Cannon needed inspection, reassignment, and replacement

Cannon wore out, so equipping a fleet created a continuing maintenance and replacement burden. Gunnery officers tested guns during service, while armorers and ordnance specialists surveyed them when a ship left commission and entered ordinary. Unsuitable weapons could go back to an arsenal for melting down and possible reuse of their material. Some could instead serve in fortifications where they would fire less often, rather than becoming regularly used practice pieces. Melting down was the more usual outcome described here, making replacement guns part of an ongoing industrial workload.