✅ SOLVED Fragment ID?

[brassmonkey]

Good find today, just unsure what it looked like before it fragmented? Resembles a cannonball but the fragment is very uniform. Weighed 11.5lbs.

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Your explosive cannonball ("roundshell") fragment is what civil war artillerymen called the ball's "Culot." It was a thickened area of the shell, located on the side of the ball that was directly opposite of its fuze-hole. Because the side of the ball opposite the fuze-hole was what touched the propellant powder bag when the cannon was fired, that side was subject to extreme stress. So, as a safety innovation, that side of the roundshell was made (cast) extra-thick for use in some sizes of Heavy Calliber cannons. The thickened area of the shell's walls was called the culot. It is found ONLY in yankee Navy Heavy-Caliber roundshells… specifically 8", 9", 10", and 11"-caliber balls. See the photo below, which shows a sawed-in-half 10"-caliber US Navy Watercap-fuzed roundshell.

As you can easily envision from viewing the photo, when this roundshell''s internal bursting-charge explodes, the thinner walls of the shell are blown off the thick culot's edge, and the culot itself remains intact.

That is what you found. It is from a bombardment by a yankee navy warship which was part of the Blockade Squadron constantly patrolling off the North Carolina seacoast, and occasionally engaging in artillery duels with Confederate shore-batteries. (I know from personally digging at Carolina Beach, back in the 1980s... where I found pieces of a Confederate cannon that exploded at the Half Moon Battery.)

 

[devldog]

Brassmonkey, Congrats to you on a really nice piece of CW Artillery shells frag. Nice find and Save of a piece of CW History. Also, Well Done to the CannonballGuy for all his help and knowledge here and helping with the ID on many of these pieces found.

 

[brassmonkey]

Awesome! Thanks so much CannonballGuy for the quick and very informative response. Hopefully I will have some more things for you guys to ID in the future!

 

[Madmox]

Your explosive cannonball ("roundshell") fragment is what civil war artillerymen called the ball's "Culot." It was a thickened area of the shell, located direct opposite on the opposite side from the ball's fuze-hole. Because the side of the ball opposite the fuze-hole was what touched the propellant powder bag when the cannon was fired, that side was subject to extreme stress. So, as a safety innovation, that side of the roundshell was made (cast) extra-thick for use in some sizes of Heavy Calliber cannons. The thickened area of the shell's walls was called the culot. It is found ONLY in yankee Navy Heavy-Caliber roundshells… specifically 8", 9", 10", and 11"-caliber balls. See the photo below, which shows a sawed-in-half 10"-caliber US Navy Watercap-fuzed roundshell.

As you can easily imagine from viewing the photo, when the roundshell''s internal bursting-charge explodes, the thinner walls of the shell are blown off the thick cult's edge, and the culot itself remains intact.

That is what you found. It is from a bombardment by a yankee navy warship which was part of the Blockade Squadron constantly patrolling off the North Carolina seacoast, and occasionally engaging in artillery duels with Confederate shore-batteries. (I know from personally digging at Carolina Beach, back in the 1980s... where I found pieces of a Confederate cannon that exploded at the Half Moon Battery.)

And.....there you have it. This guy is a wizard!