Rocket

Rockets or the Congreve Rocket is a British heavy artillery piece that is fairly expensive and is featured in Age of Empires III.

Game Info
The Rocket is a unique British artillery unit that is unusual compared to other artillery units, but explodes spectacularly in combat. The Rocket uses a large missile that can kill infantry quickly and is very affective at destroying enemy buildings.

Real Info
The Congreve Rocket was designed by Sir William Congreve in the year 1804 when he the British was impressed by the Mysorean Rocket artillery.

Soon after the Congreve Rocket was created the British Army used the rockets many times in the Napoleonic Wars against the French. In 1806 Boulogne, France was bombarded by British rockets and suffered a devastating fire. In 1807 Copenhagen, Denmark was burnt by a British attack with more than 14.000 various missiles in the form of grenades, bombs and rockets of which about 300 were Congreve rockets. In 1813 Dantzig Germany was similarly attacked, setting the city's food stores on fire and resulting in surrender.

The Congreve Rocket was used in The War of 1812 and the use of these British rockets in the Battle of Bladensburg soon led to the buring and surrender of Washington D.C.. The Congreve Rockets were also used in the bombardment of Fort McHenry in the United States and in 1814 which is thought to have inspired the fifth line of the first verse of The Star-Spangled Banner which goes, "And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air".

The Congreve Rocket remained in use until the 1850s, when it was superseded by the improved spinning design of William Hale. In the 1870s the rockets were adopted to carry rescue lines to vessels in distress superseding the mortar of Captain Manby and rockets that had been in use since the 1830s.