A division of the army sent to the Sea of Azof, under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir George Brown, to reduce the Russian strongholds on the coast, took with it 43 men of the seventh company, who embarked in the ‘Bahiana’ at Balaklava on the 22nd May and landed at Kimish-Corum in the neighbourhood of Kertch on the 24th. Captain Hassard commanded the sappers, with whom were Captain Stanton and Lieutenants Murray and Drake. Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon directed the engineering arrangements. After assisting the Land Transport corps in landing and removing the stores and horses, in which their services were most useful, they burnt down the bullet manufactory in the suburbs of Kertch; threw up, with the infantry, a line of intrenchments from the sea to the centre of the position, the French constructing the other moiety; demolished several sea batteries commanding the channel of the Sea of Azof, and made preparations by collecting stores and materials for an attack on Anapa. On the 23rd, at night, was begun on the right attack a trench along the track which interposed between our right and the French Inkermann left. The old arm which some time before had been made to grasp the works of the allies, was now enfiladed from the Russian trenches in front of the Mamelon, and many men having been picked off by musketry in passing, it was regarded as too unsafe for future use. The work was divided into two portions. Eight sappers were allotted to the first, and one hundred of the infantry, with eight other sappers, to the second. It was a very exposed quarter, and the men selected to take the lead, accustomed to foremost duty, knew well how to force the work with the least amount of danger. The excavations were pushed on rapidly, re-using from the old communication the gabions which revetted it. A field-piece from the enemy constantly fired on the party, without, however, interrupting the work or occasioning any casualty.