For fans of Meredith trebuchet, it's all about the splat

RALEIGH -- Meredith College went medieval on some melons Sunday afternoon.

As a hundred spectators looked on, a few faculty and staff of the women's college launched Guatemalan melons, a cantaloupe and a watermelon from a trebuchet, a form of medieval catapult.

They also hurled a pumpkin, a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke and a bowling ball, among other things. But the melons made the most satisfying splats on impact.

The launchings were the culmination of a two-year-old dream of Dr. Brent Pitts, the coordinator of the college's medieval studies program.

Students in his introductory class had always been fascinated with the trebuchet, which was used during the Fourth Crusade at the turn of the 13th century. Last fall, he decided to build one.

He drafted an engineering student from N.C. State University to draw the plans. A machinist whose wife works on campus soon joined, as did a librarian who had some carpentry skills.

The small group met on Saturdays starting in January to build the trebuchet in an old barn on the back side of campus.

The finished product, nicknamed "Big Bertha," is 10 feet tall. After a test firing on St. Patrick's Day -- viewable online at YouTube -- they held a public exhibition Sunday.

The crowd included proud and puzzled spouses and coworkers, but also people who had seen fliers or noticed the trebuchet while riding their bikes past the campus.

Anyone who brought a missile could pull the pin and launch an attack on an innocent field of periwinkles and grass.

And so, a pumpkin, two-liter bottles of diet pop, a five-pound bag of flour, a milk jug filled with tap water, a bag of Red Delicious apples, a small log, a bag of ice, a bunch of exercise balls, a grapefruit and a spoiled spaghetti squash met their ends.

"I always wanted to squish a squash!" shouted Pamela Winfield, a professor of religion.

For the most part, however, it was a children's crusade. Sam Blackwell, 12, launched first and farthest, sending a six-pound exercise ball nearly 100 yards. Adam Shamblin, 7, sent a melon from Harris Teeter hurtling.

Afterward, Cynthia Woodward, 5, ran into the firing range to pick up shards of melon and bring them back to her parents.

Across the field, Pitts smiled.

"Maybe she'll go to Meredith one day," he said.