Our head blacksmith was in England recently and took these pictures at the Mary Rose museum in Portsmouth which he said I could share here. This bolt, which would have been fired from an artillery piece, is over 6 feet long and missing its iron head. We are going to build one just for giggles. John Smith said in his book “A Sea Grammar” that “Fireworkes are divers, and of many compositions, as Arrowes trimmed with wild fire to sticke in the sailes or ships side shot burning. Pikes of wild fire to strike burning into a ship side to fire her.” He also talked about “carcass shot,” a hollow cannonball with a spike through it. The hollow was filled with pitch or something, the ball was wrapped in rags. They were said to blaze like comets and stick into ships.
Jay
Jay
