Farnsworth & Cooper
Cannon and Carriage Company
| 07 June 1780 Salem Ordnance Plant Salem, Massachusetts |
| 07 June 1780 Salem Ordnance Plant Salem, Massachusetts |
Dear Major Corby:
Leonard and I have the cannon down here ready for tests. We protected security
on the cannon during the trip down, like you asked. We sure think you will be
pleased with the job we did.
We built a box around the cannon in the shape of a coffin and painted it
black. Leonard and I both wore our black suits and we mounted a flag on the
corner of the coffin. We polished the buckles on Hugo's (that's my horse)
harness so he'd look good. We build a little bench to go on top of the coffin
for us to ride on. When we pulled out of the shop in Wilfred Corners, the
sheriff almost arrested us until we told him what was inside the box. He said
that we'd been into so much trouble, he thought we might have shot
someone.
As we drove through the villages on the way here, people would remove their
hats and stand in silence along the road. We told those who asked that it was
a war hero. Leonard and I think it might be when it gets into battle. We're
sure anxious for the evaluation team to see how it will shoot.
We got to the testing grounds about noon and have the cannon unpacked, all
ready for the tests.
| Sincerely, Andrew Farnsworth President and Program Director T2C-3, Farnsworth & Cooper Cannon and Carriage Company |
Copy to Captain Hawkins
Wilfred Corners, Massachusetts
| 20 June 1780 Salem Ordnance Plant Salem, Massachusetts |
Dear Major Corby:
We are awful discouraged with the way things are going here. They still
haven't started testing. They came out the morning you said they would and
instead of "transportation testing", they began tearing our cannon apart.
They said contractor supplied items must undergo complete dismantling
inspection before being used by federal troops. Otherwise, they said, how
would they know the cannon was safe to fire. We tried to explain that we'd
fired the cannon before, but they said if we did, we'd done it wrong.
They finished tearing our cannon apart yesterday and Leonard and I began
putting it back together this morning. They said they didn't know how to put
it together and we didn't have any weapons system assembly manuals and we
should write one. They said that we could do the writing while we put it
together. They said that Leonard and I had done it once and it should be easy
for us to do it a second time.
While Leonard fits the pieces together, I write down what he's doing and when
he gets it all back in place, I'll have the manual all written. Leonard is
kind of mad because he's doing all the work, but he doesn't write anything but
his name so he sure can't write an assembly manual.
The cannon should be back together, ready for the tests, in about two weeks
of hard work. I'll let you know how we're getting along.
| Sincerely, Andrew Farnsworth President and Program Director T2C-3, Farnsworth & Cooper Cannon and Carriage Company |
Copy to: Captain Hawkins
Wilfred Corners, Massachusetts
| 18 August 1780 Salem Ordnance Plant Salem, Massachusetts |
Dear Major Corby:
I just wanted you to know how the tests are going. We got the cannon back
together on 05 July. We were the first of four contractors to finish
reassembly so they started right in on the transportation tests.
Colonel Barton, who is in charge of "B" Company, Monmouth Artillery, got to
talking to Leonard and found out that he was only 28 years old. He asked
Leonard to show him his draft card and Leonard didn't know what that was.
They put Leonard in the stockade. I'd try to explain to Colonel Barton, but I
don't have one either. Can you help Leonard out?
We've been working nights here in Salem, helping build a whaling schooner. We
only brought supplies for a week, so we had to get work to buy food. I guess
Leonard will be fed now in the stockade.
They've been transportation testing the cannon for a month now. At first, they
had trouble with the cannon because they didn't understand about it being
easier to push than to pull. After I explained about that, they were doing all
right until Tuesday of this week. They had pulled the cannon through the Philo
Marsh on the west test range and to the top of Wilson's Ridge. They started
down the other side and when they went to set the brake, they noticed we
didn't put one on. The cannon got loose from the crew and smashed through the
fishing shack at the bottom of the ridge and then fell into the bay.
Colonel Barton said the accident was our fault because we should have put a
brake on the cannon, so I'm repairing the fishing shack. It belongs to a
fellow named Harley Toms. He was pretty nice about it. He helped me get Hugo
(that's my horse) hooked to the cannon and we pulled it out of the bay.
I think they are going to start firing the cannon next week. I've been down
here at the fishing shack days and at the whaling schooner nights, so I don't
know how the tests have gone this week.
