PORTLAND – A more than 200-year-old cannon, originally on a British brig that was captured in the war of 1812, is on its way from Portland to Bath.
The cannon from the HMS Boxer will be used in a display at the Maine Maritime Museum marking the bicentennial of the War of 1812. It was moved from a storeroom under the main staircase at Portland City Hall onto a truck for the trip up the coast early this morning.
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The 1,200-pound cannon was donated to the Maine Historical Society in 1894 and immediately loaned to the city of Portland, probably because the society — housed at the time in a couple of rooms of the Portland Public Library — had no place to display it, said Holly Hurd-Forsyth, registrar of the society.
Hurd-Forsyth said she believes the city had displayed the cannon from time to time, but mostly it was kept in storage.
The Boxer was captured by the USS Enterprise in a major battle off Monhegan in September 1813. The only casualties of the battle were the two captains, who are buried together in Portland’s Eastern Cemetery on Munjoy Hill.
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