1 Pdr projectile Color?

[raymeketa]

I have a very nice USN 1 Pdr Heavy, Washington Navy Yard, 1-1906, solid pointed steel projectile. Projectile is 3 inches above rotating band. Threaded for a base fuze. Base of projectile is stamped 1-PDR.T. MK V.

Anybody tell me what the projectile may have been? More important, anyone recommend a color for the projectile?

I have a restored 1 Pdr with a Common projectile, painted gray, that is 2" above the rotating band. I'd like the taller one to complement that one.

TIA :tinysmile_shy_t:

Ray

 

[Gspragge]

As you see the paint does not survive well on these. One might even wonder if they were painted at all. The surviving paint on one shown here, like yours would seem to indicate a red body and a white band. Red on navy projectiles I believe indicates practice or no charge, the white band might indicate tracer ? but I do not have a USN reference for projectile coloration at this period. Your other 1 Pr might also have been red if it has a plug, there are examples of those with red remaining. Fuzed projectiles might well have been grey in larger sizes, but those these 1pr types don't show paint at all other than those with remaining red. I do have a much earlier Hotchkiss projectile with grey paint. Maybe somebody has a USN colour chart for around 1900. The USN adopted these longer practice 1Pr projectiles some what later than the Army, around 1912 or so. Before that the smaller 1 Pr was used.

If you have a wartime practice the joint of the tip and body can be difficult to make out, but these are all hollow.

They were fired from these 1 Pr MK1 type guns mounted on top of the barrels of the main guns. I guess some poor soul had to sit there and load them.

 

[raymeketa]

Thanks Gspragge.

Mine is exactly like "D" in your lineup. The case looks like it has never been fired. Clean primer pocket, no reside of any kind inside the case. So, I'm assuming it may have been a practice or blind-load. I am considering painting it red - unless someone has a color chart from the period that would indicate it should be something different.

My other 1 Pdr is a Common projectile (so stamped on the base). The projectile had traces of gray paint and one reference that I found indicated that slate gray was the proper color. So I restored it to original.

Anyone else have any info that would help me?

Thanks again.

Ray

 

[Gspragge]

It is quite possible that only the ends or tips of these were painted as this one seems to show. The paint on this appears to be original and is similar to others.