The long tiller has several knobs at its end, one half way down its length with a fillet either side and a series of fillets where it joins the base ring. Immediately thereafter is the breech trough and after this a two ogees, the trunnions to which a pintle is attached and thence a long chase. There is a muzzle astragal and fillets either side of which is a thin band of decoration. There is then a short plain section of chase before the muzzle with a fillet. It is similar in design to No.XIX.9, XIX.90 and XIX. 239. The slender chase is encircled near the muzzle with a raised band or collar ornamented with a running plant design, and at the edge of the breech trough is an unidentified symbol in relief. The gun preserves its long tail or tiller made as a separate piece riveted to the cascable. An iron swivel is attached to the trunnions. The bore is very rough and seems never to have been cleaned up after the gun was cast.
Minimum standard
This type of gun known also as a swivel could be attached to a ships gunwale or to a wall in a garrison. It is classed as breech-loading since the powder chamber which has not survived was pre-loaded away from the swivel. A small shot or, more likely, in the position it found itself in, small pieces of iron, granite or other stone chippings as anti-personnel. The powder chamber was them positioned and a wooden or iron wedge placed behind it and hammered home. This forced the powder chamber as close as possible to the barrel aperture. Powder was then introduced into the vent which would be in contact with the main charge and a burning linstock applied to the vent. Recoil was necessarily small to preserve the units fixtures.
Lt. Col. Bruce Hamilton (1857-1936) was commissioned into the East Yorkshire Regiment in 1877 serving in the Second Anglo-Afghan War in 1880 and the South African War in 1881. He became Commander of the Niger Coast Protectorate Force in Benin in 1897 which may explain how this gun and the others ended up at the Tower of London.