Nordenfelt

By a stroke of good fortune, Skouloudis was a friend of a Swedish captain who was about to move on from his role as a representative of arms manufacturer Thorsten Nordenfelt to a more important position.

In 1890, the Maxim-Nordenfelt association broke up, and Zaharoff chose to go with Maxim.

Maxim’s gun was certainly better than anything that Nordenfelt had on the shelf at the time.

Nordenfelt and Zaharoff had won.

Personally bankrupt two years later Nordenfelt was forced out of the company, and moved to France.

The design required fewer crew and was lighter and more usable than the Nordenfelt and Gatling guns.

There followed in 1890 the boats WW1 and WW2, built to a Nordenfelt design.

Thorsten Nordenfelt had already demonstrated his vessel at an international gathering of the military elite, and whilst the major powers would have none of it, smaller nations, attracted by the prestige, were a different matter.