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Ordóñez guns


Ordóñez guns are a type of coastal artillery that Salvador Diaz Ordóñez, an artillery officer in the Spanish Army, designed in the late 19th Century. Most of the models were guns, but some were howitzers. The guns ranged in caliber from 150mm (5.9") to 305mm (12"). They were made in Spain, at the Trubia Arms Factory (Fábrica de armas de Trubia), in Asturias, and the Spanish installed them in forts and batteries at home, for instance at Ceuta, and throughout their empire, in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines. The Ordóñez guns appear to have been used for protecting Spain's colonies; reportedly the Spanish generally reserved the higher quality, and much more expensive, Hontoria guns for the defense of Spain.

Although they have been obsolete for more than a century, a few Ordóñez guns have survived to the present as historical artifacts. There is one at Santa Clara Battery in Havana, a second, heavily damaged by the explosion of a shell, and brought from Subic Bay, at the Presidio of San Francisco, and a third at Castillo de San Cristóbal (Puerto Rico).

The guns were rifled breech-loading weapons with a cast iron body, hooped with wrought iron, and with a steel tube screwed in place that contained the breechblock and extended just forward of the trunnions. The Ordóñez guns captured at Havana were all 35 to 36 calibers in length.) The breechblocks were lever-actuated, and of the French or interrupted screw type, though the obturating ring followed the Krupp design. The guns appear to have been mounted en barbette, rather than on a disappearing carriage.


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