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

THE AGAMEMNON.

The Agamemnon led in (she was within 600 yards of
Fort Constantine, and had only two feet water tinder her
bottom), and the Albion made signal, "Where you go I
willfollow." We cleared for aotion 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 ! 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. xv....-.... L-4 •• .--,t Fix and
seven hours uncle, fire, and are fearfully mauled about
our rigging, masts, and yards i we were hulled about 30
times, and had four men killed and 27 wounded. No
officers on board us have been seriously hurt ; two of the
wounded are not expected to live, add 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 bad hit us, our loss must have
hardships
as they can ; all the Russian batteries, forts, and
and we at them.
in harbour firing at our troops and us ;
bTheu rs
trionwg Novfa tremendous;sshelail
round, anwd
atsh
se roarmostr oonaf
awful sight.
and the
NIGHT SURVEY UNDER 1
cb 1 ir
e lw
u wf fie
en
dt
hear the
language.unde understand
oars, Thenightwae se ebefore
exploret h e
the. bombardmentst;cheatsTirtehaelbyeo;caott,ubwledi
all round, and so clos
and wouldleto
people talk,
what they said had they
when the action began were lying off
the sunken vessels w ° haveknownln been
theira b
- took the boat, as it seems, for a.
small Russian steamers,whichwere likewise otuhtesvidedseespeotlhfs
the entrance, but mistook
variable that largemade
yards.
of water i
Russian..s Aseccuoeredeirntgaiteo
andthe observations
could not enter beyond. eig. ht fathoms of water, which
THE COLOMBO.
scarcely brings them within 1,500 or 1,600
The Colombo, which went in under the guns at Fort
Constantine to tow out the Rodney aground, and the
Spitefel disabled, belongs to the Peninsular and Oriental
Company. Her crew are Southampton men. If any of
them were injured by the enemy and survive, they will
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,
gold, and h
bourne,on the 16th
25thofJune
last, with a large quantity o
passen-
gers, and made rapid way until the 28th 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 for them to discharge
the cargo, in order to ascertain the amount of damage
done to the ship.
THE Loss OF THE FOUERIINNER.—PIymoutb, Nev.
B.—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
1 homeward voyage to-Jay, but was not expected for two
1 days in consequence of its having been arranged that on
her passage out she should expend 48 hours, ifincessary,
in seeking to obtain communication with the Isl iger ex-
pedition. The Forerunner, although the smallest steamer
on the line, was considered the fastest, and invariably
arrived with the mails days before she was expected.
This was the first voyage of the Forerunner since Capt.
Johnson took command ; Capt. Barnwell, her old nom.
1 tnander, haying boon appointed to tko Ethippe.