One of these boats, if not more (I have never been able to ascertain precisely what happened to the five torpedo boats that left Odessa), made a dash at the Turkish squadron; the weather not permitting him to use his Whitehead, he decided to try what his pole torpedo would do.  As he approached the head-most vessel, he found (as he explained afterwards to me) that something stopped his way, and he saw at the same time several black objects approaching him.  Nothing daunted, he struggled to get close to the bows of the ironclad; when he got as near as he could manage he fired his torpedo, without, however, doing any harm to his enemy.  Scarcely had he done this when he found himself in the water and his boat gone from under him:  the real facts being that the black objects he had seen were the guard-boats, which were closing on him, the ropes that connected them together having fouled his screw, and caused the disaster; his boat was capsized and went to the bottom.  Four or five of her crew were drowned, as he would have been, had he not been fished out of the water by the Turkish guard-boats, and made prisoner.

The name of this daring naval officer was Putskin.  His cool courage was very amusing.  When interrogated, while still in a half-drowned condition, he exclaimed in excellent English, ’Why the devil didn’t I blow that ship up?’ He was asked if he had any idea what stopped him, and it was suggested to him that something must have fouled his screw.  He answered, ’I don’t know what stopped me, but why the devil didn’t I blow the ship up?’ I told him that I had a sort of notion he might be hanged for using such a fearful weapon.  He said, ’No brave man would hang me; but why,’ &c.

He seemed to have only one idea, and that was he was a fool for having failed.  He was too good a man to let go, so we kept him till nearly the end of the war.

Wherever he may be now he is a fine fellow, whose bravery I for one shan’t forget in a hurry.

A short time after the above-named occurrence the Russians attempted an attack upon Sulina by land and water, with what object I have never been able to understand; as, if they had succeeded, they could not have held it so long as our ships were anchored in the offing.  Perhaps their intention was, by driving us out of the river, to utilise its position for torpedo attacks.

I have explained that Sulina was surrounded by sea and vast marshes.  Along the seashore there was a narrow causeway of sand, on which ten men could march abreast.  The only other approaches were by sea and by the river, the latter, at about ten miles distance, being in the hands of the Russians.  As a defence we had placed on the beach, at about a gun-shot’s distance, several torpedoes, buried in the sand, and connected by electric wires with the batteries of Sulina.  A simultaneous movement was made by three or four Russian gun-boats descending the river, and two regiments of troops accompanied