USS Monitor Dahlgren Gun Boring Short Film

In late February and early March 2020, the Museum cleaned out the 11-foot-long bores in both of USS Monitor's Dahlgren guns using a custom-made machine. This massive undertaking took years of precise planning.
Monitor’s guns are the largest guns to ever be bored, giving this significant conservation step its own mark in history. The removal of the marine material was the final mechanical cleaning step before the guns can be dried and put on display.
In 2002, after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Navy divers raised the 120-ton USS Monitor turret, the massive artifact came to The Mariners’ Museum and Park for conservation, curation, and display. The turret was covered in thick layers of concretion and over time, the material was removed using hand and pneumatic tools exposing the turret itself and hundreds of additional artifacts including the two 11-inch (bore diameter) Dahlgren guns.
In 2004, the guns were removed from the turret and transferred to independent treatment tanks to advance the removal of concretion and facilitate the extraction of marine salts using electrochemical treatments. By 2018, the exterior of the guns had been cleaned of ocean deposits, but the bores of the gun are still full of marine materials which cannot be accessed by hand tools. To remove this material, a custom boring machine and holding apparatus was made by the Museum and Master Machine and Tool of Newport News.
The Museum team is thrilled to have accomplished such an impressive milestone in the conservation treatment of USS Monitor's Dahlgren guns. We are grateful to all of our partners and supporters who helped make this happen!
This video is for your personal use only, and no further use is permitted. You may not reproduce, distribute, transmit, or provide access to this video to any other person or entity. All rights are reserved by The Mariners' Museum. © 2021 The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Va.

[@malcolmtaylor518]

Good work of restoration. Never neglect history.

[@Shaun_Jones]

While a number were tested to destruction, no Dahlgren gun ever burst in combat. By far my favorite series of muzzle-loaded artillery pieces.

[@JohnnyRebWasATexan]

Hello Shaun, may I ask you , do you by chance have any recommendations of books about civil war artillery? I don't feel Amazon pulls up enough quality recommendations.

[@Shaun_Jones]

@@JohnnyRebWasATexan I honestly don’t have any recommendations. I’m not really a Civil War nerd, my interests tend towards post-Cold-War military technology. I only have one book on the subject: The Photographic History of the Civil War: Volume 3: Forts and Artillery, The Navies.

[@JohnnyRebWasATexan]

@@Shaun_Jones Many thanks. Never hurts to ask. Hope you had a good 4th of July and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

[@chrisrobbins8579]

Wow! Thanks to the entire work team on that effort.

[@leetotty7703]

Hats off to these people, who work tirelessly, to restore these treasures, for all of us to experience.

[@mro756]

Awesome! Can’t wait to see the guns in person. Not in the tanks.

[@SamZinski]

great work - it's amazing to think of all the events that gun was witness to and a part of

[@garychschoen]

wasn't boring to me

[@stevenV57]

LOL, I see what you did there.

[@DeathToTyrants24]

TONIGHT ON SATURDAY NIGHT LIIIIIIVE!!!

[@JimmyCasket02]

Will they fire again?

[@ronaldrobertson2332]

Probably not with a live round. Black powder blank would be incredible enough.