Another heavy gun worthy of mention is the RML 7-inch 7-ton. Except for size the equipment, ie gun, carriage and platform, closely resembled the 64-pr 64-cwt in outward appearance, but it was more powerful. With full charge of 0 lbs powder MV was 1561 fs, range 5500 yards with a QE of 11°, and with a reduced charge of 17 lbs 4000 with a QE of 9°52'. With full charge a shot could penetrate 6.72 inches of wrought iron at 500 yards. It employed the same system of rifling as the 64-pr but with a uniform twist of one turn in 35 calibres.

As already mentioned, with the 64-prs received in 1879 there arrived eleven 7-inch 7-ton guns on 7-ton carriages - all brand new according to Government records.

The guns were in fact new, having been made in 1878. However, in the Fort Cautley Record Book we find: "... instead of new 7-ton carriages being made and coming with the guns, old sea-service 6¼-ton carriages were converted for the purpose and sent out. Like all naval carriages of the same nature they were originally fitted with the EOC compressor, and although well filled up and painted over, the positions of the holes for the compressor shaft and lever bracket are still visible. The naval service metal brushes for the breeching rope are also still fitted in the holes in the brackets of the carriages."

We are left to wonder: Did the New Zealand taxpayer pay for new carriages as ordered - or for the second-hand ones received?

NB: The 'compressor' was a crude recoil-limiting device made of two sets of metal plates, one attached to the carriage, the other to the platform. When sqeezed together by the lever mentioned they acted as a brake on the carriage.

In 1904 all 64-pr and 7-inch guns were taken out of service and the complete equipments presented by the Government to local bodies in the four main centres. There they were displayed in local parks etc as memorials - reminders of events in the country's history.

Then during the 1930s there arose a group of peculiar people who thought that if all guns were hidden there would be no more war! They petitioned local councils to bury the old relics or sell them for scrap, and were successful in anumber of cases. The guns in Albert Park, Auckland, survived until the Japanese entered World War 2 in 1941, when the same people petitioned the Auckland City Council to bury them. They claimed that Japanese aircraft seeing the ancient pieces might mistake them for modern armament and bomb the city!

To the amazement of normal people the Auckland City Council capitulated! Council workmen buried the guns but not before vandalising them by removing the non-ferrous parts and cutting the platforms in half - easier than digging a bigger hole. When in 1977 the guns were 'resurrected' the City Council made an extremely poor attempt at restoring them.

The figures show two of the 'resurrected' guns, top:a 64-pr, bottom: a 7-inch, both ex-Fort Cautley, North Head. Non-ferrous parts have been removed, eg carriage trucks and breeching rope hole bushes (7-inch, below the trunnions). Both central pivots are missing; these were dug up but the Council in its 'restoration' made no attempt to replace them on the guns. Neither did they replace the footboards formerly fitted to the platforms for use by the detachments. Note also the botched attempt to join the two halves of the 7-inch platform.

WL Ruffell
Issue 102
June 1999