Today is George Washington’s birthday. He was born on this day in 1732. That’s 288 years, for those of you who are wondering. The USS Constitution had a 21-gun salute to President Washington on Presidents’ Day this past Monday. I visited to take some pictures and was allowed to photograph from the gun deck. They used a single cannon and fired it 21 times. This is an image of one of the crew firing the cannon. Other crew members and guests also fired it. There is a short video below.
Click here to see the video.
-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Milford Street 
Very cool, Chris. Answering the question: how many people does it take to load and fire a cannon? More than I thought.
Thank you, Sandra. I think in reality a single sailor could fire this. This gun is fired every night at sundown and there is likely a much smaller group of sailors. This was a special occasion and also the last big event for the commanding officer who is rotating off the ship next week. He invited his family and a few others to fire the canon. That’s why there were so many people. Have a great day.
Awesome! I like how your pictures tell a story, Chris. That’s a great skill.
Thank you so much, Sandra. I like when I can tell a story.
When I saw the photo, I thought it might be the Constitution! Thank you for including the video. I’d never seen the process for shooting a cannon.
You’re welcome. I was surprised they let us on the gundeck. It was really fun to see.
🙂
Interesting video. Always thought that the old cannon was not fired doing the real process. That must have taken a lot of time to do.
I think this is a more modern cannon than the original ones which are also on the gun deck. Those are all loaded through the muzzle and would take much longer and involve moving the gun to load it and then repositioning it. That would take time and effort, though 19th century crews were likely very experienced and efficient.
Hope you had ear protection on cause that looks like a might big boom!
you are tireless photographing so many different events and places 🙂 is it celebrated annually with the cannon shots? the video is so cool, that last boy was so happy to fire the shot… 🙂
Thank you, Alex. Yes, he really enjoyed it. What a great experience.
Good for you to get down there. Loved the video. But holy cow, don’t those guns make a lot of noise!?
Thank you. I wore ear protection and didn’t find it super loud. It might be louder outside where the force of the blast exits.
What a cool event! It’s great they let you on the gundeck to take pics and a video! I was preparing myself that the cannon shot would be much louder but it was okay – was it worse there? Did you also have to wear ear protection?
I brought some ear plugs. I think most of the sound goes out the muzzle. Thank you, Sarah