The expedition quitted Bernier Island on the 22nd of March, to make

for Swan River. In taking this course, it was hoped, that if any

accident occurred Perth could be reached by walking. Crossing the

bay, the party sailed to the southward, examining the coast, and

after a brief stay on Perron’s Peninsula and Dirk Hartog’s Island,

the boats on the 31st, reached Gantheaume Bay. Eleven days were

spent in achieving this run: the coasting was very perilous, and the

gales that caught the leaky boats as they swept along, were

terrific. Both were more than once in imminent danger, but the

unsparing energy and determination of the men carried them safely to

the shore. At Gantheaume Bay, however, the landing was not effected

without casualty. The surf was high and raging, and the wind drove

the boats along at a fearful rate. Onwards they plunged, now dancing

on a swell, now pitching in a trough, now quite unmanageable, when

one was tossed over by a furious wave and dashed in fragments

amongst the rocks and breakers. In an instant, its crew and the two

sappers were struggling through the foaming surf, but after tumbling

amongst oars and water-kegs, and the spars and splinters of the

wreck, all clambered to the summit of the cliff, torn, jaded, and

exhausted.[336]

-----

Footnote 336:

‘Grey’s Travels,’ i. p. 396-412.

-----

A crisis had now arrived which it was necessary to meet with

firmness. Assembling the expedition, the captain explained matters

as they appeared, and of which the travellers were only too

cognizant. Auger, who all along had repaired the boats, was asked by

the chief, if they could be put in any kind of condition for

service. Knowing their unfitness for anything, and the impossibility

of making them even temporarily seaworthy, he frankly answered in

the negative. Fortified by the professional opinion of a truthful

and skilful artificer, Captain Grey took his determination at once

and arrangements were made accordingly. On the 2nd April, the party

started from Gantheaume Bay, resolved to reach Perth by marching.

The provisions had been shared out—20 lbs. of flour and 1 lb. of

salt meat per man. The flour was of a brown colour with a fermented

taste, like bad beer, and nothing but dire necessity could induce

any one to eat it. The distance to be travelled was about 300 miles

in a direct line, without taking hills, valleys, and deviations into

account. Corporals Coles and Auger, besides their provisions, &c.,

carried a pocket chronometer and a large sextant, turn about. Coles

also bore the Captain’s rifle, and Auger a choice book valued by the

chief, and a housewife containing some needles and thread and a few

patches. In all the dreadful hardships that beset them, even when

extreme feebleness might have excused them the toil of bearing the

articles, they abandoned nothing until ordered to do so. “Indeed,”

says Captain Grey, “I do not believe that there is a stronger

instance of fidelity and perseverance than was evinced by some of

the party, in retaining under every difficulty, possession of that

which they had promised to preserve for me.”[337] Impeded by natural

obstacles, their progress was tediously slow. The Hutt River was

reached on the 5th. A few days after they touched the Bowes River,

and then journeying through the province of Victoria, rested by the

rivers Buller and Chapman.[338]

-----

Footnote 337:

‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 6.

Footnote 338:

Ibid., ii. p. 1-31.

-----

On the banks of the latter a man was found missing; and Dr. Walker

and corporal Auger were sent in search of him. They ascended the

cliffs and tracked him to the sea; but as a large party of natives

were near them, they gave up the pursuit, and, unobserved,

retreated. The missing man turned up next day.[339]

-----

Footnote 339:

Ibid., ii. p. 31-37.

-----

While this party was out, corporal Coles, who was posted as sentry

on a high terrace difficult of access, saw natives on the opposite

cliffs brandishing their spears in the manner they do before a

fight. Captain Grey clambered up the height, but as he could not

make them out, he thought Coles had made a mistake. “When I told him

this,” writes the Captain, “he merely said, Look there, then, sir,”

and pointed to the top of Mount Fairfax. There, indeed, they were,

going through a series of enigmatical ceremonies. The disposition

which the Captain made of his men, being observed by the natives, at

first excited them to furious gestures, but by degrees, they calmed

down and suddenly withdrew. “The British soldiers and sailors with

me,” proceeds the chief, “were surprisingly calm.”[340]

-----

Footnote 340:

Ibid., ii. p. 31-33.

