January 2012 Drill Highlights
Sunday January 29th, 2012 the Central Maryland Corsairs visited the National Museum of the U.S. Navy located at the Washington Navy Yard. The National Museum of the U.S. Navy is the only naval museum to chronicle the history of the U.S. Navy from its creation to the present day. Artifacts like USS Constitution’s fighting top, the world’s deepest diving submersible, Trieste, and the khaki uniform of former Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz make The Navy Museum’s collection second to none.
During the visit the Cadets participated in a reenactment of loading the 24-pounder (11 kg) cannons carried on the gun deck of Old Ironsides. Firing naval cannons required a great amount of labor and manpower. The propellant was gunpowder, whose bulk had to be kept in a special storage area below deck for safety. Powder Boys, typically 10-14 year old children (the same age as many of our cadets), were enlisted to run powder from the armory up to the gun decks of a vessel as required.
The firing procedure for the cannon was as follows: A wet swab was used to mop out the interior of the barrel, extinguishing any embers from a previous firing which might cause the next charge of gunpowder to go off prematurely. Gunpowder, either loose or in a cloth or parchment cartridge (in which case it would have a hole made in it with a metal ‘pricker’ through the touch hole), was placed in the barrel, followed by a cloth wad (typically made from canvas and old rope), and rammed home with a rammer. Next the shot was rammed in, followed by another wad (to prevent the cannon ball from rolling out of the barrel if the muzzle was depressed.) The gun in its carriage was then ‘run out’ — cadets heaved on the gun tackles (which was a great illustration of mechanical advantage for our cadets) until the front of the gun carriage was hard up against the ship’s bulwark, and the barrel protruding out of the gun port. This took the majority of the manpower as the total weight of the large cannon in its carriage could reach over two tons, and the ship would probably be rolling. The touch hole in the rear (‘breech’) of the cannon was filled with finer gunpowder (‘priming powder’), or a ‘quill’ (literally the quill from an animal such as a porcupine, or the skin-end of a feather, pre-filled with priming powder; using these obviated the need to separately pierce the cartridge by pricking) and ignited. The National Museum of the U.S. Navy is part of the Naval History & Heritage Command which includes a library, archives, and photographic and other research facilities.