Allen X divers recently found 24 Russian canons in the shallow water of the Little Bahama Bank
Allen X
After learning about the artifacts Carl Allen and his Allen Exploration team have discovered in the waters around the Bahamas over the last several years, I wasn’t surprised to hear he’d won the Explorer Award in Adventure and Environmental Ethics that was presented by The Explorers Club in collaboration with Yacht Club de Monaco during the club’s 13th Environmental Symposium held in Monaco earlier this year.
In fact, the artifacts he and his team continue to recover from the wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Maravillas that sank in 1656 are on display in the Bahamas Maritime Museum.
However, I was quite surprised to hear he and his team have also just discovered 24 iron cannons that were once fired by Russian forces against Ottoman, English and French allies in the Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War from 1853 to 1855.
No one knows how 24 Russian canons from the 1800’s that were fired during the Crimean War ended up … [+] in under 30 feet of water in the Bahamas.
Allen X
And I’m not the only one that was surprised. “We’ve found all kinds of underwater archaeology in the Bahamas,” Allen said. “Everything from gold chains and amethysts the size of your thumb to clay tobacco pipes. But imperial Russian guns fired in anger over 170 years ago? That’s stunning.”
The cannons were discovered in the shallow water on the edge of the Little Bahama Bank. One bears a Tsarist double-headed eagle that was cast onto the barrel. The AllenX team also found a trunnion (a pivot that protrudes from the side of a cannon and rests on the carriage) that had broken off another gun. It’s inscribed with three lines of Cyrillic text that proves it was made in a Russian foundry sometime between 1807 to 1819.
This cannon trunnion with Cyrillic text was discovered the underwater on the Little Bahamas Bank … [+] recently
Allen X
While the story of how these specific Russian cannons came to rest under 30 feet of water on the Little Bahama Bank is unknown. What the Allen X team does know is after Russia was defeated in the Crimean War, England and France took 4,000 cannons from the Siege of Sevastopol as spoils of war. In France, most of the cannons were melted down to make the Notre Dame de France statue in Le Puy-en-Velay.
While England’s government offered their Crimean cannons to military and naval establishments and cities and towns across Great Britain and Ireland. Almost 300 more were donated to British dominions and dependencies in Australia, Canada, Gibraltar and New Zealand.
Carl Allen continued to discover priceless underwater artifacts in the Bahamas
Allen X
“The Crimean trophy gun discoveries are a unique strike for underwater archaeology,” Allen adds. “So many trophies of the Crimean War were melted down. The Bahamas finds are rare survivors that bear witness to a little-remembered war, symbols of how every Briton did their duty. Not only that, some of the guns were already antiques at the Siege of Sevastopol in 1853. The Cyrillic inscription on the trunnion we found names the director of the Alexandrovski ironworks as Adam Armstrong. He ran the foundry from 1807 to 1819, so the gun may have seen action in the Napoleonic War that ended in 1815. It’s a big story for a small find, one of the most unexpected treasures in the Bermuda Triangle!”
What other treasures are hidden underwater in the Bahamas and other historic sites around the world? I’m pretty sure Carl Allen and his team are going to find out.
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