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Replica breech loading swivel gun

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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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