16-inch M1895 gun

• Name — 16-inch coastal defense gun M1895 • Origin — United States • Type — Coastal artillery • Is Ranged — yes • Is Artillery — yes • Service — 1915–1943 • Used By — United States Army • Wars — World War I • Designer — Watervliet Arsenal • Design Date — 1895 • Manufacturer — Watervliet Arsenal • Number — 1 • Weight — 284000 lbs • Length — 35 calibers (56 ft) • Cartridge — 2400 lbs shell, 650 lbs nitrocellulose powder • Caliber — 16 in (406 mm) • Velocity — 2250 ft/s • Max Range — 19300 yd • Feed — hand • Carriage — M1912 disappearing • Elevation — -5° to +20° • Traverse — circa 160°

Under President Grover Cleveland's administration in 1885, the Board of Fortifications under William C. Endicott was ordered to investigate the value and state of the United States' coastal defenses. Endicott found that America had fallen behind and that new naval technology made many forts and coastal defense weaponry obsolete. The 1886 report recommended a $127-million ($ in) construction program of breech-loading cannons, mortars, floating batteries, and submarine mines for some 29 locations on the US coastline. New fortifications built in the following decades as a result of this report were called "Endicott Period" fortifications. Finding a need for long range weaponry, the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps ordered a 16-inch (406 mm) gun, the construction of which began in 1895 at the Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, New York. The massive artillery piece was designated the M1895 and was completed in 1902; only one was built. At 284000 lbs it weighed more than any gun that had ever been created up to that point. The 32-wheel train car alone weighed 192420 lbs. The 56 ft long gun could launch a 2400 lbs shell 21 mi. The weapon was shipped from the Watervliet Arsenal to Watertown Arsenal in Watertown, Massachusetts to be packed for shipment to the Panama Canal Zone. It was installed on an M1912 disappearing carriage in Fort Grant on the Pacific side of the canal in 1915, where it protected the fort until it was scrapped in 1943. The muzzle section was later preserved and displayed at the Watervliet Arsenal museum, which closed in 2013.

• Illustration — Full-scale model of 16-inch gun M1895 with various ammunition alongside, St. Louis World's Fair, 1904 • Illustration — Soldiers standing on the 16-inch gun M1895 at Sandy Hook Proving Ground, New Jersey

The canonical record carries the following identifying particulars. Classified as a coastal artillery weapon or rifled breech loader. Institutional cataloguing adds that 16-inch M1895 gun is associated with United States.