Noon Gun

It consists of a pair of black powder Dutch naval guns, fired alternatingly with one serving as a backup.

Sailing ships were slow by modern standards and could not store fresh food for long periods, so the provisioning of vessels was one of the major commercial functions at Cape Town in those olden days.

The noon Gun in Cape Town can be heard as far as the Parow area if listening closely; Indeed, the city was widely renowned as "The Tavern of the Seas".

[5][6] There were no telephones or telegraphs before the latter half of the 19th century and the sound of the guns travelled much faster than a dispatch rider on a horse.

The guns were therefore originally used to announce the arrival of a ship, perhaps requiring provisions for the next leg of its journey, to residents living in the interior.

[7] As more modern means of communications and transportation became available, Cape Town discontinued the use of the guns to announce that a ship was in port.

They fire every day at 12 noon sharp, except Sundays and public holidays,[8] and are maintained by the South African Navy.

The gun report might be too inaccurate for ships several kilometers away if they did not correctly compensate for the relatively slow speed of sound.

When setting their chronometers, mariners adjusted their observation of the time ball on Signal Hill by a second to allow for the relay from the observatory.

[14] On 9 April 2013, a Twitter account was created for the Noon Gun that sends a single message reading "Boom!” every day (except Sundays and public holidays).