-----

The Greenough River was reached on the 8th April. Here some of the

men became sullen and would not proceed. In the mean time corporal

Auger went alone to search for water, and soon finding it, the party

was moved to the stream. Revived in spirits by the supply, all

readily resumed the march, and before nightfall, had travelled seven

miles further on their journey.[341] But the wish for short marches

and long halts which prevailed from the first, and in which Dr.

Walker coincided, was now exhibited in discontent. The Captain,

however, wisely persisted in following his own plan. On the 9th

April the want of water was much felt; and late in the day corporals

Auger and Coles and three others went in search of some. They had

made about seven miles, “when the keen eye of Coles,” says the

Captain, “discovered a beautiful spring under a hill, which was then

named the Water Peak.” Why this designation? Indebted to the

corporal for finding the spring, it would not surely have been

irrelevant to associate the humble name of the faithful discoverer

with this interesting feature of the hard journey. In returning to

the party, they wandered over a rough country full of crevices,

sustaining some serious falls, and, being benighted, did not reach

their companions till the next morning.[342]

-----

Footnote 341:

‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 37.

Footnote 342:

Ibid., ii. p. 40-44.

-----

So great had the disaffection become about short marches, that the

Captain resolved to adopt a course to settle the question. About

seventy miles only had been marched, and six or seven pounds of

flour were all that was left to each person. All were hourly losing

strength and energy, and suffering from stiffened limbs. To delay

under such circumstances was sure to bring with it wants and trials

of the most distressing nature. The Captain, therefore, determined

to proceed by forced journeys. “It was evident,” he writes, “that

those men who, during our late toils, had shown themselves the most

capable of enduring hardships, privations, and the fatigue of long

and rapid marches, were those best suited for the service destined

for them.” Among the five selected to accompany him were corporals

Auger and Coles, whose force of character and disciplinary habits

made them fit examples for imitation in so forlorn an extremity. Dr.

Walker’s party consisted of five men, and himself as the chief. Mr.

Frederick Smith was with the slow walkers. The separation took place

on the 10th April.[343]

-----

Footnote 343:

Ibid., ii. p. 45-52.

-----

The Arrowsmith River was gained by Captain Grey and his steady men

on the 11th, and a further march of forty-six miles brought them on

the 13th to Gairdner’s Range. On the 14th, they reached the Hill

River, and after a long journey, halted at a pool, where they each

cooked two table-spoonsful of flour in about a pint of thick water

into a mess they termed _soup_. This, with a few nuts from the zamia

tree, formed their day’s repast. On this scanty fare they trudged

along at a smart pace, over an arid and sterile tract of country,

groaning from pain and fatigue. The sun, too, was intensely hot, and

all grew faint for want of water. Gaining the course of a parched-up

stream, it was called the “Smith” River. Many holes like wells were

in its bottom, inviting search and promising success; but all were

cruelly dry, and the very stones over which the water once had

gushed, were blanched or blackened with long exposure to a burning

sun. Now their weary days only passed to be succeeded by sleepless

and toilsome nights. Almost perishing with thirst, they wandered

like wild men even in the dark hours of night, from swamp to swamp,

digging holes in a vain search. For two days and two nights they had

not tasted a single drop of water or food of any kind; and on the

17th, as they moved slowly on with weak and husky voices, they

moistened their mouths by sucking a few drops of dew from the shrubs

and reeds. So worn out were they all, that now they could only walk

a few hundred yards at a time; but about two o’clock in the

afternoon they were so completely exhausted, it was impossible to

move them. The sun was then very oppressive, and the groans of the

men were painful in the extreme. Some had fruitlessly essayed to

obtain relief to their parched throats by chewing the laces and

fragments of the tops of their ankle boots; but now the “last sad

and revolting resource of thirst was upon them—they were driven to

drink their own ——!”[344]

-----

Footnote 344:

‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 54-72.

