In the Crimea, besides the regimental hospitals, there were four general hospitals. There was the _General Hospital_ at Balaclava, established after the British occupation in September 1854. There was the _Castle Hospital_, consisting of huts on the "Genoese heights" above Balaclava, opened in April 1855. There was the _Hospital of St. George's Monastery_, also consisting of huts, intended for convalescent and ophthalmic cases; and, lastly, there were the _Hospitals of the Land Transport Corps_, again consisting of huts, near Karani. All these hospitals had a complement of female nurses, though the Monastery Hospital not until December 1855, and the Land Transport Hospitals not until 1856. In the spring of 1855, then, there were already female nurses at the General Hospital and the Castle Hospital, under their own superintendents, but all ultimately responsible to Miss Nightingale--as she apprehended, and as the War Office intended. She was now anxious to inspect these hospitals; to increase the efficiency of the female nursing establishments; and, in particular, to introduce those washing and cooking arrangements which had been productive of so much benefit at Scutari. Her visit of inspection was approved by the War Office; and, by instructions dated April 27, she was invested with full authority as Almoner of the Free Gifts in all the British Hospitals in the Crimea. But in other respects her position was somewhat ambiguous. The original instructions, issued by Mr. Herbert, had named her as Superintendent of the female nurses in all the British military hospitals _in Turkey_; and these words gave a standing-ground to her opponents in the Crimea. The intention of the War Office was to give her general superintendence, but to relieve her of direct responsibility for the nurses in the Crimea so long as she was at Scutari. The matter was not, however, cleared up till a later date,[169] and the indefiniteness of her position in the Crimea exposed her to infinite worry and intrigues. [169] See below, p. 292. On May 2, Miss Nightingale set forth from Scutari, where Mrs. Bracebridge was left in charge:--