In 1861 the Union Navy built a number of small barges to support the Union campaign against the Confederacy on the Mississippi River. Each raft carried a 13-inch seacoast mortar capable of bombarding a target well over 4000 yards away with a 227-pound ball. The unpowered rafts – they were towed to their locations – had a lightly armored bulwark to protect the crew from small arms fire. The armor was probably needed only during transport as historic illustrations show the crew outside the bulwark during firing; the concussive overpressure within the structure was at least uncomfortable and probably dangerous. The barges were used at the battle of Island No. 10 on the Mississippi and later at Fort Pillow further downstream, but were not very effective because of ineffective communications between the mortar crews and forward spotters.
The Union Mortar Barge is a Poser figure with operating doors, windows, and mortar. (The model was built for Poser but loads and operates in DAZ Studio – see the ReadMe for particulars).
The model provides full ERC control at the Body level:
o Sliding doors open
o Windows open individually
o The mortar can be elevated and turned for aiming
o The mortar carriage eccentric works realistically
Included:
o Gunner's quadrant fro measuring elevation
o Mortar ball carrier assembly
Preloaded props
o Capstans with turning bars
o Mortar balls in holding frames
o Metal and wood handspikes and lever for operating the mortar
o Tompion closing mortar bore
o Simple adjustable smoke and flash
Poses
o 13 M4 gun crew poses for different mortar operation phases
- Preparation
- Loading
- Raising carriage on eccentric
- Turning carriage
- Elevating
- Firing
o Corresponding set up poses for the mortar and equipment
o MAT poses to change the barge id number
Cameras
o Full set (Main, Aux, Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Front, Back) tailored to model size
o 19 Custom Dolly CAMs, some associated with mortar operating phases
See the ReadMe file and view the product promos above for more information.
Software:
Poser 6, Poser 7+, Poser 8 / Poser Pro 2010+, Poser 10 / Poser Pro 2014 +, Poser 11
