Beautiful rifle. Steve, but you have opened a can of worms with this baby!
I have DA426, which is also A1625; no other numbers are present: no Company roundel, no standard serial such as you have, no nuthin'. Where did this anomalous A number spring from? Whatever organisation put it there, they had to be big enough to have a need for your rifle, my rifle and at least the thousand between them. This needs research.
Your front sight protector is on backwards. So is mine and I KNOW that it hasn't been messed with since I got it in 1976. I am wondering if this is common to the Chilean Rosses. Anybody else with a Chileno Ross care to chime in? I know that the sight protector certainly works well enough in this position: two of us with Rosses actually beat a pair of Minimis in open competition and, believe me, the Minimis certainly used a whack more ammunition!
Your rifle is marked to 16 Battalion as well as to 27 Battalion CEF. Mine is marked to 16 CEF only. Interesting point is that 16CEF went to the West Indies first, arriving in Europe just in time to be mauled so badly at Second Ypres and take part in the night attack April 24. Considering losses at Second Ypres, it is entirely likely that your rifle changed hands at that point.
HMS Canada was laid down by Armstrongs well before the War, one of a projected series of three superdreadnoughts armed with 14-inch guns. They would be the heaviest, most powerful ships in South America. By chance, "Canada" was also to become the LAST surviving superdreadnought-class ship to have taken part in the Battle of Jutland. She was laid-down as "Almirante Latorre" and was ready for sea-trials at the outbreak of the Great War. Britain exercised the ancient Right of Angary (by which a belligerant Power may seize and convert to its own needs neutral shipping within its waters) and seized the ship. With any RIGHT under the law comes the RESPONSIBILITY concomitant with it: in this case the obligation to PAY for the ship in cold, hard cash. Britain did not have the money to pay cash-on-the-nail for another superdreadnought, so Canada offered to pay for the ship. The offer was accepted, Britain got the ship and it was re-christened HMS Canada as a gesture of thanks. Following the War, Chile was allowed to buy back their own battleship at a discount price. After 5 years of Service, HMS Canada was in drydock and was gone over from one end to the other, boilers rebuilt, the entire ship rebuilt to "as-new" condition and in a more than operational state: for one thing, she carried Britain's entire stock of 14-inch shells, there being no other 14-inch battleships in the Royal Navy than the two Chilean vessels.
Whatever Ministerio purchased the ship, the Chileans are under the impression that the Departamento de Armada definitely marked the rifles. The DA marking is definitely Chilean, it appears on NO other rifles and it is ENGRAVED: all other markings are stampings, as you can see. Notice also the little DA167 by your anomalous A number on the Butt: it is stamped but it is in a typeface (and thus from a different set of punches) which differs from all other markings on the rifle. It is Chilean, without doubt.
WHY the mix-up in rifles? It is known that the ship should have had German-built 7x57 Mausers. The answer to that is in the letters "K-1": the Kitchener "New Armies" which were being formed and trained rapidly before being fed into the "Sausage Machine" of the Western Front. Britain's Army before the Great War was small and professional; it was also voluntary and long-term: enlistment was 7 years and you were not even considered a proper soldier until you had re-upped. This was the Army which died so bravely at Mons, on the Marne and the Aisne, at Neuve Chappelle and a dozen other forgotten places. Remaining men were used as instructional staff for the building of the massive New Armies. But there had been a massive loss of weapons and the factories were not yet putting out new ones in the quantities needed: where to get weapons? The first, easiest and quickest source for rifles was the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines, both of whom were using the same SMLE rifle as the Army. Every rifle possible was stripped from the Navy and Marines and given to the Army. The Navy and Marines could continue with a mixed mess of German Mausers, Martinis, Winchester lever-guns, Remington single-shots and anything else which would go "Bang!" when touched off. The Weedon List from shortly prior to the Second World War shows a fantastic array of rifles maintained in readiness.... including tens of thousands of Canadian Rosses.
What is known is that Rosses served in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Light Infantry at least to the middle of 1919; photographs exist of Rosses in Navy service at the scuttling of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919.
What also is known is that when the big superdreadnought finally went to Chile, she was well-equipped with Canadian Ross Rifles which had been aboard at least since prior to the Battle of Jutland in June of 1916.
Other Rosses were issued from the RMLI training base at Plymouth (marked PLY on the receiver ring, with a number), the Crombie base (CRB with number), more appear to have been issued from Priddy's Hard Ammunitioning Base by Portsmouth (PH and PHAB, putatively) and many were reissued during the Second World War, in which the superior accuracy of the Ross made them especially popular for detonating swept mines. These "other" Rosses, all from the Weedon List, were sportered and sold off, mostly in Canada, following the end of World War II.
The very last Rosses in regular service continued aboard the old Almirante Latorre, once HMS Canada, being withdrawn only in 1959 and put into store. These are the HMS Canada rifles, such as this one, which came back to Canada in the 1970s. They are also the only existing Rosses marked by the Chilean navy. There are only a couple of hundred of them and they should ALL be examined carefully in order that so very many things might be learned. Among these would be, "what is the CORRECT position of the foresight guard for CHILEAN NAVY service?", "apart from 16 Battalion (the Canadian Scottish) what OTHER formations supplied rifles which ended up in Chile?" and I am sure you can think of other questions.
Lovely rifle, great photos!
Try it with just 35 grains of IMR-4895 and a Sierra 180 flatbase Pro-hunter. This will get you 2300 ft/sec from that long barrel. My DA Ross will put them on top of each other at 100 if you can hold her down; this one just could do likewise!
Thanks for showing!
BTW, check the Picture of the Day thread. Not that long ago, our good friend DIOPTER posted a magnificent photo of our old HMS Canada. This rifle doubtless was aboard at that time! You are looking for Page 551, post 5504.
