Louis XIV Naval Cannon — Handmade Display Model

A French naval cannon of the Sun King's fleet — barrel, carriage, trucks and tackle, built as a display model.

Details

• Handcrafted construction with metal barrel and wooden carriage
• Trucks (wheels), cap squares and breeching detail
• Hand-applied finish
• Suits a desk, shelf, study, library or bar

How a naval gun worked

The carriage is the clever part. A naval gun was never bolted down — it sat on four small solid wheels called trucks and was allowed to recoil backwards several feet across the deck, restrained by a heavy rope breeching made fast to the ship's side.

That recoil was not a flaw but the whole loading cycle: the gun ran itself inboard, where the crew could reach the muzzle to sponge, charge and ram, then hauled it back out through the port with tackles. A trained Royal Navy crew could manage a shot every ninety seconds or so — roughly twice the rate of their French and Spanish opponents, which mattered more at Trafalgar than any question of ship design.

Under Louis XIV the French navy was, for a period, the largest in the world.