US Navy 32-Pounder of 27 Hundredweight of USS Preble
US Navy 32-Pounder of 27 Hundredweight Number 85 in Plum Creek Cemetery outside of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
US Navy 32-Pounder of 27 Hundredweight Number 85 of USS Preble is displayed at Plum Creek Cemetery outside of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The 32-Pounder was cast by West Point Foundry in 1844. It is marked as weighing 27.1.19 in Hundredweight (3,071 pounds). Many thanks to friend of the page James Murray for these photos!
The 32-Pounder of 27 Hundredweight was a chambered cannon introduced into US Navy service in the 1840s. It is called “chambered” because the seat of the powder charge was 24-pounder caliber (5.82-inch) while the bore was 32-Pounder caliber (6.4-inch). The type replaced carronades in service. It fired a 32-Pound shot with a 4 pound propellant charge. The 32-Pounder of 27 Hundredweight was the lightest of the 32-Pounders introduced in the 1840s when the Navy moved to standardize nearly all of the guns in the fleet to that caliber. (See Dahlgren’s Shells and Shell Guns)
USS Preble was one of five “Third Class Sloops” ordered in 1837. These small, economical sloops were efficient vessels for peace time cruising. As originally armed Preble and her sisters carried two 12-Pounder long guns and fourteen 32-Pounder carronades. In 1851 Preble was rearmed with ten 32-Pounders of 27 Hundredweight (Including Number 85). This battery was exchanged for eight 32-Pounders of 32 Hundredweight in 1853. Preble served as a training ship at the Naval Academy in the 1850s. In 1858 she was part of the expedition to Paraguay. During the American Civil War she served on with the Gulf Blockading Squadron until destroyed by fire in 1863. (See Canney “Sailing Warships of the US Navy” and BuOrd’s “Armament of Naval Vessels”).
US Navy 32-Pounder of 27 Hundredweight Number 85 in Plum Creek Cemetery outside of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
US Navy 32-Pounder of 27 Hundredweight Number 85 in Plum Creek Cemetery outside of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
