A rare American made multi shot loading device. This piece was invented and patented by T.H. Peavey of Maine. It is made of brass and is designed to hold 12 charges of powder, ball and patch. The loader is used to feed any muzzle loading firearm. This American loader was patented on the 27 of June 1854. This unique piece is missing a collar cover which attaches to the muzzle pouring spout. This piece was inverted by Peavey who was the same family who invented the Peavey clasp knife-pistol in 1866 (see Flayderman’s). Both A.J. Peavey, the inventor of the pistol and T.H. Peavey were from a small rural village in Maine, Montville in Waldo County. The village of Montville no longer is in existence. This is a very uncommon American firearm accessory which come from the backwoods of Maine.
A watercolour of the HMS Terror exploring the Canadian Arctic, which she would never leave (Canadian Museum of Civilization)
Canada’s plucky Ranger force, a group of some 5,000 part time soldiers organized in patrols in 200 far north communities in the nation’s huge arctic expanse are sparsely equipped. Armed with WWII-era Longbranch No.4 Enfield .303 rifles to ward off polar bears and issued a pair of camo pants and an orange pullover and ballcap, they are Canada’s search and rescue and sovereignty in the arctic.
And sometimes they stumble upon some neat stuff in their travels. Six years ago Inuit Ranger Sammy Kogvik came across a ship’s mast sticking out of the ice in isolated Terror Bay in winter, named after Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated ship HMS Terror.
Terror was one of two Royal Navy ships that set out in 1845 on the Franklin to find the Northwest Passage to Asia. The ships became trapped in thick Arctic ice and all 129 crew members died. The other ship — HMS Erebus — was located in September 2014 in the Queen Maud Gulf, along the central Arctic coastline– with the help of Inuit oral history.
“When I was getting off the snowmobile I looked to my left and saw something sticking out of the ice,” he said.
The men decided to check it out.
“I told [Uncle James] it’s one of those … might be one of those old ships that they’ve been looking for.”
Kogvik says he pulled out his camera and had his friend take a photo of him and the mast.
“I gave it a bear hug, and both my legs around that mast.”
But after Kogvik lost his camera, the men kept quiet about their find.
“I told Uncle James, don’t tell anybody, because we don’t have any proof … we didn’t want to keep secret, but it might seem like lies to people, because we don’t have any proof.”
Well, fast forward a few years and the Ranger found himself on an expedition to find HMS Terror, and, with the Arctic Research Foundation team looking in the wrong area, he gave expedition leader Adrian Schimnowski a tip.
Schimnowski says it took just 2½ hours to locate the ship in the bay.
“My boss said, ‘Sam, we found the ship!'” Kogvik recalled. “Everybody was yelling, too — happy.”
Almost all of the hatches on HMS Terror were closed and all three masts were standing.
“It just followed Sammy’s story,” Schimnowski said.
In what is fast becoming a regular news item, a Littoral Combat Ship–in this case the freshly commissioned Independence-class USS Montgomery (LCS-8) suffered engineering casualties during a transit in the Gulf of Mexico and is heading to Florida for repairs.
[Montgomery] was bound for the Panama Canal when Montgomery suffered two engineering failures. Now the ship is headed to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba under its own power but under propulsion restrictions before returning to Naval Station Mayport, Fla. for repairs, Naval Surface Forces confirmed to USNI News.
“The first casualty happened when the crew detected a seawater leak in the hydraulic cooling system. Later that day, Montgomery experienced a casualty to one of its gas turbine engines,” read a late Friday statement.
“The built-in redundancy of the ship’s propulsion plant allows these ships to operate with multiple engine configurations. However, with the two casualties resulting in the loss of both port shafts, it was determined that the best course of action would be to send the ship to Mayport to conduct both repairs.”
It’s the fifth engineering casualty suffered by an LCS within the last year. Montgomery was commissioned 10 September at Mobile at her builder’s yard and was on her maiden voyage to her home port, which will be put off for a time.
