“Fita-Fita Guard. The native Samoan Naval Guard Force is brought to attention by BMI/c Suitonu, USN, a veteran of 15 years on the force, March 1943. Naval Station in Samoa.” Note the traditional uniform and the M1903 Springfields. Catalog #: USMC 53188/National Archives
The Sextant has a great piece up over there about the Samoan Fitafita Guard that was part of the U.S. Navy from 1900-1951.
The guard soon carved out their own military enclave in the South Pacific, serving both the U.S. Navy and their own people under a banner of mutual respect and admiration. The men of the Fitafita proudly served “with a full heart,” according to former Guardsman Tuala Sevaatasi.
The Fitafita Guard had many of the same rights and responsibilities of regular enlisted personnel. Fitafita were given regular Navy pay as well as 20% overseas pay. They were not, however, permitted to serve outside of the home islands at sea, which made them more of an honor guard and ceremonial band than fighting unit. One source stated that some Fitafita guardsmen were given sea duty on an ocean-going tug during the beginning of the outfit’s operation.
Sir Frank Watson Dyson KBE, FRS (8th January 1868 – 25th May 1939).
On this day in 1939, Sir Frank Watson Dyson, KBE, FRS, aged 71, died while traveling from Australia to England in 1939 and was buried at sea, as is proper for a man of such celestial voyages and his importance to how sailors keep time at sea and in far off lands.
An English astronomer and Astronomer Royal (and director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory) from 1910 to 1933, he introduced in the Observatory a new free-pendulum clock, the most accurate clock available at that time and organized the regular wireless transmission from the GPO wireless station at Rugby of Greenwich Mean Time. He is remembered today largely for introducing time signals (“six pips”) from Greenwich (via the BBC which continued at least into 2015), and for the role he played in testing Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
He was for several years President of the British Horological Institute and was awarded their Gold Medal in 1928. Knighted in 1915, he was the President of the Royal Astronomical Society during the Great War
The crater Dyson on the Moon is named after him, as is the Asteroid 1241 Dysona.
Warship Wednesday May 25, 2016: The Kaiser’s Pirate of Nauset Beach
Here we see one of the few images remaining of the Deutschland-class handels type unterseeboot SM U-156 of the Kaiserliche Marine. Built to schlep cargo, she was converted to a U-Kreuzer and went on to wreak havoc off the coast of New England.
In 1915, with the Great War dragging into its second horrific year, Imperial Germany was cut off from overseas trade by the might of the combined British, French, Italian, Russian, and Japanese fleets, who certainly had a warship in every harbor from Seattle to Montevideo. That’s when an idea was hatched to cough up a fleet of large commercial submarines for shipping vital cargo to and from locations otherwise verboten to German freighters.
These handels-U-boots (merchant submarines) were helmed by 28-man civilian crews employed by the Deutsche Ozean-Reederei company, unarmed except for five pistols or revolvers and a flare gun, sailed under a merchant flag, and could carry as much as 700-tons in their holds.
A staggering 213-feet overall and some 2,300-tons, while small by today’s standards, these were the largest operational submarines of World War I.
You get the idea…
The first of the class, Deutschland, was launched 28 March 1916 and in June voyaged across the Atlantic as a blockade runner carrying highly sought-after chemical dyes, carried medical drugs, gemstones, and mail to Baltimore where her crew were welcomed as celebrities before returning to Bremerhaven with 341 tons of nickel, 93 tons of tin, and 348 tons of crude rubber– worth seven times her 2.75 million Reichsmark cost. Her second trip to New London with gems and securities, returning to Germany in November was her last as a commercial venture.
You see Deutschland was taken up into the service of the German Navy in early 1917 and rechristened SM U-155, but we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Between 1916-17, a further six freighter u-boats were built to the same design as Deutschland in four yards, numbered in military service U-151 through U-157. These ships, however, were built to fight rather than make money (one other boat, Bremen, was completed for commercial work and she vanished in Sept. 1916 on her maiden voyage to New York–she was never part of the German Navy).
