The results which had been obtained in the five days which had elapsed from the entrance of the Allied fleets into the Straits of Kertch, independent of the capture of Kertch and Yenikale, are thus enumerated by Sir Edmund Lyons in his despatch of the 2nd June: — ■" More than 100 guns, many of them of heavy calibre and remarkably well cast, have fallen into our hands in the different sea-defences. It has been ascertained from the Custom House returns, that the enemy, on evacuating Kertch, on the 24th ult., destroyed four million one hundred and sixty-six thousand pounds of corn, and five hundred and eight thousand pounds of flour. This quantity, taken together with what has been destroyed by the Allied squadrons in the Sea of Azoff, comprises nearly four months' rations for an army of 100,000 men."
Any comment on statistics such as these would only lessen their tremendous import; but those who had accomplished so much in so short a space of time were not the men to leave their work half finished; and much still remained to do.
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Captain Lyons having announced to the Admiral that by the first days of June the Allied squadrons would be in readiness to commence operations in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Azoff (the north-eastern corner of the sea of that name), a flotilla of gun-boats, consisting of twenty launches of the line-of-battle ships, armed with 24-pound howitzers and rockets, was despatched to reinforce them, and at sunset on the evening of the 2nd of June the launches, towed by steamers, joined the force under Captain Lyons, who had cast anchor on the preceding evening in Taganrog inner roads. The next morning at 8 a.m. Captain Lyons proceeded, in the Recruit, to carry out the measures which he had previously concerted with Captain de Sedaiges, in command of the. French steamers, and having collected the launches astern of his vessel, he despatched a flag of truce on shore, to demand the delivery of all government property, and of all grain, flour, and provisions, in order to be destroyed.