Examining a shotgun

Brenan found Mr. Michaels standing by a jury rigged table set up in the space forward of the massive fruit-filled wooden crates. An oil lantern hung from the deck beams illuminating the makeshift workbench below and Brenan watched the intense concentration of his odd gunnery officer as he worked.

The table was covered by a large piece of blue felt laid across the wood and spread out neatly on the blue cloth were the pieces of a disassembled gun. The weapon was roughly the same length as the two scatterguns in the schooner's arms locker but that was where the similarity ended.

The double barrel of gun looked far too thin to be effective and unlike the heavy flaring muzzle of the sctterguns he was familiar with this barrel was open at both ends and cylindrical for its entire length.

Lying on the table next to the pieces of the gun were ten brass-tipped tubes that looked like much larger versions of the priceless brass shells that Brenan used for his revolver.

"Captain!". Exclaimed Mr. Michaels in giddy surprise barely able to contain his excitement. "This weapon of the Caruthers boy is a wonder!"

"Then I hope you can put it back together." Brenan replied with a grin, but then added on a hopefull note. "Can you make replicas of it?"

Michaels shook his head slowly. "Not without a lot of help." His nimble fingers started assembling the parts laid out before him explaining the technical difficulties involved as he fit the pieces together.

"The design is easy enough to understand." He explained "The barrels are loaded from the firing end, instead of from the muzzle. But the strength of the metal is remarkable. These hinges for instance," pausing to demonstrate how the barrels snap shut with a faint 'click' "can hold the presure of the charge." Flipping the gun over he displayed the double trigger mechinism on the underside of the smooth grip. "Here too the workmanship is beyond any but the finest watchmakers of Cryn." Placing the assembled weapon reverantly on the felt cloth before him he picked up one of the ten tubes.

"I think we can use these though. Well not these cartridges precisely, their technology is also beyond me, but the concept behind them." He handed one of the shells to Brenan before continuing.

"Imagine the powder charge, padding and load for your twelve pounders all premeasured and wrapped so it just fits down the barrel." Brenan saw the advantage imediately, especially because he had only two guns and a very limited number of sailors to assign as gun crew.

"How much faster would that make our reload?" He asked.

"About twice the fire rate, I guess." He shook his head slowly "More accurate too I should think. I won't know for sure until we try."

"Can you reload these shells?" Brenan asked as casually as he could pointing at the cartridges on the table.

"Maybe in time." Michaels answered cautiously "The propellant is not gunpowder. According to young Mr. Caruthers it is more than twice as powerful and burns leaving nearly no smoke at all. Remarkable." Brenan knew about the smokeless gunpowder that his shells used, nor was he surprised when his gunnery officer pointed out the other difficulty.

"Do you see these little bumps?" He asked pointing to the center of the brass casing "These are what ignite the charge. They are sensitive to pressure, I just don't know..."

Brenan sighed. "Keep working on it Mr. Michaels."

"Captain," began Michaels "Do you think you could convince James to let me take one of these shells apart?"

Brenan didn't know what to say. Could he ask James to sacrifice one of his ten shells when Brenan wasn't sure he'd be willing to give up one of his when we had so many more."