The subject of our particular tale is U-156, the only one of her class built at Atlas Werke, Bremen as Werke #382.
In war service these ships were completed with torpedo tubes and a torpedo and mine magazine rather than cargo holds and given a pair of large 150mm deck guns with a healthy supply of 1688 shells to feed them. Gone was the civilian crew, replaced by a 7 officer/69-man military crew that could spare up to 20 for prize crews.
Prize crews?
Yes, these huge subs would act as submersible cruisers (U-Kreuzer), hence the large battery and stock of shells.
Those are some serious popguns
U-156 was commissioned 22 Aug 1917 under the command of Kptlt. Konrad Gansser. Under Gansser’s command and that later of Kptlt. Richard Feldt, over the next 13 months the huge submarine successfully attacked 47 ships of which she sunk 45 (for a total of 64,151 tons) and damaged two.
A list of her kills over at U-boat.net shows that most of her “victories” were small craft, with only one merchant ship over 5,000 tons, the Italian flagged steamer Atlantide (5,431t) sunk off Madeira on 1 Feb 1918.
In fact, some 32 of her kills were against trawlers and small coasters under 950-tons, making her the scourge of the American and Canadian coasts.
Speaking of which, U-156‘s most important victory at sea came not from her guns or torpedoes, but from a mine.
The 13,680-ton USS San Diego (Armored Cruiser No. 6), formerly the USS California, hit a mine sown by U-156 southeast of Fire Island on 19 July and sank in just 28 minutes, taking six bluejackets with her to the bottom. She would be the only major warship lost by the U.S. in the Great War. Her skipper at the time, Capt. Harley H. Christy, was a Spanish–American War vet who went on to command the battlewagon Wyoming with the British Grand Fleet in 1918 and become a Vice Admiral on the retired list.
USS San Diego (Armored Cruiser No. 6) Painting by Francis Muller, 1920. It depicts the ship sinking off Fire Island, New York, after mined by the German submarine U-156, 19 July 1918. Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 55012-KN
It was after this strike on the San Diego that the good Kptlt. Feldt sailed to the coast of Cape Cod and got into a little gunplay in shallow water and spread “schrecklichkeit” (fear) along the coast.
At about 10:30 a.m. on the morning of 21 July 1918, the Lehigh Valley RR. Company’s hearty little 120-foot/435-ton steel-hulled tugboat Perth Amboy was hauling a series of wooden barges some three miles off Orleans, Mass when she came under artillery fire from U-156‘s big guns. While the barges were sunk and the tug damaged, no casualties were suffered.
Via Attack on Orleans
This led to a frantic call to the newly-built Chatam Naval Air Station who dispatched two Curtiss HS-1L seaplanes (Bu.No 1695 and 1693, the latter of which suffered engine problems and couldn’t sortie) and two R-9s (Bu.No. 991 and another) that arrived on scene about a half hour later. The freshly minted Navy/Coast Guard pilots dropped a few small bombs, which did not damage the submarine, who dutifully submerged and motored off.
Curtiss HS-1L seaplane (Bu. no. 1735) of the type flown against U-156, here shown at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida Caption: On the ramp at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, circa 1918. Note insignia (patriotic, “Uncle Sam” hat), presumably of Training Squadron Five. Description: Catalog #: NH 44224
In all, the attack lasted about 90 minutes from the first shot to the last bomb, and caused little practical damage.
However, it was the first attack on the U.S. mainland by a uniformed European enemy since 1815 and the first time enemy shells landed on her soil since the failed siege of Fort Texas near Brownsville by General Pedro de Ampudia’s light artillery in 1846.
Damage suffered by Perth Amboy– she would later go on to be sunk by a mine in WWII while in British service
U-156 then headed north to the Nova Scotia coast and captured the 265-ton trawler Triumph, which she used for three days in August as the first (and only) German surface raider to operate in Canadian waters. Using at times Canadian and at others a Danish flag, Triumph and U-156 worked in tandem, with the trawler creeping up on small craft, Germans taking said small boat over, rigging demo charges and allowing the Canuk mariners to row away in their dingy while the craft sank.
