ments made, both for their
embarkation and landing on the shores of the Crimea. Indeed, difficult
as were both operations, they were carried out without the loss of a
man, and with that only of one or two horses drowned. While the army
marched towards the Alma, the fleet proceeded along the shore. Some of
the steamers standing in, put to flight the few Russian troops their
guns could reach. For some time it was hoped that the Russian ships
would come out of Sebastopol and give battle to the allied fleets; but
all hopes of their doing so were lost when the Russians, having arranged
some of their finest line-of-battle ships across the harbour, scuttled
them, and their masts were seen slowly descending beneath the surface.
No hopes remaining of a naval engagement, each ship supplied a
contingent of men, who were formed into a naval brigade, under Captain
Stephen Lushington, a body of the French seamen being employed in the
same manner. None of the brave fellows employed in the siege performed
a greater variety of duties, or behaved with more gallantry, than did
the British blue-jackets on shore. They fought in the batteries, armed
with some of their own heavy ship's guns dragged up by themselves from
the shore, carried the scaling-ladders in many an assault, assisted to
land the stores, and were for some time the principal labourers in
forming a road between Balaclava and Sebastopol. Led by the gallant
Captain Peel, they took an active part in the assault on the Redan, on
which occasion they lost 14 killed and 47 wounded. They were
ever-active in succouring those who had been left on the field of
battle, whether blue-jackets or red-coats, and many who might have
perished owed their lives to their courage and activity. During the
engagement known as the Little Inkerman, on the 26th of October Mr
Hewett, mate of the _Beagle_, while in command of a Lancaster gun, was
greatly instrumental in the defeat of the Russians. Having received a
message by a sergeant from an officer, who thought the battery would be
taken in reverse, to spike his gun and retreat, he replying that he only
received orders from his own captain, got his gun round to bear on the
Russians, and blowing away the parapet, poured his fire down on them in
a way which compelled them to abandon their object.

As soon as the troops on shore were ready to open with their batteries,
the combined fleets prepared to perform their parts in attacking the sea
fac