Driggs-Seabury Ordnance Company was founded in 1897 by William H. Driggs and Samuel Seabury, both US Navy officers, in partnership with Louis Labodie Driggs, originally to produce guns for the US Army and US Navy designed by the partners. After a few reorganizations and an entry into the motor vehicle market, the company reorganized again in 1925; its ultimate fate is unclear from references.
History
Driggs-Seabury was preceded by the Driggs-Schroeder series of weapons, designed by W. H. Driggs and Seaton Schroeder in the late 1880s and produced by the American Ordnance Company in the 1890s. Driggs-Seabury incorporated the former Seabury Gun Company at its founding. Driggs-Seabury's plant was initially in Derby, Connecticut, in the former Brady Manufacturing facility. Although Seabury died in 1902, followed by Driggs in 1908, the company continued under the leadership of Louis Labodie "L. L." Driggs until 1925. The relationship, if any, between William H. Driggs and Louis "L. L." Driggs is unclear; L. L. Driggs was formerly with the American Ordnance Company, manufacturer of Driggs-Schroeder weapons. The company moved production to Sharon, Pennsylvania in 1904; the US Rapid Fire Gun and Power Co. acquired the plant in Derby. The company manufactured motor vehicles 1913–15 and 1921–25, but sold its weapons production and plant in Sharon to Savage Arms in a 1915 merger. Under Savage Arms, the Sharon plant made Lewis guns in World War I. A probably related "Driggs Ordnance Company" existed in 1917. Dropping the Seabury name, Driggs was reconstituted as a motor vehicle manufacturer in New Haven, Connecticut in 1921, confusingly named "Driggs Ordnance & Manufacturing Corporation". Driggs was reorganized out of receivership as "Driggs Ordnance and Engineering" in 1925.
Weapons
Weapons produced by Driggs-Seabury included:
3-inch gun M1898, a coast defense weapon for the Army on a retractable "masking parapet" carriage, also made by Driggs-Seabury. 120 guns and carriages were built. The weapon's barrel was later used as the basis for the 3-inch Gun M1918, an anti-aircraft weapon. Possibly due to the bankruptcy of Driggs-Seabury, the M1898 seacoast weapons were removed from service in the early 1920s.
US Navy 3"/23 caliber gunMark 13 during World War I. This had a semi-automatic horizontal sliding breech block. In this case semi-automatic means the breech opens and the cartridge case is ejected on firing, ready for the next round to be loaded manually.
Two 6-pounder Driggs-Seabury guns were adopted by the US Army and designated the M1898 and M1900. Twenty M1898 and forty M1900 weapons were procured. Seventeen of the M1898 weapons were used on troop transports in the Spanish–American War. For land service, the 6-pounders were on "parapet" or "rampart" mounts which allowed a wheeled carriage to be fixed to a pintle mount. Some of these weapons were used at coastal forts in limited quantities beginning circa 1900, usually two per fort, and 12 were at Fort Ruger, Oahu, Hawaii 1915-19 under the Land Defense Project, which also included guns in the Philippines. )
A 3.2-inch field gun was featured in Scientific American in 1898, possibly an unsuccessful bid and possibly related to a Driggs-Schroeder "limited recoil" carriage for the 3.2-inch gun M1890, submitted to the US Army in 1895. It was not adopted by the US Army.
1923 Driggs taxicab, a version of the Model D built for the Diamond Taxicab Company of New York City. Another successful bidder was Elcar, and an unsuccessful one was Ace.
Other products
Driggs Ordnance Company advertised a boat engine designed for quiet operation in 1917.
