The 32-Pounder of USS St. Lawrence

Jan 13

US Navy 32-Pounder of 57 Hundredweight, Number 384, is displayed at Trophy Park at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Number 384 was manufactured at Tredegar Foundry in Richmond, Virginia in 1848. According to the research of Wayne Stark, Number 384 was carried aboard the sailing frigate USS St. Lawrence.

As a 32-Pounder of 57 Hundredweight, it is part of the System of Ordnance adopted by the US Navy in 1845. Number 384 is marked as weighing 57-2-18 in hundredweight (6,458 pounds). It was designed to fire a 32-pound solid shot with up to a 9 pound propellant charge.

Drawing of USS St. Lawrence. Naval History and Heritage Command: https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-57000/NH-57841.html

USS St. Lawrence, a Potomac-class heavy frigate, was one of nine sister ships authorized following the War of 1812. The ships were an evolved from of the American heavy frigate first seen with USS Constitution and her sisters. Like most nine frigates of the Potomac-class, USS St. Lawrence spent years under construction - being laid down in 1826 but first commissioned in 1848 at the time of the Mexican American War. Her first cruises were to Europe - including serving as a transport for American exhibits to London’s 1851 International Exposition (the Crystal Palace Exhibition). She spent the later part of the 1850s assigned to the Pacific and South Atlantic Squadrons.

Plans of St. Lawrence. National Archives: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/109188829

USS St. Lawrence sinking the Confederate Privateer Schooner Petrel as depicted in the August 24th, 1861 issue of Harper’s Weekly.

USS St. Lawrence was recommissioned in 1861 and joined the blockade off of Charleston, South Carolina in July of 1861. She soon chased and sank the Confederate Privateer Schooner Petrel near Charleston on July 28th, 1861. The event is pictured in the August 24th, 1861 issue of Harper's Weekly. While the illustration shows the frigate sinking the schooner with a broadside at close range, according the St. Lawrence's logbook, the frigate chased the schooner until the schooner fired twice - one shot striking the frigate's main yard. St. Lawrence hit the schooner twice, after which the privateer struck her colors. However, the damage caused by those two shot was enough to cause the schooner to begin to sink. St. Lawrence sent boats to the sinking schooner to pick up her crew.

Number 384 shows “T.F.” for Tredegar Foundry, Registry Number 384, and the weight of 57-2-18 stamped on the breech.

USS St. Lawrence was present for the Battle of Hampton Roads. She was towed into action by the gunboat USS Cambridge. After exchanging fire with the Confederate batteries at Sewel’s Point, she approached the grounded USS Minnesota, grounding as well. Around 7pm, CSS Virginia opened fire on USS St. Lawrence at a range of 900 yards - which the frigate answered with her starboard battery. St. Lawrence’s crew fired seventy-four shot and shell from her 32-Pounders and 8-Inch shell guns - though firing at range and in the near fading light it is unlikely that much was accomplished. On the other hand, an 80 pound rifled shell fired from one of CSS Virginia’s Brookes “passed through our starboard quarter about 8 inches above water line, carrying one frame entirely, and the half of another, away, entering the wardroom pantry, smashing barrels and boxes of stores, cutting through bulkhead, combing, and striking the deck a little abaft the magazine hatch, it ricocheted, passing into the after room on the port side, bending the iron brace, and, breaking the handle of the air-port plunger, it rebounded on wardroom deck without exploding.” (See Official Records - Navies. Ser. 1. Vol. 7. pg. 18-20.)

Wayne Stark’s research states that Number 384 served for an “unknown period” aboard USS St. Lawrence. Whether or not Number 384 is a witness to the sinking of Petrel or the Battle of Hampton Roads remains unknown at present.