Our Russian Guns                   

Throughout the greater part of the 19^th century Britain was engaged in combat somewhere in the world. In a succession of small wars, British artillery, rifleman and cavalry hacked their way through countless legions of natives armed with spears. Little wonder that Britain was almost universally victorious, with just one or two notable exceptions provided by determined adversaries like Shaka Zulu. On those few occasions when imperial troops faced similarly equipped modern armies, their success rate tailed-off somewhat; leading to protracted engagements with indecisive results. On other occasions, apparently glorious victories had their gloss removed when measured against the final butchers-bill; the phenomenal cost in lives.

 One such was the Crimean War. At Sevastopol, Alma and Inkerman, not only did the Empire lose 21,000 souls but only 5000 of them were lost in battle. The rest succumbed to disease and infection in the appalling conditions. Essentially it was poor logistics that had cost thousands of lives. Almost as bad, from a political perspective, it was all delivered to the breakfast table in daily episodes by the London newspapers, as for the first time war correspondents accompanied the troops, much as Sky and the BBC do today. Something had to be done to restore the Empire’s confidence.

 So it was that in 1858 the British government indulged in a massive propaganda exercise by delivering nearly 4000 Russian cannon, captured in the Crimea, to every corner of the Empire. Gibraltar received four; two of which reside at Line Wall Boulevard and two at the Alameda. The fact that the arsenal at Sevastopol had held thousands of unserviceable and obsolete cannon, brought in for repair or smelting down, lent the impression that the British had faced overwhelming firepower, whereas in fact the fortress had been armed with less than 200 pieces.

 

 

 

 So what do we know about our Russian guns?  Well the trunnions - those parts of the casting by which the cannon is mounted - can tell us a great deal about each gun’s origin. Let’s examine one of the guns by the war memorial. The right hand trunnion, pictured below, tells us that this is a 24 pounder; more accurately 24 fun, a Russian unit that is roughly equal to an English pound. The next line tells us that the gross weight is 120 pood; which is a unit of around 35 fun, so by rough calculation that gives an all up weight of 4200lb or just over 1900Kg. The bottom line tells us only that the gun was cast in 1825 and was therefore some 30 years old when captured… and very nearly 200 now.

The left trunnion, pictured next, gives a little more data. The top line carries the weapon’s registered number and the middle line translates as Aleksandrevsky Zavoda, or Alexander Factory; the place of manufacture. The first three characters of the last line are obscure but the remainder translates as Fullon, the director of the factory.

 The Alexander Factory, located at Petrozavodsk on Lake Onega, was a French concern until 1777 when it went bankrupt and was taken over by the state, which then appointed former director Andre Fullon as manager. Andre’s son Alexander managed the factory from 1818 until 1833 and it is his name that appears on our cannon.

 

 

                                                              

                                     

 

First published at Gibraltar Magazine Aug 2004.     Paul Hodkinson.