Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

"Once we docked at St. Michael's Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, we got a guided tour of the museum. We encountered many intriguing exhibits. The one that we found most appealing was THE PUNT GUN. The punt gun is extremely heavy and extremely large gun that was used to take out multiple ducks all at the same time. Its ammunition included lead shots, nails, or whatever ammunition that was available to them. The punt gun was mounted onto a small row boat. In order to load the punt gun, people needed a step ladder and a steady object to lean the punt gun up against because you had to load it through the end of the barrel. During the middle of the night, hunters would quietly paddle to a nesting area. The hunters did this at night because the ducks were, as the expression goes, "sitting ducks". They were, in other words, sleeping. he use of the punt gun was later outlawed because the shots that did not hit the ducks ended up going under water and the ducks would eat them and get lead posioning and die a slow and very painful death.

Another interesting fact we learned was why St. Michaels was called the town that fooled the British. During the War of 1812 the British were going to bomb St. Michaels to prevent the destruction of the city. The citizens of St. Michaels decided to turn off all the lights in the town. After all the lights were turned off, they put lights in trees down the coastline from the town so the town appeared to be down the coastline away from the actual town. This resulted in the British firing at nothing."

By: Starboard Watch
Picture of the punt gun drwan by Mike W.