Cast-iron cannon change the economics of fleet firepower

Cast iron reduced the cost of a gun dramatically compared with bronze, allowing navies to arm far more ships and sustain larger fleets. The cost estimate given here puts an iron gun at 15 to 20 percent of the price of a bronze equivalent. In 1794, roughly 12,000 guns armed about 230 commissioned rated ships, while the Royal Navy's total requirement may have reached 20,000 to 30,000 after adding smaller vessels, fortresses, reserves, maintenance, and replacements. Foundries and their skilled workforce became permanent investments, a problem that also discouraged the early United States from funding ships of the line. Iron pieces needed more material and could fail violently, while bronze more often gave warning through cracking. Vasa provides a cautious case study of how the distribution of bronze and iron guns could affect stability without making gun metal the sole cause of her loss.