-----

Reduced to the last degree of weakness and want, Captain Grey, in

this desperate crisis, resolved to proceed southward, and never to

halt until he dropped or reached water; and if any of the party fell

behind, not to wait for them, but to go on until he slaked his own

thirst, and then to return with assistance to them. Upon all he

called to exert their utmost energies and make a last struggle for

their lives. Every superfluous article was now thrown away, and the

very valuable sextant, carried in turns by corporals Coles and

Auger, was also abandoned. In sad procession the sufferers reeled on

with wild and haggard looks; and though reason with some had begun

to hold but a very slight influence, discipline was rigidly

maintained, and not a complaint escaped them. At length, after

suffering intense thirst for three days and two nights, performing

severe marches under a scorching sun, the delighted travellers,

finding a small hole of moist mud, each as he came up cast his

wearied and aching limbs beside the hole, and, thanking God,

greedily swallowed the liquid.[345]

-----

Footnote 345:

‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 77-81.

-----

Almost in a state of stupefaction the men lay down by the pool,

watching with straining eye-balls until they again saw a little mud

in it, which they eagerly licked up. Pigeons and cockatoos in

numbers came to drink of the spring, but the gaunt wayfarers

forestalling them had consumed the supply. Above, hovered birds in

tempting flocks while the travellers by the “lone pool” were

starving. Not an arm was strong enough to bring one down. The gun

was partially raised, but the tremor of the effort rendered the

attempt altogether hopeless. Each now turned to his own little

store, and cooking a spoonful of flour, mixed with the black liquid,

gratefully ate it. All sense of smell and taste had gone, and a

repast of mud was as palatable as a custard. Next day, April the

18th, quitting the memorable pool, they traversed a very hilly and

densely-wooded country, and finding excellent water, made,

notwithstanding their extreme feebleness, an incredibly long march.

At night they lay down exposed to heavy rain, and, as a piece of

torn and shredded blanket between two was their only covering, their

situation was one of extreme wretchedness and suffering.[346] During

these wanderings, Auger found intervals in which his spirits were

sufficiently buoyant to encourage him to unpack his needles and

thread, and to do his best—being only an improvised tailor—to mend

the gaping rents and fretted fractures in the Captain’s tattered

costume.[347]

-----

Footnote 346:

Ibid., ii. p. 81-87.

Footnote 347:

Lady Thomas, the mother of the chief, heard of these thoughtful

attentions exercised under such trying circumstances, and on the

traveller being introduced to her, she acknowledged his kindness

with no little emotion, and marked her grateful appreciation of it

by a suitable gift.

-----

On the 19th, the exhausted travellers were in motion again, but

completely crippled from the cold of the night. “Corporal Coles,”

writes the Captain, “my faithful and tried companion in all my

wanderings, could scarcely crawl along. The flesh was completely

torn away from one of his heels; and the irritation caused by this

had produced a large swelling in the groin. Nothing but his own

strong fortitude, aided by the encouragement given him by myself and

his comrades, could have made him move under his great agony.”[348]

Twenty-one miles the party marched that day without food, and only

gave up when the darkness closed in upon them. A night of appalling

misery succeeded, for the teeming rain drenched them as they lay;

and the following morning, wasted and weak, with rigid limbs and

shivering bodies, they could only, by extraordinary efforts, push

themselves along. Life was scarcely worth the effort it cost to

move. Coles was in a dreadful state, staggering on like a drunken

man reduced to the last extremity of human endurance. It required

fortunately but a few more desperate struggles to succeed; all

therefore buoyed up their spirits, for, in their deep despair, a

flickering hope still remained; and on the 21st April the five

exemplary adventurers under their captain, entered Perth miserable

objects of emaciation and prostration.[349] Here ended their toils,

discouragements, and privations; and here they were tended with the

best medical skill that the settlement could command.[350]

-----

Footnote 348:

‘Grey’s Travels,’ ii. p. 87.

