The cannon sounds like it's getting worn out. It's got a nickname: "the nick nament" , which means "one shot" . The cannon is made of a barrel that tapers, so it can't be used as a regular barrel, which is why the cannon is called "the tapered barrel." The cannon's nickname comes from the fact that the bullets in the barrel are marked with the nick names of the bullets that were used on the battlefield. So, the cannon sounds a lot like a regular gun, but with a little more oomph. Uh-oh. The cannons sounds like they've just been hit by an enemy zeppelin. They don't even have a way to send out a warning to the enemy about the attack. They just missed the zeppelins.