Russian Cannon

[BrownBear]

I thought cannon fans would be interested in this little jewel. It's in the Baronoff Museum on Kodiak Island. The museum itself was originally a warehouse during Russia's tenure in Alaska, and according to the historians it's the oldest wooden building still in use in North America.

I'll let the label tell you more about the cannon. For sense of scale, it's roughly 2.5" smoothbore. We can only speculate how the cannon came to the town of Kodiak, but it's important to know that small naval cannon played a huge role for the Russians in subduing the Native population.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

"In observance of Holy Days" maybe it should be fired in present time?

 

[Charles D. Prokopp]

Is Bastille Day considered a Holy Day?

 

[Bartek]

BrownBear, can You tell me, what kind of barrel section has that cannon ?
Is the barrel channel conical or cylindrical ?

In XVII Russian general Peter Shuvalov has constructed a new kind of cannon, called "unicorn" (unikorn was the emblem of Shuvalov family).

"Unicorn" was very universal cannon exactely because of its specific (something like conical) barrel channel.
So "unicorn" could be used on the battle field as an average cannon or as a howizer and as a very effective siege-mortar too. "Unicorns" were able to fire much more sorts of ammunition as an average cannon/howizer/mortar (like granades, shrapnels, balls etc.)

That very specific barrel construction was used by Russian constructors to build many other types of cannons, for the navy too. Russian army used effective "unicorns" to the XIX c.

pozdrawiam :hatsoff:

 

[Titus]

very cool BrownBear. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[OPATRIOT]

THANX for posting picture Brownbear ... I like the shape and curves of this barrel, looks like 18" long maybee ??

 

[BrownBear]

Thanks to everyone for the questions! They're the kinds of things I needed in my kit before pursuing further info from the curator of the state museum. I'm on the road now for the next month, but I'll puruse answers and report once I get back.