I’ve always been interested in mysteries of the sea– unexplained ship and aircraft vanishings, etc– and one that has captured the imagination of many over the decades is the enduring riddle that is aviatrix Amelia Earhart’s last day(s). What is fact is that she climbed in her Lockheed Model 10 Electra with experienced transocean navigator Fred Noonan and disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island two days before Independednce Day 1937.
Then came the radio signals– more than 40 of them in the space of five days– which are subject to debate. Bearings taken by Pan American Airways stations suggested signals originating from several locations, including Gardner Island (Nikumaroro), 360 miles to the SSE of Howland. It was noted at the time that if these signals were from Earhart and Noonan, they must have been on land with the aircraft since water would have otherwise shorted out the Electra’s electrical system– and able to charge the battery via an engine generator. A huge week-long search that included the carrier Lexington and the battleship Colorado produced nothing.
The captain of the USS Colorado later said “There was no doubt many stations were calling the Earhart plane on the plane’s frequency, some by voice and others by signals. All of these added to the confusion and doubtfulness of the authenticity of the reports.”
Above is a fascinating Powerpoint presentation given by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) Executive Director Ric Gillespie at The Collider in Asheville, NC on August 5, 2106.
The group has been looking into the Earhart mystery since 1988, finding some evidence that points to her landing there, and are about to undertake their 12th trip to Nikumaroro– complete with University of Hawaii research submarines to inspect the reef off the island for random Electras.
In honor of the anniversary of the Battle of Arnhem, here is a kit layout for a British Para Lance Corporal from Operation Market Garden in 1944. Can you say STEN mags? Note the one for the gun, seven in the stick pouches, and eight in the two hip pouches for a total of 16 30-round mags or 480 rounds of ammo. When that ran out, well, there are always the two Mills bombs and the Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife. The para who wore this would likely add a couple 50mm mortar bombs and a belt or two of .303 ammo for machine guns.
In the first part of 1943, the Army began flirting with a two-piece (jacket and pants) herringbone twill (HBT) camouflage uniform. Now, one thing to note is that this differed from the Marine HBT “duck hunter” or “frog skin” camo that was introduced around the time of the invasion of Tarawa, as the Devil Dog kit was based on their P41 design while the Army’s was a slightly different variant based on Big Green’s M1942 fatigue uniform.
These two-piece camouflage uniforms were fielded by units of the 2nd Armored Division, including the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment and 17th Armored Engineer Battalion, for D-Day. They appear in photos between June to September 1944.
Private Joseph De Freitos of Yonkers (New York) of the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, 2nd US Armored Division, heats his rations on a stove, taken at Pont-Brocard in late July 1944. There is nothing particularly strange about the way he is wearing his e-tool; this was fairly common when the M1928 haversack was not being used.
Records and photos indicate that at least some units of the 2nd Infantry Division and 30th Infantry Division received them also.
U.S. soldiers in HBT camouflage uniforms in a Half-track M2, Pont Brocard July 28, 1944, 41st Armored Inf. Regiment, 2d Armored Division. Cherbourg Library via Flickr.
Camouflaged US Soldiers of the 41st Armored Infantry Battalion working with the 82nd Reconnaissance Battalion (2nd Armored Division) study a captured German map during Operation Cobra in Normandy, France, in July 1944. Note the added foregrip to the M1 Thompson on the right and the German pistol holster on the scout to the left, the latter surely a “battlefield pickup.”
Battle of Saint-Lô, July 1944, 41st AIR, 2AD. LIFE Frank Scherschel Photographer
These surviving examples from the Normandy Tank Museum show a diorama of 2nd Armored Div troops in your typical battlefield mix-match:
The first dummy has the regular GI shirt, camouflage pants, M1 Garand ammo holder belt, M36 web, M1 Garand reproduction, M28 bag, M1 helmet, gaiters very similar to the medic above. The second dummy has much the same but adds a T shovel worn in the same way as the C-rat connoisseur Pvt. De Freitos above, and gas mask cover. The third has the full HBT suit, original camouflage pants, and jacket, M36 webbing with FM-BAR belt and charger holder. He also seems to have ditched his gaiters because he is that kinda guy.
