Campers reel in Civil War-era cannonball while fishing at the estate — The Hull Times

It was a valuable lesson for the children. Fishing is about much more than just making the big catch. It takes patience. You have to communicate with nature and learn to work with it. You don't have to catch fish to be able to fish.

At one point, Whelan found something on the beach that looked suspiciously like a cannonball. Some of the children who were exploring the beach in quiet moments casually mentioned that they had seen it a few days earlier.

“What? And you didn't tell me about it?” said Whelan.

“I did a little research on my own,” he said. “I started calling all over Boston. Eventually I was referred to the National Guard Museum.”

They had answers.

The report came back in an efficient, almost military style. “Your description of this cannonball suggests that it is a 12 pound solid bullet used by the M1857 Napoleon 12 pound field gun. The Napoleon fired a 12 pound 5 ounce bullet with a diameter of 4.62 inches very similar to yours, so the bullet's age falls within the Civil War era.” This was the most common solid bullet of any caliber used by the U.S. or Confederates during the Civil War.

Was there firing from Hull? Probably not during the war, but perhaps afterward. The area around Fort Revere was used only for signaling and communications purposes during the Civil War. No artillery. The most significant military activity in Hull that might explain the presence of field guns and shells was the encampments of the First Brigade of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in Hull in August 1868 and August 1869. The First Brigade included the First and Second Light Artillery Batteries, which were equipped with 12-pound smoothbore guns.

Was it fired from Fort Warren on Georges Island? One of Hull's cherished Civil War stories involves the Ladies Aid Society, which knitted socks for Hull's soldiers in the village so diligently that the sound of their clicking needles drowned out the gunfire during drills at Fort Warren. Fort Warren, however, famously had great difficulty obtaining weapons. At one point the Secretary of the Treasury declared that a single Confederate ironclad ship could take out the fort. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells refused to divert a Union ironclad ship north to protect the fort. Eventually Massachusetts Governor John Andrew had to purchase guns abroad, equipping a fort designed for 300 guns with only 97 in 1864. More were added in 1865, but that also ended the Civil War.

“Why the bullet came to rest where you found it is impossible to say,” the report continued. “Depending on where the guns were positioned and the direction they were firing, it could have been a short bullet due to wet powder or mishandling. But that seems unlikely since they were not firing in the direction of Fort Warren. My best guess would be that it was discarded. It was probably in a fixed ammunition configuration connected to a sabot. [a device which ensures the correct positioning of a bullet or shell in the barrel of a gun, attached either to the projectile or inside the barrel and falling away as it leaves the muzzle] with metal bands. If any part of it had been damaged or loose, it would have been tempting to just throw it away.”

Maybe it was thrown away at the time. Maybe it was fired from a cannon and rolled around on the sea floor for 160 years. Most likely, we will never know its true story.

For Whelan, it was the find of a lifetime. Beachcombers find all sorts of things on the Hull coast. Whelan noticed ceramic pieces, like old salt shakers.

“This is by far the greatest thing I have ever encountered,” he said.