A photograph of warships at Balaklava, more specifically ‘Cossack Bay’. At its widest point the harbour was less than 300 yards across and from the harbour entrance to the head of the harbour was about three-quarters of a mile. ‘The stench along the waterside is very bad,’ wrote Fenton shortly after his arrival at Balaklava. ‘All the dead oxen and horses floating about the harbour have been towed out to sea. Do what they will, there is an immense quantity of putrefying matter which cannot be got rid of. The ground is everywhere thickly strewn with barley, the harbour is crammed with ships lying closer than in any docks, many of them empty, doing nothing themselves and keeping others from discharging their cargo.’