Out West

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Sorry, I have been a little out of pocket this week, but I’ve been visiting a certain well-known suppressor and firearms maker in Utah for a few days and having a blast while doing it.

They actually let me in their gun vault. I guess they didn’t know me too well!

Who doesn’t like a legit HK MP7?

Stretching my legs with some .338LM (quietly).

Shitty wi-fi out here…

But, I can report that the SLC area has pumpkin beer, which isn’t half bad once you have three or four steins.

Perhaps this needs more research.

Anyway, I’m back home until my next adventure, so stay tuned as new products from mystery suppressor maker surface once the NDAs expire.

Silver Ships gets a 110-boat nod

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If you have ever been to Bellingrath Gardens along Mobile Bay or driven the long way to Fort Gains at the mouth of the Bay itself, you have passed a quiet little tan-yellow warehouse/workshop in Theodore with an aluminum patrol boat on display up front. Blink and you miss it.

That is Silver Ships.

While you may not have heard of them, you have probably seen their work as they have made hundreds of small aluminum-hulled workboats and RHIB style fast boats over the years that have been used by marine patrols, conservation, and fire agencies around the country, as well as the U.S Corps of Engineers and all five branches of the military, especially in the Gulf South region.

With that being said, this just came out on the DOD’s Contract announcements (emphasis mine):

Silver Ships Inc.,* Theodore, Alabama, was awarded an $8,239,095 firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity single award contract (N00024-21-D-2205) for design and construction of up to 110 Navy 8-meter and 11-meter Surface Support Craft and Coast Guard Special Purpose Craft Law Enforcement Generation II (SPC-LE II). Work will be performed in Theodore, Alabama, and is expected to be completed in August 2023. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $51,663,787. Fiscal 2020 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,242,628 (39%); fiscal 2021 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,187,680 (39%); and fiscal 2021 other procurement (Coast Guard) funds in the amount of $1,808,787 (22%) will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract is a small business set-aside. This contract was competitively procured via the beta.sam.gov website, with four offers received. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Awarded Sept. 30, 2021)

Via Silver Ships’ presser on the award: 

8m Cabin SSC

8m Open SSC

The NSW SSCs are 8- and 11-meter aluminum deep-vee hulled boats with a protective collar.  Variants of the SSC include both open center console and cabin versions. These craft are used from inland bays and waterways to deep water over-the-horizon transits, in all operating conditions and weather. The Navy SSC vessels will support the Naval Special Warfare community via ocean diver and swimmer support, medical transport, vessel towing and water airdrop training, among other missions.

USCG 11m SPE-LE

The 11-meter craft has a multipurpose deck for carrying various payloads or mission gear. The 11-meter Coast Guard SPC-LE vessels are armed and will be operated in varying conditions along the length of the borders of the United States and the Caribbean. Typical SPC-LE missions involve intercepting suspicious vessels entering U.S. waters; the boats will also be used for port security. In addition to the U.S. Coast Guard, other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security will operate some of the boats.

More details on the 11-meter Surface Support Craft, via Silver Ships.

“Silver Ships has been building the AM1100 11-Meter Naval Special Warfare – Surface Support Craft (SSC) RHIB for the past seven years. There are three variants of the vessel; the most recent delivery is the Open Center Console version. The U.S. Navy uses these vessels for training and support of swim and dive operations, among other missions.”

3 Band Enfield, still in the field at 78+

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This hardy footsoldier is described as “Sikh Sentry Srinagar” standing post in the Kashmir region in 1945, complete with a regulation Dastar (turban), and KD uniform shorts with field shirt and wool knee socks. His weapon appears to be a P1853 “3 Band” Enfield rifle, possibly converted in the 1870s to a .577 Snider–Enfield breechloader although I don’t think so as it doesn’t have updated sights.

 
While his uniform may have updated from the 1880s, his armament and bearing have not. 
 

A Sikh sentry at Fort Johnston, Malawi, in circa 1880s period artwork by Sir Henry Hamilton Johnston GCMG KCB, (1858-1927) who designed the uniform

As the last P53 was produced in 1867, Srinagar is likely much younger than his weapon, but he likely would have used it without compunction if needed.

One hardy Sikh with a bayonet and smoke pole of any vintage is a daunting sentry.

Warship Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021: A Hell of a Night

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021: A Hell of a Night

As I am currently roaming around the wilds of Utah all week, today’s WWeds is shorter than normal, but I trust no less interesting.

USS Selfridge (DD-357) NH 63121

Here we see the Porter-class tin can USS Selfridge (DD-357), the second warship named after the very sinkable Thomas O. Selfridge which we have covered a few times in the past, in her gleaming pre-war lines.

Fast forward to the night of 6 October 1943, some 78 years ago today. The place, Northwest of Vella Lavella in the hotly contested Solomon Islands. There, three American destroyers– Selfridge, Chevalier, and O’Bannon— bumped into a convoy of barges and auxiliaries escorted by nine destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy — Akigumo, Fumizuki, Isokaze, Kazagumo, Matsukaze, Samidare, Shigure, Yūnagi, and Yūgumo— with the latter equipped with the formidable Long Lance torpedo.

