8-Inch Rifle Number 45 of USS Lancaster
US Navy 8-Inch Muzzle Loading Rifle Number 45 of USS Lancaster at Patriots Point Soccer Stadium in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
US Navy 8-Inch Muzzle Loading Rifle Number 45 of USS Lancaster at Patriots Point Soccer Stadium in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. This is one of four 8-Inch Rifles which were carried aboard USS Lancaster in the 1880s which are displayed at the stadium. Previously these 8-Inch MLR were displayed beside the aircraft carrier Yorktown. Before that they were at the Charleston Navy Yard.
8-Inch Rifle Number 45 was originally cast as a 11-Inch Dahlgren Number 64 by Builders Foundry (Providence, Rhode Island) in 1863. As an 11-Inch Smoothbore it weighed 15,720 pounds. It 1879 the smoothbore was taken to the South Boston Foundry. The barrel was reamed out to 13.5-inches and an 8-Inch wrought-iron rifled sleeve was inserted into barrel. The new weight (17,345 pounds) and new registry number (number 45) are stamped on the trunnions - which are heavily painted and hard to read.
Number 45 and Number 48 both have portions of their sighting systems still in place, which is fairly uncommon for displayed artillery.
To read more about these four Dahlgrens see: https://www.santee1821.net/preserved-artillery/8inch-dahlgren-rifles-at-patriots-point
US Navy 8-Inch Rifle Number 45 in its previous location beside USS Yorktown, CV-10. Photographed in 2021.
Number 45 has portions of its sighting system still in place.
The muzzle shows the wrought iron sleeve (painted red), the original cast iron tube (outer “ring”), and the locking ring (middle) that connected the two pieces.
