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GUNSMITH FASHIONED PERCUSSION VOLLEY GUN – A
UNIQUE ONE OF A KIND FIREARM INTENDED FOR CLOSE RANGE
DEFENSE IN DESPERATE FRONTIER ENCOUNTERS: This
striking example of frontier firepower was recently
found in an old collection in South Dakota. Obviously
the product of a talented gunsmith who married
components from at least two guns, this volley gun
presents as the sort of firearm which would have been
used aboard the river keel boats which plied the
Mississippi, Missouri, and Yellowstone Rivers as they
traversed the trade routes, or used to defend one of the
fortified trading posts on the frontier. Not the sort
of thing an individual settler, or a plains or mountain
man would carry as his primary long gun, but certainly
an effective weapon for defense from a protected
position against a hostile force.
The British Navy began experimenting with multi-barrel
arms in the 18TH Century and in 1779 English
inventor James Wilson developed the first viable design
– a central barrel surrounded by six barrels - and
presented it to the Royal Board of Ordnance. Wilson
intended his design to be used by land forces; however
the Royal Board rejected the design for the army while
recommending it to the navy. The Royal Navy agreed, and
in 1780 ordered two prototypes from Henry Nock, a well
established gun maker. Eventually, the navy ordered
500, but once placed into service the volley gun proved
to be “one of those great ideas that didn’t work”.
As a shoulder mounted arm, it was punishing to the
shooter with dislocated shoulders being a common
result. The service models, produced in .50-.60
caliber, utilized powder charges of 68 grains per barrel
with each round ball weighing from 180 to 350 grains
each. When the sailor pulled the trigger, assuming all
the chambers fired, he was subjected to the recoil
created by 2450 grains of lead propelled by 476 grains
of powder. The obvious deficiencies included calibers
which were too large, requiring powder charges that were
too heavy, and in the wind of an exposed deck at sea,
the flintlock ignition system proved unreliable in
firing all the barrels. In addition, one alarming
unintended consequence resulted from the volley guns
being employed from the ship’s fighting tops. The seven
barrels emitted a wide plume of flame and burning grains
of powder which ignited the tar soaked rigging and sail
cloth in close proximity, endangering the very ship the
gun was supposed to protect. Due to these problems, the
Nock Volley guns were phased out of the Royal Navy in
1805. Nock continued to make sporting (sporting?)
models for a short time and then he discontinued them
entirely.
More to the specific history of this volley gun, Henry
Harrington of Southbridge, Massachusetts obtained a
patent on July 29, 1837 for a “breech loading volley
gun”. Harrington’s design featured a vertically
sliding, multi-chambered removable breech block which
slid into place behind a like-numbered barrel cluster.
The breech blocks were designed to be carried pre-loaded
and could be quickly exchanged once fired. Harrington
produced rifles, carbines and pistols, all with seven
barrels – a central barrel with six barrels surrounding
it. The barrels were smooth bored, and the patent
description includes the notation that the barrels were
enclosed in a “brass housing”.
Most of Harrington’s volley guns were produced with
percussion ignition systems and they were often found in
smaller calibers, some as small as .22 caliber. At
least one of Harrington’s volley guns included a
particularly innovative design element – two hammers and
a breech block bored in such a way that dropping one
hammer would fire three chambers and dropping the second
hammer would fire the remaining four chambers. A
matching second breech block was bored so that all seven
chambers fired with the drop of one hammer.
Harrington’s design of interchangeable breech blocks may
account for the barrel cluster on this volley gun being
bored all the way through. Apparently, the breech block
was lost or damaged, and another arrangement had to be
fashioned to return the gun to use.
This specimen has an overall length of 32 ½”, and the
barrel cluster is 16” long. The barrel cluster is
mounted in a walnut half stock which features brass
furniture - trigger guard, butt plate, toe plate and
patch box, - and a silver squirrel inlay on the cheek
and a small silver rectangle on the top of the wrist.
In its original configuration, the stock carried a
barrel mounted with a patent breech, and the tang and
breech plate are still present. The lock plate appears
original to the stock as it is well inlet into the lock
mortise with no indication of being a replacement.
