A harpoon cannon is a whaling implement developed in the late 19th century and most used in the 20th century. It would be mounted on the bow of a whale catcher, where it could be easily aimed with a wide field of view at the target. Powered by black powder and later, smokeless powder, it would generally fire a large steel harpoon, either solid steel (cold harpoon) or fitted with an exploding black powder, or later, penthrite (PETN) grenade.
Harpoon cannons are still used by whaling nations, but these are usually guns of a smaller caliber. The exception is Iceland, which hunts large whales regularly.
Early engineers attempted to develop gun-fired harpoons to improve the hit rate from hand-thrown harpoons, generally with little success, as the guns were not very accurate, especially when fired from small moving whaleboats. Another problem appeared when the quarry were baleen whales, which tended to sink when killed. The idea was modernized and perfected by NorwegianSvend Foyn. He developed a swiveling steel cannon, mounted to the bow deck of his steel and steam whaling ship, improving accuracy, and lastly, attaching an exploding steel head to the harpoon, filled with 500 grams (18oz) of black powder. While by no means instantaneous, the whale's death would be faster than before, and there would be greater ease in keeping the whale attached to the harpoon line. Modern guns with improved grenades were significantly improved during the 20th century, and currently, the most advanced technologies can kill a whale virtually instantly.
Design
Shooting a harpoon at a whale
Early cannons were muzzle-loading, but were replaced later with breech-loading models. These are used in modern whaling, with the exception of many Norwegian cannons which utilize an improved muzzle-loading design, with a breech firing system. In the early 20th century, almost all cannons were similar to the Kongsberg 90mm design. With a trigger mounted on the back of a steel handle which would lever a thin rod up to the firing device in the horizontally sliding breechblock. To load, the rear cover plate would be rotated, exposing the back of the rectangular breechblock. The breechblock would be opened by rotating a handle on the top of the breech, and the spent cartridge case removed, to be reloaded with powder and wadding. A new cartridge would be prepared and slid up into the firing chamber, the breechblock would be closed by rotating the handle counterclockwise, the rear cover would be rotated back to cover the rear chamber, a harpoon would be prepared, inserted into the muzzle, and tied on. Then another rotating handle on the side of the breechblock would be pulled back to cock the firing pin. This handle was directly adjacent to the firing trigger on the block. The gun was solid steel, and had a glycerin recoil cylinder mounted under the barrel. The inner barrel and breech would bounce back on the recoil, while the handle and swivel in the deck would be mounted on a stationary outer cylinder.
21st century
Iceland uses 90mm cannons built by Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (KV) in the fin whale hunt by Hvalur HF. It also uses 50mm cannons built by KV in the minke whale hunt. Norway uses 50mm KV cannons in the minke whale hunt, as well as muzzle-loading 60mm Henriksen cannons. Greenland uses 50mm KV cannons in the hunt for minke, bowhead, fin, and humpback whales. Japan uses 75mm cannons, built by Miroku Manufacturing in its pelagic whaling in the North Pacific and Antarctic research hunts.
All of the above countries utilize Norwegian-designed PETN grenades to improve the humaneness of the kill, with the exception of Japan, which uses domestically manufactured grenades, which have proved less effective at guaranteeing an instant kill (40% instant death rate in Japan vs. 80% in Norway).
In firearm designs, the term single-shot refers to guns that can hold only a single round of ammunition inside and thus must be reloaded manually after every shot. Compared to multi-shot repeating firearms ("repeaters"), single-shot designs have no moving parts other than the trigger, hammer/firing pin or frizzen, and therefore do not need a sizable receiver behind the barrel to accommodate a moving action, making them far less complex and more robust than revolvers or magazine/belt-fed firearms, but also with much slower rates of fire.
In firearms terminology, an action is the functional mechanism of a breech-loading firearm that handles the ammunition cartridges, or the method by which that mechanism works. Actions are technically not present on muzzleloaders, as all those are single-shot firearms with a closed off breech with the powder and projectile manually loaded from the muzzle. Instead, the muzzleloader ignition mechanism is referred to as the lock.
A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch and injure large fish or marine mammals such as seals and whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal and securing it with barb or toggling claws, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the projectile to catch the animal. A harpoon can also be used as a weapon. Certain harpoons are made with different builds to perform better with the type of target being aimed at. For example, the Inuit have short, fixed foreshaft harpoons for hunting seals at their breathing holes while loose shafted ones are made for attaching to the game thrown at.
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front (muzzle).
The Jarmann M1884 is a Norwegian bolt-action repeating rifle designed in 1878 adopted in 1884. The Jarmann's adoption, and subsequent modifications, turned the Norwegian Army from a fighting force armed with single-shot black-powder weapons into a force armed with modern repeating weapons firing smokeless ammunition. Several thousand were manufactured to equip the Norwegian Armed Forces in the 1880s, and it also saw some, though very limited, use in Sweden. The design is unique, and was the brainchild of Norwegian engineer Jacob Smith Jarmann. After the design had been phased out of the Norwegian Army, a number of the weapons were rebuilt as harpoon guns.
