Captain Alexander Blakely RA “Original Inventor of Improvements in Cannon and the Greatest Artillerist of the Age” © Steven Roberts 2012 ______

______Captain Alexander Blakely RA “Original inventor of improvements in cannon and the greatest artillerist of the age” © Steven Roberts 2012 ______

______the largest number were made for the south during the Contents Civil War. They ranged from the 3¾ inch calibre field ______gun used to fire on Sumter in 1861 to two great 13 inch 1. Introduction cannon of 60,000 pounds that defended Charleston in 2. Alexander Blakely 1827-1868 1863. There were several batteries of 3½ inch Blakely 3. The Blakely Patent rifled field guns with the Armies of Northern Virginia 4. Construction and of Tennessee. 7½ inch Blakely cannon protected 5. First Manufacture Vicksburg and Mobile. 6. Cannon for Peru On the high seas the steamer Nashville, in November 7. Cannon for the South 1861 the first Confederate warship to visit Europe, was 8. Cannon for Russia armed with two Blakely rifles. 9. The Blakely Ordnance Company, Limited The cruisers Alabama and the Florida carried the Con- 10. Scandal federate flag and 7 inch Blakely cannon across the great 12. The Guns oceans. The battery of the cruiser Georgia included three 13. Parrott, Brooke & Blakely Guns Blakely rifles. The famous rams built in 1863 by Laird 14. Blakely & Dahlgren Brothers in Birkenhead to devastate Brooklyn Navy 15 Blakely’s Patents Yard in New York City were each to carry four 9 inch 16. Associates Blakely guns in their turrets. The four cruisers building 17. Sources in France in 1864 but never delivered were each to have ______twelve 68 pounder Blakely guns. 1. Introduction The Brooke guns, so-called, of Confederate manufac- ______ture were cast, forged and assembled for the Confeder- ate States Navy under Captain Blakely’s patents with aptain Alexander Blakely RA is a name that anyone the consent and co-operation of the inventor. In Parlia- interested in the American Civil War will be famil- C ment on June 18, 1863, Captain Blakely declared, archly, iar with; his cannon are mentioned in battle after battle, that shot at Charleston were fired “from guns either in page after page of its history, on land and at sea. Yet made by me, which have found their way there some- scarcely anything is known about this man – his very how, or else made (and very ably made) by Captain name is subject to query and question even now. Brooke of the Confederate Artillery, from models sup- He and the guns he designed flourished only briefly plied by me.” between 1855 and 1866, he and they are forever associ- A remarkable thirty-two Blakely guns still exist as relics ated with the South. The number of Blakely cannon in North America either whole or in parts. imported or used by the Confederate States of America is not known; but of the more than 470 guns manufac- His support went further than simple commerce. In tured under Blakely’s patents between 1855 and 1866 addition to making guns for the South, during March

Dedicated to the memory of John Roberts, killed in action on June 19, 1864, off Cherbourg, France, beside a 7 inch Blakely gun 2 Captain Alexander Blakely RA

1862 - in an attempt to conceal their true ownership - On December 31, 1856, when aged 30, Alexander Theo- Blakely bought ten batteries of Austrian bronze artillery philus Blakely, Esq., Captain, half-pay, Royal Artillery, off Captain Caleb Huse CSA for shipment from Ham- married Harriette Catherine Tonge, widow of Captain burg to the south by the government’s steamer Bahama. John Henry Tonge, 16th Lancers, of Alveston, Glouces- Blakely travelled to Hamburg to supervise shipment, tershire, the only child of the late John Maugham Con- even managing the rescue of eight cannon sunk in a nell, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Blakely and his lighter on the river Elbe through sabotage. new wife moved from his single gentleman’s lodgings But there is more, much more to the life of Captain in Little Ryder Street, St James’s, London to a small Alexander Blakely... rented house at 34 Montpelier Square, Brompton, West London, which was his family home for the best part of His guns were sold in hundreds to nearly a dozen other his short life. They had no children. countries, from America to Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Russia, He was an inveterate traveller; he served the Royal Ar- Sweden and, especially, to Peru... But he never was able tillery at Plymouth between 1844 and 1846, on the to sell a single cannon for service in Britain. Ionian Islands, in the Mediterranean, from 1846 until 1849, and then on the fortress peninsular of Gibraltar His life ended in ruin and scandal; this is the story of between 1846 and 1852, where he retired on half-pay Captain Blakely and his Cannon. after his health failed. After wintering in Italy to recu- ______perate in 1852 he visited Constantinople, Turkey; in 2. Alexander Blakely 1827 1868 1854 he was in the Crimea. In the Spring of 1859 he was – in Spain and Italy; in March 1862 he was in Hamburg, Manufacturer of Ordnance before going on to Vienna and Constantinople again; in ______the summer of 1863 he was in Paris, in the winter of lexander Blakely was born in Sligo, Ireland on 1864 in Russia. In the war between France and Austria A January 7, 1827; the son of the Very Reverend in northern Italy in May 1859 Blakely was with the Aus- Theophilus Alexander and his second wife, Mary Wil- trians providing reports for The Times newspaper. He liam Blakely. His father, of English descent, was a min- also spent much time in Ireland during the 1860s, ister in the Anglican Church, eventually becoming where he held a property called ‘Clermont’ at Ballykeel, Dean of Down. He was nominally Theophilus Alexan- Hollywood, County Down. der Blakely but preferred his second name, rarely using Even at the age of eighteen when replacing the old 18 his first and signing with just his initials. Blakely had and 24 pounders that defended Plymouth harbour with two sisters, Mary Stewart Blakely and Isabella 32 pounder cannon he was proposing to the Master Chalmers Blakely; the odd female given-names were a General of Ordnance in London, a much larger gun family trait. than that which had ever been considered before. He, as After education at the Royal Military College, Wool- a mere Second Lieutenant, was ignored. Later, when wich, on June 14, 1844, at the unusually young age of 17 visiting Constantinople in 1853, Blakely proposed to the Alexander Blakely was commissioned from Gentleman Ottoman authorities an original scheme for the defence Cadet to Second Lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of of the Dardanelles against Russian incursion - it in- Artillery; on April 2, 1846 he became First Lieutenant, volved floating batteries and twenty cannon each firing and on April 1, 1852 he achieved the rank of Second a projectile of an unprecedented 300 pounds weight. Captain of Artillery, he was known universally as Cap- The heaviest shot in the Royal Navy then was 68 tain Blakely for the rest of his life. He retired on half- pounds. pay on August 18, 1852. During the Crimean War in Blakely was one of the first to apply theoretical science July 1855 he took the temporary rank of Major and As- to the manufacture of ordnance, and went on to obtain sistant Quartermaster General in the Irregular Cavalry several patents for inventions relating to cannon. In this of General Robert Vivian’s 22,000 strong “Turkish Con- occupation he came up against the interests of the in- tingent”, a mercenary corps organised by the British dustrialists William Armstrong and Joseph Whitworth, Army. He served as such until December 23, 1855. who both sought to acquire manufacturing contracts for Blakely finally left the service on May 10, 1861, by sell- cannon from the government. Always something of a ing-out his commission. controversialist, he engaged in vigorous debates with On March 12, 1855 Captain Blakely had appeared as an these giants of industry and with scientific competitors independent witness before the Parliamentary Commit- such as his fellow countryman, Robert Mallet, creator of tee of Inquiry into the Condition of the Army at Sebas- the great 36 inch calibre mortar of 1856. topol. He was one of the few junior officers to be in- Blakely, after his initial military service, undertook a vited to appear: he reported bluntly that during his visit long period of scientific research and calculation on in the last fortnight of December the British soldiers which he founded original principles of ordnance. He “were very wretchedly clothed, very ragged and looked became skilled in manipulating the London press into half starved. They complained that they did not get giving his ideas coverage. He used the learned societies their rations and had no rum at all”. His observations to give prominence and veracity to his principles of were reported nationally in the newspapers. ordnance, and cultivated many scientific allies, as well as being fearless, but reasoned, when challenged by his

