Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/378

 348 THE CANNONADE OF C [I A P XIII. manded ; and the result was a coincidence both perverse and exact. At half -past ten in the morning, the project of a naval attack ceased to offer its promised advantage. At half-past ten in the morning, the movement of the squadrons beuan. Tlio fleets advancing from the roads off the Katcha. The steam- jiower of llie Allies. Mode of applying it to the sail- ing ships. The bulk of the Allied fleet had been lying in the roads off the Katcha, and in the column of ships thence advancing the French had the fore- most place, being followed by Adiuiial Dundas with that part of the English Heet which we call the 'main division.'* Some of the ships had on board them their own steam-power.-|- The rest were moved by steam-vessels — not towing in the ordinary way, but — lashed alongside them; for the intention was, that upon coming within range, each sailing-ship should, on one side, protect with her bulk the steam-vessel lashed alongside her, and, on the other, should present an armed broad- arrangement which placed the French ou the right hand— i.e., on the .southern side— of the intended array at the time of the landing. The French fleet of the Katcha being already to the southward of the English, and having to move in a southerly direction, was naturally in advance from the first. t Amongst the French ships destined to exert the strength of their fire, there were three— the Napoleon, the Jean Bart, and the Charlemagne— which had, each of them, her own steam- power on board her. The English had no such ships in their ' main division ; ' for their Agamemnon (as also their Sans- pareil) formed part of the ' in-sliorc squadron ; ' and although, as we saw, they had besides, 4 steam-frigates, a steam-sloop, and a steam-gunboat, those si.x. vessels were not destined to anchor and form part of the Allied line designed by the French.
 * This ordur in the advance seems to liave resulted from the