Close X
Monday, November 18, 2024
ADVT 
National

Historic Vancouver cannon silenced indefinitely

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 10 Feb, 2022 03:50 PM
  • Historic Vancouver cannon silenced indefinitely

VANCOUVER - The Vancouver parks board says the city's historic Nine O'Clock Gun is being silenced by a lack of explosive powder that's needed to fire it.

A statement from the board says the type of black powder needed to fire the five-kilogram, muzzle-loaded naval cannon is difficult to find in most parts of the world but it will continue to search for alternative stocks.

The board's supplier closed last fall and it bought as much of the charcoal, saltpetre and sulphur mix as possible but reserves have run out.

The 200-year-old canon was scheduled to fire Thursday night but there was no word when it will boom again.

The gun has been fired over Vancouver's Coal Harbour daily at 9 p.m. for more than a century although the park board website says the time was shifted to 7 p.m. at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to honour health-care workers.

The gun was also briefly silenced last October when a falling tree damaged the shed where the explosive charges are prepared, but firing resumed within a month.

 

MORE National ARTICLES

Convicted B.C. killer's appeal tossed out

Convicted B.C. killer's appeal tossed out
A three-member panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal unanimously ruled Phillip Tallio didn't prove his lawyer provided ineffective representation, that the police investigation 40 years ago was inadequate, that someone else killed the girlor that DNA evidence exonerates him.

Convicted B.C. killer's appeal tossed out

Canadian observers worry for women in Afghanistan

Canadian observers worry for women in Afghanistan
Recalling the period of Taliban rule in the 1990's, they worry the regime change will bring back a world in which girls can't attend school, women aren't allowed to work, and many are subject to rape and forced marriages

Canadian observers worry for women in Afghanistan

Stroll in Stanley Park ends with coyote bite

Stroll in Stanley Park ends with coyote bite
The province's Conservation Officer Service says in a social media post that a man walking on a trail near the southwest side of the park was nipped on the leg Tuesday night.    

Stroll in Stanley Park ends with coyote bite

Wildfire crews take advantage of cool weather

Wildfire crews take advantage of cool weather
Data from the Ministry of Forests and Emergency Management BC show 291 wildfires were blazing in the province late Wednesday and more than 8,500 square kilometres of land has been lost since the start of the fire season on April 1.

Wildfire crews take advantage of cool weather

Police appeal for witnesses and dash cam video following serious collision

Police appeal for witnesses and dash cam video following serious collision
On August 13, 2021 at 4:43 pm, Surrey RCMP officers came upon a two-vehicle collision between a black Dodge Charger and a Ducati motorcyle at the intersection of 70A Avenue and King George Boulevard. The driver of the motorcycle was taken to the hospital with a life-altering injury.

Police appeal for witnesses and dash cam video following serious collision

VPD investigates after girls groped near False Creek

VPD investigates after girls groped near False Creek
“These girls were all near the seawall when a stranger on a bike grabbed them from behind and sexually assaulted them,” says Sergeant Steve Addison, VPD. “Each victim did the right thing by telling a trusted adult and reporting the incidents to police so an investigation could be launched immediately.”

VPD investigates after girls groped near False Creek