3 Captain Alexander Blakely RA peers. His first break came from the support of Wil- London Association of Foreman Engineers, in its scien- liam Needham of the Butterley Company, a huge con- tific and benevolent work. cern that owned coal pits and ironworks, who was In addition to his ordnance interests, when the Atlantic clearly looking for government gun contracts. The But- Telegraph cable, between Ireland and Newfoundland, terley works made his first test pieces. was being manufactured Blakely made a mathematical From his unique scientific base Blakely was able to ac- investigation into its characteristics. He proposed, in quire and then capitalise early orders from Giuseppe August 1857, that to reduce the waste of cable payed Garibaldi in Sardinia, Francisco Bolognesi in Peru and out in slack, that the speed of laying be increased and Edward Anderson of the Confederate States during the specific gravity of the cable be reduced. He patented 1860 and 1861 into credit at a London bank or at Faw- in that year a process to control the velocity of cable cett Preston, the Liverpool ironworks, to get the first sinking in the ocean. production orders completed. Although, in 1898 In the General Election of 1865 Captain Blakely stood as Blakely’s widow stated that she had contributed £9,000 a candidate in the Liberal interest for the Tavistock con- towards her husband’s early experiments. stituency in Devon, where he was developing an iron By the 1860s he was a respected expert on ordnance and works. The two winners, also Liberals, took 330 and 179 was called to speak to the relevant committees of the votes, Blakely, the fifth and last, had just eight votes. He British Parliament. Blakely was a valued contributor does not appear to have canvassed personally. and speaker to the learned societies of the period in his During 1865 and 1866 Blakely maintained an adulter- role as engineer and artillerist. He also took on the in- ous relationship with Mrs Harriet Dering, which was dustrial interest by forming his own joint stock com- exposed in her divorce proceedings in June 1867. This, pany to make cannon. His profession from then, he and the failure of his ordnance company in 1866, com- stated, was “Manufacturer of Ordnance”. pletely ruined his reputation in England. He fled the Although most noted for his loyalty to the cause of the country and was declared an “Outlaw” to be arrested Confederate States of America, for whom he provided on sight for failing to appear before the courts of justice nearly a hundred guns, Blakely’s ordnance, advice and on July 27, 1867. licences for manufacture were sought by Chili, China, He was to flee to the only place that would welcome Denmark, Italy, Morocco, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, him, the source of his first success in gunmaking, where Sweden, and, interestingly, the United States. his cannon had just seen off an invading fleet, where he Blakely was a Member of the Royal Society of London, was regarded almost as a hero. In his moment of dis- the British Association for the Advancement of Sci- tress, Blakely left his creditors and the moralists behind ence, the Royal Irish Academy, an Honorary Member of him in Europe and, by way of Panama, made for Peru. the Society of Engineers, the “Smeatonians”, and was a Captain Alexander Blakely RA died at Chorrillos in Founding Fellow of the Anthropological Society of distant Peru of yellow fever on May 4, 1868, age 41. He London. He was also a vigorous contributor to the de- is buried alongside Mrs Dering in the Cementaría Britá- bates of the Royal United Service Institution, the mili- nico de Bellavista, at Callao. tary “think-tank” of the day. Socially, he was also a member of the Army & Navy Club, and of the Royal He left no will; the only persons entitled to his personal Victoria Yacht Club. He owned at least two yachts. property and effects being Harriette Catherine Blakely, his widow, Mary William Blakely, his mother, Isabella Sir Richard Burton, the famous explorer and writer, Chalmers Blakely, his sister, and Mary Stewart Spankie, became a friend of Blakely’s in the early 1860s. They his other sister. Isabella was never to wed; Mary had plotted together to provide ordnance for Francesco II, married Robert Spankie, a government lawyer in India. King of the Two Sicilies, in May 1860 when southern Italy was invaded by Garibaldi, the revolutionary, an- Despite his adultery, thirty years after his death, in 1898 other customer of Blakely’s! his widow began a campaign to recognise Blakely’s contribution to artillery. For a few years he was a wealthy man. In 1866 he ______moved from Montpelier Square to the much grander No 1 Park Lane, overlooking Marble Arch, Hyde Park, 3. The Blakely Patent in London. His immediate neighbour was the Dowager ______Duchess of Somerset. The new house had formerly been o properly understand Alexander Blakely’s contri- the town residence of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bt, bution to ordnance it is necessary first to under- MP. In the summer of 1865 he bought the 300 ton steam T stand the claims he made in the several patents he ob- yacht Ceres of Charles Kuhn Prioleau, the English part- tained between 1855 and 1866. As well as being aware ner in Fraser, Trenholm & Company, treasury agents to of the many and varied claims within these patents one the Confederate States. Mrs Harriette Blakely became a needs to compare these claims with the subsequent patroness of charities, including one to assist members descriptions of his manufactured ordnance. A full of the ballet in time of sickness and distress. summary of the claims for each patent is contained in Blakely was by no means a snob; he supported with the Patent page. funds, along with his peers Edward Reed, the naval Only his first patent, numbered 431/1855, for Im- architect, and Henry Maudslay, the engine builder, the provements in Ordnance, dated 27 February 1855 is © Steven Roberts 2012

