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Friday, August 9, 2019

Montreal Fire Drill

No, not that kind of fire drill but an 18th Century musket firing drill performed by re-enactors in uniform and equipment of the French & Indian War.

This firing drill demonstration was conducted on a plaza across the street from Pointe-a-Calliere Archaeology and History Museum in Montreal, Quebec.  Nancy and I were visiting Montreal last week and as we climbed out onto the observation tower at the museum in Old Montreal, we were greeted by the sight of a firing drill below the tower.  A pleasant surprise and we had a perfect viewing platform from which to watch the proceedings. 

Nancy shot the following two videos from our observation post while I looked on and snapped off a few stills.  Watch for the NCO's equipment malfunction during the drill. 

After the demonstration, we scurried down the stairs and across the street to the plaza to catch the re-enactors before they dispersed.  The re-enactors were kind enough to pose for a quick photo.  Yes, I am small but these fellas are big!  Notice the distinct contrast between the gris-blanc of the justacorps and the white gaiters.  These coats are definitely grey.

19 comments:

  1. That really was a pleasant surprise. They have done a great job on the uniforms.

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    1. Hi Lawrence! This post was likely a surprise since it didn’t show up in either my Reading List or Blogs Followed list for a couple of hours. Not sure why the Blogger posting delay but all seems to be in order now.

      The uniforms do look great.

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  2. Very cool. They sometimes do firing exercises of this type at the Citadel here in Halifax as well. Different period, though.

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    1. The demonstration was very cool to watch. I was especially interested in their firing stance which looked odd to me.

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  3. Having seen the diagrams I was surprised how quick they were, slower in battle of course but still fast.

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  4. A couple of great video snips there Jonathan. I must say though that the chap on the far right of the still shot might have made a bit more of an effort with his uniform!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed my wife's cinematography! The one fellow may have had a mix-up at the depot and received a uniform a size or two too large.

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  5. Neat looking drill and uniforms!
    Best Iain

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  6. A fortunate visit always nice to see something different 🙂

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  7. Enough inspiration to tackle some more F&I figures?

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    1. Inspiration, yes. Room in the painting queue, not quite yet. I do want to paint a unit or two of the new Sash & Saber figures to see how they look.

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  8. Nice video and pictures; love the uniforms!

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  9. Nice to have such a Impression.

    The uniforms are not looking as they are made for these guys. Besides chapeau to them. I always hated to perform a reenactment in such a modern scenery.

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    1. The uniforms look a little on the large size. Do you have photos of your re-enacting days?

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    2. I wrote you an answer on the HoW-forum (pm).

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