The incredibly ornate yet *very* mysterious dragon gun, with Assistant Curator Thomas Davies

This Burmese bronze gun cast in the form of a dragon is one of the most intriguing objects in our collection at Fort Nelson, not only because of its ornate design but for the mystery that enshrouds it.
In this episode our Assistant Curator of Artillery, Thomas Davies, shares his quest of the origins of the gun, what it might have been used for and what its dragon design might symbolise.
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[@Hugh-S]

Incredibly interesting, clearly enthusiastic, infectious attitude. More of Thomas!

[@RoyalArmouries]

Don't worry, we intend to.

[@GMT439]

@@RoyalArmouries Do you by chance have and proof at all of the CLAIMS made in this Video?

[@shootmcrunfast]

@@GMT439 Clearly you have an agenda here, maybe you should say what points you think are not accurate so they can be addressed. However, I suspect you do not actually care and are just being an awful person.

[@shootmcrunfast]

Definately more of Thomas, fascinating subject as well.

[@Hugh-S]

Nice try. @@GMT439

[@J1mston]

I saw this in person last year. I was in Fort Nelson during the Falklands War exhibition. This cannon is one of many that really stops you in your tracks and has you staring. Such fine craftsmanship. I should add that Thomas is brilliant behind the camera, a natural.

[@ThunderChunky101]

It's a stunning piece. Really.

[@jackzed2020]

​@@ThunderChunky101 the guy or weapon?

[@ThunderChunky101]

@@jackzed2020 Wot

[@P_i_l_s_o]

I would say in front of the camera. He's too brilliant of a presenter to be behind a camera.

[@azkrouzreimertz9784]

I really like this presenter, he got good energy and obviously passionate about the subject. Hope i see him again❤

[@RoyalArmouries]

Don't worry, you will

[@postmandnb]

Yay Jonathan found someone willing to talk about an awesome item in the collection. Great presentation from Thomas. Hope Thomas finds the cannon maker and finishes his quest.

[@FerventRebutter]

Thomas has great presence in front of the camera. Hope we see more of him. Edit: sneaky, inconspicuous alteration.

[@pedrorehm]

Absolutely loving his energy and excitement on the matter

[@ThunderChunky101]

He's basically immediately hit KZbin with the quintessential TV voice. Dude needs a TV job.

[@jameshealy4594]

I believe you mean in front of the camera, behind usually means off-screen? I agree it was a great job.

[@FerventRebutter]

@@jameshealy4594 Huh, you're absolutely right!

[@LiveDonkeyDeadLion]

I’ve been asking and asking for this video! Thank you everyone, I always make sure I drop by to look at it (and the matching musket) when I visit Fort Nelson I feel like all that volunteer work in the ACF cleaning up the fort has paid off. (I also had a very minor role in recovering one of the cannons being restored)

[@mattheweagles5123]

Unrelated to the gun, the cafe at Fort Nelson is very good.

[@RoyalArmouries]

Top comment

[@MrSpirit99]

Great video. That guy knows what he is talking about and is passionate about it, great energy.

[@ThunderChunky101]

Is this Tom Scott's little brother?! 😂 Bloody practiced TV voice, sounds like I'm watching a BBC history show. Great enthusiasm.

[@sski]

Very cool piece! Leave it to the Asian sphere to create such an ornate yet functional piece of kit. What I really enjoyed was Thomas. While I like Johnathan's presentations, it was refreshing to witness Thomas' presentation of this cannon. He speaks clearly at a good volume, imparting all the information he has access to while querying the audience for their involvement for further information as there is as lack of historical account. That's good use of informational access now that we have the internet. I like Thomas. Use him in videos more often, please.

[@samparkerSAM]

Fantastic Casting skills. Wonderful metal work.

