Dr. Tilley, your vast wealth of maritime knowledge is needed! A friend of mine is building an R/C model of the Revenue Cutter Fessenden in 1:48 scale. The cutter will be depicted in its later years patroling the Florida Keys. My question is that of armament. I have viewed the official CG web site(and a few other sites) and it appears that the Fessenden was equipped with four “rapid fire” guns in it’s final years of service. Would you know what type/caliber rapid fire guns were carried and where they were mounted on the ship? I have an example of your fine print of that cutter but no guns are visible. The blueprints my friend is working from indicate no armament at all. Any information you provide will be greatfully appreciated.
Wow. I made that drawing of the Fessenden many years ago, but I’m afraid I don’t remember much about her.
The guys in charge of the Coast Guard web site are generally pretty good about looking up the information that’s available about those old ships. The big problem is that the old Revenue Cutter Service was notoriously lousy about keeping records. My guess is that the material on the website is all the folks in DC have been able to dig up.
About the only other suggestion I can offer is to look up the ship in Donald Canney’s book, U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Don Canney is a thorough, conscientious researcher; I remember when he was working on that book, and I’m confident that he dug up what there was to dig. If the data on the armament isn’t in that book, it probably hasn’t been found - and isn’t likely to be.