Cannons Again Bolster Defense of Charles Towne Landing

As part of the rebirth of Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site, the South Carolina State Park Service has enlisted vintage artillery maker Cannons Online of New Windsor, Md., to build six cannons of the types the settlers counted on to thwart potential threats to the settlement on the secluded, marshy point they arrived at in 1670 after a stormy passage from Barbados.

[ClickPress, Fri Nov 17 2006] Perched sternly astride carefully constructed earthen embrasures; 17th century cannons again protect the original settlement site of Charles Towne, South Carolina.

As part of the rebirth of Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site, the South Carolina State Park Service has enlisted vintage artillery maker Cannons Online of New Windsor, Md., to build six cannons of the types the settlers counted on to thwart potential threats to the settlement on the secluded, marshy point they arrived at in 1670 after a stormy passage from Barbados.

The cannons – four sakers (which fire a six-pound ball) already in place and in use and two demi-culverins (which fire 12-pound balls) now under construction – are fully functional duplicates of those ordered by Lord Ashley Cooper from faraway London to help defend the fledgling New World colony.

Now they will help tell the story of how the group of English planters, indentured servants and African slaves were prepared to defend themselves in case any marauding Spaniards sailed up the Ashley River, South Carolina to pose a threat by water.

By land, the settlers also built a palisade wall, also faithfully reconstructed in its original location revealed by careful archaeological exploration, and armed themselves with flintlocks and matchlocks, muskets that, like the cannons, are now wielded in noisy, authentic displays in regular programs put on by trained interpreters in period costumes at the South Carolina state park.

Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site in South Carolina is undergoing a $19 million renovation highlighted by a 12-room museum inside the new visitors center that tells how the settlers, their slaves and servants and local Native Americans came together to create a community that would become one of America’s major port cities and the birthplace of the plantation system of the American South.

An interpretive history trail leads to Albemarle Point, SC where the original settlement was constructed on Old Town Creek just off the Ashley River. Inside the palisade walls are an experimental crop garden and small farm shed built using construction techniques of the time. Nearby, the trading ship Adventure, a full-size functional replica of ships used at the time, is under construction. The park also includes Animal Forest, a naturalistic zoo that’s home to animals the settlers would have encountered, including bears, otters, pumas and bison.

Programs that include the cannon firing are scheduled on the third Saturday of each month from March through December. The park’s entire program lineup can be seen on the South Carolina State Park Service Web site at www.SouthCarolinaParks.com.

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