That can happen. I suspect (and don't want to know because of the consequences - loss of the exhibit) that a close and knowledgeable look at most museums with displays of WoNA cannon projectiles would turn up live ones. One that surely occurs to me is the Old Courthouse Museum at Vicksburg, MS.
The bomb squad should have their butts kicked. Typical "The sky is falling" attitude and blowing up the cannon balls that have historic value. The fuzes could have been safely pried out without causing a spark and the powder dumped. The balls could have been returned to the museum.
Obviously the cannon balls were not worth the lives of any ordnance people, but it seems like they have robots that should be able to do this work without risking anyone's life. Those cannon balls are literally irreplaceable.
The one I always think of is the Silver Hill facility for the National Air & Space Museum. When we would take tours there many years ago, they had several outdoor bomb racks. The guides said that the donated bombs sat there about 20 years after the war before anybody figured out they were live. Had to ship them out to be cleaned out, then they went back to the same racks.
Msn did an article about a place in Florida that had a bunch of cannon balls that were buried in the sand. The waters had uncovered them and were extremely rusted corroded. About the kindest thing you could say was that they were cannon balls. And yes they blew them up. Frank
There's a guy on YouTube, a collector, that has deactivated numerous live civil war projectiles successfully. Search for "coal torpedo" and then go through some of his other videos, he describes the risks and what he does to be safe. It is short sighted for sure to destroy these.
Yeah, an overreaction and a shame to destroy artifacts. Reasonable SOP to blow up anything questionable, but they should have looked a little for a plan B
Put them in a bucket of water and pry out fuses under the water. If there's any gunpowder inside the water will take care of it.
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