Peninsula In Passage

The Cannon It’s difficult to miss the cannon facing westbound traffic on Nansemond Parkway. The full size 1894 Krupp cannon is a landmark in front of Beverly Outlaw’s farmhouse. “Without it no one would know where to turn to find us,” says Outlaw and her sister-in-law, Brenda Outlaw Duke, who lives next door. The late Marvin Outlaw – husband to Beverly, brother to Brenda – spotted the cannon in a Portsmouth junkyard about 50 years ago when he was 15. He and his father were scouting for spare parts for their farm machinery and Marvin knew he had to have that cannon. He’d been saving for years to buy his first car but the cannon blew all thoughts of a car out of his mind. Fortunately the senior Outlaw “was able to wrangle a good deal,” according to Beverly, the cannon came home to the family farmhouse Driver and Marvin still got his car. There are stories that cannons were mounted on islands in the Nansemond River during the Civil War and are on the bottom of the river now, she added, but this was not one of those. “At least once a month,” she says. “Someone will knock on the door and want to know about the cannon or get a closer look.”

John H. Sheally II

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