4 Captain Alexander Blakely RA really vital to his subsequent history. In this Blakely Blakely had a long narrative letter published in the En- claimed as his invention the forming of guns with an gineer magazine on October 24, 1862 that carefully internal tube or cylinder of cast-iron or steel, enclosed summarises his view on the development of his princi- in a casing of wrought-iron or steel. He subsequently ples of ordnance contained in his original patent, the expanded this concept … influence of his scientific peers and the resistance of the His first patent of February 27, 1855 defined the princi- British authorities: ple of tension in cannon; giving scientific reason for BUILT-UP GUNS adding strengthening jackets to a basic gun tube. The Sir - In a leading article of the 17th inst. [October 17, importance of the principle that Alexander Blakely de- 1862] you state that Mr Barlow “long ago laid down the termined cannot be over-emphasised; adding succes- rules governing the strengthening of hydraulic press sive jackets or rings of differing hardness’s of forged cylinders.” You will greatly oblige many of your read- metal to an inner barrel permitted the construction of ers, I am sure, if you will be kind enough to inform great guns. The principle was adopted under dubious them in what publication can be found these rules, if, Crown Privilege by W G Armstrong in Britain and was indeed, you are not mistaken in supposing that they pirated by R P Parrott in North America. It was licensed exist. The only generally known paper by Mr Barlow to Spain and Russia, to the steelmakers Whitworth and on the subject does not even hint at the possibility of Bessemer in Britain, to Voruz in France, and to the Put- strengthening cylinders, but is simply a calculation of nam company in New England. their strength when cast of one piece of iron or one As probably the most scientific maker of ordnance of piece of brass. He clearly demonstrates that the outside the age Alexander Blakely co-operated with many of of thick cylinders formed of one mass is almost useless, his contemporaries including James Longridge, who but he does not suggest the remedy of putting this out- perfected wire-wound gun barrels, Daniel Treadwell, side part into a state of initial tension. I grant, sir, that the American who first proposed composite gun bar- this remedy appears sufficiently obvious, now that I rels, John Norton, his Irish compatriot and the pioneer have pointed it out. Most inventions are obvious. When of shell-firing guns, Joseph Whitworth and Henry Bes- first hearing of nine out of ten, one wonders that such semer, as well as John Mercer Brooke, Chief of Ord- “obvious” improvements had not been made before. nance in the Confederate States Navy. He had a scien- Indeed, when this thing first occurred to me I had the tific squabble with Robert Mallet, creator of the 36 inch same feeling. I never dreamt of patenting what seemed calibre, 40 ton mortar intended for the Crimea, over the to me so perfectly obvious an improvement. My only discovery of tension in ordnance. He had a less than dread was that so extremely obvious an idea must oc- scientific squabble with W G Armstrong, who used, but cur to every one - the thinking of how to make strong did not understand, tension jackets in his ordnance; cannon – (it did really occur to Dr Hart, Mr J A Lon- being outraged at Armstrong’s hiding behind Crown gridge, and Prof Tredwell [sic] within a few months) - privilege on his appointment as Her Majesty’s Superin- and that the Russians would construct cannon so pow- tendent of Rifled Ordnance. erful that one or two shells from them could sink one of Treadwell the huge three-deckers which then formed our fleet. To It is sometimes claimed that the American engineer induce the British Government to manufacture some Daniel Treadwell (1791-1872) originated the banding of very strong guns, quickly and secretly, was my wish. gun barrels; this is not so as he proposed and patented Granite forts were then the great opponent of ships. in America and Britain during 1845 the construction of “Supply ships,” I said, “with one 320-pounder, in place ordnance from short rings of metal welded end-to-end of ten 32-pounders - as one ounce of lead in the form of without a core. It was not until 1855, a full six months a bullet is more effective against an animal than several after Alexander Blakely’s initial patent, that Treadwell ounces in the form of very small shot, so will one 320- filed his claim for composite-barrelled cannon in Wash- pounder smash a block of granite which fifty 32- ington. This had a core around which the strengthening pounders could not seriously injure.” outer rings were screwed together; coincidentally, and This suggestion, also, I considered “obvious,” and curiously, Treadwell was living in London, England, at greatly was I taken aback when the War Office - or the time. In any event, the young Blakely maintained rather the Ordnance Office, this happening before the cordial even amicable relations with the very much War Office was established - greatly was I astonished older Treadwell, sometime Rumford Professor at Har- when the Ordnance Office informed me that in the first vard University. place it wanted no large guns; and, secondly, that it It is likely that Treadwell and Blakely co-operated disbelieved in all mathematical calculations, and that closely; they corresponded, when Treadwell had his consequently it had made up its mind to spend half a 1855 patent re-issued in 1862 unusually he included an million in a Royal Gun Foundry, believing the weak- extensive reference to the English professor, Peter Bar- ness of cast-iron guns not to be inherent to the form, but low, a primary source of Blakely’s knowledge on ten- to proceed from the use of bad iron by the contractors. sion in metal, missing from the original. Treadwell was The half million was spent and exceeded, and not one also a prominent resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, cannon fit for service was turned out of the “Royal of which State more later… Standard Gun Foundry.” The “Obvious” Solution

