Guns of the Long Island Sound

The following article is taken from the 4/18/19 edition of the Groton & Mystic Times. For a full reading of the article, go to theday.com and search for Noank Jail articles.

---------------------------------------

Guns of Long Island Sound


by Ed Johnson

During the early 1960's, some folks may remember a popular film from that time called "The Guns of Navarone," originating from a fiction novel based on WWII battles near Leros. The two huge, land-based fictional weapons depicted may have been patterned after the 15 inch guns aboard the German Battleship "Bismarck" from that WWII period. But, there were similar shore-based guns installed here in the US during the 1900's.

At a meeting of the Noank Historical Society (NHS) on Wednesday, March 20, 2019, local historian Robert Suppicich gave a history, with photos and vintage film footage, of five coastal artillery forts that were established at the mouth of Long Island Sound, four of them equipped with heavy armament. This was during the Spanish - American (S-A) War with the US military's objective to prevent enemy warships from entering the sound to protect New York City from attack.

The five locations included Fort Mansfield on Napatree Point, RI, Fort H.G. Wright on Fishers Island, NY, Fort Michie on Great Gull Island, NY, Fort Terry on Plum Island, NY and Fort Tyler on Gardiner's Point Island, NY. Fort Tyler never received armament due to the S-A War being suddenly concluded and high storm water causing damage to the facility.

Forts Mansfield, Wright, Michie and Terry all did receive armaments during 1898. Generally, these consisted of 12" mortars along with some large 12, 10, 8 or 6 inch bore "disappearing" guns and a variety of 6, 5 and 3 inch bore pedestal mounted guns. Enemy warships were constructed with heavy metal sides but wooden decking, which gave mortars the capability to lob heavy shells designed and smash through the wooden decks to explode, thus causing internal ship damage.

The heavy "disappearing" guns were mounted on counter-weighted fulcrums and "breech" loaded at the rear. Each gun-crew of 24 would open the breech, ram-insert the projectile, followed by a powder charge, close the breech, swing up the gun above the parapet, then aim and fire at the enemy target. The recoil would automatically cause the gun to swing back down below the parapet and not be visible to the enemy during reloading. In the films, some of the gun barrels appeared to be almost 20 feet in length with a firing range of this type of over 20 miles.

The S-A war lasted only a short time during 1898 primarily due to the decisive American victories fought elsewhere. Mr Suppicich recounted history on those battles, also indicating the famous explosion aboard the battleship "Maine" may have been caused by an internal problem and not enemy action. He advised that Spain "retired" from the S-A War under a "protocol of peace" to save face, as Spain had run out of money to finance their war effort.

The armament for the four remaining Long Island Sound forts was completed, but the Fort Mansfield emplacement was found to have a design flaw. The guns could not produce effective defensive fire for enemy attacks approaching from the east, close to the Rhode Island shore, a visual "blind" spot from Napatree Point. So, Fort Mansfield was deactivated by 1907 but some emplacement structures still remain.

Forts Wright, Terry and Michie remained with improvements, including 16 inch guns at Wright and Michie, through both World Wars until 1946, after which the facilities were otherwise utilized. Plum Island became a restricted animal disease research location in 1952 and then from 2000 to 2016 was up for sale. Recently, there have been legal efforts to restrict any such sale.

As he closed his program at the NHS, Mr. Suppicich listed names of 7 Noank men in the process of going to fight in the S-A War before it ended. His list included: William Chadwick, buried in Noank Valley Cemetery (NVC), his brother James Chadwick, Herbert Bunnel, George Lamb, John Bentley, Roderick Campbell and Walter H. Wolverton, whose grave I found in the NVC, which states he died in 1946. May they all continue to rest in peace.