The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military eventsBorthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
History
The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military events
Borthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
Battles; Military history
CRIMEA, LANDING IN THE.--_Crimean War._--The following graphic
description is from Emerson’s Sebastopol:--“At length the great
fleet, nearly 400 vessels in all, on the 7th of September, 1854,
a memorable day thenceforth, set sail for its destination. What
that destination was none knew. Orders were issued to rendezvous
off the Isle of Serpents, near the Sulina mouth of the Danube. The
scene, when the immense flotilla was fairly under weigh, was of
the most exciting and animating character. Every ship bore on its
side the number of the regiment and nature of troops it conveyed,
and carried a distinguishing flag. As night closed in, lanterns
signalling the division to which it belonged were displayed, and
an illumination, such as the waters of the Euxine never reflected,
was witnessed by the sharers in the daring adventure. No incident
of these modern practical times, perhaps, has partaken so largely
of the character of romance as the departure of this renowned
expedition. The great armada, which taxed the energies of the most
powerful maritime nation of the sixteenth century, was a puny
flotilla compared to the one we are now writing of. The largest
vessel of that celebrated fleet was a cockleshell to many of our
noble steamers, detached from their customary vocation of carrying
on the commercial intercourse of nations, and devoted to the
service of war. Resources of science, unknown before the present
generation, and adapted by skill to our naval requirements, were
there in abundance, rendering a single steamer more than a match
for a dozen vessels of an earlier age, and almost independent of
the adverse winds and strong currents which had dispersed many a
gallant fleet and defeated many a deep-laid scheme of conquest.
Iron, naturally one of the densest of bodies, became, in the hands
of the scientific shipwright, buoyant as cork; and vessels, each
large enough to carry a regiment of cavalry besides its proper
crew, and to which a Spanish brig-of-war of the days of Philip
might have served for a jolly-boat, breasted the broad waves of the
Euxine, freighted with as brave and chivalrous warriors as menaced
Troy, or did battle with the infidel possessors of Jerusalem.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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