[@Choscura]

So there was a Burmese military campaign into the then-Lanna kingdom of what's now northern thailand, and a number of major cities were captured for a generation or two, and then recaptured by the Thai/Siamese people later. The city walls in this region have a particular set of features- they're usually initially mud brick, updated later with fired ceramic stoneware brick, they're all solar aligned- if not perfect polar alignment, there is at least a coherent square city structure, generally about a mile on a side, with a wall inside and a moat outside, and a more-or-less freely unplanned city inside the walled curtain area with some central administrative functions, government and religious buildings, at the exact center. The walls themselves vary in construction, but the are noteworthy for including ramparts for infantry and emplacements for artillery, not having arched gateways that allow traversal of the wall across gates (in other words, you go down off the wall, cross the street, and go up the other wall on the other side of the gate, at every gate, in theory), and the cities almost always have an internal fresh water source within this curtain wall. It seems likely to me that this gun could originate in northern Siam/ in the Lanna kingdom, maybe at one of the smaller cities like Luang Prabang, and possibly from the larger cities like Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai- all three examples of which have some variety of this city wall format I've described, usually with additional less-documented outer curtain walls as part of a historical previous extended defensive wall network.

[@georgekruse7931]

This gun may belong to Nguyen or Tay Son dynasty from Vietnam. My theory is this gun was captured between 1785 - 1834 from Tay son or 1841 -1845 from Nguyen dynasty.Thailand (Siam) and Vietnam were in a series of armed conflicts between the Siamese Ayutthaya Kingdom and Rattanakosin Kingdom and the various dynasties of Vietnam mainly during the 18th and 19th centuries. Several of the wars took place in modern-day Cambodia ( Wikipedia ). Tay Son dynasty were especially famous for thier cannon battle against Qing and Siam force

[@Wolvenworks]

That somewhat makes sense, given Vietnam’s status as a vassal state for the chinese back then, but i think some more solid evidence would help, especially pictures.

[@wilsonlaidlaw]

There are similar looking guns to be found in Indonesia. Some 17th century Indonesian dragon cannons have been found on the Great Barrier Reef, indicating that this area was known to Indonesian sailors of the period before Cook.

[@jonpaul3868]

Looks like Javanese Dragon to me... Yes Indonesian highly probably

[@cicak2404]

@@jonpaul3868 No it's not Javanese dragon. Javanese dragon has crown on their head. This dragon in very Chinese, it's not even close to mainland Southeast Asian dragons.

[@blahblahblah8583]

Macassan traders (Sulewesi, Indonesia) had been trading with the Indigenous Australians of the Tiwi Islands and Arnhem Land (NT, Australia) long before Europeans discovered Australia.

[@Valkanna.Nublet]

"It looks a little bit ornate." Master of understatement :D

[@ThunderChunky101]

Right? No way anyone ever fired that! It's stunning. Has to be priceless. Imagine it at auction!

[@causewaykayak]

What a wonderful piece. Thanks for such a clear presentation and one delivered with understandable enthusiasm. 👍🏼

[@sophoklesgreek3237]

very informative. and as a side note: as a not native speaker I really enjoyed the clear and good proconation, made it really easy to follow.

[@boltmonkey6869]

Excellent job Tom. Love the 10-15 min format. Keep them coming!

[@iirainey]

They're shorter because Tom talks faster than Johnathan.

[@paulthebeardedonedowning6820]

excellent job Tom truly fascinating bit of kit best of luck with finding out more

[@damwonstyx1169]

Excellent presenter, when I heard that "Whoosh" reference regarding the cannons firing, I couldn't help get Lord Flasheart from Blackadder out of my mind :)

[@Mulvers]

Wow, what a piece! Thanks for the video Thomas and Armouries

[@gazzertrn]

I like this guy , real passion for what he describes .

[@X1ZR]

Looks insane, would love to see more weapons like this.

[@Cats-TM]

Now that is a beautiful piece, good luck on your research, really hope you can find out more. Very well done video aswell, you definetly are good at conveying the information…which is good when that is the point of interpreters at a museum.

[@Kevin-mx1vi]

I liked the "whoosh". That's the first thing you notice when you're close to a black powder cannon, then the shock wave goes right through you and gives every atom in your body a good shake. It's quite exhilarating once you realise that everything's still attached. 😊

[@andeve3]

this gun is pretty underpowered in tf2

[@greycatturtle7132]

Yea

[@ptonpc]

I was going to ask those same questions about if it had been a show piece etc. Imagine being a levy up against the British and being given this along with "Good luck, don't break it, it's worth more than your village. "

[@hippis563]

Just love these vids, and a good narrator !

