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Boxes of 20mm rounds washed ashore in Cornwall.

They have a rubber seal in the lid, I'm not sure if they are airtight though.
 
It should be fairly easy to track where they came from. The BKI on the box and the white lable should provide clues

r.jpg
 
The lid is airtight.
In the old pre Montreal International Law of the Sea Conference 1974 days which put a phased in ban on sea dumping of munitions at sea, even though packages did not have any kind of lid sealing, the munitions were removed and holes to a prescription, were made in the packages.
One good reason for the additional holes is that those dropping them over the side feel happier about the screws driving the ship beginning to turn, if they have seen them moving rapidly towards Davy Jones.
Davy Jones's Locker was the destination marked on all sea dumping issuing paperwork.
 
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Back in my Navy days, in a weapons division, I can assure you nothing like that would/could accidentally fall over the side. Those were chunked. Traceable back to the ship and whoever last signed for them. Lucy's got some 'splainin' to do. Somebody's gonna get an a$$chewin', at the least. We never threw expired ord/ammo over the side. It always got shot up.
 
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The type of round used in the CIWS anti missle Vulcan miniguns, don't know if UK has them,looks to be US ammo.
 
To be precise, the MK244 is the latest ammo for use in the Phalanx 1B CIWS which among other things has longer and heavier barrels than previous versions. The MK244 fires tungsten-cored APDS projectiles which are larger and heavier than the previous MK149 family, and the propellant load is tuned for the longer barrels. It has a red plastic sabot as opposed to the last iteration of the MK149, which were white (and before that, orange, and before that, black - both with DU core).

The RN does use the Phalanx and although I am not 100% certain, I think that they have all been upgraded to the 1B version, so it could have come from an RN ship. The ammo is not made in the UK however, it is bought from the USA.
 
Just to show the different MOD types ... Yellow and Green are (as far as i know) experimental/testing specimens
 

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