Hi I am a volunteer crew member on the museum ship HMAS Castlemaine which is located at Williamstown Australia. We have a gun as described above which we intend to strip as it is painted up and seized up to the point where it mostly doesn't move. Wondering if anyone can help in locating exploded drawings for this gun. It is a 1940's -1950's model. Cheers Bob
Hello Bob I see the photo is on wiki An Oerlikon cannon on HMAS Castlemaine I cant really add to it this chaps shows on wiki Untitled Document he might have more info Have you tried the Australian Navy directly for assistance. Also im sure you have thought about it but any ref to stripping the gun could also be taken as bringing it back on line as a live weapon. Best of luck and hopefully another member here will be able to add .
20 MM ANTIAIRCRAFT GUN - OP 911 See page 151 on stripping etc. People have asked me in the past about the 40mm Bofors Gun Manual. There are copies of the different Mks here on the same site. Navy Documents
Wow Hand to hand, cracking site. I'm supposed to be working but finding the plans for the USS Saratoga and so on is brilliant..!
Thanks CL1 yes that is our gun in the photo. And Handtohand that is a great site and although the model is slightly different we should be able to get enough info to allow us to do what we want thanks. Cheers Bob
Well Bob, you know the old navy story - If it moves, salute it, if it doesn't move walk around it, and if you can't do that paint it. Obviously the latter took place. David
As far as I can remember the barrel change was fairly straight forward. Im not sure but I seem to recall a tool was required to compress the barrel springs if they where removed and replaced. The manual mentions the barrel spring compression but not how to obtain it. I'd be carefull taking it to bits, if you aint got the tool to put it back together.
Yes thanks everybody, it is another success story. Spot on David, one can of grey paint and a big brush and very little thought and there you have - protected from rust!!! We have another problem very similar - all the pipes throughout the ship are painted white - a major job for next winter I think!! Thanks Peter but we don't intend to strip the barrel at this time, just remove it until we get everything else moving but we will be consulting that post. Cheers Bob
Peter I will not be back aboard til next Tuesday where I will gather that info. I've only been involved for about 6 months and I've never seen any machine guns, could you tell me where you got that info? Bob
From the Wiki page, I assumed they where still onboard. HMAS Castlemaine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hi Peter The 4" gun is designated on a plate thus: 4" M.A. L.A. MTC MARK XX111 MADE AT ORDNANCE FACTORY, BENDIGO 1944 That was the Government factory in the central Victorian town of Bendigo. Turns out we do have two Browning machine gunsthat look to me to be about half ince or a bit more. They have now plates on them but have a number stamped on the breech. 1870254 & 1870358. They are ex Australian Army. We also have a 40mm Bofors on the upper deck aft, it's plate says: Made in CANADA by OTIS-FENSOM ELEVATOR CO LTD Reconditioned at the Ordnance Factory, Maribyrnong, Victoria. 1945. The Oerlikon has no plates that I can see but I believe it was donated by the Oerlikon agent in Melbourne about 25 years ago and did belong to the Singapore Customs/Harbour Patrol service. Hope that's of interest Cheers Bob
4" Main Armament, Low Angle (Surface contacts only) Manual Turret Control is my interpretation. The numbers on the bolts ? of the .30 brownings could be the weapon serial numbers. Some nice manuals here Free Acrobat Manuals
I'm going to have to find someone who knows about the 4" but just looking at it with my untrained eye I would say you are right. The number I quoted off the Brownings is stamped on the top of the square section of the gun, sorry I don't know the correct terminology. However they don't look like any of the pictured ones on the web link you gave me. I will see if I can get one assembled and take a photo on it's mount. Bob
Bob, A query apart from your guns. Does the Castlemaine still have all her radio gear etc ? Am interested because I had a couple of weeks on the Gladstone in the 50's as the relieving sparker and fondly remember the trip from Melbourne to Sydney and back. Was a welcome change to the never ending routine of watchkeeping at Harman. David
Hi Beeza, the bloke who knows the details of the radio equipment wasn't on board today so I will ask next week. Peter, if you could send me a PM I will send some photos of the 4" to your email. The HMAS Castlemaine website is being renewed and should be up in about four weeks with much more info and photos for interested people. Cheers Bob