A rifled breech loader (RBL) is an artillery piece which, unlike the smoothbore cannon and rifled muzzle loader (RML) which preceded it, has rifling in the barrel and is loaded from the breech at the rear of the gun.
A breechblock is the part of the firearm action that closes the breech of a breech loading weapon before or at the moment of firing. It seals the breech and contains the pressure generated by the ignited propellant. Retracting the breechblock allows the chamber to be loaded with a cartridge.
The term swivel gun usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to switch between rifled and smoothbore barrels.
The lock of a firearm is the mechanism used to initiate firing. It is a historical term, in that it generally refers to such mechanisms used in muzzle-loading and early breech-loading firearms. Side-lock refers to the type of construction, in which the individual components of the mechanism are mounted either side of a single plate. The assembly is then mounted to the stock on the side of the firearm. In modern firearm designs, the mechanism to initiate firing is generally constructed within the frame or receiver of the firearm and is referred to as the firing or trigger mechanism.
Svend Foyn was a Norwegian whaling, shipping magnate and philanthropist. He pioneered revolutionary methods for hunting and processing whales. Svend Foyn introduced the modern harpoon cannon and brought whaling into a modern age. He is also recognized as a pioneer who introduced sealing to Vestfold County.
The Kammerlader, or "chamber loader", was the first Norwegian breech-loading rifle, and among the first breech loaders adopted for use by an armed force anywhere in the world. A single-shot black-powder rifle, the kammerlader was operated with a crank mounted on the side of the receiver. This made it much quicker and easier to load than the weapons previously used. Kammerladers quickly gained a reputation for being fast and accurate rifles, and would have been a deadly weapon against massed ranks of infantry.
This article explains terms used for the British Armed Forces' ordnance (weapons) and ammunition. The terms may have slightly different meanings in the military of other countries.
A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales.
The Mark 12 5"/38 caliber gun was a United States dual-purpose naval gun, but also installed in single-purpose mounts on a handful of ships. The 38 caliber barrel was a mid-length compromise between the previous United States standard 5"/51 low-angle gun and 5"/25 anti-aircraft gun. United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile 5 inches (127 mm) in diameter, and the barrel was 38 calibers long. The increased barrel length provided greatly improved performance in both anti-aircraft and anti-surface roles compared to the 5"/25 gun. However, except for the barrel length and the use of semi-fixed ammunition, the 5"/38 gun was derived from the 5"/25 gun. Both weapons had power ramming, which enabled rapid fire at high angles against aircraft. The 5"/38 entered service on USS Farragut, commissioned in 1934, the first new destroyer design since the last Clemson was built in 1922. The base ring mount, which improved the effective rate of fire, entered service on USS Porter, commissioned in 1936.
An Armstrong gun was a uniquely designed type of rifled breech-loading field and heavy gun designed by Sir William Armstrong and manufactured in England beginning in 1855 by the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. Such guns involved a built-up gun construction system of a wrought-iron tube surrounded by a number of wrought-iron strengthening coils shrunk over the inner tube to keep it under compression.
The explosive harpoon is a type of harpoon which uses an explosive discharge to assist in whaling. In Norway, Japan, and Iceland, the use of these harpoons is commonplace. Norway created and utilises the most technologically advanced grenades in their harpoons.
Whaling in Norway involves hunting of minke whales for use as animal and human food in Norway and for export to Japan. Whale hunting has been a part of Norwegian coastal culture for centuries, and commercial operations targeting the minke whale have occurred since the early 20th century. Some still continue the practice in the modern day.
The Iowa-class battleships are the most heavily armed gunships the United States Navy has ever put to sea, due to the continual development of their onboard weaponry. The first Iowa-class ship was laid down in June 1940; in their World War II configuration, each of the Iowa-class battleships had a main battery of 16-inch (406 mm) guns that could hit targets nearly 20 statute miles (32 km) away with a variety of artillery shells designed for anti-ship or bombardment work. The secondary battery of 5-inch (127 mm) guns could hit targets nearly 9 statute miles (14 km) away with solid projectiles or proximity fuzed shells, and was effective in an anti-aircraft role as well. Each of the four battleships carried a wide array of 20 mm and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns for defense against enemy aircraft.
The 37 mm Automatic Gun, M4, known as the T9 during development, was a 37 mm (1.46 in) recoil-operated autocannon designed by Browning Arms Company. The weapon, which was built by Colt, entered service in 1942. It was primarily mounted in the Bell P-39 Airacobra and P-63 Kingcobra, with the U.S. Navy also utilizing it on many PT boats.
A repeating firearm or repeater is any firearm that is capable of being fired repeatedly before having to manually reload new ammunition into the weapon.
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