Tracing the Histories of Naval Guns

by John L. Morris

During my decades-long participation in the antique gun collecting community. I often heard or read “if that old gun could talk…”.   Eventually I got many of them to talk.  An antique gun’s dollar value is usually said to depend upon its rarity, condition, and collector demand.  Another important factor to consider is its provenance.  For example, George Washington’s pistols are nice, collectible 18th C. Flintlock pistols which without the GW provenance, might bring $14000. for the pair.  However with a well-documented GW provenance, should be worth, currently, $5 million ($ values here are just guesswork to illustrate the point.)

I was introduced to gun tracing by famed California antique gun collector, the late Mr. George Repaire who ran an antique gun shop in El Cerrito, CA.  I visited his shop while on Navy duty in the Bay Area in 1974.  He had a few Navy Dahlgren Boat Howitzers in and near his shop, with dates of manufacture ranging from 1850 to 1871.  He mentioned in passing that he knew which ships each had served in, and he’d obtained the info from the National Archives.  On my next trip to Washington, DC, I visited the “Register of Naval Guns” (within Record Group 74) in the Archives and examined the several volumes which recorded the birth through final disposition of each naval gun, howitzer, or mortar.   Since then I’ve used those records, and others, to trace hundreds of US Navy guns.  We’re fortunate because the Bureau of Naval Ordnance kept very detailed records on all of its major weapons from about the 1840’s through at least WWI.  The US Army Ordnance Department apparently didn’t see a need for preserving similar records on their weapons, or if they did, the records didn’t make it into the National Archives, so tracing Army weapons is problematic, to put it mildly.  Eventually I began receiving frequent requests for tracing and had the most important volumes microfilmed to avoid traveling into Washington DC so often.

One example of successful tracing would be Dahlgren Medium Boat Howitzer, registry number 52, made at the Washington Navy Yard in 1858.  I purchased this from a collector in PA in about 1990 and sold it at auction in 2015.  This was one of a pair formerly owned by the late, well-known cannon collector Mr. Howard K. Brown, who purchased the pair from a major Philadelphia auction house ca. 1960.  Prior to that, the pair had been the property of a Philadelphia veteran’s post where they had been since the Navy donated them ca. 1900.  National Archives records connected this weapon to two ships serving in the Civil War.  The first was the side wheel steamer Water Witch, where this howitzer served 1859-1863.  The second was screw steamer E.B. Hale, where it served 1863-1865.  In addition to locating this information in “Record of Naval Guns,” the original information submitted by ship masters, the “Quarterly Ordnance Returns” were located and found to contain the same ship-history information.

After I felt I’d fully mastered the Bureau of Ordnance records in the National Archives, I “branched out” and began identifying and tracing all kinds of artillery, US and foreign, using many different sources, such as the Library of Congress.  I’d been frustrated for a few years in my attempts to trace an iron scale-model of a IX-inch Dahlgren shell gun which I knew had some historical significance due to what I’ll call “Navy museum markings” stamped into the iron.  There were no Navy scale model cannons mentioned anywhere among thousands of the pages in record group 74 which were likely to contain the information.  Then I learned the “John A. Dahlgren Papers” collection was at the Library of Congress, stored offsite.  I requested access, visited, and found what I needed on the first day.  A yellow-covered hand-bound notebook contained John A. Dahlgren’s remarks and calculations regarding two such model cannons which he called “IX inch shell gun No. 1” and “… No. 2” respectively.  The model I had was marked “IX in. shell Gun No. 2” and all calculated measurements in his notebook matched the 1/8 scale model.

The Library of Congress also came into play while researching a bronze Spanish siege mortar with typical markings attesting to its casting in Barcelona in 1750, and intriguing markings stamped deeply into the muzzle:  “CAPTURED BY RER. AD. DUPONT, FERNANDINA, FLA., FEBRUARY 3d,  1862.”  The engraver used the wrong date, it was actually March 3rd, but otherwise all was well.  I showed up in the appointed room, requested the “East Florida Papers,” and was informed that unfortunately the microfilm was in use.  They’d have to bring me the bulky original documents.  That worked out very well as flat paper is much easier to photograph than a glass screen with overhead light glare on it.  I found nothing that day but got familiar with the organization of these original, Spanish-language documents.  They are kept in order of the originals, which were grouped into packets.  I needed to see all those sent to or from the Chief of Artillery at Castillo de San Marcos, the old fort at St. Augustine, FL.  About 100 quarterly reports each listed this 6-inch mortar, plus a 10-inch mortar emplaced in the fort, along with dozens of other pieces of artillery.  When Spain ceded East Florida to the US,  the US representative insisted the two bronze mortars remain in the fort, Spain had no choice, and agreed after much hesitation.  The fort’s turnover occurred in 1821

Fast-forward 40 years.  The Confederate Army took over St. Augustine in 1861 but were soon forced to move to nearby Fernandina and Fort Clinch.  They took any weapons they could move including the Spanish mortars.  After DuPont’s force chased the last Confederates out of town (firing at a moving trainload of them!) a launch from the screw steamer Flag discovered and retrieved the two Spanish mortars.  The mortars made their way to the Washington Navy Yard, were marked, then placed outside the then-new Ordnance Museum, and years later placed as decoration in the yard of “Quarters H.”  They rested there until sold to a nearby scrap dealer ca. 1960.  Both mortars survived, the larger making its way back to Castillo de San Marcos, the smaller to a private California collection where I acquired it in 1983.  It was sold to an unknown buyer at auction in 2015.  I had contacted the National Park Service at Castillo de San Marcos and its nonprofit partner prior to the auction so they could raise funds and bid if desired but if they did, their bid was unsuccessful.  Video about this mortar, named El Gavilan by Barcelona’s master founder, Joseph Barnola.

Sometimes minute details aren’t necessary if I can find enough to rule something in or out.  A case in point is the legendary “Cortez Gun,” a small, bronze breechloading cannon.  A few identical examples were acquired by LT. Charles G. Hunter in the steamer Scourge in Alvarado, Mexico in 1847.  He turned them in to Navy authorities along with a story to the effect that these guns had been brought to the Americas by the great Hernan Cortez himself in 1519.  A small typed didactic reflected this when I first saw one of these in the Museum of the US Navy in the 1980’s.  Over time I did a lot of fact-checking.  I found that the particular form of the Spanish coat-of-arms cast into this piece, featuring a “closed crown,” was not used until after about 1700.  I read Cortez’ account of his adventures, in which he wrote that after many months he had used up all of his guns and had to cast new ones then and there.  The museum’s example was made using much more sophisticated machinery than that which existed ca. 1520.  The Spanish Navy’s original drawings for the Museum’s weapon are dated 1790.  I’ve sent letters with this information to the museum for their files.  So I “ruled out” the Navy’s traditional provenance for this gun.