Whitworth Cannon

[Southron129]

Several of the Whitworth Cannon used by the Confederacy were recovered from the wreckage of the unfortunate Blockade Runner "Modern Greece."

The ship was intercepted right off the Wilmington Bar and shot up by blockading vessels.

The ship sunk in shallow water and that allowed much (but not all) of the cargo to be recovered by the Confederates.

The Modern Greece was re-discovered in the 1960's and many, many more artifacts have been recovered from it over the past 50 odd years.

You can download the book on all the artifacts recovered from the shipwreck. The download is from the website of North Carolina State Archives.

Note: The archeologist that wrote the report didn't know a d*mn thing about Enfields nor Enfield ammo. The Enfield bullets recovered from the wreckage were "swaged" and not cast!

Anyway, it is fascinating to see what all has been recovered from the wreckage.Literally everything from weapons to civilian items that could be sold to earn a profit for the ship owners.

Here is the link to download the book:
https://archive.org/details/blockaderunnermo00brig

Enjoy!

 

[Alden]

Isn't it fortunate the ship was sunk and unfortunate it was in shallow water!?

 

[Claude Mathis]

Great examples of knives.

 

[tenngun]

Was the whit worth a ml cannon? I was thinking it was a breech loader, can you own an historic breech loading wtbs repro?

 

[Treestalker]

IIRC Whitworths came in muzzleloading and breechloading configurations,but the breechloader could be used as a muzzleloader by inserting a copper plate under the breechcap, since it had no chamber. The bore was consistent throughout. The Confederates used the breechloading cannon which was incredibly accurate at long range but of limited usefulness due to the small diameter of the shells. With solid bolts it was a puncher on dang near anything it hit. It was credited with being the first artillery piece to have 'screaming' shells due to the twisted configuration of the projectiles. Hope this helps. George.

 

[tenngun]

Thanks I was thinking it was a breech loader, didn't know it was converable :thumbsup:

 

[Treestalker]

Tenngun, I believe you can own a wbts breechloading cannon if the ammunition is not 'fixed', that is .it must have a separate primer/ignition system. The Whitworth breechloader is fired with a separate friction primer IIRC. I never served on a Whitworth, but some gentlemen had one at the Prairie Grove reenactment some years ago. It was about 1/2 size and was beautiful. I did serve on a Brooke 6 pdr ML that was just sweet. Maybe it was a 10 pdr rifle, I'm getting foggy in my dotage. :shocked2: The Whitworth has a very strong cap style closure with large knobs to open and close the breech. It would be a challenge to build one, but well worth the effort. Good luck if you try it, you will have a classic. One of the older Black Powder Digests had a good article on ML cannon, and had pictures and narration of a Whitworth copy someone made. George.

 

[R.C.BINGAMAN]

It all depends on what side of the mason/dixon line you hail from.Doin well in the south :blah:

 

[Eterry]

Was it a Whitworth cannon I read of used in competition in the WBS where a newspaper was shot at some ridiculous range and hit everytime? Its been a long time since I read this, don't rightly recall.