page_title: 12-inch gun M1895
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: 12-inch gun M1895 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a 12-inch gun M1895 on a disappearing carriage, M1896. Note: The gun is shown here in the "from battery" position, with its breech lowered (for loading) to a level just above the gun platform. After loading, the tripping lever (seen here slanting back and down from the front of the carriage) was released, letting a 9 foot tall, 82-ton pile of lead weights (the counterweight) descend into a pit beneath the carriage, and rotating the gun, suspending from the two massive gun levers, up and forward so that its muzzle rose above the parapet for firing. After firing, the gun's recoil was damped primarily by the two large recoil cylinders, one on each side of the top carriage, and also by the work of lifting the counterweight back into position, where it was held until the tripping lever was released again. The two long bars running back to the carriage from near the breech of the gun are the gun arms, which guided the breech during recoil and were used to elevate the gun. The bright white object at top center-left is the telescopic sight for the gun, covered by a protective tarp. The soldier sighting the gun did so from the catwalk on the top left side of the piece. From here he could control the motors that traversed the gun carriage and changed the elevation of the gun. He could also fire the gun electrically.
context_page_description: The 12-inch coastal defense gun M1895 and its variants the M1888 and M1900 were large coastal artillery pieces installed to defend major American seaports between 1895 and 1945. For most of their history they were operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Most were installed on disappearing carriages, with early installations on low-angle barbette mountings. From 1919, 19 long-range two-gun batteries were built using the M1895 on an M1917 long-range barbette carriage. Almost all of the weapons not in the Philippines were scrapped during and after World War II.
context_section_description: In 1885, William C. Endicott, President Grover Cleveland's secretary of war, was tasked with creating the Board of Fortifications to review seacoast defenses. The findings of the board illustrated a grim picture of existing defenses, and in its 1886 report recommended a massive $127 million construction program of breech-loading cannons, mortars, floating batteries, and submarine mines for some 29 locations on the US coastline. Most of the board's recommendations were implemented. Coast artillery fortifications built between 1885 and 1905 are often referred to as "Endicott Period" fortifications.
  Watervliet Arsenal designed the gun and built the barrels. For several years, difficulties were encountered in building a disappearing carriage for the 12-inch gun. One alternative was the M1891 gun lift carriage, with the gun mounted on a large steam-powered elevator. Only one battery of this type was built, Battery Potter at Fort Hancock, New Jersey. When this proved to be too complex, guns were mounted on low-angle M1892 or M1897 barbette carriages. The M1897 carriage was actually an "altered gun lift" carriage, functionally equivalent to the barbette carriage. Eventually, the guns were mounted on M1896, M1897, or M1901 disappearing carriages designed by Bethlehem Steel; when the gun was fired, it dropped behind a concrete or earthen wall for protection from counter-battery fire. Bethlehem later built barrels as well. Detailed descriptions of the M1888 weapon, disappearing carriage, and gun lift carriage are in the US Army's Artillery circular 1893, pp. 195–207. Detailed parts lists for the M1888 weapon and supporting equipment are in the Ordnance supply manual by George L. Lohrer, United States Army, Ordnance Dept, 1904, pp. 115–211.
  After the Spanish–American War, the government wanted to protect American seaports in the event of war, and also protect newly gained territory, such as the Philippines and Cuba, from enemy attack. A new Board of Fortifications, under President Theodore Roosevelt's secretary of war, William Taft, was convened in 1905. Taft recommended technical changes, such as more searchlights, electrification, and, in some cases, less guns in particular fortifications. The seacoast forts were funded under the Spooner Act of 1902 and construction began within a few years and lasted into the 1920s. The defenses of the Philippines on islands in Manila Bay were built under this program.
caption: M1895 coastal defense 12-inch gun on M1896 disappearing carriage.
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