Diver Lynn: The State would rather see cannons and anchors left in place. Too many of them were pulled up in the early days and that only accomplished two things. #1 Cannons and anchors are one of the main things to look for when searching for old shipwrecks, many of them were raised for scrap metal during WWII. At the same time, they were removing the very clues that would point to an ancient wreck site. Many sites have never been found because they lack enough ferrous metal to produce a strong magnetometer anomaly. when they have been pulled off. #2, look at the cannons in Fort Pierce, or take a drive along A1A in the Keys and it is sad to see the deteriorating cannons slowly turning into dust infront on restaurants, banks, city parks etc. They simply didn't know modern conservation methods.
These modern conservation methods are often time consuming and it seems to be more and mor eof the trend to not disturb cannons in the first place and even in several cases return them to the water. Several cannons from Rio Mar were placed in Pennekamp Park and I know the cannons on the 1733 San Pedro U/W Preserve in the Keys are concrete replicas.
The site off Vero Beach I have been working with HRD has five cannons that we know of. We are in no hurry to remove or recover them. They are the one thing on the site that do not shift around and I have used them as referrence points to measure from and triangulate in where the various gold and silver coins and other artifacts have been found on the site. In doing so I have been able to generate a remarkable accurate site map.
On the other hand, the Blackbeard shipwreck site off the coast of NC has recovered 2/3 of the cannons present on that wreck and plan to remove the rest over the next few years. They have a conservation facilty and grant money to pay for preservation, which makes a big difference.
Anyway, I am not sure it is a written rule or anything, but the current trend in Florida seems to be leave iron cannons and anchors in place.
Rob Westrick
