Mysterious object from Port Royal

[Captain Sage]

I found this article a while back and was baffled by the last illustration. It's an unusual gun-like thing. The project directors may not have asked around to research the matter too much.

I have to explain the way the site is made first. It's a Geocities site made with Flash (dumb!), so the text is really a graphic (not searchable). You also have to navigate to the page in question.

When you click on the link, choose Artifacts, click the animated arrow at the bottom of the page, and go to the bottom of that second page.

What are your thoughts on this thing?

http://www.geocities.com/aborgcr/PRoyal/proyal.html

[Patrick Hand]

Dang... yah got me on that one.....

If there was someplace to attach a lock, I would guess that it was a trap or alarm..... but the only way to fire it would be with a fuse.....

Maybe it's just a noise maker, kind of like the miniture .50 cal cannons ...

[capnwilliam]

Maybe a fire starter?

Capt. William

[Fox]

It's a bit difficult to tell because of the drawing and the fact that a large part of the stock appears to be missing.

Maybe it had a really simple external serpentine lock like the very early hand guns. That would certainly fit in with the apparent lack of a lock. It would be about 200 years too early for the Port Royal stuff, but what there is of that thing has a distinctly "home-made" look about it.

Interestingly, 2 15thC handguns were recovered from the 1707 wreck of HMS Assurance. It has been speculated that they were used as signal guns.

[Patrick Hand]

Maybe it had a really simple external serpentine lock like the very early hand guns.

But then it would have a pan for the priming powder... the touch hole is on the side of the barrel........

And the wood that the barrel is wired to is too short.... But it would work with a fuse as a signal gun.........

There was something about the bore size.... I'l have to look at it again......

[Patrick Hand]

I just looked at it again..... it looks like the barrel is mounted to the wood on it's side... with some wire through the tang to hold it to the wood ..........and the touchhole on the top........ (the bore was .50 to .55 calaber....)

[JoshuaRed]

Maybe it was just a noisemaker?

[hitman]

It's alot of trouble to go to for a noisemaker although I wouldn't doubt it could be used as such. I'd also have to agree with Foxe in that it looks home made. It for some reason calls to mind the cigarrete guns the Phillipino's used agianst U.S. Marines in the early part of the 20th century. No it's not a long arm nor is it made in the same manner but for some reason it just gives the look of a simple self defence weapon for the poor. I personally don't think guns were quite so easy to come by in the GAOP as hollywood would have us to belive. This could be a cheap home made gun for the defence of a poor owner.

[Dorian Lasseter]

I would definitely call that a 'makeshift' or 'Jury rigged' weapon...

I would also agree, prolly made by a poor person in need of defence...

looks like an old barrel fashioned onto a 'stock' and prolly fired with a slowmatch or other flaming bit...

MacGyver come to mind?

[JoshuaRed]

So maybe it belonged to a prostitute, street-rat, pickpocket, etc? Makes sense to me.

[Red Dog]

It reminded me of an old German match fired pistol I saw at the Tower of London. If the stock extended back to the shoulder it could be stabilised with the left hand and the linstock used to touch it off with the right. I get the feeling it was a busted pistol barrel reworked and pressed into service as a rude and crude rifle.

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

Dude! It's a bong!

[Red Dog]

I think you've got it Capt! light the end and put the other in your mouth and it's guaranteed to blow yer mind.

[The Doctor]

I think Dorain and Red have it. It's probably a 17th century version of the zip-gun.

WAY too tiny for a decent bong!

[Red Dog]

Maybe its a one shot, one hit? Just don't confuse the order of operation

[Captain Jim]

Respectfully I disagree that this is a weapon. Part of the tang is missing, which would lead me to believe that this barrel was salvaged from a broken gun. But why have a stock, even a makeshift one, on a match-fired handgun? The only reason to have a stock is to position a lock in relation to the touch-hole. I would refer you to early Chinese hand guns that were made without locks and without stocks, simply a barrel with a touch-hole. One-shot guns would not heat up, so hand protection would not be needed.