One of Triumph’s first victim was the Gloucester schooner A. Piatt Andrew, which was fishing in Canadian waters. The schooner’s skipper told the U.S. Navy that when Triumph hailed him to heave to, he thought it was joke until “… four shots were fired across our bow from rifles. We brought our vessel up in the wind and the beam trawler came up alongside of us and I then saw that she was manned [by] German crew.’’
The Lunenburg schooner Uda A. Saunders was another score for Feldt. The vessel’s captain gave the U.S. Navy this description of the encounter: “The Huns hailed us and ordered a dory alongside. I sent two men out to her in a dory and three of the raider’s crew came aboard. ‘Don’t be afraid,’ said the one who appeared to be in command. ‘We are going to sink your vessel. I will give you 10 minutes to gather up food and water enough to last you until you get ashore.’”
However, U-156‘s days as a pirate were numbered.
On her way back to Germany, the U-Boat failed to report in that she had cleared the North Sea passage and it is surmised that around 25 Sep 1918 she struck an Allied mine and disappeared with all hands, leaving 77 dead.
With the exception of U-154, torpedoed in the Atlantic 11 May 1918 by HM Sub E35, U-156s sisters largely survived the war, but not by much.
SM U-151 was surrendered to France at Cherbourg and sunk as target ship at Cherbourg, 7 June 1921.
U-152 and U-153 went to Harwich, England, where they were surrendered to the British and sunk by the Royal Navy in July 1921 (image below).
Note how large the U-153 is compared to other common German submarines (IWM photo)
U-157 was interned at Trondheim, Norway at the end of the war but later taken over by the French and broken up at Brest.
Deutschland/U-155, was surrendered on 24 November 1918 with other submarines as part of the terms of the Armistice and exhibited in London and elsewhere before being sold for scrap in 1921.
A British Jack secures the the Control Room of U155 (The Deutschland) Moored in St Katherine’s Docks, London, December 1918 (iwm)
German U-Boat U-155 surrendered to the British, lying alongside the British Q-boat mystery ship HMS SUFFOLK COAST at St. Katherine’s Docks in London, 4 December 1918 (iwm)
German submarine U-155 on display in St. Katherine docks, London, England, December 1918
With that being said, U-156 is better remembered than most of her class, at least in New England.
Today a historical sign on a private Nauset Beach in Orleans, Massachusetts marks the occasion in which the Kaiser reached out and touched the sand there.
For more information on the Attack on Orleans, here is an hour-long lecture by Jake Klim done in 2015 for the Tales of Cape Cod historical society.
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.
Nearing their 50th Anniversary, 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 it place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.
SSG Michael Howard of the Army Marksmanship Unit demonstrates the proper technique for the disassembly and maintenance of the M9 (Beretta 92F) weapon system, which is based on the classic old Walther P-38 and is very similar to most other DA/SA semi-autos such as the Sig Sauer P-series and others.
Of course this is all basic stuff, but it’s still a helpful vid without an agenda.
The Philippines Navy’s terms her a “Strategic Sealift Vessel”
The Phillipines Navy’s newst (and actually new construction!) vessel docked at Pier 13 of the Manila South Harbor last week, BRP Tarlac (LD-601), built by PT PAL (Persero) in Indonesia. She is based on Indonesia’s Makassar-class LPDs which in turn are an offshoot of the successful South Korean-designed Tanjung Dalpele.
The new 11,500-ton vessel has a complement of 121 officers and enlisted personnel. She can carry 500 troops, two rigid-hull inflatable boats, two LCUs and three helicopters. Tarlac is slow (16 knots) but can remain at sea for a month and travel almost 10,000nm. She is one of the most powerfully armed ships in the fleet, with a 76mm OTO, twin 25mm chain guns, and numerous .50 cals.
