| Understanding the Markings |
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| The markings on the Russian guns from the Crimean war can be rather complex. The following is a guide to de-ciphering, and an aid to understanding the mix of modern Arabic numerals; Cyrillic Russian; - with a few Greek, and a Roman character thrown in, - impressed on the breeches, and trunnions; plus the additional markings observable on a small number of captured Russian artillery pieces from the Crimean war. |
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| Russian guns from the Crimean War can generally be identified by the double headed eagle on top of the barrel but the detailed information appears on the trunnions and generally consists of three lines on each (some guns have an additional line). On the rear of the barrel is usually marked the branch of service using the gun. |
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| Barrel Markings |
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| On top of the barrel, located near the trunnions, is the the Imperial Russian emblem of a double headed Imperial Eagle. It is common to all the guns. |
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Russian Coat of Arms
As it appears on the Crimean Cannons.
Note the ribbon of the Order of St Andrew is omitted |
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Russian Coat of Arms
A double-headed Imperial Eagle each
imperially crowned, grasping in the dexter claw an imperial sceptre, and in the sinister claw an imperial orb. In chief another larger imperial crown therefrom a ribbon of the Order of St Andrew.
The Imperial Eagle is charged on the breast with a shield bearing an image of St. George riding a horse that is treading upon a dragon pierced through by the rider with a spear. |
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| Breech Markings |
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On most of the Crimean guns markings are stamped to denote the branch of service for which the gun had been cast. The stamping appears each side of the vent field on the upper rear face of the breech, They are:
C. A. ─ Сухопутной Артиллерии which translates to Land Artillery and were marked on artillery pieces intended for arming land fortresses, or
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M. A. ─ Морской Артиллерии which translates to Marine (or Naval) Artillery used to mark artillery pieces intended for arming the Russian fleet-warships and sea fortresses. In some cases, "MA" marked lightweight mobile weapons, which were in service with the Marine Corps. |
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Examples of letters CA on Russian artillery. CA indicated the gun was intended for arming land fortresses
Left. Marking on 24-pounder fortress gun, Model 1867 manufactured in 1871.
Right. Marking on 42-linear (107 mm) siege gun, Model 1877 manufactured in 1889
(photo of cannons from the collection of VIMAVIVVS)10 |
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MA marked on the breech of a smooth bore gun. MA indicated the gun was intended for arming Russian warships and sea fortresses |
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Trunnion Inscriptions
| Left Trunnion. On the left trunnion is usually marked: |
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Top Line. – Serial number of the gun preceded with the letter N. In a number of cases the Roman letter ‘J’ is used in place of the Arabic ‘1’ (this practice was also used on British guns around 1800). |
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J used on the 36 pounder at Hobart, on both the line indicating the weight and also in the date line. |
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Serial number 167 stamped as J67 on the trunnion of a British 24 pounder at Victoria Barracks, Sydney. No date of manufacture is stamped on the gun but it was cast during the reign of King George III (1760-1820 |
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Centre Line. – Manufacturer. The name of the foundry where the gun was made and the location of that factory is shown here. Variations in spelling and abbreviations may appear.
АΛЕКСАНΔ = ALEKSAND
‘3AB’, ‘ЗАВО’ = ZAVO |
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Bottom Line. – The name of the Director of the foundry. Most of the guns in Australia and New Zealand were produced at the Alexander Foundry (Aleksandrovsky Cannon-Foundry at Petrozavodsk). Directors of the Alexander Factory prior to the Crimean War were:
1772-1782 Anikita Yartzov (Аникита Сергеевич Ярцов)
1782-1786 Fedor Illarionovich Grammachtikov (Фёдор Илларионович Грамматчиков)
1786-1806 Sir Charles Gascoigne (Карл Карлович Гаскойн)
1807-1819 Adam Vasilievich Armstrong (Адам Васильевич Армстронг)
1819-1833 Alexander Andreevich Fullon (Александр Андреевич Фуллон)
1833-1843 Roman Adamovich Armstrong (Роман Адамович Армстронг)
1843-1859 Nikolay Fedorovich Butenev (Николай Фёдорович Бутенев)
The leading three Cyrillic characters impressed on the bottom line, 'НАЧ', or as appears on some of the earlier guns, just the single character 'Н', is the abbreviation for 'НАЧАΛЬНИК' which when translated becomes "Chief", or "Director". |
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| Right Trunnion |
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Top Line. – Calibre of the gun denoted in weight of the projectile it fired (in Russian pounds). a character or symbol, similar to "Њ", often used as an abbreviation for "funt" - a Russian pound weight - to denote the guns nature; like the symbol "lb." used to denote an Imperial pound in pre-decimal days. фУН or fun, an abbreviation for funt, is also seen. |
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Middle Line. – Weight of the barrel and sometimes preponderance.Preponderance is shown at the end of the line measured in funt and would be greater than 40, if less than 40 it would be part of the weight of the barrel. Markings seen here include:
‘ВЬСУ’ - weight;
‘П’, ‘ΠУΔ’ – Pud;
‘Ф’, ‘фУН’ - funt |
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| A funt is a Russian pound and weighs less than an imperial pound. 40 funt make a Pud. An Imperial pound equals 16 ounces whilst a funt equals 12 oz or 409.5 grams. A Pud weighs 36.11 Imperial pound or 16.38 kilograms |
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Bottom Line - Year of manufacture indicated by numbers with a symbol for year (Goda) abbreviated or in full ‘Г’, ‘ГОΔА’ |
Variations. There are numerous examples of variations to characters being used on trunnion markings. Whether this is deliberate or not is not known. Examples include; |
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| Instead of a marking on the upper rear face of the breech, on earlier Gascoigne produced 24-Њ naval cannons, фРЕҐАТ: i.e. 'Frigate' is stamped on the second line of the right trunnion, underneath the numerals and symbol Њ denoting the guns nature; as shown in the right hand trunnion photograph (above right), of 1799 cannon №. 6599, produced under Gascoigne - captured in 1855 at Sevastopol - and now displayed at the West end of Castle Street, outside the gates of Ludlow Castle, Herefordshire, in the Welsh Marches. |
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Summary |
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Hopefully the details and information given in this article will be of some help to those students of Historic Artillery and any other persons curious about the meanings of the mysterious emblems, characters, and symbols to be seen on these relics of a past age, some now approaching one hundred and eighty years old. |
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Cascabel Styles. |
| Armstrong pattern, ball / button style |
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| The 1799 Gascoigne Russian 24-Њ cannon, serial №. 6599, illustrates the typical 'Armstrong' pattern, ball/button type, cascabel in vogue at that time. No example of this style of cascabel is present on the Crimean guns in Australia or New Zealand. |
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| Blomefield Pattern |
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| Blomefield pattern, breeching loop and button type |
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| In 1780 Thomas Blomefield was appointed Inspector of Artillery and Superintendent of the Royal Brass Foundry and around 1783 became involved in the design of artillery. Several changes were made in the design of the guns including forging a loop over the knob in the cascabel. Aboard ship, this enabled the breeching rope to pass through the loop rather than being looped around the knob. This subtle change enabled shipboard artillery to be shifted much farther off the centre line because it could be fired without the risk of snapping the breeching rope.
