The Morgan

[aue-mike]

There were anti-aircraft shells that were designed to detonate on a certain amount of pressure drop.

The big ones that everyone likes to pick up are 90MM M19 shells. These were initially shells for anti-aircraft guns, then they later started mounting the guns to chasis and tanks to try and blow the hell out of other stuff.

Most of the issue is that the powder in the 90mm shells is flammable and makes a heck of a mess on the boat.

It's cordite pellets (versus powder), and actually it does not make much of a mess. It's the outer covering on the shell (tar paper) that makes the mess.

 

[Don Burke]

The big ones that everyone likes to pick up are 90MM M19 shells. These were initially shells for anti-aircraft guns, then they later started mounting the guns to chasis and tanks to try and blow the hell out of other stuff.

I talked to some guys who served in 90mm AA batteries and they told me the shells they used were set to detonate on time after firing. The timers were manually set for each fire mission.

They may have said they were M19. It has been a while.

Adapting the guns to other uses makes sense since the Germans had so much success doing just that with the 88mm guns. My interest in rifled guns ends at about .50 caliber, so I'll take your word for it.

It's cordite pellets (versus powder), and actually it does not make much of a mess. It's the outer covering on the shell (tar paper) that makes the mess.

Actually, all modern "powders" are either ball or pellet. The powder I got from a 90mm off the Morgan burned like straight nitrocellulose and left a heck of a stain on my clothes. Since neither the IMR 3031 (pelletized)or Winchester 231 (ball) I have do that, I chalk it up to seawater exposure.

 

[CelticRavenVA]

The point here still remains. If you dive a wreck that has Ammo laying around on it, you should treat it as live ordnance, and it should be considered dangerous, and not something to "collect".

Don, Thanks for the tip on the pressure triggers, didn't know that.