WWI Motor Launch cartridge question

[Burney Davis]

I was lucky enough to find these two trench art cases at the last Chatham. I don’t usually collect such things but these were interesting as they are ‘dedicated’, being engraved with H.M.M.L. 272 - His Majesty’s Motor Launch 272 – and dates of its involvement in the Bruges/Ostend/Zeebrugge raids, being 1917 and 1918. The Launch was part of the Dover Command (Dover Patrol).

The Motor Launches were originally armed with 13pr guns which were replaced with 3 pounders and here’s where it gets interesting. The cases are marked for 47mm pre WW1 Russian guns. They are stamped on the base with ‘C F’ so were definitely fired in British service. I assume that as they were fired once they would probably have had the original Russian loading and projectile (only an assumption), but were the ‘3pr’ guns Russian or British? Were the Russian guns of the same design as the British Naval ones, or even originally British export?

It seems strange that these vessels would have been equipped with Russian guns or, alternatively, that the British guns would fire Russian ammunition.

I would appreciate if anyone has any information relevant to the guns/ammunition used on these Motor Launches. TIA

 

[Gspragge]

I think the guns will be British but as these Hotchkiss guns were universal in design all of the
ammunition would be interchangable no matter whose. CF would I think imply British loading, the date of 1904
shows a war order that was likely not delivered after the Dogger Bank incident, so these cases may have lingered
on and were simply absorbed into British service later when there was a need. So the question is did Britian embargo
military shipments to Russia during the 1904 war with Japan.
A comparison with a Russian made case should show if any other marks are British (N8 N14). The Russian order could have been just
for cases too rather than complete rounds. Who is the maker of these is another question?