At 2:30 pm Saturday, March 22, historian Greg Shine of the Fort
Vancouver National Site, gave a free, public speech about the
cannons, or carronades, that were recently found at the Arch
Cape, Oregon beach. David Pearson, curator for the Columbia
River Maritime Museum, spoke afterward about conservation and
restoration efforts. They are believed to have come from the
1846 wreck of the USS Shark, a Navy research schooner. Below are
a few photographs (click for larger images) we took while
visiting the Nehalem Bay park at the State Park-hosted viewing
of the carronades (they are being kept constantly immersed in
water, to prevent further damage before restoration begins): The
surface feels much like concrete encasing the carronade due to
pressure and reaction of the elements surrounding the carronades
for 162 years. They were buried in approximately 20′ of sand
prior to the Winter of 2007-2008 storms’ erosion. You can see
the mounting apparatus on the bottom of the cannon in this
picture on the right. The piece