The bombardment of Sveaborg. French gun-boats going to the battery with shots and shell - ILN 1855

The bombardment of Sveaborg. French gun-boats going to the battery with shots and shell. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 8 September 1855. page 284
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Page 283. BOMBARDMENT OF SVEABORG. WE this week engrave three of Mr. Carmichael's Sketches of this destructive Bombardment, the leading incidents of which are described from his notes at page 235, where also are given the plan of attack, together with ample details of the operations. The first of the Illustrations, engraved upon the front page, shows the boat attack with rockets. The French Mortar Battery was commenced on Abraham Island on the night of the 7th ult. The site having been fixed, the men begun work at half-past eleven, and at half past two in the morning, just as daylight was breaking, they left ott, without the Russians having found out what they were about. Next evening, again favoured by the darkness, a number of boats were sent to the island by Admiral Penaud with strong parties of sailors, bags of earth, and war materiel. The men worked hard till three in the morning, by which time they had finished the battery, and thus taken up an advanced post much nearer than any mortar-vessels could have been placed without being too much exposed. The Russians were greatly annoyed when they saw the French flag floating so near the " Gibraltar of the North." For a long time they directed their fire at the mortar battery; but, strange to say, although the rock was covered with splinters of stone and fragments of shells, not a single man was wounded. The French vessels and the Abraham battery threw on their citadel or into the arsenal 4150 projectiles, of which 2828; were shells. During the nights of the 11th and 12th ult., all the materials which had been landed on / the island of Abraham for the establishment of the battery was re-embarked on board the French vessels."
In the course of these operations," says Admiral Penaud, "the movements of the English vessels and our own were nearly the same; it might have been said that they had both been commanded by the same chief, so admirable was the ensemble. The success of the one was enthusiastically applauded by the other."

Some very narrow escapes occurred on board the French vessels. A ball struck the carriage of a gun on board the Tempéte gun-boat, and the splinter which flew from it knocked down Lieut. Lefort. It was thought that he was killed; but when some men hastened to pick him up, he rose by himself, without appearing to suffer from the blow he had received. On board the gun-boat Aigrette, a red-hot shot, passing through the deck, fell into the powder-magazine between a copper case and the partition, to which it set fire; but it was immediately put out by the hose of the fire engine being directed to the spot, and no further mischief ensued. Our Artist has sketched the French mortar and gun battery on the Island of Langörn, 2000 yards from the batteries of Sveaborg, with French boats supplying shells and powder. Time 12.15 p.m. When the French left this battery to re-embark, they painted on the large platform &c., "Left behind -being Russian property taken from Nargen".