Description

These guns are interpreted as the main armament of the ship, although the hull was pierced for at least 26 guns only four of this size are present on the site. Only one of which was recovered. The tampion was still in situ and the gun was still loaded, however the seal was not intact meaning that the shot was corroded into the gun and no gunpowder could be recovered. No identifying marks could be seen on the base ring, trunnions or the body of the gun but this may be due to the surface damage. The gun has a length to the base ring of 2570mm, a bore of 120mm, suggesting it fired a 12lb shot (5.4kg).

The gun is an example of a Finbanker, made in the Finspång Ironworks in Sweden. These guns were a copy of the English pattern being cast in the early 17^th century with round cascable balls and two broad bands either side of the trunnions having “more fillets supporting the astragal than normal”.

The Dutch were one of the largest markets for the export of the weapons with Finbanker guns being found on many VOC shipwrecks such as the Lastdragger, Vergulde Draeck and the Kennermerland (Brown, 2014). Guns of a similar size were recovered from the Batavia (Green, 1989) most notably BAT8723 which is of a similar length and bore.

During the excavation of SCW25, its apron SCW690, 5 round shot SCW691, parts of the breaching rope SCW696, and associated lashing SCW694 were recovered. The leather bucket SCW220 and grindstone SCW547 were also recovered from the vicinity of this gun and may be associated with it.

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