Replica breech loading swivel gun

[appalichian hunter]

A while back we were on vacation went to James town Va. for a visit, at the warf there were 3 replica ships of the time they all had those type guns on board, I engaged one of the representatives on board the ship he was very informative as to the how they worked, I would think a seasoned gun crew on them would be right quick in loading and firing them.

 

[Rifleman1776]

You say replica in title. If it's so then by definition it is non firing show piece.
If a reproduction then it is capable of use. As I understand the defines of the terms.
Only point this out because stated , hope it functions.

Disagree. Replica is a near perfect copy of the original and could be fired. Reproduction can be a close copy of an original or an el cheapo display piece.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I believe, at one time a swivel cannon similar to that was at Fort Necessity.

 

[Canute Rex]

The construction of the barrel with the rings around it arose because at the time they didn't have a ability to melt that quantity of iron to a liquid and cast it. As tenngun points out, they were assembled. A set of wrought iron bars were welded together like barrel staves and then the rings were welded around them. Wrought iron has a structure of longitudinal fibers of silica, so a bar is really good in tension, but has a tendency to split. Without those tension rings the barrel would be weak. Even with them, this type of barrel had a tendency to split in between the rings. Mons Meg, the huge cannon at Edinburgh Castle failed that way.