A carriage for the Bounty cannon

Conservation work on the Bounty cannon has been continuing over the last few weeks however the focus of this project is now shifting to the return of the cannon to the Pier Store museum. This will most likely be in the next few weeks after Janelle Blucher has completed her work.

Part of this project, funded by the National Library’s Community Heritage Grants Program, included making a replica carriage for the cannon to sit in. We obtained plans of the original carriage from Nigel Erskine at the Australian National Maritime Museum and Peter Horrocks has taken on the job of making it. The original cannon would have sat in the carriage resting on its trunions (the small arms that come out of each side of the cannon). Our cannon does not have the trunions left on it anymore so working out how the cannon will sit in the carriage has been one of the design problems Peter has had to deal with. The replica cannon that we made at the beginning of this project has proved to be very useful to have on hand! Peter has used it to check the cannon’s position in the carriage, to help determine the best method for designing and placing supports which will actually hold the cannon in place. Our photos show Peter in the midst of making the carriage, including using the replica cannon made last month.