The well dock is snug, but can fit two LCUs…
The Philippines is looking to get at least four of these LPDs and earlier this month took possession of the former U.S. Navy’s USNS Melville (T-AGOR-14) which is now the research vessel BRP Gregorio Velasquez (AGR-702), a first for the country.
Previous to that they have acquired three retired 50~ year old Hamilton-class Coast Guard Cutters: the Philippine Navy flagship BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-15)— which started life as the USCGC Hamilton (WHEC-715)— BRP Ramon Alcaraz (ex-Dallas) and the as yet to be renamed ex-Boutwell.
BRP Ramon Alcaraz ( PF16 ), formerly the USCGC Dallas, from above. Note the sparse armament (big up)
Two Gregorio del Pilar-class frigates of the Philippine Navy during naval exercises with the US Navy. These are the former cutters Hamilton and Dallas. They look unusual in haze gray with big PI naval ensigns, but they do seem to be holding a zig-zag well. [3000 x 1970]
The budget LPDs are part of an ambitious naval plan that includes:
6 frigates for anti-air warfare, (Perhaps these will be the Hamiltons, though they need to be up-armed if so)
12 corvettes for anti-submarine warfare,
18 offshore patrol vessels,
3 submarines,
3 anti-mine vessels,
18 LCUs,
3 logistics ships,
12 coastal interdiction patrol boats,
30 patrol gunboats,
42 multi-purpose assault craft (that can be equipped with torpedoes and missiles).
8 amphibious maritime patrol aircraft,
18 naval helicopters, (the navy recently acquired 3 AgustaWestland AW109E Powers)
8 multi-purpose helicopters
So SilencerCo dropped a new collaboration between Jim Fuller of Rifle Dynamics (perhaps the best AKs made in this Hemisphere) in which they take a RD501 5.45mm AK74 clone (semi, due to the Hughes Amendment, but with a 12.5-inch SBR barrel) and mate it to a Saker 556K suppressor. Of course, it’s $4K and there are tax stamps involved which are most likely not covered by that–but it’s sweet as a diabetic coma.
Specs:
• Saker 556K with Direct Thread Mount
• 12.5” Barrel Chambered in 5.45×39
• Unique Summit Serial Numbers on Rifle & Silencer
• Matte Black Finish on Rifle & Suppressor
• Ultimak Railed Gas Tube for Optic
• Made in USA Barrel with Black Nitride Finish
• Made in USA Receiver
• Classic Russian Red Handguard
• Triangle Skeleton Side-Folding Stock
• (1) 30-Round Magazine
• Handcrafted, Collector’s Edition Reclaimed Wood Crate
• Only (25) Limited-Edition Packages Available
While most know of the Navy’s use in maritime patrol (U.S 4th Fleet assets are always conducting ops with small teams of U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement personnel aboard in the Western Caribbean and Eastern Pacific as noted by this recent 45-day patrol of the Cyclone-class patrol coastal USS Shamal (PC 13) which included use of an embarked UAV), and of course the ops of the Coast Guard and CBP, some states even get into extended offshore law enforcement operations.
Perhaps the leading example is Florida, whose Wildlife Commission (FWC) has a fleet of a half-dozen Endurance and Intermediate class vessels each commanded by a captain who has a Coast Guard 6-pack license (OUPV) and manned by 2-3 other sworn officers who are cross-deputized as both state and federal law enforcement officers.
These boats carry an automatic weapon besides the officer’s own sidearms and patrol rifles/shotguns.
The flagship of the fleet is the former USAF drone recovery vessel, the 85-foot, aluminum hulled Gulf Sentry which operates between St. Marks and Pensacola, out to 200 miles offshore. We’ve talked about her before.
Then there are the 50-foot Orion, the 65-foot Randall, the 45-foot Guardian, the 57-foot Gladding, and the 42-foot Seahawk.
