OBUSIER - (Sea Howitzer)
	Obusier de mer
	Obus

24 lbs. obusier

Graphic copyright of Juan Garcia from www.todoababor.es published here under his authorization.

Obusiers were introduced by spanish and french navies to counter attack british 1778 carronades.

The first sea obus was created by the Comisario General de Artillería de Marina, Francisco Xavier Rovira in 1783 for the Spanish Royal Navy, with calibers between 48 and 12 spanish shot pounds (equal to french pounds at the time).  In 1798 Rovira redesign spanish obusiers and even a 60 lbs. model were developed but never used. Were similar to the first (1778) british carronades but longer (view tables below).

In 1787 french introduced a short (0.843 meters) brass gun of 36 lbs. called “obusier de mer” inspired in land obusiers, later called “caronade obusier” & finally “caronade". Due to his short lenght & low range were replaced in 1804 by longer (1.281 meters) iron ones.

Sources: 

Jean Boudriot, "Artillerie de mer". 

Enrique García-Torralba Pérez, "La Artillería Naval Española en el S. XVIII" 

Special thanks to Enrique García-Torralba

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