US Navy 60-Pounder Parrott Rifle at Trophy Park at Norfolk Naval Shipyard

A US Navy 60-Pounder (5.3-Inch) Parrott Rifle is displayed alongside other Parrotts and Dahlgrens of the Civil War era at Trophy Park at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia. This 60-Pounder is Number 56. It was manufactured at West Point Foundry in 1865. As manufactured it weighed 5,430 pounds.

According to the research of Wayne Stark, Number 56 was assigned to Washington Navy Yard in August 1866. It was fired 14 times as part of an experimental battery at Annapolis between July 1873 and September 1884.

As a type, the 60-Pounder Parrott was a late addition to the Navy’s arsenal during the American Civil War. It borrowed its 5.3-Inch caliber from the old 18-Pounder smoothbore. It filled a gap in the Parrott line between the 30-Pounder (the Navy version weighed 3,500 pounds) and the 100-Pounder (9,800 pounds). It was similar in weight to 32-Pounders of the prewar era. It was designed to fire a 60-Pound projectile with a 6 pound propellant charge. In form it looks very much like a slightly smaller 100-Pounder. Like all Parrotts, it is a cast-iron rifled tube with a wrought iron reinforcing band over the breech. (See Olmstead et al., pg 116).

Like the Bureau of Ordnance’s 32-Pounder of 4,500 Pounds and 8-Inch of 6,500 Pounds, the 60-Pounder seems to have been ordered mid war to fill a need for intermediate class of naval gun to arm converted merchant ships too lightly built to carry the heavy 100-Pounder Parrott and 9-Inch Dahlgren but which needed something more substantial than light Parrotts and Boat Howitzers. My inference is that in the first years of the war, older model 32-Pounders filled this need, but as the Navy expanded with many additional merchant ships taken into service, the stocks of old 32-Pounders were not sufficient to requirements - and more modern and efficient guns may also have been desired. However, like the BuOrd 32-Pounder and 8-Inch, the 60-Pounder was just entering service when the war ended.

The first significant action of the type was the First Bombardment of Fort Fisher. In his report of the fighting on December 25th, 1864, Commander J.C. Howell of USS Nereus wrote, “We fired from this vessel yesterday 27 60-pounder shells, 69 30-pounder shells, 63 32 pounder shells. The 60 pounder Parrott, a new gun in the service, performed admirably. Not a single projectile turned over.” (Official Records - Navies. Ser. 1. Vol. 11. Pg. 289.)

Postwar, the 60-Pounder would see active service. The steam sloops which the US Navy kept in service frequently carried a 60-Pounder as part of their armament - often mounted on the forecastle. Starting in the late 1870s, a number of the type were converted to breechloaders. Of the seven which survive, four are these breechloader conversions. One of those conversions may be seen a few feet away from this 60-Pounder at Trophy Park - however, that one is missing its breech block. Two intact examples on original carriages in Laconia, New Hampshire may be seen in a previous post.