In preparation for building this website I contacted the cannon club to provide me as much material as the could on the clubs history. I told the club I may not be able to use everything they sent, but I would use what I could. My good friend Colin Hamlinton was designated to respond. Those who know Colin, know that he is a wonderful story teller. Colin sent me a long chronicle about the club, not all that I can use. Some of these stories were just to humorous to leave out. So instead leaving these snippets on the cutting room floor, just for fun I am including them here. So here are Colin's stories in his words.
How to disassemble a cannonI attended the last shoot at a range in Westville which was very well attended. Kilpin had forgot to bring the gunpowder but I had some in the car which I had made myself so I offered that.
The method of loading at that time was for Kilpin to go along the line with a tin of powder and a scoop made from a cut down 12g cartridge and pour a scoopful of powder down each barrel in turn. The gunners would then complete the loading process and put a firework fuse into the touch hole. When the aiming process was completed each member would light his own fuse in turn.
The scoop held about 75 grains of coarse granulated powder. My powder was very fine dust and when it filled the scoop the weight came to very much more than 75 grains. At that time all the guns were quite small with a calibre of .45 and .41. When they went off wheels and barrels flew in all direction as the heavy charge proceeded to dismantle the little guns one after the other, less than half the guns completed the detail.
The Beauty Queen and the Shopping MallWe were in big demand for opening ceremonies for shopping centres, clubs etc. The most notable one being the opening ceremony of the Workshop in Durban Which at the time was the largest shopping centre in Natal. We were to be part of a large well organised well orchestrated ceremony which included:
- 11.50 am, the arrival of Miss South Africa and the Mayor of Durban by Limousine at the shopping centre with a fanfare of trumpets and a 21 gun salute
- 11.55 am. the release of 1000 pigeons waiting in baskets piled 8 feet high
- 12.00 noon, the chiming of all the church bells in Durban exactly at mid day.
The publicity organiser came to watch the cannons shoot at the SAPREF range and asked if we could produce red, white and blue smoke instead of just white. One of the members was a chemist and tried all sorts to achieve this but was unsuccessful. We had only a few days left before the big event and no time to experiment. Anyway the chemist produced a chemical which when added to gunpowder would produce about twice as much smoke as normal and the publicity expert agreed to accept this.
On the big day events went as follows: We stuffed the barrels with powder, the new chemical and wads and eagerly awaited the signal for the arrival of the Mayor and Miss South Africa. I had persuaded Colonel Lovel-Green from the Natal Field Artillery to do the firing of the cannon.
At the appointed time he lit the first gun. , I still don’t know what the “magic powder” was that was going to produce so much smoke but it was “lethal”.
There was an enormous bang and the cannon hurtled backwards at near supersonic speed and unfortunately the Colonel was standing directly behind it. Only his shins stopped it from disappearing into the watching crowd behind us. It smote him a mighty blow on the right shin bone and he then proceeded to do a wonderful impersonation of a Scotsman doing a highland fling whilst hopping around on one leg. Mike had the presence of mind to grab the linstock from him and carry on lighting the rest of the guns in rapid succession.
. What we didn’t see was Miss South Africa leaping back into limousine thinking a bomb had gone off, (there had been two bombs in Durban only weeks before). She managed to land on top of the Mayor who was following her out of the car. Confusion reigned, (but I’m sure the Mayor was happy).
The guy with the 1000 pigeons pulled the handle to release all the trapdoors on the baskets so the pigeons could make a spectacular mass exit. The pigeons terrorised by the close proximity of the very loud bangs were cowering at the back of the baskets and refused to come out, eventually they had to be poked out one at a time with a stick whereupon the panic stricken birds zig-zagged all over the place crapping on all and sundry.
Because of all of the confusion nobody noticed the absence of the church bells as we left Durban an hour later all the church bells started ringing, it sounded very spectacular, I looked at my watch and it was exactly 1-o’clock, the last thing I saw was the publicity agent sitting with his head in his hands probably contemplating his future.
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture Our next notable success was providing the cannon shots for Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture performed in the Durban City Hall by the Durban Philharmonic Orchestra, (we have actually done this twice now). We had a problem firing the cannon exactly on cue so Mike came up with the idea of using the old camera flash bulbs, (the ones you use once and then throw away).
These were put into the barrels with the wires coming out of the touch holes and then connected to a key board of brass “keys” and then to a battery. When the key was pressed down it made a contact which flashed the bulb. It worked a treat, the flash was instantaneous.
The conductor was a strung out Polish guy who wanted everything his way and he insisted on having the cannon on a raised dais behind and above he orchestra. He wouldn’t listen when I told him the Musicians just below the guns would feel the muzzle blast. At the first rehearsal as the guns were fired right on cue by the member who would normally bang the drum to simulate cannon fire, 20 fiddlers disappeared below their seats and everything degenerated into a cacophony of uncoordinated sounds. The conductor nearly had a heart attack and almost beat his baton to matchwood on the rostrum screeching “NO! NO! NO! Anyway, to cut a long story short we finished up with the guns out in front away from the musicians.
I noticed during the rehearsal what appeared to be tracer bullets flashing across the hall and hitting the back wall. Examination of the barrels showed no sign of the flash bulbs or wires so I assumed the projectiles were the bulbs and told everybody to aim the guns at the large concrete pillars up and down the length of the hall just in case! The same thing happened at the actual performance and we saw all the heads turned as the delighted audience watched the tracers flashing over their heads and disintegrating on the pillars with a flash. At the end we got a standing ovation, but by that time you couldn’t see much for smoke.
