Quebec City is famous today for its old - world European good luck charm , but a mental synthesis gang of late attain a living relic of the city ’s military yesteryear : a potentially volatile cannonball , dating all the way back to the French and Indian War .
AsSmithsonianreports , workers conducting a edifice excavation in Old Quebec — the urban center ’s historic center — last week excavate the 200 - pound metal ball at the quoin of Hamel and Couillard street . They baffle for pictures before contacting municipal authorities , and archaeologist Serge Rouleau was sent in to collect the goodness .
Initially , nobody — let in Rouleau — knew that the rusty military artifact still posed a scourge to city resident . But after the archaeologist toted the cannonball home in a poke , he discover a out of practice hole through the center of the carapace . This made him fear that the rocket was still loaded with gunpowder .
Rouleau contacted the Canadian military , which deploy bomb disposal specialists to collect the cannonball . They go it to a inviolable location , where it will reportedly be either neutralized or destroyed . If the cannonball itself can be saved as a historical token , it might be displayed in a museum .
“ With time , humidness got into its inside and reduced its potential for exploding , but there ’s still a peril , ” munitions technician Sylvain Trudeltold the CBC . “ older munitions like this are intemperate to predict … You never know to what peak the chemicals deep down have degraded . ”
Experts consider that the cannon ball was fired at Quebec City from Lévis , across the St. Lawrence River , duringthe Battle of the Plainsof Abraham . This battle occurred on September 13 , 1759 , during the Gallic and Indian War , when invading British troops defeated French forces in a key struggle just outside Quebec City . Ultimately , the clangor helped lead to Quebec ’s yielding .
[ h / tSmithsonian ]
