cannon accidents

Never had any interest in canons and artillery. Did read the link......thanks for posting. I learned a whole lot about staying more than thousands of feet away from one and never to be in front of one ever. Never thought much about what could happen or go wrong. Now i know. Worth the read. Thanks for linking.

Damoc
Thanks for the link. Scary but informative. I noticed that several of the accidents resulted from shrapnel from the barrel explosion after it was loaded with bp followed by a light wad of paper, or in some cases hot dog buns or
just pieces of bread. I know there should be no air space between the charge and a projectile, but would a simple light wad of paper or bread result in a destructive pressure spike? I have often wondered how blanks were safely fired in ml's (e.g. bp followed by a floral foam wad, which is reportedly safe). Any blank firing ML reenactors or perhaps Cannonman care to answer this question?

Sometimes it is just a bad projectile.

damoc said:

most of the accidents were due to stupidity but there is more than a few
which sound like static ignition or through compression (beating on a charge with a hammer) or just simply the cannon metal had just had enough.

Click to expand...

Only one account mentioned a hammer. Apart from the sketchy homemade cannons (the description of some sounded more like a pipe bomb than a cannon), most sounded like failure to swab the barrel and a resulting ignition when the next charge went in. I found the historical accounts interesting, especially where the military concluded improper or no swabbing caused many accidents...

Howdy

I used to live in Concord Massachusetts, of Battle of Lexington and Concord fame. I was living there at the time of the Bicentennial in the 1970s. Just up the street from me was the shed where the cannons of the Concord Independent Battery were stored. The Battery goes back to 1804 when it was created to commemorate the contribution Concord made at the battle on April 19, 1775 at the bridge over the Concord River. The guns are only ever fired with blank charges, never a projectile. They get hauled out on Patriot's Day and other ceremonial occasions.

http://www.concordbattery.org/

At some time while I lived in Concord there was an accident. I can't remember the exact year, it would have been sometime in the 1970s, I am a bit sketchy on the details. I have not been able to find any reference to it anywhere on the Internet.

Anyway, as I recall, a man lost most of his hand. I don't remember the details of whether he was loading the cannon with powder or what, but I do know he lost most of his hand. It created a great uproar in the town back then, and there were ugly legal issues raised. I believe it was finally determined that the barrel had not been properly swabbed and there were live embers still in the bore when the gun was being loaded.

That is the best I can recall.