Cannons Ready, On my command, boys! - Resized for small scrn

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Marina's trip this summer to Fort Casey, Washington, part of the Iron Triangle of interlocking Endicott period (1890s - 1910s built, remaining in service through WW2) forts guarding Admiralty Inlet, the passage into Puget Sound from the sea. Fort Casey was armed with 7 x 10in rifled breechloading cannon in hydraulic disappearing mounts, each protected by a massive earthen and reinforced concrete glacis, with two eight-mortar 12in mortar pits behind them and a variety of lesser guns to defend against small craft. The other two forts--Fort Worden and Fort Flagler--were similarly armed with fewer 10in disappearing rifles but several massive 12in disappearing rifles. The unique thing about Fort Casey however is that it still has two of its 10in disappearing rifles emplaced on the original hydraulic mounts, and your bailout tax dollars for parks have been put hard at work restoring that battery at the fort to more or less as-new condition, restoring and painting the guns, the concrete of the fort, basically everything to the point that when you arrive, it looks like they're just building the damned battery now to shoot at Chinese amphibs or something. My roommate Jacie took most of the photos.

So, here we go:





"Turntable at 40 degrees right, Sir!"

"Elevate the gun!"




"Central Battery Director gives us range at eight-zero-five-zero yards, Sir."

"Very well, eight degrees elevation and clear the gun crew for firing!"

"FIRE!"



(An image from the fort when it was in service of one of the 10in rifles being fired.)



"Breech open and the gun's fully recoiled to loading position, Sir!"

"Bring up the next round and stand by to traverse the turntable!"

"Sir, yes Sir!"



"Shell's up!"

"One round, AP, begin the loading drill!"

"Powder up!"

(This is the receiving cradle for the lift bringing 10in shells up to service the gun from the heavily reinforced concrete magazine buried into the structure of the fortress. Shell and powder would be loaded separately with the powder in those days in silken bags.)



"Don't worry, boys, they can't even see our guns under the glacis...."



"Up shot!"



"Keep the rounds comin', boys! We're gettin' good hits on the bastards!"

(A closer up view of one of the ammunition cradles. Sadly grated over and not restored due to kids trying to climb into them once.)



"We've got to keep them from bringing up their minesweepers..."

(One of the fortified rangefinder positions.)



"Get yourself into the CBD! There isn't no way in god's own earth you can survive in the open under that barrage!"

(The view down into one of the firing control stations.)



"New range to the enemy battleships, six eight eight oh yards, heading..."

"Range tables?"

"Colonel, we've got for Battery Valleau, shift elevation to seven degrees, traverse to thirty-four degrees right, for battery...."

(Inside the fire control director. Once held a huge turntable for an utterly massive optical rangefinder, and there's still some of the original boards on the slats behind it for where they'd have the range tables marked out.)





"Thank god we've not had a gun knocked out of action yet, but by lord the boys are taking a terrible pounding from the enemy's high explosive."

(A look at the backs of the batteries from the fire control post.)





"They're making their move, Sir! Small boats, trawlers, heading toward the minefield."

"Signal Battery Trevor to stand ready for action, Lieutenant!"

"Sir!"

(Some of the fort's 3in guns.)



"Just a little closer, ya bastards..."



"Battery Trevor No. 2 has taken a direct hit, Sir, the barrel's burst!"


(Damage to one of the 3in guns still there. I believe this happened in the Philippines in WW2, where the guns were recovered from and re-mounted here in the 60's to replace the original pieces.)



"Major! The barrel's still intact on No. 1 Trevor!"

"Clear those wounded out of the way and get that gun back in action, at the double-quick!"





"Load!"


(The breach-blocks were removed from the guns in 1942 in the Philippines and thrown into Subic Bay to render them useless to the Japanese.)



"Sir! The battleships are coming within five thousand yards and they're opening up with their secondary and tertiary batteries to help support the minesweepers..."

"Order the gunners to redouble their efforts! Flagler nailed one of the bastards straight in a magazine and I'm not about to have my boys outdone!"

(mounting for a rangefinder in one of the smaller armoured positions.)



"New traverse positions coming in, Sir!"

(an old gutta-percha switchbox mounting for the fort's telegraphy.)



"And we've got another, by god!"

