Existing comment:
Battery Decatur and Disappearing Guns:
American coastal defenses were modernized from the 1890s to 1910 with the development of the Endicott System. Emphasis in military tactics shifted the masonry fortifications to more effective weapons based on rifled steel guns, improved breech-loading systems, better propellants (gunpowder), and reinforced concrete gun emplacements.
Here you will see the remains of Battery Decatur, a reinforced concrete emplacement completed in 1891. It mounted two 10-inch disappearing guns similar to the Fort Monroe rifled guns shown in the photographs below. The lower rooms of the battery were for shot, shell, and powder storage with cranes and hoists that moved the heavy ammunition up to the gun platforms.
Ingenious disappearing carriages used recoil energy to lower the gun out of sight of the enemy for reloading the servicing. These 10-inch guns had a firing range of approximately seven miles.
The guns were aimed and fired by means of complex range finding and fire control equipment centered in the Battery Commander's Station, visible to your left. The Depression Position Finder, mounted in the tower, located the target exactly. |