Today’s a big day in Texas City, with the arrival of the IX-Inch Dahlgen gun (above, on a reconstructed carriage) from U.S.S. Westfield. From the Houston Chronicle:
A purpose-built replica carriage will hold it in its new resting place at the Texas City Museum, after it is delivered there by trailer Wednesday morning.
“A crane will lift the cannon off the trailer,” said conservator Justin Parkoff, who has been restoring the Dahlgren and the rest of the artifacts at the Texas A&M Conservation Reserach Lab, “It’s going to be placed down onto the sidewalk which will be protected by steel plates … so the weight of the cannon will not crush the concrete.” At 10,000 pounds, the cannon is as heavy as the average Asian elephant.
Parkoff described the cannon as “a beast” when news of the new museum home came out just after Christmas. He oversaw its 140-mile journey from A&M’s Riverside campus to Texas City on Tuesday. It will be housed just 6.5 miles from it’s original resting place.
“We’re thrilled,” said Billie Powers assistant to the curator at the museum, “absolutely thrilled.”
Congrats to Justin, who at this point probably knows as much about Union gunboats adapted from ferries as anyone around today.
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This is great news! Everyone involved can take a bow!