gunner Gordon

Is this the swab that I met at Fells Point?

Murtaugh ! thar ye be ! aword to the purser aboot the schillin ye took with ya last port lad.

Attention: This is your Captain speaking.........

What arrrrr ye doin chewin the fat with these when ye should be gettin the guns ready?

Aye ye've caught me . Did ye not bring me tay the pub ta recruit and see who we might press inta service on the next tide? We have more guns on the dock and it will take a larger crew ta man em.I'll be on deck at me post in the morn luv. ( nobody has honey does like I do!)

portal

I've spent 15 years on the Spirit of Dana Pt ex Pilgrim of Newport ,as the gunner and deckhand. I am the master gunner of the HMS surprise along with my "gunner's mate", I've sailed on the Californian,Lady Washington, Hawaien (sp) chieften,and a few smaller craft. . I've crossed the atlantic from the east coast to Morroco, and have passed the 100toncaptain's course and test for near coastal waters. All of this, except te North Africa thing , done in pirate garb and spirit.I might add the best people I know were along the way.

Aye amost hearty welcome to ye, It be fitting to wish ye a warm welcome as I have been so welcomed in France the many times I have visited, after all much of what we have haere is due a French pirate.. again welcome mate.

Oy! I'll take up yo'r offer of a drink with ye, good sir.

Welcome to th' Pub, Gunner Gordon. I'm sure ye'll find th' company of this here establishment most delightful. We welcome ye heartily. Glad th' Gent had encouraged ye to come.

~Lady B

Aye milady, I'm sure ye can turn me coin tay drink ,an I'll be happy for the company, but it was nay a gent that has stowed me here at the pub, as I've said elsewhere between decks, I be a stranger in paradise. I've been so long at sea (really) I've only watched tay the shore as I walked the deck on watch...gunner Gordon, aye yours

Aye eye...uh... that's not to articles Oderlesseye, ye be hoisting yer mug in friendship from the deck o' the ship I've fired upon ye from? Ye must indeed be a forginin soul. Glad be I tay ha been off o' my marksmanship . Ye should visit the armoury before we hit Big Bear mate, at any rate I look forward to jawing sittin doon wi ya .

Welcome Gordon. Ifin yer a friend of Scotty's den ...sorry ...can't trust ya as far as I could trow im. Owever I would bae willin t'take dat drink wot ya offer. "Dark n'Stormy" ifin ya will.

Aye Silkie, would that be ahabit ye aquired on the Kylmar N.?

Well I guess I couldn't keep me hatch shut fer long, thank ye Gentleman Scotty fer hiding me out. My captain brought me ta yer pub to stash me from the pressgang while the crown be lookin aboot.New name an all I couldn't help but be drawn to so many souls o' the same spirit. I follow the smell o' the powder an the footsteps o' ST Barbara. You can ussually find me on the ships , musket, lanyard, or helm in hand, aye, a pirate these 16 years with no port ta call haim. alass, (literally) a good woman has brought me ashore. I be lookin forward to sharein and givin ta those what can learn or teach. So I raise me mug and set me shilling on the board, who'll drink with me?

Ok, let me try one.... hot shot, all that tar oakum and canvas being flammable , A solid iron cannon shot would be heated red hot in the ship's forge , moved very quickly to the gundeck, loaded, aimed, and fired as quickly as possible, often inaccurately. The reason being a "junk wad" of shredded cloth would be placed between the charge and the red hot cannon ball to prevent an early miss fire before the gun could be run out again, however the moment was briefand the gun had to be fired as soon as possible. A red hot shot passing through a sail or rolling around or through the wooden ship would start fires wherever it touched. Of course this would be true on yer own boat too. "Son of a gun " is an interesting one too......

A lot of police in europe use similar pouches to mimic the military nature of their jobs, Italy and Spain have similar pouches even today. The original use of this type of pouch in the military was a dispatch pouch carried by junior officers. they coudn't actually access it but anofficer issuing orders would put his written order inthe pouch and his counterpart at the other end would retrieve it. It became a symbol of rank and spread as an item of fulldress. that is why the pouch is so narrow. The police versions are wider. The practice continues even today in great britain. The pouch was not intended for ammunition but pad and pencil.

I have found some photos and an artist's rendition of a Spanishblunderbuss, volII page102 miquelet lock, a type with a pintle like an oarlock. This is in Borders away vol II. I'm sorry I can't scan it for you.On page 98 is a Spanish espingole, a blunderbuss length weapon with a large musket type barrell. You could try a search on your computer using the spanish lock descriptions under images and you might find something you could use. The later weapon is from the norm Flayderman catalogues, both weapons are dated in the 1650's or so.

