Big gun!

[americancivilwar_ig]

A beautiful image from the Library of Congress of the 300 pounder Parrot Rifle (named Col Brayton after the colonel of the 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery) aimed at Fort Sumter from Morris Island in 1863. The Yanks had been having a difficult time with the fortification, so they brought up the "big gun".

This bad boy was 176 inches long and weighed in at 27,000 pounds. It fired a 10 inch ordinance that could do some damage.

From the Washington Republican: "The penetration of the 10-inch projectile will therefore be between six and seven feet into the same material.
To use a more familiar illustration, the power of the 10-in rifle shot at the distance of 3,500 yards, may be said to be equal to the united blows of 200 sledge hammers weighing 100 pounds each, falling from a height of ten feet and acting upon a drill ten inches in diameter."

 

[Waterloo50]

View attachment 304221

A beautiful image from the Library of Congress of the 30 pounder Parrot Rifle (named Col Brayton after the colonel of the 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery) aimed at Fort Sumter from Morris Island in 1863. The Yanks had been having a difficult time with the fortification, so they brought up the "big gun".

This bad boy was 176 inches long and weighed in at 27,000 pounds. It fired a 10 inch ordinance that could do some damage.

From the Washington Republican: "The penetration of the 10-inch projectile will therefore be between six and seven feet into the same material.
To use a more familiar illustration, the power of the 10-in rifle shot at the distance of 3,500 yards, may be said to be equal to the united blows of 200 sledge hammers weighing 100 pounds each, falling from a height of ten feet and acting upon a drill ten inches in diameter."

You're not wrong when you call it 'a bad boy' those are some impressive statistics, it seems that those 10 inch projectiles were unstoppable, I'd imagine that there wasn't any real defence against the power of Col Brayton.

 

[redbob]

You need to add another 0 to that 30, that is 300# Parrott Gun
6.4"=100#
8"=200#
10"=300#
Regardless, that is a fine picture and I would certainly hate to be on the receiving end of that baby. However, when Parrott's got that large, they did occasionally have an occasional casting problem crop up. Photo LoC

 

[americancivilwar_ig]

Yeah, I'm not sure how that 0 got left out. Thanks for pointing it out

 

[Waterloo50]

Yeah, I'm not sure how that 0 got left out. Thanks for pointing it out

Regardless of the missing 0, I think we all agree that Parrot Gun is a beast.

 

[redbob]

Yeah, I'm not sure how that 0 got left out. Thanks for pointing it out

No problem, the 300# Parrott shell is one of the "Holy Grail" items for an artillery collector. And at over 250" a "Beast"

it is. Photo by Jack Melton

 

[redbob]

But even this "Beast" was topped by the 20" Rodman which was cast in your own city at the Fort Pitt Foundry. Photo imgflip.com

 

[JOHN42768]

That is one nasty cannon

 

[UCVRelics]

No problem, the 300# Parrott shell is one of the "Holy Grail" items for an artillery collector. And at over 250" a "Beast"View attachment 304225 it is. Photo by Jack Melton

These are the shells that @redbob lines his driveway with as no one can run off with these.

 

[redbob]

These are the shells that @redbob lines his driveway with as no one can run off with these.

Ah Shucks, now my secret is out.

 

[americancivilwar_ig]

But even this "Beast" was topped by the 20" Rodman which was cast in your own city at the Fort Pitt Foundry. Photo imgflip.comView attachment 304226

Holy smokes!

 

[redbob]

More views on just how big the 20" Rodman is. The largest and last smoothbore muzzle loading gun made in the US.

 

[Patrick H]

I think I'd want to be in a bunker somewhere behind it before it was fired!

 

[nc native]

That gun is a beast! By the way, the largest gun when it comes to caliber was manufactured in Russia in 1586. The Tsar Cannon as it is known by had a caliber of 890 mm!

 

[Irishtom29]

Large stone shot fired by the Turks during siege of 1522 still litter the ditch of the fortress of Rhodes.

Rhodes was a transitional fortress between medieval and early modern fortresses and was rebuilt by the Knights of St. John with eyes to both resisting and using artillery. Thus the deep ditch seen shielding the walls from direct cannon fire.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

In the first picture, it looks to me, like the guy to the right has a string/rope he's going to pull any minute to make the cannon go off! It may just be a crease of some sort of line in the picture, but it really looks like he is going to go bang in a moment.

 

[redbob]

In the first picture, it looks to me, like the guy to the right has a string/rope he's going to pull any minute to make the cannon go off! It may just be a crease of some sort of line in the picture, but it really looks like he is going to go bang in a moment.

Though it is not very clear, he is holding a lanyard (usually around 12' long) which attaches to the friction primer which ignites the powder and makes the gun go boom. Photo by Jack Melton

 

[USS ALASKA]

Little Mountain Howitzer cannon next to the 20-inch Rodman gun as a featured attraction at the 1879 Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, Pa.

https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/blog/western-pennsylvania-history/rodmans-big-gun

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

The 20-inch bore of a Rodman gun could fit a man inside. This Rodman was en route to Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1864 when it stopped long enough in Harrisburg, Pa. for a photo. Photo: Ken Turner Collection

https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/blog/western-pennsylvania-history/rodmans-big-gun
289

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[americancivilwar_ig]

View attachment 304552

Little Mountain Howitzer cannon next to the 20-inch Rodman gun as a featured attraction at the 1879 Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia, Pa.

https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/blog/western-pennsylvania-history/rodmans-big-gun

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

If you go to the Heinz History Center, they have both of these guns on display in their Great Hall. The Rodman is a reproduction made by 3D printing, but it's to scale and it weighs 9 tons!