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Carronade Island
Carronade Island lies off the northern ( Kimberley) coast of Western Australia (), in Napier Broome Bay. It owes its name to two swivel guns found there in 1916, mistakenly described at the time as carronades. In July 1916, the Royal Australian Navy cruiser entered Napier Broome Bay. On a small island in the bay, a party from the ship found two bronze cannons, protruding from the ground and placed about six feet apart. Green, Jeremy, N: ''The Carronade Island Guns and South East Asian Gun Founding.'' remantle, W.A. Dept. of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum, 007 Report No.215 The two bronze guns, of different bore and design but both about one metre in length, were removed to Garden Island Naval dockyard. They were initially interpreted as "part of the armament of a Spanish or Portuguese caravel," a claim also made by writer Kenneth McIntyre in 1977. McIntyre cited the guns as evidence for his theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia and describe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kimberley (WA)
The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, and on the east by the Northern Territory. The region was named in 1879 by government surveyor Alexander Forrest after Secretary of State for the Colonies John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley. History The Kimberley was one of the earliest settled parts of Australia, with the first humans landing about 65,000 years ago. They created a complex culture that developed over thousands of years. Yam (''Dioscorea hastifolia'') agriculture was developed, and rock art suggests that this was where some of the earliest boomerangs were invented. The worship of Wandjina deities was most common in this region, and a complex theology dealing with the transmigration of souls was part of the local people's religious philosophy. In 1837, with expedition su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state, with a total land area of . It is the second-largest country subdivision in the world, surpassed only by Russia's Sakha Republic. the state has 2.76 million inhabitants percent of the national total. The vast majority (92 percent) live in the south-west corner; 79 percent of the population lives in the Perth area, leaving the remainder of the state sparsely populated. The first Europeans to visit Western Australia belonged to the Dutch Dirk Hartog expedition, who visited the Western Australian coast in 1616. The first permanent European colony of Western Australia occurred following the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swivel Guns
The term swivel gun (or simply swivel) usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to switch between rifled and smoothbore barrels. Swivel guns should not be confused with pivot guns, which were far larger weapons mounted on a horizontal pivot, or screw guns, which are a mountain gun with a segmented barrel. An older term for the type is peterero (alternative spellings include "paterero" and "pederero"). The name was taken from the Spanish name for the gun, pedrero, a combination of the word piedra (stone) and the suffix -ero (-er), because stone was the first type of ammunition fired. Configuration Swivel guns are among the smallest types of cannon, typically measuring less than in length and with a bore diameter of up to . They can fire a variety o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carronades
A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range, anti-ship and anti-crew weapon. The technology behind the carronade was greater dimensional precision, with the shot fitting more closely in the barrel thus transmitting more of the propellant charge's energy to the projectile, allowing a lighter gun using less gunpowder to be effective. Carronades were initially found to be very successful, but they eventually disappeared as naval artillery advanced, with the introduction of rifling and consequent change in the shape of the projectile, exploding shells replacing solid shot, and naval engagements being fought at longer ranges. History The carronade was designed as a short-range naval weapon with a low muzzle velocity for merchant ships, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hundred years, has changed its meaning over time. During the Age of Sail, the term ''cruising'' referred to certain kinds of missions—independent scouting, commerce protection, or raiding—fulfilled by frigates or sloops-of-war, which functioned as the ''cruising warships'' of a fleet. In the middle of the 19th century, ''cruiser'' came to be a classification of the ships intended for cruising distant waters, for commerce raiding, and for scouting for the battle fleet. Cruisers came in a wide variety of sizes, from the medium-sized protected cruiser to large armored cruisers that were nearly as big (although not as powerful or as well-armored) as a pre-dreadnought battleship. With the advent of the dreadnought battleship before World W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garden Island, New South Wales
