Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/151

 AVIIEN ABANDONED BY THE AltMV. 121 self the power of sending his wliole squadron to chaI' VI. the bottom with little delay ; but he had become so passionately intent upon this idea of destroy- ing his ships, that after making ready to scuttle them, he could not think he had done enough. He therefore placed about them tarred hoops and such like combustible materials, in order to be able to fire them at the chosen moment ; and he arranged a dismal code of signals for ensuring despatcli in the transmission of his dooming orders. One signal was to mean ' Sink your ' ship,' another was to mean ' Fire your ship.' For himself and his seamen he hardly seemed to wish more than that he and they might die fighting. It was in this spirit that he issued liis address to the seamen : ' The enemy is ap- ins addresi ' proaching the town, in which there is but a seamen. • very small garrison. I therefore find myself ' under the necessity of sinking the vessels of ' the squadron entrusted to me, and of reintorc- ' ing the garrison with men armed with board- ' ing - pikes and cutlasses. I have the fullest ' confidence in the captains, officers, and crews, ' and am certain that every one of them will ' fisht like a hero. In all we are about three 'thousand.* The rallying - point will be the ' Theatre Square. 1 herewith make it known ' to the squadron.' understood to refer only to the seamen who had been with- (Irawn from the shiiis for the defence of the South Side, and not to include cither the ' militia ' battalions, as I call them, or the ' stationed marines.'
 * In giving so low a number as tliis, Nachimoff must be