Footnote 349:

Ibid., ii. p. 88-97.

Footnote 350:

Both received 1_s._ a-day each working pay, and for their good and

enterprising conduct a gratuity of 10_l._ from the Secretary of

State for the Colonies.

-----

Worn as he was, Auger started again the next day with a party under

Lieutenant Mortimer to search for the lagging travellers left with

Dr. Walker, and was out a fortnight. Driven by want of provisions

the mission returned to Perth on the 6th May, bringing with it one

of the missing men. In the following morning the corporal was again

afoot with a second party under Mr. Roe, the surveyor-general of the

province. Big-boned, broad and unbending, though ailing, attenuated

and of melancholy aspect, he marched for eleven more days,

re-entering the settlement on the 21st May with Mr. Spofforth, the

companion traveller of Mr. Roe. The search was successful; four of

the adventurers were taken into Perth, and the starved remains of

the last were buried in a sand-hill. After sleeping upwards of 400

nights in the open air and suffering hardships of extreme severity,

it seems strange that Auger, footsore and tired, should not have

been allowed a horse, as some of the party were, upon which to

travel in these concluding services; and it is even more surprising

that Captain Grey, in furnishing the details of these secondary

expeditions, should have suppressed all allusion to the presence of

the corporal, who deserved, for his spirit and endurance, most

honourable mention.

Months passed away before the two corporals regained their health,

when, in February, 1840, they proceeded to South Australia. Corporal

Coles joined the detachment of the corps at Port Adelaide; and

corporal Auger landed at Woolwich in September, and was soon

afterwards discharged by purchase.[351] Coles remained in the corps

till June, 1843, when he was pensioned on 1s. a-day, in consequence

of the loss of the fingers of his right hand and the forefinger of

his left, occasioned by the accidental explosion of a carronade,

which he was firing in honour of the birth of the Duke of Cornwall.

Captain Grey was then Governor of South Australia, and he at once

nominated his faithful companion and servant to a lucrative

government appointment in the colony, presenting him also, at great

cost, with a set of fingers fitted to his hand, which were so

beautiful in their mechanism and accurate in their working, that he

could pick up a button or a sixpence with pleasing facility.

-----

Footnote 351:

Broken down by the service Auger felt it necessary to seek repose

in civil life. When sufficiently restored he was engaged to hold a

responsible situation in the Pimlico wheel factory, by Octavius

Smith, Esq., of Thames Bank, the father of poor Mr. Frederick

Smith, who was one of the expedition. This young gentleman offered

a noble example of courage, patience, and resignation, but his

delicate and shattered constitution not giving him strength to

keep up in the forced marches of his chief, he was left, in the

painful separation on the 10th April, with the slow marchers under

Dr. Walker, and perished in the bush from want and exhaustion, at

the tender age of nineteen.

Captain, now Sir George Grey, on visiting England in 1854, most

kindly sought for Auger. Naturally the meeting awakened

reminiscences of the New Holland struggles; and the chief, at

parting, presented his corporal with an elegant silver teapot and

stand, bearing this simple but expressive inscription:—“Sir George

Grey to his old follower, Richard Auger, August, 1854.”

-----

1839.

Services of the detachment in Spain—Last party of the artillery on

the survey—Survey of South Australia—Inspection at Limerick by Sir

William Macbean—Triangulation of north of Scotland—Also of the

Clyde—Pontoons by sergeant Hopkins—Augmentation of the corps—Also

of the survey companies—Supernumerary rank annulled—Tithe surveys;

quality of work executed on them by discharged sappers;

efficient surveys of sergeant Douli—Increase of survey

pay—Staff appointments on the survey—Responsibility of

quartermaster-sergeant M‘Kay—Colonel Colby’s classes—Based upon

particular attainments—Disputed territory in the State of

Maine—Movements and services of the party employed in its

survey; intrepidity of corporal M‘Queen—Experiments with the

diving-bell—Also with the voltaic battery—Improvement in the

priming-wires by Captain Sandham; sergeant-major Jones’s

waterproof composition and imitation fuses—Demolition and removal

of the wreck of the ‘Royal George’—Organization of detachment

employed in the operation—Emulation of parties—Success of the

divers; labours of the sappers—Diving bell abandoned—Accident to

private Brabant—Fearlessness of Corporal Harris in unloading the

gunpowder from the cylinders—Hazardous duty in soldering the

loading-hole of the cylinder—First sapper helmet divers—Conduct

and exertions of the detachment.

