Culverin facts for kids

A culverin was a type of old weapon. At first, it was a small, hand-held gun, a bit like an early arquebus. Later, the name was used for a powerful type of cannon during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The word "culverin" comes from an old French word, couleuvrine, which means "grass snake." This is because the early guns looked long and thin, like a snake.

The French started using culverins as large artillery in the 15th century. The English then used them on their ships in the 16th century. As a cannon, the culverin had a long, smooth barrel. It could shoot solid round cannonballs a long way and very fast, in a flat line.

Hand-Held Culverins

The first culverins were small, hand-held guns. They were simple metal tubes, closed at one end. They had a tiny hole called a "touch hole." This hole was for lighting the gunpowder. The metal tube was attached to a piece of wood or metal that you could hold under your arm.

To fire it, soldiers would put gunpowder and lead bullets inside. Then, they would touch a burning slow match (a slow-burning rope) to the touch hole. This would ignite the gunpowder and fire the bullet.

James IV of Scotland really liked hand culverins in 1508. He even held shooting contests with them at his palaces. He also used a culverin to hunt deer and shoot at sea birds from a boat!

Over time, the hand culverin changed. It became heavier and could be loaded from the back, not just the front. These heavier versions were called swivel guns. They weighed about 40 kilograms (88 pounds). They needed a special stand, or "swivel," to help aim them. Swivel guns used special mug-shaped chambers that were filled with gunpowder and bullets ahead of time. This made reloading much faster. Sailors often used these swivel guns on ships to fight enemy crews or stop people from boarding their ship.

Large Culverin Cannons

There were three main sizes of culverin cannons. They were called the "culverin extraordinary," the "ordinary culverin," and the "culverin of the least size."

There were also smaller versions. These included the "bastard culverin," which fired a 7-pound (3.2 kg) shot. Another was the "demi-culverin," which fired a 10-pound (4.5 kg) shot.

The culverin was a big improvement over older cannons. It fired heavy iron cannonballs instead of lighter stone ones. Its long barrel allowed the gunpowder to burn completely. This gave the cannonball more power. Because of this, the culverin could shoot its heavy cannonball much farther and in a straighter line. A special replica culverin could shoot a cannonball at 408 meters per second (about 913 miles per hour)! It could hit targets over 450 meters (1,476 feet) away, even with a small angle.

In Britain, around the early 1700s, a man named Michael Richards wanted to improve cannons. He asked an expert, Albert Borgard, to design a new system for artillery. Borgard changed the way cannons were named. Instead of names like "culverin" or "saker," he named them by the weight of the cannonball they fired. For example, a "4-pounder" fired a 4-pound cannonball. This way of naming cannons by their shot weight continued in Britain for a very long time.

See also

• Arquebus
• Demi-culverin
• Doglock
• Flintlock
• Hand cannon
• Matchlock
• Miquelet lock
• Musket
• Pistol
• Snaphance
• Snaplock
• Wheellock

Images for kids

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  15th century culveriners

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  An early hand culverin, from 1390–1400

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  A hand culverin (in the middle) with two smaller cannons, 16th century

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  Early culverins from the 15th century: a hand culverin (top) and a culverin with a removable chamber (bottom)

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  A "Murderer" cannon from France, 1410

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  A culverin with side flash-pans

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  Above: An early culverin, below: A hand culverin with a bent stock

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  Bronze culverins and a demi-cannon, on display at the Mary Rose Museum