Three US Navy 9-Inch Dahlgrens are displayed at Veterans Mark in Mackinaw City, Michigan
Three US Navy 9-Inch Dahlgrens are displayed at Veterans Park in Mackinaw City, Michigan. They are displayed on original iron carriages. These three Dahlgrens were part of a shipment of twenty of the type sent to the navy yard at Sackets Harbor in the summer of 1864. As I’ve shared in my main post on the Sackets Harbor Dahlgrens, these guns saw no active service. They may have been sent to Sackets Harbor in response to an idea to convert the War of 1812-built ship of the line USS New Orleans into a steam frigate. Secretary of State William Seward floated that idea around the time of the Trent Affair when hostilities with the British Empire seemed quite possible. The three Dahlgrens at Mackinaw City were shipped from Sackets Harbor to Mr. George H. Patrick of Mackinaw City in August of 1909. Mr. Patrick was the owner of a local Hardware Store which still is in business as Coffman Hardware.
The three Dahlgrens are:
9-Inch Dahlgren Number 678 manufactured in 1863 at Fort Pitt Foundry. Weight as manufactured was 9,210 pounds.
9-Inch Dahlgren Number 687 manufactured in 1863 at Fort Pitt Foundry. Weight as manufactured was 9,280 pounds.
9-Inch Dahlgren Number 688 manufactured in 1863 at Fort Pitt Foundry. Weight as manufactured was 9,300 pounds.
An interpretive panel in the park notes the type’s use on ships such as USS Hartford. I believe there used to be an idea that these three guns were used on Hartford. There are three guns in Northern Michigan which were on Hartford. There is another 9-Inch Dahlgren in Coleman, Michigan from Sackets Harbor.
The Type: The 9-Inch Dahlgren could fire either a solid round shot weighing about 90 pounds or an explosive shell weighing around 73 pounds. The shell, a spherical projectile cast with a hollow core for filling with three pounds of gunpowder, was designed to imbed itself in the side of a wooden ship before exploding. Few wooden ships could survive the damage caused by more than a handful of such hits. The 9-Inch Dahlgren was the standard heavy broadside cannon aboard the heavy frigates and sloops of the US Navy during the American Civil War.
The interpretive panel at the park about 9-Inch Dahlgrens.