While day trips are commonly the norm, some of these vessels see lengthy patrols, for instance this is the report from FWC last week on the Randall: (bold mine)
The “green striped” 65′ C.T. Randall offshore patrol boat docked in Port Canaveral, via Flickr
The FWC Offshore Patrol Vessel C.T. Randall went on a five-day patrol from Naples to Key West to enhance the protection of mutton snapper during their peak spawning times. The C.T. Randall and crew (Lieutenant Shea, Officers Araujo, Hughes, Nelson, Polly and Thurkettle) patrolled out to 80 nautical miles offshore into the Gulf of Mexico and patrolled off of Key West from Eyeglass Bar to Western Dry Rocks covering over 296 nautical miles of distance. The crew of the C.T. Randall wrote warnings for using treble hooks and multiple hooks for reef fish with natural bait; using yellowtail snapper and reef fish as bait; having no vessel registration certificate on board the vessel; and improper display of registration numbers. The crew also issued federal resource citations for possession of undersized red grouper; possession of reef fish and red grouper as bait; and possession of reef fish and red grouper not in whole condition. The state resource citations issued consisted of possession of marine life that were not landed alive (moray eel); and possessing over the commercial limit of great barracuda of 161 fish. In addition to these warnings and citations, the crew counseled and allowed a vessel operator to repair and fix damaged Turtle Exclusion Devices (TEDs).
Officers Araujo and Nelson were on water patrol on the C.T. Randle Offshore Patrol Vessel approximately 50 miles west of Shark Point in Monroe County. During a fisheries inspection of a commercial boat, several violations were found including possession of reef fish/red grouper for bait, red grouper not in whole condition, undersized red grouper, and a marine life violation of a deceased spotted moray eel. In total, the officers issued three federal citations and one state citation.
One vessel I bump into a lot in my travels around Key West is the Peter Gladding.
Gladding, image by All American
The aluminum catamaran hydrofoil-supported vessel, designed by Teknicraft Design Ltd, New Zealand, was paid for by the National Marine Fisheries Service through NOAA and patrols the Dry Tortugas (Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary), replacing a surplus Coast Guard Point class cutter used by NOAA for the same task back in the 1990s.
Here is a shot of Gladding at the JTF dock near Naval Air Station Key West – Truman Annex.
Yes, those are jet nozzles at her stern. She is super maneuverable and can decelerate from 50 mph to a full stop in about two boat lengths.
Gladding, image by Chris Eger, click to big up. Also note the racing stripe.
Her specs:
Displacement laden: 50700 lbs est.
Length overall: 56′ 10″
Breadth overall: 20′ 6″
Draft: 2′ 8″
Crew: 4
Hull Plate Type Aluminum 5383-H321
Fuel Capacity 1000 gallons
Main Engines 2 MTU 8V2000 M92 1085hp each @ 2450 RPM driving Hamilton HJ 403 jets
Potable water capacity 200 gallons
Speed 44+ knots max, 36 cruising (500nm range, cruising)
She was built by All American Marine in 2005 and here is some groovy footage of her inside and out from AA, complete with an easy listening muzak soundtrack.
Between the Gladding and the FWC office ashore, Florida maintains 17 conservation officers in the FKMNS, protecting 2,896 square nautical miles of critical marine habitat, including coral reef, hard bottom, seagrass meadows, mangrove communities and sand flats.
According to a 2013 article, annually, the vessel and team conducts multiple day missions totaling over 600 patrol hours in the Tortugas Ecological Reserve.
FWCs large offshore patrol vessels typically operate with a 3-4 man crew (Image NOAA)
In the past couple months, I have been corresponding back and forth with a chap in Ohio who owns a very operational and transferable WWII era 20mm Oerlikon.
You can’t just go down to the local big box and pick some up those huge 20 mike mike rounds. This stuff hasn’t been factory manufactured in generations. This leaves Alan to roll his own.
“I have to make it from modern 20mm x 102 cases,” he said. “I use my log splitter and a weldment to hold dies to form the cases. It’s a long process, but in the end I get 20x110RB brass and reload those.”
Here is him going loud at the Eastern Ohio machine gun shoot recently.
Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Ferdinand Petrie
Born in Hackensack, New Jersey in 1925, Ferdinand Ralph Petrie completed his art training at thet Parsons School of Design and The Famous Artist School of Illustration. He also studied painting with Frank Reilly at The Art Students League in New York.