I sold Hugo to Mr. Toms to pay for the lumber we needed to rebuild his fishing
shack.
| Sincerely, Andrew Farnsworth President and Program Director T2C-3, Farnsworth & Cooper Cannon and Carriage Company |
Copy to: Captain Hawkins
Wilfred Corners, Massachusetts
| 20 November 1780 Salem Ordnance Plant Salem, Massachusetts |
Dear Major Corby:
Well, we got started firing the cannon yesterday. Your letter saying Leonard
was exempt from the draft due to his critical occupation came Monday, so he's
been out of the stockade and helping me get the cannon in place.
Everything was ready for firing yesterday morning. Colonel had his whole
Company out to watch. Leonard told him how to line it up to hit the target
across the field about 400 yards, but they said that they had fired more
cannons than we'd seen.
We knew there was going to be trouble with the way they set her, but we didn't
know what.
The Colonel called out some commands, "Attention, Untimber piece, Secure side
boxes, Advance sponge, Handle cartridge, Charge piece, Ram down cartridge".
Leonard whispered that we lucky to have fired the cannon without knowing all
those words, but the Colonel hollered, "Silence" and then said "Fire", and it
wasn't silent. She went off with a bang. I bet they heard it all the way back
in Wilfred Corners.
We all walked down to the target, but Leonard and I were pretty sure we
wouldn't find anything. Sure enough, the target was as clean as a whistle.
The Colonel stormed around looking for a furrow in the dirt where the cannon
ball had hit. He said that we were amateur cannon makers and he'd never missed
that far before and there must be something wrong with our cannon. I told him
he should use the sight we'd built on the cannon barrel, but he said that a
cannon wasn't like a musket and he didn't need a sight.
We came back up the range and he moved the cannon a little and yelled those
orders again. She fired just fine, but when we got down to the target, it was
still clean.
The Colonel was really mad, but he couldn't figure out what was happening to
his cannon balls. About that time, my friend, Harley Tom came running across
the ridge behind the target carrying something and hollering his head off.
I knew before he got to us what he was saying because he sounded like that
hermit, Whipperwill Green, when we hit his wheelbarrow.
Harley had a cannon ball with grooves on it like our cannon makes. He said it
crashed into his fishing shack a half an hour ago and knocked it flat again.
He was pretty mad and he swore some at me when he saw me standing there. He
said that he had that fishing shack for forty years and nothing happened to it
until I showed up.
About that time, Wakefield Harkins, who I helped build the whaling schooner,
came tearing over the hill. He was dripping wet and swearing so he didn't
make sense.
When we got him calmed down, he said he'd been finishing the cabin of his
whaler when he heard our second shot. Our cannon ball landed on the foredeck,
plowed through two bulkheads and out the bottom, leaving a hole about three
feet across.
He said he tried to get it plugged, but the sea was coming so fast he knew it
was hopeless. By the time he got on deck and put out his dingy, the schooner
turned on its side and sank right from under him. He had to swim ashore.
The Colonel didn't see how that could have happened, but he was so surprised
that he listened while Leonard and I told him about our cannon and why we put
the sight on it and how we'd hit Whipperwill's wheelbarrow.
We all went back up to the cannon and Leonard and I lined it up with the sight
and when we fired it, we could see the ball smash the target from where we
were standing.
The Colonel was pretty happy about our cannon and invited Leonard and I to
his headquarters where I'm writing this. He gave us each a ration of rum, just
like we were officers, and he said we could stay in his quarters until we
complete the tests.
This was a good idea because Harley Toms and Mr. Harkins are outside the gate
with their muskets and they said they were going to shoot me at the first
chance they get. I'll write if we have any problems.
| Sincerely, Andrew Farnsworth President and Program Director T2C-3, Farnsworth & Cooper Cannon and Carriage Company |
Copy to: Captain Hawkins
Wilfred Corners, Massachusetts
| 27 January 1781 Wilfred Corners Massachusetts |
Dear Major Corby:
Leonard and I are back in Wilfred Corners. The tests on the cannon were
finished the first week in December. Colonel Barton sent some of his troops
to help rebuilding the fishing shack. He reported the sinking of the whaling
schooner on a government form for reporting ships sunk by shore batteries. He
didn't mention in the report that the shore battery was our cannon. Anyway,
Wakefield Hawkins is the only fisherman in Salem to have his boat sunk by a
shore battery and folks are looking up to him. So he forgave us for the
accident and said he'd about decided to retire anyway. Colonel Barton said he
wasn't sure, but he thought the government might put him on a pension because
of his record of naval service kind of indicated that he had seen action with
the enemy on the high seas. I guess Colonel Barton must have written quite a
few things in the report.