Saint-Georges-d’Elle Normandy France, July 1944, 2nd Infantry Division, note the camo on the one Soldier to the right. LIFE Archives photo by Frank Scherschel
Saint-Georges-d’Elle, Normandy, France, July 1944, 2nd Infantry Division, note the camo jacket on the one Soldier, the M3 Grease gun in his lap, and the censored unit patch. LIFE Archives photo by Frank Scherschel
The thing is, with so many Waffen SS guys and German Fallschirmjäger wearing camo smocks, the idea of GIs in camo proved unpopular, and they were soon withdrawn from the ETO.
However, the material, especially that of discarded parachutes, was recycled by the locals.
“Homemade dress” made out of a parachute used on D-DAY. It was worn by Renée Catherine, a little girl of Sainte-Mère-Eglise
Speaking of which, there is at least some evidence that German paras found U.S. camo very useful in Normandy.
A German cavalry officer (note the spurs and breeches) during the battle for Normandy wearing a crude cover fashioned from U.S. parachute silk duck hunter camo peers through a hedgerow. Also, note his Beretta 38 SMG
Fallschirmjäger at Normandy wearing a cloth cover made from U.S. duck hunter camouflaged cloth, secured to the helmet with a chicken-wire keeper
Meanwhile, in warmer climes
Some U.S. Army units were issued some of the two-piece HBTs in the Pacific late in the war.
U.S. Army Alamo Scouts, two in HBT uniforms. William E. Nellist (middle) pictured with unidentified trainees from the 4th Class. Cape Kassoe, Hollandia, DNG. August 1944. Dig the folding stock para model M1A1 Carbines, very useful in jungle fighting. Via Alamo Scouts website.
Official caption: “Nissan Atoll, Green Islands, South Pacific, 31 January 1944: Inside enemy territory, a recon party lands, senses keyed up for sounds of the Japanese troops known to be present. A perilous fact-finding mission is underway.” The SMLEs and Mills bombs on the men in the center of the landing craft point to Commonwealth troops, probably Australian, in Marine frogskin camo. The non-camo’d fellows at the ramp are likely USCG. A Marine is at the rear, his M1 Carbine at the ready
That theater also saw the use of a one-piece uniform jumpsuit. They were reversible with regular mustard green on the inside.
27th Infantry Division trains in Hawaii before embarking on the amphibious operation to seize Makin in the Gilbert Islands, Fall 1943. A soldier in one piece camouflage uniform is to the right.
Issued briefly, this zippered onesie was found by the Joe in the field to suck balls and was withdrawn.
Many of the Army’s surplus HBT went on to be donated to French forces such as was seen operating in French Indochina, and the Dutch trying to pacify their East Indies archipelago.
HBT-clad French Paratroops in Indochina circa 1953 ready their MAT-49 submachine guns for an assault on Viet Minh guerrillas
Dutch KNIL infantry with British SMLE Enfields fighting Indonesian separatists in 1948– dig the ex-Army HBT
Dutch Lt. Gen. Pieter Lodewijk Gerard Doorman (center-right, just inside the frame) speaks to a duck hunter camo’d crew member of a recycled Japanese Type 89 I-Go medium tank during a visit to 1e Bataljon, 9e Regiment Infanterie (1-9 RI “Friesland”) in Cimahi, Dutch East Indies, September 1946. Formed in the Netherlands in Sept.1945 just after the liberation from German occupation, 1-9 R.I. was sent to the UK in late 1945 for training and basic Malay language lessons, then landed in Batavia on Java as part of V-Brigade in Feb. 1946, where they no doubt picked up the above Japanese armor. Fighting through the Indonesian wars, they were shipped back to Europe (likely sans tanks) and disbanded in August 1948.
