CSS Alabama Cannon

[Jim J.]

Carl,
If all you had was a curved chisel on a long rod, and a hammer, you Worked way harder than we did.  The work actually went fairly smoothly, unless we had a jam.  The bit was harder than the degraded cast iron bore, so you had to go slow, lots of water and rotation by hand - well, by pipe wrench.  If she jammed, then we had a slide hammer arrangement on the shaft to back her out.  We, the Lab, have cleaned and conserved 28 cannon since 1996, from a wrought iron verso (1686), bronze 4 pdr's, 18 pdr long guns (1812), etc.
The picture of the shell down the barrel was easy to take, a good flashlight and a digital camera.  There are problems with digital cameras, one takes too many images - where do you store them All, and the mechanical shutters wear out.  We have sent two high end Canon cameras back under warranty, and they replaced them for free.  One had ~ 136K  and the other 86K of images.  The good thing is that one knows you have / or have not taken the necessary photo’s.  Whatever you do, if you buy a good high end camera, get the extended warranty.
Jim J.

[Daveslem]

Jim,

Thanks for the great post. Was in South Africa in 1979, Capetown, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban. Beautiful places and people. Thanks again.

[emike123]

This has been a very interesting thread.  Frankenstorm has me grounded so I thought I'd contribute an image of many of the various fuzes found in Britten shells.  According to Jack Bell's book, the fuse in the rudderpost shell is broken off, but most likely it is the one John drew which is the middle one on the right side of this picture.  The one above it is the "Preston" pattern which basically only differs in having a hex collar.  The one below it is narrower at the threads (Dickey mark of #77 is for Blakely, AL) and on the cover of Chuck Jones' book.  Long ones like the one in the center have been recovered from another "CS Commerce Raider."  The four on the left are time fuse adapters for the Britten, the two shortest are from blockade runners and the far left one is a normal CS Read fuse adapter pattern threaded for the Britten and recovered at a land fight where field caliber Britten shells were employed.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Great images Mike,
    How about some 45 degree views that show top and side together?
John

[emike123]

nullum beneficium impunitum   

Bart: How about you check out pages 72-75 and 116 in Chuck Jones' fuse book as most of these are the same exact ones shown there.  An exception is the CS made "Read style" adapter, but that looks just like all the rest on page 41.  After you've gone through and seen what is not already photographed professionally elsewhere, drop me a line and I'll try to take a couple more snaps for you at my earliest convenience.

[John D. Bartleson Jr.]

Mike,
    If is difficult to make clear scans of Jones book.   If you make a scan you will see what I mean when it is placed under magnification. Without well defined images I cannot see well enough to make a drawing.  I don't speak Latin.
It's okay,
John