My motto -- no good deed goes unpunished ;-)

[CarlS]

Mike,

Good observation.  I assume the solid lifting hooks would have been used but the image does seem to show them tied in some fashion on the straps.  Given the lifting holes are opposite the fuse and for most strapped shells this causes the ball to be rotated to put the fuse hole off center.  The exposed the lifting ears aren't where one might exect them to be to lift the shell in a straight and balance fashion  but perhaps this is good as the sabot would hang off to the side and then be better positioned for the angle of the tube's bore.  All this seems to only bring questions to me:

• Has anyone seen a strapped ball with a rope on it or at least attachments on the straps for the rope?
• Are the lifting ears cast into a ball used during manufactoring only and not there for use in the field?  The images in John's book show the ears but the persumably lifting rope is on the straps.
• Did the ear position in a stapped shell allow for better alignment when putting it down the bore during battle?

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Carl,
     Mortar shells are lifted by their ears and lowered into the short bore and released.
 Note, in the Mordecai plate of strapped shells that the rope is attached to the straps for ground moving.  Since theshells would have to be lifted up to the bore by a davit and pulley, by having the ears off center would present the wooden sabot to the bore.
Does this make since?
Also note that the strapped shells are for seacoast howwitzers and columbiads.
  No reference for my statement just applying some physics.
John

[CarlS]

John,

Thanks.  You resaid what I was trying to say in a clearer manner.

[Lamar]

Here's what I've been told about the ball pictured in the first post in this thread.

Jerry Wright (now deceased) found 9 of these balls (and other balls that were different) in the 1970s about 1/2 mile south of Fort Clifton (in Colonial Heights, on the north bank of the Appomattox River). Wright hunted from the '50s through the '90s.

Here's a link to some Fort Clifton info

http://civilwarguide.info/landmark.php?id=151

Alwion posted some photos on the Miscellaneous board (below), & Carl pointed out what he id'd as a mortar ball (I think I see some others). Do you think the balls in those photos alwion posted are the same as the big eared mortar balls discussed in this thread?