heated shot?

Currently reading a book about seafaring in mid-late 1800's. The main ship is about to engage a waters edge fort. Spies report the fort defenders intend to use "heated shot" or cannon balls. The ship captain is much concerned because one of those going into the powder cache will blow up the whole ship. The notion brings up a whole host of questions. Like: how did they heat them so hot as to ignite bp? Or how did they load them without igniting the charge in the cannon? Wads between powder and ball, I'm guessing. Was this a commonly used weapon? etc.

'afternoon,

I've read a few ACW related books that concerned ships vs shore (although I understand that hot shot was also used ship vs ship).

On the shore, there were special furnaces that were used to heat the shot. A photo of one resembled an oven, but I'm not sure how it opened. Tongs were then used to handle/move the shot to the muzzle.

They indicated a wet wad (they called it something different, but I'm blanking on it) was used between the hot shot and powder. It was also mentioned that a wooden sabot was placed between the wet wad and powder. If memory serves, sometimes just a soaked wood sabot was used.

Even if the hot shot didn't ignite the powder and/or magazine, it could and did set fire to the sails and rigging. As ironclads became the norm, the hot shot became less effective and was phased out by both sides.

Mike

It would have been a very lucky shot to explode the ship's magazine, a lot like winning the lottery. Hot shot was used to set a vessel afire. The red hot ball embedded itself in the ships timbers where it couldn't be removed and was extremely difficult to cool below the kindling point of the wood by the crew. It was quite dangerous to handle on land and far more so aboard a ship and the British would not allow it's use on their ships.

Thanks. War is an ugly business.

Like this...
https://youtu.be/5caj4F4PI_s?t=3m38s

Unlike many fortress guns that were as heavy as lower deck batteries the heated shot was often fired from guns that would load Fe in ships timbers,not blast through, so often fired from 9 or 12 pounders.
Normally powder rooms were below the waterline. The gunner worke in the room without a light. The light came from a light room through windows in th the powder room. He passed his cartridges out of the power room. Then passed to to the powder boys.
Even so ships blew up in battle. One of the most famous the LaOrient fire managed to get to the powder room.
The use of heated shot almost prevented attack on forts. Nothing scarier then fire at sea.

There is a hot shot furnace at Fort Niagara. Instead of relying on my 34 years ago memory when I was stationed there with the Coast Guard, contact the fort directly for pictures, plans, stories, etc.
I understand the furnace was built in the 1830's.

tenngun said:

Nothing scarier then fire at sea.

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While not on one of those sailing ships I can unfortunately attest to the truth of this statement on a warship..

Then beside the ship being wood it was all oiled and tarred ( poof) the seams caulked with hemp or jute fiber that had then been tarred( double poof), canvass, lines that were all tarred, walls for internal rooms mad out of quarter sawn wood that turned in to kindelind if hit with a ball. Some times these screens were taken down, and stowed below the water line, often just hung on hinges and folded up and attached to the over head. So they just blasted in to kindeling if hit. Not much light below decks even in battle chandlers were lit, and embers in the stove waiting to be blown out.
"The boy stood on the burning deck".

so often fired from 9 or 12 pounders

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The book frequently mentioned 39" and 42" guns :shocked2: fired from the fortress to sea. Anything that big would plow right through a wood ship and do terminal damage, IMHO. It is hard to imagine.

By AWI 32s were the common big guns, bigger guns had been mostly not used as the rate of fire and took too much crew to handle. When Victory was launched she was fitted out with48s on the lower deck ,24s on middle and 12s on upper. Nice progression. By the AWI victory was reduced to 32,18,and 12s. By tralfalgar she replaced her 18s with 24s. The French 32 fired a 36 as French pound was bigger. At one nautical mile a 32 would-cut through three feet of oaken wall. The big ships of the line might have two feet of hull wales strakes frame and ceiling combined. At half a mile even the biggest ship couldn't stop a 32.
They wanted a hot ball to stick in the hull. Any thing over 2 cables,1200 feet was considered random shot. Meaning a good chance to hit the ship some place. But a hot ball passing through sail or caring away a pin rail wouldn't do any more damage then a cold ball. So the shooters wanted solid hits on a place where it could lodge in the timbers. And a ball that wouldn't blast through the ship at that range.

Rifleman1776 said:

so often fired from 9 or 12 pounders

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The book frequently mentioned 39" and 42" guns :shocked2: fired from the fortress to sea. Anything that big would plow right through a wood ship and do terminal damage, IMHO. It is hard to imagine.

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Land based artillery in fixed fortifications could run to larger calibers than guns mounted broadside in ships where recoil room was limited to half the ship's beam (width for lubbers) minus any hatches, masts, pumps or other obstacles along the centerline. That said, 39" and 42" must be a typo or the authors misunderstanding of how muzzle loading cannon are described - by weight of the ball shot, not barrel length. Bore diameter came to be used when cannon were rifled & the projectile weight went way up - but there were no 30" plus bore cannons in general use anywhere. Perhaps the author was trying to describe the shorter barrel of a carronade? Carronades on ships did go up to 42 pounders as I recall.

There's a well preserved furnace for heating shot at the fortress in St. Augustine FL. Didn't take any photos (dagnabbit!) or notes, but according to the NPS the point of the heated shot was to set fire to the ships. Best recollection is that the accompanying illustration showed a sabot or thick wad of some sort between shot and powder. They even had special heavy tongs for lifting and loading the red-hot shot. Nasty business.

BTW-

St. Augustine should be high on the list for cannon lovers, and lots more. A superb place with docents who appear to really know what they're talking about.

Here's just one example. On fairly close examination it appears to be a little over 1" bore and in well-maintained perfect working order.

Here's what little the display had to say, but the docent went on for quite a while. Wish the old memory gland worked better. Maybe I better start carrying a tape recorder!

Brown Bess on steroids. :shocked2:

And wheels!!! :grin:

I've always thought of swivel/wall guns on stationary mounts, but I'm showing my ignorance (as usual). A pic is worth a thousand words, though.

The fort also has a bunch of canon captured in other battles, moved to the fort and put to use back in the day. I don't recall all or many of the source battles, but there are a bunch seized by Zach Taylor's troops in the Mexican-American war from forts along the Rio Grande.

Very, very good stuff lurking there in St. Augustine.

I didn't take anywhere near enough photos, but there are dozens of cannon there along with lots of signs and displays. Here's a sampling of the stuff I was moved to photograph. Most of them you can walk right up to for detailed looks. Of course, sometimes you have to wait for kids to get through climbing all over them! :wink:

Do you remember the bore size on that Coehorn Mortar? It looks HUGE, though that might have been from the people in the background.

Gus

I don't, but it was on the order of 10" to a foot. Only ones I've seen close to them were in one of the civil war coastal forts (memory again!), but those had much thicker walls than these in St. Augustine.

Wow, that's a LARGE coehorn mortar.

I've been to St.Petersburg two or three times in the past decade while teaching courses, but never got done in time to go see the Fort. I did park in the parking lot and went up and touched the wall just to say I had been there, after the Fort closed, but that was the best I could do.

Did you eat at the restaurant where you open a small trap door near the tables by the walls and feed the fish?

Gus