Come and Take It! The Gonzalez Cannon

[fernando]

From the Spanish Royal Academy ... Historical dictionary of the Spanish language.

" The culevrina is documented for the first time, with the meaning 'artillery weapon with a barrel longer than 30 muzzle diameters * that throws projectiles, generally metallic, at a great distance', in the 15th century, in an anonymous Sales Letter (1451) and with the culubrine variant. It is recorded for the first time in the Recveil de dictionaires francoys, espaignolz et latins (1599), by H. Hornkens; In addition, it is collected in the Dictionary of Authorities of 1729. There are a large number of testimonies of the various types of culverin that have existed; among them, the most common is the medium (half) culverin. Like other ancient artillery weapons, they could be legitimate or bastard, depending on whether or not they met the established standards for their length and caliber. These standards have varied over time, so the characteristics of each piece must always be considered in context."

*
A typical way to determine artillery dimensions. Culverin barrels being equivalent to (also called) 30 calibers, their lengths, as already mentioned, measure circa 3 meters.