Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!ginosko!rex!uflorida!gatech!purdue!decwrl!amdcad!military
From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Seacoast Mortars and Nukes
Message-ID: <26724@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 12 Aug 89 07:36:19 GMT
References: <8630@cbnews.ATT.COM* <8675@cbnews.ATT.COM> <8800@cbnews.ATT.COM> <8892@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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Organization: New York State Institute for Sebastian Cabot Studies
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From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty)

In article <8892@cbnews.ATT.COM>, Phil Jansen writes: 
*Fort Stevens lost the crew in the pit for its first rifle firing.  The rifles
*were on counterweights to raise and lower the gun; the recoil pushed the gun
*back down for reloading.

ok; this was a case of deaths during a rifle firing; not during a mortar
firing, which is what i was talking about originally.  in any case, it
is clear that both the coast defense rifle and coast defense mortar
emplacments had design flaws that were only discovered after the abuse
of some of their crews.

there have been cases on battleships where crews were injured
by the fire of the big guns; my recollection is that one Admiral
partially lost sight in one eye while in the conning tower of
a Iowa class BB due to a gun firing.

*Fort Stevens was built during the Civil War to guard the mouth of the Columbia
*River from the Confederate navy (and other navies).  The original mortars were
*replaced by rifles (BIG ones) in WWII in a general US coastal defense upgrade.

the Watervliet Arsenal manufactured large numbers of 16" guns for coast
defense after WWI; most of these were ultimately scrapped later in WWII
when it was realized that they weren't going to be used.  also, many
guns built originally for the Navy were transfered to the Army as BB
construction was slowed down; i believe that this is what happened to
the 16"/50 caliber Mk IIs that were too big for the turrets in the Iowas.

richard
-- 
richard welty    518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York
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    ``Lucas -- a good day's work, and home before dark''