The noon gun - how impudence became a tradition (5 photos)

In Hong Kong, in the coastal area of ​​Causeway Bay, there is an interesting cannon - it fires a blank shell every day at exactly noon. Is this in honor of the military? In honor of the navy? In honor of the firefighters? No, everything is much funnier and stupider.





An important Scot was given a naughty performance!

The British are to blame for everything

In fact, it's... a private gun. Yes, if you are a British company, you can afford to fire a gun in Hong Kong.

The Jardine Mathieson Company, one of the pillars of Hong Kong's economic life, bought land in the Causeway Bay area in 1841. This is the first land that previously belonged to Hong Kong and was later sold to the colonialists.

The Jardine Mathieson company was engaged in the delivery of tea and cotton, and also (well, of course, this is the most important thing) made a fortune in the illegal trade in opium. The purchased land was used for Matinson's head office. She became so settled in the city that she even maintained her own police force! If we talk about anarcho-capitalism, then Hong Kong was closer than ever to this system...



Company employee at his daily work

And this private militia set up a real cannon on the shore and fired it whenever a company-owned ship came into the harbor. So everyone knows how rich Jardine Mathinson is.

Only 20 years later did one of the Royal Navy officers pay attention to this. He didn’t know that everything was already divided here, and who was in charge here. Therefore, he considered such shooting offensive, because in England they shoot only for kings and the highest ranks.





Incense burners you know what, where Jardine Mathieson made her fortune

Britain finally woke up and imposed sanctions on Jardine Matheson - the company was ordered to fire a cannon every day at noon. Now they are city clocks serving as clocks.

Quite an elegant solution, and they were not humiliated by the insults that they were greeting ships, not British kings. And they punished the presumptuous member of society. Moreover, in the 19th century, large ports often used salvoes to indicate time.



In bad weather, cover the cannon - take care of it!

When ships entered the port, sailors who had been at sea for a long time could calibrate their watches on the ship using them.

Will be useful in war

In 1941, the Japanese army dismantled this gun for its own needs. But when it was all over, the Royal Navy had already donated a new cannon to Hong Kong in 1945 as a sign of goodwill. Now it was not a subject of punishment, but a gift.

True, people were unaccustomed to the noise and were afraid of shots, so two years later, after numerous requests, the gun had to be replaced with a smaller one in size and charge.



I love this steampunk gold paint job

It is she who shoots at noon to this day.

This is how a private company equaled itself with English aristocrats for 20 years, but paid for it with a lifelong role as a city clock.