Battery Granger

Battery Granger. . , Granger’s 10-inch rifle could strike a battleship eight miles out to sea. A simple counterweight system quickly raised and lowered the gun, and a well-trained crew could fire off two rounds a minute. Protected in front by fifty feet of earth and concrete, this 1897 battery was almost immune to the flat trajectory fire of 19th century warships., The Disappearing Gun , Recoil lowers the gun behind the parapet. To conceal and protect coastal guns and crews from increasingly accurate fire of modern warships, two American officers, Adelbert Buffington and William Crozier, perfected the design of the “disappearing” gun carriage. Loading was easier because shot trucks could bring heavy ammunition directly to the breech of the lowered weapon. To pivot the gun back to firing position, a latch was tripped, releasing a 45-ton counterweight hanging in a well below the carriage., This battery made Battery Potter, 250 yards north, obsolete almost as soon as it was completed. Potter’s steam-powered hydraulic lifts allowed its guns to disappear also, but could not compete with the speed and efficiency of the Buffington-Crozier system.