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You are here: Home / Article topics / Publications / Naval Historical Review / The Maxim was the Maximum

The Maxim was the Maximum

A.N. Other · Aug 31, 1972 · Print This Page

Author
A.N. Other and NHSA Webmaster
Subjects
Naval technology
Tags
None noted.
RAN Ships
None noted.
Publication
August 1972 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
The Maxim gun

THE MAXIM GUN was adopted by the Royal Navy in the 1880s. It was used with good effect in the Benin Campaign (modern Biafra) in 1896.

The two seamen of the Excellent, the Portsmouth gunnery ship, shown in the picture, are practising with a Maxim gun (not attached), the latest type of machine gun adopted by the Navy. The special feature of the Maxim (so named after its inventor) is its automatic action. The firer presses a button and the gun goes on firing of itself until its ammunition, carried on a belt of from 150 to 200 cartridges, stops. The belts are quickly replaced, and 600 shots a minute, in a continuous stream of bullets, can be fired.

Naval Historical Review, Naval technology

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