Can you identify coast-defence guns at Stanley Park Vancouver 1914 ?

[RodB]

This photograph from Vancouver archives reads : "Stanley Park Vancouver B.C. August 1914. Lieutenant H.O. Mock, R.N.V.R. with a large gun battery at Fergusson Point".

Measurements indicate the gun appears a little longer than twice his height. Assuming he's just under six feet, the gun is a bit longer than twelve feet. Could this be a QF 12-poundeer 12 cwt, which had a bore of 40 x 3 inches = 120 inches, plus maybe five inches for the chamber = 10 foot 5 feet. I.e. the gun looks too long to be a QF 12-pounder 12 cwt. Or is just a trick of perspective ?

Or is this a 4-inch gun ? 40-cal gun would be +- 165 inches long (14 ft) ... this gun doesn't appear that long. Reports I've found on the other gun battery in Stanley Park says they were 4-inch, but I haven't found anything on this particular battery.

thanks

Rod

[derekspiers]

Are these the guns which were manned by RGA units ? My GF served in the Vancouver RGA Company in 1905.

[RodB]

This officer is Navy, and the other photographs in the series show them manned by Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve.

[RodB]

Further research indicates that this appears to be a QF 4-inch Mk III on P1 mounting. The photograph chops off about a foot of the breech end, which brings it up to close to the expected 4-inch gun length. I've found refs stating two guns from HMS Shearwater (which had such 4-inch guns) were brought ashore and positioned in Stanley Park in 1914.

Does that sound correct ? See diagrams from National Archives of Australia :

Rod

[derekspiers]

Is it the case therefore that coastal/harbour protection was not the task of RGA units by 1914? If they were still there however, it appears to be a bit of an extreme case of duplication !

[RodB]

This appears to have been a short-term move in case the German Pacific cruisers came and shelled Vancouver... although I can't imagine what use 4-inch 25-pound shells were against armoured cruisers : they were intended for defence against torpedo boats... I think because these were naval guns borrowed from (HMS Shearwater ?) with which the Army would not have been familiar, they borrowed naval gunners to man them until the panic was over after the German ships were sunk at the Falklands. They also shipped some 60-pounders over which presumably the Army would have manned.

[centurion]

This appears to have been a short-term move in case the German Pacific cruisers came and shelled Vancouver... although I can't imagine what use 4-inch 25-pound shells were against armoured cruisers : they were intended for defence against torpedo boats... I think because these were naval guns borrowed from (HMS Shearwater ?) with which the Army would not have been familiar, they borrowed naval gunners to man them until the panic was over after the German ships were sunk at the Falklands. They also shipped some 60-pounders over which presumably the Army would have manned.

There was a short term semi panic that the Germans might land raiding parties to destroy the Pacific telegraph relay stations and associated infrastructure (they'd knocked out two such stations on mid ocean islands already). Volunteer units were despatched to guard such installations and these guns would no doubt be intended to repel landers (and they could make quite a hole in a light cruiser)

[RodB]

Thanks Cent. Indeed - I hadn't thought of the communications war. Should limit my inputs to what I know.

[TARA]

On a visit to Stanley Park a few years ago, the peace of the evening was shattered by the firing of a gun. Apparently a regular evening ceremony that dates back many years. Could it have been one of the 1914 guns or would it have been a more recent WWII gun used for this event?

TARA

[RodB]

Neither. I think it would be the Nine O'Clock gun, a very old muzzle-loader. Wikipedia article