US Navy 32-Pounders of 4,500 Pounds in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire

Aug 22

US Navy 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire

Four US Navy 32-Pounders of 4,500 Pounds are displayed in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. Many thanks to friend-of-the-page Nick Patrick for sharing these photos!

The four 32-Pounders are:

US Navy 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds Number 105 manufactured by Builders Foundry of Rhode Island in 1865. Weight as manufactured was 4,510 Pounds.
US Navy 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds Number 155 manufactured by Cyrus Alger & Co. of Massachusetts in 1865. Weight as manufactured was 4,490 pounds.
US Navy 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds Number 156 manufactured by Cyrus Alger & Co. of Massachusetts in 1865. Weight as manufactured was 4,500 pounds.
US Navy 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds Number 157 manufactured by Cyrus Alger & Co. of Massachusetts in 1865. Weight as manufactured was 4,490 pounds.

All four were assigned to the saluting battery at the Boston Navy Yard. This is their only known service. They are mounted on their original saluting battery mountings. As they were fired with light saluting charges and no projectiles, there was no need to recoil.

The four 32-Pounders were loaned to the “Selectmen of Hampton Falls, New Hampshire” in September of 1897. They are displayed around a monument to Governor Meshech Weare, the first governor of New Hampshire.

The 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds: This type of cannon was designed by the Bureau of Ordnance in 1864 due to a perceived need for lightweight 32-Pounders. The resulting 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds borrowed the general shape from Admiral Dahlgren’s 9-Inch, 10-Inch, and 11-Inch cannons. However, the 32-Pounders, like the similar 8-Inch Shell guns of 6,500 Pounds, had a simplified ring cascabel. Few if any of this type of cannon would have seen service during the Civil War. Postwar, some served ashore in saluting batteries. Others served afloat on training ships and aboard auxiliary vessels. Many never left storage. However, as the smallest of the Navy’s “big guns”, many were loaned to local communities in the 1890s and 1900s. Consequently, a relatively large number - around 90 - survive to the present.