Winter, and a deteriorating supply situation on both sides of troops and materiel, led to a halt in ground operations. Sevastopol remained invested by the allies, while the allied armies were hemmed in by the Russian army in the interior. On 14 November a storm sank thirty allied transport ships including HMS Prince which was carrying a cargo of winter clothing.:435 The storm and heavy traffic caused the road from the coast to the troops to disintegrate into a quagmire, requiring engineers to devote most of their time to its repair including quarrying stone. A tramroad was ordered. It arrived in January with a civilian engineering crew, however it was March before it was sufficiently advanced to be of any appreciable value.:439 An Electrical telegraph was also ordered, but <answer>the frozen ground</answer> delayed its installation until March, when communications from the base port of Balaklava to the British HQ was established. The Pipe-and-cable-laying plough failed because of the hard frozen soil, but even so 21 miles of cable were laid.:449
What caused the electrical telegraph to be delayed for some time?
the frozen ground