5 Captain Alexander Blakely RA

Meanwhile I saw that reasoning was of no use, so I pro- Sir William Armstrong may not even have been an ceeded to make strong guns, and, to secure a chance of original discoverer at all; he may have learnt from the having my expenses reimbursed, I took out a patent on published writings of Professor Tredwell [sic] and my- the 27th February, 1855. By June, 1855 - after several self; he may have learnt something when, in 1855, he less successful attempts - I had produced the 4½ inch bored and turned at his works at Elswick a gun, con- gun, which stood seven times as much firing as a cast structed on the coiled system, for Mr James Longridge, iron gun, and three times as much as a brass gun, which under a license from me; yet it cannot be denied that, the Ordnance Committee tried against it at Shoebury- from Sir William Armstrong, and not from us, did the ness. “Obvious” as my invention seems to you and Government learn to build strong cannon. many others, its value gradually rose in my own esti- It does not appear that he used any more charlatanism mation when I found that so very few could under- that the ignorance of the War Office authorities ren- stand it. To Mr Whitworth I endeavoured to explain it dered necessary. Two hundred years ago he would in 1855, and again in 1856, after the bursting of his guns have been forced to secure the attention of an ignorant formed of cast iron with sides 11 inches thick, the bore person to his system by telling him that the metal was being only 4 inches or 5 inches! Yet in 1860 Mr Whit- cast when Mars was in tune with Mercury. I am sure worth so little understood the principle, that every sin- that not two out of the whole Ordnance Select Commit- gle gun he built burst; one so small as even a 32- tee could be imposed upon by such a statement, care- pounder, and made with extra care as an experimental fully selected though they are; so, to gain their votes, Sir gun for Denmark, burst at Copenhagen, and killed my William was driven to pretend that he had a secret, to poor friend Lieut Carlsen. The remains of another gun keep which an Act of Parliament was necessary. of Mr Whitworth’s, an 80-pounder, can still be seen at Woolwich Arsenal. So unscientifically was this con- This ruse, sir, was surely very pardonable when we structed that the inner tube is burst and the outer coils compare it to the effrontery of some others, who want not disturbed. I believe the gun only fired sixteen the War Office to buy their wares; those, for example, rounds. Knowing all this I could scarcely believe my who say that bullets from an hexagonal bored gun have eyes when I read in the Times of Tuesday week Mr greater initial velocity than from a smooth bored one, Whitworth’s letter claiming the credit of the construc- and who add, by way of climax, that the hexagonal gun tion of the 120-pounder gun, made for him at Wool- has less recoil even when projecting its bullet with wich, in precisely the same way as the Armstrong guns greater velocity. are made. Sir William Armstrong to this day denies the (I presume all readers of The Engineer know that the necessity of building-up cannon with the layers in defi- velocity backwards of a gun is exactly in proportion to nite tension or compression. His speech on the subject the velocity forwards of the bullet, other circumstances at the British Association last year is thus reported: - being alike.) “He differed from Captain Blakely in thinking that such I most conscientiously believe, Mr Editor, that you will mathematical nicety was required in the construction. be doing better service to the public, if you dwell more Provided only care were taken to allow sufficient on their folly in not forcing the Government to appoint shrinking, the hoops would adapt themselves to that a scientific and independent committee to consider all amount of tension which would give the maximum ordnance questions, and less on the ease of the task of resisting force of the gun, and before the hoops would those who attempt to introduce any improvement, give way the gun would have passed through the phase however “obvious,” through the present channels. of greatest resistance.” I also believe that you will be more just. This is the secret of the imperfection of the Armstrong guns. He dare not use anything but very yielding T A Blakely wrought iron in this manner. He attempted to make his Army and Navy Club, October 21st, 1862. inner tubes of cast iron for hardness, but all the guns Blakely and the Government tried burst, and a couple of hundred are now lying un- The selection and purchase of guns for both the Army finished in Woolwich Arsenal. It was one of these, by and the Navy in mid-nineteenth century Britain was in the way, which was lately shown there as a burst the hands of the Ordnance Select Committee of the War “Blakely” gun. Yet Sir William Armstrong’s guns are Office. This was a body dominated by elderly officers of almost as perfect as regards strength as they can be the Army, whose experience was based on the French while he uses iron. The difficulty of persuading not wars of fifty years previous. only the War Office people but others to use any method of strengthening cannon being so great, how- To add context, by 1850 the British Army’s field guns, ever obvious that method may appear to the fifty or one those that accompanied its infantry and cavalry on hundred persons who can understand it, I think, sir, campaign, were to common designs that originated in you underrate both Sir William Armstrong’s services 1719, being made of what was called “brass”, actually and my own. Of my own I will not say more than that bronze metal, bored smooth within to fire solid round you are in error in believing Professor Tredwell [sic] to cast-iron shot. The weight of the shot denominated its have preceded me. His patent in England is dated nature. The principal field gun was a 9 pounder brass eleven months after mine, and his American patent still piece, the cavalry were supported by a 6 pounder brass later. piece, and activities in mountainous regions or in diffi-

