Two US Navy 20-Pounder Breech Loaders are displayed at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown - Photo by Haze Grey History

Two US Navy 20-Pounder Breech Loaders are displayed at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. Photograph taken in May 2024 by Haze Grey History - many thanks for the permission to use them!

These two breech loaders were originally manufactured by West Point Foundry in 1862 as standard, muzzle-loading 20-Pounder Parrott Rifles for the US Navy. As the Navy model, they would have originally had a small ring cascabel to take a breeching rope.

As manufactured they were:

20-Pounder Parrott Rifle Number 180 manufactured by West Point Foundry in 1862. Weight as manufactured was 1,815 pounds.
20-Pounder Parrott Rifle Number 181 manufactured by West Point Foundry in 1862. Weight as manufactured was 1,790 pounds.

Both were placed upon USS Crusader in September 1862. Crusader had originally be built for merchant service but had been purchased by the Navy for the Paraguay expedition of 1858. After pre-war service in the West Indies where she captured a slave ship resulting in the freeing of 450 individuals, she was employed on the South Carolina coast at the beginning of the Civil War. Following her 1862 refit at New York where the two Parrotts were brought aboard, she served in Virginia waters as part of the North Atlantic Blockading squadron. Crusader was decommissioned following the end of hostilities in 1865 at the Washington Navy Yard.

USS Crusader - Naval History and Heritage Command Photo NH 66399

Bureau of Ordnance Records show that beginning in 1879, the Navy converted fifteen 20-Pounder Parrotts to breech loaders. The conversion appears externally similar to the larger 60-Pounder Parrott conversions. While the first conversion was undertaken by West Point Foundry, the remaining fourteen were done at the Washington Navy Yard.

20-Pounder Parrott Numbers 180 and 181 were the 13th and 15th and last of the type converted. All are noted as serving on receiving ships or training ships. Numbers 180 and 181 were assigned to the old ship of the line USS New Hampshire in 1882. The ship was then at Newport, Rhode Island. A photo taken circa 1890 very likely shows either 180 or 181 with a crew drilling at the diminutive breech loader.

When photographed at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, the guns were labeled “4-in Navy.” In their original configuration they would have had the 3.67-Inch bore of the 20-Pounder Parrott. If they have a 4-Inch bore, it was likely to have commonality with the 20-Pounder breech loader conversions of the old 4-Inch Bronze Dahlgren Rifles.

Given that the conversions of 20-Pounder Parrott Rifles were all assigned to training vessels, I wonder if they were ever intended to fire anything more than a blank charge for saluting and training. In appearance, they strongly resemble the 60-Pounder breech loader. I wonder if they were intended to train recruits in the basic techniques which would be used to fire the larger gun. The 60-Pounder was the standard forecastle armament on nearly every sloop and gunboat in the fleet in the 1870s and 1880s.

When photographed in 2024, the two 20-Pounders were displayed on their original carriages at Kirkpatrick Park at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. Number 181 is even still fitted with a firing hammer. I imagine that, if the paint was removed, the hammer would be bronze. Again, many thanks to Haze Grey History!