After being buried in a trench in the central city for 200-odd years, and then left to its own devices in a back yard in the Company’s Garden for a few more after it was unearthed, a rare two-ton cannon has finally been restored by hand and put on display in the garden by the Cape Town Heritage Trust.
The cast-iron cannon, believed to be about 419 years old, was found by council workers who were laying electrical cables in Orange Street in 2013. It was then moved to the Company Garden where it lay, encrusted with dirt, for years until Laura Robinson, executive director of the Cape Town Heritage Trust, decided it was time to do something about it.
COLONIAL ARTEFACT
“It’s not fashionable to have colonial artefacts or buildings but somehow guns and cannons are able to cross that great divide as people are fascinated by them,” she says.
The R40 000 restoration, for which the Trust managed to find funding (mainly from the Roland and Leta Hill Trust), was undertaken by Martin Venter of the Cannon Association of South Africa, who, assisted by his wife, sat in the blazing sun day in and day out, chipping off clay, gravel, dirt and grime until the cannon was clean. He then painted it and set about building a hard-wood base on which it could rest as the trunnions had rusted away.
BROUGHT TO THE CAPE BY THE VOC
The muzzle-loading cannon, registered as Cannon Durr 980 by the Cannon Association of South Africa, is believed to have been manufactured in Sweden. Says Gerry de Vries of the Cannon Association of South Africa: “It is definitely a Swedish-cast gun, probably from Finspang foundry, for the VOC or the Amsterdam Admiralty.” The foundry cast most of the early iron guns for the VOC and Dutch Admiralties.
“The style of the gun, and the decorative rings, indicate it was cast in the late 1600s or early 1700s. Guns of that era in 18-pounder are very rare and it has no exact matching partner among the 1018 cannons recorded in SA thus far,” Gerry says.
It is not known when the gun came to the Cape but it is highly likely that she was transported here on a trade ship which could carry more than 20 cannons on board. During the time the cannon was in use, the Cape of Good Hope was being run by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). It would have been decommissioned in the early 19th century and used as a bollard, says Laura.
At the cannon's unveiling ceremony in the Company's Garden were, from left to right; Laura Robinson, Norman Osburn, Tamra Capstick-Dale and City of Cape Town councillor Simon Liell-Cock.
A NEW LEASE ON LIFE
The cannon, which was ceremonially fired on 1 April 2019, now has pride of place in the Company’s Garden next to the Cape Town Heritage Trust offices. She is in the process of being named – the trust is running a naming competition on its Facebook page so why not throw your choice into the hat.
“The cannon will serve as a form of education for the public as it tells the story of the colonial history and our society,” says Laura.
IMAGES: Scott Arendse, CCID online coordinator; Cape Town Heritage Trust.