The detachment in Spain was not called upon during the year to take

part in any active operation. Its services were, therefore, confined

to the works. At Passages the men performed several duties connected

with the squadron; and in addition to fitting up Her Majesty’s ship

‘Nightingale’ for stores, made various essential alterations and

fitments in Lord John Hay’s vessel, the ‘North Star.’ Sections of

the detachment were for months at Aquirre completing the

construction of a redoubt and magazine, and repairing the fortified

house there, and building a barrack and magazine at Cachola Fort on

the Hernani road. Others were also occupied for a period in fitting

up the hospital at San Sebastian, repairing the barracks of the

royal artillery and royal marines, and attending to the security of

the different forts in front of the fortress.

A detachment of the artillery had, ever since the commencement of

the national survey, been employed on that duty, whose numbers, by

degrees, were reduced to five non-commissioned officers and

privates. This year saw the last of that regiment on the survey, for

the men alluded to were transferred to the corps on the 1st April.

On the 20th September, one sergeant, two corporals, and twelve

privates landed at Port Adelaide, South Australia, from the

‘Recovery’ emigrant ship. The royal authority for the organization

of this party to carry out the surveys of the colony, under the

direction of Captain E. C. Frome, royal engineers, was dated 2nd

July, 1839. Lord Normanby, the Secretary of State for the Colonies,

at the instance of the South Australian Commissioners, recommended

the measure. By this addition, the corps was increased from 1,048 to

1,063 of all ranks. The party was composed of men chiefly from the

survey, married, with families, and well adapted for the service of

the settlement. Soon the men were dispersed over a wide extent of

the province, surveying a wild unoccupied territory, and also in

setting off and surveying blocks of land for the emigrants. The duty

was not without its trials; and for months the surveyors obtained no

better shelter than the bush, the shade of some bold cliff, or the

cover of a frail canvas tent. In 1844, when it became indispensable

to effect some changes in the surveying department and in the mode

of its action, in consequence of the increased population of the

colony and its great inland distribution, his Excellency Captain G.

Grey expressed before the Legislative Council his sense of the

accuracy and ability with which the detachment had conducted the

surveys, and added, that no greater efficiency could be desired in

effecting the trigonometrical survey than that displayed in their

labours.[352] Some of the party were constantly at Port Adelaide

engaged in the contingent duties of the station, such as working at

their trades, drawing, &c., and in superintendence. At first all

expenses were borne by the Commissioners, but eventually they were

defrayed from the colonial revenue. The working pay of the party

continues to range between 1_s._ and 5_s._ a-day each, exclusive of

regimental allowances and rations. The sergeant in charge receives

the highest rate, and the privates seldom less than 2_s._ a-day

each.

-----

Footnote 352:

‘South Australian Register,’ August 24, 1844.

-----

On the 23rd May, the sixteenth company under the command of Captain

Stotherd, R.E., was inspected at Limerick by Major-General Sir

William Macbean, and commended by the General for their soldier-like

conduct and appearance.[353]

-----

Footnote 353:

‘Limerick Chronicle,’ 25th May, 1839.

-----

One corporal and twenty privates were detached in May under

Lieutenant Robinson, R.E., to the north of Scotland, and continued

on the trigonometrical survey of that portion of the country until

late in December, when they rejoined their companies.

Captain A. Henderson, having with him one corporal and six privates,

was employed in the secondary triangulation of the Clyde from May to

the 10th October.

