to transport these necessary supplies. They shipped out the equipment and materials for building the railway, which had been intended for other undertakings, together with an army of navvies to carry out the work. Within seven weeks, in severe winter conditions, the railway from Balaclava to the troops besieging Sevastopol was completed. It then became possible to move supplies easily to the front and Sevastopol was finally taken in September 1855. Worldwide expansion In addition to building more railways in Britain and in other European countries, Brassey undertook contracts in other continents. In South America his railways totalled , in Australia , and in India and Nepal . In 1866 there was a great economic slump, caused by the collapse of the bank of Overend, Gurney and Company, and many of Brassey's colleagues and competitors became insolvent. However, despite setbacks, Brassey survived the crisis and drove ahead with the projects he already had in hand. These included the Lemberg (now Lviv) and Czernowicz (now Chernivtsi) Railway in Galicia (part of Austrian Empire) which continued to be constructed despite the Austro-Prussian War which was taking place in the locality. From 1867 Brassey's health was beginning to decline, but he continued to negotiate further contracts, including the Czernowicz and Suczawa Railway in the Austrian Empire. In 1868 he suffered a mild stroke but he continued to work and in April 1869 he embarked on an extensive tour of over in Eastern Europe. By the time of his death he had built one mile in every twenty miles of railway in the world. Non-railway contracts Brassey's works were not limited to railways and associated structures. In addition to his factories in Birkenhead, he built an engineering works in France to supply materials for his contracts there. He built a number of drainage systems, and a waterworks at Calcutta. Brassey built docks at Greenock, Birkenhead, Barrow-in-Furness and London. His London docks were the Victoria Docks which had a water area of over . The contract for this was agreed in 1852 in partnership with Peto and Betts and the docks were opened in 1857. Also included in the contract were warehouses and wine vaults totalling an area of about . The dockside machinery was worked by hydraulic power supplied by William Armstrong. The dock had links to Brassey's London, Tilbury and Southend Railway and thereby to the entire British rail system. In 1861 Brassey