How about this great image of a U.S. Coast Guardsman in winter blues on an unidentified cutter alongside a stern 6-pounder 57mm deck gun circa 1916-1920s. Note the Portland Shipbuilding Company Spar Yard sign in the background, an outfit in Portland, Oregon that operated along the west bank of the Willamette River for 70 years.
USCG Historian’s Office 220211-G-G0000-032
The humble 6-pounder, of which the Navy had over 700 examples (of 13 types) on hand in 1901, was a common anti-torpedo boat gun designed in the 1880s originally by Hotchkiss then surpassed by competing designs by Driggs-Schroeder and Nordenfeldt.
They were a ready standby of the Spanish-American War era.
USS Newark. Electrician 1/c Sullivan with one of the ship’s six-pounder guns, in 1898. NH 80783
It was rapidly replaced during and immediately after the Great War in U.S. Navy service on all but local patrol craft, minesweepers, and auxiliaries with something larger or more effective — typically 3″/23s or 3″50s– although some models with decent elevation attributes were retained for a while as “balloon busters” and for use as saluting guns.
Nonetheless, the little gun endured with the Coast Guard.
A simple and light mount, typically less than 900 pounds without its shield installed, it did not penetrate the deck and required no electricity or hoists to move it or its handy 6-pound shells. Still, capable of being fired at rates of up to 20 shells per minute if the crew was well-drilled and, with a range of 8,700 yards, it could still bark.
2nd LT Godfrey L. Carden instructing a 6-pounder gun crew aboard the Revenue Cutter Morill in South Carolina waters, circa 1892. Note the rarely-seen USRSC officer’s sword. Carden would become the COTP for New York City in the Great War. USCGH Photo 210210-G-G0000-1002
For a service that, in peacetime, only needed a popgun to fire shots across the bow of smugglers and poachers and to poke holes in floating derelicts that posed a hazard to navigation, the QF 6 remained a viable option, appearing on several cutters well into the start of WWII and cutters so equipped practiced against moving targets (at a range of 750 yards) at least twice a year.
US Navy 6 pdr Service (left) and Target (right) ammunition via USN 1943 OP-4 Ord Manual
In the early 1940s, the large 240-foot cruising cutters Haida, Modoc, Mojave, and Tampa, as well as the smaller 165-foot Tallapoosa and Ossippee, along with the five new 327-foot Bibb (Treasury) class and 10 1920s construction 250-foot Cayuga (Lake) class cutters– some 21 ships in total– all still carried a couple of old 6-pounders in addition to their regular armament, with 55 service rounds and 110 “Navy” blanks per gun (the odd number as they were packed in 11-round wooden cases as all-up complete shells).
Manning a 5 gun on a Coast Guard Cutter, August 27, 1931. By 1940, the USCG had at least 19 large cutters that carried big (for the service) 5″/51s, and trained with them regularly. However, they were considered “war service” mounts only. NARA 026-g-046-014-001
This is because the more modern 3″/23s, 3″50s, and 5″/51s also carried by these ships were considered reserved for “war use” and were not to be used on normal patrols “unless circumstances of the case render such use highly advisable.”
From the USCG 1938 Ordnance manual:
In addition, the 6-pounders could be used for line throwing, more accurately and to longer distances than the standard Lyle gun (which was heavy and typically used ashore) and Trapdoor Springfields that were typically dedicated to the task, making them useful for rescues in high seas or from wrecks on reefs.
Coast Guard cutter Manning (1898-1930) preparing to shoot a tow line to a disabled schooner from her 6-pounder
USCGC Mojave. 11 May 1929. “Coast Guardsmen firing the Camden line-throwing a projectile from the 6-pounder. This line and gun are used in extremely bad weather, where the shoulder line-throwing gun is inadequate.” USCG Image. National Archives Identifier 205580631
For this, the service’s gunners mates made special “impulse” rounds, a much lighter charge that the regular Navy issue blank (which was typically used for salutes and “shots across the bow.”) The impulse round, containing 6 ounces of black powder, was sufficient to heave the line throwing projectile 300 yards or more with the gun elevated to 30 degrees. Of note, the standard Navy saluting/blank load for a 6-pounder used a 12-ounce charge of black shell powder, double the USCG impulse load.
6-pounder and 3-pounder line throwing projectiles, via OP 4 (1943)
Using 6 pounder 57mm gun for line throwing USCG Ordnance manual 1938:
A reoccurring theme
Similarly, the Coast Guard continued to use the old WWII-era 5″/38 and 3″/50 guns, only retiring them in the late 1990s long after the Navy was done with them.
Last USCG 5 inch 38 being cut at RTC Yorktown 1993 or 1994
Last USCG 5 inch 38 being cut RTC Yorktown 1993 or 1994
Today the USCG is the final American user of the OTO Melera MK 75 76mm gun in U.S. service and has been since 2015.
That mount is likely to be retired in US service sometime in the 2030s when the final 270-foot Bear class cutters are put to pasture after 50 years of service.
The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Northland conducts a live firing of the MK 75 76mm weapons system while underway, on September 20, 2020, in the Atlantic Ocean. The cutter returned to its homeport of Portsmouth, Virginia, Wednesday after a 47-day patrol conducting counter-drug and migrant interdiction operations in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo)
One day, they will probably be the last user of the Bofors 57mm MK 110.
