MrWiskers welcome to FANTASTIC SITE !!! Love the canon picture and story. Do you still have it. ? You said your still in trouble over it. C an you explain more ?
Hello, Gare ...
... My (1st) wife & I were on a scuba diving trip, staying at the Salt Raker Inn, which was partially owned (at that time, July, 1987) by a friend from London (David, in the attached pic) ...
I would wake every morning at sunrise, & comb the beach, as the water & sands, from the inn on into town, were literally littered with pieces of Ming Dynasty porcelain pieces, glass bottle remnants, nails & iron spikes: wooden remnants from 1500s ships, pieces of huge chain links, & even whole (huge) galleon anchors & large (10') whole cannon, laying, exposed on the bottom, in 20' of water, just 200' south of the town's dock ... an unbelievable treasure-trove, in 1987. At that time, the island was not visited that much, as it is today, & the locals could have cared less about this stuff ... I also found three 8" cannon balls ...
... walking the beach, north, toward town, I found the very ball-end tip of the cannon, jutting out just above the sand, at the surf-line, & knew instantly what it was ... I excitedly returned to the inn & woke everyone up, &, skipping breakfast, gathering some shovels, rope, pipe & boards, took my "crew" (Mike / innkeeper,... Kevin / guest from London,... David / inn owner,... & myself ... see pic) to begin the excavation (having no idea that a this thing was as heavy as a Cadillac!) ...
... We excavated the cannon without (a permit) "Queen's permission" (Grand Turk is a British Protectorate) ... we uncovered & moved ashore, about 25 yards down the beach ... we were using 3' lengths of 1" diameter steel pipe, laid on 2 x 4s for tracks, & pulling with rope to move the cannon ... this little bugger was heavy!, & moving through sand at that distance took around 3 hours of effort ... we had recruited local passers-by to help, including a doctor from the USA (Don, in the pic). Don got involved, as he invested in treasure recovery, & was very excited about the cannon.
...our plan was to move the cannon to the Salt Raker Inn (about 200 yards down the road). We had reached an incline, going up to the road, & could not pull the cannon up this grade (about a 20 degree incline), so we got the little truck from the Inn ( a small Toyota), some chain & more rope. The truck couldn't pull the cannon up the slope (standard transmission...almost burned up the clutch!).
... We left the cannon at this point, the plan being for David (inn owner) to have it moved to the Salt Raker, to be cleaned & put in the garden. We left the cannon in that spot . ...Don, the doctor / treasure hunter /investor, told us that if we could clean the cannon, & take rubbings of the marks, that his researchers in Spain would likely be able to search the archives & determine what ship the cannon was on, get a ship's manifest, & that all of that stuff would likely be scattered in the water & beach to be recovered ... He & his wife spent the next day in the shallow water, flipping over every rock, looking for anything wreck-related.
...Later that evening, we were all sitting at the inn's bar, conversing with an older English gentleman, who was a resident, & had a local, daily, radio show. He had been knighted by the Queen for his work in WWII as an resistance agent in France during the German occupation. He had some really good stories to share. That evening, he was lamenting the fact that he had no subject for the next days broadcast. I mention our morning's discovery & recovery, & offered to be interviewed on his program. ..."I heard of your cannon, & the activity, & I don't think you'd want the publicity..." he stated, smiling slightly ... "Why not?" ... I asked ..."Well, your efforts were done without first securing permission from Her Majesty. Anything on the beach is her property, & you must get permission to do such things. You could be facing punishment & a fine..."
...I thought about the pile of porcelain fragments, iron spikes, cannon balls & all the other items I'd found. They were on a table, just outside of my room. Oh, Brother!, & a cannon to boot! ...
...The last I heard of my cannon was from a fellow who worked at a local (Memphis) dive shop, who had just returned from Grand Turk (2018). I asked him if he'd seen "my" cannon. "What cannon?" I replied, telling him the story, & described the exact location where we had left it. ..."Oh yeah, that cannon ... You, & every other diver that goes to Grand Turk claims to have found it..." ...I just smiled & left the insult there ... 31 years later, & the cannon was still in the spot we left it ...
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do you have any pictures you can share with us ?
