THE 17T1I OF OCTOBER. 373 We have before seen that not only the Frcncli chap. fleet, but also those English steara-ships which ' were kept under way, and likewise the in-shore r,'*^- .^^^a'-'y i. -J ' the wiiole of squadron acting with Lyons, had successively JieeA'ow'^ begun to take part; so that now, when, for the ^"°°''- most part, Dundas's main division had also come into line, it might be said that nearly the whole of the Allied fleet was at length engaged with the forts; and although each ship was firing from one only of its broadsides, it is declared that the cannonade which now pealed from the whole Allied line was the heaviest that had ever been delivered from shipboard.* The fire was delivered from more than 1100 the great pieces of heavy artillery,f whilst, to meet this atuveredr great cannonade, the Eussians could only bring to bear on the fleets 152 guns; and of those there were as many as 105 that were in open-air bat- with but teries firing ovcu' the parapet, so that there were opposed only 47 casemated guns to meet all the broadsides of the Allied fleets.j But with all these elements of superiority on butstiii one side, the strength of hard masonry on the rimosua other did more than redress the balance ; and if
- * From the experience of fifty years, I can assert that so
' powerful a cannonade as that of the 17th inst. has never taken ' place on the ocean.' — Admiral Dundasto Lord Raglan, private letter, 17th October 1854. + 1119 guns, as I make it (621 of the French fleet and 498 of the English), fired from the line of battle, without counting thi guns of the steam-ships kept under way. Todleben gives a greater number, but he includes the guns of some French shipa which were not in the action. X Todleben, pp. 334, 335.
