US Navy 8-Inch MLR of USS Trenton and USS Wyoming
US Navy 8-Inch MLR Number 11 is displayed at Trophy Park at Norfolk Naval Shipyard
US Navy 8-Inch Muzzle Loading Rifle Number 11 is displayed at Trophy Park at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. This rifle was originally cast at Builders foundry in 1864 as 11-Inch Dahlgren Number 181. It likely saw no service in the fleet during or immediately after the Civil War.
In 1876 it was taken to West Point Foundry for conversion into an 8-Inch Rifle. The original 11-inch bore was bored out to 13.5-inches and a wrought iron rifled sleeve inserted into the bore. See the article covering this conversion process in detail. This conversion increased the weight of this Dahlgren from 15,740 pounds to 17,330 pounds.
The 8-Inch MLR used up to an 35 pound charge to fire a 180 pound projectile. The 1877 report of of the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance stated, “Ten 11-inch smooth-bores have been finished and twenty are in process of conversion to 8-inch muzzle-loading rifles by the approved method of lining with a wrought iron tube. This conversion adds 25 per cent to the power of the gun at the muzzle and doubles it at 1,000 yards. The increased recoil required alterations in the carriage for its efficient control, which have been devised and answer well the purpose.”
US Flagship Trenton - Naval History and Heritage Command Photo
Initially, Number 11 served on USS Trenton. Commissioned in 1877, USS Trenton was the only newly built warship of the US Navy prior to the steel “New Navy” ships of the 1880s to correspond to the size and power of the cruisers of other navies. (The near complete rebuild of USS Lancaster resulted in a ship similar to Trenton.) As initially fitted out, Trenton carried eleven 8-Inch Rifles (Registry Numbers 1 through 11). This included two on the spar deck at the bow - both able to be fired end-on. The two bow rifles were mounted on Ericsson carriages. The stern pivot was mounted on a circular brake carriage. On the gun deck, a total of eight 8-Inch Rifles were mounted with four on each broadside. The first division guns were mounted on Ericsson carriages. The second division guns were mounted on Hydraulic Buffer Carriages. (See the 1877 article in Proceedings “A General Description of the Ordnance and Torpedo Outfit of the U.S.S. Trenton" by Lieutenant Charles A. Stone.)
USS Trenton’s bow pivot crew at drill. Naval History and Heritage Command gives this photo a date of 1886 - after Number 11 was taken off and the second bow pivot position eliminated.
The provision for two 8-Inch rifles at the bow seems to have been too much weight at the forward end, and one of these rifles was taken off by September 1881: Number 11. (See Wayne Stark’s Research.)
According to the Bureau of Ordnance Registry for the 8-Inch Rifle, Number 11 was taken to the United States Naval Academy in May of 1882 and mounted aboard USS Wyoming in December of 1882. USS Wyoming was one of the training ships at the Naval Academy. In 1886, Lieutenant (and future Rear Admiral) Royal. R. Ingersoll wrote an article in Proceedings describing the then present "Course in Ordnance and Gunnery" at the US Naval Academy. The practical instruction of the Midshipmen included exercises firing:
A battery of VIII-inch Dahlgren guns, in broadside, U.S.S. Santee.
6 32-pdr. Dahlgren guns, in broadside, U. S. S. Wyoming.
2 XV-inch guns, U. S. S. Passaic, monitor carriages.
1 XIII-inch mortar.
Rifled Ordnance.
1 8-inch M. L. R., Ericsson carriage, U.S.S. Wyoming.
1 80-pdr. B. L. R., central recoil check, U.S.S. Wyoming.
1 60-pdr. M. L. R., directing bar, U.S.S. Wyoming.
1 60-pdr. M. L. R., directing bar U. S. S. Standish.
1 60-pdr. B. L. R., directing bar U. S. S. Standish.
1 3-inch steel B. L. R., boat and field carriages.
1 37 -mm. Hotchkiss revolver cannon.
2 long Gatlings, cal. 45.
1 short Gatling, cal. 45.
To me it is fascinating that as late as 1886 nearly all of the practical instruction in gunnery at the Naval Academy used Civil War era ordnance and its derivatives. A photo of midshipmen training on the 8-Inch MLR (likely Number 11) may be the only surviving photo of the Ericsson carriage as originally mounted on USS Trenton.
Midshipmen drilling at an 8-Inch MLR aboard USS Wyoming in the 1880s or 1890s. This photograph likely shows Number 11 in this role. Library of Congress Photo which is not available at this link: https://www.loc.gov/item/2003656098/
