I hope everyone is enjoying the spring. In Maine this is mud season: the snow hasn’t melted everywhere yet, especially in the woods, the ground is still frozen, and it rains a lot; so everything is soaked. It almost (but not quite) makes me look forward to mowing again.
This month I have started to post some detailed materials on the deck guns and small arms used on the chasers, starting with a scan of a brochure from a 1917 celebration event by the manufacturer of the Poole 3”/23 caliber deck gun. More to come, as time allows.
Also posted are more chaser hull number collection photos.
--Todd Woofenden, editor
Poole Engineering: Celebration Pamphlet
Recently submitted by the people at the Research Center at the Baltimore Museum of Industry are scans of a 1917 celebration dinner program from Poole Engineering & Machine Co. There isn’t a lot of hard data here. It’s just for fun.
A note from BMI: They are currently working to restore the steam tug Baltimore, the oldest surviving hand-fired coal burning steam tug in the United States, built in Baltimore in 1906. BMI recently received a Saving America's Treasures grant and is looking for matching donations, volunteers and in-kind materials. If you’re interested, please contact them. It sounds like a neat project.
Subchaser.org on Twitter
Anybody do Twitter? Mostly for the purpose of testing the feature, I recently installed a Twitter module that posts to Twitter each time I add something to the site. I don’t harbor delusions of WWI naval history enthusiasts being big fans of microblogging, but if you’re interested, it’s /subchaser on Twitter.
New in the Hull Number Photos Collection
The SC 101 image is from an excellent photo I just picked up recently. It shows several chasers, each with a different depth charge arrangement at the stern. One has a makeshift rack to one site, one has charges just lashed to the deck at the stern, and one has a fully-built, rather large rack raised from above the rudder quadrant up over the aft deckhouse.