Chief Petty Officer Dudley Malgas using a wooden ram rod to push the charge into the muzzle of the noon gun cannon in Cape Town. The daily noon gun is Cape Town’s oldest living tradition and the two cannons used are the oldest guns in daily use in the world. They have marked the midday hour in the mother city in this distinctive, albeit noisy manner since early 1806. The cannons were cast in Britain in 1794 and still bear the royal crest of King George the third. The firing of the cannon was originally to give ships in the bay a means of re-setting their clocks accurately.

noon gun tradition military naval maritime uniform charge portrait cannon ram rod cape town south africa signal hill canon day outdoors outside color image photography travel travel destinations horizontal