Hi Dave, It's a swivel gun - used as an area denial weapon on old ships. Identify the marking around the touch hole and put it in the video description area. Quite a find. Good job.
Looks like a signal cannon to me if your place is not far from coast could be what it is. Still better than the old horse shoes and nails I found on the old farm I bought a few years back. But my neighbors tell me to plow the area near my creek, heavy Indian activity once in the area where I live
Dave, don’t try cleaning it yourself or polishing it without talking to a professional about this canon. You might ruin a great deal of its value if you do. Talk to Alex Cranmer from International Military Antiques, they’re in Gillette New Jersey. They’ll be able to help you figure exactly what you have.
I actually tried doing that immediately afterwards...No luck and his staff said not interested. I called a few other places and asked at our local gun shop. Best answer I could get was mild dish soap and water to remove the heavy dirt and then a liberal coat of non-corrosive gun oil to preserve. I used soft plastic brushes and towels. It now sits atop two surplus packed WW2 parachutes inside my house as a prized conversation piece. I am planning to build a carriage based upon the "Come and Take It!" cannon in Gonzales Texas. Their cannon very closely resembles the one I found.
You are a smart man everybody else puts these comments as a yard ornament they don't realize that's a piece of history there you don't let it ride anymore than what it did they already did its job
This looks a lot like a little cannon I know, it might be a "Lyle Gun" a line throwing cannon for ships and lifesaving. It has no trunnions, similar to the Lyle gun I am familiar with and is of similar size and bore.
I boughtva cannon that an engineer found in Louisiana while working for Chevron Oil. He never shot vital but I did. Near as we can tell it came from the battle of New Orleans.
There were many picket forts built during the founding of the country.A short style cannon would’ve been commonly used for in a fort for protection against Indian attacks but they were also used on ships where there would be closed quarters.A cannon small enough for transport on and off ships.Im sure if you look at old illustrations of 60 lbs cannons you’ll get a better idea of what style base was used.
for the size... its likely a sounding Canon or morter... the metal shows banding like its cast iron... some feracloride would reveal old stamping marks and such... typically sounding canons were buried with ships logs and other memorial items.
The cannon is what would have been strapped onto the base board of a hand cart esque type carriage called a Galloper, which is a single ridden horse drawn. Gallopers were always short barrelled Robinette (1.5 inch) calibre and date back to the 1600's to 1700's. Issued to militias, the ammunition was gravel, rocks, etc. (basically, it's a giant shotgun). Sometime, 3 of these would be strapped to the carriage and referred to as a Battery gun. Both Gallopers & Battery guns were fairly common during the 30 Years War & English Civil War. They were also used by early British colonists to the Americas for defence against the indigenous population (and the French). You can buy 1/72 scale wargaming models of these gun as they would have looked, back in their day.
Bore looks approximately 35-40mm? Trivia: during the privateer wars of early America & bad ole Britian, war booty was auctioned off, Except cannon, small arms, including sabres. These useful weapons suddenly became the valued property of the victor only. You might have purchased and old sea captains house ???
oh... just saw some script on the barrel like proof marks... so.. do this... take some talc or baby powder an let run down the side... the talc will settle in the shallow depression of the stamping... I had to do this for a 5-piece 1700's anvil... the stamps were not very deep back then... the metal should have rusted uniformly so the stamps r there... u just need contrast yo see them.
actually ya I am... own a metal recreation studio of historical items specifically viking age and cival war era. my shop was involved with several other shops consulting on materials science. held several burial viking swords... had many meetings with regiments about fabrication of cannon repair... countless demos and tv appearces... turned down several opportunities to work on movies... hung out with other masters that forged the ulfburt sword.. should I go on?!?! -.- as a 30yr master bladesmith I know nothing... and many useless things... metal weapons is not one of those ;p
With a 1 1/2” bore, that would most likely make it a one pounder. So a round cannon ball that diameter would weigh approximately one pound. They made cannons in a multitude of lengths. The problem I see with that is it is missing trunnions, which are the metal pieces that come out of the sides, or is attached to the middle bottom, which is how it is attached the gun frame or carriage. As other people have asked, a detailed look for markings is needed. No real cannon would be made without something on it.
I was waiting to see when that was going to come up. Doesn't look brass. There may be a lot of roots around it, but the ground doesn't seem hard enough to be 200-300 yrs. of weathered earth.
HELLO FROM YOUR OTHER CHANNEL! I got your invite. As a history buff, I'm curious to know more. You say you bought a house, can you say what State is this in? You said Its hard to see, did you figure out what the casting marks are?
Hello and welcome to my side project channel... found the cannon in Pennsylvania about 250 yards from the bank of the Lackawanna River. Working on a follow up video now
Interesting but I can't imagine how you'd fire this thing. Also, is it odd that it's cast iron? Looking forward to hearing more on your find - pretty interesting!
Thanks...yup it is cast iron. Someone just suggested to look on the muzzle for markings. I will be making a video for that and building a carriage for it. Checkout the "come and take it cannon" in Gonzales Texas. This one is nearly identical
@@davebliler7555 What state do you live in? That might give the viewers some help in helping you identify it. Civil War, Naval, etc. Maybe it's just a replica for exhibitions and such.
how i found this video i don't know . but glad i did .. trunnions are the pegs sticking out of the side of the canon to better aim the canon .. trunnions were first used in the early 1500 . your canon doesn't have trunnions .. maybe your canon is a reproduction or a 1400 canon or older ,, totally cool
Sometimes, retreating soldiers would have to abandon cannons if a more powerful adversary was in hot pursuit. In this case, it wasn't unusual for the gun crews to use hammers to knock off the iron trunnions. This was done to prevent an adversary from immediately reusing the cannon against them. US Civil War examples exist, such as the 32-pounder cast-iron cannon found at Quantico, VA, when the original parking lot at Liversledge Hall was built long before WW II. CSA troops abandoned this cannon after knocking off the trunnions with sledge hammers. Then, they buried the weapon before retreating toward Fredericksburg in January 1862, probably in hopes of retrieving it at a later date. This weapon is currently displayed outside Gerneral Officer quarters on the USMC base. Perhaps this is why the cannon in the video lacks trunnions. j
The cannon look to be the type used by 40 foot John boats from the War of 1812,The Joshua Barney fleet had them,and the little fleets in the northeast had them too.Read the book, "If by sea", it's one of the best books I've ever read and details many small fleet battles between the Americans and British, particularly in the New England area.Read anything by Donald G. Shomette about the Joshua Barney Flotilla in actions on the Patuxent River in the Chesapeake Bay.
I think its legit..Ive dug thousands of iron artifacts from the earth and if its in some kind of sandy soils it wouldnt rust much because of good drainage
That metal detector probably wouldn't go deep enough to find anything that would have been buried beneath the canon. If it were being used as a marker for something someone might have stashed they would have buried the stash deep like four to eight feet down. Most detectors only go a foot to about 18 inches max . Just saying. I'd have definitely dug a deep whole there just out of curiosity.
DANKE DANKE! Wunderbar! Mein Opa ist Pennsylvania Deutsch undt spreken Deutsch to me as a kind...lol hopefully I said the correct. Thanks for the great comment! I am working on a follow up video and more
Captain Obvious .."it's a cannon", "so I found a cannon", "it a real cannon", "I can't believe I found a cannon". ..ugh the pain is real listening say cannon. All the while I thought it was a squirt gun. ..
Ugh. Your seriously cringe. A karennof high degree. In your life no one you know will ever find a frak8n cannon . Most people you know have never seen a Canon. Sheeze . Try going out doors some time
