What is "touchholes"

Usage examples of "touchholes".

All over the verandah and the full length of the corridor, the black soldiers were squatting or sitting on the floor, loading breech cups for swivel guns and horn or wooden load tubes for calivers and arquebuses, cleaning weapons, reaming touchholes, and checking the actions of wheel-locks.

Mike Sikeena had adroitly and silently clubbed down the two sentries on the foredeck and the quarterdeck, both he and Arsen guided their opened carriers along the rank of iron guns positioned in the waist of the ship, unplugging touchholes, filling these holes with fine priming powder from flasks they carried, then going on to the next gun, not stopping until all of the larboard deck guns had been primed to fire.

The Duke was saving his guns the wear and tear of incessant firing that could blow out touchholes and even split barrels.

Some guns shot their vents, leaving a gaping hole where their touchholes had been, while others broke their carriages, and one twelve-pounder exploded as an air bubble in its cast barrel finally gave way.

Each of the archaic pieces was covered with waxed tarpaulins against the frequent misty drizzles, and under them, thick, tarred tampons sealed the gaping muzzles, while waxed plugs stopped the touchholes atop the breeches.