A few weeks ago, I wrote about picking up a bronze Russian 12-pound field gun for auction from the Massachusetts Army National Guard. I had walked by it in their museum for years and wondered how a Russian cannon ended up in Massachusetts but did not realize the amazing story it would tell.
During the Crimean War, the Russian army and navy were besieged at Sebastopol. On September 21, 1854, the siege began. In order to keep the English ships from coming into the bay they began to scuttle their ships to block entry. The hulks with their tall masts would keep gunboats and ships from getting too close. When the Russians sank their ships a lot of war material went to the bottom with them, including artillery. Under a heavy bombardment they survived for a year before they had to surrender. Once the war was over, they needed to rebuild and clear the bay to open it for shipping. It was 1855 and how would they attempt such a feat?
The Russian government had heard of an engineer who had raised sunken ships before, Lynn, Massachusetts native John E. Gowan. They approached him, an agreement was made, and he began to put together his team and equipment. He had quite the task ahead of him and from 1857 to 1862 he worked tirelessly to complete his job. If a ship could not be raised the cargo was emptied and anything possible was salvaged, then the hulk blown up. He was paid based on the amount of material he saved as well as how many ships could be brought to the surface for the navy to have rebuilt. Amongst the materials he brought up were cannon, including the one we are going to auction, but how did it get here?
As a prize for his work, the Russian officers in charge of the operation presented Gowan with some gifts, one of them being this bronze beauty. He returned to Lynn with the gun and quite a story. In 1870 Gowan presented the gun to the Lynn Light Infantry, a unit in the Massachusetts Volunteer militia. It sat in their armory for over a hundred years and then moved a few times till it was placed in the museum in Concord. By that time, the history of the gun had vanished till one of the officers in the National Guard found some paperwork that mentioned the gun and its history. It was decided that as it did not relate to the mission of their museum it should go to a new home and the monies raised be put into objects that do relate. Now I get to look at it and study the history before it goes to a new home. It is one of the great parts of my job. I get to handle objects with wonderful stories to tell, share the story, and then look forward to the next historical gem to come along.
