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Aswivel gun (or simplyswivel)[1] is a smallcannon mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an earlyflintlockcombination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to switch between either therifled or thesmoothbore barrels.[2]
Swivel guns should not be confused withpivot guns, which were far larger weapons mounted on a horizontal pivot, orscrew guns, which are amountain gun with a segmented barrel.
An older term for the type ispeterero (alternative spellings include "paterero" and "pederero"). The name was taken from the Spanish name for the gun, pedrero, a combination of the word piedra (stone) and the suffix -ero (-er), because stone was the first type of ammunition fired.
It had a high rate of fire, as several chambers could be prepared in advance and quickly fired in succession and was especially effective inanti-personnel roles. It was used for centuries inEurope,Asia andAfrica.
Althoughbreech-loading is often considered a modern innovation which facilitated the loading of cannons,[3] breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century,[4] and used worldwide from the 16th century onward by numerous countries, many of them non-European. They have been called by many names, sometimes "Murderer", "Base", "Sling", "Port-Piece", "Serpentine", "Culverin", "Pierrier", "Stock Fowler", and "Patterero" in English;[5][6]: 368–369 [7] "Pierrier à boîte" in French; "Berço" in Portuguese; "Verso" in Spanish;[8] "Prangi" in Turkish;[9]: 143 "Kammerschlange" (lit. "chamber snake", properly means "breech-loadingfalconet") in German; "Folangji" (佛郎机, fromTurkish "Prangi" orTurkic "Farangi"),[9]: 143 "Folangji chong"[10]: 348–349 (佛郎机铳, Prangi or Farangi gun),[9]: 143 "Fo-lang-chi p'ao" (佛朗机炮 or 佛朗機砲,Portuguese cannon)[11] in Chinese; "Bulang-kipo" ("불랑기포[佛郞機砲]") in Korean;[12] "Furanki" (仏郎機砲, "Frankish gun") or 子砲 ("Child cannon") in Japanese;[13][14] and "Bedil" or "bḍil" (ꦧꦣꦶꦭ) in Javanese.[15]: 238 and 247 Some of them were used until the 20th century.[14]
Swivel guns were developed and used from 1364 onward.[6]: 366 The guns were loaded withmug-shaped chambers, in which gunpowder and projectile had been filled in advance. The chamber was then put in place, blocked with a wedge, and then fired. As the loading was made in advance and separately, breech-loading swivel guns were quick-firing guns for their time.[16] An early description of a swivel gun puts the weight of the gun at 118 kilograms (260 lb), equipped with three chambers for rotations, each 18 kilograms (40 lb) in weight, and firing a 280 grams (9.9 oz)lead shot.[17] The guns had a disadvantage: they leaked and lost power around the chambers, but this was compensated by the high rate of fire as multiple chambers could be prepared in advance.[18] A swivel gun could fire either cannonballs against obstacles, orgrapeshot against troops.[19]
During the Middle Ages, breech-loading swivel guns were developed by the Europeans also partly as a cheaper alternative to the very expensivebronze castmuzzle-loading cannons, as bronze was many times more expensive than iron. As cast iron was not yet technologically feasible for the Europeans, the only possibility was to usewrought iron bars hammered together and held with hoops like barrels. With this method, a one-piece design was very difficult, and a fragmental structure, with separated chamber and barrel, was then selected.[19][20]
Around 1500, Europeans learnt how to cast iron, and shifted their cannon productions to one-piece iron muzzleloaders. China started to adopt European swivel guns from 1500 onward, limiting at the same time the production of their own muzzleloaders, because of the high effectiveness of the swivel gun as ananti-personnel gun, which to them was more interesting than the sheer power of a cannonball.[19]
