{"id":10232,"date":"2026-05-14T18:38:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=10232"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:38:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:38:55","slug":"giant-fire-darts-from-the-mary-rose-deliver-real-firepower-in-hands-on-trials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=10232","title":{"rendered":"Giant Fire Darts from the Mary Rose Deliver Real Firepower in Hands-On Trials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/14110148\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing.jpg\" alt=\"Giant Fire Darts Mary Rose Ship Testing\" width=\"960\" height=\"961\"\/><br \/>Modern tests have brought new life to a weapon long forgotten from one of history\u2019s famous ships. Crews aboard the Mary Rose carried dozens of giant fire darts among their armaments back in 1545. No one knew exactly how these massive incendiary projectiles worked until a team decided to recreate them and run real world trials. The results show why sailors once dreaded weapons like these on wooden ships packed with gunpowder and canvas.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-243296\"\/><br \/><iframe title=\"Giant Fire Darts from the Mary Rose: TESTED\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_c6LyEH8RD8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><noscript><iframe title=\"Giant Fire Darts from the Mary Rose: TESTED\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_c6LyEH8RD8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript><br \/>\nBuilders meticulously recreated every piece from salvaged wreckage. Each dart is slightly over two meters long and weighs four kg. A barbed iron head is in the front, meant to bury itself deep into the wood. The shaft is made of silver fir and has a diameter of 40mil. Oak and beech fins go right through the back and are glued in place for stability, as you don\u2019t want this thing to tip over in mid-flight. You cover the entire thing in thick pitch to keep the rain out and let the flames spread like wildfire. Inside the head is a cloth bag filled with precisely blended gunpowder that has been modified to produce a pleasant slow burn rather than a fast explosion. Two oak pegs keep the fuses sealed until you need to utilize them properly. When you pull the pegs out, a small capping charge ignites the entire thing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"aawp\">\n<div class=\"aawp-product aawp-product--horizontal\" data-aawp-product-asin=\"B0FMS97LGV\" data-aawp-product-id=\"232379\" data-aawp-tracking-id=\"tec02e-20\" data-aawp-product-title=\"LEGO Icons Captain Jack Sparrow\u2019s Pirate Ship Building Set for Adults Ages 18+ - Room Decor for Office Bedroom or Shelf - Collectible Black Pearl Ship for Pirates of The Caribbean Fans - 10365\">\n<div class=\"aawp-product__thumb\">\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aawp-product__image\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51MraqlJFBL._SL160_.jpg\" alt=\"LEGO Icons Captain Jack Sparrow\u2019s Pirate Ship Building Set for Adults, Ages 18+ - Room Decor for...\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"aawp-product__content\">\n<p>            LEGO Icons Captain Jack Sparrow\u2019s Pirate Ship Building Set for Adults, Ages 18+ &#8211; Room Decor for&#8230;        <\/p>\n<div class=\"aawp-product__description\">\n<ul>\n<li>BUILDING SET FOR ADULTS \u2013 Embark on a creative voyage with the LEGO Icons Captain Jack Sparrow&#8217;s Pirate Ship (10365) building set for adults<\/li>\n<li>9 LEGO MINIFIGURES \u2013 Pose Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Gibbs, Cotton, Anamaria, Marty, Elizabeth Swann and Hector Barbossa minifigures around The&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>AUTHENTIC DETAILS &amp; FEATURES \u2013 Rotate dials to deploy the port or starboard cannons, turn the ship&#8217;s wheel to steer the rudder, place minifigures in&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/14111159\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing-1.jpg\" alt=\"Giant Fire Darts Mary Rose Ship Testing\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>\nFirst, they performed some ignition checks in the open air, with testers yanking out the pegs and simply touching a flame to the fuses to see what occurred. Thick smoke rose immediately, followed by a constant stream of flames and puddles of molten pitch soaking everywhere. The fire burned for ages and refused to go out, regardless of whether they tried to extinguish it with water or just covered it in sand. Even when they tried to smother it, it continued going. One of the witnesses observed that the smoke itself had a dreadful deadly edge from all the additives like camphor and arsenic they\u2019d thrown in, which would be enough to knock anyone out if they were stuck below decks.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/14111206\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing-2.jpg\" alt=\"Giant Fire Darts Mary Rose Ship Testing\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>The team then attempted to throw darts from the height of a crow\u2019s nest, which was around 7 or 8 meters above the ground. You need two hands to hold it because it is so heavy, and keeping the lit fuse away from your body is difficult. The lengths they were able to hit ranged from 11 to 19 metres, depending on who was throwing it. The dart did a decent job of adjusting its trajectory and clearing the side of a model ship with plenty of room to spare. It turned out that igniting the fuse at the last second, just before you let it go, was the safest way to do it, but it was still a difficult task, especially if you were attempting to do it in the wind or rain. The motion itself seemed difficult in tiny spaces, but it was still manageable if you were determined enough.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/14111211\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing-3.jpg\" alt=\"Giant Fire Darts Mary Rose Ship Testing\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>They next moved on to the cannon tests, which began with a scale model and progressed to the full-size version. A full-on powder charge caused the dart to fly apart in mid-air, flexing the shaft and tearing free the head. However, switching to a soft, low-velocity load turned everything upside down, as the dart continued to fly all the way out to 50 or 80 meters, even with that large bulbous head on the end. They had wrapped cord around the shaft to keep it from breaking, and having a wooden tampion on the back allowed the gun to push evenly against it. If you were attempting to take out an opposing vessel that was sneaking up alongside, a low cannon fire might have worked well.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/14111217\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing-4.jpg\" alt=\"Giant Fire Darts Mary Rose Ship Testing\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>One of the exercises they conducted was to target some anti-boarding netting that had been stretched across a deck. Dropping a lit dart from 8.5 metres demonstrated how easily it might catch fire and burn through the netting. Flaming pitch flowed down into the planks below, and the defenders were in for a rude awakening if someone fired a flaming dart at them. If they managed to get a low shot off, the dart would get tangled in the netting, but the flames would continue to burn straight over the defenders\u2019 heads. So the netting, which was supposed to be a shield, ended up being a trap.<br \/><span>[Source]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Giant Fire Darts from the Mary Rose Deliver Real Firepower in Hands-On Trials<br \/>\n<br \/>#Giant #Fire #Darts #Mary #Rose #Deliver #Real #Firepower #HandsOn #Trials<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Modern tests have brought new life to a weapon long forgotten from one of history\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8414,3689,626,8416,354,1147,4611,490,8415,4145],"class_list":["post-10232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","tag-darts","tag-deliver","tag-fire","tag-firepower","tag-giant","tag-handson","tag-mary","tag-real","tag-rose","tag-trials"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing.jpg",960,961,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing-768x769.jpg",640,641,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing.jpg",640,641,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing.jpg",960,961,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing.jpg",960,961,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing.jpg",960,961,false],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/giant-fire-darts-mary-rose-ship-testing-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/news678.top\/?cat=8\" rel=\"category\">Tech<\/a>","tag_info":"Tech","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}