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6" or 155mm

Slick

Slick

Well-Known Member
Had to go antique shopping with family and friends. Inside the front door of one shop was the following door stop:

Shell 6inch.jpg

The holes in the windshield are symmetrical and finely cut, so it wasn't a bubba "demil" job. Not sure why one would be cut/drilled in that manner. I did not have a tape measure. A 6" or 155mm AP. The only legible stampings - 137. The paint was thick. Very heavy(100lb. +/-). Missing drive band. I plan to go back and get more precise dimensions if warranted. It's sticker price is $149. I do not collect this size stuff.
 
It is a U.S. Navy 6 inch AP. The scrappers removed the rotating band which was stamped with the ID info. There would have been a brass cap soldered over the top set of holes, and brass "Freeze Plugs" expanded into the lower set of holes. The space above the piercing cap, under the windscreen would have been filled with a colored dye. When multiple ships would have target practice, each ship would have a different color dye in their projectiles. When the projo hits the water, the brass nose cap is punctured pushing water into the dye compartment and forcing the colored water out of the holes that were plugged below. Thus, each ship's impacts could be differentiated from the other ships firing by the dye spots in the water.

As an added note, the 155mm AP projos used in WWII, were actually U.S. Navy AP projectiles (152mm).
 
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