These are 18pdr Finbanker Guns, a type of gun believed to have been originally cast in Fenspong , in Ostergottland Sweden in the 17th Century and both are 9ft 2 inches long. This type of gun which seems to have been in fairly common use around the Baltic, there are numbers of very similar weapons in the streets if Riga, the capital of Latvia, for example.
These two guns are of the type known as Dutch Finbankers which were cast for the Dutch Navy in the middle of the 18th Century and were probably captured at the battle of Camperdown in 1797. Here nine of the Dutch fleet of fifteen ships were captured by Admiral Duncan.
Many of the captured ships were sent to Chatham where the guns were taken out and stored on Gun Wharf. These seem to have been the guns mentioned that were used to arm the Chatham Lines in 1803.
Given that these two guns were obtained locally, 1 was a bollard at Gillingham pier and the other was on display at Chatham library Riverside, they may once have been part of the armament of the Fort, if not the Lines itself.
These are both mounted on standard Garrison carriages.
