The Decatur cannonball legend at Hanover Furnace

The story as told

Several famous visitors turn up in Jersey Devil lore, and one is Commodore Stephen Decatur, known for his 1804 raid on Tripoli harbor. A 2021 essay from the Naval Historical Foundation gives the Pine Barrens version. Decatur, visiting the Hanover ironworks, saw the creature and fired a cannonball at it, which did it little harm. The essay says plainly that nobody knows where the anecdote came from. It groups the story with a similar tale in which Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte meets the creature while out hunting.

What can and cannot be checked

Hanover Furnace was a real ironworks. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (reference number 74001155), in Burlington County near Browns Mills. The legend has no date, no named witness, and no early printed version among the sources checked here. It is presented as folklore only.

The Wikipedia article on the Pine Barrens adds a more specific claim. It says the 24-pound cannons Decatur took to Algiers had been cast at Hanover in 1814, and it cites John McPhee’s The Pine Barrens as its source. That claim is not independently confirmed here. McPhee’s book was not examined, and no record from the War of 1812 or the Navy was found to back it. If the claim holds up, it could explain why Decatur’s name became attached to Hanover in folklore. Until then, that connection is a guess, not a documented fact.