Summary

Nordenfelt quick firing machine gun, .45 calibre, 5 barrels (side-by-side), mechanically operated. Made in Britain, 1887. Enscribed: "ENFIELD 1887 NORDENFELT No 26 Mark II Cwt Qrt Lb 1.4.6"

Made in Britain at the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield to a Swedish design, the Nordenfelt was the most common mulit-barrel machine gun in the 1880s. This is one of several Nordenfelt guns purchased by the Victorian colonial defence forces in the 1880s, for use on ships and shore-line batteries as anti-torpedo weapons. Others were attached to gun carriages for operation by horse artillery units.

Note: This gun is similar to Nordenfelt guns that were fitted to the HMVS Cerberus as anti-torpedo weapons in the late 1880s, however, the latter were 4-barrel models. The HMVS Cerberus was a Monitor Class armour-plated battleship built for the Victorian Colonial Navy in 1870. It served with the Victorian Navy until after 1900. The hull was later scuttled off Sandringham as a breakwater where it remains today and is now a protected shipwreck site.

A display of this gun at the Institute of Applied Science (Science Museum), Melbourne, in 1968 is depicted in MM 062952.

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