They were indeed conical, and filled with sharp shards of flint. According to the museum description the idea was for the wooden canister to remain in one piece during the flight, and then shatter as it hit, sending the stone shards flying all over the place. I would guess that accuracy and effective range were both quite poor.
The pictures here show one of the cannons from the wreck. They also had another similar cannon on display from the same wreck, with the same stock, breech-loading, and rack of spare chambers as this one, but with a smaller calibre. The fourth picture shows some chain and bar shot, also from the same wreck.
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