Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on Forgotten weapons dot com. I'm Ian McCollum
And I'm here today at the Morphy Auction Company taking a look at a really interesting piece of really unknown history.
This is a Remington rolling block rifle off of the USS Niagara and we know exactly where it came from because
it's got Niagara written in it in big ol' block letters here. Now, the story of the Niagara I think is a really fascinating one.
It's one of these stories that illustrates how
people don't change all that much over time and things that we may think about being, you know outrageous today. Well, they're not new.
So, the setting here is the Spanish-American War or rather the lead-up to the Spanish-American War. This was of course all based on
unrrst in Cuba and
there were a lot of powerful American business interests who supported
the insurgents in Cuba, the revolutionaries in Cuba in the 1890s.
And of course the Spanish government owned Cuba and Spain was not very happy that the US was well
they claimed the US was complicit in allowing arms trafficking into the insurgents and
They probably were
and in particular there were some US publications that
really kept just beating the drum for war with Spain.
You know help the Cubans kick the Spanish out of Cuba for years on end. In particular William Randolph Hearst
supported this and and promoted it
and
Eventually war finally did happen when the Maine exploded under mysterious circumstances a couple hundred American sailors killed
That was the spark that was able to push America into war with Spain. So
on
Against this backdrop. There is a lot of popular opinion for war in Spain and when war becomes a reality
There is what appears to have probably been like an orchestrated propaganda sort of move
Set up to look like a popular
out bursting out of support for the war effort and this was a group of
Of private individuals in New York state who financed a U.S.
Navy ship to go help fight the Spanish in Cuba. It was the USS Niagara.
This was a ship that was actually constructed in 1877 and this group of
Citizens, although it's really it appears to actually been a very small group of very wealthy millionaires
Who actually did this under the guise of oh, this is grassroots
They
acquired the ship and they basically outfitted it and donated it to the Navy for the war effort and
It was the USS Niagara and it was outfitted actually as a water distiller and supply ship
Of course not something you'd normally think about but you know if you're supporting a land invasion of an island
You need to have water and salt water is not drinkable
So they set up a ship to distill salt water into fresh water to supply the expedition
well
This ship has a crew of 57 including 12 Marines. So they need some arms on board and this whole ship was outfitted by
Basically, William Randolph Hearst and some buddies and they outfit it like a luxury yacht despite the fact that it is
Legitimately and literally a Navy ship now once they give it to the Navy so not just the officers
but even that the sailors had
porcelain china for their messes and
silver
actual silver flatware and
All of the arms, for example that that were used there were purchased to equip the marine contingent on the ship
They're all embossed, every bit of it. The Mills belts, the rifles, the revolvers. It's all embossed with "NIAGARA"
like
It's really pretty odd
And this ship has a grand total service life of six months. So
In it spends basically June and July on station in Cuba
There is no record of it actually doing anything or participating in any sort of action, although presumably it did distill some water
so
at the end of July 1898 it
Leaves station it sails up to New York. It arrives there in September where it's promptly decommissioned and then sold for scrap
It appears that basically this was a propaganda,
public outreach sort of thing by Hurst and his buddies and
Its job was pretty much done the moment the ship departed like it didn't matter what the ship actually did
What mattered was that they set this thing up and and whatever and the Navy apparently wasn't particularly interested in having this
One oddball weird ship privately commissioned like it wasn't helpful
It didn't really fit in and they just kind of wanted to get rid of it, which is exactly what they did
When it was sold for scrap
none other than Francis Bannerman was there of of course Bannerman one of the the major military surplus dealers of
this period 19th century into the early 20th century and he appears to have bought up almost all of the
Stuff off the ship and he would list
Niagara
Accoutrements in his catalog until 1927 and that includes rifles
So let me show you what this rifle actually looks like and what it well what it is for that matter
So what you have here is an 1896 pattern of remington rolling block
This is top of the line for that period this was the the newest modernized version of the rolling block really good quality steel
this was
intended for use with smokeless powder that relatively new
Invention and this particular one is chambered for seven millimeter Mauser
Which wasn't it's an excellent cartridge?
I suppose they decided that since the Marine
Boarding party wasn't really going to be interacting with a land invasion force presumably they didn't have to have ammunition interchangeability
And there were some New York National Guard. I believe used seven millimeter Mauser rollin blocks as well
So it kind of made sense in that context
The barrel is marked seven millimeter SM or seven millimeter
MSM up here. That stands for Spanish Mauser because that was the predominant user of the cartridge at the time at least the one that
Remington was selling to these rifles did also sell pretty extensively through South America, but the US military
Really never adopted the rolling block, you know in a real large way
Rear sight. They're good out to 1,400 yards
But of course the most interesting part of this is the Niagra
Name role well engraved across the top of the receiver there
This was done custom by Remington for this order for 35 rifles for the boarding party 12 Marines
but they ordered 35 rifles for the ship and
This had to be done during the manufacturing process because it's a case-hardened receiver
Which means it's really quite hard and not feasible to do this engraving through the case hardening
So that was engraved and then the receivers were case hardened and finished
Gorgeously polished and and finished rifles and it's really a beautiful example of what a rolling block can be
nice crisp front sight cleaning rod
Bayonet lug out here. There's the notch to hold the ban that in place
There were bayonet also
outfitted for these rifles on the ship. Although this one doesn't have a bayonet with it. And there you go
that is a beautiful example of a now, what? hundred and twenty year old
Remington rolling block made for really the weirdest of purposes
So if that's not one of the more odd and strange
Stories behind a Remington rolling block that you've ever heard. I don't know what would be
It's a magnificent rifle as you would expect
Hearst paid top dollar for you know free, you know
State-of-the-art modern rolling block great looking case hardening this nice "NIAGARA" logo on it
all for nothing ultimately
For no particular accomplishment, but we're left with some really pretty interesting artifacts from I think really a pretty unknown
little side anecdote of history
So there are I think four or five of these that are known to still exist in nice condition
And so they're really quite scarce guns
if you'd like to have this particular one, especially perhaps you have some personal connection to New York or Niagara or
Really Randolph Hearst perhaps, I don't know
um if you're interested in it
It is being sold here at Morpheus in their upcoming fall firearms auction
If you take a look at the description text below you'll find a link to forgotten weapons
From once you can get to more fees catalog page on this rifle and you can also poke around their catalog for all the other
interesting stuff that they're selling in the auction and
Well, thanks for watching and stay tuned tomorrow for another interesting forgotten weapon