14" projectiles - "common shell"

[henrythe8th]

Hi, I am a new member and have a question about the 14" projectiles as used on BB-35, the Battleship Texas. I am the Director of the Firearms Museum of Texas and I recently got 2 14" projectiles, supposedly intended for the BB-35. They have some rust on the base but the words COMMON SHELL are visible. They are about 43" long. I got some information that they were made prior to WWI, before there were separate AP and HE shells. They were supposed to never have been loaded with bursting charges. I want to unscrew the base plate but want to make sure if they are RH (counter clockwise to unscrew) or LH thread. Anyone wth info on these shells please help. Thanks, Steve

[tommy303]

I believe they were left hand threaded (ie, screwed in anti-clockwise) so as to prevent the base plug from loosening as the shell accelerated up the bore with a right hand twist.

[henrythe8th]

Thanks for the information. I'll post what happens when i try to remove base plug.

Steve

[Byron Angel]

Hi, I am a new member and have a question about the 14" projectiles as used on BB-35, the Battleship Texas. I am the Director of the Firearms Museum of Texas and I recently got 2 14" projectiles, supposedly intended for the BB-35. They have some rust on the base but the words COMMON SHELL are visible. They are about 43" long. I got some information that they were made prior to WWI, before there were separate AP and HE shells. They were supposed to never have been loaded with bursting charges. I want to unscrew the base plate but want to make sure if they are RH (counter clockwise to unscrew) or LH thread. Anyone wth info on these shells please help. Thanks, Steve

For what it's worth, I passed along your request to Nathan Okun, who knows a fair amount about USN projectiles among other things. His reply follows below.

It would be helpful for ID purposes if you can provide some good photos of the projectiles in question.


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The old 14" AP Mk 8 without a cap or windscreen -- body only -- was 41.92" (3.07 caliber) long, which is very close to the
projectile he mentions. The cap is rather thin and only adds about 3" to the length, with the windscreen in place, the length goes to 49.44" (3.53 caliber). This is the only Service projectile that comes close to that length without the windscreen (all others, made later, are either much longer (one-piece HC and Bombardment) or, without a cap or windscreen, AP being somewhat shorter).

An old Target projectile -- inert AP shape made from cheap material with a one-piece cap/body shape -- with the windscreen removed may also be close to that length, with a flat nose end.

COMMON projectiles, with a larger filler size with either a base fuze (SAP shell made much like an AP shell) or nose fuze (very larger filler size shell with a time or instantaneous impact fuze),were not made for that size shell, to my knowledge, by the US Navy. There were 13" COMMON (5-6% filler, I believe, of either black powder or, possibly, but less likely, Explosive "D"). AP Shot (what we later called "AP") and AP Shell (what we later called SAP) existed in the US Army, with the latter somewhat like US Navy base-fuzed Common shells, though the term "Common" was really a catch-all for any projectile not specifically designed to punch through heavy armor (with a nose or base fuze of any kind). I do not have a clue where that thing came from, if actually 14" in diameter and a one-piece 43" long.

It might barely be possible that it is an Army Coast Defense gun projectile, but, to my knowledge, these only used AP Shot and AP Shell, some made using chilled cast iron, with or without AP caps. I never heard of an Army Common shell of that size -- do they even use that word?

What about those dynamite guns? None were 14" in diameter, were they?

Any foreign 14" gun -- British Common Pointed (CP) 14"? I know about CPC (capped CP) of that size, but not any CP.

Does the base plug have a hole in the center with something screwed into it (base fuze -- hopefully NOT a real live one!! -- or plug in the hole where such a fuze would be)? If not, then it either has no fuze or the fuze screws into the base plug's inner face. Does the shell have a nose fuze or inert removable conical solid plug (fuze replacement) in the nose?

All such base plugs in the US Navy will unscrew in the counter-clockwise direction. When the base plug is removed, do the threads have the standard many small triangular teeth (changed in the US Navy to thick almost-rectangular threads in the last large projectile base plug designs just before or during WWII)?

Nathan

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