Is This a Cannonball Sabot?

[Shane K. Bernard]

Hello. I have an artifact of some kind that was dredged up from the bottom of Vermillion Bay, Louisiana, and I'm wondering if it is a cannonball sabot?
Here are photos of it (note that it still contains some barnicle growth on it, or some kind of sea-life growth).

Civil War cannonball sabot?

Civil War cannonball sabot?

Civil War cannonball sabot?

Civil War cannonball sabot?

It's made largely of wood, but it has traces of metal around it (badly corroded).

I look forward to hearing any suggestions as to what this item might be.

Sincerely,

Shane K. Bernard

 

[PCGeorge]

Hello Shane. Welcome to the forum. Since you are new here, let me introduce myself. I'm the co-author of the book "Field Artillery Projectiles of the American Civil War."

Your guess is correct... that is definitely a wooden sabot for a civil war era cannonball. It appearts to be the 12-pounder caliber size. I you'll measure it and tell me, I'll be able to tell you its caliber.

It would not have survived all that time underwater without being attached to the cannonball -- which it definitely was, because there is no concretion on the wooden sabot where it fit against the ball. That means the ball is still down there. Possibly quite a few others are still there, too, and intact with their sabot. Do you know any scuba divers who will do a 50-50 split deal to go get the other cannonballs for you?

Here's a photo of an intact one. Like yours, the bottom edge of the wooden sabot has rotted away.

Regards,
Pete [P.C. George]

 

[Shane K. Bernard]

Thanks kindly for your reply.

The modern base to which someone glued the sabot says the item is from a Union gunboat that attacked Petite Anse Island, La. (now Avery Island) in 1864.

However, that attack actually occured in November 1862.

One or both gunboats in that attack afterwards became mired in mud, and this may account for why the sabot (and other items, I suspect) were thrown overboard . . . but this is pure speculation on my part.

I am tracing the provenance of the sabot (now that I know what it is) and will post any findings here.

Also, I'll post a measurement shortly. Thanks! Shane

 

[Shane K. Bernard]

Pete,

I've measured the inside diameter of the sabot, and it's exactly 3.5 inches. Does that correspond to a cannonball size?

Sincerely,

Shane

 

[PCGeorge]

Shane wrote:
> I've measured the inside diameter of the sabot, and it's exactly 3.5 inches. Does that correspond to a cannonball size?

It does, in an indirect way. Because the "cup" in the wooden sabot does not come up to the ball's equator, the diameter of the sabot's "cup" is smaller than the cannonball's diameter. But the cup's diameter does allow us to accurately estimate the ball's size. The only caliber of cannonball that your sabot would properly fit is a 12-pounder caliber cannonball.

In case you don't already know... with Muzzleloading artillery, the diameter of the projectile had to be several hundredths of an inch smaller than the diameter of the cannon's bore. A 12-pounder caliber smoothbore muzzleloading cannon's bore-diameter is 4.62-inches. Typically, the ammunition for that cannon is approximately 4.52-inches in diameter (one-tenth of an inch smaller than the cannon's bore).

By the way... the "pounder" designation of a cannon's caliber is derived from the weight of the Solid-Shot projectile used by that size of cannon. For example, a 6-pounder cannon's Solid-Shot weighed 6 pounds ...but because shells are hollow, a "6-pounder shell" would weigh less than 6 pounds.

Responding to your other post:
When a warship runs aground in an area controlled by the enemy, and could not get unstuck, the best "desperation" remedy was to lighten the ship by dumping the (heavy) cannon ammunition overboard , thus significantly lightening the ship, which sometimes allowing the ship to rise out of the mud. Throwing the lightweight wooden sabots overboard would make almost no difference at all. Believe me, your sabot had a heavy iron cannonball still strapped onto it when it was dumped overboard in 1862. (Small remnants of the thin tinned-iron straps which held the cannonball in place in your sabot's "cup" are visible on its sides.

Regards,
Pete [P.C. George]

 

[Shane K. Bernard]

Here is a newspaper report of the time, from Natchez, Miss.:

"A few days since, two of the enemy's gunboats approached the island and shelled a portion of it with long-range guns, but doing no damage . . . While the boats were in this position, the water suddenly receded several feet, leaving them firmly set in the mud. . . ."

And here is a report from a Cincinnati paper, also from the period:

"A heavy south wind blew for several days, and the two gunboats anchored within two miles of the salt works . . . That night, however, the wind hurled around to the north, blew all the water out of the bayou, and the next morning found the two gunboats high and dry on a mud bank. In the course of fifteen or twenty days the two gunboats got off, but the Grey Cloud again grounded further down the bayou, and lies there still."

 

[Shane K. Bernard]

You can see that the latter report has the boats grounding in Bayou Petite Anse, not in open water in Vermilion Bay (where the sabot was dredged up). I'm unsure how to explain this discrepancy -- perhaps the report was incorrect re: location, or perhaps the sabot comes from a separate incident. But the bayou in question flows into the bay in which the sabot was found.

Furthermore, I find that in 1965 a dredging company retrieved just southeast of Marsh Island in Vermilion Bay a quantity of coal, cannon balls, shells, shot and canisters. It's possible the sabot I have came from that cache. I'll try to find out. . . .

Thanks again!