No, Wellfleet's
Main Street is not under attack. The little cannon on the Museum lawn
is not aimed against an enemy. Rather, it is ready for the kind of
life-saving action it was designed for.
In
fact, it is not a true cannon. It is a Lyle gun, a tool used by the
Life Savers on the Back Shore when a ship foundered on the sand bars
near enough to the shore so that the ship's crew might be rescued
without sending the Life Savers into peril themselves.
The Lyle
Gun was loaded with a round shot which carried a line out to the
rigging of the wrecked vessel with the message to make it fast in the
ship's rigging. Then a stronger line followed bearing a breeches buoy,
a life ring with a pair of men's pants attached, so a sailor could
climb into the britches and be hauled, hand over hand, to the safety of
the high dunes above the hollow. We have other interesting material
about ship wrecks and rescues in our Life-Saving exhibit, including two
silver medals given for the heroism of the rescuers.
