The TASS news agency is reporting comments made today by Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Colonel-General Andrei Kartapolov about the 19th-century armored gunboat The Strelets.

The Strelets was a 200ft (61m) Uragan class, armoured monitor. She joined the Baltic Fleet in 1865, and was taken out of active service in 1900 to be used until 1955 by the Russian navy as a floating workshop at Kronstadt naval base outside St. Petersburg, where she was rediscovered in 2015.

Speaking at a press conference in St. Petersburg earlier today, Colonel-General Kartapolov said: “I discussed this theme with the Navy’s commander-in-chief earlier today. In Kronshtadt there is a unique ship called The Strelets. It is older than The Aurora. We plan to turn it into a museum”.

He said restoration work on the ship would begin soon with a view to having her ready for public display by the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War – 9th May 2020.

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