Hello!!!
 
Can anyone recommend a good source on hand grenade launchers or light mortars
(e.g. coehorn mortars) from the late seventeenth through first quarter of the
eighteenth century?
 
I am specifically looking for information on mortars/launchers that would have
been available in English North American colonies before the year 1715 and able
to launch 3.3125" (84-85mm) grenades/shells.
 
I have found sources that mention coehorn mortars being made by the year 1673
(Manucy 1949), but not the specific calibers. I also consulted Muller (1779)
who indicated that coehorns were available in 4.6" and 5.8" bore, but does not
indicate smaller caliber weapons. M.L. Brown (1980) discusses musket attached
grenade launchers, but not before the early 1740s.
 
We have recovered shrapnel from 3.3" shells and suspect that they were not
hand thrown on the battlefield site, due to certain inferences in historic
accounts of the battle (ca. 1713). If anyone has useful soures or personal
knowledge about this subject, I woud certainly appreciate a reply.
 
Thanks!!!
 
          Charles
 
Charles L. Heath
Phelps Archaeology Labortory
Institute for Historical and Cultural Research
East Carolina University
Greenville, North Carolina  Tel#(919) 328-6905
Bitnet: GRHEATH@ECUVM1 Internet: [log in to unmask]