Simon’s Town historic 9-inch rifled muzzle loading cannon (RML) will fire 5 times during 2023 in Cape Town
A historic 9-inch rifled muzzle loading cannon (RML) is one of the South African Naval Museum’s premier exhibits and its firing is proving a major attraction for the Simon’s Town-based museum.
Permission was granted and the cannon will go boom five times this year, all on public holidays (with one exception). Dates and firing times are 27 April (Freedom Day) at 12h00; 16 June (Youth Day) at 12h00; 24 September (Heritage Day) at 12h00; 11 November (Armistice Day) at 11h00 and 15 December (Day of Reconciliation) at 12h00.
The 9-inch cannon at Middle North Battery above Simon’s Town is a rifled muzzle loading (RML) one with a nine inch bore diameter positioned by the British in 1896 Steyn writes.
“With the commissioning of more modern cannon in defence of Simon’s Bay at the turn of the last century, the 9-inch cannon became obsolete and was abandoned to vandalism and deterioration. Until Croome – then the Warrant Officer-in-Charge of the South African Naval Museum – proceeded to save the cannon and the precinct at Middle North from further neglect. Over the course of many years and weekends he restored the old cannon to a point where it could be proof fired again – for the first time in 108 years – in time for the Navy Festival in April 2011.”
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