Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/417

 THE 17TH or OCTOBER. 387 signalling for answer, the 'Queen is on fire!' she chap. passed away towards the north. Before tliis time, and whilst preparing to take The Rodney her place in the line of the main division, the Rodney had been boarded by Captain Jones, the Commander of the Sampson, who, passing from ship to ship in his gig, brought an order from Dundas — an order suggested to the Admiral by Captain Jones himself — which directed the Eodney to go in and support the Agamemnon and the Sanspareil.* Captain Graham, who com- manded the Eodney, made haste to obey the command, and his ship was at once moved forward in the direction of Lyons's flag-ship with all the speed that could be given her by her satellite steamer the Spiteful. In about fifteen minutes from the time when Graham received the order, his ship was already close in near the Agamem- non and the Sanspareil. She fired from time to time, wdien her guns bore clear of her neighbours, and — moving stern foremost — proceeded to back on towards the southward in search of a good fightino; berth. The only part of the position which appeared to be at all advantageous for the attack of Fort Constantine M'as so narrowed by the form of the shoal, that the places already occupied by the reports his passage in his boat from ship to ship under fire, the Captain is stated to have suggested to Dundas, that, ' If a line- ' of-battle-ship were sent to a position near the Agamemnon, ' great execution might be done.' — Admiral Stopford (Captaiu of the Fleet) to Dundas, 19th October 1854.
 * In the despatch liigWy laudatory of Captain Jones, which