The Confederacy relied heavily on English artillery during the Civil War, and Fort Fisher used imported cannons including Whitworths and Blakelys, but its most imposing weapon was the Armstrong one hundred fifty-pounder mounted at Purdie Battery midway along the fort’s sea face. Manufactured in England by Sir William Armstrong and Company, the rifled tube weighed sixteen thousand pounds and could accurately fire a one hundred fifty-pound shell as far as five miles. Colonel William Lamb, Fort Fisher’s commander, regarded it as the fort’s most effective gun, and after observing artillery practice on December 3, 1864, recorded its accuracy in striking targets near the Condor and a wrecked blockader. Yet the gun could not prevent Fort Fisher’s capture, and because the Confederates lacked an adequate supply of shells, it was rarely fired during the final battle in January 1865. Before the first battle, according to Lamb, it had only one dozen rounds of fixed ammunition, and on the second day of that battle it was fired only four times to conserve ordnance; Confederate reports indicate that one round may have struck the boiler of Admiral Porter’s flagship, the USS Malvern. The gun required a propellant charge of thirty pounds of gunpowder, and local foundries tried to manufacture solid bolts for it, but Southern factories could not replicate the sophisticated British ordnance, leading Lamb to call the Confederate-made bolt useless. The weapon had arrived in the Wilmington district aboard the Hope, which left Nassau on August 24, 1864, carrying two eight-inch, one hundred fifty-pound Armstrong cannons; on September 7, 1864, Major General W.H.C. Whiting notified Richmond of the ship’s arrival, and the guns were divided between New Inlet and Old Inlet, with one going to Fort Fisher and the other to Fort Caswell. The Armstrong shell measured 16.33 inches in height and weighed one hundred forty-three pounds without its explosive charge, and its design, with brass studs and shunt rifling, helped ensure a snug fit in the bore and an accurate release.