[@NimbleSnek]

Absolutely fascinating, what a beautiful piece of art and weaponry. Wish you all luck with finding out more about it's history and origin!

[@janscott9151]

Good to see something from Fort Nelson. And what a fascinating piece.

[@Creationeer]

Nice one Thomas, well done :)

[@ss181292]

Marvelous cannon. Taken straight from the legends!

[@ScumfuckMcDoucheface]

This curator/presenter is fantastic. Can we have a lot more of him? =)

[@tastesofhistory4560]

What a magnificent piece of casting/metalwork. If a weapon of war can be classed 'beautiful' then this is it! Every day's a learning day, thank you Thomas.

[@bjorntrollgesicht1144]

So cool! Have you done a material analysis to figure out where the bronze came from, or a pattern analysis to find out where in the world such cannons had been made? I'm quite certain it contains identifying marks, just not marks we are fluent in reading anymore, like the pattern and number of claws, the shape of the dragon, the number and shape of specific features- that sort of thing. Maybe the artillery capabilities could be an answer too.

[@benjameshodges]

Always enjoy visiting Fort Nelson.

[@at1848]

Fort Nelson is awesome 👍⭐️

[@tomdawe5039]

The first thing I thought was how the hell did they make that it's beautiful

[@daveweiss5647]

Amazing! Most beautiful cannon I have ever seen!

[@zXPeterz14]

Excellent job with this video. Imagine there was some pressure filling Jonathan’s shoes but he did a great job while doing their own thing

[@darraghchapman]

Nice timing. Happy new year!

[@gilmour6754]

Wow, that is truly a work of art. Great video!

[@thatdudeinasuit5422]

Turns out it's secretly some sort of Chaos Warp/Laser Gun from the Warhammer 40k universe.

[@azkrouzreimertz9784]

Or just a regular cannon from WH fantasy

[@greycatturtle7132]

XD

[@cody-en7nt]

Angron is so angry bc he can't find this cannon.....😮

[@sski]

Wouldn't doubt it. There's so much REAL history that's been hidden from us, and FAKE history that's been put in its place, that we don't know what's history and what isn't.

[@ThunderChunky101]

Haha top comment! Upvote!!

[@beefycheesecake]

Coolest cannon I've ever seen anyway.

[@vinceely2906]

This is…not Jonathan Ferguson. It’s Thomas Davies who has made pretty good video himself.

[@SuperFunkmachine]

This is the cannon you stick on the castle walls to show every one.

[@j_taylor]

Thanks for the interesting story, Thomas. You've clearly done a lot of research on this cannon. You have a great TV presence and your enthusiasm is infectious! I hope to see you in more of these videos.

[@greycatturtle7132]

Amazing 😮

[@kanrakucheese]

Would this have originally been painted? I know a lot of (generally European) artifacts that are now bare metal/stone are thought to have been when they were new and wonder if this would have been such a case.

[@trikepilot101]

Beautiful piece.

[@chriswilson3126]

Yep that dragon would've breathed some serious fire!

[@QuakinMetal]

Excellent job Thomas! Loved the video.

[@r1w3d]

Enthusiasm goes far with first impressions. This is an extremely attractive cannon 👍

[@derekp2674]

Great video, thanks Thomas and team. That cannon is amazing.

[@johnchristopherrobert1839]

Thank you

[@murphylhunn]

Fascinating

[@Lord.Kiltridge]

Bravo. Well presented. Full points.

[@Raidwall]

His enthusiasm infectious. Great presenter, this guy.

[@karatescott]

hell yeah thomas, excellent presentation and super charismatic delivery!! crazy history and craftsmanship

[@philhawley1219]

What a lovely instance of serendipity. I am watching this history of the dragon gun and England have just beaten Wales in the rugby. Sorry my Cambrian neighbours but dragons don't always win. Nos Dah.

[@a.k47-74]

Fantastic piece of history!

[@konnichi_wa]

Why did we stop making cool looking cannons? This looks dope

[@joaquinvelasquez6252]

"whoosh!" Goes the dragon!😂 Great video!👍

[@richtbiskitz8081]

what an amazing and beautiful piece

[@ThisDJ808]

Done a training course in here years ago, was a fascinating look around at lunch. I was staring at Henry the EIghths war outfit. Was a good day. Great place to hire rooms for training.

