It may be that the performance at Kinburn answered the expectation of the French emperor as regards offensive power, for that is a mere question of the battering capacity of the heaviest calibres, which is undoubted; but the main issue, which concerns their endurance, cannot be settled by the impact of 32-pounder shot, fired at 600 and 700 yards.

Far heavier projectiles will in future be found on all seaboard fortifications; and the ingenuity of the artillerist may also be exerted more successfully than at Kinburn.
Still, it is not to be doubted that the floating-battery is a formidable element in assailing forts, even if its endurance falls short of absolute invulnerability; and the defence will do well to provide against its employment." The works at Bomarsund were taken by means of _land-batteries_, which breached the exposed walls of the towers and main works.

An auxiliary fire was opened upon the water front by the fleet, but it produced very little effect.

But after the work had been reduced, an experimental firing was made by the _Edinburgh_, armed with the largest and most powerful guns in the British navy.
In speaking of the effects of the siege batteries upon the walls of Bomarsund, and the experimental fire of the _Edinburgh_, Sir Howard Douglas remarks:-- "This successful operation (of the land batteries) is very generally, but erroneously, stated to have been effected by the fire of the ships, and it is even strongly held up as a proof of what ships can do, and ought to attempt elsewhere." "But the results of the experimental firing at the remnant of the fort, which, unless the previous firing of the ships during the attack was absolutely harmless, must have been somewhat damaged, and moreover shaken by the blowing-up of the contiguous portions, do not warrant this conclusion, even should the attacking ships be permitted, like the _Edinburgh_, to take up, quietly and coolly, positions within 500 yards, and then deliberately commence and continue their firing, without being fired at! The firing of the _Edinburgh_, at 1,060 yards, was unsatisfactory.

390 shot and shells were fired, from the largest and most powerful guns in the British navy (viz., from the Lancaster gun of 95 cwt., with an elongated shell of 100 lbs.;--from 68-pounders of 95 cwt., and 32-pounders of 56 cwt., solid shot guns;--from 10-inch shell guns of 84 cwt., with hollow shot of 84 lbs.;--from 8-inch shell guns of 65 and 60 cwt., with hollow shot of 56 lbs.), and did but little injury to the work.