Modern Casualties from Civil War Artillery

[emike123]

Another post wandered off topic into the subject of who has been hurt in the last 50 years by Civil War artillery projectiles.  It has been estimated that 200,000 Civil War era projectiles have been recovered in that time and I am aware of a grand total of 4 incidents with 4 injuries and 2 fatalities, all involving hand held power equipment.

1) There was a fellow in the ‘70s killed disarming what I think was a watercap fused ball using a power drill.  I cannot recall his name, but others probably do.

2)  Tom Dickey in the video “Bombs in the Basement” refers to an accident where a friend of his named Sam (not White) and his son  standing nearby were hurt during a deactivation with a drill press.

3)  In 2008 Sam White was killed apparently operating an angle grinder on the surface of a watercap ball in his driveway.

4)  Lawrence Christopher was hurt in 2006 disarming a 20pdr Parrott shell with a hand drill in a shed next to his house.  His grandson was standing nearby, possibly holding a water hose on the projectile, and hurt in the hand but apparently not seriously.

I’d be interested if anyone is aware of other incidents resulting in injury or death in the past 50 years.

Three conclusions:

1)  These incidents are extremely rare and the pieces have to be provoked to bite back and so the imagined danger that something that has sat perfectly harmlessly for 150 years will spontaneously erupt is foolish.

2)  Use of hand held power equipment on black powder shells is hazardous.

3)  I suppose it is an exercise of individual liberty if someone (not me!) wants to operate a handheld power tool on a shell.  In my mind this is not too terribly different in risk to oneself from smoking, riding a motorcycle without a hemet, skydiving, shovelling snow, cleaning out your gutters on a long ladder, etc, BUT anyone doing it within range of others such as the children associated with two of these incidents, is doing something I find to be inexcusable, indeed reprehensible, and I assume others feel likewise.


I invite comments that add to the fact base of this thread.

[relicrunner]

The only thing to note about the Sam White incident........from what I understand, he had already drilled the 8" ball and was cleaning the outside. The lesson here......just because it has a hole in the shell, does not mean that it is "safe". After drilling, the shell should be soaked in water and rinsed out till the water comes out clear.

[CarlS]

I couldn't agree with relicrunner more.  I recently checked a 'disarmed' 12-lber Bormann cannon ball.  But when I pushed a wire into the hole in the bottom it wasn't even all the way though the iron.  Then I found a hole on the side that had been filled and it went through the iron side but not much past that.  Since it was a case shot the hole didn't extend through the case matrix to the powder.  I had it drilled correctly and powder flushed out.  Now it has 3 holes and really looks disarmed and finally is disarmed.

Three points I'd like to make on this subject is:

• You should be able to push a copper (or other non-ferrous material!) wire from the drill hole to the other side of the shell.  If not, it's likely not flushed good.
• It is very hard to wash the powder out of a 1/4 inch hole.  You have to get a nozzle in the drilled hole and the powder and debris have to come back out around the nozzle which is hard to do in a small hole.  Sometimes you'll see two 1/4 holes to deal with this.
• Many shells can't be washed out with one soaking.  I've had some that have required 3, 4 and 5 soaks to get it all.

The Sam White situation is quite unfortunate and weird.  He obviously was a very experienced guy doing this.  It would seem he thought that shell had been washed out.  Perhaps he just purchased it as a disarmed shell and assumed the guy who diarmed it had washed it out.  The other oddity is that he was using a grinder on the shell, if in fact that was the case.  It's not the type of tool you would typically clean a relic with.  But perhaps it was a small grinder that he was cleaning around the fuse hole with and decided to touch something up around the drill hole.  I guess we'll never know.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Mike,
Great post.  I am almost certain that incident 1 and 2 were the same incident involving a man getting ready for a show and was drilling a spherical shell of unknown size having a U.s. Navy (Alger) water cap fuse, drilling it in a drill press.  As I understand the accident reort (verbal) he was killed and the boy, son injured.  Many years later after the case was closed the fuse was given to me and went with my collection to Jack Bell.
   I guess I am confused about the name of the person injured in GA.  I thought it was Corky Huey.  Straighten me out Mike.
I certainly concur with the other points you made along with the following two posts after your informative input.
  If I may add a note about cleaning shells: You can read in my book on what happens to the powder after setback and impact, with illustrations.  One cannot just rinse the inside of a shell, it has to be forcefully ejected out with a powerful water jet.  I have found, in some instances , where the powder had gotten wet and then dried over the years to be as hard as sun dried clay. Some would not ignite with a blow torch, while others were just as sensitive  as the day it was poured into the shell.
Regards,
John

