Spanish 24-pdr. bronze gun captured at Vera Cruz, Mexico

[cannonmn]

Here is a slideshow of what was once a fine bronze trophy weapon named EL BAIAZETO. It is displayed on the steps leading to Bancroft Hall at the US Naval Academy. I've looked at well over 100 bronze cannon recently and this one has what seems to be about the worst case of active corrosion I've seen so far. The bronze or corrosion products are actually coming off of the gun in large flakes. The gun's surface now shows a multicolored array of corrosion products, turquoise, green, pinkish-gray, etc. I've never seen anything quite like it. The nearby steps get a lot of copper-bearing runoff from the corrosion.

The gun was cast in Seville in 1747 by Mathias Solano, who was director of the Spanish Royal Cannon Foundry from about 1703 to 1755. 100 years after it was cast, it was captured by the US Navy at Vera Cruz, Mexico. A twin Solano weapon is mounted on the opposite side of the entrance to Bancroft Hall. I can't find either of the Solano guns in the Academy's 1995 "Monument Survey."

http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b62/cannonmn/miscforumsetc/forums18/?action=view&current=b4659db9.pbw

[cannonmn]

Here are some excerpts from the introduction to CATALOG OF HISTORIC OBJECTS AT THE UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY by Herman F. Krafft, published by the United States Naval Institute, Annapolis MD 1925. This introduction was written by RADM Henry B. Wilson, USN, then the USNA superintendent.

"The present catalog is the first attempt at a comprehensive tabulation of the many historic objects at the United States Naval Academy. Such a published inventory of what in numerous instances are unique and priceless articles has been deemed necessary to protect them against loss or depreciation....That these articles, associated with our earlier Navy, may continue to speak to the traditions of the past, it is necessary to care for them, to ward off where possible the ravages of time, to mount them in fire-proof, moth-proof, and thief-proof frames, and to catalog them....Nor should it ever again be possible for some one in authority to order these articles to be packed up and stowed away as 'junk.'...If...we can concentrate the bulk of our historic naval material at the Academy, and we can house and care for it in a worthy and adequate manner, we may lay the foundation for a naval museum here comparable to the great naval museums in London and on the Continent."

It is unfortunate that RADM Wilson's successors didn't follow through with his noble plan. However it isn't too late to stabilize and save what's left of the fine bronze cannons at the Academy.