As the works were spreading, it was clear that to carry them on with expedition and success a reinforcement of sappers was essential. Appeals, not without anxiety, were made for them, which were met by efforts of corresponding solicitude. The ninth company, almost reorganized, sailed from Liverpool in the ‘Resolute’ steamer on the 9th May and landed at Balaklava, 118 bayonets strong, on the 4th June. Captain Dawson, of the engineers, commanded it. Several men were in it who had served through the Kaffir war and were present in that murderous razzia which swept off half the detachment in the Konap Pass. The kind of warfare suited to contend with a barbaric race and to which they had been accustomed, was ill adapted for the scientific and open field hostilities practised by civilized nations. The sapping attainments, therefore, of the company fell short for a time of the requirements of the siege. Added to the right attack it passed a day or two in camp and then defiled into the trenches. Considerable advancement had been made in the British works, in which an average of about sixty sappers for the day duties and forty for the night accompanied the several reliefs to the trenches. On the 1st while laying gabions in the left advance sap on the right attack private John Wright was killed by the explosion of a shell. A magazine in the 21-gun battery being damaged by the enemy’s fire six zealous men were turned into it to render it serviceable. This they achieved in the open day amid the bursting of shells; and the powder was replaced before nightfall. A couple of sappers also assisted to make good the repairs to the picket-house battery; others improved the tub revetment round the shaft of the ammunition caves; others fixed additional chevaux-de-frise across the Woronzoff road to block up the ravine; and a moving force repaired by night the breaches which daily were made in the various batteries. These were cleared of broken gabions, shattered bags and loose earth, and the embrasures were again finished with visages so stern and solid they seemed as if no harm had ever befallen them. Nos. 12, 13, and 14 batteries were hourly growing into the required stature. No. 12 was on the curve of the second parallel at a point from whence issued a rocky communication to No. 11. Nos. 13 and 14, with No. 8 between, were situated on the crescent of the third parallel, and communicated with No. 15 on the right and 7 on the left. The circuitous trench or fourth parallel was strengthened in parts by a double gabionade, and everywhere the sappers and line miners were blasting the rock to obtain stones for cover. On the 5th at night a solitary sapper mounted the roof of the magazine in No. 14 battery on the right attack, cleared away some superabundant earth, and after he had completed the service proceeded to one more dangerous. It was the right rifle pit in advance of the third parallel. The parapet had only just been thrown down by a round shot and wounded a man.