Item Number: A00850

Item Title: CS 6.4in Tennessee sabot, aka Mullane, bolt

Price: $1495

Shipping: Not included

Provenance: CS

Type: Bolt

Size: 6.4in

Sabot: Tennessee

Fuse: n/a

Book:
Jack Bell Page 415

Location Recovered: Charleston, South Carolina

Description:Mullane or Tennessee sabot solid bolt, short pattern with blunt nose, bourrelet rings, copper disc cupped sabot with 3 studs in the sabot for the rifled 32 pounder or 6.4in Brooke rifle. Projectile was Confederate manufactured and is believed to have been developed by Mullane working with Read and others, although Mullane was never granted a patent and period literature often refers to this work as the "Tennessee" design, cup, or sabot. The sabot system used was a copper disc held in place by studs and secured with a center bolt, a manufacturing innovation allowing the parts made of different metals, copper and iron, to be prepared independent and assembled at the end. This sabot pattern, referred to as Type II, employed three studs cast into the sabot and fitted into holes cast into the shell body, secured by a bolt in the center. This pattern utilized two bourrelet rings, as a labor saving device, only the rings had to be accurately machined, the rest could be left rough, the top is only slightly rounded, this flat top was designed to deliver maximum impact against the Federal ironclads. This relatively short bolt was likely intended for the old 32 pounder smoothbores that had been banded and converted to rifled guns.

Diameter is 6.35in., length 9.25in., weight 65lbs. Sabot is fired showing weak lands and grooves, and is intact. Metal has been run through electrolysis for an extensive period and is stable.