Question regarding sunken cannons,

[treasurekidd]

I have some information from local sources of a Spanish brig that sank in local waters in the early 1800s. The description of the wreck site states " only scattered debris remains, including several cannon. My questions are: What would cannon of this time period have been made of, iron, bronze, something else?? And would these be worth recovering from a fairly shallow water wreck site. Any info or opinions would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

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[Cablava]

Has this wreck already been salvaged previously? If so you can bet the cannons were iron otherwise they would not have left them. almost all old wrecks are just debris fields so there could be lots of goodies there.
If you have the name of the ship why not research her a bit and find out what she was, where she was going and what she was carrying.

When you say shallow, how shallow is shallow, it will give an idea as if she was salvaged at the time of the wreck.
If you look at the ROV pictures of the cannon on the HMS Sussex you will see the cannons are in a terrible state of corrosion even in deep water. So you really do not know until you have been. But for sure if you know where the ship is, and its feasible for you to visit I would definitely have a look.

 

[grizzly bare]

tk,
On another post someone gave a value starting at $5000 for cannon in decent shape. If this is accurate, a 12 to 16 gun ship would be a college education, a down-payment on a house, or one Hell of a weekend party. Check it out some more (ease of getting to area, cost of getting cannon to surface and preserving them, tax or THE MAN'S share)

be careful

grizzly bare

 

[Chagy]

It all depends on which state is the wreck first you most find out the salvage laws and then see if the wreck has been claimed or if some one has a lease on the area. Maybe you can get a search permit. The most important is RESEARCH. You need to know what you are looking for. Some areas have lease holders (salvage companies)and it is illegal to use metal detectors in those areas.

Good luck!!!!!

Chagy...........

 

[wreckdiver1715]

Often times the salvers who have a claim or permit, and or otherwise have established ownership of the wreck thru the courts will often leave the cannons on the bottom to serve as navigation reference points during the salvage operation. However, if the cannons are made from bronze, those suckers come up quickly as they are worth big bucks. Often times, you will discover a combination of Bronze and Iron cannon at a wreck site.
Remember that the Iron cannon were much cheaper to manufacture. However, they were only good for a couple of shots in short order, as they did not disperse the heat as quickley as the Bronze. If the ship was engaged in a long battle with only Iron cannon aboard, the best course of action for the capitan to make would be to run until his cannon could cool down and made ready for another engagement.
If you don?t have a permit to recover shipwreck artifacts, do yourself a favor and leave it on the bottom.
The cannon take upwards of a year or better to clean and preserve, so if you don?t have the facilities to accomplish that task your best bet is to leave them on the bottom. In the alternative, you can find a professional salvage operator with a preservation lab who will clean and preserve for a fee.

 

[Chagy]

Hello WD1715,

I totally agree with you, some of the 1715 wrecks have replaced the iron cannons with cement cannons so that the divers can still enjoy diving the wreck site.

treasurekidd:

Like I said before some research will help you to see what you are getting into. There is a good web-site that will tell you about conservation "Ships of discovery"

Be careful and happy hunting,

Chagy...........