I was listening to another podcast earlier and the guys were trying to figure out when or at what time frame it happened, but could not conclusively find anything. Are there any historical documents that detail when the final naval battles took place using canons and before transitioning to the more current form of cruise missiles, etc.?
For clarity, I mean the traditional front-loaded canons that the majority of people think of when they think old wooden ship naval battles. I would be interested in dates for other canon-like projectile systems (like you see on the big canons used on battleships) if you have them :)
Depending on what you call a "battle", muzzle-loading cannons were being used to sink ships in earnest into the 20th century.
Aleko Lilius, in his I Sailed with Chinese Pirates, D. Appleton & Co., 1931, describes Chinese pirates still using such cannons. In particular, he describes the sinking of a rival pirate junk by such cannons. This took place in the 1920s.
The ship Lilius sailed on carried 12 smoothbore muzzle-loading cannons, and "two rather modern ones" (and modern small arms). The old muzzle-loading cannon were used instead of the modern guns when it was safe to do so - ammunition was cheaper and more readily available.
What do you mean by cannons? Are you asking about the traditional muzzle-loading smoothbore guns, or about naval artillery in general?