#ft casey

[hoofpeet]

Cutie!!

[tshanman]

A Former Fort

Historic Fort Casey State Park is perched on a bluff looking across the Puget Sound to the Olympic Peninsula.  This strategic site looking over the entrance to the Puget Sound was first occupied in 1859 when the original Admiralty Head Lighthouse was built to aid navigation.

The current “newer” lighthouse was built in 1903, at the same time the defensive batteries at Ft Casey were under construction.

   From the water, the bluffs of Ft. Casey look attractive and benign.

    But from behind, the extensive fortifications are impressive, as you can see in the next two photos.

The fortification was made up of ten self-contained batteries, each housing guns, ammunition (shot and powder were housed separately), and all of the mechanisms to control loading, sighting, and aiming these massive guns.  Loading the guns was no easy feat given each shell weighted 670 pounds.

   The battery commander stations were tall towers with narrow lookouts built behind the guns.

   Despite their height, from the sea the commander’s stations were barely visible.

   But they had a commanding view across the sound.

In all, there were 19 guns and 16 mortars housed at Ft. Casey.  The largest were sixteen 12-inch mortars, and seven 10-inch “disappearing” guns.  The guns were ingeniously designed with counter weights.  The weights were released just before firing, raising the guns out of their concrete protective barrier.  When the guns were fired, the recoil lowered the guns back down into their hidden loading position.

The two pictures below show one gun in the lowered position, and another in the raised position ready to fire.

   It was assumed that any attack would come at night, so the fort also had five 60-inch searchlights capable of sending a beam across the wide sound.    

Since the lights could easily become targets for any enemy, soldiers controlled the movement and aiming of they lights from remote locations.

    In more innocent days, I’ve enjoyed touring historic military installations, fascinated by the ingenuity they demonstrate and the history they tell.  It sure felt different this time.  While I still found Ft. Casey fascinating, I couldn’t help but reflect on the fact that this was of a more innocent time.  And now the man who commands our military might, has the maturity of a belligerent tantrum-throwing 5-year old.

For whatever it’s worth, I’m happy to report that through its decades of operation, Ft. Casey never fired a single shell against an enemy.  

[lilroseybud]

"Found a fryer for that potato" 

- Caroline