[note 1] When Britain adopted rifled ordnance in the 1860s, it still had large stocks of serviceable but now obsolete smoothbore guns.

[3] This was designed to fire a smooth bore spherical shell weighing 50 lb (23 kg).

[4] A number of different fuzes could be used enabling shells to either burst at a pre-determined time (and range), or on impact.

[5] In Naval service they were deployed on many smaller British cruising warships around the world.

In Land service many were mounted for coast defence in both British and colonial locations.