content_output-062_8 (Q6395)

The use of fire-arms on shipboard dates to the latter part of the fourteenth century, but the weapons had no distinctive feature. At the end of the following century it was usual for trading vessels to carry two or more bombards. The war vessels of the early sixteenth century were furnished with small cannon which were fired from the taffrail, and others which were fixed to the decks and fired through ports, as shown in the pictures still extant of the Great Harry.