When General George Washington retreated from New York in the fall of 1776, young Joseph G. Chambers abandoned his studies at Princeton and escaped ahead of the invading British to join his father’s New Jersey militia regiment. He subsequently participated in the battles at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown. Chambers’ Revolutionary War experiences left him with deep impressions concerning weapons of war, and after becoming an inventor, he would conceive some of the early Navy’s most innovative and unusual guns.
In late 1812, Chambers arrived in Washington, offering repeating-shot muskets and pistols to the Department of War. He referred to the inventions, which he had worked on for two decades, as “machine guns.” They operated on the “Roman candle” principle, that is, once the trigger was pulled, the weapon fired a number of rounds in sequence until an entire load had been expended. Lethargic War Secretary John Armstrong wasn’t interested.
Chambers then turned to the Navy, and by mid-April 1813 also had produced an eight-barreled, swivel-mounted weapon that could discharge more than 200 rounds on one trigger-pull.
Several successful demonstrations of a repeating swivel, musket, and pistol were conducted at the Washington Navy Yard. Favorably impressed, Secretary of the Navy William Jones acted on 7 May, ordering Philadelphia Navy Agent George Harrison to contract with Chambers for ten of his swivels, and to have 100 conventional muskets modified into repeaters. The inventor received $200 for his expenses and services, and it was to be understood that “the United States shall have the right perpetually to use the description and number of arms herein mentioned. . . . If this experiment shall succeed to the Satisfaction of judicious practical men in the Service of the U.S. it will then remain with the government.” Such was the importance with which the new weapons were viewed.
In late 1813, Commodore Isaac Chauncey returned to his former command, the New York Navy Yard, to arrange for further materials and supplies for his Lake Ontario Squadron. He also visited Philadelphia and witnessed another demonstration of the Chambers weapons. On 27 January 1814, he requested that 20 of the swivels and 100 muskets be sent to the squadron’s base at Sackets Harbor, New York. Secretary Jones directed a letter to Navy Agent Harrison to learn if 50 swivels and 200 muskets could be sent inland.
In February Jones directed Harrison to contract with Chambers for more of his weapons. In turn, Chambers subcontracted with John Joseph Henry and George Tryon for 20 swivels and 200 muskets, to be delivered within three months. In a design change, the swivels were to have seven instead of eight barrels.
The special lead shot used in all these weapons consisted of a cylinder, whose thickness was one-half its diameter. On the projectile’s bottom was a “stem,” whose dimensions were roughly one-half of the upper portion. A small hole along the central axis was the means whereby gasses from the discharge of the preceding powder charge were transmitted to the next charge, thereby continuing the firing of the weapon.
To load one of the swivels, one first had to position the muzzles up, presumably in some sort of stand, and have handy the requisite number of rounds and a container of powder, as well as patches, a powder measure, a funnel, a rammer, and a bucket of water for safety. First, a measured amount of powder was poured down a barrel, then one of the special tight-fitting rounds inserted, stem down, and carefully rammed into the powder so that the explosive filled the space between the end of the bore and the underside of the round proper. Then another measure of powder was added and another round rammed home with the same care. And so it went until the barrel was loaded (the final item being a sealing patch), and then the process was repeated for each of the remaining six barrels until all 217 rounds—about 22 pounds of lead, in all—had been loaded.
On 20 March, Jones wrote to Chambers telling him that when the 50 swivels and 200 muskets were ready for shipment to Chauncey, he intended to appoint Chambers’ son a gunner and have him accompany the weapons to Sackets Harbor to train squadron personnel in their loading and firing. He also added 100 repeating pistols to the order.
Chambers responded on the 26th that he probably would have 30 swivels and 150 muskets ready by 1 May, and perhaps all the pistols. But Chauncey wrote to Jones again on 30 March asking for “a few of those Seven barrel Swivels and Muskets that are preparing in Philadelphia.” A testy Jones sent a letter to Harrison to have 15 swivels, 50 muskets, and 50 pistols “put up immediately . . . and forward[ed] forthwith” to Commodore Chauncey.
Chambers finally completed production of the immediate order and forwarded the arms to Sackets Harbor the next month, so that on 27 May, Secretary Jones was able to write to Commodore Chauncey that
Mr. Harrison has . . . forwarded to you a number of the repeating Swivels Muskets and Pistols, with prepared ammunition and persons acquainted with the art of preparing the ammunition and of loading the arms. . . . They are a truly astonishing and potent weapon. . . . Two of those swivels in each Top, to be fired in succession upon the decks of your adversary, would not fail to clear it entirely in five minutes.
On 9 June, Chauncey responded that “The repeating Swivels and Muskets sent by Mr. Harrison shall receive a fair trial—I have the highest opinion of their utility and effect upon the Enemy.” His new flagship, the frigate Superior, had been launched on 1 May and was then completing fitting out.
Chauncey sent four each of the swivels aboard the Superior, the frigate Mohawk, and the corvette General Pike. But his repeated attempts to get his “fleet” into operation were bedeviled by shortages. Finally, at the end of July, he sailed. His opposite number, British Commodore Sir James Yeo, had found reasons to be similarly inactive, and the sailing season largely passed without confrontation. Chauncey alternated between watching the enemy naval base and shipyard at Kingston, Ontario, and waiting at Sackets Harbor. The season ended in the first week of November, and with it, essentially, the war on the Great Lakes. The marvelous repeating arms had never fired a shot in anger.
Benjamin W. Crowninshield succeeded William Jones as secretary of the Navy on 16 January 1815. A little more than a month later, Congress ratified the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812. That, in turn, was followed by a decision to send units to the Mediterranean to put down a recurring Algerine pirate problem. One ship is known to have had the machine guns on board, but their use was not reported. The Chambers repeating weapons had caused a brief thrill among early 19th-century futurists, but ended their days being inoperative curiosities in ship’s armories staffed by people totally unskilled in their use.