RML 12 inch 25 ton gun
The RML 12-inch 25-ton guns were large rifled muzzle-loading guns of mid-late 1800s used as primary armament on British ironclad turret battleships and coastal monitors, and also ashore for coast defence. They were the shorter and less powerful of the two 12-inch (305-mm) British RML guns, the other being the 35-ton gun.
RML 12 inch 25 ton gun
Unattributed. Assumed Royal Navy. · Scanned from Page 11 of Hodges, Peter, The Big Gun: Battleship Main Armament 1860-1945. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1981. ISBN 0-87021-917-0. Originally uploaded to EN Wikipedia as en · Public domain
- Field
- rifled muzzle loader, coastal artillery weapon and naval artillery.
- Region
- United Kingdom.
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The RML 12-inch 25-ton guns were large rifled muzzle-loading guns of mid-late 1800s used as primary armament on British ironclad turret battleships and coastal monitors, and also ashore for coast defence. They were the shorter and less powerful of the two 12-inch (305-mm) British RML guns, the other being the 35-ton gun.
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wikidata · Q1307896 · wikipedia · RML 12-inch 25-ton gun
In this article
Mark I
Mark I
Four guns were first made in 1866 with a toughened mild steel tube surrounded by multiple wrought iron coils on the original Armstrong pattern.
Mark II
Mark II
While strong, the multiple coils were considered too expensive for construction in quantity. From 1867 guns were built on the simplified and hence cheaper "Fraser" system involving fewer but larger coils similar to the 10-inch (254-mm) Mk II gun. The guns were not considered a success, with the rifling twist of 1 in 100 increasing to 1 in 50 considered insufficient for accuracy, and guns were retubed in 11-inch (279-mm) calibre when their bores wore out.
Naval service
Ammunition
Ammunition
When the gun was first introduced projectiles had several rows of "studs" which engaged with the gun's rifling to impart spin. Some time after 1878, "attached gas-checks" were fitted to the bases of the studded shells, reducing wear on the guns and improving their range and accuracy. Subsequently, "automatic gas-checks" were developed which could rotate shells, allowing the deployment of a new range of studless ammunition. Thus, any particular gun potentially operated with a mix of studded and studless ammunition. The gun's primary projectile was 600 to 608-pound (272- to 275-kilogram) "Palliser" armour-piercing shot, fired with a "Battering charge" of 85 pounds (38.5 kilograms) of "P" (gunpowder) or 67 pounds (30.4 kilograms) "R.L.G." (gunpowder) for maximum velocity and hence penetrating power. Shrapnel and Common (exploding) shells weighed 497 pounds (225.5 kilograms) and were fired with a "Full charge" of 55 pounds (25 kilograms) "P" or 50 pounds (22.7 kilograms) "R.L.G.".
Surviving examples
Surviving examples
at Drake's Island, Plymouth, UK
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Unit cost of £1,715 13 shillings 5 pence is quoted in "The British Navy" Volume II, 1882, by Sir Thomas Brassey. Page 38
- 2.Treatise on Construction of Service Ordnance 1877, page 292
- 3.MV of 1,300 feet/second firing 600-pound projectile with "Battering charge" of 85 pounds "P" (gunpowder) is quoted in "Treatise on Construction of Service Ordnance 1877", page 348. MV of 1,292 feet/second firing 608 lb 6 oz projectile with "Battering charge" of 85 pounds "P2" (gunpowder) is quoted in "Text Book of Gunnery 1887" Table XVI
- 4.Treatise on Construction of Service Ordnance 1877, pages 92-94
- 5.Treatise on Ammunition 1877, pages 191,194, 220
Bibliography printed in the source article · 4
- Treatise on Ammunition. War Office, UK, 1877
- Treatise on the construction and manufacture of ordnance in the British service. War Office, UK, 1877
- Text Book of Gunnery, 1887. LONDON : PRINTED FOR HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY HARRISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE
- Sir Thomas Brassey, The British Navy, Volume II. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1882
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Militaria
6,095 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- RM-70Terminology
- RMB-93Terminology
- RML 10 inch 18 ton gunTerminology
- RML 11 inch 25 ton gunTerminology
- RML 12 inch 35 ton gunTerminology
- RML 12.5 inch 38 ton gunTerminology
- RML 16 inch 80 ton gunTerminology
- RML 17.72 inch gunTerminology
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