Swivel Guns:                                                                      

 

The first floor landing of the Garrison Library holds a most unusual weapon seldom seen outside museums.  At the forefront of technology in its day, it serves to demonstrate the ingenuity we can summon when we wish to kill our fellows.  It is a swivel-gun which in the 15th & 16th centuries, might have been found  mounted on the rail of an armed merchantman or castles of a fighting ship.

 The engraved brass plate reads; Pierrier of the 16th century recovered from Gibraltar Harbour at a spot just in front of the Naval Docks and presented by Commander WF Blunt RN, November 23^rd 1908.

  

            

 This type of gun had been in use for around 100 years by the time they were installed in Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose. Ships' cannon could not easily be aimed; more often the ship was maneuvered to allow cannon to bear.  Even as late as Nelson's time when it was suggested that sights be fitted to naval guns, the admiral replied "I shall be happy to consider sights for my  guns, but as usual I hope to get so near to the enemy that I don't need ‘em."

 Because cleaning and reloading was time consuming, a cannon would be fired once only during each pass. A swivel gun however could be brought to bear easily and reloaded quickly and so it became a popular weapon.

        

 

 The barrel was made from a number of staves - or bars - of iron welded to form a cylinder, around a mandrel. Collars and hoops of wrought iron were heated and slipped over the cylinder and as they cooled they shrank to form a reinforced tube. In this way a gas-tight barrel was formed, strong enough to withstand the explosive inside and expel the shot.

 The separate breech chamber - slightly smaller than a dimpled pint pot - was held in place with an iron wedge.  With a number of chambers to hand, each ready charged with powder, it became a rapid-fire weapon. The gun was mounted in a stirrup which fitted into a socket cut into the ship's rail and behind the breech there was  a tiller-like  extension  which  allowed the gunner  to  elevate or depress and to swivel the piece.

 These guns were not restricted to use afloat. The earliest use ashore - that I can find - was by the Royal Artillery who referred to their ‘Petricroes’ as treacherous and unreliable. It was one of these weapons that caused the death in 1460 of James II of Scotland during the siege of Roxburgh Castle.

 "Whilst this prince, more curious nor became the Majestie of any Kinge, did stand near-hand where the artylliare was discharged. His thigh-bone was dung in two by a piece of mis-framed gune that brake in the shuting, by which he was stricken to the ground and died hastilie."

 

First published at Insight in March 1998.    Paul Hodkinson.

 

 A year or two after penning the above, I was chatting with a Spanish diver, who informed me that an identical weapon - which Angel termed a Verso - had been recovered some years ago from the area of Scott’s Yard. It was swum out of Gibraltar, under water, never to be seen here again. It is often surprising what information is out there and where it can appear from.