Released on = December 8, 2006, 8:24 am

Press Release Author = Discover South Carolina

Industry = Entertainment

Press Release Summary = As part of the rebirth of Charles Towne Landing State
Historic Site, the South Carolina State Park Service has enlisted vintage artillery
maker Cannons Online of New Windsor, Md., to build six cannons of the types the
settlers counted on to thwart potential threats to the settlement on the secluded,
marshy point they arrived at in 1670 after a stormy passage from Barbados.


Press Release Body = CHARLESTON - Perched sternly astride carefully constructed
earthen embrasures; 17th century cannons again protect the original settlement site
of Charles Towne, South Carolina.

As part of the rebirth of Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site, the South
Carolina State Park Service has enlisted vintage artillery maker Cannons Online of
New Windsor, Md., to build six cannons of the types the settlers counted on to
thwart potential threats to the settlement on the secluded, marshy point they
arrived at in 1670 after a stormy passage from Barbados.

The cannons - four sakers (which fire a six-pound ball) already in place and in use
and two demi-culverins (which fire 12-pound balls) now under construction - are
fully functional duplicates of those ordered by Lord Ashley Cooper from faraway
London to help defend the fledgling New World colony.

Now they will help tell the story of how the group of English planters, indentured
servants and African slaves were prepared to defend themselves in case any marauding
Spaniards sailed up the Ashley River, South Carolina to pose a threat by water.

By land, the settlers also built a palisade wall, also faithfully reconstructed in
its original location revealed by careful archaeological exploration, and armed
themselves with flintlocks and matchlocks, muskets that, like the cannons, are now
wielded in noisy, authentic displays in regular programs put on by trained
interpreters in period costumes at the South Carolina state park.

Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site in South Carolina is undergoing a $19
million renovation highlighted by a 12-room museum inside the new visitors center
that tells how the settlers, their slaves and servants and local Native Americans
came together to create a community that would become one of America's major port
cities and the birthplace of the plantation system of the American South.

An interpretive history trail leads to Albemarle Point, SC where the original
settlement was constructed on Old Town Creek just off the Ashley River. Inside the
palisade walls are an experimental crop garden and small farm shed built using
construction techniques of the time. Nearby, the trading ship Adventure, a full-size
functional replica of ships used at the time, is under construction. The park also
includes Animal Forest, a naturalistic zoo that's home to animals the settlers would
have encountered, including bears, otters, pumas and bison.

Programs that include the cannon firing are scheduled on the third Saturday of each
month from March through December. The park's entire program lineup can be seen on
the South Carolina State Park Service Web site at www.SouthCarolinaParks.com.


Web Site = http://www.DiscoverSouthCarolina.com

Contact Details = Dawn Dawson-House
Director of PR & Information
SC Dept. of Parks, Recreation & Tourism
Phone: (803) 734-1779
ddawson@scprt.com