A ship's musket

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waterman
Posts: 447
Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2011 4:29 pm

A ship's musket

Post by waterman »

The Chit-Chat discussion about the French influence on machine threads got me thinking about this one. It's a US Model 1816 musket, but much modified. In original form, it was given to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (including Maine) as reparations for War of 1812 arms losses. At some time before 1825, it went to Eli Whitney's Armory, where the stock was thinned back to the shape found on the French muskets used during the Revolution. It also received a "Sea Fencible" buttplate. There is a faint MS on the left side near the breech-plug, but it takes a lot of imagination to see it. The Flayderman reference for this conversion is 5J-022. Flayderman wrote that Whitney only converted Whitney-made muskets, but this sample says otherwise.

About 1851, it went back to the Whitneyville Armory and became a Sea Fencible percussion conversion (Flayderman 5J-033). At that time, it was still a full-length musket. Still in service during the Civil War, it went south, probably serving with the blockading fleet. Early in the blockade period, Admiral Dahlgren ordered the Navy and Marines to get rid of their bayonets, "because the damned things kept sticking in the overheads and bulkheads of wooden ships. If sailors needed edged weapons, they have cutlasses and boarding axes." I think that's when it was shortened. (If you don't like that theory, Version 2 says that shortening made it fit under the wagon seat.)

Flayderman wrote that "nobody knows the reason for the Sea Fencible buttplate." Writing that seems odd to me. The Sea Fencibles were sort of a cross between the Coast Guard and Coast Artillery. In such service, the muskets would frequently have been in and out of longboats. That buttplate could have easily fit into an arms rack in the longboat, holding it in place while the longboat crashed through surf and the Sea Fencible soldier manned the boat's oars.
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Lock Plate close up-1.jpg
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Buttstock01.jpg
Buttstock01.jpg (60.86 KiB) Viewed 2665 times

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butlersrangers
Posts: 9827
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 11:35 pm
Location: Below the Bridge, Michigan

Re: A ship's musket

Post by butlersrangers »

Very cool and interesting.

What is the Armory name on the lock-plate?

Did you measure any threads?

waterman
Posts: 447
Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2011 4:29 pm

Re: A ship's musket

Post by waterman »

Lockplate reads "Spring field" in 2 lines, and below that, 1817.

I've never disassembled it. Dubious enough about the barrel that I'll never shoot it.

larrys
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2021 4:01 pm

Re: A ship's musket

Post by larrys »

Wow, 'modified' is an understatement. I have a Model 1816 made in 1832 by U. S. Johnson in Middletown, CT that is unmodified, with the bayonet. Its over 6' long with the bayonet attached. Have to go take some pics to share and compare.
Larry

waterman
Posts: 447
Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2011 4:29 pm

Re: A ship's musket

Post by waterman »

The unusual thing is that the dates of the modifications and who made them is known and documented. That's the only thing that makes this hacked-up old musket a keeper.

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