Tragedy struck at Erie’s Tall Ships Festival this morning when a cannon from the Niagara misfired and shot a cannonball into the world’s largest rubber duck, deflating it within minutes.
Witnesses say the giant duck was floating about 30 yards from the Niagara when the shot was fired. “It’s a shame,” said festival patron Ernie, no last name given. “I’m awfully fond of that rubber ducky.”
Repairs are already underway as workers have gathered over 100 rolls of duck tape to patch up the hole.
The owners of the duck, Big Duck LLC, plan on sending the bill to the Niagara League. They will also submit an invoice for damages.
gooferie 
Thought this was a good one to share as well. The tall ships are coming in. Weather is iffy for the parade of ships this afternoon, rain & lightening, at the time of the parade—not a good combination. Will write more later, Julie
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Look at the top left of the site page
“GOOFERIE
ERIE’S FIRST FAKE NEWS SOURCE!”
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When did they start shooting live rounds??
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It’s not April 1st. Why would anyone put a cannon ball in a cannon?
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Because the British are in the line of fire? Or Donald Trump paid them to maybe?
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If they’ll duct-tape Trump to a buoy to use as target-practice, *I’LL* pay them.
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It probably wasn’t a cannonball, just the unburnt powder that burned holes in the rubber duck. With a blank load, there is a great deal of burning powder ejected because there is no resistance to make the powder burn completely. Ask any Civil War re enactor about blank loads from a cannon.
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Did you happen to look at the upper left corner and see the words “fake news”??
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EXACTLY !! A cannonball would have SUNK THE DUNK !!
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Besides which, black powder explodes, it doesn’t burn, what gets expelled out the barrel is unburnt. And they use wads to provide the resistance to make a sound, they don’t just dump powder down the barrel and touch it off.
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It’s not real, duck is alive and well.
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I hope they don’t get fined from fish and game as well because it’s not officially duck hunting season!
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It’s WABBIT SEASON
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DUCK SEASON!
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You are awesome! 🙂
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Fish and boat commission.
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LMAO – He should have “DUCKED”, a duck out of water now.
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Will we be notified if the duck will be fixed by the time of the parade?
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Definitely the best “news story” yet from this site!
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Best thing to happen to the Duck, the festival is about the Tall Ships not some darn 2 years olds bath tub toy. Grow up people!
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Some comments suggest that some readers are taking this story literally. Without the tone available in print, its hard to know which might be tongue in cheek, if any.
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not all it was quacked up to be
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Great example of friendly fire mishaps.
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It’s fake story
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uh uh. No way.
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Aww, I guess the “Duck stops Here” !
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I thought it was Wabbit season.
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Don’t be ridiculous, no cannonball was fired, it was the concussion that caused the weak structure of the plastic duck to fail. Not Niagra’s fault they had such a weak design. Down with Big Rubber Ducks.
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Can you get down off of a Rubber Duck?!
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The Duck was here recently nad really quacked me up with some of his childish comments. Long live the fake duck!
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I guess this was a fake report it was not shot look at the top of the page says fake i dont find it funny at all i thought it happened as did others.
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Don’t be a bitch
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The festival patron “Ernie” who is “awfully fond” of the rubble ducky?….
But I think it’s a good example for why you should get a source before you take it for ‘gospel!’
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Sounds like somebodys head is going to roll,firing live cannonball in the port, somebody could have been killed. Somebody is going to be a dead duck.
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I like cookies.
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I love cookies!
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read people… >Erie’s first fake news source!
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Was Tom Brady around?
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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Best comment by a mile!
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Why would they hurt the poor ducky?
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Poor ducky….what do we have against the duck?
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I just heard the repairs on the duck were sucessful, but some idiot grabbed the wrong tank and mistakenly inflated it with helium instead of oxygen and now the duck was just sighted crossing the New York – New Hampshire border at 15,000 feet.
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William, nicely punned! I live along the NY-NH border you mentioned. It’s called Vermont! LOL!
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LOL! You are the only one who’s caught that! So far.
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Take up stock in duck tape
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All i can say is wow. Some of these people think its real.. Its a good story but WOW!! come on people are you really that.. Gullible??
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Welcome to the world of the internet – no intellectual filtering required!
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I heard Ernie is going to sue…
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Truly amazing to see the comments and how they go. Folks just feed off one another on some of this stuff. They are pretty funny and tongue in cheek stuff. However, he was just up in Duluth and I did see a comment similar to one above about how this was all about the tall ships and he seemed to take away from them. I don’t really know as I couldn’t get up there this year.
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Gonna be a protest from PETA
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The police are now investigating that this might be crime of Se-duck-tion!
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……….and you thought chicken wings were good.
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Great shot ! Keep the duck out of there. It is a gross distraction. How did it ever get mixed up with tall ships anyway? Have to agree that loading a real cannon ball ahead of a powder charge is not very smart. Lucky no one was hurt ( or worse ).
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There are now TWO Navy ships that have sunk an enemy vessel in combat…one from the 18th Century (the USS Constitution), and the USS Niagara (built in 1813)…..
(That duck was privateering I bet!)
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If we’d had duct tape in the Revolution, look at the ships that would have been saved!
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‘Duck tape’ I get it.
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Duck Confit?
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Reblogged this on idiotprufs and commented:
I am overjoyed at how many people thought this really happened.
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Well, isn’t this just DUCKY! …LMAO…This is what happens when graphic artists have too much time on their hands
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It’s a real picture, but the story is a joke. It was taken before the Parade. The Duck wasn’t inflated because of bad weather.
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Only a true idiot would make this about Politics.
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When did ElmerFudd become a cannoneer? Whose Bathtub Navy enlisted him?
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Thank you, I haven’t laughed so hard in quite awhile!
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The duck had leakage issues in a Philadelphia appearance earlier this year…
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Sooner or later we all get leakage issues.
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Now that’s DUCKY!
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Guns on a ship, cannons on land…
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They had to fire on it. It wasn’t a rubber duck, folks. It was a Trojan duck.
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Damn, I wish I would have thought of that story first! Good one!
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Reads like a story from The Onion.
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