Hudson river wrecks

according to john muller in his book a treatise of artillery 1780 he gives these weights. a 12 pounder 5' in length is 900lbs. if it is an 18 pounder it is 1320lbs. that is not counting if it is loaded or the amount of encrustation or water absorbed into the metal.

these are the only 5' long cannons with a bore big enough for 2 fists that he lists. I hope this helps. if you do get it out please post a photo or email me one, I'd like to see it.
 

i would proceed very very carefully. the state of NY isnt very friendly when it comes to this sort of thing, and apparently they watch this board. ::) be very very careful.
 

Check with the NY state department of historic resources. Example; In Florida you are required to have a permit to recover anything older than 50 years old from any state submerged bottom land. Each state has it's own laws, so they will always very from state to state.
 

NY River Wrecker said:
I did not realize that but thanks what are theyy looking for
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they are looking for people to fine for breaking the law. make sure you know the law before you do anything. :wink:
 

After you get permission, I think your best bet would be to use a barge crane or similar boat mounted crane. Just something rated for over a ton.

From there, send divers down to secure the cannon with at least two straps. Probably padded so as to avoid damage to the cannon.

Then just attach the straps to the crane and SLOWLY lift it out. Be sure you have people watching it as you bring it up. If it starts to shift or slide out, stop the crane. You may have to take it all the way back down to readjust the straps.
 

Allen has it right. When done properly, it looks something like the pic below. Find yourself a rusty old spud barge, put a crane on it, push it to the site with a small tug, spud down, send in divers to rig the cannon, and lift it up. I did this project with Rio Bravo, we are shown here raising a rare 80 Foot American Dung Cannon (referred to in some texts as a sewer pipe). :D

Jason
 

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Either you got midgets working for you or that is one big mofo in the jeans on the left. You should have just let him bearhug that pipe out. :)

and agree on the lifting, use extreme caution and patience.
 

LOL - Yeah, Chris is a very huge guy, but incredibly cool and very hard working too. We are scuba certifying him now, just think of the money we'll save on barges and cranes. :D
 

There are a couple other things that I would need to know if I was going to attempt a salvage mission like this. First off, how far offshore is it? Secondly what resources do you have?

Asuming you get the proper permits to salvage it, a much cheaper method than the barge would be to use lift bags to get it to the surface and then secure it to the side of your vessle. This won't work of course if you are using a rowboat, but with a larger vessle it may be possible. then once you get it to shore use a crane to remove it from the water.

I hope this helps.
 

lift bags are good too. but I'm a little torn about using them. no pun intended.

Depending on the depth you will have to worry about the bag popping on ascent. If that happens you will probably have to relocate your cannon wherever it lands and start over.

A good way to avoid this is to use bags with a overpressurization vent. It quite simply allows excess air to escape during ascent as the oxygen expands. Although there is no guarantee it will work every time.

You also can't really control the rate of ascent with lift bags. It is something you have to take into consideration when planning the recovery based on depth.

However, if you are working in relatively shallow water I think bags would work fine. Deeper water though, consider the crane.
 

a rare 80 Foot American Dung Cannon
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Maybe I'm just slap happy from too much work and lack of sleep, but I'm still laughing at this one :)
 

hmmm. hudson river.ill help ya. they know what lies underwater there. if your near the hudson highlands then you might have something interesting. if its 35 feet down it a good sign too.good luck .
 

Ocean Oso said:
Either you got midgets working for you or that is one big mofo in the jeans on the left. You should have just let him bearhug that pipe out. :)
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no midgets just one big kris aka sasquach dont know how long he be with us he keeps beating up the top of the doorways ;D
 

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Dont play with cannon balls you find.

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