Kinda Caracas

I came across this nugget of EOD history today while looking for something else. But it’s a good story on its own.  In 1968, the famous Cammel Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, Northern England won a contract to “refit” a Venezuelan naval vessel. The Venezuelan Navy delivered the vessel to the shipyard, “handed over the keys” and jumped on a plane back home.  The shipyard got to work refitting the ship. Some weeks later, in August 1968, the work package on this ship got to the main armament, a 102mm gun.  At some point the breech of the main gun on the ship was opened and a fitter happened to look down the barrel. Expecting to see a shiny barrel with the sunlit sight of Merseyside in the distance the mechanic was surprised to see nothing. Blackness.   So he had a think and the next day told his management.  A torch was acquired and shone down said barrel.  There was something down there. It was a shell.  The shell fitted so snugly down the 102mm barrel (4″?) that it was jammed tight.  Presumably the Venezuelan Navy had been carrying out some firing exercises in the past, and got the shell stuck, then, perhaps they had “forgotten” about it. Mañana.  There were some indications in some strange written records, translated from Spanish, that heavy weights had been dropped down the elevated barrels in an attempt to free the shell. (!)   At this point the local Army EOD team was called to Birkenhead to deal with the matter.

Messages were sent to London, translated, and sent through Diplomatic channels to the Venezuelan government seeking comprehensive technical background and details. These were provided, translated and sent back to London then on to the EOD team, stood on the deck of the ship.  The advice from Caracas was as follows (in full):

Message starts:

1. If the shell’s front end is coloured RED, it is high explosive.
2. If the shell’s front end is painted YELLOW , it is not high explosive.

Message Ends.

The EOD team metaphorically shrugged at this. They lowered a camera down the barrel and took a colour picture. The end of the shell was painted ORANGE.  There were other unidentified obstructions in the barrel too…. So what to do?  After some thought, they carried out a number of appropriate techniques to loosen the shell in the barrel, all to no avail. Eventually the breech was cut out of the gun completely, shell and all, and transported to a range for destruction. Here’s a pic of the EOD office (in service dress, no less) manoeuvring the shell in the breech at the range in Sennybridge.