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| Civil War cannonball kills Virginia relic collector |
| 2008-05-03 |
| Like many boys in the South, Sam White got hooked on the Civil War early, digging up rusting bullets and military buttons in the battle-scarred earth of his hometown. As an adult, he crisscrossed the Virginia countryside in search of wartime relics — weapons, battle flags, even artillery shells buried in the red clay. He sometimes put on diving gear to feel for treasures hidden in the black muck of river bottoms. But in February, White's hobby cost him his life: A cannonball he was restoring exploded, killing him in his driveway. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #7 Old explosives can be unstable. That couldnt have been a cannonball, but was a shell. |
| Posted by: Oldcat 2008-05-03 19:49 |
| #6 I am a Civil War Reenactor and do symphathise with Sam White. There is just something about holding a piece of history in one's hand that cannot be explained. However, handling any explosive shell is extremely dangerous. I wouldn't do it. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2008-05-03 19:23 |
| #5 Unlike what you see in movies where the hero painfully disarms the ammo and comes ten times to a harbreath of killing himself, unless there is something valuable near the standard procedure is not to daisarm teh ammo/mine whatever. In the army we were told to just blow it away and not bother. BTW, meddling with one hundred fourt years ammo deserves a Darwin award. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-05-03 12:28 |
| #4 ...I was stationed in VA for 4 wonderful years and the EOD guys I worked with had an absolute horror of ANYTHING dug up from the Civil War era. Their standard warning was do not TOUCH, do not TRANSPORT, and especially do not WORK ON anything you dig up. If it was fired, it can still go off. I have nothing but sympathy for this man's family, but he was living on borrowed time. If his family has any sense at all they will call the local EOD team and arrange to have whatever remains in their home removed and properly disposed of. BTW, it ain't just ACW ammo lying around out there in VA. I once watched as a dredge up in Hampton Roads are a WWII torpedo, and on Fort Monroe is a buried magazine with dozens of 12" AP coast artillery shells - exact location unknown. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2008-05-03 11:48 |
| #3 Brenda White is convinced her husband was working on a flawed cannonball, and no amount of caution could have prevented his death. "He had already disarmed the shell," she said. "From what I was told, there was absolutely nothing he had done wrong, that there was a manufacturing defect that no one would have known was there." "I've contacted a lawyer" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-05-03 09:34 |
| #2 Finally gave up when unsuccessful for umpteen times to write it as 'Blame Bush'? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-05-03 09:17 |
| #1 This was a nine-days' wonder - a month or two back. Dunno why Yahoo just got around to writing about it. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-05-03 00:31 |