Peacemaker.

This is coolbert:

Thanks to the wiki and the original tip from the Chicago Tribune almanac of today we have this entry.

On this date in the year 1844 the Princeton Disaster occurred!!

The latest and newest American warship equipped with the latest and newest and most deadly naval cannon then in existence, an unstoppable and unbeatable combination - - an explosion occurring almost taking the life of the American President, among those killed and wounded the Secretary of State and Secretary of the Navy!!

"The USS Princeton Disaster of 1844 occurred on February 28 aboard the newly built USS Princeton when one of the ship's long guns, the 'Peacemaker', then the world's longest naval gun, exploded during a display of the ship. Among the dead were Secretary of State Abel Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer and seven other people including David Gardiner, father of Julia Gardiner, the fiancée of President John Tyler. Twenty people were injured as well. President Tyler survived the disaster because he was below decks."

"Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur was succeeded by John C. Calhoun of South Carolina"

Henry Clay of Kentucky, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and John Calhoun of South Carolina those three persons most dominating American politics during the first half of the nineteenth century! Calhoun in anticipation of southern secession most interested in and devoted to the study of military arts!!

Too, military duty, even during peacetime, can be very hazardous for your health! A mere demonstration for dignitaries of the most advanced [at the time] technology going terribly awry, the American President only surviving what might have been perceived as a miracle, escaping unscathed while others around him perishing.

Almost makes you think of the visit of President Bush the Younger to the USS Abraham Lincoln, the commander-in-chief making a carrier landing [not at the controls] in a combat aircraft, really hot-shot like. One wrong move and we would have been missing a President. As they say: "the best laid plans of mice and men"!

coolbert.