gunnage

English

Etymology

gun +‎ -age

Noun

gunnage

1. The number of guns carried by a warship.
   • 1895, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, The Maid of Sker, page 237:

     For being set afloat again, after swimming all night and half a day, he brought into the Portland Roads a Crappo ship of twice his tonnage, and three times his gunnage; and now his sailors were delighted, having hope of prize-money.

   • 1911, William Makepeace Thackeray, Sketches and travels in London, page 295:

     What winds blew, and how many knots we ran, are all noted down, no doubt, in the ship's log: and as for what ships we saw—every one of them with their gunnage, tonnage, their nation, their direction whither they were bound—were not these all noted down with surprising ingenuity and precision by the lieutenant, at a family desk at which he sat every night, before a great paper elegantly and mysteriously ruled off with his large ruler?

   • 1985, A. J. Holland, Buckler's Hard: A Rural Shipbuilding Centre, page 221:

     The gunnage shown does not necessarily mean that a ship had that exact number of guns; gunnage was an administrative formula for the computation of the size of the crew.

2. (historical) A bounty or prize paid to the captors of an enemy ship, based on the number of guns on that enemy ship.
   • 1702, A. Baldwin, An Answer to Mr. Paschal's letter to his friend in the country, page 12:

     Now Sir, if you look back you'll find the Number of Guns exactly agree with the Gunnage here payd; and that after the passing his Accounts and deducting his own share, he gave them a Note for 300 l, which being divided as the Act directs, there is coming to the King about 84 l.

   • 1871, Calendar of Treasury Papers, 1556-7-1696, preserved in Her Majesty's Public Record Office, page 267:

     Letter unsigned, by order of the Lords of the Treasury, addressed to the Officers of Ordnance, touching 133l. 6s. 8d., which had been ordered into the hands of the treasurer and paymaster of the office of ordnance for Capt. Walters, on account of gunnage: desiring them to order the treasurer to pay the captain that sum not on account of gunnage, but as bounty for extraordinary service.

   • 2008, J. D. Davies, Pepys's Navy: Ships, Men & Warfare, 1649–1689:

     All prizes would now be worth 10s a ton for every ton of the prize, and ₤6 13s 4d for every gun she carried ('tonnage and gunnage'); if an enemy warship was destroyed, prize money would be paid at the rate of £10 per gun.

3. The size of the guns on a warship.
   • 1935, Rolland A. Chaput, Disarmament in British Foreign Policy, page 158:

     Unlike the other delegations, the British proposed to reopen the settlements of Washington regarding capital ships and aircraft carriers by extending the accepted life of existing capital ships from twenty to twenty-six years, reducing the size of any battleship to be built in the future from 35,000 to something under 30,000 tons and their maximum gunnage from 16-inch to 13.5-inch, and reducing the maximum size of aircraft carriers from 27,000 to 25,000 tons and their maximum gunnage from 8-inch to 6-inch .