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  #1  
Old 25-04-2011, 12:47 PM
Pete Pete is offline
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Default Lead shot

Picked up this lead ball on Alnmouth beach,it's a good bit larger than the sporting musket balls i normally find. Perhaps a relic of one of the conflicts on our coast?
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Old 25-04-2011, 05:06 PM
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Grape Shot perhaps?

National Maritime Museum here states 1 inch diameter for anti-personnel grape shot. They don't mention metal but I'm sure lead would be valid.

Perhaps customs or Navy were trying to take out some of those Alnmouth smugglers and wreckers
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Old 25-04-2011, 10:40 PM
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Cannon shot seems likely as its a big old lump. I wouldn't like to fire a Brown Bess loaded with it
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Old 29-04-2011, 01:38 AM
brownknees brownknees is offline
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Default Alnmouth beach

Talking of the beach ,Was there a wreck at the north end of the beach about 1948/50.I seem to remember it was high up on the rocks at the north end of the beach ?
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Old 01-05-2011, 09:41 AM
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Before my time i'm afraid, Brownknees. There should be a photo in the newspaper archives somewhere, i'll add it to my endless list of things to do

I was intrigued to learn of an attack on Alnmouth by a yankee warship, pirates operating as late as the 19thc and the village being garrisoned by our old friends the French in the 16thc
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Old 01-05-2011, 01:38 PM
brownknees brownknees is offline
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Default Yankee warship

It was the privateer John Paul Jones during the American war of independance,Think they have found the wreck of his ship somewhere of Scarborouigh.Now all thats needed is money to finance an expedition!!
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Old 04-05-2011, 06:04 PM
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Quote:
village being garrisoned by our old friends the French in the 16thc
??? Intriguing, tell us more
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Old 05-05-2011, 12:11 AM
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I saw a reference somewhere, to a 19thc publication called The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana which mentions that Alnmouth was garrisoned by the french during the reign of Elizabeth 1st.

The Encyclopaedia is available to read online but is huuuuge

I mentioned the incident in the hope of a passing egghead giving me the details for nowt
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Old 31-07-2014, 08:15 PM
Al88c Al88c is offline
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I picked up on this thread because I found a similar piece at Hauxley recently, which I'm pretty sure is grape shot.
I've just looked up the entry in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana for Alnmouth (Google - Books) and it does state that it was captured and fortified by the French during Elizabethan times. I thought the compilers must have just got their facts wrong, but the entry for Alnwick seems historially correct and in some depth so perhaps there might be some truth in it. How strange - Has anybody else followed this one up?
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Old 12-08-2014, 10:08 PM
leslie leslie is offline
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Over the years have found all sizes of musket balls and shot , balls up to 1 inch caliber not unusual . the bore sizes we know today 12/10 etc originated from the weight of shot a musket fired a single ball of 1/12 of a pound being 12 bore. '
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Old 28-06-2015, 08:31 PM
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I was having a look today at some of the Percy Tenantry Volunteers' gear that is in Alnwick castle. They have a nice 3 pounder brass cannon ...... and next to it a couple of these small three barrel cannons. I immediately thought of your 'large musket ball' .... a perfect fit I bet!

I've not yet found anything like this elsewhere on the internet, apart from some muli-barrel medieval affairs. I can imagine these being very effective fired at cavalry and infantry.

I'm not sure if the 1805 raised Artillery component of the PTV practiced at Alnmouth, but if it turns out they did, then it is highly likely your ball came out of this gun?
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  #12  
Old 18-02-2023, 12:44 AM
opshw opshw is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete View Post
Picked up this lead ball on Alnmouth beach,it's a good bit larger than the sporting musket balls i normally find. Perhaps a relic of one of the conflicts on our coast?
I can confirm that this ball will be one fired by the Percy Tenantry 'Wall gunners". They Percy Tenantry Riflemen were equipped with wall guns (big muskets) in 1808 and practiced on the links at Alnmouth. They indeed fired a 1" lead ball. A nice find!
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