Wheellocks in America

[Rasch Chronicles]

I've been combing the web for references to wheellocks, and to be honest, I have kind of been stuck at the auction houses copying there stuff for my own reference. Anyway, with all the fine work being displayed, I was wondering if the earliest explorers carried them. I would venture to guess that the wealthier might have carried them.

In the meantime I found a couple of nice pictures of  lock guts to share with you all:






Picture credits: Hermann-Historia

And to see it in full size:
Top: http://www.hermann-historica.de/auktion/images61_max/12654_e.jpg
Middle: http://www.hermann-historica.de/auktion/images61_max/05952_c.jpg
Bottom: http://www.hermann-historica.de/auktion/images61_max/99181_e.jpg


Interestingly enough wheelguns are dime a dozen compared to wall guns...

Best regards,
Albert “The Afghan” Rasch
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles™
Feral Bull Fighting: Another Chronicles Adventure!
ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!

[smart dog]

Hi Albert,
Samuel de Champlain and some of his men almost certainly carried "arquebuse a rouet" or wheellocks during their explorations of the St. Lawrence River and battles with the Iroquois during 1609-1615.

dave

[welafong1]

nice pictures real clear very helpful
thank you
richard westerfield

[blunderbuss]

It was generally thought that the wealthy carried wheelocks but they're turning up some spanners and other wheelock parts at some very old sights in America. One came over on the Mayflower (see video on NRA site) If you could possibly afford one wealthy or not you bought one.
We found the same principle with cap locks in early Texas caps cost allot more than flints but many many poor folks bought them as soon as possible. Meaning money is no object when your life is on the line.

[volatpluvia]

Rausch,
Very interesting.  It looks like the second one has it's catch spring broken off.  The third one looks like it doesn't have a catch spring.  It looks like the pan cover is not on a pivot arm but is just a slider and maybe doesn't need a catch spring.  I sure would like to see how that one works.  It does not look like the cam would knock it open unless everything lined up EXACTLY right.  Which we know how painstaking they were to make things work.
Thanks for posting he pics.
Now the spanairds were here in the Americas before the wheellock was perfected for on a gonne.  So it would be easy to suppose that maybe some of the expeditions post 1521 there might have been some wheellocks along.  But I can not substantiate this and would heate to start a rumor, hee, hee.
volatpluvia

[Collector]

Archaeologists working at Jamestown, VA found a pistol that had been discarded in a common well.  Does anyone here know what it looked like? 

[Dave B]

The pistol found in the James Town well is of the Snaphaunce design. Here is a link to the article and a photo of the piece in question.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/195713/

The Dutch did have wheel locks at the same time as the French.  The explorations of Henry Hudson (having been hired by the Dutch) in 1609 for an expedition to the new world for the purpose of establishing commercial ventures in trade. This was when he discovered the river that carries his name. I see no mention of the arms carried by this expedition but the matchlock was a primary weapon used and the wheellock was in use at this time but in limited quantities it would seem. Later on  amongst the colonists of the Hudson river valley.
This is all out of the book "Firearms in Colonial America" the impact on histroy and Technology, 1492-1793

[Rasch Chronicles]

Fellows,

I figured as much. Starting with the earliest explorers and their matchlocks, the New World saw all the technoloical evolutions. Good stuff guys, good stuff!

Best regards,
Albert “The Afghan” Rasch
Traditional Methods of Waterproofing Fabric
ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!

[LURCHWV@BJS]

The link to the Jamestown Pistol was very exciting to me. I need to do some digging there.  Seems a relative of mine traced my Grandmother's family back to Jamestown.  Wouldn't it be cool if that was a family heirloom.  Thank you so much.

  Rich

[smart dog]

Hi Albert,
Although early American colonists did not develop any new firearm technology, they certainly adopted the latest improvements quickly.  For example, by 1660 the matchlock was largely abandoned as a military gun in favor of true flintlocks, while they were still common in European armies.  I guess, with respect to the evolution of firearms technology, life on a frontier was a strong selection pressure.

dave

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

During King Phillip's War in 1675–76 the colonists were greatly hampered because many/most were not yet armed with flintlocks.......

"King Philip's War was the first conflict in which the Indians had modern flintlock firearms. This proved an important advantage because some of the American militias were only equipped with matchlocks and pikes, and because the Indians were excellent marksmen. The Europeans had arrived in North America during a time of military revolution in Europe: European soldiers brought the new weapons and techniques of this revolution with them to North America and by 1675 had provoked a military revolution of a sort among Native Americans, a revolution that for 140 years gave them a tactical advantage over their more numerous and wealthier opponents."

[smart dog]

Hi Tim,
You might like to look at the following link, which describes firearms in the early colonies, particularly Plymouth Plantation:

http://plymoutharch.tripod.com/id71.html

It would be hard to imagine any of the colonists using matchlocks during the Great Swamp and Pease Field fights.  Benjamin Church and his rangers did not carry matchlocks during their raids and ambushes of Native American warriors.  Maybe a few garrison houses had matchlocks but according to the link above, by the 1640's militia units in Plymouth were mostly armed with flintlocks of some sort (not necessarily true French flintlocks).  For example, the famous Jireh Bull lock found in the Bull blockhouse which was destroyed in 1675 was a type 1 English flintlock.

dave

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Dave,
 You are right, excellent article!

When I get a chance I will find a reference that I read a couple of years ago that specifically mentions units with flintlocks and without..... Lets just say the transition was still underway when the war broke out and the NA had an advantage for a while. When Church got actively involved it may well have been very different. Life and death threat sometimes speed progress :-)

[Odd Fellow]

You are probably more likely to find a snaphaunce like this than a wheellock

[Belleville]

"I was wondering if the earliest explorers carried them. "

http://www.nramuseum.com/the-museum/the-galleries/old-guns-in-a-new-world/case-12-the-mayflower-gun/mayflower-wheellock-carbine.aspx

http://www.nramuseum.com/the-museum/the-galleries/old-guns-in-a-new-world/case-13-exploration,-settlement,-survival-trade-in-the-new-world/french-wheellock-rifle.aspx

Champlain's Dream by Fischer, page 617.

Arms & Armor in Colonial Am. by Peterson, pages 60-61. "Military spanners excavated at Jamestown."

Doc S.

[Rasch Chronicles]

Belleville,

Thank you very much for the wonderful links! Great material there that I was not familiar with!

Your friend,
Albert “The Afghan” Rasch
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles™
ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!

[welafong1]

would it be possible to copy the other sides
thank you
Richard Westerfield

[dannybb55]

This thread and the one on southern smooth bores are converging.