This weekend parks workers discovered that one of two Revolutionary War-era cannons stored at the park’s Ramble shed near the 79th Street transverse was loaded with more than 800 grams of live gunpowder, cotton wadding and a cannonball. The discovery was made after opening the capped cannon to clean and refurbish it.
The cannon, at least 233 years old, was already over 90 years old when it was donated to the park after it was recovered from a British warship – the HMS Hussar – that sank in the East River in November of 1780. No on had considered it might have been loaded and dangerous for the 130 years it was on display between the 1860s and 1996. It was removed from display to protect it from vandals.
After a bomb squad was called in, police have removed the powder, but left it loaded with the cannonball.