Cannon from the frigate "Tiger"

The old cast-iron cannon on Primorsky Boulevard has its own history. Looking at her, it seems that she is guarding Odessa, protecting the sea approaches to her. But not everyone knows that at one time it was she who shot at the city and was the most real participant in historical events.

On April 10, 1854, the Anglo-French squadron began shelling Odessa. But 23-year-old warrant officer Shchegolev, who commanded a coastal battery of four guns, managed to resist 350 guns of the squadron, for which he was promoted by the highest decree "to second lieutenant, to lieutenant and to staff captain." On April 30, the English frigate Tiger was sunk. The team surrendered. We managed to lift the guns from this ship.

50 years later, in memory of these events, a 250-pound (4-ton) cannon was installed on a carriage and erected on a pedestal. A hundred years after the opening of the monument, in 2004, the cannon was restored. On August 19, 2004, the restored cannon fired, and every year its shot is heard on Odessa's birthday.

On April 10, 1944, exactly ninety years after the bombing of Odessa by the Anglo-French squadron, the partisans who emerged from the catacombs came to Primorsky Boulevard, where "the cannon was still looking into the open sea, wide and freely turning blue beyond the port" - about this day in 1942 year dreamed and wrote in the poem "Odessa" Semyon Kirsanov:

“I believe: we will meet, comrade,
On a summer day on board
By the old cannon on the boulevard
In a colorful, festive port. "