The Press. — London, England, 1856-01-19 00:00:00

54 The demolition of the docks WAS being proceeded with. The correspondent of the Daily News, writing on the Ist, gives the following account of the FURTHER DESTRUCTION OF DOCKS AT SEBASTOPOL. It had been the intention of our engineers to blow in a portion of the English half of the docks last Saturday, but owing to the prevalence of water all could not be got ready for that purpose before yesterday afternoon. At head quarters at ten o'clock in the mornin . g ^^' known whether -bre to Ilre more than the three in the left side of the basin ; and, although thelrench had arranged to blow up their east dock, the entrance pier of their west dock, and their half of the left side of the basin which joined us, still I know that the quartermaster-general of the army was not aware of the French intention, nor was he of ours till late in the after noon. For this extreme secrecy I can see no reason. To show how few officers were present actually to see the docks, I will just give you their names. At the first ex plosion ( French and English), besides several French engineers, I noticed Sir W. Codrington and his two aides de-camp ; Lieut.-Colonel Hon. L. Curzon and Captain Ponsonby ; Sir Hugh Rose, our commissioner at French head quarters; Lieut.-Colonel Turner, commandant of the Karabelnaia; the two Town Majors ; Captain Cooch, 62nd; and Major Dewar, 49th ; Mr. Deen, R.N. ; two surgeons 62nd Regiment; the officers of the White-build ings guard ; and of our engineers there were present : Colonel Gordon, Major Cooke, Captain Schaw, Major Ewart, Lieuts. Brine and Donnelly, and Lieut.-Colonels Lloyd and Bourchier, together with the four engineers who have been employed on the demolitions, viz., Major Nicholson and Lieuts. Cumberland, Gordon, and Graham. At the second explosion, four hours later, which the French engineers appeared to take great interest in, there were present, in addition to the foregoing, General Froissard, of the French engineers; the French commandant of the Karabelnaia, Colonel Percy Herbert, and Lieut.-Colonel Lefroy, R.A. It was at six minutes to one that the drum was beaten by the French sapper for the thirty-nine French and four English engineers to light their port-fires. At five and a quarter minutes, the drum beat two taps for all to be ready, and at four and three quarter minutes to one the drum beat one more tap to fire ; in six and a half minutes afterwards the charges in the side and bottom of the French east dock exploded almost simul taneously. Shortly afterwards the large charges in the piers of the entrance and behind the steps leading down to the dock blew up. These three charges shook the ground all round terribly, and projected large stones per pendicularly up in the air to the height of at least nine hundred feet. In nine and a half minutes the English charges exploded, causing a very neat demolition of half the side wall of the basin ; but the powder was, I think, run a little too fine. After the smoke had cleared away, it was evident that four of the French charges and one of the English had not gone off, the four French charges being two in the entrance pier to their west dock, which was not blown in by them on the 21st, and two in the side wall of the basin, adjoining our charges. The demolition of the French east dock—or " Steamer Dock," as it is called, for it contains the remains of the paddle steamer which was brought from Sinope and set fire to by the Russians on the 9th September—was complete. They appear to have used too much powder, and the right floodgate being blown in against the left floodgate has the effect of making the destruction of the left entrance pier look less complete than that of the rest of the dock. The quantity of powder expended in blowing up this dock alone was 10,0001b5., with thirty-three charges In all. The twelve side charges were each 5001bs. Behind the steps leading down to the bottom of the dock there were one charge of I,ooolbs. and two of 5001bs. of powder each. The remaining charges, I mean those under the docks and the floodgate, averaged about 1101bs. each. After the Russians had fired a few badly-aimed shells, and the French and English engineers had examined the debris, the former again fired the four charges that had not gone off. After the lapse of a few minutes these exploded, and thus the west and east docks of the French half, together with the left side of the large basin, even to the gates, were completely de stroyed. Sir William Codrington now asked Col. Lloyd how long he thought it would be before our engineers would be ready to blow up the bottom of their east dock. The answer was, " As soon as Mr. Deen, who has charge of the voltaic batteries, is ready." Mr. Deen, on being asked, stated that he could not be ready for two hours; aqd at this time it was about two. Our three docks, on account of being about four feet lower than the two French docks and entrance, have about half a foot of water in each of them. As a result of this, great difficulties have had to be contended with; and, owing to the severity of the weather, the sappers have suffered terribly, both by night and by day. At about five the wires and cables ap peared to be getting fixed. The bunk where Mr. Deen had his ten voltaic batteries, and from which he fired the mines, was on the other side of the dockyard high white wall, and up a steep hill. In the bottom of the dock were ten charges, each of 1621b5. These were connected by electric wires to the two cables, making five wires for each cattle, and these two cables, with an electric wire inside, ran up the hill through holes in the wall to Mr. Deen's bunk. Just before the explosion, the force of the electricity war tested at the end of the cables, which