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old man

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Question ?? This is what's so great about you guys. Someone usually knows the answer to something a Country Bumpkin like me doesn't.

Does anyone know anything about cannons with an octagonal barrel??? Especially one found on a shipwreck??? I heard the French had them in the mid 1800's. Someone told me that the Portuguese had them way before then. Does anyone know anything about these types of Cannons?? I never heard of them on shipwrecks on the East Coast or the Gulf. :icon_scratch:
 

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Old man, are you inquiring about the Portuguese Lantaka? These were the swivel cannon that mostly originated in Indonesia and were of octagonal design. In the mid-seventeenth century, the Portuguese and Dutch greatly reproduced these rail cannon in Europe to trade all over. The outer constructional patterns of the cannon took on different variations during the Colonial period, but their purpose on the ships did not change. They have been found occasionally in Florida on wrecks. As a matter of fact, contact Greg Bounds because his crew found one of these (round not octagonal) on the Treasure Coast in 2010. Because swivel cannon were mounted on small ships, I truly believe Greg’s discovery was once onboard the Marigalera that broke up over a large area near Wabasso in 1715.
Laura J
 

elle, This cannon is not a swivel gun. It is a full size cannon and the interior of the barrel is octagonal. I am guessing that it may be French, but I have no ideal and probably won't until it is brought off the bottom sometime later this summer. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with any cannons of this type of interior barrel. I've never run into one before. I'm wondering if this might not be a privateer because of cannons of another Nationality also being seen on the site.
 

Don, It's on a video. I'll try and down load a picture and post it.
 

the british have a museum in the tower of London with cannons like that, the germans,dutch,flemish(Belgians),English and even the turks built them that way. without any photo's it would be hard to say. I have a book on the armaments at the tower of London. if you can post photo's and give sizes and photo's of any markings I will try to help.
 

Are we speaking about cast-iron/wrought iron/steel/bronze? off hand I don't know of any 8-sided interiors of barrels. You do get hexagonal interiors produced by the Whitworth company but they tend to be either small, for yachts or very large for battleships. They didn't catch on, and were overtaken by rifled cannon and because you had to have special 6-sided projectiles.They date from about the 1860s. Cannons with 8-sided exteriors are made in a number of different European countries, mainly in bronze, mainly second quarter of the 16th century.
 

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Are you sure it is a cannon? Are there trunnions? And do you know what material it is?
 

smithbrown, I am only guessing that it is a cannon. The company that we hired to take the video sent us a copy of the video, they also sent us about a half dozen pictures. These are two of them. On the video on the other end of the linear object there appears to be a raised object about a half inch wide and about six or more inches long. Centered on the middle of the linear object. I'm only guessing that it is a site to line up a cannon shot, I don't know. The company taking the video also didn't show the very back of the linear object. They just took a shot short of the back showing the site or whatever it is. As far as trunnions??? If they are there they are buried in the sand. I won't say what I think of the video or the operator. I don't think I have too. We were suppose to get a copy of the video before the company left and didn't receive it for several weeks. I do remember the owner of the company trying to tell me that he thought the linear object was an old Chinese Cannon from the 15th Century or there about.
 

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If there are trunnions, they are buried--as most of the object appears to be.
When will the object be raised (or the sand difused) for a better examination?
Don.....
 

Mackaydon said:
If there are trunnions, they are buried--as most of the object appears to be.
When will the object be raised (or the sand difused) for a better examination?
Don.....
Click to expand...
Don, there appear to me some other interesting artifacts in the area that we are more interested in bringing to the surface. So my best guess is that the Linear Object won't be salvaged until sometime this Summer.
 

sounds like a harqebus, these shot out dice like projectiles. the 6" object was used to anchor to the rail while being fired. might be wrong but that is what it sounds like to me.
 

Whatever type of gun is, the octagonal barrel is interesting.
 

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