Page 50 - Loss of the VOC Retourschip Batavia, Western Australia, 1629

the Cannon Perior, 80 pound of Mettall for every pound weight of their Stone shot'. I think here, Norton may have been confused, since the stone shot corresponding to an 18 Ib iron shot is 5 Ib, giving a total weight of 400 Ibs for the piece. He may have meant 80 Ibs o f metal for every pound of iron shot giving 1440 Ibs. which would seem more realistic.
Thecuriousmethodofconstructionofthesegunsmay be similar to guns described in a patent issued in Amster- dam in 1627 to Ian de Rycker and also in 1633 to Bartlet Comelis Smidt The latter patent describes the founding of a gun, '...made of various metals, of which the chase and the chamber (which is made in the manner of a steen- stucken (perior)) is made of iron welded together by heating and hammering (forging) and thus united into one piece of iron, and subsequently covered with copper and other metals and omated and the chase is (like cast guns) bored smooth, so it can easily be handled both aboard and ashore, but is still powerful and resistant and can be used with sharp projectiles without any danger o f exploding or fraying, although these guns are only about half the weight of ordinary guns and hence were manoeuvrable' (Door- man. 1940: G 348:192). However, the piece in question was only four feet long, weighing 230 Ibs and, unfortu- nately, there is no mention of the calibre. The patent also specifies that Smidt would have to make two more guns firing a six-pound iron sho~ and two o f three-pound iron sho~ before he would be allowed the patent There was also the earlier patent in 1627 for a gun made of various unspecified metals. This patent mentions that guns o f 6. 12 and 24 Ibs iron shot were to be made. Van Dillen (1974) also mentions a number of references to this type of gun. inthenotarialrecordsoftheCityofAmsterdamrelatingto a company making wrought-iron guns of various metals (geslaegen geschut van verschyeden metalen). These rec- ords. in 1633 and 1634, describe various contracts made by the company. which operated the original patent of de Ryeker, and afrmn that the guns were especially designed for shipboard use on merchant ships. There is mention of the company supplying guns to the East India Company wharf and also to the West India Company. The guns mentioned include a twelve-pounder that was to weigh no more than 2200 pont. but when produced. it weighed 2600 pOnJ.Also.thereismentionofachallengetothepatentand that the guns were made with both iron and copper barrels.
These composite guns. therefore, are extremely un- usual. appearing to be periors. constructed partially in the manneroftheold16th-<:enturywrought-irongun.butcast into a lead-solder matrix with a copper sheath. They may bear some relation to the leather guns which originated at about the same time. The leather gun was produced as a resultoftheeffortsofKingGustavusAdolphusofSweden who was seeking to provide his armies with light. mobile
artillery. The use of these guns was said to have been discontinued by the 1630s (Stevenson & Caldwell. 1977; Lewendon. 1984; & Neuville. 1984).
Only two other examples of similar guns are known. although it is, at present, not certain if the guns are constructed in precisely the same manner. The rust ex- ample is in the Museum of Artillery in the Rotunda at Woolwich (Kaestlin. 1963:No.209), and is described as: 'A brass gun, attributed in a former catalogue to the time of Charles IT, but which is rather Oriental than English. It appears to consist of an inner cylinder of copper cased in iron, and the whole enveloped in a thin sheet of copper, over which has been subsequently placed a cylinder of some very soft alloy at the muzzle. trunnions, and breech. It has no date or inscription, but there is a cypher on the underside GVE. The dolphins have been broken off. Length, 4 fL 9 in.(1.45 m); calibre. 3.25 in (83 mm)'. This gun was measured and drawn by the author and is shown below. It is obvious that the gun is o f similar construction, although smaller, and with a number of different details such as dolphins. a standard touch-hole. decorations, etc. The cypher is very unusual, and was originally thought to be the cypher for the GWC. the Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie. However, after inspection. this seems un- likely as the letters are clearly G V and E and these have been put on the underside of the gun. It is possible that it may be the cypher or house-mark of the maker.
The other parallel comes from a report to the Neder- lands Seheepvaart Museum from Expeditions Unlimited. o h gun found off the Little Bahama Bank, about 20 miles north of West End, Grand Bahama Unfortunately, only a few measurements and seven photographs (five appear in Fig. 27) are available. From this information, a drawing has been made of the gun (see below). but it should be treated with some caution. The gun is stamped GWCA (the Amsterdam Chamber of the Geoctroyeerde Westin- dische Compagnie). the weight 598. and it is generally very similar to the Rotunda gun, wi th dolphins and identi- cal impressed friezes around the reinfon:es. It has been suggested by Robert Marx that it came from a wreck Sinte Domingo (sic). supposedly a Dutch ship of 1668. (I am grateful to Mt I.P. Puype of the Nederlands Seheepvaart Museum for this information.) It is almost certain that the Little Bahama Bank gun and the Rotunda gun were made by the same gunfounder. the only real difference being the lengths. However. it is not certain that theBatavia compos- ite guns were made by this gunfounder. The reasons for this are that the Batavia guns have the touch-hole in the eascabel. they have neither dolphins nor stamped decora- tions and the guns are much heavier. However, their general appearance is similar to the two smaller examples. in particular. the astragals around the reinforces and the treatment of the cascabel are the same.
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