Old cannon found in Da Nang originates from Netherlands: scientists

The cannon is 174.1cm in length and about 200kg in weight (Photo: VNA)

The gun, found in Hoa Hiep Nam ward of Lien Chieu district, is 174.1cm in length and about 200kg in weight.

The Da Nang Museum said on July 29 that the design, structure and patterns on the gun are typical for an old type of bronze cannons from the Netherlands. Additionally, the Chinese characters inscribed in a rudimental way on the cannon as instructions to gunners show that it belonged to the Nguyen Dynasty (1802 – 1945).

It shares many similarities with the three Dutch cannons made in 1640, 1661 and 1677 – 1678 currently kept at the Hue Museum of Royal Antiquities in nearby Thua Thien-Hue province.

Nguyen Quang Trung Tien, a researcher at the University of Sciences under the Hue University, said most of the bronze cannons from the Netherlands appeared in Vietnam as gifts or goods traded under the reign of the Trinh Lords in the northern region. Some others were retrieved by the Nguyen Lords from Dutch vessels sunken or stranded in the central region southwards. 

All of these activities took place in the mid-17th century. Since the late 17th to the 19th centuries, there weren’t any records of Dutch cannons in Vietnam.

Therefore, like the other Dutch bronze cannons unearthed so far, the gun found in Da Nang is about 350 years old, Tien noted. -VNA