6 Captain Alexander Blakely RA cult colonial territories were covered by a small 3 The Admiralty, although having to accept the “advice” pounder brass piece. There were also 12 pounder and of the War Office regarding the huge new 110 pounder 24 pounder brass howitzers dating from the early 1800s rifled guns, that would apparently pierce all known that were attached to field batteries to fire hollow shells armour, carefully contrived to continue have orders filled with explosive. These weapons were all made at placed with the contractors for old reliable cast-iron the Royal Brass Foundry, part of the War Office’s ordnance. Their conservatism was well founded. Woolwich Arsenal. Manufacture of the brass 3, 12 and As a quantum leap in technology, from a simple cast- 24 pounders ceased in 1859, and of the brass 6 and 9 iron tube to a sophisticated multilayered series of for- pounders in 1862. The carriages, on which these guns gings, problems might have been expected with the travelled and from which they were fired, were all of new system of ordnance, which ranged from small 9 wood with iron strapping. pounder field pieces to 110 pounder 7 inch cannon. The All other Army guns, the very much larger pieces of the tubes in Armstrong’s guns fractured and burst, so-called “garrison” artillery in fortresses and guns of wrought-iron breech bands made in spirals opened up, the siege train, were made of cast-iron. The guns for the the breech-blocks blew out, the lead-covered bolts Royal Navy were made through the agency of the War jammed in the barrels, if they did not do that their coat- Office, which is the same source as Army ordnance; ing fragmented into jagged shrapnel on leaving the these too were made of cast-iron. The largest piece in barrel, his new mechanical concussion and percussion service was the 68 pounder. fuses proved hopelessly unreliable, costs (of course) Iron guns were usually manufactured by contractors; escalated in endless attempts to rectify these issues. But by 1850 there were two: the Gospel Oak Foundry, Tip- the War Office would hear of no criticism. ton, Staffordshire, owned by John and Edward Walker, It was not just Alexander Blakely that resented and and the Low Moor Iron Company, of Low Moor, Brad- rejected this appalling abuse of public money and re- ford, Yorkshire, owned by Thomas and Charles Hood. sources, proposing safer, stronger and cheaper guns. During the Crimean War of 1854 a large number of The great engineer Joseph Whitworth of Manchester other ironworks were contracted to make ordnance, was the first to challenge the inefficiency of the “new virtually all were to cast mortars for the siege of Sebas- order”. Charles Lancaster, who had devised simple topol; only one then made iron guns for the govern- oval-bored rifling for cast-iron guns before the Crimean ment. By 1860 others were making cast-iron guns. war, made his own claim to be recognised by the War The coming of the rifled musket into the hands of the Office. In the Royal Navy, having inadequate armament common infantry had rendered the range of smooth- in the face of foreign ironclad fleets, Commander bore artillery inadequate by 1855. In addition, at sea, Robert Scott proposed alternatives. The civil engineer the ironclad ocean-going steam-driven warships that Bashley Britten came up with his own system of ord- appeared in 1860 were impervious to all existing can- nance manufacture and projectiles. Even one Alfred non. To meet these challenges the War Office took the Krupp of Essen in distant Prussia offered better, more “one-size-fits-all” solution offered by the successful durable guns. hydraulic engineer William Armstrong of Newcastle- The official accounts for the purchase of iron ordnance upon-Tyne in Northumberland. No competition was presented to Parliament late in 1862 quantified public allowed: the War Office’s decision was final. concern. They showed that for the period between Armstrong’s new guns were revolutionary. They had March 1858 and June 1862 £371,484 was paid to the wrought-iron tubes and wrought-iron strengthening contractors T & C Hood, J & C Walker, T Astbury and bands. The tubes were made with polygroove rifling, a Samuel Pegg for 5,052 “conventional” cast-iron muzzle- multiplicity of small shallow grooves. They were loading guns, all being large pieces, 32 pounders, 68 breech-loading with a complicated vertical breech block pounders, 8 inch shell guns and 10 inch shell guns. and a hollow-screw mechanism, requiring unique am- In comparison the amount paid to the Elswick Ord- munition covered with lead to grip the polygrooves nance Company for 1,102 wrought-iron breech-loading and new precision-made mechanical fuses. They were guns, mainly 110 pounders, 40 pounders and 12 immensely complex in manufacture and they were fan- pounders, was £371,818 in the same period. In addition tastically expensive. to which Elswick received £486,463 for shells and fuses The elderly Field Marshal, His Royal Highness the for the breech-loaders. Duke of Cambridge, commander-in-chief of the British The new Royal Gun Factory at Woolwich, also superin- Army, and uncle to the Queen, remarked, sarcastically, tended by William Armstrong, made a further 1,610 that “they could do everything but talk”. wrought-iron breech-loading guns from 1860 until Armstrong was given the monopoly of supply for all March 31, 1862, 110 pounders, 20 pounders, 12 pound- ordnance, a patent he obtained in 1856 was classified as ers, 9 pounders and 6 pounders, costing the War Office, a national secret by Act of Parliament, he was ap- under the Arsenal’s dubious accounting regime, an- pointed superintendent of manufacture at Woolwich other £325,484. Arsenal, as well as owning and running, simultane- The press in due course revealed the level of the prob- ously, the Elswick Ordnance Company in Newcastle. lems with the Army and Navy ordnance. But it was not until 1863 that Parliament took a grip on the situation and Armstrong resigned. © Steven Roberts 2012

