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Royal Naval Artillery Volunteer with an 40-pounder RBL Armstrong gun on a pivot mount, 1892

Caption: Royal Naval Artillery Volunteer with an 40-pounder RBL Armstrong gun on a pivot mount, 1892

This volunteer wears a loose blue jumper with white-trimmed blue collar, blue bellbottom trousers and a straw 'Sennet' hat - the standard clothing for ratings in the Royal Navy from 1857. The left arm of this man's shirt displays rank and ratings badges in white, officially replaced by red in 1860. He sits on the carriage of an Armstrong gun - a rifled breech loader firing a 40-pound shell adopted by the Royal Navy in 1859 and declared obsolete in the 1870s.