Boom J., Don’t you realize yet that our travels in pursuit of Seacoast guns in the United States have been, not just extensive, but exhaustive? Must we prove, once again, that we know a few things about the big guns? …………Actually we enjoy these challenges from you and the membership at large.
So, let’s see if we understand John’s question first. It appeared in a thread by irtmks titled: Real amateur question – identify this part. We thought a separate thread which focused on the Rodman Guns, starting with the 15” Rodman, would be a more appropriate place to discuss Rodman Guns in general and Boom J.’s pointed question. His question is below in quotes:
“M&T,
What makes you think that the 15-inch Rodman "Lincoln" gun at Ft. Monroe is the only Rodman gun with elevating ratchets extant?”
The pic below, a photo that we posted of the mushroom cascabel of the Fort Monroe 15” Rodman Gun, the “Lincoln” Gun accompanied his question.
The caption to a photo, to which he was responding, contained the assertion: “The rear of the same cannon showing the broad surface of the 'Knob' with it's elevation 'sockets' which are found on all but one Rodman Gun.” The photo, taken at Fort Knox in the State of Maine, associated with the assertion, is below:
Although we could prove that our statement is true with citations from our reference books only, we much prefer to use original Seacoast Artillery photos whenever we can. Fortunately we can do that in this case after we present just a wee bit of book knowledge. The information below was taken from The Big Guns..Civil War Siege, Seacoast, and Naval Cannon.
“On 4 April 1859 the U.S. government ordered one 15-in. cannon for the purpose of experiments in heavy artillery” “@ $10,000 and on 7 Oct. 1859, $5, 404.51 was paid on account of 15-in. gun. In early May of 1860, 15-in. gun completed with estimated weight, by Rodman, of 49,099 lb. 1860 to 1861 T.J.R. and A.B.D. fired 509 rounds in proofing.”
There is just one Reg. #1 Prototype gun cast, turned and bored. Cast by Fort Pitt foundry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was inspected by Army Ordnance designer and inspector, TJR, Thomas J. Rodman and shipped to Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia for testing. Special comments were that it had elevating ratchets, implying that it had preponderance which none of the subsequent Model 1861 Rodman 15” guns had. All seacoast guns before the 1861 Rodman used the one way ratchets and needed substantial preponderance to force the breech down to elevate the gun.
Also from The Big Guns, we get this important information: “Roughness, corrosion, or lack of lubrication might raise trunnion friction to equal if not exceed its 1,050 pound preponderance. When ordered to depress the muzzle, the crew might have to struggle to lift with handspike combined preponderance and friction approaching a ton. Ratchets were useless to raise the muzzle when preponderance failed to overcome trunnion friction. Visualize swarming gunners seeking means more effective than mere blasphemy to do so. Some record may reveal how soon after initial maneuvering of the 15-inch prototype, the Pattern 1861 was redesigned by moving the trunnions 1.25 inches rearward to make the weapon balance on them. This redesign also replaced one-way ratchets by two way handspike sockets.” “The lone prototype 15-inch Rodman gun was fired 509 proofing rounds during 1860 and 1861. The first order to Fort Pitt Foundry for 15-inch Pattern 1861 was issued 20 November 1861, against which the first pair were proofed in October 1862.”
So, now that we know that the “Lincoln” gun 15” prototype was the ONLY prototype and that no other 15-inch pattern 1861 guns were cast until C.A. cast the first in Mar of 1862 and the first was accepted and assigned Registry No. 1 by Rodman on 2 Oct. 1863, 19 months later. The important thing now is to try and locate the actual seacoast artillery piece with Reg. No. 1 or take a look at the earliest 15-inch Rodman produced in the first Army order for 50 at $6,500 each that was let to Cyrus Alger & Company and inspected by Thomas J. Rodman.
Eureeka! Are we in luck. According to the National List of Surviving Civil War Artillery, 15-Inch Rodman Gun Reg. No. 1 still exists and is located at Fort Foote on the Potomac River south of Washington which was one of the 60 plus forts and redoubts in the “Circle of Forts” which protected the northern capitol during the war. The second gun in the Fort Foote battery is Reg. No. 30, also made by Cyrus Alger in that first order of 50. It was cast in 1864.
And, even more fortunately, the seacoast boys included that fort on their Oct. 2008 research trip and took lots and lots of photos of both big guns. The captions tell the story.
Boom J. and all other skeptics, you are most welcome! We enjoyed preparing this report.
Tracy and Mike
What the Fort Foote Battery looked like in 2008. The very first of the 15-inch Rodman guns, Pattern 1861.
The mushroom cascabel knob of the 15-inch Rodman gun, Reg. No. 1. Looks like sockets to us, with a cast iron fulcrum box for the socket hand spike which together, allowed the artillerymen to move the balanced tube Up or Down.
Mike takes a good look at the muzzle and then yells out to me, “Tracy, I found it!!” You can see enough of the stamped lettering to identify this gun as No. 1, but there is so much paint on the muzzle face it’s hard to see them in a photo.
In our largest version of this photo, a portion of the ‘N’ in No. and a clear number ‘1’ can be seen at 9 o’clock. A very faint CA&Co can be seen at 12 and a really clear 49618 Lb at 2 and an 1863 at 5. A T.J.R. is at 7.
More Sockets on the second 15" Rodman in Fort Foote.
The other gun at Fort Foote, on the Survivor List is Reg. No. 30. The number cannot be seen, but the casting year of 1864 can, the ordnance inspector’s initials of CC and the gun weight of 49618 can be seen clearly. These match the numbers on the National Survivor's List.
Mike takes a last look at #30’s chassis as the sun gets lower and is in our faces as we look across the Potomac. It has been a good day for the dynamic duo, a very good day.
