Charles Gascoigne

Beginnings and private life

Charles Gascoigne was the son of the captain Woodroffe Gascoigne, of Parlington, in the North Yorkshire, which was in station in Scotland after the battle of Culloden, in 1746. His/her mother, Grizel, were the oldest daughter of Charles Elphinstone, tenth Lord Elphinstone. Gascoigne worked with the British East India Company and as associated firm " Coney and Gascoigne" with London. He married Mary, the girl of Samuel Garbett, with Birmingham, in 1759. Garbett was one of the associated founders of the Company Carron, itself created in 1759. Gascoigne became also a associate of this forging mill in 1765 after having directed the factory close to Spirits of turpentine pertaining to Garbett since 1763.

Gascoigne had had three girls of a first marriage: Anne, who married Thomas Hamilton, seventh count de Haddington, in 1786; Elizabeth, which married a member of the Parliament, George Augustus Pollen; the third Maria with the baron Poltoratsky. Gascoigne remaria in 1797 with Anastasia-Jessye, the girl of Doctor Matthew Guthrie.

The Carron Company

Gascoigne entered the Company Carron six years only after its foundation, but it still tested problems as for the quality of its irons. That did not prevent, in 1764, the Boad off Ordnance to sign a lucrative contract with the Company for the supply of weapons to the British armed forces. Gascoigne became associate-manager of the company in 1769. Gascoigne introduced many improvements into the techniques of production of the company and endeavoured to improve quality of its products. In spite - or because - influence of Gascoigne, the Carron Company and the other companies of Samuel Garbett remained in a difficult financial position. Finally the Garbett firm & Co. crumbled, in 1772, under the weight of the debts, harming the relations between Gascoigne and his/her father-in-law. And the Board off Ordnance cancelled the contracts signed with the Carron Company for the supply of guns to the Royal Navy because of their bad quality.

Caronades

Without letting itself discourage, Gascoigne advanced the development of a new type of gun, initially known under the name of " Gasconade" or " Melvillade" , and finally by its last name of " Carronade " or caronade. The caronade was conceived as a naval weapon of short range having a low starting speed of the projectiles. She would have been invented by the lieutenant-general Robert Melville in 1759. She was developed by Gascoigne of 1769 with 1779, and was adopted by Royal Navy in 1779.

Easy to recognize thanks to its shortened barrel, the caronade had the same gauge that a long gun, but was much lighter, which made it possible the vessels of the navy to carry much more caronades that guns. The weaker range was not a problem because of the tactics employed in the naval battles at the time, which privileged the close combats. This new weapon was an immense success - it was called The Smasher by the crews of Royal Navy - and was manufactured until the middle of the 19th century.

Russia

In the years 1770 and 1780, the British government was engaged in a programme of military aid to the Russian Empire. A steam engine, designed by John Smeaton and manufactured by the Carron Company, was ordered by Charles Knowles, then with the service of Russia, where it was dispatched in 1774 with a coal provisioning and workmen of the Carron Company.

In 1784, the successor of Knowles, the admiral Samuel Greig, ordered with the Carron Company of the guns for the Russian fleet of the Baltic. Russia also placed order of a great quantity of equipment to modernize the foundry and manufactures of weapons of Petrozavodsk. In spite of the efforts of the British government to prevent the Carron Company from delivering a military technology of point, Gascoigne provides to Russia the ordered equipment. In 1786, it went to Kronstadt to direct work of installation to the foundry Aleksandrovsky, accompanied by workmen by Carron, engineer Charles Baird, Adam Armstrong and Alexander Wilson. At that time, Gascoigne crossed serious financial problems, having been declared in bankruptcy.

Gascoigne remained in Russia until its death. It was known there under the name of Karl Gaskoïn (КарлГаскойн). He became adviser of State, knight of Saint-Vladimir, and directed all the mines and foundries of Karelia, including the mines of Olonets. He contributed а the improvement of many foundries, built news and played of them a great part in the modernization of the techniques of manufacture of the guns in Russia. It establishes the first power press with the Currency of Saint-Pétersbourg.

Charles Gascoigne died in Kolpino, close to Saint-Pétersbourg, in 1806, during the rebuilding of the Ijora factory. He was buried in Petrozavodsk.

Its role was variously appreciated. In Great Britain, he was regarded as a traitor, while in Russia, particularly during the Soviet period, it was suspected of having been only one avid capitalist and a spy.

Sources

This article is mainly the translation of the article of English Wikipedia.

External bonds

Charles Gascoigne - The Darling off Carron Works
Local Falkirk History Society
Francis Steuart, '' Scottish Influences in Russian History '', Glasgow, 1913, extracts (p.129-131)
Gascoigne in Karelia (museum of Regional state of Karelia)
Charles Gascoigne, a Scot with Petrozavodsk

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