The Armament of USS Enterprise
Photo Above: 8-Inch Muzzle Loading Rifle of USS Enterprise in the 1880s or early 1890s. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo NH 66468
Although the name “USS Enterprise” is associated with some of the US Navy’s most famous and powerful ships today, the Enterprise which served the US Navy during the 1870s and 1880s was a wooden hulled “3rd Class Steamer”, a type frequently called a gunboat. At 185 feet long, 35 feet on the beam, and 1,370 tons displacement, she was one of the smallest ships in the fleet serving as an active cruiser. She was still capable of long distance voyages, and was significantly larger than ships built during the Civil War carrying a similar armament.
During the American Civil War, ships of the US Navy carried over a dozen different models of heavy gun, by the last days of the Old Steam Navy, a review of logbooks from the early 1880s shows that only three types were commonly carried in the active fleet:
The 8-Inch Muzzle Loading Rifle: The 8-Inch MLR (preserved examples) was a conversion of an 11-Inch Dahlgren smoothbore and it served as a “drop in upgrade” for ships built to carry the Dahlgren. The original smoothbore was bored out to 13.5-inches to accept an wrought-iron rifled sleeve 8-Inches in caliber. It fired a 180-pound projectile with an up to 35 pound propellant charge. By the early 1880s almost every active cruising ship carried one or two as pivot mounts. Only USS Trenton and USS Lancaster carried uniform batteries of ten of the type.
The 60-Pounder Breech Loading Rifle: The 60-Pounder BLR (preserved examples) was also a conversion. In this instance a 60-Pounder Parrott Rifle (a muzzle loader) had its breech removed and a steel sleeve inserted from the breech which had an interrupted screw breech block. Most ships in the fleet carried one of this type on their forecastle on a directing bar pivot carriage. It fired a 50+ pound projectile with a 6 pound propellant charge.
The 9-Inch Dahlgren Smoothbore: The 9-Inch Dahlgren (preserved examples) was introduced to the fleet in the 1850s. It provided good service during the American Civil War, but by the early 1880s it was of very limited utility - firing a 90 pound shot or 73 pound shell at low velocity and with limited range. Despite this, it was the type carried in the largest numbers afloat. Enterprise carried four. USS Hartford, a much larger ship, carried twelve - the only significant difference in armament between the two ships. They were mounted on broadside carriages which except for the iron construction would have been recognizable to sailors of the previous century.
Other types were in active service. 15-Inch Dahlgrens were carried aboard war-built monitors, a few of which were in limited service as harbor defense vessels. 11-Inch Dahlgrens were being replaced by the 8-Inch MLR starting in 1877 but could still be found aboard a few ships. A small number of 80-Pounder Breech Loading Rifles (a conversion of the 100-Pounder Parrott) were in service aboard 8-Inch and 32-Pounder smoothbore shell guns were aboard auxiliary vessels such as training ships, supply ships, and some smaller non-combatant ships.
Comparative Armament of US Navy Vessels - Circa 1883
Details in table above regarding armament taken from US Navy Logbooks and