Confederate

Harding Hollow-Shot Flat Nose Bolt

 

 

DIAMETER:  6.3-inches
GUN: Rifled 32-pounder smoothbore, 6.4-inch caliber
LENGTH:
WEIGHT:
CONSTRUCTION: Hollow Shell
SABOT:  Copper Ring
FUZING:  None

Excavated.  Fired with exceptional rifling from a 13 lands and groove Confederate cannon.  Harding type copper sabot 1-1/2" tall. Manufactured in the Charleston Arsenal, South Carolina on Harding’s design.  This projectile was fired by the Confederate artillery on Tar Bluff on the Combahee River at the grounded US Dai Ching ship.  These projectiles are only found in this area.  Dai Ching was constructed for the China trade in 1863, purchased by the Navy 21 April 1863 outfitted at New York Navy Yard; and commissioned 11.June 1863, Lieutenant Commander J. C. Chaplin in command.  Dai Ching joined an expedition up St. John's River, Fla., and remained in that area from 6 February to 7 March 1864.  She returned to Dai Ching patrolling on the South Carolina coast and in January 1865 patrolled in the Combahee River.  She captured the schooner Coquette loaded with cotton on 26 January.  Later that same day Dai Ching had to be abandoned after a gallant defense lasting more than 7 hours during which she lay aground under the guns of a Confederate battery.  Struck 30 times by shot and shell, her guns disabled, and her machinery destroyed, she was set afire by her officers and men, all of whom escaped safely except five who were absent from the ship on duty and who were later captured by the Confederates.  The steam gunboat Dai-Ching, which has been lying on the Brooklyn Navy-yard for over a week, was transferred to the Navy Department.  She was built at the foot of North Second Street, Williamsburgh, for the Emperor of China, by James C. Jewell & Co.  Her dimensions are as follows: Length 175 feet, width 29 feet, depth of hold 14 feet, draft of water 11 feet, measurement 728 tons.  Dai Ching patrolling on the South Carolina coast and in January 1865 patrolled in the Combahee River.  She captured the schooner Coquette loaded with cotton on 26 January.  Later that same day Dai Ching had to be abandoned after a gallant defense lasting more than 7 hours during which she lay aground under the guns of a Confederate battery.  Struck 30 times by shot and shell, her guns disabled, and her machinery destroyed, she was set afire by her officers and men, all of whom escaped safely except five who were absent from the ship on duty and who were later captured by the Confederates.  To those who have been for any length of time in the Department of the South or in the South Atlantic Squadron, a description of the Dai-Ching and the important service rendered by her while attached to the Squadron would be considered superfluous.  She had been in these waters since July 1863, and had taken part in nearly every important naval engagement that had transpired here since that time.  At the time of her loss her officers and men numbered about one hundred.  All of her officers, with the one exception mentioned above, were saved.  She carried seven guns --- one 100-pounder, two 20-pounders and four brass howitzers.  At the time she was fired, her guns were loaded, and when the heat ignited the powder of the 100-pounder the shell went up into the middle of the rebel fort, so that the enemy thought her men were still at the guns.  The rebels fired upon the Dai-Ching until it was evident that no living man could remain aboard her.