2-914-013 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Trafalgar" and "Retribution" at the Siege of Sebastopol - from a sketch by Lieutenant Montagu O'Reilly, 1854. Crimean War: Royal Navy ships. 'During the attack of the Allied Fleets on Sebastopol, on the 17th October, the Retribution was lashed alongside the Trafalgar; at 3.40 p.m. a shell struck the mainmast of the steam frigate about twelve feet above the deck; the top part suddenly perforated the upper and main decks, and was secured in that portion while the ships remained "under fire"...Masts shot away in battle generally fall over the side of a ship, but here we have an instance of a lower mast so suddenly snapped, that, before it had time to incline much, the incumbent weight of yards, sails, rigging, &c., forced it through two decks, where it lodged, after narrowly passing the boiler'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.