At the summer examination of the gentleman cadets at Sandhurst,

there was “exhibited a pontoon raft of very ingenious construction,

made by the sappers employed at the college under the direction of

sergeant John Hopkins.” The raft was supported on two wicker boats

formed after the fashion of the old Welsh coracle, covered with

waterproof canvas, “each being ten feet long by three feet wide, and

two feet three inches deep. The buoyancy and firmness of the raft

were such as to show, that by giving a small additional length to

the coracles, it might be rendered capable of bearing field

artillery, and it was so light as to be swiftly impelled by a pair

of oars. The experiment was extremely satisfactory, and proved that

a very valuable resource in the field might be found in such

constructions for passing rivers.”[354] On several occasions during

the term the detachment were out day and night extinguishing

fires—the work of incendiaries—in the plantations near the college,

and their effectual exertions prevented the destruction of much of

the crown property. Sergeant Hopkins was highly praised for his

activity and intelligence in the practical work of instruction, and

corporal Robert Hearnden for his skill in the construction of

revetments.

-----

Footnote 354:

‘United Service Journal,’ ii. 1839, p. 420.

-----

By the authority of a royal warrant dated 3rd July, 1838, a company

of eighty-nine strong, numbered the tenth, was added to the corps on

the 1st July, 1839, which increased the establishment from 1,063 to

1,152 of all ranks. The formation of this company was occasioned by

the removal in the previous year of a company from home duty to the

Canadas.

In 1838 the Government threw the tithe surveys in England into the

hands of contractors, whereby the parishes were burdened with an

expense of 9_d._ an acre, while the survey executed by the Ordnance

cost but little more than half the sum. The higher price thus paid

to the contractors, enabled them to attract to their employment

civil assistants trained by the Ordnance, to do their work. Many

resignations of superior surveyors and draughtsmen were therefore

the result, and so great a loss from a single class, necessarily

deferred the completion of a large portion of surveyed work. To

provide against injury from any similar contingency, a warrant dated

2nd July, 1839, authorized an augmentation of two sergeants, two

corporals, two second corporals, and ten privates to each survey

company, which, for the three companies devoted to that service,

gave an increase of forty-eight men, making the total sapper

establishment on the survey amount to—

Col-Sergts. Sergts. Corporals. 2nd Bug. Privates. Total.

Corpls.

3 15 18 18 6 255 315

By this augmentation, the corps was raised from a total of 1,152 to

1,200.

At this period, the survey companies were generally employed on

confidential duties and dispersed over a vast extent of country;

while most of the non-commissioned officers and many of the privates

were in charge of parties, performing duties which required the

exercise of great judgment and discretion. The additional permanent

rank was granted to invest the non-commissioned officers with more

weight and authority among their parties, and to supersede recourse

to the anomalous expedient of supernumerary promotion.

The same reason which diminished the civil strength of the national

survey, induced a disposition among the best soldiers of the corps

on that duty to purchase their discharge. Several quitted during the

tithe survey mania,[355] and the vacancies in the three companies by

this and other means, showed that encouragement was wanted to

influence them to continue in the service. To afford this, Colonel

Colby obtained the power on the 16th August, 1839, to award working

pay to the royal sappers and miners under his command, to the

maximum of 3_s._ a-day, according to individual merit and exertion,

in addition to their regimental pay and allowances.

This, however, was not regarded by Colonel Colby as sufficient to

meet the emergency. It was hopeless for him to compete in

pecuniary payments with the expensive parochial surveys of

England, and he therefore asked for two military rewards in

addition to the augmented working pay. These were the permanent

rank and pay of one sergeant-major and one quartermaster-sergeant.

But the Master-General did not view the matter in the same light

as the Colonel, and only consented to the appointment of an acting

sergeant-major with the pay of the rank. This Colonel Colby did

not consider an adequate distinction, and he never availed himself

of it.[356]

-----

Footnote 355:

Several of those who quitted obtained ready employment on these

surveys, and their maps in all cases were of the first class. Mr.

