don in mass
New member
found last satarday to big for us to get out of the hole .going back this satarday with a few guys to get it .hh don
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here's the cannon ball dave
- Thread starter don in mass
- Start date
mdholedigger
New member
dam now thats a cannon ball......hell of a find.
ThatCannonballGuy
New member
A draped cloth-tape can be ambiguous indicator, so I can't say for certain from viewing the photo ...but it appears to be a 13-inch mortarshell. (Though it might be an 11-inch cannonball ...or a 12-incher if it's Colonial-era or 1812.)
By the way, there is no record of any solid-shots in the 13-inch caliber - which is good news for the digging crew. Being hollow, a 13"-caliber shell weighs "only" around 210 pounds. You're going to discover what it's like to get personally acquainted with the term "dead weight." ;-) Hopefully, unlike me, you'll do so without a hernia-surgery result.
Tom Dickey taught me a good way to get such a projectile out of the ground. Bring a long iron bar (at least as thick as a crowbar) and two 5-foot lengths of seat-belt-type nylon strap. Get the straps crossways under the center of the projectile, tie the strap-ends over the bar, and have two guys lift the ends of the bar.
I gotta ask, how far are you from your car? Back in 1976 at Port Hudson LA, I bought a digging-buddy a Prime Rib dinner in exchange for carrying my 10-inch mortarball the half-mile back to our car.
Here's how I got mine out of the hole (which was a week *before* Tom gave me his advice "for the next one you find"):
That 10-inch mortarball was 3 & 1/2 feet deep - so I couldn't just reach into the hole and pick it up. Therefore I dug the hole out enough to cut "steps" into one side of it. I hefted the ball out, one "step" at a time. After that much digging, followed by the hefting, I made the Prime Rib offer to my digging-buddy. It cost me 1/4 of what that mortarball was worth back in those days, but I've always been glad he took the deal. : )
Pardon my curiosity, but you didn't say anything about what battle-connection your cannonball has. Please do, if possible. I see you're in Massachusettes. Does that mean the ball is too?
Regards,
TheCannonballGuy [Pete George]
By the way, there is no record of any solid-shots in the 13-inch caliber - which is good news for the digging crew. Being hollow, a 13"-caliber shell weighs "only" around 210 pounds. You're going to discover what it's like to get personally acquainted with the term "dead weight." ;-) Hopefully, unlike me, you'll do so without a hernia-surgery result.
Tom Dickey taught me a good way to get such a projectile out of the ground. Bring a long iron bar (at least as thick as a crowbar) and two 5-foot lengths of seat-belt-type nylon strap. Get the straps crossways under the center of the projectile, tie the strap-ends over the bar, and have two guys lift the ends of the bar.
I gotta ask, how far are you from your car? Back in 1976 at Port Hudson LA, I bought a digging-buddy a Prime Rib dinner in exchange for carrying my 10-inch mortarball the half-mile back to our car.
Here's how I got mine out of the hole (which was a week *before* Tom gave me his advice "for the next one you find"):
That 10-inch mortarball was 3 & 1/2 feet deep - so I couldn't just reach into the hole and pick it up. Therefore I dug the hole out enough to cut "steps" into one side of it. I hefted the ball out, one "step" at a time. After that much digging, followed by the hefting, I made the Prime Rib offer to my digging-buddy. It cost me 1/4 of what that mortarball was worth back in those days, but I've always been glad he took the deal. : )
Pardon my curiosity, but you didn't say anything about what battle-connection your cannonball has. Please do, if possible. I see you're in Massachusettes. Does that mean the ball is too?
Regards,
TheCannonballGuy [Pete George]
That thing is a monster.
A
Anonymous
Guest
As per our conversation, you'll need to get an accurate diameter on it to determine what it is. Would be great to associate it with a certain time frame. As Pete mentioned: be very careful and down give yourself a hernia! Keep us posted, David
bunn leonard
New member
That truly is awesome ! hope one day I can find one.
A
Anonymous
Guest
n/t
ThatCannonballGuy
New member
I continue to be curious about that ball, so I've re-examined the measuring-tape photo. If it's not a 13-inch mortarball, it's a 15-inch Dahlgren or Rodman (cannon) ball. Either a 13" or a 15" is a heck of a rare find! Congratulations!
The problem is...
15" common-shell weighs about 330 lbs.
15" cored-shot weighs about 400 lbs.
15" solid-shot weighs about 454 lbs.
That's considerably more than the 210-or-so for a 13-inch mortarshell. Therefore, the crossed-straps method of extraction should not be attempted with a 15-incher. (A seat-belt strap isn't wide enough to keep a 15-incher steady while lifting.)
However, I still have Tom Dickey's heavy-leather-wrap "rig" for getting big balls out of the hole. If you need it, send me a Private Message and I'll UPS the rig to you. (I think ol' Tom would like that.)
I could probably make a pretty good guess about where your cannonball is at, but I suspect you'd prefer I didn't do that here, so I won't.
Regards,
TheCannonballGuy
The problem is...
15" common-shell weighs about 330 lbs.
15" cored-shot weighs about 400 lbs.
15" solid-shot weighs about 454 lbs.
That's considerably more than the 210-or-so for a 13-inch mortarshell. Therefore, the crossed-straps method of extraction should not be attempted with a 15-incher. (A seat-belt strap isn't wide enough to keep a 15-incher steady while lifting.)
However, I still have Tom Dickey's heavy-leather-wrap "rig" for getting big balls out of the hole. If you need it, send me a Private Message and I'll UPS the rig to you. (I think ol' Tom would like that.)
I could probably make a pretty good guess about where your cannonball is at, but I suspect you'd prefer I didn't do that here, so I won't.
Regards,
TheCannonballGuy
don in mass
New member
yes it is a 15 inches.sorry for the delay on the response .3 of us tried last satarday to get it out it was a joke it is 400lbs or better.we are going back with a cherry picker satarday to try again. bye eyeballing it in the hole it looks round as can be.but it will be done right when we get it out.thinking of giving it to a local fort for display.how much would somthing like this sell for.thanks for the help and comments don
ThatCannonballGuy
New member
Having seen what happened to my co-author Tom Dickey's shell-collection after it was donated to a museum - and to several other collections also * - I must urge you NOT to donate it. I'll send you a Private Message so we can discuss this (and your other questions) "offline" - as soon as possible!
* Sydney Kerksis' collection, Beverly DuBose's collection, and others
Regards,
TheCannonballGuy (Pete George)
* Sydney Kerksis' collection, Beverly DuBose's collection, and others
Regards,
TheCannonballGuy (Pete George)