The confused, swirling action by moonlight and searchlight lasted less than an hour and left Yūgumo and Chevalier on the bottom while O’Bannon and Selfridge were seriously damaged and left to the field of battle when the Japanese withdrew to attend to their convoy which was filled with evacuated Japanese soldiers.

Selfridge suffered 13 killed, 11 wounded, and 36 missing, with most of those carried away with a hit to her bow from two Long Lances.

As noted by a Navy damage control report, “At 2306-1/2, a torpedo detonated at about frame 40, starboard. There was some indication that a second torpedo detonated almost simultaneously at frame 30, port. The bow severed completely at about frame 40 and floated aft on the starboard side.”

Battle of Vella LaVella (II) 6th-7th October 1943 Damaged USS SELFRIDGE (DD-357) after the battle. Her bow had been wrecked by a Japanese destroyer torpedo in this action. Note 5″/38 twin gun. Alongside is USS O’BANNON (D-450), which damaged her bow in a collision during the action. 80-G-274873.

Extensive details of the damage and how it was repaired while only barely off the line at Purvis Bay and at Noumea, here while the full period 54-page report of the engagement from Selfridge’s skipper’s point of view, here. 

Selfridge steamed 6,200 miles back to the West Coast with a temporary bow fitted, arriving at Mare Island looking, well, abbreviated.

USS Selfridge (DD-357), coming into Mare Island Navy Yard, California, for bow blown off just forward of the bridge in a heroic action in the Battle of Vella Lavella on October 6, 1943. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-316295

Permanent repairs, including the installation of a new bow, were made at Mare Island and, after refresher training out of San Diego, she returned to Pearl Harbor on 10 May 1944 in time to join the forces staging for the invasion of the Marianas.

USS Selfridge (DD-357), steaming out to sea after repairs at Mare Island Navy Yard, California. Repairs were completed in the spring of 1944. 80-G-316296

Rejoining the war, Selfridge was active in the Philippines and the liberation of Guam, before switching oceans to escort convoys across the Atlantic in 1945, earning four battle stars for her WWII service.

Decommissioned on 15 October 1945, Selfridge was struck from the Navy list on 1 November 1945; sold to George H. Nutman, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y.; removed from Navy custody on 20 December 1946, and scrapped in October 1947.

***

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Beretta adds optics cut to APX Carry

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Beretta this week announced a new installment to its APX series of modular striker-fired pistols, the svelte new optics-ready APX A1 9mm.

The company’s design philosophy of the APX A1 Carry was to develop a pistol that was easily concealed with its single-stack, sub-compact, and thin grip design that makes it essentially invisible, no matter the clothes you wear or whether you carry inside or outside the waistband.

And it comes in four colors at a price of $449

More in my column at Guns.com. 

Japanese destroyer Warabi, lost in 1927, located

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The Momi-class destroyer Warabi (27) was laid down for the Imperial Japanese Navy some 101 years ago this month.

The Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Warabi, Yamato Museum

The proud 850-ton greyhound had a short career, lost 24 August 1927 during a night training exercise in Miho Bay off the Jizosaki Lighthouse.

The 5,200-ton Sendai-class light cruiser Jintsū sliced Wabari in two and sent her to the bottom, with a loss of 119 souls. The event, which also saw a less catastrophic collision with Warabi’s sistership Ashi and the cruiser Naka, went down in Japanese naval history as the Mihonoseki Incident (美保関事件, Mihonoseki no Jiken) and was one of the worst peacetime accidents the fleet suffered, akin to the 1923 Honda Point disaster to the U.S. Navy.

While Jintsū had to be taken to Maizuru Naval Arsenal for major repairs and would go on to be pummeled to the seafloor by three Allied cruisers at the Battle of Kolombangara, her skipper during the Wabari incident Captain Keiji Mizushiro, committed suicide after the 1927 collision before he could be sent to trial.

Now, Warabi’s shattered wreckage has been located by the Mihonoseki incident memorial association.

Via The Asahi Shimbun: 

A search with a multibeam sonar system, which uses sound waves to study the unevenness of the seabed, spotted a massive object on the 97-meter-deep ocean floor off Kotoura, Tottori Prefecture. The site is located 33 kilometers to the northeast of the Mihonoseki Lighthouse, which stands guard at the eastern end of Shimane Peninsula.

In September last year, the association scrutinized the object through an underwater drone and identified it as a ship’s body with a length of 50 meters or so. It enlisted the assistance of other parties, such as a company that employs sounding technology and the Kyushu University Research Center for Coastal Seafloor, which had a track record in underwater surveys.

Members of the expedition team determined that the object was the Warabi’s bow section, partly based on Imperial Japanese Navy records that reported the destroyer’s hull being broken into two parts.

More here.

Happy 80th Electric Acorn

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The U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry “Tropic Lightning” Division was activated 10 October 1941 at Schofield Barracks, Wahiawa, Hawaii, where it is still in garrison.

Entering combat against the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, where members cracked open armories and used their rifles and small arms against IJN aircraft hitting the barracks, the division went on to a very tough war, suffering 5,432 casualties in its rapid advance from Guadalcanal– where they were the Thin Red Line– through the Solomons and Luzon.

