The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-09 00:00:00

THE AGAMEMNON.

The Agamemnon led in (she was within 500 yards of
Fort Constantine, and had only two feet water under her
bottom), and the Albion made signal, "Where you go I
will follow." We cleared for action in the morning, and
weighed about half-past eleven ; we then gave the men
their dinners. A little after twelve we proceeded for the
forts, leading in the English fleet. Ourselves, and two
other line-of-battle ships, were to attack one face of Fort
Constantine, the largest fort on the northern side of the
entrance ; but before we could get at this, there were
three very annoying small forts, of five or six very
large guns each. Three other ships were told off for
these, but, by some mistake, only one came in in
time. I believe the other two were Turks 1 We were
to pass these forts, and give them a broadside in pass-
ing, and then take up our own position, which we
accordingly did ; but when we were in our place
these forts kept up their fire on us, as we were closest
in, so we had to direct all our after guns at them,
instead of at the big fort, till other ships came to take
off their fire. We then gave it to Fort Constantine
in style, dismounting some of the guns on the top, and
knocking two embrasures into one, and so on. We were
closest in of any ship, and very lucky for us, as almost
all their shot passed over us, and struck the ships which
kept outside. lam almost sure if it had not been for
those beastly little forts we should have had Fort Con-
stantine down. Our fire was admirable, and the "Aggy"
is now the admiration of all the fleet, both French and
English. They say the way we took up our position un-
der that heavy fire was superb. We were between six and
seven hours under fire, and are fearfully mauled about
our rigging, masts, and yards : we were hulled about 30
times, and had four men killed and 27 wounded. No
office's on board us have been seriously hurt two of the
wounded are not expected to live, and two have suffered
amputation. We have a good many shot between
wind and water, but our hull is not seriously damaged.
The Russians fire shot, shell, chain shot, rockets, and
everything you could think of, at us, but we never altered
our position from beginning to end. If half the shot
they fired at us had hit us, our loss must have been
fearful. Can you fancy 2,000 guns firing away as hard
as they can ; all the Russian batteries, forts, and ships
in harbour firing at our troops and us ; and we at them.
The row was trerneedous ; and the roar of shot, and the
bursting of shells, all round, was a most awful sight.
NIGHT SURVEY UNDER TUN FORTS.

The night before the bombardment a boat, with muffled
oars, was sent to explore the two shoals ; the crew went
all round, and so close in that they could hear the
people talk, and would have been able to understand
what they said had they known their language. Two
small Russian steamers, which were likewise outside o
the sunken vessels when the action began were lying off
the entrance, but mistook the boat, as it seems, for a
Russian. According to the observations made the depth
of water is so uncertain and variable that large vessels
guns at Fort
aground, and the
could not enter beyond eight fathoms of water, which
THE COLOMBO.
scarcely brings them within 1,500 or 1,800 yards,
and Oriental
The Colombo, which went in under the
on men. If any of
and survive, they will
Constantine to tow out the Rodney
eSpoinilepfasnlyd.isanbleedr,cbreewlonagres Peninsulartsootuhteharapt
them were injured by the enemy
receive pensions from the Government.

THE SHIP SWARTHMORE.—A letter has been received
from Mr. Luckes, the chief officer of the Swarthmore,
by a friend in London, in which it is stated that that
vessel left Hobson's-bay, Melbourne, on the 16th of Juno
last, with a large quantity of gold, and about 25 passen-
gers, and made rapid way until the 23th of that month,
when she encountered a terrific gale, which strained
her very much. A few days after she encountered a
second violent gale, when she leaked so much that the
crew and passengers were obliged to work incessantly at
the pumps for eighteen days. She succeeded in reaching
Tahiti, where it will be necessary fur them to discharge
the cargo, in order to ascertain the amount of damage
done to the ship.
TuE Loss of? THE FORIRIINNER.—PIymouth, Nov.
S.—lntelligence has been received here of the loss of
this steamer, under the command of Captain Johnson.
She left this port on the 24th of August with the out-
ward mails for the coast of Africa, and was due on her
homeward ♦oyage to-day, but was not expectede_ fot_r4wctolt
days in consequence of its having been arraariTndeirdssatry,
her passage out she should expend 48 hcutr.,thfe
ner
CX•
ip:
on
dsitethei oeknilni
ngTe
,thowe loa'bsotraeirnu
considerednn e Forerunner, althoughcommunicationtefttal s rnil
arrived with the mails days beforethe
.
This was the first voyage of
Johnson took command ;. p allest steamer
and invariably
" she was expected.
rorerunnerthnce Capt.
Ca t. Barnwell, her old. COLA•
0/11
wander, baying kepi. App ted_ to the gthtope..
____