Bannerman's Castle
A crumbling castle, a spooky island and a rich old Scotsman who literally outfitted entire armies at will. Sounds like a mystery thriller, set in medieval times, doesn't it?
Spoiler alert: It's not!
This is a true story, set in the United States, and most of it happened around 1900. Can you guess how I stumbled onto this story?
YES, COCKADES! (Oh, you all are great guessers! LOL)
Several years ago, I bought some early American army cockades for my collection and was told by the seller that they came from the Bannerman collection. Curious, I did a quick look-up of Bannerman's Surplus - and was immediately hooked on the story.
Hours of reading later, I had to share with you this entertaining tidbit of history!
It starts with a 3 year old boy named Frank Bannerman coming to America with his family in 1854. In 1861, Frank's dad enlisted to fight in the Civil War, leaving ten-year-old Frank to help keep the family financially afloat in his absence.
Nothing daunted, Frank dove in (literally) and began salvaging and selling scrap rope and iron from the waterfront at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. By the time his dad came home from war, Frank had enough business to set up shop with his father as a salvage dealer.
Military salvage became his empire - and helped him build other empires around the world.
But that's just the beginning of the story!
After the Civil War, Frank was distressed to see beautiful and historic weaponry being trashed or melted down. So he formally began a business of buying military surplus from the government and then reselling it to collectors or to people with a need for weapons and gear.
This is a list of just some of the folks who benefited from his massive museum/shop on Broadway.
The Home Front...
▪Military schools received inexpensive "Quaker guns" to drill with.
▪Safari hunters obtained weapons for hunting big game.
▪Cities and villages around the US purchased historic guns for display in their parks (check to see where your city's display guns came from - chances are it was Bannerman's!)
▪Explorers around the world (including Robert Peary, Frederick Cook, and Richard Byrd) were outfitted with gear for their explorations. (They often lived off what they could hunt along the way.)
The Battle Front...
But even more amazingly, Bannerman's inventory was so huge that he could - and did - literally outfit small armies.
A contemporary of his noted that, "His stock and facilities are so extensive that he once converted a large ocean steamer into a warship and delivered it in one week."
A guy like that could really wreak havoc in world politics!
Fortunately, Bannerman was patriotic to the core. He refused to sell to "revolutionists, minors or irresponsible persons." But Bannerman's Surplus cheerfully aided American armies in the Spanish-American War and the World Wars, and smaller countries around the world outfitted themselves from his catalog. Buying leftover and surplus items for just a few cents each, he was able to keep prices low for his customers.
The Castle
Eventually the 40,000 square foot shop on Broadway became too small (and unsafe) to hold the massive collection of armaments, so Bannerman did what many of us would love to do - bought an island and built a castle on it! In the Hudson River, near Fishkill, NY, you can still see the beautiful and spooky ruins of his arsenal.
(Odd fact: Bannerman Island is now an event venue for everything from picnics to weddings. Just don't mess with any unexploded ordnance you may see laying around!)
Of course, there arose a slight problem as time went on. An island full of munitions is rather... well... flammable. In 1920, 200 tons of the stuff exploded, damaging some of the island's structures. You'd think that would be a wakeup call, wouldn't you? Nope, I guess folks liked to live dangerously back then!
It wasn't until 1958 that Val Forgett, a firearms expert, was called in to disarm the thousands of rounds of ammo still stored in the arsenal! If you want to read more about those adventures, check out this article. An entertaining side note - it wasn't till the last day when they were leaving that Val suddenly thought to check the large artillery pieces displayed at the entrance to the castle. He was appalled to find they were still packed with live powder!
Frank Bannerman died shortly after World War I and in the 1940s-50s his family-run company gradually went out of business. As the supplies were broken up and sold off, collectors and dealers around the world were thrilled to have access to 100 years of salvaged military treasures.
And though my two little cockades are just a small part of Frank Bannerman's legacy, I'm proud to own them. They remain a tribute to one man's foresight and preservation of history!
New In the Shop - Stationery!
I have dozens of beautiful, original cockades in my collection - including the ones from Mr. Bannerman’s collection. Now I’m sharing them with you!
I’m introducing a new line of stationery that features beautiful pictures of my original cockades. Each cockade is shown in a setting that highlights its unique loveliness. I have both notecards with envelopes, and postcards. You won’t find anything like this anywhere else! I hope to do more of these in the future, but here are the first introductory sets. Enjoy!
More New Products Coming Soon!
I’ve been working hard to create a lot of new and exciting items for this fall! Stay tuned to see what’s new, and you can always check out my “New In the Shop” category to see what you missed. :)
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Thanks for reading... see you next week!
Regards,
~Heather Sheen
I've seen the Castle from the river, it's amazing. Thank you for sharing the story!