Battery Pratt, July 2008
CDSG Member Jack Buckmeir has been working at an ambitious project to restore Battery Pratt, a circa 1900s seacoast artillery battery at Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon, to "active status." With the help of the Friends of Old Fort Stevens (FOOFS), Fort Stevens State Park, the Oregon National Guard at Camp Rilea, and valuable technical assistance from CDSG members, Jack has been building a working full-scale replica of one of the 6-inch disappearing guns once installed in the battery.
Dec 2009. Jack has installed the traversing mechanism.
January 2009 Update. Anyone planning a visit to Ft. Stevens within the next few months should know that the Battery Pratt gun is currently undergoing modifications and has somewhat been taken apart. Since this first gun is a prototype, Jack found he needed to modify some of the internal mechanisms before he can install the counterweight system and retracting mechanism. Jack is planning on having back together and all painted up before the summer tourist season and hopefully raising and lowering.
Stripping out some of the carriage for modifications January 2009
As of June 2008, most of the main parts of the gun and carriage are now complete. Jack has finished reworking the elevation arm and has now fitted on the gun. The sighting platform has been installed, the wooden support cribbing has been placed off to the side, and the gun has been turned towards the ocean. A makeshift "telescopic sight" has been temporarily installed on the sight column and park visitors can fix crosshairs on ocean-going vessels that pass by Ft. Stevens daily in the Columbia River.
Jack plans to have the counterweight system and crosshead installed by the end of this summer, and plans to have the gun raising over the parapet and lowering back into recoil by next spring. The gun will be raised and lowered via a brake-gear motor on the inside of the side frames driving the retraction gearing, which in turn will wind and unwind steel cables wrapped on the retraction drums and attached to each end of the gun levers in a see-saw fashion. The counterweight will be only enough to counterbalance the preponderance of raising and lowering the barrel. This revised system being done to comply with State safety considerations and operational necessity.
Battery Pratt June 2008
Battery Pratt circa 1920s
1930s Signal Corps picture of a drill at one of Battery Pratt's 6-inch guns.
Work progress photos (below)
Sighting platform installed June 2008
internal elevation assembly May 2008
Gear box for elevation control
Gun arms in place October 2004
Close up of new gun arms
Recoil cylinders installed, July 2003
Hoisting the recoil cylinders
early steps in assembling the carraige
Base ring installed
Battery E. Lewis Scott
The Friends of Old Fort Stevens (FOOFS) had this 200 lb. Parrott Rifle built locally out of steel. The bore is 8 inches and the rifle is fired with a salute charge with a spring recoil mechanism that pulls the rifle back the length of the carriage to simulate recoil. FOOFS expended $2000 for the rifle tube and $2500 for the carriage. This is one of a series planned to be built to completely re-arm the Ft. Stevens Earthworks. Next on the list will be a 15-inch Rodman and carriage.
In the summer of 2004, a interpretive replica emplacement was built near the museum for the 200 lb. Parrott Rifle. FOOFS named the emplacement Bty. Lewis E. Scott after FOOFS Board Member Lew Scott, who was the driving force behind the construction of both the weapon and the emplacement.
