The mystery of Cape Town’s disappearing gun

Thank you, my friend PO1 (Join to see) for posting the link to the mystery of Cape Town's disappearing gun
Image: Disappearing Gun

Cape Town Noon Gun On Signal Hill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nImHDV6-gY


"Crowned by a magnificent flat-topped massif that cascades into the sea, Cape Town’s dramatic setting and strategic position at the crossroads of two oceans has enticed anyone who has ever sailed near Africa’s southern tip. Admired by the Portuguese and British, the Dutch were the first Europeans to establish a port here for the Dutch East India Company in 1652 – and they soon set up a series of coastal gun batteries around the Cape Peninsula in hopes of keeping other Europeans out.
It didn’t work. By the turn of the 18th Century, the British had arrived, hoping to secure the settlement before the French showed up. As the British colonised the Cape, they installed a vast network of artillery defence stations around the coast. Most of these colonial relics were thought to have vanished long ago – until a surprise discovery last year revealed something unexpected underneath a swimming pool.

A military mystery
According to Cape Town archaeology and heritage specialist Tim Hart, “never was the Cape’s defences so furiously strengthened than during a short-lived and pretty obscure historical event in 1885.” At the time, Hart explained, Britain ruled India, Russia occupied territory in Afghanistan nearby and both countries were worried that the other wanted to extend its control throughout Central Asia. This tension briefly brought Britain and Russia to the brink of war, and Britain feared Russian aggression in India would threaten all of its colonies – including South Africa. When the British military heard that Russia might send warships to South Africa, the British installed modern breech-loading cannons around the Cape, including three huge and mysterious ‘disappearing guns’.

“What made disappearing guns unique was their ability to hide from enemy fire by lowering themselves into a gun pit,” Hart said. “These guns were fitted with hydraulic lifting mechanisms for the artillery crew to lift the barrel from its loading position under a protective shield into a firing position and rotate it towards the target. After it fired, it would disappear back into a vault under a protective shield. These were extremely rare military mechanisms and great examples of mid-Victorian engineering.”

Disappearing guns
Disappearing guns are considered to be a uniquely British feat of military engineering, and Hart’s research has found very few of these cannon-sized ‘guns’ were used worldwide. According to documents found in the Western Cape Archives and Records Service, at least three disappearing guns were brought to the Cape from England. The New South Wales State Heritage Register mentions 10 of these mountings deployed in Australia, but according to Hart, almost all of these have been demolished. Only parts of one disappearing gun from Cape Town’s Fort Wynyard military base are known to still exist. The rest, as Hart explained, simply vanished.

In early 2018, Hart was called to a building site in the upmarket Cape Town neighbourhood of Sea Point. A construction worker had been demolishing the swimming pool at an old bed and breakfast with a digger when he discovered pieces of iron, armour plating and a large circular gun pit.'

FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown LTC Greg Henning LTC Jeff Shearer Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan CPT Scott Sharon CWO3 Dennis M. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG William Jones SGT (Join to see) SGT John " Mac " McConnell SP5 Mark Kuzinski PO1 H Gene Lawrence PO2 Kevin Parker PO3 Bob McCord

What a story. Thanks Tony.

Cool story!