Building a Basher
Recently we purchased two guns from a friend. The one is a mortar and the other a cannon with a one and a quarter inch bore, thirty five inches in length. Not very big but much bigger than the gun we had before which was non extant. The gun appears to be cast steel and is marked "Made in England " on the bottom and has the Royal Crest on top
Mike Ager and I decided we would build a field gun carriage for it as a naval carriage would be harder for us to use and because we liked the look of a field gun. We chose a British 6 pounder carriage without side ammo boxes and scaled appropriately for the tube.
Our first task was to build the wheels. We assumed this would be the hardest part and we were right! the fellys are ash and the spokes are oak. The hub is also ash. There is no concavity to the wheels as there should be but we don't plan on making any road marches with the gun.
Mike and I then purchased some inch and three quarter ash for the cheek's and transoms. The axle was made for ash bored out for 3/4 pipe.
We drilled the hubs for the pipe and then inlet steel washers to reinforce. We used a snap ring pin for the retainer
Now It starts looking like a gun as we installed the iron tires , strapping rings and etc. We built the quoin and put the towing hole in the tail transom reinforced with a steel washer top and bottom
Basher received its paint job and water bucket and was ready for inspection
And here Trevor and I are getting ready to sink a few Yankee gun boats at the Ilwaco tall ship fest.
The Limber!