Usage of breech-loading swivel guns continued in Europe however, with, as early as the 17th century, characteristics very similar to the modernmachine-gun ormitrailleuse.[21]
Breech-loading swivel guns were used to advantage at the bow and stern onwarships, but were also used in fortifications.[16]
Breech-loading guns were used by Burgundians as early as 1364. The Portuguese hadversos (Berços) in c. 1410, while England has a picture of port-pieces of 1417, although the picture itself was made c. 1485.[6]: 366 The Ottomans used the prangi from the mid-15th century onwards in field battles, aboard their ships, and in their forts, where prangis often comprised the majority of the ordnance.[22]: 100 These weapons would spread eastward to Indian ocean, eventually reaching Southeast Asia in c. 1460 AD.[23]
In China and Japan, breech-loading swivel guns were brought after China defeated the Portuguese in the 16th century. At theBattle of Xicaowan in 1522, after defeating the Portuguese in battle, the Chinese captured Portuguese breech-loading swivel guns and then reverse engineered them, calling them "Folangji" or "Fo-lang-chi"[11] (佛郎機 –Frankish) guns, since the Portuguese were called "Folangji" by the Chinese. A shipwreck in 1523 apparently brought the gun to China, but the transmission may have occurred earlier.[17][24] Views diverge on whether the origin of the cannon is Portuguese or Turkish. There was a confusion whetherfolangji was supposed to be the name of a people (the Portuguese) or name of a weapon. In fact the wordfolangji represent 2 different words with different etymology. The termfolangji as a weapon is related to the prangi carried inOttoman galleys andfarangi used byBabur. The word folangji as anethnonym (Frankish or Portuguese) is unrelated.[9]: 143 The Ottoman prangi guns may have reached Indian ocean before either Ottoman or Portuguese ships did.[9]: 242 They may also reach China through theSilk Road.[25] In theHistory of the reign of Wan Li (萬厲野獲編), byShen Defu, it is said that "After the reign ofHong Zhi (1445–1505), China started havingFu-Lang-Ji cannons, the country of which was called in the old timesSam Fu Qi". In volume 30 about "The Red-Haired Foreigners" he wrote "After the reign ofZhengtong (1436–1449) China got hold ofFu-Lang-Ji cannons, the most important magic instrument of foreign people". He mentioned the cannons some 60 or 70 years prior to the first reference about Portuguese. It was impossible for the Chinese to get hold of the Portuguese cannons prior to their arrival.[26] Pelliot viewed that thefolangji gun reached China before Portuguese did, possibly by anonymous carriers from Malaya.[27] Needham noted that breech-loading guns were already familiar in Southern China in 1510, as a rebellion in Huang Kuan was destroyed by more than 100folangji.[6]: 372 It may even be earlier, brought to Fujian by a man named Wei Sheng and used in quelling a pirate incident in 1507.[10]: 348
In Japan,Ōtomo Sōrin seems to have been the first recipient of the guns, possibly as early as 1551. In 1561 the Portuguese, allied with Otomo in theSiege of Moji, bombarded rival Japanese position, possibly with swivel guns.[3] In theBattle of Takajō in 1587, Ōtomo Sōrin used two swivel guns obtained from the Portuguese. The guns were nicknamedKunikuzushi (国崩し,"Destroyer of Provinces").[17]
In the later portions of the Ming dynasty (mid 16th century onward) it appears that these type of guns were the most common and numerous type of artillery used by the Ming forces. a great deal of variation of such cannons were produced, and it appeared in pretty much all of the conflicts of this time, including theImjin War. Until the introduction of heavy Dutch cannons in the early 17th century, there were even attempts by the Ming to make large heavy versions of such guns.
