Naval cannonballs circa 1805 - did they explode?

The wooden plug fuses were set by cutting the plug to the appropriate length. That was a pretty risky process and was done away from the shell itself. Sometimes it was done with a paper cutter looking gadget attached to the limber, sometimes with a saw, a copper saw to avoid sparks. The loader had to be very careful to load the fused shell with the fuse pointed away from the propellant charge. Otherwise the highly possible outcome was the shell detonating in the gun tube. A bad thing for the gun and for the gun crew.

The metal fuses were typically bronze and had a powder train coiled inside the fuse body. The time was set by punching into the fuse to expose a portion of the powder train at a point designated on the face of the fuse by a clock face like pattern.

Under either situation the fuse timer was not very reliable because the gunner had to estimate the distance to the place he wanted the shell (common shell or spherical case) to burst and hope that the fuse burned at the expected rate and hope that the explosive charge would even detonate. In the months after the battle a fair number of Gettysburg civilians were hurt/killed because they were messing around with dud shells that exploded.

Don’t underestimate how much damage an 8lb iron ball can do to infantry when fired to skip along the ground.

Ships had bigger ones - up to 36lb, and they were capable of punching a hole through 2 feet of solid oak and ripping off a lethal splinter inside.

This may be of interest - anyone know if there is a copy of the actual show?

Thank you, those answers make sense–but couldn’t you, theoretically, handle fused shells the way power charges were handled, ie sent up one at a time?

ETA, though the difficulties of handling them on a ship under fire probably make the “solution” not worth it.

You could - but as you note, it wasn’t worth the trouble and risk.

Though I wasn’t able to find a cite, ISTR that this was once tried by the British (around 1800?), with results that caused them to conclude it was a Bad Idea.

[Admiral Beatty] There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today! [/Admiral Beatty]