"By the lord indeed, they're hauling out of line! We've driven 'em off, boys!"

(And that was the short version of Marina's visit to Fort Casey on Whidbey Island.)

[tim31]

Coastal emplacements always wound up in nice real estate

All of the sites that defended the Derwent River leading in to Hobart are now public parks, but none of them look 'condition two', the concrete is generally chipped and covered with graffiti, but the older stuff made with convict bricks generally gets looked after better for 'heritage' reasons.

[Simplicius]

The 56K barrier is no concern for me, but would you please resize your photos to something a bit closer to typical monitor resolution? Over 2000 px on the long side is needless excess; this isn't a gallery show.

[Thanas]

I second that - it get's very hard to even judge/see the pictures properly. Which is a shame, because I really would love to see them.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I'm very sorry about that, I have a widescreen monitor with the resolution set extremely high and I was doing this to late at night to go into much more planning... Sometime today I'll load up a version with reduced pictures. Any requests for the resolution size on those? I want to make it as high as possible without screwing up anyone's sight of them again.

[Bluewolf]

Coastal emplacements always wound up in nice real estate

Silos, churches, bases, anything really will end up converted in some way and It is pretty cool sometimes. Oh and good images Marina, it was nice of you to post them if theey are a bit big.

[Thanas]

I'm very sorry about that, I have a widescreen monitor with the resolution set extremely high and I was doing this to late at night to go into much more planning... Sometime today I'll load up a version with reduced pictures. Any requests for the resolution size on those? I want to make it as high as possible without screwing up anyone's sight of them again.

800x800 is the highest I find comfortable on this current laptop monitor.

[Bluewolf]

Yeah, they are nice pictures but a bit too big on size. I am using a 1200x800 display for reference.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I'll resize them to 800 x 600, then.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

This fort on Whidbey Island, together with Forts Flagler and Worden, consisted of the Triangle of Fire or Iron Triangle of Puget Sound, a vast development of fortified works and the strongest defences in the United States against an attack from the sea. They were rivalled only by the equally heavy Trilateral of Forts Stevens, Canby, and Columbia immediately to the south at the south of the Columbia River.

The forts were arranged to cover Admiralty Inlet, one of only two passages across Puget Sound. It's about 7 - 8 miles wide at the narrowest though deep, and can be easily ranged across by all three forts, allowing supporting fire.

Fort Worden was the strongest, near Port Townsend, positioned to engage ships which might stand off to bombard the positions at long range. She therefore had a battery of 4 x 12in, half in disappearing mounts and half in barbettes, and 7 x 10in, 5 in barbettes and 2 in disappearing mounts. Her secondary armament was 8 x 6in QF guns in disappearing mounts, 2 x 5in QF on balanced pillar mounts, and 4 x 3in QF on pedestal mounts, as well as searchlights and prepared positions for hotchkiss revolving cannon and maxim guns to ward off a landing. She also two huge mortar pits, each with 8 x 12in mortars for a total of 16 x 12in mortars.

Fort Casey itself mounted 7 x 10in, all in disappearing mountings, as well a 16 x 12in mortars like Fort Worden, 6 x 6in QF guns in disappearing mounts, 2 x 5in QF on balanced pillar mounts, and 4 x 3in QF on pedestal mounts, same light protection as at Worden, and searchlights.

Fort Flagler completed the triangle with 2 x 12in disappearing rifles, 4 x 10in in barbettes, one mortar pit with 8 x 12in mortars, 6 x 6 in QF in disappearing mounts, 2 x 5in QF on balanced pillar mounts, and 4 x 3in QF on pedestal mounts, same light protection as at Worden, and searchlights.

They of course protected an electronic minefield.

There is however another passage....



Deception Pass, you may remember I had a little amateur photoshoot done of me there a while back that I posted some pictures from, I think. Anyway, take a look at that--that's all there is, the full width of the passage, and it has insane tidal currents through it.

But just to be on the safe side we put Fort Whitman on an island just inside the passage, covering both it and the tidal estuary which creates Fidalgo Island which a torpedo boat might slip through. The armament at Fort Whitman was 6 x 6in QF in disappearing mounts and a variety of hotchkiss revolving cannon.

