___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 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 © Steven Roberts 2012 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.