32 Bore (.52 caliber). 20" seven barrel cluster. NSN. Browned finish, brass furniture, walnut stock. Seven barreled smoothbore flintlock muzzleloading volley gun with a groove in the breech plug tang serving as a rudimentary rear sight and small blade front sight on the upper central barrel rib. The unconventional, semi-back action double bridled flint lock is 5.5" in length with a teat at the rear. The rounded and fenced iron pan is integral with the lock plate and the cock is flat faceted and of the unreinforced, swan neck pattern. The frizzen has a curled toe and the frizzen spring is L-shaped. The internal parts and springs are all located to the rear of the cock with the mainspring being of an inverted C-shape with the spring bearing on what is essentially an upside down tumbler surface. The somewhat unique lock interior design was intended to allow the lock to be kept short and allow the front portion of the plate to mate against the barrel tightly. The lock is stamped with a sideway Georgian crown at the tail over an engraved "GR", the word "TOWER" is engraved along the upper edge of the plate behind the cock and a small {Crowned-Broad Arrow} Ordnance ownership mark  is stamped under the pan. {Crowned-Cross Scepters} view and proof marks are found on the breeches of the barrels. The initials "HN" for Henry Nock are engraved on the exterior of the chamber of the right hand center barrel, under the extension of the lock plate. The lock remains in original flint, as do the barrels. The barrel system include a central barrel that screws into the frame of the gun, with six additional barrels brazed around the center barrel. A special expansion chamber in the central barrel is used to communicate the flash from the pan to the other six barrels to detonate those charges. Mountings are of brass with a two-screw convex S-shaped slide plate, a buttplate secured with two screws on the bottom and a pin for the tang, a slightly elongated round triggerguard and with three ramrod pipes with the upper pipe incorporating a spring to retain the ramrod, which is not present. 

Although known to history as the "Nock Volley Gun", the reality is that the design was conceived by James Wilson, who presented his "seven barreled rifled gun" to the Board of Ordnance in July of 1779, hoping to receive a military contract for their production. The board was unimpressed from an infantry arms standpoint, no doubt in part due to the gun's heavy recoil as all seven barrels were discharged simultaneously and its equally heavy weight of about 12 pounds. However, the board suggested the design to the Admiralty, as s good antipersonnel weapon to use from the fighting tops of Royal Navy ships. Henry Nock was asked to produce two rifled seven barrel guns for testing purposes, which he did. The Admiralty approved of his production samples but decided that the future orders should be for smoothbore, rather than rifled guns. The admiralty further decided upon a plan of distribution for the guns with 20 allocated to First Rate Ships, 16 to Second Rates, 50 to Third Rates, 10 each for all frigates and 8 for all sloops. Twenty guns were then ordered up for ocean going trials aboard HMS Phoenix, which was then being fitted out at Portsmouth. Nock won a contract from Ordnance to produce 500 of these guns for the Royal Navy at the rate of 13 pounds sterling each (roughly 2,400 pounds sterling today based solely on inflation but the equivalent of about 33,000 pounds in terms of actual value in today's economy). He delivered the guns in batches of 20 to 50 each through 1780. The next order for the guns was placed 1787, when 100 more were purchased. These guns incorporated a reinforced cock and some minor mechanical changes and improvements to the lock. According to the Ordnance Bill Books, a grand total of 655 Seven Barrel Guns were delivered to Ordnance by Nock, which apparently included the two contracts for 500 and 100 guns respectively, the two initial rifled sample guns, the 20 guns for HMS Phoenix, leaving 33 to be accounted for that no particular documentation appears to exist for. The guns had a relatively short service life, as when Nock attempted to sell more to Ordnance in the fall of 1805, quoting a reduced rate of only 10 pounds sterling per gun, he was rebuffed with the statement that the "seven-barreled guns have long been considered obsolete in the naval service." However, this was not exactly true a several Royal Navy ships still listed them as part of their small arms inventory the following year.

The first major combat issue of the seven barrel guns came in 1782 when they were part of the small arms inventory of Admiral Howe's fleet sent to the relief of Gibraltar. From a historical standpoint, they were also part of the small arms inventory aboard HMS Pandora when it searched the South Seas for the mutineers from HMS Bounty in 1791. Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson was skeptical of the guns and did not like using them, as he was afraid that the discharge of seven barrels simultaneously from the fighting tops created such a muzzle flash that they would ignite the heavily tarred rigging and the canvas sails. By 1805, the time when Ordnance called them "obsolete" the firing of the guns from the fighting tops had been banned.  The other major objection revolved around the recoil of the guns. Although the bore diameter was normally .52 caliber (32 bore) the standard load was a nominally .445" ball (about 46 bore) with the earliest charge being 2.5 and later 2 drams of rifle powder. To reduce the recoil the charge was eventually lowered to 1.5 drams of coarser "Common Service Powder", but no doubt the recoil was still objectionable. 

With only 655 of these unique military volley guns produced, surviving examples are exceptionally rare and this is lovely, untouched example that could certainly be a centerpiece in any major British Naval collection. {ANTIQUE}

Very Good. Smooth bores dark and heavily oxidized with some scattered pitting. Metal with a rich, uncleaned and untouched thick brown attic patina some evenly distributed light surface roughness, some lightly scattered pitting and some moderate pinpricking. Brass uncleaned with mellow gold patina and areas of age staining and discoloration. Markings remain mostly clear and legible. Lock is mechanically functional and quite crisp, remaining unaltered and in original flint with the barrels also in their original configuration. Stock in lovely, untouched condition as well with a crisp, well defined rail along the wrist and comb and showing only some scattered minor bumps, dings and mars from service, use and storage and some light to moderate burn out around the breech area. The steel ramrod is not present. A really lovey and untouched example of a rare Royal Navy Nock Volley Gun.