[Ads-l] Antedating of G-string (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

> 
> In the War of 1812 the US Navy had three types of cannons: carronade (short barrel), columbiad (intermediate-length barrel) and "Long
> Tom" (long, cylindrical barrel).  All three types were specified by the weight of the spherical cannonball they could fire: "eighteen-pounder",
> "twenty-four pounder", etc.
> 
> By the Civil War the US Navy had a much wider variety of cannons.  Some were referred to by the weight of the cannonball, as before, and
> some by the diameter of the barrel, e.g. "fifteen-inch".  Now the Navy used only one variety of fifteen-inch gun, and that was called the
> "Dahlgren" (after its designer) or the "soda-water bottle" after its shape, which was NOT cylindrical.  As far as I know, the 15-inch and its
> little brother the 11-inch Dahlgren were never called "long Toms".
> 
> Why were people at the Navy Yard mixing up naval terminology?  

It certainly is possible that it was the reporter who was mixing up naval terminology, not the Navy Yard personnel.  

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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