong_1.html |url-status=dead }} in Bundaberg Botanic Gardens, Bundaberg, Queensland Australia
• A restored gun from HMAS Protector is outside the Naval Reserve Cadets building in Jenkins Street, Birkenhead, Adelaide{{Cite web|url=http://home.iprimus.com.au/artillerist/naval_ss.html|title = Australian Naval Colonial Armaments SlideShow}}
• The aft gun from HMQS Paluma is in the Treloar Centre at the Australian War Memorial, in Canberra

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Campbell |first=N.J.M. |title=Warship |editor=John Roberts |publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Maryland |year=1983 |volume=VII |pages=170–72 |chapter=British Naval Guns 1880–1945, No. 10 |isbn=0-87021-982-0}}
• [http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/u?/p4013coll11,222 Text Book of Gunnery, 1887. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121204140418/http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/u?/p4013coll11,222 |date=4 December 2012 }}
• Treatise on Service Ordnance. HMSO, 1893.
• [http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/u?/p4013coll11,230 Text Book of Gunnery, 1902. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120712182551/http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/u?/p4013coll11,230 |date=12 July 2012 }}
• [http://www.cerberus.com.au/fclick/fclick.php?id=139 Manual for Victorian naval forces 1887. HMVS Cerberus website]
• [http://www.cerberus.com.au/manuals_printing.html Additions to 1890 Manual for Victorian naval forces circa. 1895. HMVS Cerberus website]
• I.V.Hogg & L.F. Thurston, British Artillery Weapons & Ammunition 1914–1918. London: Ian Allan, 1972.

{{Commons category|BL 6 inch 80 pounder gun}}

• [http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=4039827 Instructions for the use of 6-inch rifled breech loading Armstrong gun and naval carriage and slide] from Australian National Archives
• [http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_6-26_mk1.htm British 6"/26 (15.2 cm) BL Marks I to Mark VI]

{{VictorianEraBritishNavalWeapons}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:BL 06-inch 80-pounder Mk 01 gun}}

Category:Naval guns of the United Kingdom

Category:152 mm artillery

Category:Victorian-era weapons of the United Kingdom

Category:Coastal artillery