Swivel gun
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Swivel Gun is a mounted ship's cannon, able to turn and pivot. Used on Sailing ships during the age of sail, a swivel gun would be mounted over the bow gunwhales to give to widest possible range of fire (on undecked ships the gun would be mounted on to the bow railings).
Given their improved aiming ability over fixed cannon and firing a variety of shot, from grapeshot to round shot, swivel guns were used on smaller vessels - such as gunboats and merchant vessels - where ship size, storage capacity or cost limited the ship's ability to carry the traditional ranks of cannon. In military ships, the replacement of several guns with one swivel gun would allow the use of a heavier shot - able to do more damage on impact and well suited to hit-and-run tactics.
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