Shoulder thing…

Posted on by October 19, 2014

That goes up…

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Just lean into the white bar, get a good sight picture and pull the trigger…

And make sure you’ve got your ear plugs in…

And there will be a ‘bit’ of recoil…

What is it you may ask???

How about a 3 inch Naval Gun from 1898 on the Japanese Battleship Misaka?

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You stepped into the ‘girdle’ on the left (Trust me they were LITTLE) and you were the motive power for the gun’s elevation via the brass wheel on the left, and the ‘girdle’ allowed you to transit the gun fore and aft…

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The gun captain set the ‘range’ wheels and then it was manual sights…

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Pull the trigger and BANG! Something on the order of 10 times a minute…  🙂

Comments

Shoulder thing… — 15 Comments

  1. I don’t think I’d have wanted that job. OTOH, I wouldn’t have wanted to work in a rice paddy, either.

  2. I imagined the sound inside that gun mount was deafening. And the barrel got pretty hot, too. I’ll stick to CIC and the air-conditioning, thank you very much. I’ll let the GM’s and BM’s do the hot stuff.

  3. On second though, when I first came aboard, I was in 1st Division and my GQ station was standing between 2 5″‘ers in mount 51 (Main Deck.) The noise was not as loud as it was in CIC. Or maybe I was just too damn busy in the gun mount to notice the noise. Uh… on third choice, I’ll still take the air in CIC.

    • Heh, I can think of a few I’d like to name to fire it. I can think of a few more I’d like to name to be targets! 🙂

  7. Yes, I’d suspect most all guns that require a “brass wheel” for elevation adjustment would have a “bit” of recoil.

  9. Buck- True!!!

    CP- LOL, yeah CIC sounds like the better deal, but no AC in those days…

    NC- Yes it does!

    gfa/N91- LOL, yep me too!

    pedi- You’re nuts…:-)

    GR- Agreed!

    Skip- Actually they won! They defeated the entire Russian Baltic Fleet!!!

  10. I would not fit into the girdle.
    I can just imagine how much the recoil shook you.

  11. Rick- It’s about a fit for a 28 inch waist… sigh… And there are recoil springs… How effective? I have no idea.

  12. Hey Old NFO;

    If my memory served, the Mikasa and the Olympia are the last examples of a “Pre-dreadnought” battleship. The Mikasa was Admiral Tojo’s ship that he commanded when they kicked the Russians butt in the battle of Tsushima in 1905. After WWII Admiral Nimitz lead the fight to save that ship. Lucky you getting a chance tyo check that out. That ship is on my “bucket List” to visit

  13. Got a chance to see that ship when I was doing a job at Yokosuka Naval Base. The thing I really remember thinking is how short and narrow that ship was. We were working on a couple of FFGs and they seemed to be bigger all over.