The report was not reassuring, but they could say no more.
Weeks passed on, and the two armies lay watching each other from the heights they occupied.

At last it was determined to utilize the magnificent fleet which had hitherto done so little.

Accordingly an expedition was prepared, whose object was to destroy the forts at Kinburn and occupy that place, and so further reduce the sources from which the Russians drew their food.
The sight was an imposing one, as the allied squadrons in two long lines steamed north past the harbor of Sebastopol.

The British contingent consisted of six line-of-battle ships, seventeen steam frigates and sloops, ten gun-boats, six mortar vessels, and nine transports.
On board the men-of-war were 8340 infantry, and 1350 marines.

The transports carried the Royal Artillery, the medical commissariat and transport corps, stores of all kinds, and the reserve of ammunition.
The French fleet was nearly equal in number to our own.
Steaming slowly, the great squadrons kept their course towards Odessa, and cast anchor three miles off the town.