This gun is a QF (quick firing) 6-pounder Hotchkiss, a light 2.25 inch (57 mm) naval and coastal defence gun from the late 19th century. The design appears to be pre-1890 as it does not have the recoil system that was introduced at that time. The original 1885 Mk I was a built-up gun with a vertical sliding-block breech. The name comes from the French manufacturing company, Hotchkiss, who were the major supplier of light QF guns in the world. This type of gun became a standard torpedo defence weapon; many navies bought this same type of gun (Friedman 2011). This gun is a QF (quick firing) 6-pounder Hotchkiss, a light 2.25 inch (57 mm) naval and coastal defence gun from the late 19th century. The design appears to be pre-1890 as it does not have the recoil system that was introduced at that time. The original 1885 Mk I was a built-up gun with a vertical sliding-block breech. The name comes from the French manufacturing company, Hotchkiss, who were the major supplier of light QF guns in the world. This type of gun became a standard torpedo defence weapon; many navies bought this same type of gun (Friedman 2011). This gun was ship mounted and from the location given may have come from the French merchant vessel, SS Saint Andre, a 2457 tons French, screw-driven cargo steamer. In France in 1915, it was decided to arm merchant ships with guns against U-boats. Initially, small naval guns were used, with French steamers of more than 500 tons being issued with two guns with a calibre of 90 mm or more in three stages. First, all ships were armed with at least one gun. These small-calibre guns (47 mm, 57 mm, 65 mm) were then replaced with one more powerful gun. Finally, all steamers were armed with a gun more powerful than 90 mm. In a two-year period between 1916 and 1918, over 1600 merchant ships received one gun and another 400 received a second (Friedman 2011). SS Saint Andre was built by Ateliers & Chantiers de France, a company founded in 1880, in Dunkerque in 1907 as Yard No. 46. On 19 December 1917, SS Saint Andre was on a voyage from Rouen, France, to Algiers, Algeria, with a cargo of empty casks and barrels, when it was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UB-58, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Werner Fürbringer, nine miles southwest of the Eddystone Lighthouse, Devon. At the time of sinking the vessel was owned by Société Navale de l'Ouest, Le Havre. Saint Andre now lies in approximately 70 m of water. NRHE and Cornwall HER reference numbers cited within this record refer to the wreck of SS Saint Andre. Due to the ambiguity of the gun having come from the wreck of SS Saint Andre, the chronology of the find is broader. A RDF representation of MAS-6105BA 2016-07-25T14:12:59+01:00 2016-08-26T12:44:03+01:00 MAS-6105BA MAS-6105BA GB en-GB The Trustees of the British Museum The Trustees of the British Museum 1 http://purl.org/NET/Claros/vocab#Thumbnail Attribute as courtesy of the British Museum A thumbnail image of MAS-6105BA With finder MAS Created by MAS V L V L Identified by V L Steel Primary material of object Iron Secondary material of object Complete By Attribution 3.0 The period from for the object Attribute as courtesy of the British Museum A full resolution image of MAS-6105BA 1885 1950 Method of manufacture Classification of object