Cultural Artefact
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South Seas Companion
Cultural Artefact
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Swivel Gun |
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| Swivel guns were small cannons carried naval and many merchant vessels. |
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As the name implies, the swivel gun was a small cannon mounted on a swivel or pivot, usually on a ship's rail, allowing a wide arc of fire. Swivel guns could fire a small ball or lead shot into boats attempting to board a vessel. In close engagements, swivel guns could be mounted in a ship's rigging in order to fire down onto the enemy's decks. On Cook's voyage of discovery the Endeavour carried 12 swivel guns. | |
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| Cultural Artefacts: Carriage Gun | |
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Published by South Seas, 1 February 2004 Comments, questions, corrections and additions: Paul.Turnbull@jcu.edu.au Prepared by: Paul Turnbull Updated: 28 June 2004 To cite this page use: http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-ss-biogs-P000042 |