Museums with cannon collections

Black Sea Fleet Museum

The Black Sea fleet was created under Catherine II. She traveled to Sevastopol, four years after its foundation. A plan of the defensive fortifications of Sevastopol created by Marshall Suvorov hangs on the wall of the Black Sea Fleet Museum. His army built the fortifications skirting the shore of the north harbor. A painting depicts his troops standing on the shore after the conclusion of the peace treaty with Turkey with a Turkish flotilla of ships in the harbor. There were no Russian ships because the Russian fleet did not yet exist at Sevastopol. The shores were doted with earthen ramparts, built to threaten the flotilla of the Turkish Sultan Gaspan Pasha. They compelled him to sail away without having fired a shot. After the Turks left, the Russian ships built on the Azov Sea arrived. Prior to the arrival of those ships the hills were devoid of constructions. The Black Sea Fleet consisted of those eleven ships. Admiral Ushakov never suffered a defeat at sea. Just as Marshall Suvorov never was defeated in land battles. Ships had two or three decks full of cast bronze cannon.

When the allies landed on the Crimean shores prior to the battle of the Alma, the Russians had prevented their landing directly at the city by sinking ships at the entrances to the harbors of Sevastopol.

The Malakhov Kurgan is situated on the Korabel'naya side or Eastern side of the South Harbor, which it dominates. In June, 1858, it occupied the crucial height commanding the south shore. When it was taken by the French, including the Zouaves, the Russian army command decided to evacuate 30,000 infantry and 20,000 sailors from the city. They built a bridge across the North Harbor, evacuating the Southern side of the city. The painter Franz Aleseevich Rubo was commissioned to paint ten scenes of the siege of Sevastopol for the Panorama museum. Five more paintings hang in the Black Sea Fleet Museum. One painting depicts the Malakhov Kurgan (mound), another the floating bridge across the North Harbor also known as the large harbor.

Another painter Zhukovskyi was a first hand participant in the Crimean War. Aivazovskyi, the most famous painter of maritime scenes, painted a picture depicting the first bombardment of Sevastopol. The painting shows the bombardment by the French and English ships of the Constantine (Constantinov) battery. The Russian name for the Constantine battery was the Volokhov tower, since it was built by a contractor by the name of Volokhov. There were only a few guns on a battery on the hill above, which badly damaged three British ships, and so was called the Wasp battery.

Dr. Valery Krestyannikov, Assistant Director of the Museum of the Heroic Defense and Liberation of Sevastopol, known to the West as the Siege of Sevastopol answers the question: "Why was it necessary to scuttle ships to block the way into the North Harbor?" "It should be noted that there was a call for shore batteries to defend the Sevastopol harbor, and there was a serious shortage of ammunition, stores and even some parapets were without any cannons. Of 533 pieces, aimed from the shore batteries in the fall of 1853 there were only 28 high trajectory 3 pound cannons and 169 pound Yedinorog. The majority of cannons on the batteries were 36 to 12 pounders. At that time, many line ships of the Russian and the Allies had on the lower decks only heavy high trajectory canons, which is to say that one such ship had more canons than were available to the entire Sevastopol fortress." Here are some photos outside and inside the Museum of the Black Sea Fleet. mbsf54, mbsf55, mbsf56, seva101s, seva100s, crim08 Among the displays is a saber. Here is the story of that saber.

HMS Victory

HMS Victory is the world's oldest surviving warship to still be in continuous use and remains the Second Sea Lord's Flagship.

Victory will always be associated with Lord Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar. By pure coincidence, Horatio Nelson was born in the same year (1758) that the Board of Admiralty placed the order for the battle ship on which he was later to be fatally wounded by a French marksman and die uttering the immortal words 'kiss me Hardy'.

The HMS Victory first saw active service in 1778 when equipped with 104 cannons on her 3 gun decks. Each cannon weighed up to 3.5 tones each, with the largest cannons on the lower gun deck propelling a huge 32 pound ball up to 1000 feet.

Victory is 227 feet long and fitted with 4 masts, the tallest of which is some 220 feet high. Any crew member falling from the masts could expect almost certain death, either on impact or by drowning. Many sailors couldn't swim!

Victory saw action in the Battle of Cape St Vincent and the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Between these battles the ship was used as a floating hospital. HMS Victory was removed from active service in 1812, after which she served as a floating depot in Portsmouth harbor. A campaign by the Society for Nautical Research was finally successful in 1922, when Victory was towed to her present home in the dry dock for restoration.

You can take a guided tour of HMS Victory and imagine the appalling conditions that the 821 crew and officers lived and worked in. Visit the Great Cabin where Lord Horatio Nelson planned the Battle of Trafalgar and the spot where he was fatally wounded by a French marksman.

HMS Victory is one of three magnificent battle ships at Flagship Portsmouth, the other 2 being the Henry VIII's Mary Rose and the worlds first iron battle ship; HMS Warrior 1860. You can also visit the Royal Naval Museum and The Great Ship Basin.

Victory has several flights of steep steps and is therefore unsuitable for the disabled, but a video tour can be seen in the Lower Gun deck.

MUSEUM OF ARTILLERY
ENGINEERS AND SIGNAL TROOPS
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

Two large cannon barrels mounted on special cast iron display carriages. The piece on left rear is a 24 grivennoi pishchal called "Tsar Akhilles" The piece in foreground is a 40 grivennoi pishchal "Lev" both are from the reign of Fyedor Ivanovich 1590 and were captured by the Swedes at Narva in 1700.
http://www.peachmountain.com/5star/Museums_of_Artillery_St_Petersburg.asp
Note: This is a fantastic site with MANY unique cannons!