Maritime Time Keeping?

Question

I was in Sydney Harbour recently and at 1 o'clock a cannon fired. Now, I know this is a maritime thing for keeping time aboard ships, but I want to know what happens to the cannon balls. I have a four-part question.

1. Do they all land in the same place, or is the cannon rotated slightly each day to avoid a build-up?

2. Are the balls collected every now and then, or they left to rust?

3. Is there any danger that the cannon ball pile at the bottom of the harbour will eventually snag on the bottom of a large ship?

4. How do they ensure that no vessel is accidentally sunk by a stray cannon ball?

Many thanks for solving this puzzle for me.

Answer 1

No cannon balls are fired from the cannons, they are set up with gun powder only.

Answer 2

No Balls...powder and small bit of wadding only.

Answer 3

No ball in the canon when fired.  Powder only.

Answer 4

Well you see it's a bit like this. The balls are made from the same metal that they use to make Mitsubishi cars. They last about as long as a disprin and just disolve away.

Answer 5

Now that reminds me of the story of the noon-day gun that they used to fire from the top of signal hill at Cape Town. A tourist was visiting there at the time of the firing and, as they were getting set, he asked how they knew when it was noon. The guy in charge pointed to a man with a telescope "that's trained on the big clock outside the jewellery shop in downtown Cape Town. He has the most accurate clock in all of South Africa, when it say's noon we fire the gun". A few days later the tourist found himself outside the jewellers and the owner came out to speak to him. "That's the most accurate clock in all of South Africa" he said. "So I've heard" replied the tourist, "but how do you keep it so accurate"? "Easy" said the proud shop-keeper "every day at noon they fire a gun fron Signal Hill, it's never gained or lost a minute yet!"...........