Hi Neil,
Thanks for your response.
Monday, March 18, 2002, 2:21:43 PM, you wrote:
> Yes the cannon were there and yes they were manufactured in Europe as
> duplicates of a piece of armament that existed pre 1400. It was described
> originally as a Mediterranean cannon, a hand loaded piece mounted on ships.
> Yes is was duplicated from archeological discoveries. Yes this type of
> cannon was dated prior to 1400 and it was consistent with the time period of
> Henry's Voyage.
I am not convinced that this type of cannon existed that early. It may
be the case, but I would like more information than Andrew Sinclair
provided. It certainly did *not* become obsolete after the 14th
century, which Niven Sinclair claism. Far from it. Nor is it
identical to the Venetian cannon pictured in Andrew Sinclair's book
(he doesn't make this claim but others have).
I'm very unhappy with the quality of Andrew Sinclair's work on this,
and am unwilling to accept anything about the Venetian cannon without
some form of confirmation. I didn't accept the Fortress of
Louisbourg's documentation either, but asked them to give me the
source of their information.
I do agree that cannon were in use in various places as early the
first half of the 14th century. But how similar the Venetian cannon in
question are to the Louisbourg cannon, and the actual date (if this is
definitely known) of the Venetian cannon are still questions in my
mind to be answered, not something that we have the answers to
already.
After that's done, we might find that there is a possibility (and only
that) that the Louisbourg cannon is as early as the 14th century, and
certainly is possibly as late as the late 16th century, maybe later.
And may have been lost/left there at any time (even travelled there as
ballast).
Of course not everyone agrees that Henry, even if he visited North
America, visited Louisbourg, but that's another problem.
Doug
--
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