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Re: [Weapons] Deteriorating bronze cannons in gov'

Posted By: John Morris (70.108.163.45)
Date: Friday, 5 June 2009 0558 hrs. EDT

In Response To: Re: [Weapons] Deteriorating bronze cannons in gov' (Stephen B. McCartney)

Certainly there are numerous institutions that could help if the Navy would change its present posture of stonewalling on the issue. In about 1998 when the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory opened, a modest grant allowed conservation of one of the bronze guns in Leutze Park, which was just recently returned.

Unfortunately instead of the typical overall pale-green appearance, it now has a mottled black and green shiny look which is different from that of its neighbors in Leutze Park. The evidence of long-term corrosion is also clearly evident from the missing metal, which left the surface coarser than the coarsest sandpaper. I'm not sure the Navy is ready for more like that. I'm not sure what was done in that case was the best procedure for those items, although at least the corrosion on that one piece has been stopped and won't resume until the present coating of wax is gone.

The Navy won't even move one of its most fragile and rare bronze cannon indoors to halt the degradation, which I've recommended, so we have a long way to go unfortunately.

This link goes to our video which shows the conserved cannon in great detail, beginning about the 6 minute mark into the video.

Detailed examination of conserved cannon "El Alano:"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vHZh-M7xIw

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The link below goes to the Navy's page on that particular conservation project.

Conservation of Spanish cannon "El Alano"

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