One from the sea

[Whitehunter]

Hello,

This was dreged from the Solent in the 80's by my old man and it's been in his parents granden eversince, we have never worked out what it's from. Could anybody help?

Not sure why there is a random bowl on top of it

Also cannon balls in background

Many thanks


John

[Vegard T]

Looks like a huge mortar round.

[davejb]

Could it be a depth charge projectile

[zwerge]

Could it be a depth charge projectile

Is that the ones they called Hedgehogs?

[davejb]

Possibly, but i cant remember the actual size of the projectile plus its a bit difficult judging the size by the photo

[zwerge]

Possibly, but i cant remember the actual size of the projectile plus its a bit difficult judging the size by the photo

Yes it`s too bad people cant supply some measurements when they want to know what something is.

[Mark Tuson]

Judging by those cannon balls, i would say your old man has been on the mud flats of Pompey harbour as well John?

[Vegard T]

It is not a Hedgehog depth charge, that is for sure. I don't think it is a depth charge at all, since the fins are like that.

[davejb]

Okay its possibly a projectile called a squid mortar these contained 200lbs of a new type of expolsive, that were fired from a three barrelled launcher, the depth was guaged by asdic and once set all three were fired, range of about 300yds, apparently they were more successful than the existing depth charges at that time, the hedgehog was quite a bit smaller and not very effective it had to be a direct hit or it just sank and more often than not exploded on the sea bed

[Whitehunter]

Possibly, but i cant remember the actual size of the projectile plus its a bit difficult judging the size by the photo

Hello Dave, Sorry the old man was going to get some measurements today but he forgot hes going to do it tomorrow

Cheers

John