trundle shot

English

Noun

trundle shot (uncountable)

  1. (historical) A projectile used with naval artillery, made up of two lead balls joined by an iron bar 30 to 45 cm long, sharpened at both ends.[1][2]
    • 1627, John Smith, chapter 14, in A Sea Grammar‎, London: John Haviland, page 67:
      Trundle shot is onely a bolt of iron sixteene or eighteene inches in length; at both ends sharpe pointed, and about a handfull from each end a round broad bowle of lead according to the bore of the Peece cast vpon it.
    • 2001, William T. Vollmann, Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith‎, New York: Viking, page 23:
      He writes self-magnifyingly of his successes, while pricking out the defailments of others in words as sharp-ended as trundle-shot.

References
  1. Elisha Coles, An English Dictionary, London: Peter Parker, 1677: “Trundle-shot, cast upon the midle of an Iron sharp at both ends.”
  2. Edward S. Farrow, Farrow’s Military Encyclopedia, New York, 1885, Volume 3, p. 493: “TRUNDLE-SHOT.— A bar of iron, 12 or 18 inches long, sharpened at both ends, and having a ball of lead near each end; it upsets during its flight.”
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