Army engineers find cannon from Lynnhaven shipwreck

The Virginian-Pilot ^ | September 25, 2004 | JASON SKOG

[Former Military Chick]

VIRGINIA BEACH — After three days of digging, workers trying to solve the mystery of a sunken shipwreck at Lynnhaven Inlet on Friday finally found what they wanted most: the cannon.

“We got it!” said Keith B. Lockwood, an environmental scientist with the Army Corps of Engineers.

The corps is leading an effort to recover and identify pieces of the wreck, which is perhaps 300 years old, and clear the channel for boaters.

Lockwood said a salvage crane was bringing up less and less debris when it hit something big and heavy. When the load was dumped onto the barge, “there was this loud boom.”

“We think it’s the one they had documented in 1994 and wasn’t relocated in 2003,” Lockwood said, “so it was pretty cool we were able to get it.”

The cannon measures 5-feet-1-inch long, has a muzzle that’s 10¼ inches across and a bore that’s 3¼ inches in diameter.

Lockwood said it’s heavily encrusted after spending at least 200 years beneath the sea, but otherwise it’s in good shape.

To prevent damage from the air and sun, the cannon was immediately set in plastic sheets and filled with sea water and the same muck from which it came. Later, it will be moved to the corps’ Craney Island facility in Portsmouth, where it will be cleaned and inspected.

David Whall, a marine archaeologist helping the investigation, hopes to find some markings. “It may have a date or manufacturer or a country of origin stamped into it,” he said.

Any information could help determine the identity of a ship that has yielded few clues since the corps first surveyed it in 1994, after finding it during channel dredging.

Since then, the wreck was largely left alone until last year’s Hurricane Isabel uncovered it, creating a hazard for passing boats. When all the wreckage is removed, the channel will be straightened.

[Former Military Chick]

Many wonders of the sea, all be it man made.