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12 Oct 55 Peter on board 'Alipore' Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________

On Board the Alipore

Kamiesh 12 Oct 1855

My dear Mother

You will no doubt have heard from John that I have left Kamiesh – such is however not exactly the case.

The ship is no longer in harbour but lying a long way out waiting for orders which do not intend arriving. The truth is, I believe, there is a certain expedition going against Odessa for troops have been embarked and our Agent has gone with them and the fleet, which has been absent now some time and which I heard from an officer of the Royal Albert* was going to Odessa but whether to attack it or not he did not know.

Before this letter arrives you will most likely have heard of something. They seem determined to cut off the supplies every possible way. I wonder they do not have a turn at Perekof,* but I suppose they know best.

I have been very unwell lately. The change of food – for altho’ we are not badly fed, still it is all salt meat – has brought out boils and sores all over me which are very troublesome and will not heal. This latter alone would prevent my going up to camp again but unfortunately there is now a double hindrance. The ship being so far from the shore entirely prevents anything more of that sort. I should however like to see John and Julius again as I did not half bid them adieu last time for having done so so often before I had begun to think the last time never would arrive.

The latter I heard last time was in expectation of going home and I hope he may poor fellow, and I only hope I may meet him there soon. I am very anxious to hear how he gets on and have him always in my mind but it is no use to wish for there is a long gulf between us altho’ apparently so near. I cannot now hear of him but thro’ you and I should like to hear all your accounts. As to John, he holds out well and does not look as if he had stood the winter campaign in the Crimea for his proportions are rather large and increase wonderfully.

We have been painting the ship in which I bore an active part and she looks a little better now. I do not mean because I bore an active part in the operations altho’ I think I did justice to the implements &c. &c.

Yesterday we killed a pig which is the first fresh meat I have had on board yet, except fowls which were not the size of blackbirds and had nothing on their Bones, and I am suffering from the consequences of the salt meat misery. Why we cannot have fresh meat on board like Mr L’s other ships I do not know – but we don’t and so I must make the best of it.

Good bye and love to all

from yr. affect son

Peter Laurie

* Royal Albert – Wooden hull, screw driven battleship, with 121 guns and a complement of 1,050. In service 1854 – 1861. Commanded at this time by Captain William Robert Mends; the flagship of Rear-Admiral Edmund Lyons

* Perekof – Historic city on the western part of the isthmus connecting the Crimean Peninsula with the Ukraine, destroyed in 1920 during the Russian Civil War. A new city, Krasnoperekopsk, was subsequently built about 18 miles to the south