The USS Dick Cheney
September 13, 2012 12:31 PM Subscribe
Nautical reenactors/historians, help me understand this news of the weird.
Law enforcement officials said the crew member mistakenly grabbed a box of buckshot ammunition after the Amazing Grace ran out of blanks. (The boxes apparently look similar, authorities said.)
I was unaware that buckshot was ever a common munition for naval artillery. Even had been, what is it doing on a vessel in the modern era, and why would it be packaged similarly to the blanks they were firing?
Law enforcement officials said the crew member mistakenly grabbed a box of buckshot ammunition after the Amazing Grace ran out of blanks. (The boxes apparently look similar, authorities said.)
I was unaware that buckshot was ever a common munition for naval artillery. Even had been, what is it doing on a vessel in the modern era, and why would it be packaged similarly to the blanks they were firing?
From a different article on the same incident:
posted by zamboni at 12:38 PM on September 13, 2012
The Amazing Grace and the Bill of Rights were using small "shotgun" cannons about the size of a small toolbox. Reed, a longtime tall-ship sailor, said the cannons' blank charges, made by Winchester, look like common shotgun shells and that one could easily be mistaken for the other.posted by zamboni at 12:40 PM on September 13, 2012
The Bellmore Johnson Company is the manufacturer, under exclusive license from the Winchester - Olin Corporation, of the Winchester Model 98 Breech Loading Signal Cannon. …Winchester Cannons are chambered for standard Winchester 10 gauge black powder blank shells.posted by zamboni at 12:42 PM on September 13, 2012
In short, the tall ships were using modern signal cannons that fire shotgun shell blanks. A birdshot shotgun shell was accidentally loaded and fired, resulting in the two injuries.
For the closest historical equivalent, see grapeshot.
posted by zamboni at 12:53 PM on September 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
For the closest historical equivalent, see grapeshot.
posted by zamboni at 12:53 PM on September 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
For the historical equivalent of the event, see the ignominious death of Captain John Kendrick and several members of his crew.
posted by zamboni at 12:58 PM on September 13, 2012
Kendrick’s brig fired a thirteen-gun salute, to which the Jackal answered with a salute back. One of the cannons was loaded with real grapeshot, though, and the shot smashed into the Washington, killing Captain Kenrick at his table on deck along with several other men. Kendrick’s body and the bodies of his dead men were taken ashore and buried on the beach in a hidden grove of palm trees. John Howel, Kendrick’s clerk, read the ship's prayer book for the captain’s funeral.I think I'm done now.
posted by zamboni at 12:58 PM on September 13, 2012
I read the question and was really confused because I thought it was referring to the USS Hopper, aka "Amazing Grace", a modern ship which I would think would be even less likely to have buckshot as a munition.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:05 PM on September 13, 2012
posted by rmd1023 at 1:05 PM on September 13, 2012
Modern ships have dedicated salute guns as well, though gun-saluting is nowhere near as common. The Salute guns use a 40mm shell, always blank.
Cannons of the wooden-ships age not only fired cannonballs, as you'd expect, but grapeshot (as mentioned above) and also "chain-shot," which amounted to half or full cannonballs connected to each other via a heavy chain, fired from a single cannon. In addition to being a whirling death machine for any poor soul in its path, the chain shot was effective against masts, and taking out a mast meant taking away your enemy's ability to move, maneuver, and position any Marine snipers high up in the masthead (which is what is commonly and erroneously called the crow's nest). Desperate Captains were also known to fire the silverware. And I read somewhere that the Ottomans fired chipped marble balls instead of iron, but I could be thinking of a work of fiction.
posted by Sunburnt at 2:56 PM on September 13, 2012
Cannons of the wooden-ships age not only fired cannonballs, as you'd expect, but grapeshot (as mentioned above) and also "chain-shot," which amounted to half or full cannonballs connected to each other via a heavy chain, fired from a single cannon. In addition to being a whirling death machine for any poor soul in its path, the chain shot was effective against masts, and taking out a mast meant taking away your enemy's ability to move, maneuver, and position any Marine snipers high up in the masthead (which is what is commonly and erroneously called the crow's nest). Desperate Captains were also known to fire the silverware. And I read somewhere that the Ottomans fired chipped marble balls instead of iron, but I could be thinking of a work of fiction.
posted by Sunburnt at 2:56 PM on September 13, 2012
Don't forget canister rounds, with contents even smaller than those in a grapeshot round.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:56 AM on September 14, 2012
posted by wenestvedt at 5:56 AM on September 14, 2012
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