(_For the Mirror._)
The Turks use the largest cannon of any people in Europe. In our ships,
and I believe in our batteries, we seldom use a heavier gun than a
32-pounder. No man-of-war carries a gun of a larger calibre; but the
Turks make use of 800-pounders. Mahommed II. is stated to have used at
the siege of Constantinople, in 1453, cannon of an immense calibre, and
stone shot. When Sir J. Duckworth passed the Dardanelles to attack
Constantinople, in 1807, his fleet was dreadfully shattered by the
immense shot thrown from the batteries. The Royal George (of 110 guns)
was nearly sunk by only one shot, which carried away her cut-water, and
another cut the main-mast of the Windsor Castle nearly in two; a shot
knocked two ports of the Thunderer into one; the Repulse (74) had her
wheel shot away and twenty-four men killed and wounded by a single shot,
nor was the ship saved but by the most wonderful exertions. The heaviest
shot which struck our ships was of granite, and weighed 800 pounds, and
was two feet two inches in diameter. One of these huge shots, to the
astonishment of our tars, stove in the whole larboard bow of the Active;
and having thus crushed this immense mass of timber, the shot rolled
ponderously aft, and brought up abreast the main hatchway, the crew
standing aghast at the singular spectacle. One of these guns was cast in
brass in the reign of Amurath; it was composed of two parts, joined by a
screw at the chamber, its breach resting against massy stone work; the
difficulty of charging it would not allow of its being fired more than
once; but, as a Pacha said, "that single discharge would destroy almost
the whole fleet of an enemy." The Baron de Trott, to the great terror of
the Turks, resolved to fire this gun. The shot weighed 1,100 pounds, and
he loaded it with 330 pounds of powder: he says, "I felt a shock like an
earthquake, at the distance of eight hundred fathoms. I saw the ball
divide into three pieces, and these fragments of a rock crossed the
Strait, and rebounded on the mountain."