During the siege of the town of Rosas (Catalonia, Spain) in 1795, the Spanish naval force supported the troops ashore in an attempt to wear down the French rearguard. When the warship Triunfante was lost on 5 January, a 68-gun ship carrying a large number of rifles that failed to deliver to the troops besieged in Rosas.
Between 2008 and 2010, a major project by the CASC (Archaeology Museum of Catalonia) succeeded in excavating and investigating the ship Triumphant, which sank in the gulf that night. One of the most valuable elements were the five flintlock guns recovered by the archaeologists. The finds also indicate that the vast majority of the ammunition collected – around 80% – is 17 adarmes per pound, with the remainder being 21 adarmes per pound.
Identifying the remains of the rifles found, at the beginning of 1795, when the Triumphant was sunk, both the army and the navy used two types of 17-gauge rifles, the Model 1757 and the Model 1789. The main difference between them was the type of key used: while the Model 1757 used a “French-style” key, the Model 1789 was a “Catalan-style” key, difficult to clean, but safer and more resistant, in all other respects the two types of rifle are identical. The problem in the case of the Triumphant is the poor preservation of the iron of the keys and the barrels of the guns, but fortunately the E rifle appeared with a real spring that does not correspond to the French key, but identifies it as a Catalan key model.

Collection: Images

Project: 6. Under a cloak of terror: violence and armed conflict in Europe.

Chronology: XVIII

Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University

Link: http://www.tiemposmodernos.org/tm3/index.php/tm/article/view/1875

Resource type: Image

Format: Photography

Source: De la Fuente, P. (2016). "De la arqueología a la historia: los fusiles del navío Triunfante", en Tiempos modernos, nº 33, p. 104.

Language: Spanish

Date: 2010

Owner: Roberto José Alcalde López (Modernalia)

Copyright: ©Tiempos Modernos ©Pablo de la Fuente de Pablo

Abstract: Guns recovered between 2008 and 2010 from the warship Triunfante, sunk in 1795 in the Gulf of Rosas (Catalonia, Spain)

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