Monitor's XI-inch Dahlgren Shell Guns

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USS Monitor's XI-inch Dahlgren Shell Guns upside down inside the turret prior to conservation, Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia (Photo by Jim Janke, August 2004).

On the Deck of the USS Monitor, a XI-inch Dahlgren Shell Gun peeking out it's porthole. Hampton Roads, Virginia. (Library of Congress Photo, July 9, 1862).

• Type: Smoothbore shell guns
• Registry Numbers: 27 "Worden" and 28 "Ericsson"
• Year of Manufacture: 1859
• Tube Composition: Cast Iron
• Bore Diameter: 11 inches
• Standard Powder Charge: Up to 15 lbs.
• Projectiles: Round Balls, 166 lb. Solid Shot or 133.5 lb. Shells
• Tube Length: 161 inches
• Tube Weights: 15,720 and 15,617
• Invented By: John A. Dahlgren USN
• US Casting Foundry: West Point Foundry
• Current Disposition: Undergoing Conservation at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia
• Special Notes: Originally mounted aboard the USS Monitor inside an armored rotating turret, these guns fired on the CSS Virginia in the Battle of Hampton Roads.