were about 100 yards long. At twenty minutes past five o'clock, just before dark, Private Sulley, tinsmith by trade, of the 10th company of Sappers, was ordered by Major Nioholson to connect the ten wires to the two cables. In another two minutes all had cleared away. The moment the word " all right " was passed up to Mr. Dean eight of the ten charges blew up, which were quite sufficient completely to destroy the bottom of this dock. The latter was 191 feet long on the stone skids at bottom, 40 feet wide, and 29 feet deep. At top it is 238 feet long and 9.5 feet 4 inches wide. The revetment at top was 6 feet 8 inches broad. Our centre dock, which in all probability will have its bottom THE PRESS. blown up to-morrow evening, is 230 feet long, and the west dock is :1:1 feet. There is every reason to expect that in another fortnight the whole of the Sebastopol docks will be totally worthless for any purpose whatever. The French appeared to be much pleased at our engineers being so successful under water. They will have nearly as great an obstacle to contend with in their centre entrance. As for the Russians, they took no notice either of the first or second explosions, not eyeitiiirnr;^6 ui wv tneir ` narane Tl..' . and English have been each tti. taking down one of the large floodgates complete, to send home as trophies ; either half of a gate contains twelve iron hollow ribs, each weighing about two and a half tons. The French took down their two halves bodily, and now that these are at bottom of the dock, they have been obliged to take the ribs off and drag them across the basin at an im mense cost of labour. We, on the contrary, by means of 140 artillerymen, under the charge of Major Andrews, R A., and two lieutenants, the whole under the superin tendence of Lieutenant Colonel Bent, R.E., have been lift ing the ribs up by pulleys, one by one, as the halves of the gates stand. Two ribs have by accident been broken, for they are very brittle, so that a half of another gate will have to supply them. A naval officer of the Furious, steamer, with two sailors and three sappers, has been also employed on this gate duty, which is by no means so easy as it may appear. CAMP AFFAIRS. The spirit of the army, from all accounts, appears excellent. The correspondent of the Daily News, writing on the 31st Dec., observes : The troops appear no less cheerful and inspirited than they are conspicuous for sturdiness and health. Their duties chiefly consist in perfecting their drill for future service, and the younger soldiers are rapidly advancing to a condition of frame and training which will put them on an equality with their more experienced comrades in fitness for campaigning. Whatever may be the nature of future operations, the British force will be found, judging from present observation, in a high state of efficiency, whenever the spring loosens the facilities of communication and movement. As to the probable site and plans of the next campaign, the suppositions are so various and contradic tory that they are hardly worthy of notice. Seeing the substantial quality of our roads, and of many of the dwell ings and buildings which have been constructed by us, the Frencb can hardly believe that we contemplate abandoning our present position in the spring. On the other hand, the fortifications which are still increasing around the ports of Kamiesch and Kasatch, and which have already ren dered their position nearly as strong cs was that of Sebas topol, together with the absence of similar works elsewhere, seem to indicate a removal of the great mass of the allied armies, a sufficient garrison bring left for the defence and security of the harbours before mentioned and their imme diate neighbourhood. A fire had occurred at Balaklava, on the 28tit, says the Post correspondent, which threatened great destruction, bui, was happily discovered and sup pressed in time : We have just escaped a great danger. About three o'clock this morning the sentry stationed near the Ordnance Wharf, on the east side of the harbour, observed sparks flying from the chimney of Mr. Young's storehouse. Knowing that it was usual not to leave any one on the premises at night, and that all fires ought to be extin guished about sunset, the sentry immediately raised the alarm, and it was then found that a rafter, left by the builders in the chimney, and which must have been smouldering for days, was in flames. By the great exer tions of the military and bluo-jaeloats, the fire was confined to the roof, but this Was destroyed. The stores were all removed to a place of safety. Had the fire not been dis covered when it was , the probability is, that some of the immense stocks of fuel and forage in the immediate vicinity must have caught, and then many huts and ships would have been inevitably lost. The rapidity with which the engines were brought to this fire, proves that the authorities are thoroughly well prepared to meet any danger from fire that may occur by night or by day. THE TURKISH CONTINGENT. An extract from a letter just received from Kertch, dated Dec. 20, gives the following account of the treatment by the Russians of the prisoners lately captured by them in MAjor APDonald's skirmish : Major Goldsmid returned yesterday, and had met with much civility from the Russian officers. He remained for three days within their lines, and was taken blindfolded to the place where poor Sherwood had been carried, and where he died. On entering the room, still blindfolded, he heard a low chanting, and was then told to unbandage his eyes, when he found himself standing by the body of our poor friend, laid out with the most delicate cafe, and with a priest of the Greek Church praying over him. He had died only that afternoon. The host of Major Gold. smid