Help Identify my CANNON from St Croix USVI West Indies

L

loosecannon

Newbie
Nov 2, 2014
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Can someone out there help me identify my old cast iron ship cannon. I purchased it from an estate. They had it at their St Croix home for decades. They said it was originally found in the Christiansted Harbor. While cleaning the cannon the only marking I could make out was P1767 which I believe stands for " PROOFED and the date 1767 " I would love to know any other information about it, what country it came from, the foundry or even what ship it may have been from. Any help would be greatly appreciated. It's about 6 ft long and around 800 lbs

old.jpgold2.jpgpainted.jpgpainted2.jpgpainted3.jpg
 

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Knowing the cannon type might help more. You say it's about 6ft long and ways around 800lb, that would put it in between a 2-6 pounder.

Welcome to TreasureNet.:thumbsup:

SS
 

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Knowing the bore size would probably help. The fact that there's no royal or national crest on it makes me think it's likely to have been from a merchant ship rather than a war ship. Know of any wrecks in the area it came from?
 

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Almost all cannons had royal seals from which ever country they were from. That way they were readily identifiable if ever recovered. You look like youve looked it over pretty good though, and if it was there you should have seen it already. Usualluy on the top right at the base.
Doubtfull its English, they never had a precence there and English cannon were always stamped not only with the royal seal but alm,ost always with the ships name. Columbus actually landed there his second visit over but spanish never set up camp there. French built fort but abonded it and around the 1730's the Dutch established the first permanent settlement. They owned it until US bought St Criox in 1917 to establish a military precence in fear of germany making they way into the carribean
Unless the family has more info or you can find more markings im afraid you wonthave much luck.
Usually something like a cannon comes with a story soem paper work that help w a back ground.

Good luck
Very neat, sorry if this rude but im very curious about what you paid
 

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BELOW are the 4 shipwrecks on St Croix that are around the right time to have been carrying a cannon with the date of 1767
The first 3 shipwrecks were British, closest to the year the cannon was made. The last one sank in 1793 and I don't think it likely that this cannon could have sailed for 26 years though???

Year 1769. British merchantman, Graham, Captain M'Intosh, was cast away off the back reef of St. Croix and both ship
and cargo a total loss, but the crew saved. The Graham had
been sailing from Grenada to London..

Year 1769 British ship. Brothers, Captain Briggs, from Virginia for
Lisbon, sprung a leak at sea and bearing away for the West
Indies ran ashore upon a reef off St. Croix and both the
ship and cargo lost, but the crew saved.

Year 1773. British ship. Lord Mount Cathell, Captain
Fisher, previously commanded by the late Captain Taylor,
was lost on the island of St. Croix in July and only
part of the cargo saved.

Year 1793. Ship of unknown nationality, but possibly
French, named Christopher, Captain Mollyneaux, from
Africa, struck on a submerged anchor in the harbor of
St. Croix and sank.

I'm sorry that I didn't measure the bore before I came back stateside. I have someone going back to my house to measure it. I'll keep you posted.
Also, i hope that the "acorn shape" of the casabel button on the breech of the cannon may help identify the cannon.
 

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I have listed 4 possible shipwrecks above... boy I could have missed something when I cleaned it, or it may have been to rusty
 

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Pre-1900s artillery is my specialty-area. That said, I don't know near as much about "Early-Colonial era" cannons as I do about 1750-to-1900 ones (which is the era of "Pounder" designations cannon calibers, such as 6-Pounder, 12-Pounder, 24-Pounder, etc). In the "Early-Colonial" era, instead of a Pounder designation, cannon types had names (such as a Culverin and a Demi-Culverin), instead of numerical caliber designations.

Most important of all, we need to know the PRECISELY-MEASURED diameter of your cannon's bore. The "mouth" of many ancient cannons has gotten slightly enlarged by corrosion. You'll need to go at least 4 inches down into your cannon's bore to get an accurate measurement of its diameter. Also, scrape out any rust-concretion, to measure bare metal.
 

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This is too late to be of any real help, but there are a couple of pointers on this cannon which no one has brought up.
First P 1767 does not mean proofed in 1767. It is more likely to be the weight- But we would need to know if the mark is engraved or cast and where on the cannon this mark is recorded.
Secondly the origin of the cannon. It is Scandinavian, either Swedish or Danish-Norwegian. You can tell this by the shape of the cascable and the raised ridge round the cascable neck. On balance I would say Danish.
It looks in good condition and I wonder if it was in a shipwreck. Perhaps the original owner in the 18th century got it for self-defence.
 

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A cannon without a wreck or ship is almost next to impossible to relate to a particular ship...
Without some sort of provenance marks...

I remember once was I was a kid... a friend of my dads found 4 cannon off a sand bar...
He spent years combing that area...
No wreck...
It drove this guy nuts trying to figure out what ship they were from...
They laid in his back yard... prolly still there.

They later wrote these cannon off as "cast off" weight... from ship that had run aground.

BTW Good job on the base... if you made this...

I knew a guy while back that had some cannon barbette carriage wheels for sale.
 

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Check and see if it has the British Navy "Crows Foot" anchor and letter "C1" on rear end of barrel on top near vent.

Never mind... no raised touch.
 

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Smith...
Could it be British 6 pounder ?
1700's ?
Part of armament of Castillo De San Marcos ?
 

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