A British gun sat ready to fire for over 230 years, until the NYPD stepped in.
It may be over 200 years since the Revolutionary War came to an end, but the British almost got a chance to fire one last shot in New York this past weekend. An antique cannon that has spent the last 100 years on display in New York City’s Central Park was undergoing restoration when workers discovered that the cannon has been loaded and ready to fire for over two centuries.
The artillery piece was donated to the city after it was salvaged in New York’s East River from a sunken British ship. The cannon was capped with a concrete stopper and put on public display in Central Park from in around 1860 until the mid 90s, when it was brought indoors to keep it from being vandalized.
The cannon was loaded over 230 years ago before the ship that was carrying it sunk, and has remained ready to fire ever since. Approximately 800 grams of fire-ready black powder, some cotton wadding, and a cannonball were sealed inside before NYPD officers disarmed the gun. Let’s file this one under “That Could Have Been Bad.”
Source: CBS via Geekosystem
[Image credit: Gigi4791]
