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We Fired a Civil War Mortar at a Caravan | Feat. Tom Scott - YouTube
Channel: English Heritage
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let me explain watches English Heritage
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are a charity that cares more than 400
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historic sites around the country and
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this year they're celebrating England's
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castles and telling some of their
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stories and some of those stories are a
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bit explosive John what are we got here
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well this is a working replica of an
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English Civil War mortar known as
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Roaring Mick the original was built in
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1646 and unlike a cannon which shoots
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level this is designed to lob
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cannonballs over the walls of castles
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and then they would explode inside doing
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as much damage as possible so we are
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actually going to blow something up
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that's the plan yes we're going to load
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this with powder we're going to shoot a
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cannonball rabbit and hopefully do some
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damage so cannonball fires cannon ball
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lands cannon ball blows up and does
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damage wins that's the general plan how
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much gunpowder we're using here okay so
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we would normally use four pounds of
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powder in a hollow cannonball and then
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we'd use another three three and a half
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pounds of powder in the breech to launch
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the Cannonball from the mortar and how
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accurate is this thing can you hit a
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target with this they're not designed
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necessarily for hitting specific items
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but we're gonna give it a very good shot
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we did think about firing this at a real
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castle but that's not a good idea so
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instead we're going to use the British
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standard for destruction on camera
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full disclosure leaning into a cannon to
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light the fuse on a cannonball just
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before it's going to blow is a little
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too risky for the 21st century so we're
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gonna fire a regular cannonball and
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after it lands and crashes in our pyro
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team is going to replace it with charges
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and blow those up but to you it will
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look seamless through the magic of
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editing you ready
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alright you load I'm going to retire to
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a safe distance
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the roaring Meg was an absolute monster
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we're here at Goodrich castle to see the
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damage she did in the summer of 1646
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during the Civil War unable to break the
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castle with conventional cannon Colonel
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birch calls the blacksmith of Goodrich
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nearby in the village to cast in iron in
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his Forge a new big mortar and that's
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roaring roaring Meg could fire explosive
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shells we think they weighed as much as
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200 pounds and basically they were bombs
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they were full of gunpowder they were
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spheres of iron with a lighted fuse
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inside and the fuse was timed in such a
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way that the charge should go off as
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near as possible at point when the shell
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hits its target
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just imagine there you are you can see
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this thing being set up and you hear the
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ominous sound of a wolf as the charge
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goes off and the shell is on its way
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towards you then it must have been an
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unbearable silence waiting for it to hit
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followed by a deafening crash as the
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shell goes off and then the damage of
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bits of iron being fired off in all
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directions absolutely horrific during
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the Civil War roaring meg concentrated
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her fire on this corner and reduced it
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to what we see now the much of the
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circuit the actual tower has completely
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been blown away and in the scraps that
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survived you can see that some of the
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squared stone has been knocked off
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revealing the rough rubble of the core
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behind
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when you look at the damage that a shell
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did to the castle behind me built of
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stone imagining that transferred to
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something flimsy like a caravan I can
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only imagine
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that was a plant fire a cannon ball hit
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the caravan blow up the caravan and full
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disclosure we were just firing a regular
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cannonball we're going to tell you that
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and then after it landed and smash the
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caravan in we're going to go in replace
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it with a mortar charge and blow it up
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so yeah we'd simulate a little but not
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above all provided with
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the reason it's difficult is because
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this isn't a cannon wood firing it's a
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mortar it's not designed to go through a
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thing if designed to go over a castle
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wall and hit somewhere inside a
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courtyard trying to hit what is actually
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a pretty small target is really
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difficult but we did keep hitting the
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same target it just wasn't the care of
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her
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at one point we hit basically within 12
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inches five times in a row
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so we moved the caravan to that position
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yeah that didn't work either he had one
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shot left after that we were out of
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black powder we had to hit it with this
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one
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we think that was close enough and we
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still had the mortar charge so we
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figured for your entertainment and for
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ours we blow up the caravan anyway
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if you want to know more about English
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heritage or out their castles techno
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link on screen or in the description
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you
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