Chadwick, in his report to the Poor-Law Commissioners, compared

the “non-efficiency of persons appointed to make surveys under the

Tithe Commutation and Parochial Assessment Acts, with those

executed by privates and non-commissioned officers of the sappers

and miners. Out of 1,700 first-class maps, not more than one-half

displayed qualifications for the execution of public surveys

without superintendence. Amongst the most satisfactory surveys

were those executed by a retired sergeant of the corps”—Alexander

Doull.—‘British Almanac and Companion,’ 1843, p. 38.

Footnote 356:

In December, 1834, James M‘Kay was appointed acting

quartermaster-sergeant with the pay of the rank. Entrusted with

the care and issue of the engravings of the survey, more than

180,000 passed through his hands, amounting in value to

35,500_l._, the accounts for which, rendered half-yearly to the

Irish Government, were never found to contain a single error. So

extensive a responsibility rarely falls to a non-commissioned

officer. Upwards of forty years he served in the corps, and, for

his merits, received a gratuity and medal. He was discharged in

July, 1844, with a pension of 2_s._ 4_d._ a-day, and afterwards

obtained a quiet unpretending situation at Birmingham, where his

business habits made him of essential service in the promotion of

a scheme for a loan society on liberal principles.

-----

In July, 1839, before the increased working pay was granted, the

following was the distribution of the companies on the survey

according to classes.

s. d. No.

Receiving less than 1 0 a-day 19

” 1 0 ” 25

{ 1st 1 1 ” 15

{ 2nd 1 2 ” 12

{ 3rd 1 3 ” 17

{ 4th 1 4 ” 17

{ 5th 1 5 ” 24

Colonel Colby’s { 6th 1 6 ” 26

Classes. { { 1 7 ” 20

{ A { 1 8 ” 17

{ { 1 9 ” 5

{ { 1 10 ” 3

{ B { 1 11 ” 1

{ { 2 0 ” 5

——

206 [357]

The qualifications demanded of surveyors to render them deserving of

advancement were as follows:—

_Class 1st._—To be capable of surveying for content—flat

country.

_Class 2nd._—Surveying for content—hilly country, including the

use of the theodolite, taking the horizontal and vertical

angles, as well as reducing the lines to the horizontal planes

of the links on the arch.

_Class 3rd._—Competent to register angles and distances, and to

make a content plot.

_Class 4th._—Able to compute areas, and horizontal and vertical

distances and triangles.

_Class 5th._—Able to lay out town lands or parishes for content

with skill, so as to prevent confusion or unnecessary labour

in the subsequent measurements.

_Class 6th._—Fully acquainted with every branch of content

surveying, and capable of directing parties of content

surveyors.

_Class_ A.—Competent to survey and plot roads, &c.

_Class_ B—Competent to draw plans.

-----

Footnote 357:

The above detail does not exhibit a true exposition of the

acquirements and usefulness of the survey companies, as many of

those not advanced to the classes, had been reduced from the

higher to the lower rates for irregularity; and others, on the

higher rates, were not advanced as soon as their qualifications

merited, it being a principle with the Colonel, not to exhaust the

limited power he possessed of awarding working pay, because he

wisely considered nothing was more discouraging to human exertions

than the knowledge, that those whose duty it was to reward, had no

further power to grant them encouragement.

-----

In all the classes, every man was expected to do his work

accurately; and if, in addition, he showed rapidity with correctness

and neatness, special encouragement was given to such sappers by the

grant of a proportional allowance.

Second-corporal Robert Hearnden and two lance-corporals were

attached on the 9th July to Colonel Mudge, R.E., and Mr.

Featherstonhaugh, to assist in the topographical survey of the

disputed territory in the state of Maine, with a view to the

settlement of the boundary question. The sappers were dressed in

plain clothes, suitable to the climate; and after a brief stay at

New York, and subsequently at Boston, entered Fredericton on the

19th August. Sixty-two canoes were hired for the service of the

commission, and about 100 men, chiefly Indians, to man them.

