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Testing Cannon at Fort Independence, 1864
During the Civil War, Castle Island was used
as a training location, and as a proving ground for newly manufactured
cannon. Testing was necessary to ensure that weapons did not explode or
misfire, and injure or kill the operators. Artillery cast at the Cyrus
Alger Foundry in South Boston were tested here. The following is a paraphrased
excerpt from Ballou's Monthly Dollar Magazine, from August 1864, describing
such testing:
In a small neck of land, adjacent to Fort Independence, hundreds of
guns have been tested during the past two years. The cannons were
accepted or rejected by government officers according to the toughness of
the metal, and by the manner in which the weapons sustained the double-charges they
were loaded with.
The picture above shows how the ten and eleven inch guns are tested.
After a gun has been manufactured, it must be subject to proof. This
proof consists in selecting a gun from a lot, and firing one thousand
rounds from it, which it must sustain. The other guns from this lot
are
fired a limited number of times, with a small excess of powder.
The weapons are fired with a shell that weighs 134 pounds, either filled or
empty, depending on the requirement. The range is about two miles
with 15 pounds of powder.
The shells are discharged into an enclosure
filled with earth. The cannon are placed on a platform, and fired by a lanyard (cord with handle).
Next to the gun is a protective area, into
which the men retreat when it is fired. The shell buries itself in the
enclosure, and throws up a cloud of dust and smoke mixed with stones.
Since the war commenced, testing guns has gone on here almost uninterruptedly,
and thousands of dollars worth of powder have been burned up, but the
expense is a necessary one, and a useful one.
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Island Page
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