The Press.
London, England, 1854-05-13 00:00:00

THE BOMBARDMENT OF ODESSA.

Letters have been received from the Black Sea
fleet communicating the details of the attack upon
Odessa. From various correspondents of the morning
journals we collect the following narrative of the affair.
On the 17th of April (the French official declaration
of war having arrived) both fleets sailed for Odessa,
before which place they anchored on the afternoon
of the 20th. An explanation was demanded of Ge-
neral Osten•Sacken, the military governor, as to his
reasons for outraging a flag of truce, always held sa-
cred by all nations pretending to civilisation. The
general returned an unsatisfactory answer, declaring
that he did not tire upon the boat, but upon the
Furious, which, not heeding the signals had, he un-
truly stated, steamed up the bay for the pur-
pose of examining it. Upon this the admirals sent
in a demand for the delivery of all the shipping in
the port, and, in the event of no answer arriving
before sunset on the 21st, declared that they would
punish this outrage on the law of nations. On the
morning of the 22nd the steamers of the combined
fleets accordingly attacked the imperial Mole.
Odessa has often been compared in general aspect
to Brighton, but the line of cliffs on which the town
stands has a slight curve inwards, forming a shallow
bay, with a radius of some three miles. These cliffs
face the north-east, and towards the north sink into
low sandy mounds and flat endless steppes. Stretch-
ing out from below them, at the lower end of the
town, runs a long fortified mole, at the end of which
is a lighthouse. This is called the Quarantine Mole,
and shelters a great crowd of ships of all nations.
Their crews are never permitted to go into the town,
but are imprisoned within a small walled-in and
strictly-guarded quarantine district at the foot of the
cliffs. Under pretence of preserving themselves
from disease the Russians have made the quarantine
a hateful political tyranny. At the time of the attack
this mercantile prison was very crowded, and on the
morning of the 22nd each vessel had her colours at
the mast-head, as if appealing for succour and pro-
testing against cannon balls intended for the Rus-
sians. The attacking force had orders to give this
mole as wide a berth as possible, in order to be out
of reach of its tire, and so to avoid the necessity of
returning the fire and injuring any of the neutrals
within.

The following steamers constituted the attacking
force. English : Terrible, 21; Retribution, 22; Tiger,
16; Furious, 16 ; Sampson, 6 ; and a detachment of
rocket-boats under Commander Dixon. French:
Mogador, 24; Descartes, 16; Vauban 16. The sailing
fleet remained in the offing mere spectators of the
affray. The steamers entered in two divisions. The
first consisted of the Sampson, Furious, Vauban, and
Mogador. The Sampson tired the first shot at the
Imperial Mole, which was immediately returned. The
action continued about two hours without cessation.
At seven a.m. the second division received the signal
to stand in. The Retribution led the way. The
Russians had laid down a " lump," that is, an old
vessel anchored to mark the distance their guns
would carry. The allied division went within this
mark, and therefore exposed themselves to loss from
the shot of the enemy. At first, however, their shot
did not reach our ships, although they suffered
severely under our fire. The moles enclosed a mass
of Russian ships of all sorts anti some large stores
and barracks. They showed a formidable array of
embrasures, more than seventy being counted, and
there was a battery between them at the foot of the
cliff. From the large ships, about three and a half miles
off, the attack presented a most curious sight. When
within about 2,000 yards each steamer delivered the
fire of her enormous guns, then wheeled round in a
circle of about half a mile in diameter, each taking up
the fire in succession. Thus they kept wheeling and
twisting about like so many waltzers, without ever
touching or getting into scrapes. The guns in the
mole anwered steadily, and in the course of an hour
the Vauban came towards the fleets on tire from red-
hot shot, and riddled in several places. Happily the
fire was got under, and she returned to her post. For
a long time the terrific fire from the steamers did not
silence the mole. At length it became slow, though
regular, answering about once every two minutes,
and towards one o'clock a shed at the back of the
tongue battery caught fire, and in a few minutes the
whole of that part blew up. The steamers continued
plying the ships with shot and shell, and they were
on fire and sinking throughout the mole, when sud-
denly, from behind some sheds on the low sandy
shore near them, a battery of six horse artillery guns
opened out upon the rocket-boats, which where at
the moment within musket shot. Happily, nobody
was hurt, though a perfect shower of balls fell
around them, knocking the oars about and ploughing
up the water all around them. Upon this the rocket-
boats and steamers opened upon them, and soon sent
them scampering. A few minutes after the sheds

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behind which they sheltered themselves burst out
into a furious fire.

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