Pelissier was a bold and a daring man, and a most persistent. He had his own ideas about carrying on war, and didn't care even for offending his emperor. I suppose he thought that after all there was nothing so successful as success.
Pelissier determined to do two things—to capture an important new outwork of Todleben's, and to send an expedition to Kertch to crush the Russians there, and stop Gortschakoff's supplies. He was successful in both.
The Kertch expedition was a very pretty little affair.
Jack Mackenzie and Dr. Reikie, whose services for the time being could be spared from the trenches, both found themselves once more on board the Gurnet.
On the map you will notice the position of Kertch on the straits of that name. These straits, you will note, are narrow, and connect the Black Sea with the Sea of Azof. Into this latter the Don pours its floods, and bears on its bosom the products of immense villages if not towns that line its banks. The largest town is Taganrog, near the entrance of the Don to this inland ocean.
The Straits of Kertch were well lined with batteries, and General Wrangel, who commanded them, had it in his power to make a splendid demonstration against our forces. But if he was Wrangel by name, he certainly was not wrangle by nature; and so he not only cut and run, but destroyed his batteries and burned his ships of war.
If there was a disappointed man on board the saucy Gurnet, it was Jack Mackenzie. He had looked forward to seeing and participating in a real sea-fight of the good old-fashioned sort.
Small though the Gurnet was, it could have run alongside a Russian man-o'-war and boarded; then, once on deck, the tulzie would have been terrible. It could only have ended, Jack believed, in our killing or wounding about half the defending crew, and chasing the others below. He even fancied himself hauling down the enemy's flag, and hoisting in its place the brave old Union Jack, while cheers of victory rang from stem to stern.
But, alas! there was to be no such thing. It was not to be in this way that Jack should win honour and glory and those epaulettes—or the halo.
No doubt Sturdy was disappointed also. However, the whole business was a walk-over. A very sad one, however, for the Russ. For the whole of the stores intended for Gortschakoff, as well as the vessels supplying them, were captured and destroyed. It was only the smaller vessels that could get through the straits, but they did execution enough. Even at Taganrog they destroyed the stores and depots on the beach, and they also bombarded and took the fortress of Arabat.