So you have those special occasions when you just want to call upon the gods of fire and smoke– but don’t necessarily want to hit anything. We are not talking about irresponsible gunplay here; we are talking about the satisfying, window rattling joy that is a saluting cannon.
What is it?
Back in the old days, the practice of firing gun salutes came as a way to show both sides that their cannon were empty and not ready to fire. For instance, if say a French warship sailed into a Swedish port, they would exchange salutes with the warship firing its cannon (sans ammunition) and the Swedish fort replying likewise. This evolved over time and is still practiced to this day. In many countries the saluting cannon became used to tell time (fired at midday), to deliver news (in Imperial Russia, naval ships and forts fired 100 shots for the birth of a girl to the Tsar, 300 for the birth of a boy– leading a lot of people to listen for that 101st shot), start races, and to celebrate special occasions.
How the professionals do it
The Navy, or more correctly, the Continental Navy, started the practice of military gun salutes in the United States as on Nov. 16, 1776, the American warship Andrew Doria fired a cannonball-less salute of 13 guns, one per each colony, on entering the harbor of St. Eustatius in the Dutch West Indies. Well the Dutch, checking the courtesy book, answered with a 9-gun salute, which was what is required for the warship of a visiting republic. Since then the Navy has been the caretaker of saluting gun traditions…
Gunners Mates First Class (GM1) Ronnie Owens and Richard Ashley fire a 40mm saluting cannon in honor of the Governor of the State of Florida from the destroyer USS Momsen in 2004. US Navy photo.
Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk
