Category Archives: Weaponology NYC

Castle Clinton Artillery Cannon

Artillery cannon (one of 28 and can fire a 32-pound cannonball) on display inside Castle Clinton National Monument, Battery Park, southern tip of Manhattan.   Castle Clinton built in 1811 to protect the harbor for the impending War of 1812 and possible British invasion. Originally about 200 feet offshore but in the 1850s, landfill was used to attached it to Manhattan.  In 1817 named for Mayor DeWitt Clinton. The guns were never fired in battle.   

“Let Us Beat Swords Into Plowshares” 

“Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares” was sculpted in bronze by Russian-born Evgeniy Vuchetich and donated to the U.N. by the Government of the Soviet Union in 1959.

At the time, the United Nations Office of Public Information commented that the sculpture was: “symbolizing man’s desire to put an end to war and convert the means of destruction into creative tools for the benefit of all mankind.”

Although the sculptor is in the style of Socialist Realism (depictions of-supposed- communist values) from a country with an official ideology of atheism, the title of the work was derived from biblical references: Isaiah 2:4, Joel 3:10 and Micah 4:3.

That’s U Thant Island in the background.  

USS New York – Marine Officer With Mameluke Sword, 2009

Mameluke sword. Or saber.  Or sabre?

According to legend, an Egyptian Mameluke warrior sword was presented to US Marines by an Ottoman Empire chieftain for actions at the Battle of Derna (“the shores of Tripoli”), Libya in 1805. This type of sword has been worn ceremoniously by Marine Corps officers (intermittently) since 1826.