The Powder Monkey.

[Robert Gray]

The USS New Hampshire was an older ship of the line fitted out as a store and depot ship of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. In 1864 she was stationed off Port Royal, South Carolina when photographer Samuel A. Cooley came aboard and took a series of photos of the crew. At least five of the images were made with the subjects standing next to a 100-pounder Parrott rifle. Original prints from this series are rare, with the exception of a young powder monkey which has been widely reproduced and was issued as a stereoview by Cooley, John C. Taylor and later by publishers Taylor & Huntington.


New York Public Library
NYPL catalog ID: b11708965

Beaufort County Library, Beaufort, S.C.
Admin ID: 42781

Anaglyph by Paul Taylor

 

[Salterr]

If I could add another photo of a supposed member of the New Hampshire

 

[Sheltowee]

Any idea about the design on the boy's front bib?

 

[Tennessee Union Gal]

The USS New Hampshire was an older ship of the line fitted out as a store and depot ship of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. In 1864 she was stationed off Port Royal, South Carolina when photographer Samuel A. Cooley came aboard and took a series of photos of the crew. At least five of the images were made with the subjects standing next to a 100-pounder Parrott rifle. Original prints from this series are rare, with the exception of a young powder monkey which has been widely reproduced and was issued as a stereoview by Cooley, John C. Taylor and later by publishers Taylor & Huntington.


New York Public Library
NYPL catalog ID: b11708965

Beaufort County Library, Beaufort, S.C.
Admin ID: 42781

Anaglyph by Paul Taylor

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I was recently reading a novel which described the "powder monkey" and his life in general, during the age of the sailing ships. Young boys doing a really dangerous job for not much remuneration beyond room and board and maybe a little education. They were generally the children of the poor who had few options except starving or "taking the shilling."