Other countries also used swivel guns. InBali, such a gun was found in the possession of the Raja ofBadung, and is now located in theBali Museum. Numerous such guns were also used inNorthern Africa by Algerian rebels in their resistance to French forces.[14]
Breech-loading swivel guns were also used extensively inSoutheast Asia as early as the 16th century, apparently even before the arrival of thePortuguese andSpanish there, and continued to be in use as a preferred anti-personnel weapon as late as the 20th century. The Americans foughtMoros equipped with breech-loading swivel guns in thePhilippines in 1904.[28]: 505 In early 20th century, Chinese junks were armed with old-fashioned swivel guns, both muzzleloader and breechloader. The breech-loading guns were called "breech loadingculverin" by Cardwell, they were 8 feet (2.4 m) long with 1–2 inches (2.54–5.08 cm) bore. These guns were fired usingpercussion cap mechanism.[29] Dyer c. 1930 noted the use of cannon byMakassantrepanger in NorthernAustralia, in particular the bronze breechloader with 2 inches (5.08 cm) bore.[30]
Steelrifled breech-loading swivel guns are known which were manufactured by theUnited States towards the end of the 19th century, and used in colonial theaters such as inMadagascar.[31]
Swivel guns are among the smallest types of cannon, typically measuring less than 1 m (3.3 ft) in length and with a bore diameter of up to 3.8 cm (1+1⁄2 in). They can fire a variety of ammunition but were generally used to firegrapeshot and small caliberround shot.[32][33] They were aimed through the use of a wooden handle, somewhat similar in shape to abaseball bat, attached to thebreech of the weapon.
Most swivel guns weremuzzleloaders, but there were somebreech-loading swivel guns as early as the 1410, making them among the first such examples of this type of weapon (seeberços).[34]: 366 Breech-loading swivel guns had a breech shaped like a beer mug, which the gunner would take by the handle and insert into the body of the swivel gun with the breech's opening facing forwards. The gunpowder and projectiles were loaded into the breech before it was inserted into the gun. If a number of breeches were prepared beforehand, the gunner could maintain a high rate of fire for a brief period simply by swapping out the used breech and replacing it with a freshly loaded one.[35]
Swivel guns were used principally aboardsailing ships, serving as short-range anti-personnel ordnance. They were not ship-sinking weapons, due to their small caliber and short range, but could do considerable damage to anyone caught in their line of fire. They were especially useful against deck-to-deck boarders, against approaching longboats bearing boarding parties, and against deck gun crews when ships were hull to hull.
Due to their relatively small size, swivel guns were highly portable and could be moved around the deck of a ship quite easily (and certainly much more easily than other types of cannon). They could be mounted on vertical timbers (pillars) which were either part of the ship's structure or were firmly bolted to that structure along either side, which provided the gunner with a reasonably steady platform from which to fire. Their portability enabled them to be installed wherever they were most needed; whereas larger cannon were useless if they were on the wrong side of the ship, swivel guns could be carried across the deck to face the enemy.
The small size of swivel guns enabled them to be used by a wide variety of vessels, including those too small to accommodate larger cannons, and also permitted their use on land; they were commonly issued to forts inNorth America in the 18th century, andLewis and Clark took one with them on their famous expedition into the American interior in 1804.[36] Swivel guns also had peaceful uses. They were used for signalling purposes and for firingsalutes, and also found uses inwhaling, where bow-mounted swivel guns were used to fireharpoons, andfowling, where swivel guns mounted onpunts were used to shoot flocks ofwaterfowl (see alsopunt gun).
Swivel guns were extensively used by the kingdoms and empires of Asia, particularlyOttoman,China,Korea, andNusantara. The Ottomans used theprangi from the mid-15th century onwards in field battles, aboard their ships, and in their forts, where prangis often comprised the majority of the ordnance.[22]: 100 These weapons would spread eastward to Indian ocean, eventually reaching Southeast Asia in c. 1460 AD.[37]
The Chinese knew breech-loading swivel guns since at least 1507, when it was brought to Fujian by a man named Wei Sheng and used in quelling a pirate incident in 1507.[10]: 348 Needham noted that breech-loading guns were already familiar in Southern China in 1510, as a rebellion in Huang Kuan was destroyed by more than 100folangji.[34]: 372 Korea followed suit by the 1560s. During theJapanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), Korean naval forces used swivel guns and larger cannon to great effect in interdicting the invading Japanese forces.[38]
While [swivel] howitzers could fire grenades, this practice was extremely dangerous as the gun could easily explode. Howitzers of this size were more often used like a big shotgun, firing canister or grape shot.