The Bay of Pigs gang, Brigade 2506, utilized a significant amount of surplus WWII U.S. gear, including M1941 Johnson rifles and camouflage patterns commonly used by duck hunters.
U.S. Army Special Forces, Vietnam, Sept. 1966. Note camo beret, BAR, and M3 Grease gun. D-Day in the A-Shau
Here is a look at how effective the “Beo Gam” was in Indochina:
And of course, as with anything, both surplus and recreations were popular with hunters in the 1950s and 60s as seen in this 1952 sportsman’s catalog image:
Interestingly enough, Colombia, Turkey, Iran, and Red China adopted duck hunter-like schemes for a time in the 1970s and early 1980s, effectively sealing the fate of the pattern in military service.
Colombia frog duck hunter camo called “Tigrillo” circa 1980s. Note the Galil
Turkish soldiers stand ready during the war in Cyprus, the 1970s with locally made HK G3s and Aegean camouflage pattern, based on American frogskin
Iranian soldiers photographed during the Iran-Iraq War, in the 1980s. The man in front has a locally made version of American P42 camouflage, which was made in the 1970s for the Shah and continued to serve in the war against Saddam
This rakish Chicom soldier during the Sino-Vietnamese War (1979) is wearing Type 81 duck hunter camouflage, with a Type 56 AKMS over his shoulder and a painted combat helmet hanging from the muzzle
After an evolutionary process that has been dragging on since for 15 years, the U.S. Coast Guard has awarded a $110 million (which could turn into an estimated $10.5 billion if all options are used) contract to build a new generation of frigate-sized offshore patrol cutters. It will be the largest shipbuilding program the branch has ever embarked on with as many as 25 hulls built.
The hunt began as part of the Integrated Deepwater System Program back in 2001 which led to early talks with five companies, then it was whittled down to three with Mississippi naval builders VT Halter Marine and Ingalls Shipbuilding excluded in 2014 (as was the design’s stern launching ramp).
The three remaining were: Eastern Shipbuilding Group in Panama City, Florida; Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana and Bath Iron Works in Maine. Bath is a heavy hitter, building the $4 billion Zumwalt and her follow-ons as well as DDG51 class destroyers. Bollinger is a Coast Guard darling, creating their 110-foot Island, 87-foot Marine Protector, and 154-foot Sentinel classes of patrol boats and patrol cutters.
But both Bollinger and BIW were left smoking this week as the award for the first nine OPCs went to Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc. of Panama City, FL (who teamed with Canada’s STX/VARD Marine–part of Italy’s frigate making Fincantieri concern– Northrop Grumman, Quantic Engineering, and MAN on the design).
What have ESG built before? As for military ships, they are in a Design Study and Analysis for the Landing Craft, Utility (LCU) 1700 by the United States Navy, but that’s about it. They are commercial ship experienced, however, with some 150 vessels up to 433-feet built in recent years ranging from tugs to dredgers to trawlers and school ships.
The design is the VARD 7 100m but tweaked.
Eastern Shipbuilding Group’s notional design is 360 feet long, with a beam of 54 feet and a draft of 17 feet. The OPCs will have a range of 10,200 nautical miles (at 14 knots) on a set of MTU diesels and endurance for 60-day patrol cycles. The OPC will conduct missions including law enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction search and rescue, and other homeland security and defense operations. Each OPC will feature a flight deck and hangar capable of carrying a MH60 sized bird and advanced command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment. The ship will embark 3 OTH boats and be capable of 22knots when wide open.
No word on manning of these ships, but similar designed craft in use in Ireland and New Zealand are being run with 30-5o man crews (with extra berths for aircrew and transients), which is a huge reduction from the current 75 person complement on the Coast Guard’s 210’s and 100-man crews on the 270s.
