- Carronade Island
Carronade Island is an
island inNapier Broome Bay off the northern coast ofWestern Australia . It takes its name from twobronze cannon s 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
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.]carronade s 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 abrass bound chest. You can imagine the disappointment of the matelots who had visions ofburied 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] ]The guns were presented to HMA Naval Dockyard, Garden Island,
Sydney . One of these guns is on loan from theRoyal Australian Navy to theWestern Australian Museum and is on display at theWestern 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 inmuseum s around the world. In particular, weapons at a military museum inLisbon and a naval museum inSeville 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 alantaka 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
trepanger s fromMakassar ,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
The same writer also noted that the Macassan trepanger "Pobasso" carried two small brass guns obtained from the Dutch.praus ...one is abrass swivel-type gun a little over 1 m long and decorated with triangular designs. It is reputed to have been found bypearl ers onNew Year Island offArnhem Land in the 1890s. The other is ofiron and slightly shorter. It was recovered from areef off Darwin.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.
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