Alcatraz Firepower

Alcatraz Firepower. Model 1861 Rodman Cannon. Alcatraz began as a U.S. Army fort, designed to defend San Francisco Bay against enemy attack., At the height of the Civil War, the fortified island held over 100 heavy cannon. The largest of these were sleek “Rodman” guns on iron carriages., The Rodman’s distinctive soda bottle shape reflected the pressures that built up inside the barrel during firing. Nicknamed after their inventor, Thomas Jackson Rodman, the guns’ design and careful manufacture made them very safe weapons to fire. No Rodman ever exploded, an important feature at a time when many cannon blew up without warning., The Rodman Cannon ranged in size from 8-inch caliber guns up through 15-inch caliber models that weighed nearly 50,000 pounds. By 1869 the U.S. Army had shipped 39 Rodmans to Alcatraz Island., The last of Alcatraz’s cannon were donated to a scrap drive in 1943., The 10-inch Rodman , The cannon in front of you is a replica 10-inch Rodman cannon on an iron carriage, typical of dozens of guns on Alcatraz during the 1860s., An actual Rodman gun and carriage was aimed, loaded and fired by a crew of ten to twelve soldiers. The large wheels at the rear allowed the crew to rotate the gun right or left on circular iron rails, while the smaller wheels let the top carriage move forward and back., At the moment of firing, the gun recoiled backwards and up the inclined iron rails. Friction and gravity made it stop., Weight of gun and carriage: 20,500 lbs. (9298 kilograms) , Weight of solid cannonball: 128 lbs. (58 kilograms) , Range with 15 lbs. powder: 2.75 miles (4.4 kilometers)