Strange canister cluster

[bluelake]

This past weekend, my colleague and I made a major expedition to two places here in Korea.  Both were related to my research area of the 1871 US military action here.  In the second part of the expedition, my colleague found something interesting, but a bit baffling--two clusters of approximately 1" iron canister shot, plus several singular shots, in the side of a trail (presumably from a 12-pdr. naval boat howitzer).  At first, I thought maybe it was some kind of ground burst case shot, but the shot size and lack of case canceled that idea.  My second thought was that it was from point-blank canister fire, where the shot did not have enough distance to separate.  I asked my colleague to send me a pic of the clusters, in situ, and will post them when I get them.  In the meantime, are there any thoughts on this?  Thanks!

[bluez]

Perhaps it's grapeshots that have not separated properly?  As i understand grapeshots was very little used on land, but much more at sea. So it could have been fired from a naval ship.

[bluelake]

Perhaps it's grapeshots that have not separated properly?  As i understand grapeshots was very little used on land, but much more at sea. So it could have been fired from a naval ship.

The problem being is the size of the shots; they are each 1" in diameter (although I did find one 1.5" nearby), which is the size for naval canister with iron shot (the shot for naval canister using lead was 1.05"--a few of those were found in another location) and they were grouped in four tiers of twelve (48 total).

[cannonmn]

Just wondering if you are feeding any info back to the USN historical folks, or perhaps you are one of them?  I'm a member of the Naval Historical Foundation which has good connections to the Naval History and Heritage folks, if you need that type of connection made.

[bluelake]

Just wondering if you are feeding any info back to the USN historical folks, or perhaps you are one of them?  I'm a member of the Naval Historical Foundation which has good connections to the Naval History and Heritage folks, if you need that type of connection made.

I haven't contacted anyone there, yet.  The IJNH looks like a good publication where I might be interested in putting an academic paper on some of my research. 


I'm very grateful for any connections that might be made--thanks, cannonmn!






Thomas

[bluelake]

I'm still waiting on the in situ photos from my colleague, as he hasn't downloaded them to his computer yet.  However, I have many of the recovered shot and I separated them into three piles of similar size/weight.  Some are around 1.15" or so, some around 0.90~1.05" and a few were in the 0.70~0.80" range.  I'm not sure if that was near their original sizes or if oxidation took its toll (or a combination).

[bluelake]

I received the in situ pics from my colleague.  The shot you see in the pic are only the tip of the iceberg, as many others are underneath.  As mentioned in my opening post, I believe they are from a canister fired at point-blank range.  Any thoughts on it?

[steelcharge]

Very interesting photos!

Any possibility this could be just a dropped canister, instead of fired but unseparated?

[bluelake]

Very interesting photos!

Any possibility this could be just a dropped canister, instead of fired but unseparated?

No, I doubt it, for a few reasons.  First, there were two clusters, several yards apart, in the side of a hill immediately below a trail where the US was firing on Korean troops (see attached pic).  Second, only the iron shot was found; there were no steel plates (a 1/4" plate separated the shot from the wood sabot).  Third, other loose shot were found interspersed in the side of the hill (along with one spent .50 cal. bullet).

[steelcharge]

Yeah of course there should've been other parts too than just balls if it was dropped.
But what if those are older ones, from the French in 1866? Or did the French attack happen in a completely different place than the US one?

[bluelake]

Yeah of course there should've been other parts too than just balls if it was dropped.
But what if those are older ones, from the French in 1866? Or did the French attack happen in a completely different place than the US one?

The French attacks happened at different places on the same island (Jeondeung Temple, Gapkot Fortress, Munsu Fortress).  These were all US and fit the records well.  We have found the same at other places covered in the records.


Interesting thing about the .50-45 bullet I found among the shot--it dawned on me that it was possibly a "bite bullet" (all Korean POWs (about 20) were wounded, so it's possible).