8-Inch Number 48 of USS Lancaster
US Navy 8-Inch Muzzle Loading Rifle Number 48 of USS Lancaster. Number 45 may be seen in the background.
US Navy 8-Inch Muzzle Loading Rifle Number 48 of USS Lancaster at Patriots Point Soccer Stadium in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. This is one of four 8-Inch Rifles which were carried aboard USS Lancaster in the 1880s which are displayed at the stadium. Previously these 8-Inch MLR were displayed beside the aircraft carrier Yorktown. Before that they were at the Charleston Navy Yard.
8-Inch Rifle Number 48 was originally cast as a 11-Inch Dahlgren Number 67 by Builders Foundry (Providence, Rhode Island) in 1863. As an 11-Inch Smoothbore it weighed 15,785 pounds. It 1880 the smoothbore was taken to the South Boston Foundry. The barrel was reamed out to 13.5-inches and an 8-Inch wrought-iron rifled sleeve was inserted into barrel. The new weight (17,345 pounds) and new registry number (number 48) are stamped on the trunnions - which are heavily painted and hard to read.
Number 45 and Number 48 both have portions of their sighting systems still in place, which is fairly uncommon for displayed artillery.
To read more about these four Dahlgrens see: https://www.santee1821.net/preserved-artillery/8inch-dahlgren-rifles-at-patriots-point
The individual posts on the four surviving rifles of USS Lancaster: Number 44, Number 45, Number 48, Number 50
Detail of USS Lancaster’s gun deck showing two of the 8-Inch Rifles mounted on the broadside. National Archives.
Illustration of an 8-Inch MLR and Carriage in Augustus Paul Cooke’s A Text Book of Naval Ordnance and Gunnery. https://archive.org/details/textbookofnavalo02cookuoft/page/366/mode/2up
8-Inch Rifle Number 48 at Patriots Point Soccer Stadium
Figurehead of USS Lancaster at the Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, Virginia
The rear sight bracket on Number 48. An adjustable (for range) sight would be mounted in this bracket.
The front blade sight of 8-Inch Rifle Number 48
The original manufacturer and registry number of the 11-Inch Dahlgren, Builders Foundry Number 67, can be seen on MLR Number 48.
Additional Photos of Number 48
