(Article Written by Alan Wright)
It’s hard to believe the Western Cape annual hunt as come and gone. Thanks again to Henk ( Fortune Hunter SA) , Minelab, Willem, Oom Lukas and Lance for the many hours put into organizing this year’s hunt. It was great to reconnect with old friends and to meets the new comers to our hobby. During the week I got a call from Henk and he asked if I can do a quick writeup about the hunt. I promised Henk I would try and get something out by the end of the weekend. The more I pondered over what to write the more I realized this year hunt was very different for me and I am not quite sure how to start.
The Battle of Blaauwberg, or BOB as it’s often referred to, became a part of my life for a while as a handful of us became involved with a mixed bunch of archaeologists, historians and “friends of BOB” all with one interest, what actually happened on Wednesday 8 January 1806. In this mixed bag of guys there was one guy who stood out for me, every weekend he would wear a white cotton shirt and jeans. We would meet at around 7 in the morning, discuss the previous weeks finds, theories were put forward as to where we would find the elusive cannon balls fired at the Scottish by a guy called Pelligrini. By the end of the day we were all covered in the fine sand from the battle field, except Ian his white cotton shirt was still clean and jeans hardly wrinkled.
To the one side of the battle field there is a bunch of blue gum trees and Ian would explain that’s where Pelligrini’s cannons were and for at least 2 years we looked for the cannon shot without much success as the areas we needed to get into was so overgrown with port jackson trees. Ian was one of those guys who the more you got to know him the more he surprised you. If you have ever heard of the Bom Jesus, we have Ian to thank for identifying the ship and he worked it out by using measurements of the ships stem if I recall. For Ian cannon shot was like a gold coin to anyone else. We had strict instructions don’t disturb the cannon ball when you find one, Ian wanted to know which was the side that hit the ground so he could work out the distance fired and a bunch of other indicators that only really made sense to him. Sadly, Ian isn’t with us anymore, but this year’s hunt would have made him smile. 41 cannon projectiles came out this year.
When Willem explained where we were going to hunt this year, all the theories and early morning discussions started replaying in my head, finally I was going to be able to get into the area we had been theorizing about for so long and this years hunt was sort of put on hold for me, as I set off trying to find any landmarks that I could recognize. The story of Pelligrini’s guns was that he was firing at a hill, we had spent hours working the hills but could never get into the area between the gumtrees and what we had theorized was “the hill”. I set off in a big arch leaving everyone else looking for buttons, coins and other cool finds, aiming at the hill and that’s when our hobby kicks in. It’s just me, my detector and time stands still as you are listening for that sound that you have replayed over and over again in your head. LOL this time it was that deep grunt of iron. From “the hill”, I lined up with the Pelligrini’s trees and started to grid as best I could working around piles of port jackson trees which had been cut down a few months back. It was a process of climbing over, around and under trees looking for any small spaces I cold swing a coil. I vaguely recall someone saying we needed to meet back at the cars around midday and I was wondering if we had got it all wrong and then I heard that deep grunt. Thanks to Willems strict instructions to take a pick of all your finds, looking at the picture it was 11:15. If I recall we had reached the hunting areas around 8ish. With the first grape shot logged, I tried to remember some of the stats Ian would give us linked to disbursement of a cannister shot and I started a tight grid working towards the gumtrees. Within a radius of about 10 meters I hit the second shot, 11:28. I looked across to the gumtrees and back to “the hill”, this one’s for you Ian.
By the time I got back to the cars, the talk was of cool coins, buttons and Henk and Lance had killed it with cannon shot taken out of a research areas, a couple of the guys looked at me a bit perplex with my excitement trying to explain I had lined up the Pelligrini’s gumtrees and “the hill” and I think I had found Pelligrini’s shot.
The last day of our hunt I headed back into the thick stacks of cut port jackson but this time Werner joined in the gridding, grunt after grunt Pelligrini’s shot came out. Now we wait for Willem to plot the finds and the theorizing starts all over again. Where are the Scottish buttons?
This is an extract from Dave Honour’s account of the battle:
“Despite a short rally from the French and Dutch it was evident that the Highlanders had the upper hand and Janssens ordered a full retreat, back to Blaauwbergsvallei. As the men withdrew Janssens heard artillery fire and rode over to the right flank where Pelligrini’s cannons were still firing across the lines of Scottish soldiers. Janssens promoted Pelligrini on the spot for his bravery, then ordered him to leave the battlefield immediately.”
Why would Janssens promote Pelligrini if he missed the Scottish soldiers?
Until next time BOB gives up some more of her secrets.
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Happy Hunting
Henk