The Making of a Replica Bounty Cannon

The first stage of our Bounty cannon conservation project kicked off this morning! Phillip Smith from the Museum of Tropical Queensland arrived on the island on the weekend for a two week visit, during which he will make a mould and cast of the cannon. We are very fortunate to have Phillip undertake this work; he brings with him a wealth of experience in casting and moulding. And this is the second Bounty cannon he has worked on – he also made a cast of the cannon which underwent conservation treatment and was returned to Pitcairn Island last year.

Phillip is a Preparator, or Exhibitions Officer and has one of the most interesting jobs. Generally, he oversees and directs all exhibition design, production and maintenance jobs, but he also does skeletal reconstructions of dinosaurs including moulding, casting and assembly of bones. Other jobs include moulding and casting of biological specimens, fossil materials, historic artefacts and even human bodies.

Phillip’s moulding and casting skills have seen him being invited to work for the Smithsonian Institute in Washington USA. In 2002 the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History undertook major restoration work on its large dinosaur exhibits in an attempt to address damage caused by outdated and structurally weak steel armatures. A decision was made to mould and cast the dinosaur bones and re-exhibit the casts instead of the original bones. This was a grand undertaking as these exhibits are a dynamic part of the overall collection housed at the NMNH and therefore it was of great importance that they not be off display any longer than necessary. Phillip was invited to be part of the team charged with carrying out the work required regarding moulding, casting, mounting and modelling of missing parts of a Stegosaurus. In addition to this project he was also charged with replicating the scull from only one example of Saratosaurus.

Phillip will be making a two part mould of our cannon from silicon and fibre glass. He started off work by making a timber cut out around the cannon which sits half way down. Eventually a clay barrier will be made which will used to hold the mould. In about a week’s time the cannon will be turned upside down and the bottom half will be worked on. Assisting Phillip during this work is Lee Irvine – our thanks to Poppa and the Works team for lending us Lee for the fortnight!