. The Royal Navy . one frigate that attacked the western face of thefortifications, found themselves at too great a dis-tance from the forts to be really effective. Thebrunt of the attack fell on Commodore Napiersdivision, which comprised two battleships, fourfrigates, and the smaller and foreign craft, and itengaged in the attack on the south and east of thespit of land on which the fortress of Acre four paddle steam sloops took up actionmidway between the main fleet and that ofCommodore Napier, but further out to sea. Fortwo hours the bombardment raged with fury, untilat four oclo
. The Royal Navy . one frigate that attacked the western face of thefortifications, found themselves at too great a dis-tance from the forts to be really effective. Thebrunt of the attack fell on Commodore Napiersdivision, which comprised two battleships, fourfrigates, and the smaller and foreign craft, and itengaged in the attack on the south and east of thespit of land on which the fortress of Acre four paddle steam sloops took up actionmidway between the main fleet and that ofCommodore Napier, but further out to sea. Fortwo hours the bombardment raged with fury, untilat four oclock the principal magazine of the enemyburst with an appalling explosion, demolishing alarge portion of the town and fortifications in itsneighbourhood, as well as the bulk of two regimentsof infantry that were in its vicinity, standing toarms in readiness to repel any attempt at is believed that this effect was achieved by theexplosion of a shell fired from one of the steam BATTLESHIP QUEEN1839 1 9. LAST OF THE WOODEN WALLS 213 vessels. The result absolutely disheartened theenemy; but whilst their fire slackened, ours con-tinued with unabated energy, and by sunsetscarcely two score of the guns in the enemyspowerful batteries remained serviceable. At day-break some deserters came off with the news thatthe garrison was evacuating the town, and shortlyafterwards our men took possession of it in thename of the Sultan. What the exact losses of theenemy amounted to is uncertain, but they musthave been enormously heavy, for the loss causedby the explosion of the magazine alone is variouslycomputed at from one thousand two hundred totwo thousand lives. The loss of the allies wastrifling. In all, the British lost but twelve killedand thirty-two wounded, and the Austrians twokilled and six wounded, and the Turkish flagshipfour killed and three wounded. The Egyptiansevidently fired high, for, though most of the shipswere more or less hulled, yet, in the majority ofcases,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectgreatbritainroyalnav
