23-cm Shrapnel Shell in a Wooden Box

W.G. Armstrong & Co, 1868

Een halve overlangs doormidden gezaagde puntvormige 23 cm granaat-kartets, in een houten kist. De granaat is 65.8 cm lang en heeft een kaliber van 226 mm. De granaat heeft twee ringen ingeperste nokken voor een getrokken loop met zes trekkende velden, een ballistische kap gevuld met hout, een buisgat, een vuurgeleidingspijp naar de springlading in de bodem en een kartetslading van loden kogels van 24 mm diameter bovenop de springlading, ervan gescheiden door een ijzeren ring.

  • Artwork typechest, grenade (ammunition)
  • Object numberNG-MC-1285
  • Dimensionsshell: height 11.3 cm x width 65.8 cm x depth 22.6 cm, box: height 22 cm x width 70.5 cm x depth 32 cm
  • Physical characteristicsiron, bronze, brass, lead and wood

W.G. Armstrong & Co

23-cm Shrapnel Shell in a Wooden Box

1868

Inscriptions

  • inscription, on the lock of the box:John Shaw & Sons / Wolverhampton / Safety patent lever lock.

Provenance

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-1285

Entry

One half of a 23-cm pointed shrapnel shell, cut lengthwise, in a wooden box.

The shell is 65.8 cm long and has a 226 mm calibre. It has studs for a rifled barrel with six grooves. The nose is filled with wood and has a fuse hole, and from there a channel to the powder charge in the bottom of the shell; the shrapnel charge, consisting of lead balls with a 24 mm diameter, is situated between the wooden nose and the powder charge and is separated from the powder charge by an iron ring.

This shell is a Boxer Shrapnel Mk II 9-inch RML, which W.G. Armstrong & Co of Newcastle started producing in 1868. It was used for muzzle-loading rifled ordnance. The Dutch Navy used 23-cm Armstrong ordnance from 1867 onwards, but, as far as is known, these particular shells were never used in the Netherlands.

Literature

C. Orde Brown, Ammunition: A Descriptive Treatise on the Different Projectiles, Charges, Fuzes, Rockets etc. at Present in Use for Land and Sea Service and on Other War Stores Manufactured in the Royal Laboratory, 2 vols., London (1870), vol. 2, pp. 75 ff.; J.H. Haakman, Handboek over de zee-artillerie voor konstabels en matrozen-kanonniers, 4 vols., Nieuwediep, 1871-72, vol. 2, pp. 120 ff.; J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1285

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'W.G. Armstrong & Co, 23-cm Shrapnel Shell in a Wooden Box, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1868', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20054216

(accessed 23 December 2025 23:34:53).