Model of a 30-Pounder Gun on a Pivot

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

ObjectNumber: NG-MC-801

Model of a 30-pounder gun on a pivot and slide, on the aft deck of a paddle steamer.

The wooden barrel is 27.4 cm long, has a flat button with a breech ring and a sight on the second reinforcement. The carriage, narrowing towards the front, consists of two cheeks with four steps each, connected by a transom, a breast piece and two cross-beams, underneath replacing the axletrees. The cross-beams are connected by a longitudinal stool bed. The quoin is missing. The slide is a simple wooden frame with parallel ledges on which the carriage slides. Hammock netting filled with wool are attached to either side of the slide by means of forked stanchions, protecting the gunners for rifle fire. The tracks for the pivot lie on a raised wooden circle, which has a toothed rail on the inside for two thirds of the circle. The slide can be trained by means of a cogwheel at the rear of the slide that grips in the toothed rail, and covers the entire range from port to starboard. The ledges have small rollers at the ends, easing the movement of the slide on the tracks. The gun tackle is incomplete. Of the ship, the after upper deck with railing is schematically represented.

August Elize Tromp (1801-1871) probably designed this gun position as a response to Anthony Cornelis Twent’s report of 8 January 1834 about the armament of paddle steamers. His design was not accepted.¹¹J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 801.

Scale (derived) 1:10.

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, no. 801; W.G.M.H. Canisius, ‘De ontwikkeling van scheepsgeschut bij de Nederlandse marine in 1780-1880’, Erfgoed van Industrie en Techniek 2 (1993), no. 2, pp. 43-62, no. 3, pp. 80-87, p. 57

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Model of a 30-Pounder Gun on a Pivot, Netherlands, 1834', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.244615