Yes, as a child I remember the talking head, there were no words, and the pearson the head talked to would obey, people thought the affected person was hypnotized or something like that. you're right a dim memory. saturday night horror show thing on TV

The two volume set "borders away" does avery good job of defining that question in the volume dealing with firearms. They also have some nice pics to go along with the text. So much of whats out there is just the same weapons over and over. Antique weapons sites and dealers in europe come up with a much broader set of examples than what is generally seen here too.

Perhaps if you post some pictures there are those of us that can ID it. These are a pair of Cannons I was helping the Viceroy make a while back. These particular 2 are nonfiring replicas cast hollow in bronze (for cost and weight considerations). We are currently working on another pair that will be functional, also cast out of hollow bronze but with a steel gun barrel placed inside then the space will be filled with aluminum to try to keep cost and weight down. The guns are 5 and a half feet long and are 6 pounders.

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As I am doing the liners for these pieces, let me jump in. Lawrence and I started with the design objective to match the strength of a bronze piece with the liner alone. Taking the one caliber breech wall as a given in cannons, the yield strength of of the cannon bronze of the day, the yield strength of the modern steel liner (1026 cold drawn mech. tube) and using the hoop stress formula, we get a minimum thickness for the steel liner of .77 inches. Increasing the liner to one full inch as we are doing adds a safety factor of 125%. The aluminum and the bronze will also add something substancial in safety factor, and the liners will be proofed with a 200% blank charge before assembly in the bronze shells.

beautiful tubes ! may I ask as to your preferred method of insallation of the breech plug? At FT George , Inverness Scotland the test to use repro or original guns for public demos was the increased charge and something like double the weight of the original projectile in sand. I had the distinct and exhilerating honour of firing their original 1850's 65 pounder, that was 9 pounds of powder . The gun and mount are so large that the entire crew stands on the mount and recoils with the gun during firing,kind of like putting a tractor seat on my krupp gun.

The problem with an unknown core casting, gun cast with the liner in place , is many fold. The liner and the breech plug in the liner should be of a construction to fire the charge without the iron around it. In such a casting the molten material can cool off too quickly on contact with the steel liner ond become weak or porous .The vent when drilled may not be true but have spark hiding cavities. There have been attempts to solve these problems, but the best way to build a sleeved gun is to cast it solid,better trunnions too, and bore the tube then press the properly breeched liner into the tube. If you don't know the maker you don't know the construction of the gun. Then an X-ray such as used for aircraft castings is about the only positive way to be sure. Proof firing an unknown gun only tells you it's safe through the last shot. I too know two one armed gunners, one involving the use of aluminum foil, there are no small cannon accidents. Think, what would be the acceptable percentage of failures? One of the true examples of zero tolerance for accidents.

the 1966 film "Sand Pebbles" was not filmed on the Lane Victory, but was a ship the San Pablo built just for the movie. At that time the largest functioning prop ever built according to the producers. The movie was filmed in Taiwan and the ship was sold to a civilian contracter repairing bridges during the Vietnam war. The ship was there at the fall of the South Vietnam govt. and it's whereabouts unknown today. The Lane victory has the steam engine used for the scenes in the movie on display, along with a wealth of other artifacts. the seam engine was never actually on board the San Pablo.

I got this off Time Design I'm not sure how accurate but it's a starting point:

1916 Mutiny of the Bounty: BOUNTY

1922 Down to the Sea in Ships: CHARLES W MORGAN and WANDERER (Both Whalers)

1925 Captain Salvation: SANTA CLARA (Fully-rigged Ship)

1925 The Splendid Road: INDIANA (Fully-rigged Ship)

1926 Old Ironsides: USS CONSTITUTION Fully-rigged Tripolitian pirate vessel LLEWLLYN J. MORSE

S.N. CASTLE (Barkentine)

1927 The Blood Ship: BOHEMIA and INDIANA

1927 The Wreck of the Hesperus: BOHEMIA and INDIANA

1927 The Yankee Clipper: BOHEMIA and INDIANA

1930 The Sea Wolf: GHOST BEAR OF OAKLAND

1931 The Suicide Fleet: BOHEMIA was sunk

1931 The Viking: The wooden sealer, built Norway 1881, on which Fridtjof Nansen made his first trip in 1882

1933 In the Wake of the Bounty: BOUNTY

1934 Treasure Island: NANUK

1935 Mutiny on the Bounty: Bounty, PANDORA, LILY, NANUK, PACIFIC QUEEN, ex. STAR OF ALASKA (nowadays BALCLUTHA) Ships used in the 1935 MGM Mutiny on the Bounty

1937 Souls at Sea: Steel bark KAIULANI was used as both a white-hulled packet ship with yards on the mizzen, and a black-hulled bark

