The Nordenvelt Gun plays a significant role in my novel Britannia’s Wolf and indeed the weapon
was in general use on many warships in the late-Victorian period.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYJa5g1U9LNjfK2qBTANQJ1yQ1DP1m8kllhyphenhyphen0zOgyHDSN8V8_sSOZPI2gnyL1XC_mqCUgTCQ0Ty3KhooNk6Vuf8w-geN-oaivJnB3u2aCMYsOBJWsF9S3bDmcHktcBZ1MLLF-JE2hy-ck/s1600/1-InchNordenfelt+NavalActionDrawing.jpg) |
Triple-barreled 1-inch Nordenvelt |
Though capable of a heavy volley-fire, the Nordenvelt, like
its contemporaries the Gatling and the Gardner, was not an automatic
machine-gun. The Nordenvelt was activated by pulling a lever back and forth,
feeding rounds into the breeches of the gun’s barrels from a vertical
hopper-magazine, firing them, and ejecting the spent cases. The slow rate of
fire from each individual barrel was compensated for by placing multiple
barrels in parallel. Up to a dozen barrels might be employed, though three or
four were more common, the calibre being .45 inch. In one demonstration for the
Royal Navy a 10-barrelled version fired 3,000 rounds of ammunition in just over
three minutes without stoppage or failure.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDF48RNnf-xoGln0_lEe0AMvNVd3Sm_SX6d2vlfAeXzjxx0jX6l65jbBN2BqNCivOi43RE-1ypfmWwbwr3mwISsoMTYyqKRK7KpQmOy19-JZYX03KFdCCBYfqLjZp00C8e4tetahfpLSQ/s1600/5-BarrelNordenfelt.JPG) |
5-Barelled rifle-calibre Nordenvelt |
The Nordenvelt, due to its multiple barrels, was heavy by comparison
with later, genuinely automatic, machine guns. The weight penalty was not a
major drawback on shipboard, but if deployed on land it needed a field-gun type
carriage. Entering service in several navies in the 1870s, including the Royal
Navy, it provided the ideal defence against attack by small torpedo-armed
vessels, an increasing threat in those years. A heavy version, firing one-inch
solid steel rounds from up to four barrels, was developed to provide a fearsome
counter to lightly-constructed, unarmoured torpedo craft and their
poorly-protected crews.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xVTwYz06hBvEdg_6SFMHa4_K8u0HPKJV7CXkiq6Rc9UxYlMtiybcd32BXNSaAaV8zBYVYujYtJRdQzWyL4_E5O4yf2Ktg7NcQ4UJNzgSblPupqyXVpRdLQ_lqugSye85WY7TXWWU5Zw/s1600/Nordenveldt+in+action.jpg) |
Nordenvelt in action in 1890s Note the hopper magazine above |
The Nordenvelt was made obsolete in the late 1880s by the
arrival of the fully-automatic Maxim machine gun but many served on in smaller
navies long beyond this time. I found one on display in the yard of a police
station in Warri, Nigeria, in the late 1980s, but have unfortunately lost the photographs
I took of it then. It almost certainly came from a Royal Navy ship and may even
have participated in the Benin Expedition of 1897.
I live only a few miles from Erith and Crayford, where the Maxim Nordenfeldt Company had its factories. There is a pub in Erith named 'The Nordenfeldt' on the corner of Naimfeldt Road. (The pub is known as the 'Pom Pom' by the locals.) I don't think that any Nordenfeldt guns were built in Erith or Crayford, but the Maxim machine gun (and its derivative Vickers machine gun) certainly were.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bob - history certainly lives on by such means!
ReplyDeleteWow very innovative!
ReplyDelete