Hot Shot and Wooden Ships

The advent of the ironclad ended the era of traditional wooden-hulled warships, yet Confederates at Drewry’s Bluff still used the centuries-old hot-shot furnace. In this furnace, solid shot were heated red-hot, and clay wads of wet hay were inserted between the powder and the ball to prevent the heat from igniting the powder too soon. Fired at a wooden ship, the heated missile could set the vessel ablaze. Photographers who visited Drewry’s Bluff in 1865 found the small hot-shot furnace compelling enough to make at least three different views of it, but the furnace there was never used in battle. A U.S. Army Heavy Artillery Manual published in 1851 said that sea-coast fort furnaces held sixty or more shot, required one hour and fifteen minutes to heat them red-hot, and used small charges ranging from one-fourth to one-sixth of the ball’s weight because balls fired with low velocity split wood in a way favorable to burning.

Virginia · United States