1937 Slave Ship: LOTTIE CARSON (Bark)

1937 Souls at Sea: VIGILANT, WILLIAM BROWN, STAR OF FINLAND, LOTTIE CARSON (Bark)

1937 Wallaby Jim of the Islands: LOTTIE CARSON (Bark)

1939 Rulers of the Sea: FALCON, SIRIUS, METHA NELSON, GOLDEN STATE

1937 South of Pago-Pago: LOTTIE CARSON (Bark)

1940 The Sea Hawk: Two full-scale ships constructed especially for this film

1942 Reep The Wild Wind: JUBILEE

1942 Saboteur: burned-out SS NORMANDIE

1942 The Black Swan: The BLACK SWAN, The REVENGE (film ships)

1949 Down to the Sea in Ships:Seemannslos

1950 Treasure Island: HISPANIOLA RYELANDS (three-masted schooner)

1951 Alba de América: SANTA MARIA IV

195? Christopher Columbus: (British production) SANTA MARIA IV

195? The last voyage of Sinbad: (US movie) SANTA MARIA IV

1951 Anne of the Indies

1951 Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.: HMS Lydia, MARCEL B. SURDO (Ital. Brigantine), Lydia (Film Ship)

1952 Blackbeard the Pirate

1952 The Crimson Pirate: Lydia (Film Ship)

1952 Fair Wind to Java: CARIBEE (Tops'l Schooner)

1952 The Crimson Pirate: MARCEL B. SURDO (Ital. Brigantine)

1952 The Master of Ballantrae: MARCEL B. SURDO (Ital. Brigantine)

1952 The World in His Arms

1953 The Master of Ballantrae

1953 Der Freibeuter: Lydia (Film Ship)

1954 Moby Dick: PEQUOD (ESSEX), RACHEL RYELANDS (three-masted schooner)

1956 Moby Dick: PEQUOD (Essex), GOLDSEEKER was converted into the whaler PEQUOD

2006 The Buccaneers (TV Series)

1957 Yangtse Incident: AMETHYST (sister MAGPIE was used for some scenes)

1958 John Paul Jones: ANGOLINA H, MARCEL B. SURDO (Ital. Brigantine)

1958 Twilight of the Gods: ALBATROSS

1958 Windjammer (TV): CHRISTIAN RADICH

1962 Mutiny on the Bounty: Bounty BOUNTY BOUNTY II

1961 The Count of Monte Cristo: Lydia (Film Ship)

1963 La Fayette: Lydia (Film Ship)

1964 The Long Ships

1965 Hawaii: Whaling supply vessel Romance (Brigantine), CARTHAGINIAN II

1965 High Wind in Jamaica: CLORINDA, CRUZ DEL SUR, CARIBEE

1966 Hawaii: WANDIA ex. CARTHAGINIAN (Bark), GRETHE

1966 The Sand Pebbles : SS LANE VICTORY

1969 Quemada: ROMANCE (Brigantine)

1970 The Hawaiians: THETIS, CATHAGIAN (Whaler) Baltic Trader posed as both the Thetis and the whaler Cathagian

1974 The Godfather II: MOSHULU (Four-masted Bark), PIONEER (Schooner)

1975 Farewell My Lovely: SS CATALINA

1975-77 Poldark : MARQUES

1976 Swashbuckler

1977 Roots: LORD LIGONIER

1977 The Fight Against Slavery: MARQUES

1977 The Voyage of Charles Darwin (BBC TV-Series): BEAGLE, MARQUES

1979 Dracula:MARQUES

1980 The Blue Lagoon: EYE OF THE WIND

1981 Time Bandits: TIME BANDIT

1982 The Scarlet Pimpernel: PHOENIX OF DELL QUAY

1983 Nate and Hayes

1983 Savage Islands: EYE OF THE WIND

1983 Yellowbeard: BOUNTY II

1984 Once upon a time in America: ACTIVE

1984 The Bounty: BOUNTY, BOUNTY III

1984 The Master of Ballantrae: MARQUES

1985 Revolution: KASKELOT

1985 The last Place on Earth (TV): TERRA NOVA, KASKELOT

1985 Treasure Island: HISPANIOLA, EARL OF PEMBROKE

1986 Pirates: (Roman Polanski) NEPTUNE, Spanish Galleon especially built for this movie

1986 Tai-Pan: EYE OF THE WIND

1989 Amazing Grace: ROMANCE (Brigantine)

1990 Shipwrecked: Gestrandet

1991 Hook (Steven Spielberg)

1991 Shogun: ERASMUS, GOLDEN HINDE

1992 Christopher Columbus: The Discovery

1993 The Three Musketeers: KASKELOT

1995 Cutthroat Island: MORNING ROSE, EARL OF PEMBROKE,KASKELOT

1996 Moll Flanders: EARL OF PEMBROKE, PHOENIX OF DELL QUAY

1996 Return to Treasure Island: KASKELOT

1996 White Squall: ALBATROSS,EYE OF THE WIND (re-rigged), EARL OF PEMBROKE

1997 A Respectable Trade (TV): EARL OF PEMBROKE, KASKELOT

1997 Amistad (Seven Spielberg):AMISTAD, CALIFORNIAN, PILGRIM

1997 Amy Foster - Swept from the Sea: KASKELOT

1998 Frenchman´s Creek: La MOUETTE, EARL OF PEMBROKE, PHOENIX OF DELL QUAY

1998 Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude (TV): EYE OF THE WIND

