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Riverwalker12 t1_j3rbkcb wrote

They were used extensively in naval warfare, dropping a grenade down a hatch was very effective, but these were fuse lit and some what unreliable

In Open field battles you could not huck them very far and you were exposed to enemy arrows and other fire

In closed quarters they had some use

But in the field a cannon was far better

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AnaphoricReference t1_j3t48i9 wrote

I think 'somewhat unreliable' is probably a huge understatement. Fuses where completely unpredictable compared to for instance modern cheap fireworks, and both too fast and too slow are very bad.

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Riverwalker12 t1_j3t529o wrote

I originally was going to post very unreliable, but I figured someone would object...LOL oh well

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throw4jklfj t1_j3wp03p wrote

Yeah no matter what you do some dweeb is gonna come at you with the " well akshually"

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ramriot t1_j3usjbc wrote

BTW an early of cannon had a short barrel & was slung from an A-frame, it was used as a door breaching device. Fuses as you said were sometimes unreliable which among other failure modes could sometimes kill the cannoneer.

This device was called a petard, hence the phrase, Being hoist by one's own petard.

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ackermann t1_j3tzuo7 wrote

Is this where the idea of the Cartoon-style, little black ball bomb with fuse came from?

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ringobob t1_j3ug8t3 wrote

For a live action example, see Swiss Family Robinson.

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