The VARD 7 090 design was recently selected by the Irish Naval Service to replace their older LE Roisin and LE Niamh ships. The Royal New Zealand Navy uses a VARD 85m design as their Protector-class offshore patrol vessel and the Mauritian Coast Guard has used a similar vessel for the past 20 years, so the OPC has some legit OPV lineage.
LE Samuel Beckett P61, a VARD 90m design.
HMNZS Wellington a VARD 85m design
Shrinking numbers 40…28…25..?
The OPC will replace the branch’s Medium Endurance Cutters (WMECs). Back in the 1988 the Coast Guard had 40 WMECs to include two classes purpose built as cutters: 13 newish 270-foot Bear-class and 16 1960s-era 210-foot Reliance-class; as well as a number of WWII vintage ships converted to the task to include the 230-foot Storis, 3 213-foot Diver-class rescue and salvage ships (Yocona, Acushnet, Escape), 4 205-foot Cherokee/Navajo-class auxiliary tugs (Ute, Lipan, Chilula, Cherokee, Tamaroa) and 3 “white hulled” 180 foot buoy tenders (see this week’s Warship Wednesday).
The newest cutter in the fleet, USCGC Mohawk (WMEC-913), was commissioned in 1991, making her 27-years young and not getting any younger.
Since Mohawk‘s commissioning, these 40 hulls were trimmed to 28 as the WWII vessels and a couple of the 210s were retired (USCGC Courageous struck in 2001 after 33 years service and was transferred to to Sri Lanka where she currently serves as P-621 SLNS Samudura. USCGC Durable transferred to Colombia in 2003 as Valle del Cauca. Both were removed from service due to the “increasing age of the deepwater fleet after 30 years of service, and due to mounting, costly maintenance requirements”).
During this period only one ship was added and kept, the 28-year-old surplus Edenton-class salvage and rescue ship USS Edenton (ATS-1) transferred as USCGC Alex Haley (WMEC-39) to replace the Storis in Alaska.
USCGC Vigilant (WMEC-6217) returning from an 8-week patrol. The USCG has 14 of these now 50-year old 210-footers left that OPC will replace, likely first. USCG photo.
USCGC Northland (WMEC-904) returning from patrol last week. These now 30-year old 270-footers were a controversial compromise design in the 1980s that replaced the old 327-foot WWII Treasury class cutters and others. They are the last in the U.S. fleet to mount the Mk75 76mm gun and are the newest WMECs in the Guard. USCG photo
Now, the atrophy will continue as a maximum of 25 (expect that to be trimmed to 20 over the years) OPCs will replace the 28 WMECs. On the bright side, the OPC is larger, and the artist conception image from Eastern shows a 57mm Mk110 forward, a 25mm Mk96/38 aft, and six M2 mounts as well as a SRBOC and a AN/SLQ-32(v) EW suite– which is far more armament that the current cutters they are replacing save for the 270s. If you ask me, they should add a couple Harpoon cans amidships, some Mk.32 ASW tubes on deck and swap out the 25mm for a Sea Ram, but hey…
With the figure of $2.38 billion for the first nine cutters, this amortizes out to $264 million a pop, or about half the price of the similarly sized and armed Navy LCS vessels. While these ships are very slow when compared to LCS, they are a few knots faster than the 16-19 knot max speed WMECs currently in service.
“The Offshore Patrol Cutter acquisition is the Coast Guard’s highest investment priority, and we are proud to announce this important milestone,” said Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Paul Zukunft in a statement. “The Offshore Patrol Cutter will replace our aging medium endurance cutters and provide the majority of offshore presence by the Coast Guard’s cutter fleet. Whether combating transnational organized criminal networks off Central America or patrolling in the increasingly accessible Arctic, the Offshore Patrol Cutter will ensure our Nation’s maritime security and economic interests are preserved for decades to come.”
