Spanish Armada Bronze Cannon

[Cannoneer]

"A FULLY restored bronze cannon, salvaged from a Spanish Armada ship, is to go on show for the first time in the Shetland Museum and Archives as of Monday.
The cannon was discovered off Fair Isle and salvaged by a team of marine archaeologists, led by Dr Colin Martin of St Andrews University in 1970." Ships Cannon

This gun does have large (bent) dolphins, but what I find surprising for a cannon made in that period (16th century) is how plain the barrel is.
 

[dan610324]

cant see the pic , didnt help to right click and open it that way either
the link isnt working either
would have been interesting to read and see the pic

[dan610324]

now everything is ok , just the first 2 times I had problem with it , dont know why

[KABAR2]

Some details may have been worn away by surf & sand.....

are there any other views of the cannon? a side view or top view would

give a better idea of what was there.

[dan610324]

among the very early cannons it wasnt that much decorations ,
some had but most of them didnt have .
more decorations came in the mid and late 1600 ,
the heavy decorated stuff came in the late 1600 and early 1700
from mid 1700 they was less and less decorated
thats why I like the 1650 - 1750 period most

but of course there are exceptions from this
this dates are just very approximately
it also varied from country to country

[Cannoneer]

Allen,

This is the only other photo I could find and it's basically of the same angle of the gun (I'd like to see the cascabel), but it does have the curator of the museum to provide a scale reference. I did notice the chase ring behind the muzzle in this picture, I missed it on the first photo.

BTW: You can click on the pic in the Shetland article to enlarge it.

[Cannoneer]

Photos of the barrel being brought up, and on deck.

[Zulu]

Looks like the dolphins could have been bent while lifting the gun out of the water.  Its hard to tell.
Thanks for the pictures BoomJ.
Zulu

[Cannoneer]

Zulu,
I thought the same exact thing on first seeing the photo, but after looking closer it’s clear that the two cable ends go through the handles/dolphins from the outside then up between them where they’re attached to the chain.
It still seems kind of unusual that they would use the dolphins as a stop like that (to keep the cable from sliding back on the barrel), and it appears like there’s absolutely no padding on the cable (or rope?). It also strikes me as odd that the barrel is lifted with all the weight bearing on one spot instead of having two cables, or slings as I’ve seen used in many other instances of a barrel being raised. I wonder if the people hired to retrieve the barrels were commercial salvagers as opposed to ‘marine archaeologists’?

[dan610324]

what makes me most curious about that barrel is why it have so very thin dolphins

[Cannoneer]

Dan,
I think it's possible that the wear on the surface of this barrel may be the result of "shingle damage" (the sea current abrading the bronze with ocean bed pebbles/stones), which would account for the worn appearance of the dolphins and reinforce rings; as Allen suggested ("Some details may have been worn away by surf & sand.....").

[dan610324]

of course it can be , especially if it was found in a small deep .
the sand moves with the waves on the bottom of the ocean if its not deep enough .
but why have they just been thin in one dimension ??
so Im not so sure that it is the sand here .