Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/187

 HUREICANE OF 14TH NOVEMBER. 143 and the Enolish camp that the disasters most chap. VII heavily fell. Of the vessels freighted with '_ munitions and stores for our army no fewer than twenty-one were dashed to pieces and totally wrecked, with grievous loss of life, whilst eight besides were dismasted. (^) The Retribution (having H.R.H. the Duke of Cam- bridge on board) (^) had her rudder unshipped, lost two of her anchors, and was long in extreme peril. Indeed, it was at the cost of throwing overboard his upper-deck guns that Captain Drummond proved able to save her.(^) Even in the little land-locked pool of Balaclava, the shipping there huddled was grasped, as it were, and confounded and rudely battered together, by the whirling tornado ; whilst, moreover, the captains of vessels which had been lying out- side, seized the one hope of saving their crafts which seemed to be left them, and lawlessly drove their way in, carrying yet more confusion and havoc into a crashing thicket of bulwarks, and masts, and spars. On shore no less than at sea the hurricane raged. It tore up trees by the roots, and not only were houses unroofed, but even those vast sheets of metal which covered in the naval magazines of Sebastopol were partly carried away.('^) Into the camp of the Allies the tem- pest at once brought ' unspeakable misery.'(^) The tents not only fell, but were many of them torn to pieces and swept away utterly, with all the things they contained.(^) Affrighted horses broke loose, and (until struck down by the whirl-