The first OPC is expected to be delivered in fiscal year 2021 at which point the oldest WMEC in the fleet, USCGC Reliance (WMEC-615), will be 57. Assuming two hulls will be ordered per year, and a three-year build out, the last of newest of the current WMECs, Mohawk, could be replaced around 2034, when she will be hitting age 43.
Or, in Coast Guard parlance, just getting broken in.
Here is a great series of postal cards from the Detroit Publishing Co in the 1870s-1890s showing various scenes around the fleet. Several of these were taken on the grand old ship of the line USS Vermont which spent her entire life as a receiving ship. Others are on steel ships such as the protected cruiser USS Atlanta, and armored cruisers USS New York (ACR-2) and USS Brooklyn (ACR-3).
USS Brooklyn, “Apprentice boys at school.” Note the casemate gun
USS Atlanta, “Sword exercise” 1880s. It should be noted the Navy still had cutlasses on some ships through WWII. Note the Marine officer in kepi and the bluejackets in flatcaps.
USS Vermont, 1890, “Recruits waiting to be transferred.” note the hammock bedrolls on the bulkhead and dixie cups.
USS New York, “Scrubbing down”
USS Brooklyn, “Preparing Christmas dinner”
USS Brooklyn, “A quiet little game” showing bluejackets at play as a Marine looks on. Dig the landing gun to the left of the image under canvas.
Most of these are in the LOC under in their original B&W higher resolution condition (e.g. New York) should you be interested.
Gemtech’s own Alexander Crown did a quiet little rundown (see what we did there) on their old school “Pill Bottle” .22 suppressor.
Back in the sweet old days of Mitch WerBell’s Sionics, the British Welrod of WWII and the Navy’s Mk 22 Hush Puppy of Vietnam, most suppressors worked by using internal wipes out of leather or some other material (except notably for the De Lisle Carbine which had 13 rigid baffles made of Duralumin). A few years ago many suppressor companies advertised their wares as “wipeless” but it’s gotten to the point to where almost everything is these days, so you don’t even see the term anymore.
The tiny Pill Bottle is such a device, using a ¼” rubber wipe with a lifespan of about 50 rounds or so.
For those of you not familiar with wipe technology, it is essentially some sort of pliable material that a bullet can pass through but gasses can’t. In the very early days of silencers, these could have been made of leather, cotton, or usually plastic/rubber. These wipes have a limited life span and have to be replaced periodically as they wear out, and this poses a problem in our modern day since the BATFE considers them silencer parts. Manufacturers cannot simply ship them to your door, although they can be made by the user. Just not in surplus.
So how big was the Pill Bottle? Try 1.25 inches long and weighing just one (1) ounce.
Oof.
Do yourself a favor and read Crown’s write up, it’s a good look behind the curtain. Makes me want to get my Beretta M21 threaded.
View of a Curtiss Warhawk P-40F fighter plane. Label on back: “New Curtiss Warhawk fighter for the U.S. Army Air Forces. Shown in this close-up flight photo is the U.S. Army Air Forces’ new Curtiss Warhawk P-40F fighter, the faster, heavily armed, high-climbing successor to the Curtiss P-40, Tomahawk and Kittyhawk types widely used by American pilots and made famous by the ‘Flying Tigers’ of the AVG in China and the Royal Air Force in the Middle East. The first U.S. military plane to be powered with the new American-built Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the new Warhawk incorporates many advances developed in actual air combat. It is in the 400 m.p.h. class but details of its performance are withheld.” Stamped on back: “It is absolutely forbidden to reproduce, syndicate or use this photo for advertising purposes with written permission. Photo by Rudy Arnold, press photographer. P.O. Box 60, Sheepshead Bay Station, Brooklyn, N.Y. Newspaper, magazine, aerial & color photography.” Handwritten on back: “Aircraft in action.”
Courtesy of the National Automotive History Collection, Detroit Public Library
