2 injured as tall ship accidentally fires live cannon round
DANA POINT, Calif. (AP) - Two women taking part in a mock battle at a California tall ship festival were hit with real ammunition and left with minor injuries when buckshot was loaded into one ship's cannon instead of blanks.
The Amazing Grace, a tall ship based in Gig Harbor, Wash., fired at the vessel Bill of Rights, hitting two people onboard during a Dana Point festival that celebrates 19th century seafaring, authorities told the Orange County Register.
One of the women hit, Bill of Rights deckhand Donna Reed, said she and volunteer Laura Huber were struck by multiple pellets.
"It was like a scene from 'The Exorcist'," Reed told the Los Angeles Times. "I started to bleed in several different areas.
Reed said she was still sore on Wednesday, four days after the Saturday accident, and still had some of the pellets in her leg because doctors said it was safer than removing them.
Both ships would normally use small cannons that use blank charges that look like common shotgun shells. It was not clear how the buckshot ended up getting loaded into the cannon.
"The plan is to never shoot live ammunition," Bentley Cavazzi, chief operations officer for the Ocean Institute which runs the festival, told the Times.
Orange County sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Krause told the Register her department is awaiting the outcome of an investigation before deciding whether to pursue charges of negligent discharge.
But Reed, a South Carolina native who recently took a job on the ship as a deckhand and public relations rep, said that regardless of the reason she and Huber hold no grudge against the crew of the Amazing Grace, in fact one crew member is a nurse who was the first to help them.
"We are both fine and just glad it was not more serious," Reed told the Register. "Who else can say they have been shot by a cannon?"
The Amazing Grace, a tall ship based in Gig Harbor, Wash., fired at the vessel Bill of Rights, hitting two people onboard during a Dana Point festival that celebrates 19th century seafaring, authorities told the Orange County Register.
One of the women hit, Bill of Rights deckhand Donna Reed, said she and volunteer Laura Huber were struck by multiple pellets.
"It was like a scene from 'The Exorcist'," Reed told the Los Angeles Times. "I started to bleed in several different areas.
Reed said she was still sore on Wednesday, four days after the Saturday accident, and still had some of the pellets in her leg because doctors said it was safer than removing them.
Both ships would normally use small cannons that use blank charges that look like common shotgun shells. It was not clear how the buckshot ended up getting loaded into the cannon.
"The plan is to never shoot live ammunition," Bentley Cavazzi, chief operations officer for the Ocean Institute which runs the festival, told the Times.
Orange County sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Krause told the Register her department is awaiting the outcome of an investigation before deciding whether to pursue charges of negligent discharge.
But Reed, a South Carolina native who recently took a job on the ship as a deckhand and public relations rep, said that regardless of the reason she and Huber hold no grudge against the crew of the Amazing Grace, in fact one crew member is a nurse who was the first to help them.
"We are both fine and just glad it was not more serious," Reed told the Register. "Who else can say they have been shot by a cannon?"
Ah yes. the old "loading shot into the cannon during a reenactment" joke. THAT IS A CLASSIC. Damn takes me back to my family's christmas party of '89. Boy was Uncle Howard filled with buck. Nearly 80% of him was peppered.
Correct me if I'm wrong but coming from a cannon, isn't it called Grape Shot?
Sigh. The Bill of Rights is indeed under attack. Figuratively, and now, literally.
It sounds to me like it wasn't buckshot, that would leave a slightly larget mark if you were hit. Sounds like bird shot of some sort to me.
 @Ron Burgandy And you base this on what evidence? Every item inventoried on these ships is very specific so if theres a manifest for buckshot it stands to reason they had buckshot on board instead of bird shot. Take into account, as well, the distance between the ships to limit the size of the hit on a person with the buckshot. Luckily no one thought of putting a cannon ball into the 'mock' battle presentation.
@DarkRenegade @Ron Burgandy If it were buckshot they would probably be dead. Buckshot is equivalent to .33 caliber. For reference, a 9mm round is about .36 caliber. Birdshot would have the described effect of creating multiple holes but likely wouldn't kill. Think Dick Cheney's hunting partner knows this all too well.
You can kill a turkey from 50 yards with #5 lead shot. That's tiny. #2 and #1 are still bird shot and will can pierce at distance. The most common type of buckshot is 12-gauge 00 that holds 9 pellets. If she started bleeding in "several different areas", and two women were hit, that doesn't add up, as I doubt all 9 pellets would hit them as well.
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@skulls98040 Lets see how long it takes for that comment to be deleted.
@northwestsurfer Im guessing not to long?
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There was a famous cannon incident some years ago in Seattle during a Bastille Day celebration in Pioneer Square. A cannon on a parade float had been loaded with confetti and a charge to blast it out. However, so much liquid had been poured down the barrel by revelers that the confetti was compressed into a cannon ball. When it blew, it literally took off the leg of a local woman. She used the settlement money to open the city's first disco, appropriately named "Shelly's Leg." Gotta love the stories of Seattle. . .
 @None how bizarre!
Had Dick Cheney been on board recently?
"We are both fine and just glad it was not more serious," Reed told the Register. "Who else can say they have been shot by a cannon?"
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Heh, a story for the grand kids for sure. Glad everyone is mostly ok and they all have some really cool experiences to relate to others.