bar which extended upon firing. Link shot A series of long chain links which unfolded and extended upon firing. Langridge Bags of any junk (scrap metal, bolts, rocks, gravel, old musket balls, etc.) fired to injure enemy crews. Fire arrows A thick dartlike incendiary projectile with a barbed point, wrapped with pitch-soaked canvas which took fire when the gun was fired. The point stuck in sails, hulls, or spars and set fire to the enemy ship. Heated shot Shore forts sometimes heated iron shot red-hot in a special furnace before loading it (with water-soaked wads to prevent it from setting off the powder charge prematurely). The hot shot lodging in a ship's dry timbers would set the ship afire. Because of the danger of fire aboard, heated shot were seldom used aboard ships. Molten iron shell A variation on heated shot, where molten metal from a furnace is poured into a hollowed out shell and then allowed to cool briefly to seal the molten metal in before firing. was outfitted to fire molten shells. Double shot Two round shot or other projectiles loaded in one gun and fired at the same time. Double-shotting lowered the effective range and accuracy of the gun, but could be devastating within pistol shot range; that is, when ships drew close enough for a pistol shot to reach between the two ships. To avoid bursting the gun, reduced powder charges were used. Guns sometimes were double-shotted with canister or grape on top of ball, or even triple-shotted with very small powder charges which still were enough to cause horrible wounds at close range. Exploding shell Ammunition that worked like a grenade, exploding and sending shrapnel everywhere, either by a burning fuse which was cut to a calculated length depending on the range, or (after 1861) on contact with the target. Shells were often used in mortars, and specialized and reinforced "bomb vessels" (often ketch-rigged so that there was less rigging to obstruct the high-angle mortar shell) were adapted to fire huge mortars for shore bombardment. The "bombs bursting in air" over Fort McHenry in the American national anthem were this type of projectile. See also Age of Sail Naval tactics in the Age of Sail Howitzer Naval artillery List of cannon projectiles References Further reading Howard, Frank, "Early Ship Guns. Part I: Built-up Breech-loaders", Mariner's Mirror 72 (1986), pp. 439–53. Howard, Frank, "Early Ship Guns.