Noon gun Lion Battery Cape Town SA

[broadarrow]

Hi Folks, I just thought I would share these pics with you I took in Cape Town South Africa when I was there on holidays earlier this year. Each day midday is marked with a single shot from one of two cannons at the South African navy Lion Battery which is located on Signal Hill above Cape Town and this is audible around the area and right into the city, as to all the details I could not sum it up any better than the sign in picture two below. The first picture gives the total of firings shared between the two guns on the platform and the Durr Estates logo belongs to a local winery who I was informed are sponsoring recovery, restoration and preservation of some of the regions rare cannons from their current locations ie. bollards on the local wharves for ships to tie up to some of them have suffered extensive cable errosion damage from years of ships being tied to them as they are buried muzzle down in the ground.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

 Both of these cannons are online to the local observatory for time keeping accuracy which explains the arrangement in the breech area of the guns only one of the guns is loaded with a cartridge each day then they are both primed, as the other one has had a cartridge remaining in it from the previous day the primers one spent one live having being removed after the previous days shot and how they work it is they have a fail safe system that if the first gun to get the signal fails to fire on the day it automatically switches to fire the second gun so no matter what happens the signal shot will ring out over the area should that days primary gun fail to fire. The interesting thing I found is that once the officer explained that a cartridge remains in one gun after that days firing that will become tomorrows primary gun there were people walking around the platform that were happy to cross in front of what was essentially an unprimed but live muzzle, in my opinion, and I was actually laughed at for ducking under the muzzles of both guns in front of the carriage whilst exploring the platform and this was after the other members of the public were informed as to what was going on and after they were reminded they changed their path, interesting! All in all well worth the visit to the area I was amazed at how many different types of muzzle loading cannons I spotted from different nations whilst there a few that spring to mind are Swedish, French, British etc. it almost caused sensory overload, hahaha! I hope this has been interesting and I apologise in advance for the length of the post, Regards, Peter B.

[Ex 49'er]

Those are great looking pictures. The firing mechanism looks pretty interesting. Did you get any photos of the bollards.
It is amazing that they have been able to keep an accurate account of the number of firings. Thankyou for sharing.

[thelionspaw]

Thank you for sharing. Nice presentation.

rc

[cannonmn]

Nice to see a country that appreciates its heritage and likes to preserve old ordnance rather than let it rot.

[broadarrow]

Hi Ex 49'er, the firing mechanism as you can see is a hinged breech block arrangement with an extractor for the spent primer it all looked well made and robust well suited to the amount of work it is obviously going to get. I have included a few photos that is very much representative of what they use them for I spoke to the officer at Signal Hill he said they have been found as reinforcing in footings of buildings, wharves etc. as well as the above mentioned bollards all over the area I also saw some with guardrail attached on a roadside. A group is now going around digging up the rarer models to save them from further damage or loss which is good to see, I have included below a sample of what I saw and have described, Regards, Peter B.

  

  

  

[Terry C.]

The interesting thing I found is that once the officer explained that a cartridge remains in one gun after that days firing that will become tomorrows primary gun there were people walking around the platform that were happy to cross in front of what was essentially an unprimed but live muzzle, in my opinion, and I was actually laughed at for ducking under the muzzles of both guns in front of the carriage whilst exploring the platform and this was after the other members of the public were informed as to what was going on and after they were reminded they changed their path, interesting!

Do you know the size of the main charge?

[Skunk]

Very informative report and excellent pictures. I always learn something new and cool at GBOs. Thanks for sharing that broadarrow.

[broadarrow]

Hi Terry C, I did ask at the time but I have now forgotten, D'oh! I do remember being told it was not a maximum blank load for the peice but is enough to do the job and it was enclosed in a loose cloth case if I do remember I will get back to you, Regards, Peter B.

[Ex 49'er]

At least they were used for something and not melted down and lost forever. Thankyou for the extra photos.

[Cannoneer]

This thread was a good read, Broadarrow; it was interesting to learn that the electronic ignition of the 18-pdr's is hard-wired directly to the observatory, to achieve an exact time on the signal firing.
Did the guide offer up any commentary on the choice of the paint color used on the Guns?

Whoa, the cuts made into the chase of that iron gun that was used as a bollard, look like they were made by a huge diamond cutting wire.

[broadarrow]

Hi Boom J, when asked the officer couldn't elaborate on why that colour used although it is the first time I had seen barrels painted green too. Whilst there we stayed in the V & A Marina precinct and whilst in the area I observed many damaged bollard cannons along the waterfront some almost cut right through you could see into the breech area one in particular had been cut through exposing the bore and the breech portion of the gun was laying just a few feet away which was a shame because it looked to me by the styling that it may have been an old Dutch peice and many more have had their cascables eroded away, at least they are getting on with a serious preservation effort, Thanks for the response, Regards, Peter B.

[broadarrow]

At least they were used for something and not melted down and lost forever. Thankyou for the extra photos.

Hi Ex 49'er, apparently the reason thay survived intact was there was no foundry at the Cape large enough to melt down obsolete guns with the result that they were re-used in their original shape, Thank god for that, Regards, Peter B.