7 Captain Alexander Blakely RA

In the mean time the opposition in the “ordnance war” When asked by Parliament to value his original patent effectively coalesced into two productive factions: that Blakely naively said “£500,000”. This was immediately of Joseph Whitworth and that around Alexander seized upon as the price he demanded for government Blakely, to whom Commander Scott and Bashley Brit- use. In fact he offered a usage license for just 1 shilling ten became allied. per hundredweight, 112 pounds, of metal – equal to The Secretary of State for War, Lord Herbert, in the face about 4s 0d on each field gun. of public uproar in 1860 grudgingly requested a test of The critical issue eventually turned on Armstrong’s Blakely’s principles at the government’s Woolwich Ar- failure, due to his reliance on wrought-iron and wilful senal and proving grounds, then controlled by William misunderstanding of initial tension, to make safe pieces Armstrong. An iron tube cast for an Armstrong 70 larger than 7 inch bore, firing 100 pound bolts. When he pounder piece by the Low Moor Iron Company was eventually produced a trial 300 pounder gun, Blakely steel-banded at the breech at Woolwich to Blakely’s was already making 600 pounders! scientifically-calculated principles. A naval cast-iron 32 On January 4, 1864 the War Office actually acquired an pounder, manufactured in 1799, was drawn from store 11 inch Blakely cast-steel gun, similar to those he was and also given a Blakely steel breech band at Woolwich. selling in quantity to Russia. It was designated to fire a Both tubes were then rifled at the Arsenal with Bashley 400 pound bolt with 35 pounds of powder, and proved Britten’s new system, “indifferently”, according to the with a 531 pound bolt and 52 pounds of powder. The designer. War Office insisted on trying the gun with 70 pounds of According to their markings recorded at Woolwich in powder on August 18, 1864. As Captain Caruana wrote 1864 the guns had Blakely serial numbers 97 and 98 of in his work on Blakely in 1992, “It would have been 1862; both were of 6.5 inch bore, rifled with seven extraordinary if the gun had not burst.” “square” grooves and weighing 6,380 pounds each. The Admiralty, who suffered most from the Armstrong Blakely was aware that a similar trial at Woolwich in fiasco, themselves purchased a 7 inch Blakely rifle in 1860 by William Armstrong using his own banding on 1865 but had to hand it over to the War Office for prov- cast-iron tubes had ended disastrously with eight ing. It was tried at Shoeburyness in Essex on January pieces bursting on initial proof. He publically stated 30, 1865; designed for 12 pounds of powder, the sol- that he had no confidence in using Armstrong’s metal diers filled it with 25 pounds and damaged it. in the “70 pounder”, and that the old metal, when Parliament and Blakely 1865 banded on his system, would stand the trial better. It is opportune to let the Parliament of the day have its Despite his reservations the Blakely “70 pounder” was final say as regards Captain Blakely and his guns. The fired 84 times at proof or maximum overload charge following are extracts from the House of Commons with an increasing weight of projectile starting with 180 Debate of March 2, 1865, on a motion to establish a Se- pounds, and only burst with a 221 pound bolt. lect Committee on Armaments for the Army and Navy. The ancient 32 pounder, with its Blakely strengthening It was the last foray of Parliament in reaction to the four at the breech, was fired with the proof charge 133 times, year long scandal around the appointment of Arm- the weight of the projectile being increased every ten strong and the purchase of his weapons. rounds after the first fifty, initially with 96 pound pro- In the opening statement proposing the Select Commit- jectiles and finally burst with a 238 pound cylinder. tee, Henry James Baillie, Conservative Member of Par- The trials, long-delayed, were undertaken without the liament for Invernessshire, at first recited the weakness presence of, or even notice to, Captain Blakely in March of the existing system for providing armaments, dwell- and July 1862. The guns proved to be the two strongest ing at great length on the officially-reported failures of and safest tubes of the twenty strengthened cast-iron Armstrong cannon in the naval campaign against Ja- pieces that were tested by the British government be- pan. He went on to describe other sources of cannon: tween 1858 and 1863. “It is not my intention to enter into a discussion with And then having these amazing results Herbert did... regard to the respective merits of the great inventors Nothing. and manufacturers of modern ordnance. All I wish to say of them is, that if their guns are not appreciated by On March 1, 1861 Captain Blakely informed a meeting their own Government they are at least appreciated by of the Institution of Naval Architects in London, in a all the other Governments of the world. There is, first of discussion on Arms and Armour, of another mysterious all, the Blakely Ordnance Company. That company trial of his patent guns. Woolwich Arsenal had he said have been manufacturing guns of great calibre, 300 and completed and tested to destruction two other guns to 600 pounders, both for the Confederate and the Federal his design; both able to break the 4½ inch armour of the States of America, and they are still executing orders for latest ironclads. One was to 8 inch bore and had fired a the Federal Government. But it is not in America only 30 inch long bolt weighing 408 pounds before bursting. that the guns of this company are appreciated. They are The other piece was to 10 inch bore, weighing 9,856 executing immense orders for the Russian Government pounds, costing just £100. It finally shot a 35½ inch long - 11-inch guns for the defence of Cronstadt, and 8-inch iron bolt weighing 512 pounds before it fractured. Each guns for the Russian fleet. They are also manufacturing gun had been fired between forty and fifty times. guns for the governments of Sweden, Spain, Portugal and Italy, in fact for most of the Governments of © Steven Roberts 2012

8 Captain Alexander Blakely RA

Europe, and it appears that it is only in their own coun- lish ships to a collision with a Russian ship armed with try, and by their own Government, that their guns are such a weapon as that?” not appreciated.” In response, for the government of the day, Spencer Baillie went further in describing the system that al- Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, Liberal Member of lowed Blakely to be so overlooked: Parliament for Lancashire North, and Under Secretary “We know that the Government claim a right to use any of State for War, replied: patent they may think proper. But if the plan should be “The hon. Member seems to know a good deal about rejected, then the invention would be discredited, and the armament of the Russian navy. I always thought it no private manufacturer would construct a gun the was a very difficult matter to obtain accurate details plan of which had been condemned by the Ordnance connected with the Russian army or navy. The Russians Committee. It must be remembered also that the mem- are not so communicative as to their experiments, or the bers of the Committee are themselves rival inventors state of their preparations, as we are. It is quite possible and rival manufacturers. I say that, under those circum- that the Russian Government have ordered some guns stances, the Ordnance Select Committee act as a com- from Captain Blakely. It is not a fact, as was stated by plete obstruction to the introduction of new guns. Cap- the hon. Gentleman, that no trial of Captain Blakely’s tain Blakely for five years never had his gun tried by guns has ever been made by the British Government. the Government. And why? Because he always refused Captain Blakely offered them a gun; it was accepted, to send in his drawings to the Ordnance Select Commit- and it was proved, but it burst in the proof. I do not tee.” mean to say that is any proof of the inferiority of Cap- He also described the manner in which other countries tain Blakely’s guns, because he has since stated to us acquired great guns: that the gun in question was one of his third-rate guns. It is true that Captain Blakely’s first-rate guns have not “Now what is the state of the Russian navy? The Rus- been accepted, because they are so expensive, and, sians did not lose much time in following the example judging from his own description of his guns, and our of the English and French, in procuring for themselves own knowledge of what can be performed by guns of a iron-clad ships; I believe they have now sixteen of cheaper construction manufactured by us, they are not them. But the Ordnance Department of St. Petersburg, worth the cost of the experiment. But I believe the Rus- as soon as this decision was come to, made a report to sians have also got some Prussian guns, but I doubt the Emperor, in which the following passage occurs: whether the information of the hon. Gentleman is abso- ‘The employment of iron-clad vessels in America has lutely correct. In spite of the secrecy observed by the demonstrated the absolute necessity of having guns of a Russian Government, it is known that two of Krupp’s very large calibre, and the successful use of such guns guns have burst at St Petersburg, and burst in such a against iron-plated vessels depends upon heavy manner as to cause considerable damage and loss of charges.’ This report was made on the 10th of August, life.” 1862, so that at that period the Russian engineers came to the conclusion that heavy charges were necessary for This sly and almost defamatory answer would not do. their guns, and I believe we have ourselves only very George Bentinck, Conservative Member of Parliament lately arrived at the same conclusion. About the same for Norfolk, rejoined; time - that is to say, in the year 1862 - Captain Blakely “Now, so far as he could gather from what the noble offered the Secretary for War to manufacture an 8-inch Marquess the Under Secretary of State for War had gun at his own expense, and to hand it over to him for said, he understood the noble Marquess to admit that six months to do what he liked with it, while he en- Russia was ahead of us in point of guns which he (Mr. gaged that it should pierce the sides of the Warrior [the Bentinck) ventured to think was in itself a most alarm- British iron-clad]. The Secretary for War told him that if ing admission; and if that were so he thought the coun- he had such a gun he could not use it, and he therefore try would be of opinion that it was a most unsatisfac- declined the offer. The consequence was that Captain tory state of things. He did not think this country Blakely communicated with the Russian Government, should rest satisfied if any other country was ahead of and they accepted his proposal. He then sent two of the us in ordnance. If we were in this position of inferiority guns to St Petersburg. The result was that the Russian the cause was that which was at the root of all evil in Government was so pleased with them that they gave the management of our national affairs - a misplaced him an immense order. They also gave orders for guns and an ill-timed economy. He believed it was on the of the same calibre to be constructed by the great Ger- score of expense that the Blakely gun was not adopted; man founder Krupp; and the iron-clad fleet of Russia and he was very much afraid - though it did not appear was now armed with Krupp’s and Blakely’s guns. They on that occasion - that it was the cloven foot of the right also got guns from the French, but they prefer those hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer which supplied by Captain Blakely, and with them the Rus- peeped out under the mantle of economy which had sian fleet is now being armed. The gun is of eight inches been worn by his noble Friend - that was the root of all calibre with a 25 pound charge, and a projectile consist- the mischief.” ing of a long flat steel bolt weighing 180 pounds. Now, I In a subsequent debate on March 20, 1865, Sir Morton ask whether it would be fair to expose one of our Eng- Peto, Conservative Member of Parliament for Finsbury, added to the Marquess of Hartington’s discomfort by

