Guns and saluting

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I thought I'd already asked this kind of stuff but I couldn't find it so here goes again.
I need some educated opinions. I'm to the point where I have to rig four of the ten guns on the Discovery1789. Since she was a survey ship and had no immediate need for guns for defense I feel that they would probably be sort of mothballed. The only time they used them was for signaling. The four I'm concerned with right now were two under the forecastle and two under the quarterdeck. They were out of the weather so I guess they could stay more or less ready to go. Gun ports closed, the muzzle tied up and the side tackles pulled up tight.
The other six were out in the weather in the waist. This was where the four(at least) boats were kept so space was at a premium so I'm thinking that these guns would be stored lengthwise and (I just thought of this) possibly covered in canvas.
I know I'm the master of my own ship but I have no knowledge of this stuff nor would I know where to look for it. Maybe some more well read guys have some ideas for this kind of stuff.
Saluting kind of ties in with this because if the guns were mothballed they would have to be prepped to fire but I guess they had lots of notice for that. Just a few times in Vancouver's journal he mentions 11 and 13 gun salutes. Is it possible they used the swivel guns for saluting. He does mention using the swivel guns for signaling but since the original intent of a salute was to show that your guns were empty wouldn't it be considered bad form to use swivels?

Any thoughts on gun storage on survey(or the like) ships would be welcome..
Thanks
 
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