Today I am posting a photo of one of the guns at Fort Scratchley in Newcastle. This gun brought to mind Pinocchio.
Fort Scratchley has reinstated the time honoured seafaring tradition of firing a gun at 1pm to coincide with the Customs House time ball drop.
The time ball and gun firing at precisely 1pm was used in ports around the world in the 19th century to allow sea captains to adjust their navigation instruments.
Newcastle is one of the very few ports around the world that have the capability of firing a gun in tandem with the drop of a time ball.
The 1pm time gun fires every day the Fort is open, subject to weather.
In 1828 an earthen battery was constructed on the site but in 1876 the British Government sent Major General Sir William Jervois and Lieutenant Colonel Peter Scratchley to advise on naval defences. Under the direction of Jervois and Scratchley, Colonial Architect James Barnet oversaw construction of the Fort and it was renamed Fort Scratchley after Lieutenant Colonel Peter Scratchley.
Love the shot. And love the story too, what a great initiative. As you probably know there's a time-ball on top of the old telegraph station in Ryrie Street, but no guns anywhere around.
@golftragic Didn't know about the time ball on Ryrie street
@ludwigsdiana Interesting similarities. This gun is fired daily but as the fort is run by volunteers they can only fire it when there are enough volunteers on the day.
@ludwigsdiana Interesting similarities. This gun is fired daily but as the fort is run by volunteers they can only fire it when there are enough volunteers on the day.
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Glad Pinocchio made you smile, this is what happened when he sneezed. ha ha.
http://365project.org/onewing/365/2016-04-09
@koalagardens I think he has told one or two lies.
@pcoulson I didn't add a mouth, but if you check out the link above you can see a sneeze. ha ha.
@jmdspeedy This is Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, not Newcastle UK.