My New 100+ Pound bit of Ordnance

[CampX]

Well I have always had a "Thing" for cannonballs. 2 of these were found in a garage a couple of months ago, the older couple contacted me at a military show and told me about them, they have owned the house for 16 years and never knew they were there.
I kept one and my friend took the other.
The DIA in 9 inches, weight well over 100 pounds, so it was a costal gun. The problem with these is that no gun of this size was ever within 100 miles of here.
I wonder how it got into a garage in East Your Ontario. These are not dug up, the only rust is on the bottom of both, where they were in contact with the garage floor for many years.

Dean O
Canada

[Wagriff]

That is a Huge ball, for sure! Are you sure it's a cannon ball and not a counter weight for a heavy machine? At 9 inch, a solid ball should weigh 88 pounds. a 10 incher would weigh in at 127.5 pounds.

[CampX]

No it's a cannonball, if it were a 9 inch "shot" it would weigh 90 pounds plus 13.5 pounds of powder. It might be a "Dehlgren" or more likely a coastal gun. However as I am getting older and have not put it on a scale, it MAY be lighter, however as I have said a Dehlagren 9 inch shell is 90 pounds empty and it holds 13.5 pounds of powder, this one is solid.. The barrel of this gun would weigh 16,000 pound, the 11 inch barrel weighs in at 60,000 plus.
This makes 29 cannonballs I have now, 14 I have dug up myself, but this is the biggest.

Dean O
Canada

[Wagriff]

Hello Dean, Like you said, it's a Big one! Since it doesn't have a fuse plug, it's almost certainly a solid shot. Here is a good page for shell and shot specs. Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns

[CampX]

Thank you, a great site, however if you notice, the 9 inch weights are wrong, it's the only shown where a shell weighs more than a solid shot..we know iron is heavier that powder, look at the other weights and you will see what I mean.

I have another site that shows weight ect, but it only goes up to 42 or 48 pounders.

Dean O
Canada

[CampX]

OK I lied ( I think), I weighed it on a digital scale 3 times, it came up 99 - 103 pounds
I will start another thread where I have lined up 7 different sized cannonballs with weights, when they are set up like this in a row, it is interesting to see how little the heavier balls are in size.

Dean O
Canada

[TrondK]

If you found two, then it could be they were supposed to be decorations outside his home. But most likely the boss in the house (wife), said No.

Aaaand as a good western man he got to say the final word in this monolog: Yes Dear.

[Panzersaurus]

Very interesting. It must be from a coastal gun or heavy mortar (although mortars don't usually fire solid shot). Definitely not a cannon from the Toronto area. I don't think we have had anything larger than a 32 here. Also out of interest where do you get cannonballs from?