Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Saturday 13 April 2013

The Puckle gun


A prototype machine gun designed to fire nine bullets in succession without reloading. Designed around a revolving block, one block held round bullets to fire at Christians. The second block held square bullets to be fired at heathens. The guns were never fired and so we will never know what damage they could have inflicted. Nor have I yet found out why heathens should have square bullets fired at them. But the gun was invented by one James Puckle around the 1720's to accompany Nathaniel Uring on his expedition to the West Indies!




1 comment:

Graham Clayton said...

The only known sale of the Puckle Gun came in 1722, when the Duke of Montagu privately purchased two to accompany him during his ill-fated attempt to conquer the Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent.