The Museum With the launching of HMS Warrior in 1860, naval gunners faced a problem: how to pierce the iron hulls of the new warships. Developments from the small arms field helped provide a solution: percussion firing, rifled gun barrels, breech-loading and cordite. Now, massive guns with less recoil and greater accuracy became a reality.
The 1906 launching of HMS Dreadnought mounting ten 12-inch guns was a turning point. In the build-up towards the First World War more and more ships with heavy armament were constructed, culminating in the HMS Queen Elizabeth (1915), whose 15-inch guns could hurl a shell the weight of a sports car over 27 kilometres (17 miles).
A warship's 'authorized outfit' of ammunition and explosive was supplied from ordnance depots like Priddy's Hard. When a ship came into harbour, it was the responsibility of the depot floating party to remove or replenish items from the outfit - 'ammunitioning' and -de-ammunitioning'.
In the depot, new shell and cartridges would be filled, unused ones checked and repaired as necessary. For safety, fuzes were often supplied separately and fitted shortly before firing.
Those guns or breeches condemned at inspection were removed to a gunwharf for repair or relining. At Priddy's Hard they went to a 'factory section', built in 1919 on the Hardway shore at the northern end of the site. There guns were stored in the open, and moved by a giant overhead gantry crane, which was very much a local landmark.
