Charleston Lab Restores CSS Pee Dee Cannons-- Part 2

The cannons were ready to be fired and while trying to make sure the shells did not pose a threat to explode, when they turned the key on a brass fuse it fizzled like soda.  A nine pound ball was loaded into the Dahlgren gun and the two Brooke cannons were loaded with forged grapeshot the size of billiard balls.  The grapeshot were restored and preserved.

The CSS Pee Dee was 150 feet long and had a crew of 90 and carried three cannons.  These cannons weighed nearly 20 tons altogether and were mounted on carriages along the length of the hull so they could be swung either way.

The Pee Dee had been built at the Confederate Navy Yard at Mars Bluff on the Pee Dee River.  This is also where the ship was scuttled.  The guns had been thrown overboard before the Pee Dee was scuttled.  They were recovered from the river at the site.

The Brooke cannons were of Confederate manufacture and were rifled.  The Dahlgren cannon was a smoothbore and was at one time in the Union Navy, but probably seized from a northern ship.

--Old B-Runner