| Description | Sent on board to convalesce after dysentery & fever - so weak he "could not get up the ship's side" - has found one of his saddle bags & now has "clean things for the first time since landing in the Crimea" - no progress in siege - "hammering at each other & no improvement or chance of getting into the place .... We had a tremendous gale & lost 15 of our first transports full of stores and a French two decker ... the nearest approach to a hurricane they ever had here ... we had three anchors down - were obliged to keep the screw going to keep the strain on the cables. As it was we lost one anchor" - half the ships were dismasted - no harbour for shelter & the ships in an open roadstead - The Russians have sunk another of their own ships - a three-decker - in the harbour mouth, totalling 9 ships so far. Weather now getting very cold & trying |