'Sebastopol from the Sea. Sketched from the deck of HMS Sidon'

Coloured tinted lithograph by T Picken, 1855. One of 40 lithographs from 'The Seat of War in the East - First Series' after William Simpson, published by Paul and Dominic Colnaghi and Company, 24 April 1855.

The sailors aboard HMS 'Sidon' stand next to a 68-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading gun. This weapon was used during the Crimean War (1854-1856) by both the Army and Royal Navy. Along with 32-pounders and Lancaster guns many 68-pounders were taken from their ship mountings and dragged by sailors up to the siege batteries surrounding the Russian port of Sevastopol.