[@exharkhun5605]

Great video.

[@johnbourke9128]

The young lad is a very good story teller 👍

[@aaronskuse2207]

OMG, they made the cannon from Kung-Fu Panda!

[@teaguejelinek4038]

I like the dragon part

[@Swedishmafia101MemeCorporation]

Looks straight out of Cathay in Warhammer

[@MrFiflak77]

Tom did great job as a host on this video! I don't know whenever that was his first time being one or if I just have never seen him before but I really enjoyed listening to him. Hope to see him more often on the channel :)

[@RoyalArmouries]

Don't worry. Tom will be a regular around these parts.

[@M-elephant7777]

Thunder and Meteorite by Dong Nguyan and Kaovjets Ngujens on Vietnamese firearms may have gunpowder info from that region

[@khyghar]

Beautiful weapon and nice storytelling!

[@George_M_]

Golden AK, 16th Century Edition.

[@MyTv-]

Cool and interesting, obvious bling! :-)

[@Skkernick]

This was alot of fun to watch and learn, thanks! I think I'd still want a plain cannon haha

[@JoshuaC923]

Just in time for the Lunar New Year of the Dragon, fascinating

[@okancanarslan3730]

amazing cannon

[@ar6985]

Some well heeled warlord no doubt.

[@pagancrew]

Hoping for another update on its provenance soon - good luck!

[@hazode]

Facepunch added this as a skin for the rocket launcher on Thursday :)

[@nilo70]

If the bronze cannon still Rings like a Bell , it could still work. If it doesn’t ring there is a crack in it. I would love to see it fire again and be recorded in slow motion Etc.

[@john_barnett]

If I ever come back to the UK I'm definitely going to check out all the RA locations

[@Wolvenworks]

Dragon cannons are the ultimate cannon-based drip…unless you have a GOLD dragon cannon.

[@bellakaldera3305]

It isn't a Lantaka? I have seen similar cannon from Malaysia, with the dragon head and tail.

[@Manco65]

Maybe it eas used in some ceremony when the Buddhist equivalent of a Saint was "canonized"?

[@user-so4tx7zs5r]

According to my belief, 4-claws "dragons" are for higher officials in Ming Dynasty. In Qing Dynasty the restriction was lifted off a bit, wealthy civilian would be able to acquire fabric in similar pattern. Terminologically dragon with 4 claws are not so-to-speak "real dragon" or "loong", but "mang". For one second I perceive this gun as a returning award for the Siam regime's tribute. However this is kinda a long shot for it being without proper marking (both practical and ceremonial) of Chinese official armory. The rear "knob" design, however, gives me a vibe of Southeast Asia origin though.

[@kleinerprinz99]

With the paper trail drying out in Siam I guess the only other way is a) studying historical documents , books , writings etc if they ever mention these guns at all somewhere b) archeological and material science methods of looking at the material composition, trying to date and geo-locate that, and the so called handprint of the craftsmanship itself if it appears on other works somewhere in SE of the time ; good luck with that endeavor ! :)

[@chicagorandy]

Interesting presentation of this ornate piece. I'm assuming the curator has a vision problem with one of his eyes? Or is it just the camera angle that makes it appear so?

[@howitworks3607]

Asking KZbin commenters for reliable information is a bold strategy

[@jiversteve]

Good presentation!

[@davidlange3418]

Thank s for this and more on items in Fort Nelson please.

[@RoyalArmouries]

Coming up!

[@TheSemajshadow]

Such s beautiful cannon. I wonder how menny owners it's been stolen from as a war trophy??

[@TheSundayShooter]

It has a trunnion 4:20 I wonder if the mount was as decorated

[@LuxisAlukard]

I'm pretty sure that's Tibetan War Cannon from Clive Barker's Undying

[@sloboat55]

Excellent

[@tomdixon7264]

One of those pieces that is indeed too pretty to fire.

[@allensmith7945]

It came from a now defunct store chain called Dragons R Us. Lol

[@BlackSoap361]

Is it likely this was used for shooting solid shot, or could this have been used more as a flame projector or salute?

[@gaylordpantamime]

Hell yeah 👍