The Swivel Guns

Blunderbuss

A blunderbuss is a smooth-bore gun with a funnel-shaped muzzle. There are blunderbuss pistols, short muskets, long muskets, and swivel blunderbusses. Captain Lewis replied in the affirmative when Clark suggested they obtain two blunderbusses “hung on swivels in the stern” of the barge (called the ‘boat’ or ‘barge’ but never the ‘keelboat’).

The word blunderbuss is an anglicized version of the early Dutch Donderbuss or German Donner büchse, which translate into “thunder gun.” There are three misunderstandings about blunderbusses that should be corrected.

First, there are ubiquitous illustrations of Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving showing them shouldering blunderbusses: The Pilgrims would not have had blunderbusses in 1620. The weapon probably arrived in America at least fifty years later. And even if the Pilgrims had had blunderbusses, they would not have used them for hunting, but rather for short-range defense against attack. Blunderbusses were used from the rigging of sailing ships to repel boarders. Later they were often carried by stagecoach drivers to fend off highway robbers. Lewis and Clark had them ready to use from their boats because they could do more damage at short range than the single bullet from a rifle or musket, especially when wind or wave inhibited a rifleman’s ability to take careful aim.

Second, the flaring funnel- or trumpet-shaped muzzle does not cause the shot pellets to disperse, but rather is an aid to loading lead pellets into the barrel while on a moving ship or coach.

Finally, blunderbusses were never loaded with bore-damaging nuts, bolts, screws, scraps of steel, or rocks.^[1]Young George Shannon once bent the rule slightly, but with due consideration for his rifle. Lost for sixteen days (26 August 1804–11 September 1804) while on a hunting assignment, he ran out of … Continue reading They were loaded with lead pellets of suitable size for self-defense. John Ordway wrote that when the Lakota Sioux became aggressive on 25 September 1804, Captain Lewis ordered “the large Swivel [cannon] loaded immediately with 16 Musquet balls in it, the 2 other Swivels [the blunderbusses] loaded well with Buck Shot [and] each of them manned.”

Cannon

The small swivel cannon was commonly used on ships and riverboats, as well as in forts, in 18th- and 19th-century America. Captain Clark had one installed on the bow of the barge. It would have been mounted on a yoke resembling an oarlock. With the foot of the yoke inserted in a hole on the ship’s rail, the wall of a fort, or a stanchion on the bow of the barge, the cannon could be swiveled right or left; up or down. Swivel cannons typically have a projecting piece at the back end with a cavity which accepts a dowel to be used as a tiller or handle for guiding the direction of firing without burning the gunner’s hands.

The journals do not mention the size of the swivel cannon on the barge, but typical swivels of the era would range from 18″ to 36″ in length, with a bore from one to two inches in diameter. The specimen illustrated here is 22″ overall length with a bore of 1-3/4.” This bore is quite suitable for accommodating the 16 musket balls Captain Lewis ordered to be loaded during the standoff with the Lakota Sioux on 25 September 1804. Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary to fire it in anger that day, nor any other day during the entire expedition.

However, the swivel cannon is mentioned frequently in the journals for its usefulness as a signaling instrument. While the barge was proceeding upstream, the hunters would be on shore, sometimes a mile or more from the river in pursuit of fresh meat. At the end of the day a blank shot would be fired from the swivel to orient the hunters to the barge’s location.

It was also handy for other peaceful purposes, such as some sort of celebration. “Two shot were fired from this swivel, followed by a round of small arms, to welcome the New year,” wrote Patrick Gass on 1 January 1805.

Being a heavy gun with a severe recoil, the swivel gun was not suitable for use on the canoes. Lewis had the swivel gun buried in the cache made in June 1805 before the portage around the Great Falls. They recovered it on their way home in August 1806, and soon were able to lighten their load somewhat. “As our swivel could no longer be serviceable to us as it could not be fired on board the largest perogue,” wrote Clark on the sixteenth, “we concluded to make a present of it to the Great Chief of the Menetaras (the One Eye) with a view to ingratiate him more Strongly in our favor. . . . After the council was over the gun was fired and Delivered.”

Swivel Guns in the Journals

Practically speaking, the blunderbusses, like the swivel cannon, were used mainly for signaling, saluting, and celebrations because their large caliber used a correspondingly large charge of powder, and made more smoke and noise than a rifle or musket. Upon approaching the Knife River Villages on the way home (14 August 1806) Ordway wrote, “we Saluted them by firing our Swivel and blunderbusses a number of times.” The Mandans “answered us with a blunderbuss and Small arms and were verry glad to See us.”

In the middle of the night of 29 May 1805, a buffalo swam across the Missouri toward camp and stomped through one of the pirogues. It damaged York‘s gun and “broke spindle, pivit, and shattered the stock of one of the blunderbusses on board” before rampaging through sleeping camp. Lewis’s Newfoundland dog, Seaman, chased the brute away.

On 26 June 1805, Lewis cached the blunderbusses and the swivel cannon at the lower portage camp at the Great Falls of the Missouri. Despite the bison’s damage to the blunderbuss, it must have been repaired, because on the return trip the cache was opened and there are several subsequent references to firing the blunderbusses as signals and in celebrations. One of the most jubilant was the reunion of the two captains and their detachments at noon on 12 August 1806, after 40 days of separation.^[2]The reunion took place on an island about five miles downriver from today’s New Town, North Dakota. Since the late 1950s the site has been submerged beneath the waters of Lake Sakakawea, which … Continue reading As Ordway recorded it, “we fired the blunderbusses and small arms being rejoiced to meet all together again.”

Clark reported that on 21 September 1806, when the sight of St. Charles, Missouri, inspired the men to “ply their oars with great dexterity,” the men of the Corps, wrote Clark, “Saluted the Village by three rounds from our blunderbuts and the Small arms of the party,” and thrilled the audience of “Gentlemen and ladies” who happened to be strolling along the riverbank that sunny Sunday afternoon.

Presumably, the blunderbusses were disposed of when Captain Lewis auctioned “sundry rifles, muskets, powder horns, shot pouches, powder, lead, kettles, axes & other public property” in St. Louis at the termination of the voyage. It is very likely that the swivel blunderbusses would have been bought by one of the fur trading outfits in St. Louis, and that the guns would have served the fur trade on boats or fort walls on the upper Missouri for decades to follow.