Cannon changes Australia history ?

cannonmn · 14th January 2012, 02:15 PM

Too bad the photos did not show the area just forward of the breech opening, as it appears to bear some type of raised symbol. One here is much larger and bears a kind of star with a button in the middle in that area, and I'm fairly certain it is Malaysian, or at least "South Pacific" in origin. Back to the young man's discovery, given the geography of the area, if I had to judge whether it is more likely that this came from say, Indonesia as opposed to Portugal, my money would be on the former every time.

This is an extremely small, light weapon of its type, smaller than I've ever seen before, and was probably that size because it was the largest such weapon that could be carried by some kind of canoe or very small vessel. This is not the type of vessel that would be capable of traveling from Portugel to Australia, but more likely one which could make the journey from Indonesia to Australia, if with great difficulty. I've seen quite a few much larger breechloading "pedreros" of cast bronze, similar in construction to the small one shown, and most seem to have bores in the two to three-inch range and weigh somewhere between 100-250 pounds. The young man's find looks to have something like a one-inch bore and probably weighs 20 pounds. I'll see if I can dig up a photo of the larger Malaysian one we have here (about four feet long, 1.5-inch bore, 60 lbs.)

14th January 2012, 02:15 PM	#4
cannonmn Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 161	Too bad the photos did not show the area just forward of the breech opening, as it appears to bear some type of raised symbol. One here is much larger and bears a kind of star with a button in the middle in that area, and I'm fairly certain it is Malaysian, or at least "South Pacific" in origin. Back to the young man's discovery, given the geography of the area, if I had to judge whether it is more likely that this came from say, Indonesia as opposed to Portugal, my money would be on the former every time. This is an extremely small, light weapon of its type, smaller than I've ever seen before, and was probably that size because it was the largest such weapon that could be carried by some kind of canoe or very small vessel. This is not the type of vessel that would be capable of traveling from Portugel to Australia, but more likely one which could make the journey from Indonesia to Australia, if with great difficulty. I've seen quite a few much larger breechloading "pedreros" of cast bronze, similar in construction to the small one shown, and most seem to have bores in the two to three-inch range and weigh somewhere between 100-250 pounds. The young man's find looks to have something like a one-inch bore and probably weighs 20 pounds. I'll see if I can dig up a photo of the larger Malaysian one we have here (about four feet long, 1.5-inch bore, 60 lbs.)