Swivel gun

The swivel gun is a small naval cannon mounted on a rotating post which allows it to pivot for a wide arc of fire.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Design[edit | edit source]

With a higher rate-of-fire, the swivel gun was used throughout the 18th century as an anti-personnel emplacement on the quarterdecks of warships to supplement the larger main cannons. Although it boasted less destructive force against anything larger than a schooner, a single shot from a swivel gun was generally sufficient to sink gunboats. With their greater mobility, it was also a common tactic to use swivel guns to precisely target any gunpowder storage that had been exposed through an enemy's ship hull in the heat of battle.^[1]^[2]^[3]

History[edit | edit source]

In the early 18th century, the pirate and eventual Assassin Edward Kenway installed a pair of swivel guns on his ship, the Jackdaw.^[2] During Edward's later travels in Southeast Asia, the engineer Yun Pyeong-Gyu, following his recruitment into the Zhang Wei Union by Edward, installed a number of breech-loading swivel guns on the Fenghuang. The cannons were personally modified by Yun to have increased caliber and firepower while still being able to rotate in any direction.^[4]

During the same period, no matter how many ships he switched, the French pirate Alonzo Batilla always installed a pair of swivel guns on his ship.^[3] The Assassin warship Aquila captained by Edward's grandson Ratonhnhaké:ton during the American Revolutionary War also featured a pair of swivel guns, and he used them to devastating effect against British frigates at the Battle of the Chesapeake.^[5]