ViGiLO - Din l-Art Ħelwa
ISSUE 54 • NOVEMBER 2020
31
Ballistics & experience, the tough job of a
BOMBARDIER
By Stanley Farrugia Randon
Firing of the 4-pounder cannon from the roof of Wignacourt Tower on 10 February 2020.
Din l-Art Ħelwa takes care of a number of coastal towers which were armed with cannon. The guards of these towers received training. However the bombardier was not an ordinary guard because he had to receive special training on how to use the cannon.
I
n the eighteenth century bombardiers attended a school at St Andrew’s Bastion, a large pentagonal bulwark commanding the entrance of the Marsamxett harbour. Other places were used for practice, such as the bastions of St Elmo, the ditch at St Elmo and ships in port using a ‘caicco’ (boat) as a target. Coastal caves were sometimes used as targets, towards which the cannon balls were shot from the sea. The importance of cannon grew exponentially between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, aided by mathematicians and scientists who conducted experiments to increase the range and penetration of the projectiles being shot, as well as by refined techniques which produced more uniform bores during the manufacturing of the cannon in their foundries.
The number of cannon and their weight hampered the movement of armies. While ordinance powerful enough to destroy was too bulky, the lighter guns which were easy to maneouver with armies, lacked the power to destroy. This was not a real problem in Malta as most cannons were not needed to advance against any attacking army on land. Cannons were either stationed on the roofs of towers which had to be built with stronger roofs to spport their load, or on ships where they were stationary. In the seventeenth century, the bombardier did not learn ballistics and so it was mostly a matter of experience. A bombardier could only obtain full seniority as capomastro after 15 years of service and four complete caravans carried out on the galleys. Ballistics was still an art.
