Carronade Island

Carronade Island is an island in Napier Broome Bay off the northern coast of Western Australia. It takes its name from two bronze cannons discoverd there in the early 20th century.

History

In July 1916, during a visit by "HMAS Encounter", two bronze cannons were discovered by Commander C.W. Stevens and Surgeon Lieutenant W. Roberts on a small unnamed island. Roberts described:

Approximately 25 paces from the water’s edge, we saw the two carronades protruding, through the sand 2/3rds of each being exposed so that they were easily lifted out. They were ... 6 feet apart and certainly had the appearance of leading marks ... a large number of the ship's company landed and next day, shifted sand over practically the whole area for a considerable depth. The only other object found was a small portion of a brass bound chest. You can imagine the disappointment of the matelots who had visions of buried treasure. [ [http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/documents/No.%20215%20Carronade%20Is%20Gun.pdf letter from Surgeon Commander Roberts, 18 August 1933] ]

Since these guns were erroneously thought to be carronades, the place was named "Carronade Island". Maritime Archaeology Department of the Western Australian Maritime Museum [http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/documents/No.%20215%20Carronade%20Is%20Gun.pdf "An investigation of one of the two bronze guns from Carronade Island, Western Australia"] ] Green, Jeremy N. "The Carronade Island guns and Australia's early visitors." Great circle, Vol.4, no.1 (1982), p.73-83.]

The guns were presented to HMA Naval Dockyard, Garden Island, Sydney. One of these guns is on loan from the Royal Australian Navy to the Western Australian Museum and is on display at the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle. The other is on display outside the navy Administrative Building on Garden Island.

Several 20th-century observers the origin of these guns and they were long thought to give weight to the theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia. One gun is often described as having a "rose and crown" or "Rosa de Santa Maria" symbol indicative of the Portuguese monarchy. [The latter view has been strongly affirmed by McIntyre (1977) who claimed that the guns were 15th or early 16th century, cast in Seville, but sold to the Portuguese through whose activities they ended up on the Australian coast. ]

However, scientists at the Museum in Fremantle have recently made a detailed analysis of these weapons using chemical analysis, x-rays, and comparison with cannons in museums around the world. In particular, weapons at a military museum in Lisbon and a naval museum in Seville have been closely examined. This has failed to reveal any evidence of Iberian style decoration on the "Rosa de Manta Maria" cannon.

Now consensus among experts tends toward an opinion that the gun is a late 18th century Southeast Asian copy of a European gun. The other gun, largely ignored by various writers, is a lantaka of undoubted Southeast Asian origin.

The discovery of a gun of Southeast Asian origin on the northern coast of Australia is not surprising. There is a wealth of evidence that trepangers from Makassar, Indonesia carried brass cannons with them on their visits to northern Australia.MacKnight, CC (1976)."The Voyage to Marege: Macassan Trepangers in Northern Australia." Melbourne University Press.]

In describing the cannons carried on the Macassan sea vessels, a scholar writes:

[A European] was told of an incident in which shots were fired at Aborigines from the cannon. There are two guns extant which may conceivably have come from Macassan praus...one is a brass swivel-type gun a little over 1 m long and decorated with triangular designs. It is reputed to have been found by pearlers on New Year Island off Arnhem Land in the 1890s. The other is of iron and slightly shorter. It was recovered from a reef off Darwin.

The same writer also noted that the Macassan trepanger "Pobasso" carried two small brass guns obtained from the Dutch.

ee also

* Carronade
* Makassar
* Macassan contact with Australia
* Theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia.

Notes

Bibliography

* Green, Jeremy N. "The Carronade Island guns and Australia's early visitors." Great circle, Vol.4, no.1 (1982), p.73-83.
* Green, Jeremy N. "An investigation of one of the bronze guns from Carronade Island, Western Australia", Dept. of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum, 2004, Report no. 180.