1765: Original main armament
| Deck | Number | Size |
| Lower gun deck | 30 | 42 pounders |
| Middle gun deck | 28 | 24 pounders |
| Upper gun deck | 30 |
12 pounders
|
| Quarter deck | 10 | 6 pounders |
| Forecastle | >2 | 6 pounders |
| 1778 | 11th March: The 30 bronze 42 pounders were removed and replaced with 30 x 32 pounders. Admiral Keppel disliked the 42 pounder for the following reasons: gun crew too large; rate of fire slower and the bronze/brass guns, recoiled violently when hot). |
| 1779 | The 30 x 32 pounders were removed and replaced with 30 x 42 pounders as original. 8 x 12 pounder carronades were fitted as additional armament on the poop deck. |
| 1780 | The 8 x 12 pounder carronades were removed. |
| 1781 | 2 x 24 pounder carronades and 6 x18 pounder carronades were fitted on the poop deck. 2 x 32 pounder carronades fitted on the forecastle |
| 1783 | All the 6 pounder carriage guns fitted on the quarter deck and forecastle were removed and replaced by 12 pounder carriage guns. |
| 1788 | The 6 x 18 pounder carronades were removed and not replaced. |
| 1793 | The 2 x 24 pounder carronades fitted on the poop deck were removed and not replaced. |
| 1797 | The ship now out of commission, all of the guns were removed. The bronze 42 pounders, now obsolete was superseded by the 32 pounder which had become the standard heavy gun fitted in British ships of war. |
1803: Victorys’ armament when she re-commissioned after her ‘great repair' comprised:
| Deck | Number | Size |
| Lower gun deck | 30 | 32 pounders (long) |
| Middle gun deck | 28 | 24 pounders (long) |
| Upper gun deck | 30 | 12 pounders (long) |
| Quarter deck | 12 | 12 Pounders (short) |
| Forecastle | 2 2 |
12 pounders (medium) 32 pounder carronades |
The broadside weight = 1092 lbs
1805: Victory's armament at Trafalgar was 104 guns comprising;
| Deck | Number | Size |
| Lower gun deck | 30 | 32 pounders (long) |
| Middle gun deck | 28 | 24 pounders (long) |
| Upper gun deck | 30 | 12 pounders (long) |
| Quarter deck | 12 | 12 Pounders (short) |
| Forecastle | 2 2 |
12 pounders (medium) * 68 pounder carronades |
 12 pdr - short
|
 12 pdr - medium
|
 12 pdr - long
|
 24 pdr
|
 32 pdr
|
Victory's existing iron guns
There are 12 iron Napoleonic guns remaining on board the Victory today: 9 x 32 pounders on the lower gun deck, and 3 x 24 pounders on the middle gun deck. Each are of the Blomefield pattern, designed by Sir Thomas Blomefield, the Inspector Governor of Ordnance.
It is very unlikely that any of these guns were in the ship at Trafalgar as all were removed in 1806 when the ship was repaired. From the records the existing iron guns were put into the ship on 5 April 1808 when the ship was re-arming for deployment in the Baltic, and inspected by the Inspector of Ordnance two days later.
When guns were put into a ship, a record was made of the manufacturers name and the gun's individual number.
Manufacturers names, in the abbreviated form, were generally marked on the left trunnion. The 12 iron guns have the following marks:
W.Co. - Walker & Company, of Rotheram, Yorkshire.
H.Co. - James Henckle & Company, Wandsworth, London
ACB. - Alexander Brodie, on the River Severn
Ten of the eleven iron guns, cast by Walker & Company, are fitted with copper vent bushes, an innovation that was intoduced after Trafalgar. Guns fitted with copper vent bushes are stamped 'CVC' on top of the cascable. The twelfth gun, the 24 pounder sited near the entrance of the Victory Gallery, Royal Navy Museum, cast by Alexander Brodie has an iron vent bush.
The dockside guns
The 21 guns sited on the dockside around the Victory are short barrelled 32 pounders made during the reign of George III, but were not issued until after his death. These guns, dated either 1847 or 1848, most were manufactured by Henckle & Co. were used as the saluting battery on board the Victory when she was moored in Portsmouth harbour. These guns fired the salute to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her Coronation and also fired when her funeral Cortege passed HMS Victory on its way from the Isle of Wight for her burial. All these guns were removed from the ship in 1922.
Technical data of the 32 pounder smooth bore gun
The 32 pounders on board HMS VICTORY are long pattern Blomefield guns, designed by Sir Thomas Blomefield, Inspector General of Ordnance, at Woolwich Arsenal. Guns of this form were manufactured between 1780 and 1822. As all are cast with the cypher King George III, they would all have been made before 1820.
The length of the gun, 9ft 6ins (2.90 m), is always measured from the rear of the base ring to the face of the muzzle. The overall length including the cascable is 10 ft 3.3/4 ins. (3.14 m) Guns varied in length during the 18th and 19th centuries, some 32pdrs were 9ft long (2.75 m)with a calibre of 6.41 inches (16.3 cm). Windage, the difference between the diameter of the shot and the diameter of the bore, is 0.198ins (5.029mm). The weight of the gun is normally stamped on the bottom of the breech. Weight is given in cwt. (hundredweight), qtr. (quarters), and lbs. (pounds) e.g. 54. 15. 10.
| Diameter of Vent (the touch hole) | 0.22 ins | (0.05 m) |
| Shot weight | 32 1bs | (14.4 kg) |
| Range - Point blank | 400 yds. | (364 m) |
| Range - 1 degree elevation | 820 yds. | (746 m) |
| Range - 2 degrees elevation | 1,200 yds. | (1.092 m) |
| Range - 3 degrees elevation | 1,500 yds. | (1,365 m) |
| Muzzle velocity | 1600 feet per second. | (485.3 mps) |
|
Penetration of solid shot through oak:
at 400 yds (364 m)
|
up to 42ins | (106.7 cm) |
| Ditto at l000 yds (910 m) | up to 31.½ ins | (80.0 cm) |
| Rate of fire; approximate. |
1 round every 2 minutes
|
|
| Recoil distance – restrained with standard charge | Approx. 11 ft. | (3.35 m) |
| Recoil distance – Unrestrained with full 32 lb proof charge (recorded under experiment) |
50 ft 2 ins. | (15.30 m) |
A range table dated 1860, (produced at the naval gunnery school H.M.S. Excellent), shows that given an elevation of 8 degrees, the 32 pounder had a maximum range of 2600 yds (2,366 m). In 1805 the maximum elevation was governed by the vertical size of the gun port and limitation of the carriage, however greater elevation could be achieved by removing the rear trucks (wooden wheels).As these guns are fitted with copper vent bushes, (a liner screwed into the vent to avoid erosion from powder gases when the gun fired) it is likely that all were manufactured after c.1813 when copper vent bushes were first introduced. Guns fitted with copper vent bushes were stamped CVC, and those with iron bushed IV. These marks are found on the top of the of the cascable. Later guns fitted with copper bushes were not marked.
The makers marks are on the left trunnion. On the right trunnion is the gun number, also there is inscribed a vertical line which, used with a plumb line, the gun could be layed horizontally or levelled.
A wooden stopper called a tompion was kept in the muzzle to prevent moisture entering the bore when the gun was not in action.
