Meanwhile the Select Committee appointed in August 1858 to recommend a system of rifled ordnance for adoption into the services was under pressure to make a quick decision owing to the current international situation. France, who had adopted rifled ordnance in 1856, was threatening to invade England.
Now the committee was impressed with Armstrong's guns with which they had become familiar but they had not studied Whitworth's; they had merely noted the performance of the Government guns he had rifled. Although they had promised to make a detailed study of Whitworth's system of gun construction they had not done so. Instead, in November 1858 they recommended Armstrong's system be adopted 'for special service in the field'.
To justify their failure to study Whitworth's system they made lame excuses, chief of which was that some of 'his' cast iron pieces had burst, when they well knew they were not 'his' but Government pieces. That he had advised the rifling of cast iron guns they chose to ignore. Also, they claimed his shot ranged differently from his shell - as they still do - and that his projectiles drifted - as they still do. Thus the committee hardly gave Whitworth a 'fair go'. Naturally he was rather upset. Determined to prove the superiority of his system he commenced making guns for sale to foreign powers, eg the Confederate States during the American Civil War. He later embarrassed the British authorities when his guns proved superior to Armstrong's in range, accuracy, and in the defeat of armour plate. Therefore, although Whitworth's guns were not accepted for the British forces, a brief description of their construction as well as ammunition will be given. The innovations they contained justify it.
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WL Ruffell
Issue 95
September 1997
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