9 Captain Alexander Blakely RA pointing out that the 1,944 great guns built for the ring for muzzle-loaded studded shot. It was adopted by of new fortresses along the English south coast had cost Austria, Holland, Portugal, Russia and Spain for con- on average £4,046, according to government figures. In verting old ordnance in the early 1860s. In France and comparison the 220 guns being manufactured by the Spain the larger, newly-rifled cast-iron guns were Blakely Ordnance Company for the fortresses defend- banded at the breech to Alexander Blakely’s principles. ing St Petersburg in Russia cost on average £3,525. ______Projectiles 4. Construction The other significant patent that Captain Blakely se- ______cured was that for “Projectiles for Ordnance and Load- ing and Firing Ordnance”, number 3,087 of 1863. This n October 4, 1861 the Mechanics’ Magazine de- demonstrated his increasing independence from his O scribed the manufacture of Blakely’s guns at Faw- previous associates Bashley Britten and Robert Scott, cett, Preston & Company’s works in Liverpool: substituting a new design of shot for muzzle-loading There were “in full operation, a most extensive series of rifled ordnance for theirs. well-contrived apparatus, adapted to the manufacture It was inherently simple, a copper plate with curved of artillery guns, of varying magnitude and widely di- edges was riveted to the base of the projectile and on vergent calibre, from the small and light piece of ord- firing the propellant expanded the plate to seal the shot nance suited to the exigencies of mountain warfare, and or shell against the expanding gases. From 1863 this discharging a ball of 4 pounds weight up to the huge was the projectile used in all Blakely’s guns. 100 pounder suited for the deck of an ironclad Warrior or Black Prince, or fitted to defend, or to assail the most The Confederate States Naval Arsenal at Selma, Ala- formidable of defensive works. Some of these great bama, was manufacturing copper-cup sabots for projec- guns were almost in the earliest initiatory state of tiles during 1864, all marked in the metal, “Blakely”. manufacture, others far advanced towards completion, Rifling while others again were perfected and ready for deliv- In the late 1850s and early 1860s Blakely was equivocal ery. Nearly all these powerful implements of war and in regard to the “correct” form of rifling needed in all destruction were constructed on what is known as the forms of ordnance. In October 1863 he said before Par- Blakely principle, that is, on the principle invented by liament that he wished, in this early period, that all Captain Blakely, which is recommended as combining forms of rifling might be tried in his pieces to determine great strength of resistance to explosive action, im- their effect. Blakely added that early in 1859 Bashley mense power of range, and economy as regards first Britten had written to him requesting that a strength- cost. The principle upon which this formidable imple- ened cast-iron gun might be rifled on his plan, to fire ment is constructed has been frequently described, yet his skirted shells, so that it and they might compete as it is, like most other inventions of merit, exceedingly more equally with those of the government’s favourite, simple, it may not be out of place here a remark or two William Armstrong. descriptive of the process.” Blakely immediately agreed to this request and added “In the first instance the size and consequent propor- that he would provide a large piece strengthened on his tion of the gun having been determined on, a core or principles, with Bashley Britten’s rifling, free of all cost heart-piece, forming a complete gun, is cast solid on to government for trials. The offer was ignored. end, the breech being cast undermost, and the gun of In addition to the “square” rifling of Britten, Blakely considerably greater length than is wanted, to insure also used the ratchet or triangular, the so-called “centri- perfect soundness and solidity in the cast. The super- cal”, rifling devised by Commander Robert Scott RN fluous length is then cut off from the muzzle end, and between 1860 and 1862. the gun bored out to the requisite calibre. Captain Blakely’s principle of gun construction, however, in- By 1863 Captain Blakely had developed and fixed his cludes the manufacture of the interior, or central por- own views on effective rifling, adopting and patenting tion, of steel or of wrought-iron, although he prefers his own version of “ratchet” rifling for his guns. cast to wrought iron, as being in his estimation, in every Other forms of rifling actually employed in ordnance in way better. So far this differs little from the old process Britain included Armstrong’s earliest “polygroove”, of making cast-iron cannon; but after the manufacture with a multiplicity of tiny shallow ratchet grooves to has been accomplished thus far, the process invented work in his breechloaders with iron bolts entirely cov- by Captain Blakely, which we understand, has been ered with lead; and Armstrong’s subsequent “shunt”, secured by a patent, comes into operation. This consists with three deep grooves, having a step between a deep of hooping the iron or steel gun with a series of steel side and a shallow side so that a studded bolt might rings, made of the first class and most tenacious steel. easily be muzzle-loaded and when fired rotate into the These being bored to the requisite diameters, and tighter shunt or shallow part. heated, are placed on the gun at the breech end, extend- The other form of rifling, and the most common in ing from the trunnions backwards, and completely en- Europe, was that devised by Colonel Treuille de closing the breech, and while at a moderately high Beaulieu and adopted in 1860 by the Imperial French temperature , their lateral joinings are securely placed army and navy. This had three deep elliptical grooves together, and as the steel casing applied in the manner stated, contracts by cooling, it forms an inseparable and

