RML 16 inch 80 ton gun

The RML 16 inch 80 ton guns were large rifled muzzle-loading guns intended to give the largest British battleships parity with the large guns being mounted by Italian and French ships in the Mediterranean Sea in the 1870s.

Design and history
The gun was constructed of a toughened mild steel inner "A" tube surrounded by multiple wrought-iron coils, breech-piece and jacket. Rifling was of the "polygroove plain section" type, with 33 grooves increasing from 0 to 1 turn in 50 calibres (i.e. 1 turn in 800 inches) at the muzzle. After a long design and experimentation period beginning in 1873, HMS ''Inflexible with 4 guns became the only ship to mount them, in 1880. By that time such muzzle-loading guns were already obsolescent and were being superseded by a new generation of rifled breechloading guns.

2 more guns were mounted for coast defence in the Admiralty Pier Turret at Dover.

Ammunition

 * Photograph of Palliser projectile at Royal Marines Museum, Portsmouth, from Flickr

Surviving examples
The only 2 surviving examples are in the ruins of the Admiralty Pier Turret, Dover, Kent, UK.