Stone cannonball?

[ErikEC]

I heard there's a cannonball guy around : ) I found this freediving. You can tell its been underwater for quite some time. It's grey stone real hard. The diameter is 75cm and it weighs 10kg. The roundness is what made me pick it up and the dimensions are what got me writing this. There are a couple of spanish shipwrecks around here. The better known went down in 1800. Stone anchors from the natives (pre-colombian) are relatively common to find underwater around here. Although haven't seen one that matches exactly the type of stone (but i'm no expert). I read the spanish used stone cannonballs for the deck, anti-personnel, like a shotgun. Is there any truth to that? Iron for piercing vessel, stone for killing people.

 

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[ErikEC]

not diameter. circunverence 75cm. took a rope around it and measured that

 

[scuba1970]

Could it be a flint nodule used as ballast? I've heard a lot of early ships used those since were round and heavy?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

There is a small possibility that it is a stone cannonball, but saying yes or no with certainty is extremely difficult.
1- There are many kinds of stone (or ceramic) balls besides cannonballs.
2- In the history of Artillery, the very first cannonballs (in the 13th Century) were made of stone. However, it takes a lot of labor to chisel a rock into a "perfect sphere" ball shape... it's much simpler (and faster) to make cast metal ones. Therefore, making stone cannonballs almost entirely died out by the end of the 1400s. Remember, Columbus did not discover the Americas until 1492. Thus, if your shipwreck-found stone ball was found in the Americas, it is unlikely to be a cannonball. However, if it is from the Americas, AND if you can prove that the specific shipwreck it came from happened in the early-1500s, there's a chance it is a "leftover" stone cannonball made in the 1400s.

 

[littleneckhalfshell]

Maybe it is another one lost by the myth busters ;-) Mythbusters apologize, say cannonball episode will never air + reality blurred

""They were testing a myth about “whether or not a stone cannonball could actually breach a castle’s walls,” Adam told the San Francisco Chronicle. The paper reports that he and Jamie went to the affected house to apologize, and “promised they wouldn’t air the footage they had filmed of the near-catastrophic cannon shot.”""

I seem to remember another Mythbusters [FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, serif]episode where Jamie did actually with hammer and chisel cut a stone cannonball out a a block of marble or some other rock.[/FONT]

 

[Doubter in MD]

There is a small possibility that it is a stone cannonball, but saying yes or no with certainty is extremely difficult.
1- There are many kinds of stone (or ceramic) balls besides cannonballs.
2- In the history of Artillery, the very first cannonballs (in the 13th Century) were made of stone. However, it takes a lot of labor to chisel a rock into a "perfect sphere" ball shape... it's much simpler (and faster) to make cast metal ones. Therefore, making stone cannonballs almost entirely died out by the end of the 1400s. Remember, Columbus did not discover the Americas until 1492. Thus, if your shipwreck-found stone ball was found in the Americas, it is unlikely to be a cannonball. However, if it is from the Americas, AND if you can prove that the specific shipwreck it came from happened in the early-1500s, there's a chance it is a "leftover" stone cannonball made in the 1400s.

is there any way to determine with certainty that it is or isn't a stone cannonball? If it is a stone cannonball what is it worth? Just curious.

 

[ErikEC]

There is a small possibility that it is a stone cannonball, but saying yes or no with certainty is extremely difficult.
1- There are many kinds of stone (or ceramic) balls besides cannonballs.
2- In the history of Artillery, the very first cannonballs (in the 13th Century) were made of stone. However, it takes a lot of labor to chisel a rock into a "perfect sphere" ball shape... it's much simpler (and faster) to make cast metal ones. Therefore, making stone cannonballs almost entirely died out by the end of the 1400s. Remember, Columbus did not discover the Americas until 1492. Thus, if your shipwreck-found stone ball was found in the Americas, it is unlikely to be a cannonball. However, if it is from the Americas, AND if you can prove that the specific shipwreck it came from happened in the early-1500s, there's a chance it is a "leftover" stone cannonball made in the 1400s.

Thanks for the reply! Could you give me examples of stone balls beside cannonballs that could be found at sea (I supposed they would have to be related to sailing, diving or fishing althoung there's always the possibility of cargo on a merchant ship).

What about the diameter? Were there cannons in the 17th - 19th century with barrels able to fit a 75cm circumvence ball?

 

[ErikEC]

Been reading around, the spanish settled the area in 1525, but it is said to have been "discovered" earlier. (Santa Elena, Ecuador)

 

[Smithbrown]

Stone cannon balls went on well into the 16th century; there were a lot recovered from the Mary Rose, lost 1545. And stone shot found on the 1554 Padre island wrecks.

 

[Hot zone]

Some western rivers with potholes in the bedrock produce perfectly round rocks... I have found a dozen in an afternoon, but the large ones are rare, I have a couple this size that are naturally occurring, it makes it a little hard then to prove one was made as a cannon ball!

 

[Boatlode]

The Nuestra Senora de Atocha carried both iron and stone cannonballs, and it sunk in 1622.

 

[Smithbrown]

Most wrought-iron cannon fired stone rather than cast-iron, so stone continued in use until they had gone; the last payment for new stone shot that I have for the English navy was in the 1590s!

 

[Boatlode]

Most wrought-iron cannon fired stone rather than cast-iron, so stone continued in use until they had gone; the last payment for new stone shot that I have for the English navy was in the 1590s!

The Atocha was armed with bronze cannons. It was built and fitted in Havana in 1620.

 

[Smithbrown]

Did it have perriers or wrought-iron swivel guns?

 

[Boatlode]

Did it have perriers or wrought-iron swivel guns?

Nope - not on the manifest. Only the 20 bronze big guns. I seem to remember they found an encrusted verso between the Atocha and Margarita wreck sites, but since there is no record of it, they don't think it was part of the armament of either ship. Possibly just used for ballast.

 

[ErikEC]

Some western rivers with potholes in the bedrock produce perfectly round rocks... I have found a dozen in an afternoon, but the large ones are rare, I have a couple this size that are naturally occurring, it makes it a little hard then to prove one was made as a cannon ball!

There aren't even large creeks around... I know the rock in the area pretty well and this one has been worked. For certain I can say it's not natural occuring for the area. To me if it's not a cannonball, it's a precolumbian artifact for some unkown purpose. The natives from here made stone anchors from similar stone. I know the area was visited by ships since the first years of discovery because of the natural tar/oil pits.

 

[ErikEC]

do you know the size/weight of the shots found there?

 

[ErikEC]

Most wrought-iron cannon fired stone rather than cast-iron, so stone continued in use until they had gone; the last payment for new stone shot that I have for the English navy was in the 1590s!

do you think size and weight are an indication of it being a cannonball or not?

 

[ErikEC]

From this picture could you tell how big the large stone shot is? aprox. weight?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castillo_San_Felipe_del_Morro

 

[Smithbrown]

The stone shot recovered from the Mary Rose ranged from 3 inches up to 9.25 inches. Most lay in the range 5.25 to 7.25 inches.