1998 Moby Dick (TV Movie): PEQUOD, BOUNTY II

1999 David Copperfiled (TV), KASKELOT

1999 Shaka Zulu - The Citadel: PHOENIX OF DELL QUAY

1999 Wives & Daughters: EARL OF PEMBROKE

2000 The Quest for Captain Kidd Adventure Galley: LADY WASHINGTON

2000 Longitude (TV): EARL OF PEMBROKE, KASKELOT

2001 Lady of the Sea: ROMANCE (Brigantine)

2001 CDN/I Sea Wolf - The Pirate´s Curse: SEEWOLF

2002 Shackleton (TV): ENDURANCE, KASKELOT

2002 Random Passage: EARL OF PEMBROKE

2002 The Count of Monte Cristo: EARL OF PEMBROKE

2003 Master and Commander - The Far Side of the World: HMS SURPRISE

2003 Pirates of the Carribean: Black Pearl, Lady Washington

2004 Troy: Troja Greek Triremes

2004 Windstärke 8 (TV): BREMEN, FRIDTJOF NANSEN

2005 Blackbeard

2005 The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant

2005 The New World: HALF MOON

2005 To the Ends of the Earth (TV, BBC Drama) war ship - a 74-gun third rate ship of the line

2006 Pirates of the Carribean II: BLACK PEARL, FLYING DUTCHMAN, HMS BOUNTY

2006 Blackbeard: Terror at Sea: La CONCORDE, HMS BOUNTY?

2007 Pirates of the Carribean III - At World´s End: FLYING DUTCHMAN, ENDEAVOUR, EMPRESS Junk, Sloop PROVIDENCE, HMS BOUNTY, ST. PETER, UNICORN

2007 Elizabeth - The Golden Age: Great computer animated battle of England against the Spanish Armada 1588

Yes, the mafia vs yakusa is interesting due in part to the demo of the weaponry and the use of live ammunition. It will be entertaining from at least that point of view, like the difference between full auto 45's and 9mm.....

Welp, for those of you who missed it (like me), it's on again this saturday evening (6:30pm central according to out local cable guide).

Interesting questions, Joe.

~Lady B

It's all in thwe hands of the editor and on the cutting room floor. There was enough good stuff to show, and they certainly spent enough money on it. Oh yeah, they had some of the best people tou could get too....

The "boarders away" volume on firearms has a number of drawings and pics on these weapons. there are many different ways to do the same thing. Since these weapons are found in ship's inventories from the doglock era to the first half of the 1800 hundreds there must have been enough success to warrent further developement. As with the larger artillery versions, there was a problem with timing and fuses.With the ship's guns, most problems go overboard, not always the case with the hand held version.I have a nice bronze chambered type that I'm sizing to shoot tennis balls for some of the pesky plastic boats that present themselves as targets during the tall ship cannon battles.

From my experiance in the business the markup on the weapons from overseas manufacturers like the ones coming out of canada from india is about 100%. they double the price to cover shipping ,damages, and quality issues. you would be amazed at the whole story.

Oil and a fine steel wool will produce a nice brown patina on a rusted weapon with semi polished highlights that give a recently used look and not the "weekend pirate" look. Scotch brite pads for a bit more used metalic look, scotch bright soaked with brasso to clean brass or bronze with a utilitarian look. An interesting idea for markings is the rack or unit #s stamped in stocks, or ,on british arms the ship's name engraved on the barrel with the captain's name after it; HMS SURPRISE Capt Aubrey , a form of accountability for ship's stores. The east india company had a similar system. Hope this helps

I've lots to remember o' the last 15 years, but the first picture in me 'ead is the look of joy and adventure in me tue love's bright blue eyes the first time she saw our 6pdr on HMS Surprise's gun deck waitin for her hand to fire that first round at the Californian.Lads, if ye want to put a spark in yer life ,let yer mate fire your gun, let her load it and command it, yer powder will be gone in no time, but your smile will last forever....