SCHUFTED 24cm Iron

Thanks to the subsidy, which the municipality received from the EU in 2012, the reconstruction of a gun bed with a cannon on it could be realized.

The designation for this gun is 24IJ, which means that the box cut of the barrel is 24 cm and is made of cast iron.

For this purpose, a barrel of a cannon that was excavated on the beach in July 2007 was used and built. The salvage of the cannon on the beach was then made possible by the firm of Van den Ban B.V. in Hellevoetsluis.

The front I-II where the gun was eventually placed consists of an oncoming battery and a parallel battery. The oncoming battery fired at the enemy ships in the longitudinal direction. The ships that showed themselves on the Haringvliet from the North Sea could therefore be bombarded by 9 guns. The parallel/flank battery fired with four pieces of artillery across the Haringvliet at passing ships. The entire coastal battery therefore consisted of 13 guns. The reconstructed example can be seen on one of those gun beds. The exact location is 51°49'20.28"N at 4° 7'34.93"E.

This reconstruction is unique, as there is no other place in Europe known where such a cannon can be seen in public space. In the new National Military Museum (NMM), this piece of artillery can be viewed, but not without paying admission.

Of course, the cannon must be placed on a solid bed. The left photo shows the bed from 1882 before the reconstruction. On the right the clause is reconstructed. In contrast to the authentic beds, reinforced concrete was now used. In 1882 this was not yet applied. At that time, gravel concrete was used without iron reinforcement.

The cannon that was reconstructed is a 24 cm iron cannon that was once made by Finspong from Sweden. The first cannons from this supplier were included in the armament in the Netherlands in 1870. Even before 1880, there were already examples of this type of artillery in the fortress of Hellevoetsluis. After the expansion of the fortress, which created the front I-II, this artillery was placed on wooden beds. In 1882, cement beds were made for this purpose.

The cannon had to look like the example in the photo.

The gun 24 cm Iron is a "Trailed rear loader gun" with locking screw". The length of the shooting tube is 4560 mm and has 5 pulls (deep) and fields (high). The diameter at the level of the chamber piece (the thickest part) is 990 mm. The firing tube (the part between the tapping and chamber piece) is wrapped with a double ring of steel casings.

Het kanon werd opgesteld op een raamaffuit met wrijvingsrem. Het raamaffuit bestaat uit twee losse delen, het affuit en het raam. Het affuit is het deel waar de schietbuis op rust. Het affuit kan vervolgens over het raam bewegen. Het raam rust met wielen op de cementen bedding.

Het gewicht van de vuurmond met sluitstuk, zonder affuit en raam bedraagt 14.500 kg. Tezamen met affuit en raam bedroeg het gewicht (14.500 + 3.370 + 4.840) 22.710 kg. De aanvangssnelheid van een afgeschoten projectiel bedroeg 380 meter per seconde, hierbij bereikte men een dracht van 3.000 m. Er kon één schot in 4 minuten worden afgegeven.