Blown cannon pieces

[scottfromgeorgia]

My largest shrapnel:  A fragment of captured British cannon blown up by Washington's troops on the retreat from Trenton to Princeton, when the pursuing Hussiers got too close. Not sure this is shrapnel, though.

 

[speedenforcer]

Works for me. That is certainly a NICE and HISTORICAL piece. Did you find it yourself or was it a purchase?

[speedenforcer]

I think you have given an idea to a new thread. Pieces of burst tubes. You care to start it or shall I?

[CarlS]

Scott: Wonderful pieces.  What a nice relic to have.

Speed: I've picked up cannon pieces over the years as I've encountered them for sale as I think they are neat.  But I've not seen them often.  RelicRunner and I co-purchased 7 large pieces (IIRC) of a big gun that blew in Virginia. But in general I've not seen many pieces in peoples collections.  In the top 3 of my favorite relic I've ever found is a trunion off a Parrott gun that was hit with a shell.  it has a large "1862" date across the face and the trunion strap was found by my hunting buddy a few years later and is now in my collection with the trunion.  They belonged together. 

[scottfromgeorgia]

Let's start a thread. I have other cannon pieces - such as from the bursting cannon at Fort Donelan.

[speedenforcer]

This will certainly be a cool thread. I do not have any pieces of tube but maybe one day. A friend has a piece of one lying out in the elements half buried. I dug it up sometime ago and moved it. It was probably 200 pounds or better. Maybe he will put a price on it for me one day.

[Steve Phillips]

I am fortunate to own two pieces of blown up cannons. One is part of a 30 pound Parrott from Vicksburg. It was used by Confederates until it blew up. The photo is not very good but it weighs a couple hundred pounds and I wasn't going to move it. You can see the rifling. This piece was part of Tom Dickey's collection when he died.

The other piece is a trunnion from a Confederate six pounder made by Noble Brothers in Rome Georgia. It is marked MARCH 1862 and was found near Fort Bartow on Wilmington River. I swapped a Confederate buckle for it.

[scottfromgeorgia]

It looks like that trunnion just snapped off - probably very discomfitting to the Rebs who were firing it.

[CarlS]

Here is my all time favorite.  Picture is a trunnion from an early war Parrott rifle very clearly stamped with the 1862 date found near a gun emplacement near the battle of Kennesaw Mountain.  I found this decades ago where it had been struck by, I presume, one of either 12-lber Bormann, 12-lber solid shot or 3-inch Hotchkiss shell.  The quick among you might ask how a US gun was hit by a US shell?  The Parrott was in a CS emplacement so I presume was a captured piece.  For years as a kid I always just assumed it was from some CS gun.  A few years after I found the trunnion which wasn't far from the emplacement we were back in the area and a friend found the trunnion strap.  It was knocked much farther away by the impact.  You can see where the shell hit the front edge of the trunnion and bent the strap back.

[Wilmington Mike]

Excellent artifacts, guys.  Steve, I see a bar of lead in your first picture.  I am just curious about any ID markings on it.  I assume you found it diving from a wreck down your way?

[Steve Phillips]

The lead bar was in Tom Dickey's collection when he died. The information I was given is that it came from the blockade runner Modern Greece.

[scottfromgeorgia]

I have a lead ingot exactly like that from the Modern Greece wreck. Here is the letter I got with it:

PARKER HOUSE OF MUSIC, INC.

DBA: PARKER PAWN SHOPS


5701 Yadkin Road – Suite 200
P.O. Box 11009
Fayetteville, North Carolina  28303
(910) 867-5159


July 2, 2002

To Whom It May Concern:

This is to certify that the lead ingot with the inscription “BAGILLT WORKS NEWTON KEATES & Co LIVERPOOL” on the front and the number “37” on the back came from the blockade runner Modern Greece.

The Modern Greece ran aground on June 27th 1862, off of Fort Fisher, NC  while trying to evade the Union ships U.S.S. Stars & Stripes and U.S.S. Cambridge. Some of her stores were salvaged immediately.  She was eventually covered in about 30 feet of sand until the spring of 1962. A severe storm uncovered the wreck. Shortly afterward, various U.S. departments became involved. Navy divers began to salvage what was left of the wreck on March 15th 1962.

The person from whom we acquired he lead ingot was involved in the 1962 salvage efforts. I am prohibited from divulging any personal information by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. We purchased the ingot from him in 1995. It has remained in our possession until June 30, 2002. On June 30, 1992 we delivered the ingot into the possession of Scott H. Jacobs.


Keith Reeder
Operations Manager
Parker Pawn Shops
Fayetteville, NC

Here is a pic of the salvage operation with some of the lead ingots:  https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/styles/card_photo/public/Report.jpg?itok=QcqlWVlN

Here is one of the guys who was there who mentions these exact ingots:  https://www.ncdcr.gov/education-learning/topics/modern-greece

[Dave the plumber]

 Carl's trunnion and trunnion cap are two of the coolest relics I have ever had in my hands !  Especially, identified with a great story to boot !!

[Wilmington Mike]

Steve and Scott...I grew up at Carolina Beach where the salvage operations of the Modern Greece by Navy divers was based.  I would ride my bike down to Fort Fisher to watch the divers work, and then go to the CB yacht basin to watch the divers offload the artifacts.  Years later I dove on the Greece with some older friends; we did so with a permit which you could acquire from the State at that time.  We recovered 6 bars of lead and reported this to the folks at Fort Fisher.  They had lots of bars of lead and only wanted the serial numbers stamped on the bottoms for their records.  I only dove the wreck twice...I do not know when the permits ceased to be issued, but there were a number of bars recovered during the time period of issuance.