Talking about the picture of Kanonkop, where the old canon sits looking over the valley, I mentioned the farm shed. It looks quite normal but when I looked inside it was full of old tractors, a real museum. They were what might be called 'all weather' tractors - the driver was out in all weathers! Form this you will see how fascinating journalism can be. While I have included a good sample of the tractors I have kept back the Irish one for another day. I loved it!

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This is the farm on which the canon is situated. It lies just outside the Cape Town suburb of Durbanville. and is called Hoogegelegen. There are three things the I will comment on, first the trail you can just make out zig-zagging up the mountain, then the farm shed in the middle ground and, of course, being in the Western Cape, the grape vines in the foreground. Bearing in mind this all started from taking photographs of model boats it is the best illustration of how opportunities open up when you talk to people about their own interests. This was taken in summer when it doesn't rain in the Cape. The vines are of course irrigated. I just hope I can find the photographs I took from the top of Kanonkop. 

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Details of Kononkop canon

Rather than write about the old Napoleonic war canon at Cape Town, I thought I'd just put the details on display.

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One of the canon experts told me he had a farm called Kanonkop not far from where wee lived in Cape Town's Durbanville suburb and he had something I might be interested in. It turned out to be an old cannon, made in Falkirk and sent out with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders when Napoleon was causing all the trouble. The Brits took over the colony to prevent it being used to threaten the route to India. The general in charge was a Scot called Baird, who fought two 'battles' in which there were a few sprained ankles and red faces but at least one of his canon is preserved at Kanonkop. The canon was cast at Falkirk in the Carron works and bears King George's insignia of the time.

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Old Canon

Old Canon - I started this talking about how I started as a journalist and got as far as the model boats when Vernon and the Bismark intervened. I was taking pictures at a Navy day at Simonstown when it was announced there would be a canon firing at noon. Having been a Hornblower fan I went to watch and things took off at a tangent. I was given a lecture on preserving old canon. If you take one from the sea and let it dry out it will just crumble into dust. The salt must first be leached from the molecular structure of the cast iron. I tried to get a picture of one shooting out flames but all I got was a picture of a cloud of smoke.

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Having put down my notes of interviews from Vernon and his naval experiences from clipper ships to sinking Bismark and being sunk by Japanese bombers, I must get back to my other journalistic notes. I'm in the last stages of editing a book of short stories and that made me wonder if I could turn the notes on Vernon, the 1740 silver mining scam and the Cape Corps in East Africa in 1915 into a kind of series. Not short stories exactly but maybe three books in one. Something to think about anyway.

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I thought I'd finished with Vernon's story when he brought out photographs of his brothers. One was in the army with the Dukes at Tobruk. (Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh granted the CTVR the title "Duke of Edinburgh's Own", after it had formed a guard of honour for him during a visit to Cape Town. The nickname "the Dukes" appears to have come into use in the 1880s.) Another was with the RAF as an aircraft fitter and saw service in Somalia and Italy. Quite a contribution by one South African family to the war effort during WW2. People tend to regard South Africans as being tainted with racism but I never heard Vernon say anything that indicated anything other than concern for others. His comment about his medals - that he wouldn't wear awards he had been given for trying to kill young men from the Bismark that could have been his friends in different circumstances - was typical.

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