How gun locks changed firing control

Before ignition, the crew primed the touch hole with fine powder or a prefilled quill. A linstock required a crewman to approach the touch hole with a smouldering match and introduced a noticeable delay between ignition and discharge. On a rolling, smoke-filled gun deck, that delay made precise timing difficult and exposed the firer to the weapon's recoil. The flintlock-style gun lock, adopted by the Royal Navy from about 1745, allowed the gun captain to pull a lanyard from behind the weapon. He could therefore time the shot to the ship's roll and aim more deliberately at an enemy's rigging or hull. Adoption remained uneven because older guns could not simply be converted, so replacement depended on new production, money, and access to British-pattern weapons. Even at Trafalgar, some Royal Navy ships carried a mixture of gun-lock and linstock weapons acquired from older ships or prizes.