Leonard and I set out to pull the cannon back to Wilfred Corners by ourselves,
but after a day we'd only gone a mile and a half and were pretty tuckered out.
We pulled the cannon back to the Ordnance Plant the next day. Leonard and I
talked Colonel Barton into selling us a surplus horse. He said that we could
have it for $18.00 but we didn't have any money so we went to work in the
Ordnance Plant until last week when we'd saved enough money to pay him.
The horse worked out fine and we got back to Wilfred Corners with the cannon
in just four days.
I want to get the cannon all cleaned up and ready for delivery and get started
setting up on a way to build a lot of cannons at once cause we're sure you're
going to like the report Colonel Barton wrote about how our cannon shoots. I
want to get started because the winter has been pretty hard on the family here
and the wife has to take in sewing and mending to help out with buying the
food. She couldn't hardly make enough to keep food on the table and sometimes
had to get some on a kind of loan from the store at the crossroads. Sure seems
to take a lot of food to feed our four children, then of course, Captain
Hawkins was here, too.
Let us know what to do next because we want to go to work fast making more
cannons.
| Sincerely, Andrew Farnsworth President and Program Director T2C-3, Farnsworth & Cooper Cannon and Carriage Company |
Copy to: Captain Hawkins
Wilfred Corners, Massachusetts
| 20 March 1781 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| In Replay: Refer to: MHC-9922 |
The results of the Salem Ordnance Tests are being evaluated by the Weapons
System Procurement Board (WSPB). Results of this analysis will be forwarded
along with recommendations, through channels for final review by the
Congressional Weapons Committee (CWC), the Small Business Administration (SBA)
and the Bureau of Budget (BB). The finalized recommendations will then be
submitted to the Secretary of Defense for final analysis and selection of the
contractor for quantity procurement of the T2C-3 Weapons System.
A renegotation team will visit your plant late in April to review your
performance on the T2C-3 Weapons System Prototype. They will inspect your
accounting records and determine allowable costs which you are to be
reimbursed under the terms of the contract. You are directed to have your
T2C-3 Cannon ready for delivery by 01 May 1781. Necessary measures for
insuring security during travel will be taken. A unit from the Third
Cannoneers of General Clark's Upper New York Brigade will be in Wilfred
Corners area and will accept delivery of your prototype cannon in behalf of
the Colonial Government.
| By Order of the Contracting Officer Major Hollis Corby Contracting Officer T2C-3 Weapons Systems Weapons Procurement Branch (WPB) Headquarters, Colonial Army Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
HC:jb
Copies to:
Captain Earl Hawkins
Plant Representatives
T2C-3 Contracts
| 01 June 1781 Wilfred Corners Massachusetts |
Dear Major Corby:
Sixteen Cannoneers from General Clark's Army came by on the 3rd of May and
picked up our cannon. We had it all packed in a box for shipment so we could
protect the secrets like you said we should, but they took the box off and
pulled the cannon right through town with nothing to hide it from everyone.
They said they couldn't fight the British with the cannon in a box. They said
the Redcoats weren't near as interested in how we built the cannons as in
which way we pointed them. They said as soon as they could drag our cannon
over to Maryland, they are going to point it at the Redcoats. Leonard and I
and our help, Live-in-the-Woods, Red Runner Mose and Mark Crossfield were all
here and we cheered when they said that. Then they hauled the cannon off down
the street and everyone in Wilfred Corners cheered and waved. It really looked
good.
The renegotation team you said you were sending was here last week. We told
them all about how well the cannon worked, but they said they weren't
interested in that. They said that Leonard and I hadn't kept adequate records
and our expenses were unusual and extravagant. We told them that we did
everything just like you asked us to. They went around talking to our friends
who loaned us money while we were building the cannon and some of them came to
me kind of worried about their money. I told them you'd see we got paid all
right and they needn't be worried.
We're all ready to go into production on more cannons. Just let us know when
to get started.
| Sincerely, Andrew Farnsworth President and Program Director T2C-3, Farnsworth & Cooper Cannon and Carriage Company |
Copy to: Captain Hawkins
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