2-913-927 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The "Agamemnon" and "Sanspareil" attacking Sebastopol, 1854. Crimean War: Royal Navy ships. '...the Agamemnon...opened fire from her large pivot gun on the "Wasp" Fort, to try the range, which the Fort instantly replied to; and in a few minutes more, a large mud battery - Fort Constantine and Fort Alexander - opened their guns, as the ship drew into her station. She appeared to suffer fearfully at this time...She came out of action a perfect wreck, having been struck 240 times; her hull showing gaping holes, her rigging hanging in shreds, her main-yard cut in two places, and almost every spar more or less damaged, including the mainmast, which had two shots in its head. Twice the ship was on fire - a shell having burst in the main-top, and set fire to the mainsail; and a shell having burst in the port side, and run up the lining of the ship, setting fire to the hammock nettings'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.