Mysterious Nova Scotian cannon. . .

fat tony

fat tony

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Location
a forward observation post in the L-F-H horizon, o
http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/greencann.html

Found on Green Island, Shelburne County, some time before WWI, origin unknown. . .

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Hmm... very interesting!

Maybe it was some sort of a locally-made coast defense gun, judging by its' weight and crude appearance? As for the support trunnions, I guess that it could've had some sort of a support bracket that fit around the gun in order to keep it steady and controllable... it must have, otherwise it'd be a pretty useless cannon!

:D


Very cool mystery, thanks for posting!
 
Probably used as a beach mounted line throwing mortar for lifesaving purpose around 1831. Or it could have been used as a fog signaling gun. Mary Hitchens was active in that area establishing lifesaving stations. A Breeches Buoy would have been rigged to take people off on the line from the wreck to shore.
 
I get the impression that it was once much longer and the front portion including the trunions were blown off at some point. Interesting gun just the same

cheers mooncoon
 
It does look like the back end of a much longer gun,it might have been loaded twice and there were no survivors when it went off. Just a quess:eek:
 
I love a good gun mystery , it would be great if it was an priviteers cannon? But if t world experts in this area can't figure out, I doubt I could,hahaha, aslo that guy should have shut the door on his gas fill ! great pictures thanks alot, Dale in T-Bay. PS as a kid loaded homemade powder into a old cannon cemented into a park overlook! good thing god kept me and my brothers in one piece till we grew some brains!
 
DATAM said:
Probably used as a beach mounted line throwing mortar for lifesaving purpose around 1831. Or it could have been used as a fog signaling gun. Mary Hitchens was active in that area establishing lifesaving stations. A Breeches Buoy would have been rigged to take people off on the line from the wreck to shore.
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This makes alot of sense Datam. A mortar purely for military purposes (siege gun) would be of larger calibre than 6inch to take a large payload of blackpowder.
 
DATAM said:
Probably used as a beach mounted line throwing mortar for lifesaving purpose around 1831. Or it could have been used as a fog signaling gun. Mary Hitchens was active in that area establishing lifesaving stations. A Breeches Buoy would have been rigged to take people off on the line from the wreck to shore.
Click to expand...

Pre 1761?
 
A core sample and a metalurgical analysis should put this to rest pretty easily. Mooncoon is right, the longer part of the barrel with the trunnions has broken off. It looks like there is a round edged step down in the barrel right by the break, of the kind which is seen on some 19th C. guns that were built of tubes sleeved onto one another. 6" bore equates to about a 32 Pounder, a very common heavy gun size for centuries.

Too bad it's left to rot with no protection from the elements. Wrought iron I've seen does not rust like that, IMO it is cast iron.
 
Not a mortar as the period mortar did not have a knob at the breech end... Probably a 24 pounder naval or fortress gun (ball of 5.68"). Obviously shortenend (missing the trunions). It seems to be an iron gun and by the style, I would say post 1700, probably British...
 
zywina said:
I love a good gun mystery , it would be great if it was an priviteers cannon? But if t world experts in this area can't figure out, I doubt I could,hahaha, aslo that guy should have shut the door on his gas fill ! great pictures thanks alot, Dale in T-Bay. PS as a kid loaded homemade powder into a old cannon cemented into a park overlook! good thing god kept me and my brothers in one piece till we grew some brains!
Click to expand...

priviteers aslo good thing god kept me and my brothers in one piece till we grew some brains.
X2 ;)
 
zywina said:
I love a good gun mystery , it would be great if it was an priviteers cannon? But if t world experts in this area can't figure out, I doubt I could,hahaha, aslo that guy should have shut the door on his gas fill ! great pictures thanks alot, Dale in T-Bay. PS as a kid loaded homemade powder into a old cannon cemented into a park overlook! good thing god kept me and my brothers in one piece till we grew some brains!
Click to expand...

Well, tell us what happened, inquiring minds want to know! :D
 
I'm sorry, excuse my ignorance, I know NOTHING about cannons... but they are saying that cannon in those pictures weighs 3600 pounds???

That can't be right?
 
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