The 'Blomefield' Pattern type of cascabel shown above is common to the two 1838 'Armstrong' produced 36-Њ guns displayed outside the front entrance to Victoria Barracks, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne. Gun shown is Serial №.26046, to the left of the main entrance. |
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| This enlargement from the Panorama ‘Siege of Sevastopol’ painted by Russian artist Franz Roubaud illustrates the use of the ‘Blomefield’ pattern cascabel |
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| Millar Pattern |
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| The 'Millar' Pattern, built-up, or composite type, breeching loop shown above, consists of a bifurcated cascabel, closed with a fitted, shaped, make-up piece, and secured by a cotter pin. A joint line is just visible on the bottom of the breeching loop |
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Lithograph print of 1856 taken from a photograph by Robertson taken inside The Redan at Sevastopol illustrates the use of the Millar pattern cascabel. |
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| Carronade Pattern |
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| Adelaide. Horizontal breeching loop ─ a la British 'Congreve' Pattern. This horizontal breeching loop type cascabel, shown above, appears to have been used on all of the Russian 24-Њ cannons. The two New Zealand Trophy guns; supposedly 18-Њ′s; also feature this type of cascabel design. It was possibly intended for use with an adjustment screw for elevating purposes. This style of cascabel was used on the British carronades and also on the lighter 32 pounders guns, examples of which were used on HMCS Nelson and can been seen in several towns in Victoria.. |
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This photo taken in the Redan at Sevastapol shows a gun with the horizontal breeching loop but a wedge is used to adjust elevation indicating the adaptions made by the Russians during the siege. |
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24-pounder carronade of about 1820. From a drawing by Ch. Dupin in Wm. Laird Clowes, ‘The Royal Navy’ vol V. p540. An elevating screw can be seen in the illustration. |
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A British 32-pounder at the Ranger Barracks, Ballarat showing the horizontal breeching loop. |
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The British 32-pounder mounted on HMCS Nelson when in service in Victoria |
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| Under Carriages |
| It is not possible to illustrate all the carriages used by the Russians during the Crimean War. The following is simply an example of the range of carriages in use. All the guns in Australia and New Zealand are mounted on similar carriages which have been previously reported as Russian Venglovshy iron carriages. However, it is likely these are actually Woolwich produced carriages possibly designed on the Venglovsky pattern. No photo from the Crimean War has been viewed that shows the iron carriage in use. |
| In British service, the iron standing garrison carriage were reported to come into service by 1800. While they resisted the weather well, it was found in battle to be as dangerous as enemy fire if they were struck and shattered. If damaged they were almost impossible to repair on the spot. Consequently by 1810 they were restricted to saluting batteries and those fronts of fortifications not liable to sudden attack or enfilading fire. |
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The Illustrated London News of 3 November 1855 contained this drawing of an ‘English made gun’ mounted on a ‘novel carriage’. They were trophies taken at Kertch from the Russian Admiral’s Flag-ship. (Peter Webster) |
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A Russian Licorne mounted on an original Venglovsky cast iron carriage at the Royal Armouries, UK. |
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The Illustrated London News of 3 November 1855 contained this drawing of a Russian Fortress gun and its carriage captured at Bomarsund. (Peter Webster) |
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24-pounder and at Retford, Nottinghamshire, England on original carriage. Post World War II a replica carriage was made. |
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Typical naval wooden carriage. Many of the guns at Sevastopol had been removed from the Russian ships. |
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Six photos showing the iron carriages on which the guns in Australia and New Zealand have been mounted. They are possibly copies made by the Woolwich Carriage Department of the Russian Venglovsky iron carriage. The carriages in South Australia and one at Hobart appear to have been damaged and then repaired. The one at Launceston has a crack in the left arm near the elevating plate. |
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British iron standing garrison carriage. They were made for various calibres of guns and stamped with the calibre for which it was made. The stamping appears on the side and axle of the carriage. This carriage for a 24-pounder is at Victoria Barracks, Sydney. |
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| 9Australia's Trophies From the Crimean War. Vladimir Kroupnik |
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| 12Russian Military – Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer and Signal Corps, 7 Aleksandrovskii Park, St Petersburg, Russia |
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| 13Preponderance |
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