naval parrot fuse settings

[foxholefrank]

  Heres a question that i hope i can get some help on.  a tinclad is being fired on  by sharpshooters in heavy timber and the ship returns fire with 30 pound parrot shells using i presume water cap fuses.
  the range is not over 200 yards. are they cutting the fuses that short? the info gathered says they used 5 second and 10 second fuses. i feel they are naming what fuses have been expended and not how they were cut. no cannister being used says the enemy is well protected from cannister.
  i also  wonder if these shells hit large trees and did not penetrate and stopped or glanced with longer fuses burning to explode within the woods.  hope to hear from you.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Sir;
   If you are certain that Naval Water Cap fuses were being employed I believe stated fuses were used.
    Water Cap fuses have preset times and it is unlikely gunners would attempt to unscrew the water cap, push out the paper time fuse from the fuse bottom, cut the fuse, then reassemble it.
If they were selecting exact times then I suggest they were useing some other fuse/fuze. I hope that i have not misunderstood your question. Comments Pete?
Best Regards,
John

[foxholefrank]

   Hey John,
                           Thanks very much for the input.  I would guess its water cap fuses if not maybe schenkel. If they fired 2- 5 second and 1 -10 second shells ,why at 200 yards. Was it learned that in timber the shells would not go far and explode at either given fuse time?.
   Why not percussion shells  or does the range make it dangerous to the ship from fragments. What do you think and thanks.
                                      frank.

[Pete George]

At John's invitation, here are my comments.

  A great many 4.2"-caliber ("30-pounder") Navy Parrott shells have been dug with the typical zinc Parrott timefuze plug in them.  And also, the zinc Parrott Percussion fuze.  Fuze collectors will tell you that the Navy Watercap with zinc adapter-sleeve are a fairly scarce fuze.  In view of those facts, I would say the odds are at least 50/50 that the shells in the report had a typical zinc Parrott timefuze plug in them.

  The report speaks of 5-second and 10-second shells being fired.  The official Table Of Fire for a 10-pdr. Parrott rifle says 5 seconds of burning-time translates to 2,000 yards.  That is 10 times greater than the 200 yards mentioned in the report.  Logic indicates no purpose in using a 5-second length of fuze at 200 yards.  Therefore, I would suspect that the lengthof fuze used was cut to the appropriate range.

Regarding firing into a forest:
  We have very solid documentation that civil war shells could pass entirely through large treetrunks.  And especially, the larger caliber shells could pass entirely through several trees.  (Yankee artillery general Abbott reports in his 1867 book that 30-pdr. Parrott shells penetrated NINE FEET DEEP into solid earth, in his Petersburg tesing of shell-penetration.)

  That being said, the 30-pdr. shells would be more likely to glance their way through the forest, with not much change in direction, at least for the short range (200 yards).

  Approximately 35 years ago, I was told in specific detail (by an eyewitness cannon-crew participant) about repeatedly shooting a single 10-pdr. Parrott Bolt, with permission, at the Chickamauga NPS Battlefield Park.  They were trying to hit a wagon on the edge of a field next to an old forest (large trees).  They missed the wagon on each of the four times they shot at it.  They were able to find the Bolt (for re-shooting) by following its damage-track through the forest.  It went through trees at least a foot thick.  Note, that's just a 2.9"-caliber projectile.  Visualize what those 4.2" Parrotts could do, at just 200 yards range.

Regards,
Pete

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Dear Frank,
     I am wondering why the vessels are worried about sharpshooters, just move on.
      The heavy timber would certainly stop any shell.   at the range of 200 yards they should be firing cannister to rout the shooters.
      A common shell with a 5 or 10 second fuse in a water cap would go beyond the range of 200 yards.
      I don't think I could give you an intelligent answer to your question.
    An ironclad certainly would not worry about fragments from 200 yards.  Think about it, that is 2 football fields distant.
     Perhaps they thought that the shell would hit the tree, fall to the ground and detonate at the end of the fuse time.
Regards,
John

[foxholefrank]

  I would like to thank pete and john for the great input. the fuse being a regular paper in a adapter makes more sense.thanks. now for the trees these sharpshooters had were some really big cypress and live oak down here in Louisiana.
  oh by the way pete ,was that you that dined on alligator tail in my camp at chancellorsville back around 1981? if it was i know you would remember. thanks again, frank mcglothlin.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Frank,
You are welcome.  I am from the edge of the Everglades in SW Florida.  with the three foot diameter Cypress  and Live Oak that we have I'll give those 30 pdr shells perhaps two trees at the most.
John

[Pete George]

  Yes, that was me at your camp dining on a delicious chunk of the grilled alligator-tail you brought to share.  I've never forgotten it.

  Of course, that Chancellorsville camp dinner comes to mind whenever I watch "Swamp People" on TV, because I know how good-tasting alligator tail can be, thanks to your generosity.

  I'm glad to discover you're still kickin', Frank.    Welcome to the forum!  Anytime I can be of assistance to you, just ask.  (You can email me through the forum, for personal communications.)

  Speaking of which, I wanted this reply to be personal, so I'll put my additional comments about your 30-pdr. Parrott scenario in a separate reply.

Best regards,
Pete

[Pete George]

  I must mention, the diameter of the trees in the Confederate sharpshooters' forest isn't as important as it would seem to be.  If the sharpshooters were far back in the forest, they couldn't see the yankee tinclad ship through the trees ...and especially, not see it good enough to target its crew so effectively that the ship felt shelling was necessary.

  We aren't told the location of the fight, nor its date.  But as Frank is LA/MS digger, I'll assume the fight was in those states.  Because winter is so short in those states, I'll also assume the trees had leaves.  As a past Louisiana Bayou digger, I'll testify that visibility is pretty darn short in those bayou forests.  So the Confederate sharpshooters are unlikely to have been more than 100 feet back (at the very most) from the forest's edge.  That yankee tinclad's 30-pounder (4.2"-caliber) Parrott shells would easily have penetrated 100 feet into the forest.  Remember, Abbott's book says the 30-pdr. shells penetrated 9 feet of solid earth.

  Here's a civil war era photo showing what the comparatively puny 2.9"/3" rifled cannon projectiles at Gettysburg did to large treetrunks.  (Cannonballs, being round, tended to bounce rather than penetrate.)

  The report says the range from the ship to the sharpshooters was 200 yards ...so the 30-pdr. shells at very nearly point-blank range were still at full velocity (600+ MPH) and full kinetic energy.

Regards,
Pete

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Pete,
    If that tree was felled by a 30 pdr then it was caused by the shell's detonation not just passing through it.
Look how bad the tree is shredded.
John

[foxholefrank]

  Hey Pete,
                        Thanks for the nice comments on the great gator grill of Chancellorsville, great memories. You have really helped me on this 30 pounder  episode that was here in la. in 1864. i didn't mention they were firing 24 pounder naval howitzers also, but i had no questions concerning Boremann fuses. you are right, the sharpshooters had to be fairly close to waters edge to get a clear shot . these men fired on 3 different occasions in a 24 hour period.in other words they knew what the return fire would be like each time.Its a pleasure hearing from you and thanks again for the  clearing up this question for me.
                                                             frank.