10 Captain Alexander Blakely RA hard binding of finely prepared steel, varying in thick- lennium. But war soon taught us that even if our guns ness from half-an-inch to three or four, or any number were as good as those of our enemies, we needed others of inches, according to the size of the gun and the re- very much better than theirs. The occasion suggests the quirements of service to which it is to be applied. Be- invention, although there may be those who prefer the sides the steel rings referred to in guns of large calibre, old and wise saw of ‘necessity is the mother,’ &c.” Captain Blakely also introduces a strong binding jacket “Captain Blakely and Mr Mallet saw what was re- of cast steel, over which he places his binding steel quired, but Mr Mallet did not propose an altogether rings, the whole forming a very strong support in resis- practicable gun, while Captain Blakely did. On the 27th tance to the expansive force exercised by the explosion of February, 1855, before the then Mr William G Arm- of the charge of powder. When the process of cooling, strong had given to the public, or even the Privy Coun- and thus securely fastening the formidable steel bind- cil, his own ideas of guns, Captain Blakely secured a ing of the cannon has been completed, the exterior sur- patent for the mode of making cannon with steel or face is then trimmed and fashioned in the ordinary cast-iron inner tubes, strengthened by wrought iron or way, on a turning-lathe suited in power to the magni- steel jackets shrunk over them with a considerable ini- tude of the gun.” tial tension. This idea of initial tension was not, per- “From the preceding brief outline it will be seen that haps, clearly expressed in the original patent, but Cap- the principle and also the manipulation of this style of tain Blakely secured it by a disclaimer and memoran- gun are founded on strictly scientific principles, and on dum of alteration, early in 1859. Mr Mallet had tried the qualities well-known as pertaining to the materials principle in the 36 inch mortar, first fired with a shell, used. Great care is, of course, requisite to have each weighing one ton and a quarter, October 19th, 1857, but casing and ring of the precise diameter suited to bring the monster mortar was not made as we should now its strength to bear, and this being ascertained by ab- make such a piece of ordnance, even if we were work- struse calculation and numerous experiments, forms ing upon the principle then laid down.” the only secret of the manufacture. Guns made on this “We can understand in a little time exactly what is the principle are said to possess numerous advantages over principle of the Blakely gun.” those which are simple cast of iron, and also over those which are made altogether of wrought-iron. Their supe- “Captain Blakely appears to have reasoned in this way: riority over the former consisting chiefly in their greater ‘In exploding powder within the chamber of a gun, the strength, and consequently in their greater range, as first effect is that of percussion, and steel will withstand compared with the latter; greater cheapness also consti- this much better than wrought iron. Therefore, I will tutes an important advantage; whilst in the case of the make my inner tube of steel. But the internal surfaces of Blakely gun, the trunnions being cast in the original the chamber, being strained, will stretch, whereas the metal of which the heart-piece or jacket is formed, they metal outside and beyond them will be extended in a constitute integral parts of the gun, and require no less and less degree according to a principle some years troublesome process of hooping on, and are not liable ago demonstrated by Professor Barlow, who showed, to be detached from the gun while it is use.” that, beyond a certain thickness, no additional metal would give more strength to a hydraulic press cylin- “The exterior of the gun having been finished as sug- der.’ If we can in imagination follow Captain Blakely’s gested, and the boring having also been completed as reasoning from what he has since done, we may sup- already stated, the implement may now be considered pose that he summed up in words much like these: “I complete, unless it be intended to have it made on the will first place the material immediately surrounding improved principle of rifled ordnance, in which case the bore, in a state of compression, by shrinking the process of rifling has yet to be gone through; but wrought-iron tubes or rings upon the outside. Then, this thanks to the inventions of modern science, and the when the powder explodes, the outer tubes or rings will ingenious apparatus employed by Messrs Fawcett, Pre- be made to do their work, and this inner tube will, in ston & Co., is not an operation of great difficulty or the first extension due to explosion, come merely to a tediousness.” state of repose, afterwards extending by tension. Thus a “Before quitting, the subject of the manufacture of these great deal of the force of the powder will be expended guns, it is right to state that Captain Blakely’s great before the metal of the inner tube is really brought into object being to ensure strength at the breech, he has tension.’ We are here putting words of our own into the designed the exterior aspect with an especial eye to mouth of another, but Captain Blakely’s specification, ensure that, and he adheres, although not exclusively, and his later practice as an ordnance engineer, show to the principle of muzzle-loading.” exactly what his governing ideas must have been. In his Construction in 1866 principle of throwing work upon the outer metal of the Five years later, Engineering magazine, on January 12, gun, beyond what it ever before has borne, he has been 1866, was to write: imitated by Sir William Armstrong, by Parrott, and by Captain Brooke of the late Confederate Army [Navy], “The Blakely Gun - A little more than ten years ago we who fabricated many guns - essentially upon Captain were in the thick of the Russian war. The science of Blakely’s principle - at the Tredegar Works, Richmond, ordnance had been neglected during a long period of Virginia. And this principle has been adopted by all the peace, a period when there were many who, no doubt, great military powers of the world.” sincerely believed the world was on the eve of the mil-