[emike123]

Several of us know Corky well and I am not aware of him being involved in an accident, much less one that caused injuries.  There is always the possibility I am wrong, but I have never seen any visible physical issues on him in all our discussions.  Also, he lives in South Carolina and always has.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Mike,
   Thanks, then it was Lawerence that had the serious injury to the frontal lobe and left him impaired.
I hope this rather unpleasant discussion of injuries caused by on site drilling of projectiles, of any type, will discourage any of our readers/members from any thoughts of disarming a shell, just one, or induce those that are currently drilling shells with power tools will stop the dangerous game of 'Russian Roulette" as the next shell may cost you your live or permnaent disability.
    some have referred to people who inert shells as 'professionals' , those that are still with us may be more aptly called 'Mr. Lucky".
Regards,
John

[CarlS]

John,

Agreed.  I guess you can be considered a professional if you've drilled some and are still alive.  But I'd prefer to leave that term to service providers who take all reasonable precautions and do a complete job.

What amazes me is that I know of people who still hand drill.  I think I'd be way too nervous waiting for the ka-pow to hold the drill steady. 

I saw Corky on Saturday at the Columbia Show and can vouch he is alive and well with all appendages in good working order.

[pipedreamer65]

The 1st incident mentioned was Rick Swain, owner of Ricks Relics near Greenville, NC.  It happened in 1978.  I heard it was a Fort Fisher found naval shell, but I really don't know that to be true.  Two teenagers standing nearby were hurt pretty bad. 


I have also heard of a accident involving World War 2 era soldiers being killed or injured at Fort Macon, NC by shells being used as andirons in one of the post fireplaces.

Hope this info is useful.

[emike123]

Thanks Pipe.  So I need to update the 50 year casualty number to 6 injured and keep the incident # at 4 and the killed at 2.

WWII ordnance and timing is outside the scope and 50 year window.

[pipedreamer65]

You are welcome.  I just thought I would mention the Fort Macon accident.  I'm not sure if someone was killed or injured there, so I went back and changed that on my post.  Rick Swain info is pretty solid, as what I have heard over the years matches a article I found sometime back.

[pipedreamer65]

One other thing, the Fort Macon kaboom was Civil War era artillery shell.  Still outside of your 50 year period though.
Thanks

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Sir,
Was Swain killed in his incident?
John

[emike123]

That is what we wrote John

I should add a #4 after reading the Fort Macon incident for sheer stupidity aka the "Darwin Awards" 

There are folks out there who think this stuff is a hazard that must be actively and heavily regulated, to a vastly greater extent than it is now with existing laws.  I chose 50 years as a window arbitrarily, but if we extended it to 70 the statistics would still be similar in showing the black powder shells require provocation and the #s involved are minuscule.  More people died riding motorcycles in my state today I bet then the sum total over the last 50 years from artillery de-milling.

I am shocked, however, that 3 of the four incidents involved young people standing nearby.  See point #4 above and in my opinion those responsible adults that survived deserve severe punishment and liability for endangerment.

If you fiddle with any type of shell (and the #s of carved Civil War era bullets as well as my own youth living in the country are testament to it happening) or expose to fire the box of shotgun shells bought today in lots of 25 at Walmart for $6.50 a box, you are inviting consequences.  My light target shotgun rounds for skeet have 1 1/8 ounce of powder per so nearly 2lbs of powder in a box.  That rates far above any field artillery projectile and into the realm of large shells.

I think that authorities have tended to recognize this relativism and generally only react decisively when things are brought to them or there is an incident as with Sam White and Lawrence Christopher. 

[pipedreamer65]

Sir,
Was Swain killed in his incident?
John

Yep he died.  The newspaper article said it blew the roof off of the building.

[scottfromgeorgia]

When I lived in DC, about a mile from the White House, in an apartment with 500 shells, I was constantly worried about a worker entering the apartment, calling the authorities, and suffering the loss of all my "explosives" in a spectacular raid of my apartment. In particular, I didn't want the firemen to worry if they were called to the building and refusing to fight a fire. I called the fire chief one day, said that a friend of mine was moving to DC with his historical collection of shells, and asked for guidance. The fire chief of DC said that they would immediately contact the explosives removal authorities, and asked me for names and addresses. I hung up, thankful I had called from my Skype phone. I never again attempted to notify any authorities.

I now live in the free city of Atlanta, where my neighbors are respectful, and no one has ever mentioned any anxiety at all. What a difference 650 miles makes.