Description

Two complete and one partial examples of sliding shot (Type 2) were recovered from the site; these consisted of two balls connected by two loops of copper alloy wire sliding over one another.  Several other shot in the assemblage may have been of this type but the wire has since corroded.

These were nicknamed ‘Scorpions’ or ‘Staffordshire knot shots’ and were encountered by British forces at Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny 1858 (Illustrated London News, 1858). Similar shot was reportedly recovered from the Loosdrecht, a Dutch East Indiaman wrecked on the needles in 1719 and is on display at the Isle of Wight Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum.