Gun Carriage from Peter I's Boat

This small wooden gun carriage comes from the boat of Peter the Great, an English craft on which the young Peter learned to sail and which was nicknamed the "grandfather of the Russian Navy". According to the catalogue record, it is an original from the first quarter of the 18th century.

Peter found the boat at Izmailovo in May 1688. In 1723 it was brought to St Petersburg, and on 11 August it took part in a Baltic Fleet parade marking the second anniversary of the Treaty of Nystad, with the tsar himself at the helm. That same year the boat carried three, later four, small cast-iron guns of 1/3-pound calibre, that is, 19 mm. This carriage is for one of the boat's guns.

The carriage stands on four wooden wheels, 18 cm in diameter at the front and 12 cm at the rear, held on the axles by iron linchpins on chains. The cheeks are 32 cm long. A hemp breeching rope runs through rings on the sides, and a wooden "degree" quoin is placed between the cheeks. The wood is varnished.