25th Infantry Division Troops Burn Out A Japanese Pill Box At Baguio In The Philippines On 23 March 1945.

Then came the Korean War (10 campaign streamers, 14 MOH recipients), Vietnam (12 campaign streamers, 23 MOH recipients), and Cold War service. They have also been heavily involved in Iraq and Afghanistan (five Meritorious Unit Commendations).

M60 machine gunner of the 25th Infantry Division, 1968

Exercise Team Spirit 83 South Korea, 25th Infantry 

US Army (USA) Specialist Fourth Class (SFC) Theodore Amell, 2nd Platoon (PLT), Bravo (B) Company (CO), 1st Battalion (BN), 5th Infantry (INF), 25th Infantry Division (ID) (Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT)), scans the horizon with an M21 sniper weapon system for threats while on patrol near Mosul, Iraq. The SBCT is assigned to Task Force Freedom supporting Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. The M21 system is made up of a 7.62 mm M14 rifle with specially selected and hand-fitted parts and a scope.

1-21 infantry 25th ID Gimlet battalion continue training at PTA on Hawaii Island, April 2019

Lost Magazines on the Beach, and We aren’t talking Cosmo

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The National Park Service’s Gulf Island National Seashore– which includes a number of coastal defense positions and Third Period forts (Barrancas and Pickens) around Pensacola, Florida as well as Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island off Gulfport– has closed a section of Perdido Key.

The reason? Almost 200 19th century shells, some still live.

Via NPS: 

Following Hurricane Ida, military munitions were discovered near the far end of the seashore’s Perdido Key Area. This event has resulted in a temporary closure of the area, with an abundance of caution should there be additional undiscovered munitions still buried.

The area where the munitions were found is closed and marked with signs. Visitors walking or boating in this area are prohibited from entering. Staff will be monitoring and patrolling the area regularly.

“The park continues to monitor the area for newly discovered munitions and will secure the site(s) should any be found in the future,” said Darrell Echols, GUIS Superintendent. “Our goal is to ensure that the area is safe for the visitors and staff, and that cultural resources are protected.”

More than 190 cannonballs were detonated in September within park boundaries with help from other federal agencies. No more unexploded ordnances have been identified. Munitions found within national park boundaries are considered cultural artifacts and are protected by law. It is illegal for the public to harm, deface, damage, or remove these items.

It’s a shame that some of the shells weren’t saved, as surely not all were live, but I guess the NPS has enough on hand for their exhibits. Plus, if they would have said some weren’t dangerous, you can bet the would-be collectors would be sifting Perdido Key until all the Sea Oats were gone and the key itself washed away.

However, as someone who has grown up in the shadow of Vicksburg, Port Gibson, and the Battle of Mobile Bay battlefields, I can vouch that there are hundreds of old shells on mantles across the Gulf South– many still with fuzes.

Not saying it’s the safest thing in the world, and I wouldn’t recommend it, just making a statement that they are more common than you think.

Kimber’s Shark in the Micro 9 Pool

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Since the Sig Sauer P365 came out in 2017, which gave the booming concealed carry market a 10+1 capacity 9mm that wasn’t much bigger than a 6+1 .380 blowback, seemingly everyone else is trying to catch up. You’ve seen the Taurus GX4, Ruger MAX, S&W Shield Plus, and Springfield Armory Hellcat all hit the shelves, which were basically the same thing only with different branding.

Now there is the Kimber R7 Mako, which allows a 13+1 capacity, has an optics cut and TruGlo Tritium night sights standard, and excellent– for a striker-fired gun– trigger and ergos.

Plus, rather than a brutal utilitarian look familiar to the rest of the competition, the smooth lines and laser-cut texturing of the Mako just seems, well, kinda pretty.

My thoughts after spending the past few weeks with the R7 Mako after the jump over to Guns.com. 

Scout Car Wandering Around SC

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80 Years Ago Today:

Established in 1913 and associated with the New Jersey Army National Guard (unofficially carrying the lineage of the Civil War-era 1st New Jersey Volunteer Cavalry) after the Dick Act replaced state militia units, the 102nd Cavalry Regiment was taken into federal service for the Punitive Expedition against Villa in 1916 then shipped over to France where it served (sans horses, broken up into MP, field artillery, and train headquarters troops for the 29th Infantry Division) in the Meuse-Argonne/Alsace in 1918.

Interbellum, the 102nd was reformed in 1921 and assigned to the 21st (National Guard) Cavalry Division along will all the other horse cav in the Northeast. This association ended in 1937 with the general disbanding of most of the Army’s and Guard’s mounted units and, in 1940, the 102nd became gently mechanized.

Inducted into federal service on 6 January 1941, the unit was broken up into a couple of different cavalry reconnaissance squadrons (mechanized) and shipped out for England where they landed at Normandy and fought across Northwest Europe under Major General Leonard Gerow’s Fifth Corps.

Today, the 102nd is still mechanized, as a recon unit for the 50th IBCT, 42nd “Rainbow” Infantry Division, and is still part of the NJANG, although they don’t roll in WMC Scout Cars anymore.

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