Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/76

 46 THE RENEWED EXPEDITION TO KERTCII. chap. One of these small vessels of war, that is, the IV. ' steam-schooner Argonaut, had at length got her cargo on board, and was already making off for tiiop'a Yeni Kale, when Lieutenant M'Killop (command- ing a gunboat, the Snake, not employed in the landing of troops) conceived the idea of trying to stop her flight. Dashing past some guns not yet destroyed, he first opened fire on the fugitive Argonaut, and then also on the war-steamer Goiits, which the Eussian Admiral Wulff had sent out to aid her, and then also on a third war-steamer, the Berdiansk, which by that time had come out from the bay with all the archives and chests of the local administration on board. The com- mander of the Berdiansk did all he could to quicken her speed ; but M'Killop by the exceed- ing skill and rapidity of his movement out-man- oeuvred the fugitive, and — firing with shell — undertook to bar the passage against her. Two of her men were wounded by explosions effected on board her, and her commander convinced him- self that she could not make good her escape. He therefore ran her on shore, and burnt her with all her cargo on board. The other two vessels (the Argonaut and the Goiits) which M'Killop had engaged, were also, it seems, pre- vented by his skilful manoeuvres from making good their escape, and the enemy with his own hands destroyed them Q) The Snake was struck by a shot which passed through the vessel, but she did not lose a man. Altogether, as may well be supposed, M'Killop's exploit was enchanting