32-Pounder of 57 Hundredweight in Hudson, New Hampshire
32-Pounder of 57 Hundredweight displayed in Hudson, New Hampshire
A US Navy 32-Pounder of 57 Hundredweight is displayed on a mounting designed to look like a four-truck (wheel) naval carriage. The cannon was cast at Cyrus Alger and Company in 1848. It is registry number 494. It’s weight is given as 56.3.23 (“56” counts the number of 112-pound hundredweight. “3” is the number of quarters or 3x28= 84 pounds. “23” is the number of remaining pounds. So in this example, the piece was weighed at 6,379 pounds.)
This is a well preserved and displayed example of the “32-Pounder of 57 Hundredweight” or “Long 32-Pounder”. This type was introduced in 1845-1846 in a revision of the US Navy system of armaments. Following the British example, the US Navy intended to eliminate mixed batteries. All cannons aboard would be 32-Pounders. The lowest decks of large ships would carry this heavy cannon. Lighter 32-Pounder cannon of 27 Hundredweight, 33 Hundredweight, 42-Hundredweight, 47-Hundredweight, and 51-Hundredweight were available for the upper decks of large ships and the main batteries of smaller ships. Each of these cannon fired the same size 32-pound projectile. The differed in the size of the propellant charge each type was able to use. The heaviest cannon fired with the largest propellant charge and therefore the greatest velocity.
All of these cannon were at best obsolescent by the beginning o the Civil War. They were quickly replaced in US Navy service by larger Dahlgren cannon of 9, 10, and 11-inches in ships capable of carrying them. In Southern service they continued to be used for want of better options, though many were banded and rifled to increase their hitting power.
