US Navy 8-Inch Shell Gun in Warren, Ohio
US Navy 8-Inch Shell Gun of 6,500 Pounds Number 119 is displayed at the Trumbull County Veterans Memorial in Warren, Ohio.
US Navy 8-Inch Shell Gun of 6,500 Pounds Number 119 is displayed at the Trumbull County Veterans Memorial in Warren, Ohio. Number 119 was manufactured by Cyrus Alger and Company in 1865. It may not have seen any service afloat until 1883 when it was placed aboard USS Jamestown. It was removed at Norfolk in 1892. It is mounted on an original iron carriage of the type introduced alongside this model 8-Inch in 1865. Very unusually, portions of the sighting system - namely the forward sight over the trunnions and the mounting bracket for the adjustable rear sight are still in place on Number 119.
There is a breech loader of roughly 6-inch caliber also displayed at the memorial. I’m afraid I don’t know its type.
I arrived in Warren as the last light of day was fading. I apologize for the dark photos. If someone wants to send daylight photos, I’d be glad to share them.
The 8-Inch Bureau of Ordnance Shell Gun of 6,500 pounds, along with a similar 32-pounder of 4,500 pounds, was developed by the Bureau of Ordnance in 1864 under the direction of Henry Wise. The shape is very much like Dahlgren’s other ordnance. However, the elongated cascabel with provision for an elevating screw of the larger Dahlgrens has been replaced by a simple ring cascabel for a breeching rope. Elevation on the 8-inch and 32-pounder would have to be by an elevating screw underneath the breech.
United States Sloop Jamestown was one of six "First Class Sloops" built in the early 1840s. Her long career saw her serve three times on the Africa Station on the Anti-Slavery Patrol, deliver famine relief to Ireland in 1847, capture blockade runners during the Civil War, hunt Confederate raiders, supply sailors and her 30-Pounder Parrott to a chartered steamer to take part in an international action against Japan, be present at the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States, serve as a "floating reform school" for incarcerated youth in California, explore Alaskan coastal waters, and train boy sailors for the United States Navy in the 1880s and early 1890s. Her last twenty years were spent as a quarantine ship for the Marine Hospital Service. She burned at the beginning of 1913 - nearly seventy years after entering service. She was a very modest ship and quite obsolete for most of her service, but she and the sailors who served aboard her had a remarkable career.
