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16-inch gun M1895

Field	Value
name	16-inch coastal defense gun M1895
image	File:Crowds in New York watch the shipment of the 16 inch Coastal Defense Gun M1895 January 1915.jpg
caption	Crowds in New York watch the shipment of the 16-inch coastal defense gun M1895, January 1915
origin	United States
type	Coastal artillery
is_ranged	yes
is_artillery	yes
service	1915–1943
used_by	United States Army
wars	World War I
designer	Watervliet Arsenal
design_date	1895
manufacturer	Watervliet Arsenal
number	1
weight	284000 lbs
length	35 calibers (56 ft)
cartridge	2400 lbs shell, 650 lbs nitrocellulose powder
caliber	16 in (406 mm)
velocity	2250 ft/s
max_range	19300 yd
feed	hand
carriage	M1912 disappearing
elevation	-5° to +20°
traverse	circa 160°

The 16-inch coastal defense gun M1895 was a large artillery piece installed to defend major American seaports. Only one was built and it was installed in Fort Grant on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal Zone. It was operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps.

History

Under President Grover Cleveland's administration in 1885, the Board of Fortifications under William C. Endicott was ordered to investigate the value and state of the United States' coastal defenses. Endicott found that America had fallen behind and that new naval technology made many forts and coastal defense weaponry obsolete. The 1886 report recommended a $127-million ($ in ) construction program of breech-loading cannons, mortars, floating batteries, and submarine mines for some 29 locations on the US coastline. New fortifications built in the following decades as a result of this report were called "Endicott Period" fortifications.

Finding a need for long range weaponry, the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps ordered a 16-inch (406 mm) gun, the construction of which began in 1895 at the Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, New York. The massive artillery piece was designated the M1895 and was completed in 1902; only one was built. At 284000 lbs it weighed more than any gun that had ever been created up to that point. The 32-wheel train car alone weighed 192420 lbs. The 56 ft long gun could launch a 2400 lbs shell 21 mi.

The weapon was shipped from the Watervliet Arsenal to Watertown Arsenal in Watertown, Massachusetts to be packed for shipment to the Panama Canal Zone. It was installed on an M1912 disappearing carriage in Fort Grant on the Pacific side of the canal in 1915, where it protected the fort until it was scrapped in 1943. The muzzle section was later preserved and displayed at the Watervliet Arsenal museum, which closed in 2013.

Gallery

File:Scientific American Volume 91 Number 09 (August 1904) (1904) (14784412442).jpg|Full-scale model of 16-inch gun M1895 with various ammunition alongside, St. Louis World's Fair, 1904 File:Solider standing on the 16 inch Coastal Defense Gun M1895 at Sandy Hook Proving Grounds, NJ.jpg|Soldiers standing on the 16-inch gun M1895 at Sandy Hook Proving Ground, New Jersey

Bibliography

Notes References

Description of Seacoast Guns 8, 10, 12, 14, 16-inch

References

{{harvnb. Harrisburg Telegraph. 1915
Ordnance, pp. 46–47
{{harvnb. history.army.mil. 2001
{{harvnb. The History of Fort Tilden. 2007
{{harvnb. Anonymous. 2015
{{harvnb. The Manning Times. 1915
{{harvnb. Berhow. 2015
{{harvnb. Crowe. 2014

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

world-war-i-artillery-of-the-united-states world-war-i-guns world-war-ii-artillery-of-the-united-states coastal-artillery 400-mm-artillery disappearing-guns

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