270 Till-: PART TO BK TAKi;>J CHAP. XI. opinion nf the English sliip Cap- tains : ronciirrnrl in (the next day) hy Lyons. What thfi Knglisli slii] rajitains desired. captains of the English ship.s judged that the co- operation of the fleets should be simultaneous — not with the preliminary bombardment, but rather — with the intended assault* and, after learning their views, Eear- Admiral Lyons agreed with them, declaring that he could not see what ad- vantage was to be ' gained by firing, and then ' retiring, withont the means of renewing the ' attack from day to day ;' and that such an opera- tion could ' hardly fail to encourage the enemy,' because he w^oiild think — and truly, too — that the fleets of great naval States, which desisted from an attack which they had deliberately commenced, must be desisting from a want of power to go on.-f* If the land forces should carry Sebastopol — and the generals were somewhat confident, at the time, that they would do so — it might be more or less gratifying to the lovers of the sister service to feel that the navy, though unable to do more, had, at all events, borne a part in the preparatory cannon ade ; but that humble share in a great triumph was not what the ship captains wanted. They desired that the part the squadrons were to take should be one of such a kind as to be powerfully conducive to the great end, and could scarcely even ho}>c that that would be the result, if the
- Writing' from the fleet, Lyons says that this was ' the
' .strong and universal opinion amongst the captains here ' (private letter to Lord Raglan, IGth October 1854). I have no reason for sujiposing that the French or the Turkish captains dilFered from the English ; but it is not within my knowledge tliat they expressed an opinion on the question. t Ibid.