The exterior surfaces of the barrels retain traces of
brass “facing” – a mid 19TH Century process
which differs from brass plating. Brass facing is an
applied veneer of brass overlaid only on the exterior
surfaces of iron or steel to protect it from the
elements. This may be the “brass housing” referred to
in Harrington’s patent description.
The smooth bore barrels range from .26 - .28 caliber,
definitely the products of hand forging, but still close
enough that they all certainly used the same caliber
round ball. Either patched or loaded loose in the under
or over sized diameter barrels, it would have mattered
very little in a gun obviously intended for short range
use.
The breech is an ingenious arrangement, and it may well
be a "one of" creation of a single man gunsmith shop.
The barrels are bored all the way through similar to the
design of the volley guns produced by Harrington. This
set of barrels, apparently salvaged from a more
conventional volley gun, have an iron shroud forged
around the breech end which was probably fashioned as
part of the volley gun in its original configuration.
There is a recessed area on the face of the breech end
of the barrels which would have accommodated the
original breech block as was part of the original
design.
In order to make use of the set of barrels, the gunsmith
who executed the modification attached a heavy iron
strap to each side of the shroud which serve as a frame
for securing a separate breech plug and wedge, and as
anchors for mounting the barrel assembly on the stock.
When the breech plug and wedge are in place, there is a
thin gap between the face of the plug and the rear of
the barrels, providing a space for the percussion cap
flame to reach the powder charges. The wedge has a hole
in one end which is presumably for a thong to attach the
wedge to the rest of the gun so it wasn't lost in the
process of reloading.
In the photographs below, you can see how these straps
are arranged and how the separate breech block plug and
the iron wedge which holds the plug in place fit
together. You can also see the vertical extensions on
the straps through which a heavy lock screw is threaded
between the straps to secure the breech under the
stock. There is a hand forged flat iron strap wrapped
around the barrel cluster and the stock just forward of
the barrel shroud to further secure the barrels to the
stock. Finally, the gunsmith fashioned an extended
hammer with sufficient reach to span the distance from
the lock tumbler, over space between the tang face and
breech face, and strike the single percussion cone which
in turn would ignite all seven barrels. All in all,
this is quite a piece of creative and very skilled
gunsmithing. The trigger and hammer function against
each other properly and the hammer will hold at both the
full and half cock positions; however it appears the
main spring is broken as the hammer will not fall upon
pulling the trigger. The extent to which one would have
to go to disassemble the gun in order to remove the lock
and access the mainspring is such that it has been left
as it is. As firing this piece is a very unlikely
prospect, I would recommend leaving it as is, and simply
enjoy this volley gun as the unique piece of firearm
history it presents.
The stock was salvaged from another gun - from the style
of the patch box and cheek piece inlay, most likely a
Pennsylvania or Kentucky rifle. In spite of the obvious
signs of use and age, the stock is very solid without
any cracks, splits or other damage. The wood has a
beautiful naturally aged patina and a rich color, and
has an overall smooth surface.
Note that while there is the existing ramrod entry hole
in the stock’s pewter nose cap, there is no provision
for a ramrod under the barrel assembly. The barrel
cluster was mounted in the stock with one of the barrels
seated down into the stock's barrel channel, as opposed
to how the volley gun barrel clusters are normally
mounted with the spaces between the barrels being
oriented at the 12 and 6 o'clock positions to provide a
space to mount the ramrod on the bottom, and a sighting
channel on top. If used from a boat or from a trading
post wall, or any other defensive position, it is likely
that a ramrod mounted on the gun was considered
superfluous as one could be kept close at hand. And
too, being able to reload the seven barrels in a
situation which was desperate enough to warrant using
this gun would have been a moot point once the gun was
fired. Either the situation was resolved, or the gunner
was probably past the point of being able contribute
further.
This volley gun presents as one of the most evocative
examples of a frontier manufactured firearm yet seen.
Fashioned from the components at hand and intended for
use in desperate situations, one is left to imagine the
personalities of the man who created it and those who
depended on it far from more civilized environs. The
flash and roar that emanated from these muzzles may well
have been the last image that many poor souls had of
this world. (0836) $3200
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