"64-pound Rifled Muzzle Loader Gun in a Moncreiff Disappearing Gun Mount" -- Ft Scaur, Sandys Par. BM
N 32° 17.109 W 064° 52.343
20S E 323679 N 3573582
A sign about the 64-pound Rifled Muzzle Loader Gun in a Moncreiff Disappearing Gun Mount at Fort Scaur Bermuda
Waymark Code: WMNF9T
Location: Bermuda
Date Posted: 03/04/2015
Views: 1
This 64-pound Rifled Muzzle Loader Gun bears the monogram of Queen Victoria, "VR", meaning "Victoria Regina" (Victoria, Queen) -- which helps date the gun to the early 1870s, before Queen Victoria changed her monogram to "VRI," meaning "Victoria Regina et Imperatrix (Victoria, Queen [of England] and Empress [of India]).
This gun is mounted in a Moncrieff Disappearing Gun Mount, which apparently looked a lot better on paper than it worked in real life.
A sign next to the gun reads as follows:
"THE 64 POUNDER RIFLED MUZZLE LOADER GUN AND THE MONCRIEFF DISAPPEARING GUN MOUNT
In the 1870s Fort Scaur was armed with two 64 pounder rifled muzzleloader gun on Moncrieff disappearing gun mounts. The 64 pounder had a maximum range of 4000 yards (2.3 miles)
HOW IT WORKED
in the loaded position, the gun barely topped the parapet. Upon firing, the gun would drop from sight, forced into the firing pit by back pressure.
The gun would roll down a set of “checks” with enough force to raise a 5.25 ton counterweight. The gun laws then locked into depressed position.
When loaded, the break was released and the counterweight through the gun back into its firing position.
That was the theory. In practice these complicated moves demanded extremely high maintenance. By the 1870s the British disappearing gun mount was being phased out for new breech loader guns firing from protected positions.
This replica was constructed in 2009 as part of the 400th anniversary celebration of Bermuda’s settlement and is the only one of its type in the world."
Group that erected the marker: Government of Bermuda
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
Fort Scaur
Somerset Island, Sandys Paris Bermuda
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