Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/373

 THE LANDING. 343 an officer who would do all man could to be fore- chap. most. ^^"- As soon as the boats had landed, the soldiers stepped ashore, and began to form line upon the beach ; but presently afterwards they piled arms. There were some Tartar peasants passing along haps one of the causns Avhich led men to look at the question with something more than mere cariosity, was the siu-prise of finding that, notwithstanding all the charges of want of zeal which had been brought against Admiral Dundas, a boat from his flag-ship (the Britannia) was said, after all, to have been the first to land. According to one opinion. Captain Dacres, with the gig of the Sanspareil, was the first to reach the shore ; and there are antecedent reasons for supposing that this would be likely to be the case ; for, besides that Captain Dacres was (as the work of that and the four follomng days sliowed) an officer of great zeal and ability, he had been entrusted with the naval command on the beach (he was beach-master), and would of course be anxious to reach the .shore as soon as possible. It seems that there got to be, as it were, a kind of race between the Britannia boat and the gig of the Sanspareil, and a race, too, which was a very close one ; for although the Britannia boat, laden with troops, could not match its speed with the gig, it had a start just long enough to make up for the superior swiftness of its rival. Cap- tain Dacres never doubted that he, ^^-ith the gig of the Sans- pareil, was the first to land ; but among those who were on board the Britannia boat (and 1 speak now of soldiers as well as sailors) the belief was that that was the boat which won. On both sides the statements are positive, and on one side they are also circumstantial. They are also rather interesting ; and I would have given them here, if it were not that I am un- willing to place men in an attitude of direct conflict with one another upon an unimportant matter of fact. If Vesey, with the Britannia boat, was the first to land. Colonel Lysons of the 23d Fusiliers must have been the first man of the land service who touched the shore. If, on the other hand, Dacres, with the gig of the Sanspareil, landed first, Sir George Brown, I think, must have been the first English officer of the land service wlio reached the shore of the Crimea.