16-Inch Armor Piercing Projectile

This 16-inch armor piercing projectile could penetrate a ship's armor or reinforced fortifications on shore, and BB55 used it only for shore bombardments. It was a Mark VIII, Mod 7 model weighing 2,700 pounds, with a range of 21 miles and a speed of 2,300 feet per second, or 1,560 miles per hour, as it left the barrel. Its paint colors identified its function and contents: black showed it was an armor piercing projectile, yellow indicated Explosive D, a common high explosive, white marked the tracer's color, and green marked the dye color assigned to BB55 to identify shell splashes. Stencil markings gave details including the projectile's size, type, weight, manufacturer, burster charge weight and type, fuze types, tracer type, the month and year the explosive and fuzes were loaded, and the ammunition depot it came from. From here, it could reach Fort Fisher/Kure Beach, Bolivia on SR17 south, Hampstead on SR17 north, and Rocky Point on I-40 west.

North Carolina · United States