Garden Island is an inner-city locality of Sydney, Australia, and the location of a major Royal Australian Navy (RAN) base. It is located to the north-east of the Sydney central business district and juts out into Port Jackson, immediately to the north of the suburb of Potts Point. Used for government and naval purposes since the earliest days of the colony of Sydney, it was originally a completely-detached island but was joined to the Potts Point shoreline by major land reclamation work during World War II. Today Garden Island forms a major part of the RAN's Fleet Base East. It includes active dockyards (including the Captain Cook Graving Dock), naval wharves and a naval heritage and museum precinct. Approximately half of the major fleet units of the RAN use the wharves as their home port. The northern tip of Garden Island is open to the public and contains the Royal Australian Navy Heritage Centre museum and an outdoor heritage precinct. Immediately south and above Garden Isl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theory Of Portuguese Discovery Of Australia
The theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia claims that early Portuguese navigators were the first Europeans to sight Australia between 1521 and 1524, well before the arrival of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606 on board the who is generally considered to be the first European discoverer. While lacking generally accepted evidence, this theory is based on the following: * The Dieppe maps, a group of 16th-century French world maps, depict a large landmass between Indonesia and Antarctica. Labelled as Java la Grande, this landmass carries French, Portuguese, and Gallicized Portuguese placenames, and has been interpreted by some as corresponding to Australia's northwestern and eastern coasts. * The proximity of Portuguese colonies in Southeast Asia from , particularly Portuguese Timor which is approximately from the Australian coast. * Various antiquities found on Australian coastlines, claimed by some to be relics of early Portuguese voyages to Australia but which a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Makassan Contact With Australia
Makassar people from the region of Sulawesi in Indonesia began visiting the coast of northern Australia sometime around the middle of the 18th century, first in the Kimberley region, and some decades later in Arnhem Land. They were men who collected and processed ''trepang'' (also known as sea cucumber), a marine invertebrate prized for its culinary value generally and for its supposed medicinal properties in Chinese markets. The term Makassan (or Macassan) is generally used to apply to all the trepangers who came to Australia. Fishing and processing of trepang The creature and the food product are commonly known in English as sea cucumber, ''bêche-de-mer'' in French, '' gamat'' in Malay, while Makassarese has 12 terms covering 16 different species. One of the Makassar terms, for trepang, ''taripaŋ'', entered the Aboriginal languages of the Cobourg Peninsula, as ''tharriba'' in Marrku, as ''jarripang'' in Mawng or otherwise as ''darriba.'' ''Trepang'' live on the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theory Of Portuguese Discovery Of Australia
The theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia claims that early Portuguese navigators were the first Europeans to sight Australia between 1521 and 1524, well before the arrival of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606 on board the who is generally considered to be the first European discoverer. While lacking generally accepted evidence, this theory is based on the following: * The Dieppe maps, a group of 16th-century French world maps, depict a large landmass between Indonesia and Antarctica. Labelled as Java la Grande, this landmass carries French, Portuguese, and Gallicized Portuguese placenames, and has been interpreted by some as corresponding to Australia's northwestern and eastern coasts. * The proximity of Portuguese colonies in Southeast Asia from , particularly Portuguese Timor which is approximately from the Australian coast. * Various antiquities found on Australian coastlines, claimed by some to be relics of early Portuguese voyages to Australia but which a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Islands Of The Kimberley (Western Australia)
The Islands of the Kimberley are a group of over 2,500 islands lying off the coast of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The islands extend from the Western Australia–Northern Territory border in the east to just north of Broome in the west. North-West Kimberley Islands 1970s survey In 1971, 1972, 1973 a series of biological surveys were carried out. 1971 visit The list is in the order of visits in August 1971. * Middle Osborn * Fenelon * Borda * South West Osborn * Low rocks * Sir Graham Moore * Louis * North Eclipse * Augustus * Darcy * Champagny * Uwins * Commerson * Coronation * Bigge Kimberley Islands Biological Survey A biological survey of 22 of the islands was conducted between December 2006 and December 2010 by the Department of Environment and Conservation, traditional owners, the Australian Museum and the Western Australian Museum. The partnership with the Kimberley Land Council is important as the islands sampled in this survey are covered by five nati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
