A high school project underway to spruce up Wiscasset’s memorial cannon is a lesson in engineering, history, teamwork and community service all rolled into one.

Robert Cronk, technology education teacher at Wiscasset High School, said motivating a team of students to refurbish the Civil War-era gun hasn’t been a problem. The five young men that took on the project couldn’t wait to get started.

The idea began at a parent-teacher conference when it was suggested that Cronk have a closer look at the cannon. The historic gun is (or at least was) on the municipal building lawn next to the Veterans War memorial. He stopped one day and agreed the cannon could use a little sprucing up.

“I thought my students might like to undertake the work as a community project,” Cronk said. High school students are required to do six-hours of community service each year. Last year a team of WHS tech students designed and built two wooden planters for the town’s waterfront.

After receiving permission from Town Manager Marian Anderson, Cronk made arrangements to have the cannon brought up to the high school’s tech ed. workshop.

Bob Blagden, the owner of Blagden’s Towing and Wrecker Service located just a few miles north of the high school, offered to transport the gun on his flatbed truck. Blagden’s son, BJ, a WHS senior, is one of the tech students involved in the cannon’s refurbishing.

“I know that BJ and the other guys were all pretty excited,” Blagden said. “It’s really a good thing to see a teacher motivating his students in such a positive way, as well as doing something worthwhile for the community,” he added.

Nate Haley, Dan Delong, Ben Chadwick and Chase Reed are the other students working along side of BJ Blagden on the cannon’s refurbishing. The five-some kicked off their project by researching the gun’s history — both recent and past. After that, the real fun began: the process of dismantling the gun under their teacher’s watchful eyes.

“Right at the moment it’s in pieces on the shop floor,” Cronk said. “They’ve been sandblasting its metal parts and then researching and documenting all of the serial numbers they come across.” They found the number 826 stamped on the rear magazine, indicating the barrel’s weight is 826 pounds.

Two coats of metal primer were applied to the barrel in preparation for a new finish coat of weather-resistant black paint. The guys will also be making whatever repairs are needed to the gun’s oak carriage, which will also be repainted.

The team’s goal is to have the work done by Memorial Day. At the present there’s no official ceremony planned following the cannon’s completion and return to its cement pad along side the Veterans Memorial.

This isn’t the first reconditioning the town’s cannon has undergone. Eighteen years ago the gun underwent a complete restoration at the high school at the urging of the late John Chester.

Chester, formerly of Churchill Street, died Jan. 16, 2015. He was 84. For many years he was a patrol trooper and training officer with the Maine State Police. In 1996 Chester researched and wrote a detailed history of the town’s cannon, which he self-published and donated to the Wiscasset Public Library.

The gun, a “6-pounder,” has a smoothbore iron barrel. It was cast at the Cyrus Alger foundry of Boston in 1861. (It’s referred to as “6-pounder” because it could fire a six-pound cannonball.) The town purchased the gun shortly after the start of the Civil War.

Following its arrival, it was mounted on a wagon wheel carriage and carried to Fort Edgecomb for defense of the harbor. This gun, and several other artillery pieces were manned by a Home Guard, a militia company made up of volunteers.

Following the war it was given a place of honor on Wiscasset’s town common where it sat in front of the Lincoln County Courthouse. From here it was ceremoniously fired on Independence Day and following presidential elections.

It was never needed to fend off a Confederate attack.

The cannon remained on the common for decades until its wooden frame finally succumbed to the elements. It was eventually dismantled and the barrel carried across the street to the Wiscasset Public Library of all places. It remained there stowed away in the basement for almost 30 years until 1971 when Robert J. Minahan, an engineer doing work for the town took an interest in the gun. Minahan designed and oversaw the construction of a new wagon-wheel carriage. Following completion of the work the gun was placed on the lawn next to the municipal building.

It was Chester who spurred on the cannon’s next restoration in 1997. The project included stripping off the many layers of black enamel that had been applied to its barrel, and building a new oak frame. This time when the barrel was remounted, it was placed on a 4-wheel, Naval-style carriage most often associated with use aboard 19th century war ships. Chester’s research had revealed the gun had originally been cast for naval service rather then as a field artillery piece.

The restoration work was under the supervision of former WHS industrial arts teacher Burleigh Thombs and took several months to complete. Ben Arnold of Dresden, a student at the time, did a good deal of the woodworking, while the carriage’s steel wheels were handmade by the late Clark “Woody” Freeman, superintendent of the town’s transfer station. The oak “Marsilly” carriage that the gun barrel now rests on was made from blueprints Chester obtained from the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Boston. These were the same specifications used in the construction of gun carriages on the USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides” that’s berthed at the Boston Naval Yard.

As to the project at hand, Cronk couldn’t be happier with the effort his students are putting into their work.

“They’re learning a little about engineering, mechanics, woodworking as well as some history.”