Following World War II service, he worked for 20 years in advertising agencies and studios in New York City, then began painting full time, specializing in pencil and watercolors.
In 1972, he opened his own studio in Rockport, Massachusetts and created a number of contemporary works.
#3 High Street
The Cove
It was during this time that he began a series of studies for the Navy and Coast Guard over more than a decade which inspire and endure.
USCG Icebreaker by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 87136). The Coast Guard medium harbor tug SNOHOMISH (WYTM-98) on a search and rescue mission in floating ice off Rockland, MA. Snohomish was a 110-foot armed tug commissioned 24 January 1944 and served in the Boston Naval District in WWII. Peacetime service saw everything from busting poachers and drug runners to saving Gotham from her own trash during the garbage collection strike in 1980. Decommissioned 1986, she endured as a yacht and commercial vessel for another 20 years, dropping off the radar in 2005.
Drug Patrol Duty by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 87942). A Coast Guardsman mans an M60 machine gun on board a cutter out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, keeping a suspected drug runner under close observation.
Snohomish by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 88015). The CGC SNOHOMISH looms in the background as crew members of a 44- foot patrol boat wave in passing.
Learning the Art of Tying Knots by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 90405). Two young “Coasties” practice the skill of tying knots.
Ready for Patrol Duty by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 88329). MK2 Rick Cremean’s equipment for patrol duty consists of an M-16, a 45, life jacket, flashlight and handcuffs at Coast Guard Station, Gloucester, Mass.
USCGC Ocracoke (WPB-1307) by Ferdinand Petrie (ID # 90233). A law enforcement team from the Cutter Ocracoke boards a suspected drug-runner’s vessel, the Dealer’s Choice in the Caribbean. Ocracoke has chalked up a number of big busts on her yearly Florida-Gitmo deployments including3,771 pounds (1.9 tons) aboard the La Toto off the northwest coast of St. Croix in 1987
Search and Rescue on the Great Lakes by Ferdinand Petrie (ID# 89510). The Coast Guard Icebreaker SNOHOMISH prepares to cast off a small boat for a search and rescue mission an HH3F “Pelican” helicopter stands by to assist.
Ladies in Waiting by Ferdinand Petrie. Two small boats tied up at pier awaiting duty off Gloucester, Mass.
Getting Aboard from USCGC Ocracoke by Ferdinand Petrie. A law enforcement team from the Cutter Ocracoke boards a suspected drug-runner’s vessel, the Omiaria , in the Caribbean. A 110-foot Island-class patrol cutter, she was commissioned in 1986 and has spent her career based out of Portland, Maine, earning a fair bit of notoriety for rescuing the Canadian sailing ship Liana’s Ransom. She is still on active duty.
Ferdinand Petrie died in 2007 but he has several books penned in the 1990s in circulation on the subject of art with a few still in publication. His art is in the Smithsonian, the Coast Guard Museum in New London, and in the Navy Art Collection.
Last week I posted images of my “untouched” Nepalese 1878 Martini-Henry Francotte pattern short-lever rifle as created by Gen. Gahendra Rana’s cottage gun smiths in the 1880s. (More info on these here ) Put in storage no later than 1919 if not a decade or two sooner, this poor weapon was stored in an open-air 16th century castle with the only protection offered being yak grease until it was salvaged and brought over to the states a few years ago.
In my possession for a couple weeks, it looked rough when unboxed.
Nice shiny bore!
You know you want one…after you get your tetanus shot. By the way, that sling swivel is non-moving
In fact, I’ve seen relic weapons dug out of the earth that looked better than this poor specimen. Now as I said last week, my goal was not restoration or repair, but simply to clean away as much of the dirt, grime, rust and critters as I could to see what was underneath.
The armament:
Stack of hotel hand towels, both aerosol and non-aerosol Ballistol, direct from Germany, brass and plastic brushes, green pads..
