Nelson & His World

Hello,
I do historical artwork and I need some images of the block and tackle and rigging used on the deck guns in Nelson's day. Any links to images or books with clear illustrations would be appreciated. Even better would be a diagram with parts labelled.

Hi Peter,

You can probably find drawings of this in any number of books about naval armament of the period, but I hesitate to illustrate any here since most are copyright.

You basically mean of course the heavy breech rope, which stops the recoil, the two side tackles, for hauling the gun up to its port, and the trail tackle, for hauling it inboard.

One book I can recommend, is 'HMS Victory - Her Construction, Career and Restoration' by Alan McGowan, which contains good diagrams of a cannon and its gear in all its positions – run in, run out, and housed.

This is a very good book incidentally on all aspects of the Victory. Hope this helps.

Hi Peter,

Here are some from Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine - my own copy of the 1780 edition, so no copyright problems on these!

This is what I needed. I will post the sketch ASAP