Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/101

OPERATIONS IN THE SKA OF AZOF. 7 1 vessels composing the squadrons were — because CHAP. of the shoal — lying off the town and port of Taganrog at a distance of nearly ten miles, the question was how, without them, to provide such a fire as would cover the landing of men. The seamen bent their minds to the problem ; aud Commander Cowper Coles of the Stromboli con- trived a raft which would pass over the shoals with a gun of 42 cwt. well planted in battery ; whilst Lieutenant - Commander Horton of the Ardent imagined, and constructed with ham- mocks, what the men called ' a bed ' — a bed so disposed on board the pinnace of his ship, that it furnished the needed support for a 32-pounder in action. Due experiment afterwards proved that the raft and the pinnace thus planned would, each of them, answer its purpose ; and, with only those means of attack which have now been sufficiently indicated, the French and English captains agreed that their endeavours to burn down the stores which the Czar had collected at Taganrog should begin the next day, the 3d, at 3 o'clock in the morning. But at sunset — despatched opportunely by Admiral Lyons — there hove in sight three river- steamers, light enough to move over the shoal, and carrying, each, one or more guns, with also twelve launches withdrawn from the line-of-battle ships. This welcome reinforcement supplied the exact means of action required for closing upon the enemy's stores in spite of the shoal which protected them.