Jayne Mansfield once posed on the Ship Island cannon. Here’s why it’s the only one left.

Amazingly, the iconic Rodman cannon that sits atop Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island has weathered storm after storm for 154 years.

Its barrel is like a big eye keeping watch over the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi Sound.

The 50,000-pound 19th Century weapon has been front and center in many postcards and photographs taken by locals and tourists who visit the historic Mississippi barrier island.

One of the classic 1960s favorites, though rarely seen, is of blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield sitting astride the barrel in a bikini.

If you don’t have access to a boat, it’s worth a ride on the seasonal island ferry to study this metal behemoth. After all, as part of Gulf Islands National Seashores, this cannon belongs to “we the people” under the watchful eye of the National Park Service.

In its prime, this Rodman could shoot a 325-pound ball of lead a distance of 3½ miles. In the 1800s it had 15 cannon companions, including another Rodman like itself. That one, however, lies in pieces on the southwest side of the fort.

And that is what today’s Sunday missive is about: What happened to all the other cannons?

Modern generations pondered that question until 1980 when local historian and Coast businessman M. James Stevens — known for his ability to dig up forgotten history — was asked to read and double-check facts in the manuscript for a forthcoming book on Ship Island.

Park Service historian Edwin Bearas was writing the book so the public could learn about the Gulf Islands acquisition a few years earlier. Stevens himself had spent an unsuccessful decade combing records to learn the fate of the other 14 Ship Island cannon.

And now this unpublished, still handwritten manuscript provided the answer. Giving Bearas due credit, Jim Stevens who was then president of the Mississippi Historical Society spread the story far and wide.

The missing cannon and the two Rodmans were not holdovers from the Civil War as many suspected. At the beginning of the war, the fort which was still under construction by the federal government was abandoned.

The Confederates moved in because they realized the strategic importance of the island. Cannon were set up and the Confederates hung on to the fort and island until a fleet of federal boats appeared. They knew they were out numbered so they left the fort and hauled away the cannon.

After the war, the feds continued to realize the importance of the island’s location, so any unfinished fort work was completed and in 1866 and 1874 a total of 16 cannon were set up up at the fort. They included the two Rodmans, two 100-pound rifled parrots that could pivot into position and 13 Columbiads mounted on tracks.

The government was worried about Spanish or Cuban invasions, thus the cannon installations. They were never fired, and in 1901 were listed as surplus. They were sold to the highest bidder, a New Orleans junk man, Stevens told me in a 1980 interview. “A. Marx” paid $2,054 for 16 cannon in 1901.

If you examine the piecemeal Rodman you may notice drill holes. Marx drilled holes in each cannon, packed them with dynamite, and blew them into pieces to cart off as salvage. A more history-minded America would not do that today.

When Marx’s explosions rocked the island and began causing cracks in the historic fort, the fort keeper John Griffin and “a Sgt. James McCabe” made Marx stop. The only one left was one Rodman. The others lay in pieces.

Bearas said Marx gave the two Rodmans to Capt. Peter Eskald for services rendered, including using his boat to bring equipment and carry off cannon pieces. Then Stevens learned that Eskald thought he was going to sell the Rodmans for $600 to Dr. H.M. Folks. The cost of bringing the Rodman to Folks’ Biloxi sanitorium was apparently too high, and Folks never followed through.

In 1980 the big Rodman was restored at Keesler Air Force Base then returned to the island for us to marvel over.

Before writing this I contacted my island go-to person, Capt. Louis Skrmetta who with his family are longtime operators of the ferry excursions. He told me:

“The two 15-inch Rodman cannons you ask about still set atop Fort Massachusetts as they have since the 1860s. One cannon, the one you always see in photos, still guards Ship Island Pass resting on its original carriage. The second 15-inch gun, sits in pieces on the ground.”

So my suggestion to anyone who’s not been there in eons: Go see the cannon.

Chronicler Note: I have this memory that once upon a time, many years ago, I wrote about a one-time event when the Rodman was fired. If memory is correct and I locate the article, I’ll give an update later.

Kat Bergeron, a veteran reporter specializing in Gulf Coast history and sense of place, is retired from the Sun Herald. She writes the Mississippi Coast Chronicles as a freelance correspondent. She can be reached at BergeronKat@gmail.com or at Southern Possum Tales, PO Box 33, Barboursville VA 22923.

This story was originally published February 9, 2020 at 5:00 AM.