…Pre-1982 pennies are 95 percent copper, and, as long as you keep them lubed up, work great at removing heavy rust from iron/steel without harming the base metal
The battle:
A full day spent like this, disassembling the action, soaking, scrubbing with pads, brushes and Lincolns, wiping away the debris (oh the debris…) then hitting repeat on the soaking, scrubbing with pads, brushes and Lincolns, wiping away the debris cycle over and over and over….
The first patch down the barrel…
…But far from the last. Overall, while the bore is dark and the barrel is pitted inside and out, it is solid with no pinholes or splits and there is still some visible rifling
These guys put in a workout and work much like copper scouring wool, but are so much easier to use. Just don’t use too much pressure and keep them lubed the whole time
Sadly the outer metal parts were extremely pitted, but the rust did part enough to show off this only marking on the gun, protected from the elements by the cocking lever while in storage
The markings under better light and viewed from another angle
The results after the First Battle of the Yak Grease
When compared to the before pictures, it’s a night and day difference…
I was able to get off most of the blackened grease to show the asphaltum (a mixture of tarmac and mineral spirits used to seal the grain) on the original wood underneath. The butt has decayed to the point of no return so I wasn’t able to do much with it for fear it would crumble.
While the metal is still in horrible shape, it is now at least smooth to the touch with the red rust removed and the steel coated with a layer of Ballistol to help keep it from coming back– and the sling swivel actually moves freely now!
Overall, you can touch the gun without having to take a shower after
Then there is the bayonet.
British-made Martini-Henry socket bayonets won’t fit the Nepalese Francotte but IMA did have a few period socket bayonets made by the Nepalese specifically to fit the thicker barrel wall on this rifle. Like the guns, they are handmade so length and shape vary quite a bit from blade to blade with IMA advising they range everywhere from 15-21 inches long.
I asked for a nice long one and they sent one that measures out to a full 24-inches and fits the gun like a charm.
They look good together
The bayonet came coated in rust, but cleaned off much better than the rifle, showing off a handsome patina
The Gurkha who carried this bayonet really loved it, it has been sharpened nearly razor-thin on at least two of the leading edges
And of course has a needle point. You could give a Gurkha one of these alone and expect him to hold a hill until he died of old age.
Where to next? Well I will do a few more cleanings to see if some of these rust spots will even out a bit more with the pits and eventually may get a electrolysis bath going if I think it will produce more results.
Firing?
There was a reason the Gurkhas moved past these guns as soon as they came up with something different. They were just too unsafe. You see the bore diameter varies considerably from rifle to rifle, which was made by wrapping a steel rod around a mandrel and hammering it out.
As scary moment of pause on this particular gun: the issued cleaning rod that came with the rifle was too fat to fit down the barrel, even after I cleaned the rust out, leading to the conclusion that either (1) the bore wasn’t swagged wide enough leaving under-powered loads to squib in the barrel and overpowered ones to shatter it, or (2) the cleaning rod was out of spec.
Even IMA says “These are 100+ year-old hand made guns, be very careful, IMA sells these for display purposes only, they are not intended to be fired.”
In short, this is a Khyber Pass breechloader before Khyber Pass breechloaders were cool.
I’m am, however, searching for a few rounds of vintage .577/450 Martini-Henry to put with the gun for display purposes. Nonetheless, as this rifle should never be fired, I will likely insert a cork plug in the breech throat with a warning written across it in ink so that no one comes behind me in future years and inserts said .577/450s in this gun and goes ka-boom.
As for repairing the piece, I don’t think I am going to go that route. Most parts from one Nepalese Francotte won’t fit another one, which means if I tried to do a restoration I’d have to fab my own parts which would mean that I have less and less a collectable piece of interesting mechanical and military history from the 1880s and more a construct that I created from the remnants of one in the Snatchat age.
The action cycles and fires as it is, which is all I could really ask. Since I am missing a front sling swivel, rear sight and butt plate, if I can find those correct parts (as well as possibly a decent period style sling) I will add them to the gun, but that’s about it.
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