Bomb Vessel

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 6 October 1857


First published in The New American Cyclopaedia, Vol. III, 1858
Reproduced from The New American Cyclopaedia
Source : Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 18
Collection(s): New American Cyclopaedia

Bomb Vessel, or Mortar Boat, is the expression in use for the more modern class of ships constructed to carry mortars. Up to the Russian war,[1] those built for the British service drew 8 or 9 feet water, and carried, beside their 2 10-inch mortars, 4 68-pounders, and 6 18 lb. carronades. When the Russian war made naval warfare in shallow waters and intricate channels a necessity, and mortar boats were required on account of the strong sea-fronts of the Russian fortresses, which defied any direct attack by ships, a new class of bomb vessels had to be devised. The new boats thus built are about 60 feet long, with great breadth of beam, round bows like a Dutch galliot, flat bottoms, drawing 6 or 7 feet water, and propelled by steam. They carry 2 mortars, 10 or 13-inch calibre, and a few field-guns or carronades to repel boarding parties by grape, but no heavy guns. They were used with great effect at Sveaborg, which place they bombarded from a distance of 4,000 yards.[2]

  1. ↑ The Crimean war of 1853-56.— Ed.
  2. ↑ Sveaborg (Suomenlinna) was a Russian fortress situated on a group of islands at the entrance to the Helsinki harbour in the Gulf of Finland. The bombardment of Sveaborg by British and French ships took place on August 9 and 10, 1855, during the Crimean war, 1853-56. For more on this event see Marx and Engels' article "The Anglo-French War Against Russia" (present edition, Vol. 14, pp. 484-89).