I've mentioned the quick-firing or QF gun many times here, as one of the main ingredients that went into the pre-dreadnought. This was a gun, usually of 6" caliber, which fired much more quickly than the larger guns that formed the main armament. QF guns were capable of doing tremendous damage to unarmored sections of an enemy ship, and for a time rivaled the main guns of battleships in importance.

The first of the QF guns1 was the 6-pounder Hotchkiss of 1884, a 57mm weapon intended to protect larger ships against torpedo boats. Unlike previous naval guns, which first loaded a shell and then powder in bags behind it,2 the QF 6 pdr used fixed ammunition, where the powder was contained in a brass cartridge case attached to the shell, exactly like a very large round of small arms ammunition. Because the cartridge case sealed the breech adequately and prevented the propellant gas from escaping, the breech mechanism was a sliding block, only present to provide support to the cartridge. Another aspect was the recoil mechanism, which returned the gun to firing position automatically, instead of needing to be manually repositioned. All of this meant that a gun crew could pump out 20-25 rounds every minute, a significant advance over previous weapons.
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