The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-08 00:00:00

THE DRITANNIA.

The old Britannia maintained her position, and was
exposed to a hail of shot and shell. Both she and the
Furious, to which she was lashed, kept up a very
good rocket practice at the batteries. I saw towards
dusk some very well-directed ones fly over. The Ad-
miral himself narrowly escaped a shell, which burst on
the poop. He was sitting on the poop railing when it
fell.

THE DETACHED STEAHEES.
The detached steamers on the left were decidedly the
heroes of the day. To them was assigned jthe position
north of the shoal running out from the Cape Fort.
While the other vessels went down outside as far as
Quarantine Bay and then veered round and opened their
fire from their starboard broadside, the detached steamers
steamed straight down inside, near the shore. The first
were the Sampson, Terrible, and Tribune, who advanced
like eclaireurs before the Agamemnon and the Sanspa-
reil, which formed the main strength of this division.
These two, after having tried the range of their long
pivot-guns at the Wasp Battery, steamed right down to
the fort on Cape Constantine—the formidable casemated
battery at the lest of the entrance into Sebastopol, and
engaged it. There you could see them anchored, the
Agamemnon at 800 yards, and the Sanspariel a little
behind, enduring with unshaken firmness the heaviest
fire of the enemy, and returning it with great vigour,
while the steam frigates, who could approach closer in
the shoal water, hovered around them, making the most
of their independent position. The situation of the
two screw line-of-battle-ships was the most critical
possible, exposed as they were to a heavy cross fire,
on one side from the northermost batteries run-
ning along the. shore, from the Star Fort inside, and
from the whole outward face of the fort on Cape
Constantine. For two hours they had to encounter the
whole fire of the enemy on that side alone, when the
Queen, having left her first anchoring-place, where the
Turkish flag-ship had come in her way, passed inside of
the other sailing line-of-battle ships from the extreme
right to the left, and came up alongside the two heavily-
pressed screw steamers, and drew off part of the enemy's
fire from them—a movement which, as I told you, was
acknowledged by Admiral Lyons hoisting the signal of
" Well done, Queen !" It was a marvellous sight to
see such an immense vessel as the Queen passing
the other liners inside, and both Captain Mitchell
and Captain Powell, the commander of the Vesuvius,
deserve the highest credit for the skill and enter-
prise with which they took the vessel in as well as
out. Unfortunately, the respite which she brought was
only momentary, for, being in but six fathoms water,
she was in danger of going on shore unless she anchored,
while if she had anchored she would have had to leave
her anchors behind, and perhaps something more, for
she had caught fire from a red-hot shot ; she was thus
obliged to yield to the forzn maggiore, and withdraw.
The Sanspareil, owing to her unwieldiness and the
defects in her propelling force, which fails always when
most necessary, would have had a hard fate had not
the Shark, a tiny little steam-tug, which attends the
Sanspareil as a planet does its sun, or the jackal'
its lion, gone in and- towed her out. The skill aid
courage displayed by the commander of this little craft,
Mr. Balls, second mate, excited general admiration. It
was a striking illustration of the lion and the mouse, 'to
see the little Shark help out the colossal Sanspareil, but
at the same time it was a most gallant feat of seaman-
ship. It is reported that Admiral Lyons sent in the
commander of the Shark with the words—" Go in ; you
will find there a coffin or your promotion."
Both the Agamemnon and Sanspareil were obliged
to leave buoys for their anchors, but they .teft also
some heavy marks of their presence on the face of
the forts. Both ships did net quit their posts until
nightfall, for Admiral Lyons determined to be sunk
rather than give in.