du►'ing the greater part of the time was a lieutenant of Cossacks, who treated him most kindly. The Russian officers are all apparently extremely well disposed to the English, and one evening insisted upon drinking Queen Victoria's health. There is no sort of hostility to the Eng lish ; and the feeling among them appeared to he that they would be most glad if the war were at an end; but not the least from any feeling of having been beaten. THE WAR IN ASIA. Letters of the 12th ult., from Omer Paella's head quarters, clearly point out the critical position in which his army was becoming placed, from want of transport and of provisions, and the severity of the weather. The rivers in his front and rear were rapidly ricing, his communications were stopped, his men began to sicken, the impetuous current of the Rhion whirling down fallen trees like walking-sticks, carrying away the banks and flooding the country, ren- SATURDAY, dered an advance impossible, so that nothing was left but a speedy retreat to the seacoast. The Sirdar, at length, reluctantly ordered a retreat, and the campaign, began under such prosperous circum stances, was rather ingloriously concluded. The Times correspondent, writing from Zierve on the eve of the retreat. a tt,:t‘o.. the 11l succes s o f t h e expedi tton " to those who threw every obstacle in the way of Omer Pacha," and prevented him from reaching Asia Minor a month earlier in the year. For the present, the army has gone into winter quarters, at Choloni, a short distanceifrom Redout Kateh, where the head quarters are established. Sortign durrzsgouttnct. FRANKFORT, Jai:. 15. THE speech of the Prince Royal of Prussia on the Ist of January to the officers of the Prussian garrison at Coblentz, has excited an unpleasant sensation. It is construed by the mercantile interests here to be significant of war. " Nous sommes press au combat et aura de la victoire," are bold words, and surely ought not to have been used at a moment when the• first statesmen in Europe are earnestly engaged in. an endeavour to find means for the re-establishment of peace. If these expressions were employed in. answer to the blustering tone of a portion of the London press, the Prince should yet have recognised. the wide distinction between the import attached to. language used by a person in his high position, and. the slight value set on the flourishing rhetoric or irresponsible writers. The time was singularly ill chosen for the Prince to declare himself a partisan of Russia, and ready to take up arms against the allies. There is another suggestion that may not he un profitable. The taunts that have seen lasiqued against France by the Courts of Munich, Dresden, and Berlin in their official and Court journals, are known to all. The Professors s.iss and Silgado oi Prussia have sent back Glair Parisian, medals. These sundry contumelies ha ve been puk forth for a purpose, and should they have their intended effect Prussia would probably : suffer bitterly for thus wan tonly provoking the enulity of France. To come to Austria, a real price Ls demanded by her for the unreal value of the December treaty of '54. It is proposed by Austria to take a line between the rivers Wall and Dniester, and intersecting the province of Bessarabia,. to form an independent State with the islands at the mouth of the Danube. Be it well understood that this State, quasi-indepen- • dent, would be immediately under Austrian influence.. This induces an examination of the treaty of Adria nople. That treaty, in 1820, confirmed the former • ones of Jassi, 1792, and of Bucharest, 1812, in regard to the possession of Bessarabia. The line of the Pruth continued to be the limit of the two empires; but on its junction with the Danube the• new line of demarcation crossed the latter river, and rested on the right bank to the mouth of the canal of St. George, so that the islands formed by the differont branches of the great stream were declared to belong to Russia. The Porte also abandoned the towns, fortresses, and the lands on the north or left side of the Danubian bank, and it was further stipulated that all the private property possessed by Mussul _ mans should be ceded to Russia by compulsory sale within the period of eighteen months. At one 011 the earliest conferences after the commencement of the war, Russia voluntarily offered to revise the con ditions of the Adrianople Treaty. This revision should directly re-establish the old boundaries. according to the treaties of Jassi and Bucharest,. which, with the other provisions for the independence: of the Black Sea, might meet the emergency. Thg• Danubian islands might be made a neutral grnitratl for the station of the small vessels " destined to. assure the execution of the regulations relative to, the freedom of the Danube." Thereby the territor rial integrity of Russia would be maintained,, ac cording to the minutes of the Congress of Vienuai, which were departed from by the treaty of Adria nople, and the national honour and plenary rights elf sovereignty as a primary power of Europe roma , / remain thoroughly intact to Russia, But this apparently would not suit the. Asiewr o f Austria. She demands that Russia shall be tr r e-- torially reduced, and shall exchange Eueoposts for Asiatic dominion. The words of the Vieunese4' urnal shall be quoted t • Russia should pursue in good faith. kor histus mis sion, which is to propagate the civilisation. of I , uro pe in Asiatic countries inhabited by a pastorali alai t nomadic people. The Czar should decide on *mho ,raging the sceptre of the protector of Europe for that o f a great Asiatic power. That means, observes Le Nord, [that Russia is not a. European coati on, that F e should be thrown back into Asia fnout tsi aence she has issued.