Max Caliber, Congratulations Max, you won the contest and are hereby deemed eminently worthy of the title of "Ordnance Inspector Extraordinaire" and you are rightfully bequeathed all rights and privileges attached thereto. You proved yourself knowledgeable, persistent, tenacious and detail oriented, all excellent qualities for cannon makers and ordnance inspectors.
The final contest score card is as follows: Photo No.
1. waynef
2. Terry C.
3. Max Caliber
4. Max Caliber
5. Explanation follows
6. Swampman
7. KABAR2
8. Boom J
9. Max Caliber
One tremendous Seacoast Gun Salute to everyone who participated in this fourth Contest brought to you by the Colorado Cannon guys!! Thank you!
A few notes on No. 5 follow. It was very tough, but some of the others were not duck soup either.
The hint of "New England"and "university" was pretty good and the word "quadrangle" would have cinched it for you, at least on Google. The exact search terms we used were: new england university damaged cannon quadrangle. These brought up a site on the first page of results that was called "Artillery in New England". This became sort of a roadmap for Mike and I on this latest trip, along with the National List of Surviving CW Arty. In this site they have photos for some, but not for this one which is listed as a damaged cannon on the quadrangle of Rhode Island University in South Kingston, RI. When we got there, it proved to be the remains of a 30 pdr. Parrott Rifle, which, according to the University's own site, was used in 1892 to salute the start of construction of the university. It blew up, killing the firer and lost most of the tube forward of the trunnions. We saw no markings due to heavy black paint. In our photo, the reinforce is to the left, where you can just barely see a little tiny bit of it. Cause? Who knows, maybe an overload and too many wet Harper's Weeklys jammed down on the powder! Or, "We want a really big bang, how about a piece of firewood on top of the newsprint wad?"
The trouble with the location of No. 2 is the fact that this is not a Third System fort, with all the large features that are present in the forts of that era. It is an improved, second system fort and is quite a bit smaller than Fort Adams, Fort Monroe or Fort Jefferson or even nearby Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island. Old Fort Jackson, was started in 1809 about eight years before the early Third system forts were started. It is on the Savannah River about 5 miles east south east of the City of Savannah, GA. Fort Pulaski is about 10 miles further along the same road. No battles were fought at Old Fort Jackson, but it was always the Headquarters of the Command of that region. It was also a backup line of defense for the city. Also in it's immediate vicinity were ordnance testing and proving batteries and one of them saw this older style, pre-war Rodman Gun blow up upon proof firing, sending about 1/2 of the breech to the rear and just over the heads of Robert E. Lee and a few other United States Army Officers who were standing on a little rise to the gun's rear. The errant piece of seacoast cannon went about 200 yards and landed in a swamp where it was discovered during our millenium year.
And finally, that last photo was taken late in 2003, but before we had decided to keep a journal of each day of each research trip.
We have never failed to log in the location of a Dunkin Donuts shop, I am proud to day. The best place in the country to visit one is North Boston, MA. We found a road where they had three (3) in a 2 mile stretch! Enough talk about fine cuisine in "Bean town".
Anyway, back to that cascabeless Parrott rifle. Is it bored off center or is Victor3's theory correct? I remember putting a measuring tape on both side of that, less-than-boresize hole, but without detailed notes, we can't say that he is either correct or incorrect here. He is correct about the hemi shape of the bottom of the bore. Parrott Rifles were ALL like that. No cow-teat chambers or impossible to machine, angular vent intersections for him. We don't know what the machinists said behind Admiral Dahlgren's back, but we bet it wasn't too complimentary! Mike and I think the chamber might possibly have been bored too deep, because on the 10, 20 and 30 pdrs. there isn't too much thickness beyond the end of the reinforce, whereas the 100, 200 and 300 pdrs. all have a nearly full spherical radius of metal leading to the cascable. Next time we are there we will take a closer look and write our findings in the journal we now keep.
Regards,
Mike and Tracy