High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Coastal artillery is the branch of armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. It has been held as a general rule of thumb, that one shore-based gun equalled three naval guns of the same caliber, due to the steadiness of the coastal gun which allowed for significantly higher accuracy than their sea-mounted counterparts. Land-based guns also benefited in most cases from the protection of walls or earth mounds which gave the guns a measure of protection unseen in naval vessels before the advent of armour in the 19th century.