So, a little speculation. I believe that this is used in a situation that would cause the barrel to heat up, so a fire-starter is a possiblility but it is too short to blow into and keep your ear out of the fire. A pipe, to replace one lost or broken? Seems more likely, especially since the touch-hole seems to have been enlarged. Still, smoking from a barrel would heat the barrel to the point that one could not draw from the touch-hole, especially as the coal approaches the touch-hole.

Also, we are not allowing that this may have been an unsuccessful attempt at some sort of makeshift substitute, making speculation impossible as the maker of this thing did not know what he was doing either.

[Jim Dandy]

I'll bet you anything it was a burglar alarm of some sort, and the priming pan simply busted off with the lock. Reason the hole is on the "top" is because it was mounted to the WALL. Might not even have been a trigger, just a brass wire (like the stuff that holds the barrel to the wood) attached to the guts of the lock.

The way it works is easy to see -- mount that sucker to the doorframe and load it up. During business hours, put the hammer down and put the hammerstall on (which could just be a bit of greasy old rag). Every night you cock it, take the other end of the wire (which would have been made into a miniature noose, so it will tighten in the event of forced entry) and put it around the doorknob. Even a blank charge would serve the purpose.... wake up the neighborhood and burn h*ll out of the intruder into the bargain.

(If it's a Baroque-era zipgun, how does our street person stop in the middle of fight or flight, produce a match or fuse, somehow light it -- using a candle in a nearby open window, maybe? -- and *then* torch off the gun? That just doesn't seem practical to me).

[The Doctor]

I envisioned someone using it for defense if they were expecting someone wishing them ill. Holed up in their flat, nervously awaiting a rap on the door, linstock and weapon at the ready by a lamp.

Or, it could have been a street thug's prop to rob people. The victim wouldn't know if it worked or not. A linkstock and a barrel would have been enough to scare someone into handing over their purse. Even a useless barrel shoved into their back would work.

And it could have been an experiment that failed. In any case, it would never be practical as a general-purpose weapon.

Could have been a paperweight for all we know.

[Red Dog]

the alarm idea makes sense to me also, the base was just a standoff to give some way to mount it to what was being secured. I thought as a weapon, you could hold in your left hand like you would hold the forestock of a rifle and touch it off with a punk or match. It still kinda looks like something was broken off the rear portion of the base/stock. I just keep flashing back to the German pistol I saw at the Tower of London display. This weapon had what looked like 5 or 6 cigar tubes on the end of a 3 foot metal pole. You would fire, rotate and fire again then the gun became a mace. Just the principle of operation seemed to make sense.

[hurricane]

The location of the piece may provide a clue. It was located outside of Building 5 in the excavation, which, by its layout, appears to be an inn/tavern. It has the typical parlor arrangement with access to the upstairs and a door to the serving area to the right. Some 25 pewter plates were discovered there. Two of the guns were collected from the yard in the back of Building 5.

If the artifact had been in the backyard, which had the hearths, I could see its use as a fire starter, and in fact, during the earthquake it could have conceivably made its way to Queen Street. But I would doubt it. The three successive earthquakes sank that part of the city straight down... there was actually very little destruction by shaking and entire parts of the city simply went straight down within two minutes, buildings intact. Witness the pipe shop where several hundred pipes simply fell straight down off their shelves and settled on the floor. Even the floors, particularly in Building 5, are undamaged and intact today. Building 4 would have been relatively undamaged as well, except for the ship which broke loose and plowed into it during the subsequent tsunami in the harbor.

So, I would gather this was out on the street at the time, potentially in the possession of someone walking the streets shortly before noon on that day.

I don't pretend to know its use - simply its position relatively to what was around it.

-- Hurricane

[BILLY BONES]

I have seen hand cannons of similar design. This is, of course, "home made". I'm sure it was fired with a fuse.