The allied fleet of 400 ships left the Ottoman port of Varna on 7September 1854 with no clear objective or specified landing point. The allies had been planning to capture Sevastopol in a "coup de main", but decided instead to sail to Evpatoria, which a landing party captured on 13September. Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov, commander of Russian forces in the Crimea, was taken by surprise. He had not thought the allies would attack so close to the onset of winter, and had failed to mobilize sufficient troops to defend Crimea. He had only 38,000 soldiers and 18,000 sailors along the southwestern coast, and 12,000 more around Kerch and Theodosia.