Thread: cannon ball ID
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Old 3rd November 2013, 07:00 PM   #22
fernando
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Besides the poor grade of my empirical translations, very often terms are not strictly translatable to the letter.
In portuguese the term 'shell' doesn't apply to the ammunition universe. We either have 'grenade' or 'bomb' for what this issue matters.
Also the attribution of 'sac', admittedly not being the primary term in artillery lexicon, has its origin in the fact that grapeshot was indeed wrapped in a canvas sac, tightened with string to apply solidity to its contents.
Eventually ammunitions involved in this issue have have somehow different names in portuguese, which creates some difficulty in shifting them to english; grapeshot is called 'bunch' (like for grape bunch) and caseshot is called 'lanterneta' (from lantern).
What i infer from Welington's words is that he preferred (sacs of) musket bullets (sic) being shot directly by cannons than shrapnel being bursted by howitzer, call it shells/grenades/bombs.

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