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Originally Posted by Hal
...I was very surprised to learn that the Gatling gun was in service for 49 years.
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Originally Posted by Rachen
Actually it is still used on a WIDE scale today The miniguns ranging from the rifle-caliber ones mounted on Humvees and choppers to the giant ship-smashing behemoths found on the destroyers.
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I'd extend Aguila Blanca's reasoning to this assertion as well; there's a VERY broad gulf between a .45-70 hand-cranked black powder weapon and an electrically-driven M61 Vulcan cannon or M134 Minigun. Pretty much the only thing they have in common is that they have multiple rifled barrels arranged around a central rotating axis.
Incidentally, I don't know what "ship-smashing behemoths" you're talking about—the ones mounted on ships are usually part of the Phalanx CIWS (Close In Weapons System) for shooting down incoming low-flying anti-ship missiles. The system uses the same basic 20mm M61 Vulcan cannons that are commonly mounted on aircraft. Various NATO navies have reportedly been (semi-secretly) working on reprogramming the Phalanx system to counter potential torpedo-boat "swarm attacks" in littoral areas, but this is a bit different than full-blown anti-shipping use.