As a last ditch defence for the Bremerton naval shipyards, we had Fort Ward on Bainbridge island covering the extremely narrow (2 km tops) Rich Passage, a natural glacial fjord leading into Bremerton harbour. Fort Ward had 3 x 8in disappearing guns, 2 x 5in QF on pedestal mounts, and 6 x 3in QF on masking pedestals. Fort Ward also protected an electronic minefield.

[Thanas]

Those are indeed very nice pictures. Thank you for resizing them.

[RRoan]

Man, those forts are cool. I was at Fort Stevens this summer, but from what I can tell of your pictures Fort Casey has been maintained better. Fort Stevens only has one of those pop-up guns now, and it's a replica. Even so, the similarity in the architecture is really striking; at first I though I was looking at a picture of Fort Stevens.

[TheMuffinKing]

Beautiful pics! I'm amazed at how well preserved the facility is, much better than the caissons in Sandy Hook N.J.

I'll have to take a trip there one of these weekends.

[Bluewolf]

That is MUCH better.

What type of camera was used?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

That is MUCH better.

What type of camera was used?

Oh, that was my cheap little Kodak, nothing fancy at all.

[FSTargetDrone]

Nice selection of photos.

For those of us on the East Coast of the USA, Fort Miles in Delaware has a collection of various guns. I've never been there, but I have a small book, Delaware's Coastal Defenses: Fort Saulsbury and A Mighty Fort Called Miles written by C.W. Warrington, which has spurred my interest in the topic. One of these days I've have to check it out.

Lying amidst rolling dunes, in the shadow of a World War II observation tower in Cape Henlopen State Park, is Fort Miles Historical Area.

During World War II, the Delaware River was a chief priority for defense planners because of the access it afforded to the giant trade centers of Wilmington, Philadelphia, and beyond. Fort Miles, located in what is now Cape Henlopen State Park, was a key piece in the nation's coastal defense at that time.

The heavy guns, mine fields and searchlights of Fort Miles provided in-depth defense; however, the growing use of long-range missiles brought an end to harbor defenses in the United States. By 1958, Fort Miles was no longer important to the defense of the region, and in 1964, 543 acres of the base were returned to the State of Delaware, forming the heart of Cape Henlopen State Park. In April, 2005, Fort Miles was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Duchess (and anyone else who's interested), you can see a few photos of Fort Miles at the link above.

[Simplicius]

In the far Northeast (Maine), there are few forts of the modern era still extant. Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth is one I have visited, and it was in middling condition at the time. The reinforced concrete has held up much less well than the granite of the older forts. While RF and gun mounts are still there, no weapons remain, or indeed have been there since 1943.

On the other hand, a number of granite forts have survived with or without much attention, as well as some older sites. Fort Knox, a gem of a white elephant, even retains some of her guns and their carriages, while other forts such as Popham have seen their survivors dispersed, or - like Gorges - unpreserved and unmounted.

[Uraniun235]

Nice pictures - the disappearing guns reminded me of Fort Stevens over near Astoria.

[lPeregrine]

If you're in that area often and interested in the old forts, Camp Hayden near Port Angeles might be worth a trip. Sadly the guns are long gone and there's a road running through the 16" gun bunkers, but it's all still reasonably intact, if a bit overdue for a cleaning and restoration. And if you're up for a bit of a hike, the bunkers for the 5" guns are still up on Striped Peak, and the view from up there is pretty nice (at least a few years ago it was).

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Nice pictures - the disappearing guns reminded me of Fort Stevens over near Astoria.

They're both Endicott period fortifications and so basically identical in equippage and design.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

If you're in that area often and interested in the old forts, Camp Hayden near Port Angeles might be worth a trip. Sadly the guns are long gone and there's a road running through the 16" gun bunkers, but it's all still reasonably intact, if a bit overdue for a cleaning and restoration. And if you're up for a bit of a hike, the bunkers for the 5" guns are still up on Striped Peak, and the view from up there is pretty nice (at least a few years ago it was).

Holy shit, I didn't know about Camp Hayden's existence, I didn't think anything more than the 6in batteries they installed in a couple of places had been added in WW2. That's now on my December Trip List for sure, along with that excellent Mexican restaurant in Port Angeles that's run by that mexican lady and her German husband who adds just a slightly quirky touch of things like potato salad to the menu, though I forget the name.