Spar Deck Guns

Spar Deck Guns. . , Pivot guns were located at the bow and stern of the ship. These versatile weapons were mounted on sliding carriages rolled on bronze track laid in the deck which allowed the guns to cover a 360° range and provide a fire across the ship's path and wake. During the Civil War, a 30-lbr and a 20-lbr Parrot Rifle were placed on the bow and stern pivots respectively., Capt. Robert P. Parrot and his Guns , Robert Parker Parrot graduated from West Point in 1824 and served as an artillerist until 1836. At that time, he resigned from the Army and took a position with the West Point Foundry in New York. Here, he experimented with developing rifled artillery., Previous attempts to create rifled cannon from cast iron had been limited by the brittleness of the material and its tendency to burst under the pressure created by firing a shell through a rifled barrel. Parrot solved this problem by inventing a method to shrink and weld a wrought-iron band around the breech of the gun for added strength. The band was half the thickness of the barrel, and as wide as the standard powder charge and shot. His guns became a mainstay of Union Forced both afloat and ashore. During the civil War, Parrott Rifles were manufactured in sizes ranging from 10-lbrs to large 250-lbrs. Parrott Rifles saw service in all theaters of the Civil War., Smoothbores vs. Rifles , Two types of guns were used aboard ship during the Civil War: smoothbores and rifles. The two guns differ by what's inside their barrels. In a smoothbore, the bore is a smooth and straight tube. Before the Civil War, the majority of the Navy's guns were smoothbore. The guns on Constellation's gun deck are smoothbore guns., By contrast, the bore of a Rifle has ridges called "lands" and grooves that turn in a spiral pattern through the barrel. Experiments with rifled guns for Naval use had been ongoing since the 1820's, but it was not until the Civil War and Robert Parrott's innovations that the US Navy employed them on a large scale., Spinning projectiles travel on a much more stable flight path. The spinning greatly increases accuracy and range of the projectile. Range is also increased by the increased accuracy and larger powder charges. Constellation's 30-lbr Parrot Rifle had a range of nearly 4 mi. By contrast, the smoothbore guns have a range of 1.25 mi., [Captions:] , Left: 150-lbr Parrott Rifle aboard USS Wabash. The pivot guns aboard USS Constellation would be placed in the same way; bronze rails would have been laid into the deck on which the pivot carriages would have rolled and pivoted. The guns would be positioned inboard, out of the way when not in use., Left: Parrott Rifles are distinguished by their distinctive reinforcement band around their breech. As Robert Parrott's main innovation, this band helped solved the bursting problem that hindered rifled artillery.