I'd call it as an 8.7cm Krupp C80 (8,7/24 sm. mantelli sahra top) - the 18 Pounder designation is a British guess at the projectile weight. The heaviest projectile used was shrapnel - 7.1 kg (15.6 lb).
I see that the lunette (towing eye) is somewhat different from the 9cm C/1873. Is the difference in the lunette a way to identify the 8,7cm C/1880 from the 9cm C/1873?
R/
Ralph
-- Edited by Ralph Lovett on Monday 1st of August 2011 12:55:16 PM
I found an image of another C80 at Mt Perry, Queensland - same lunette as the captured gun - not clear whether this gun was Krupp or Turkish built. Another one at Bloemfontein, South Africa - this one has a build date of 1887 and the Arabic script on the breech ring says it was built by Krupp.
Looks like the lunette is different from the C73s in both of these guns.
Thanks, I had noticed that a lot of the Ottoman/Turkish guns that resemble the C/1873 have this lunette type. I had thought it likely was a variation and was not sure if it was a different model designation.
Interesting to know that these are 8,7cm C/1880s.
R/
Ralph
-- Edited by Ralph Lovett on Monday 1st of August 2011 02:27:49 PM
The article on Ottoman/Turkish Artillery markings is very good.Thanks for all the work that went into it.
The only point I would suggest is to describe the numbering system used by the Ottomans as Indic-Arabic as opposed to the Arabic numerals that we use in Europe, US, Australia, etc.
Thanks Ralph - I agree. I've modified the text to indicate this. I like the idea in the Wikipedia article on Arabic numerals that describes Western numerals as "West Arabic" and
the Arabic-Indic numerals as "East Arabic". That seems to emphasise that the Western and Arabic-Indic number systems are the same, only the symbols are different.