DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0346
38
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap, tt
the fortifications very badly mounted ; and, as the artillerymen
were proportionately inefficient, he laid the guns himself so as to
command the line of buoys placed at night by the British boats,
concluding that they marked the stations which our ships were to
occupy. Unfortunately for his plans, these buoys only marked
the soundings—the path, and not the resting-places—of our gal-
lant fleet. The powerful steam-frigates required no moorings—■
running in close under the walls, they took up their positions, and
laid their guns with as much precision as so many batteries of
horse-artillery ; the rest of the squadron separating into two
divisions, opened a cross-fire from the north and south-west upon
the town. The Phcenix. with the Admiral on board, began the
action about noon, and plied her powerful artillery with such
accuracy, that she cleared and dismounted every gun upon the
fortifications, where her shot could find space enough in the em-
brasures to enter by : many of our ships, especially the Castor
frigate, were anchored within musket-shot ; and the rattle of in-
numerable small arms filled up the momentary pauses left by the
booming of a thousand guns.
The whole mass of the lofty fortifications appeared like one
great volcanic mountain, enveloped in a pyramid of cloud-like
smoke, through which the lightnings flashed, and the thunder
pealed from every battlement and bastion. The ships, too, were
each enveloped in its own canopy of flame-pierced smoke, sur-
rounding the fiery promontory like a Liparian Gyclad.es : the day
was gloriously bright; and the glimpses of the magnificent
scenery around, appearing through vistas of white smoke-clouds
reflected in the water, were described to me by an eye-witness
as producing the grandest conceivable effect. The cannonade
seemed to reach its climax in the explosion of the powder-maga-
zine of Acre, which through all the brilliant sunshine threw a
glare upon the distant hills, and sent two thousand Egyptians in
fragments to the skies : the batteries to the southward then ceased
to fire, from want of hands to work the guns, but those to the
northward were fought bravely to the last. In the night, the
Egyptians evacuated the town; and on the following morning the
British and their allies took undisputed possession of the strongest
fortress in the Levant.
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap, tt
the fortifications very badly mounted ; and, as the artillerymen
were proportionately inefficient, he laid the guns himself so as to
command the line of buoys placed at night by the British boats,
concluding that they marked the stations which our ships were to
occupy. Unfortunately for his plans, these buoys only marked
the soundings—the path, and not the resting-places—of our gal-
lant fleet. The powerful steam-frigates required no moorings—■
running in close under the walls, they took up their positions, and
laid their guns with as much precision as so many batteries of
horse-artillery ; the rest of the squadron separating into two
divisions, opened a cross-fire from the north and south-west upon
the town. The Phcenix. with the Admiral on board, began the
action about noon, and plied her powerful artillery with such
accuracy, that she cleared and dismounted every gun upon the
fortifications, where her shot could find space enough in the em-
brasures to enter by : many of our ships, especially the Castor
frigate, were anchored within musket-shot ; and the rattle of in-
numerable small arms filled up the momentary pauses left by the
booming of a thousand guns.
The whole mass of the lofty fortifications appeared like one
great volcanic mountain, enveloped in a pyramid of cloud-like
smoke, through which the lightnings flashed, and the thunder
pealed from every battlement and bastion. The ships, too, were
each enveloped in its own canopy of flame-pierced smoke, sur-
rounding the fiery promontory like a Liparian Gyclad.es : the day
was gloriously bright; and the glimpses of the magnificent
scenery around, appearing through vistas of white smoke-clouds
reflected in the water, were described to me by an eye-witness
as producing the grandest conceivable effect. The cannonade
seemed to reach its climax in the explosion of the powder-maga-
zine of Acre, which through all the brilliant sunshine threw a
glare upon the distant hills, and sent two thousand Egyptians in
fragments to the skies : the batteries to the southward then ceased
to fire, from want of hands to work the guns, but those to the
northward were fought bravely to the last. In the night, the
Egyptians evacuated the town; and on the following morning the
British and their allies took undisputed possession of the strongest
fortress in the Levant.