Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
Yours of the 13th to Mr. Griffiths he brought up here in order to hurry on the Guns, but being determined to Ascertain the Quality before I proceeded any further, made trial of five I have cast & find the Mettle has not sufficient Cohesion tho as grey as lead, and with the usual Powder (which I had by me for blasting in the Myne) they have burst in Pieces in proving, so thought it my Duty to give you this earliest Notice. The Draft of the Twelve Pounder was drawn by Coll. Masen of the Artillery, the Nine Pounder by Mr. Collis Superintindant of the Newyork Water Works, and the four Pounder by Mr. Griffiths all of them as directed sixteen Calibers of their Shott. The Wood Work all turn’d by one Mr. Turk, and the Pewter Mouldings by Bradford & McEwen of New York. had been at the expence to get some Cannon Moulder that had work’d at Carron1 in Scotland, & others that had cast the Brass Field Pieces at New York at exorbitant Wages, which with the Alterations & Expences I have been at are a very heavy Loss to a Person in my Situation. If the Gentlemen of the Committee are pleased to consider my Case, as I believe they dont wish any who are endeavouring to serve the Cause should be sufferers, I shall take it very kind. The Shott I hope to get ready as soon as was 233called for & am with the greatest sorrow for the Disassapointment Hond. Sir Your very Humble Servant,
The Carron Works, near Falkirk, Stirlingshire, were producing iron guns—from three-to forty-one-pounders—from 1759. In 1776 they cast their first “Carronade,” a short, light, iron cannon of some renown (Charles Ffoulkes, The Gun-Founders of England [Cambridge, 1937], 118).