Cannon Restoration

police340

Cadet
Joined
Jan 13, 2014
Location
Newport, Rhode Island
Hello,
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We are trying to restore some cannons that we happened to come across that are located on a college campus of which the college does not have the money to restore the site. So my brother and i have taken it upon ourselves with the college's blessing to try and raise funds to restore these cannon, one of which was a previously unknown Civil War Dictator mortar. We have a website set up and a GoFundMe site set up. We would appreciate any help that can be offered, small or large. Please see our website at www.fortnumber8restoration.org or donate at http://www.gofundme.com/67glys

Please spread the word anywhere you can. Thank you again for looking at our efforts.

Sincerely,
Bill
 

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No offense, but a gun THAT size, in plain view, at a college with history professors and history students AND it was "previously unknown"?????......What college is it at??......I ask, because my reenacting unit, in the 1980's, helped restore a gun that belonged to a college.......
 
Well when I said previously unknown, i meant it was not in a register of civil war cannons. It is on a hill and unless you walk up the hill you may not have seen them. Alonmg with the Dictator, there are two Krups cannons and one British naval deck gun. As you can tell by the one pic, they have not been maintained and we are doing our best to get the effort going to restore these great pieces of history. If you look at the website, you'll see where they are at. I am only trying to spread the word as much as possible as it hurts me and my twn brother to see them in the condition that they are in. We are both Vietnam combat veterans, i having retired form the Army.
 
A 13" Seacoast Mortar and it doesn't appear to be in that bad of shape overall. How bad are the others?
 
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What college is it at??......I ask, because my reenacting unit, in the 1980's, helped restore a gun that belonged to a college.......

There are a number surviving in various places. I have seen several in Charleston and I know that there are 1/2 dozen on display in the Philippines. As for colleges I believe this one is that the Bronx Community College.

Here is another view I found online:

mortar1_zps222c56ba.jpg
 
That is the one we are trying to get restored. Other cannons are in bad shape but can be restored. We have also set up a GoFundMe account. I will post the address tonight. If you can't donate, we'd just appreciate you spreading the word. We need as much publicity as possible. Thanks, bill
 
Hello,
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We are trying to restore some cannons that we happened to come across that are located on a college campus of which the college does not have the money to restore the site. So my brother and i have taken it upon ourselves with the college's blessing to try and raise funds to restore these cannon, one of which was a previously unknown Civil War Dictator mortar. We have a website set up and a GoFundMe site set up. We would appreciate any help that can be offered, small or large. Please see our website at www.fortnumber8restoration.org or donate at http://www.gofundme.com/67glys

Please spread the word anywhere you can. Thank you again for looking at our efforts.

Sincerely,
Bill
This 13" Seacoast Mortor does not appear to be listed in the National Registry of Surviving Civil War Cannons. I will contact them and send them your web site address.
Ron
 
Hello,
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We are trying to restore some cannons that we happened to come across that are located on a college campus of which the college does not have the money to restore the site. So my brother and i have taken it upon ourselves with the college's blessing to try and raise funds to restore these cannon, one of which was a previously unknown Civil War Dictator mortar. We have a website set up and a GoFundMe site set up. We would appreciate any help that can be offered, small or large. Please see our website at www.fortnumber8restoration.org or donate at http://www.gofundme.com/67glys

Please spread the word anywhere you can. Thank you again for looking at our efforts.

Sincerely,
Bill
This is a M1861 13" Seacoast Mortor. It is not a Dictator as the name "Dictator" was the name of an individual mortor of this type. Problem is there are several mortors claiming to be "The Dictator".
The 13" mortor weighs 17,250 pounds and is one of only 27 surviving 13" Mortors.
Ron
 
I found the ones I was thinking about. I had mistakenly remembered them as being in the Philippines, in reality they are located in Singapore. You can find more about them here. Really kind of makes me wonder where these mortars came from and how they ended up in Singapore. I did find a reference to them here (page 164) that indicates that they are British made from the Crimean war and date to 1855. Except for the large handles they appear to be a near copy of the U.S. variety of the Civil War. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can add to this...

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Contacted Jim Bender who is the person in charge of the list of surviving civil war artillery pieces. He is aware of this 13" mortor. The reason it does appear on the list is that the lists are several years old and no new lists have been published yet. Maybe later
Ron
 
Yeah I remember them showing up on this site trolling for cash, which is OK, but they did not seem to want to be part of the community, just get a few $ and move along. Sorry to hear that I would have liked to have heard more of their expertise on the weapons and update us on progress of the restoration.
 
Best of luck on your project. Count me among those who think it doesn't have to be that expensive. On the other hand, that was a purely instinctive remark. I know nothing about this kind of work.
 
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