SWIVEL GUN - Centuries of versatile, mobile firepower

This very simple design of mounting a small cannon on a very maneuverable pivot dates back to at least the late 1400s when it was used aboard many European military and merchant vessels. The high-seas ships of the great explorers like Columbus and Magellan carried early types of these guns. Spanish and Portuguese voyages to the Far East also brought them to the attention of the great Asian powers, China and Korea. In the late 1500s, the latter used them to great effect repelling Japanese invasion forces.

Typically made of brass, a swivel gun was a powerful antipersonnel weapon. Swivel guns were commonly used on the walls of forts and sides of boats and ships to repeal attackers. They were normally loaded with a charge of powder followed by musket shot, rocks, nails or scrap metal and functioned like a giant shotgun. Countless ship-to-ship battles during the Great Age of Sail relied heavily on the devastating deck-clearing effect of swivel gun blasts.

Even as the main guns of warships grew ever larger over the next centuries, swivel guns continued to see wide service, particularly among the European colonial powers and their New World successors as they penetrated the continental interiors of the Americas. The dependence on smaller boats (gunboats, keelboats and other small craft) that could navigate the vast continental river systems and lakes ensured that swivel guns were considered essential weapons until well into the 19th century.

Historical Swivel Gun Highlights:

- The Gunboat Philadelphia

Now on display at the Smithsonian Institution, this 54-foot vessel is considered to be oldest surviving American fighting vessel. She was built in 1776 along with eight other similar vessels to defend the Champlain Valley - the northern frontier of the American colonies. In addition to three large carriage guns, the Philadelphia carried eight swivel guns that saw plenty of action before the vessel was sunk by superior British firepower during the Battle of Lake Champlain on Oct. 11, 1776. The gunboat was raised in 1935 with most of her equipment. The current Smithsonian display includes an original 18th-century swivel gun mounted on the Philadelphia's starboard gunwale.

A Lewis and Clark Celebration

On their historic journey to the Pacific Ocean, the Lewis and Clark expedition used a 55-foot keelboat to navigate up the Ohio and Missouri rivers. The boat carried a "one-pounder" swivel cannon mounted on a stand just behind the bow. Later in the journey, when the party traveled overland, they took the gun along as a vital piece of portable close-range artillery. Here's an excerpt from the history of the expedition featuring a special July 4 celebration:

"At first light on 4 July, Lewis ordered the swivel gun on the keelboat to be fired in honor of the new day. Private John Fields was bitten by a snake when the party stopped to dine at Pond's Creek sometime after 1 p.m., briefly taking everyone's mind off the Fourth of July and focusing them instead on scanning the long grass to avoid getting bit themselves. Later that afternoon, Captain Lewis directed the men to ground the keelboat for the day near a creek flowing into the river. The soldiers were sweaty and filthy from maneuvering the keelboat, so Lewis instructed First Sergeant John Ordway to have the men bathe before donning their uniforms for a simple Fourth of July commemoration he planned that evening. Lewis also authorized the distribution of an extra ration of whiskey to the Soldiers to toast the birth of their nation."

"Before sundown, Lewis gathered the Soldiers for a short speech. He commented on their considerable achievements to date while candidly noting that great trials still lay ahead. In honor of the nation's birthday, Lewis announced that the stream next to their camp site would henceforth be known as 'Independence Creek.' At the conclusion of the brief talk, he ordered the swivel gun fired once again to salute the end of a very special day."

- Boon for Whalers

The common use of swivel guns across many types of vessels soon led to a new application on whaling ships. Whalers were often frustrated by their inability to get close enough to whales for a thrown harpoon to be effective, especially in northern waters, where sea ice often blocked the approach of whale boats.

A report from the late 1700s records the first use of a swivel gun- powered harpoon in 1731:

"At the [South Sea] company's dock there had at this time [1731] been invented a new sort of gun for shooting with gunpowder the harpoons into the bodies of whales, at a greater distance than the harpoons could be thrown by hand; and the ships were accordingly provided with some of them, which were used both in this and the next year's fishery, with some success. They were chiefly adapted to a calm season, and were scarcely practicable in blowing weather, which mostly happens in the Greenland seas. And although the foreign harpooneers could not easily be brought to use them, as being out of their usual method; yet in a ship, fitted out by Mr. Elias Bird and partners, two years after, out of the three whales brought home, two of them were said to be killed by that new-invented gun."

Potent Duck Hunter

With their proven effectiveness against human targets, it was little wonder that hunters tried them out on game. In fact, over the centuries, swivel guns serving on shallow water boats where waterfowl were abundant were probably used for hunting whenever the opportunity arose.

An excerpt from a 1906 article on duck-hunting in the Chesapeake Bay recounts how many decades earlier, when the waters of the bay were "black with wild fowl," early American hunters couldn't resist the temptation to bring home birds the easy way: "The swivel gun was simply an enormous shotgun, which rotated on a pivot in the bow of a boat, thus taking up the recoil. It was used at night, when the sleeping birds were crowded closely together - "huddled" it is called - on the surface of the water; and, as it carried a full pound of shot, each discharge cut as distinct lane through the mass of ducks. Almost from the first, the swivel gun was held in disfavor; and long before its use was outlawed no man would admit the ownership of one of these guns; but scores of them were hidden away ..."