Lance-corporal William McGregor was left at the observatory at the

Grand Falls, St. John’s; and on every day, at intervals of two

hours, registered the indications of the five different barometers

placed in his charge. Corporal Hearnden and lance-corporal John

McQueen were employed with the Commissioners; and, in tracing the

sources of the rivers and finding the heights of land, aided in

registering the results of the instruments used to determine their

altitudes. This employment necessarily kept them much afloat; they

moved daily to reconnoitre; and in doing so, the stores and

equipage, for which they were responsible, were invariably sent

onwards under their charge. At night they slept in tents by the

shores of the streams where their day’s labour ended, and in winter

were much exposed to great inclemency of weather and sometimes

personal danger. Once corporal McQueen, under circumstances of

peculiar peril, saved from drowning a servant of one of the

commissioners, and held him with his powerful arm, by the collar, at

the side of the canoe for about an hour, until he reached land. The

canoe at the time was crossing the first lake on the Allagash, about

three miles broad, and was freighted with baggage. Had he taken the

sufferer into the canoe it would have foundered, as it was then sunk

in the water to the gunwale. Corporal McQueen also met with personal

misfortune in the loss by fire of his necessaries. Late in November

the party reached Fredericton, and arrived at Woolwich on the 24th

January, 1840. Each received 1_s._ a-day working pay, and as a

reward for having performed their duties in a satisfactory manner, a

gratuity of 10_l._

Previously to undertaking the destruction of the wreck of the ‘Royal

George,’ at Spithead, Colonel Pasley made various experiments with

the diving-bell. The common form was rectangular, and proved under

certain circumstances very dangerous. The diving-bell in Chatham

dockyard was fitted up by carpenters of the corps, and when

completed, resembled in its horizontal section, that of a boat

twelve and a half feet long, and four and a half broad.[358] On the

14th May the altered bell was tried from the ‘Anson,’ 72, in the

Medway, near Gillingham. Captain M. Williams, R.E., was the

executive officer: he had with him a party of the corps and some

riggers, &c., to work the bell. Sergeant-major Jones was the first

man of the sappers to enter it, and on that day the experiments

fully proved its efficacy for hazardous service. Colonel Pasley

thereupon determined to use it at Spithead.[359]

-----

Footnote 358:

‘United Service Journal,’ i, 1840, p. 74.

Footnote 359:

Ibid., 1840, p. 74.

-----

In the experiments which from time to time were made with the

voltaic battery, serjeant-major Jones was always appointed to

assist. Colonel Pasley had a high opinion of his experience, and of

the quickness with which he saw a difficulty and proposed a remedy.

The operation of passing the priming wires through water into the

bursting charges of powder, was brought to perfection by Captain

Sandham, of the royal engineers. Hitherto tape had been wrapped all

round the priming wires, and paid over the outside with waterproof

composition, leaving the inside of the tapes, and the wires embraced

by them, quite clean, “which formed two circular open joints, and

therefore was rather a curious sort of connexion.” But the improved

arrangement consisted in adopting the “expedient of smearing over or

saturating with sergeant-major Jones' waterproof composition, the

wires themselves, as well as every other part of the other materials

used in this junction, whether tape, thread, hemp, twine, wooden

plugs, and caps to prevent contact with the leaden pipe in which the

priming apparatus was inclosed, or canvas tops applied over the

wooden cap which served to cement it to the outside of the cylinder

containing the great charge.” In the judicious use of that valuable

composition, very extraordinary proofs of its excellence afterwards

came to light in the operations at Spithead.[360]

-----

Footnote 360:

‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 76. “The sergeant-major’s

composition was simply pitch softened by bees'-wax and tallow. He

had tried a great number of experiments for ascertaining the best

sort of waterproof composition for bags of gunpowder in 1832, when

Bickford’s fuses were first used by the corps at Chatham. He also

at the same period discovered the means for imitating _Bickford’s

fuses_ in an efficient manner. His _imitation_ fuses, however,

were not precisely the same, as Bickford’s fuses were evidently

made by machinery.”—‘United Service Journal,’ ii. 1839, p.

192-193.

-----

The ‘Royal George,’ a first-rate man-of-war of 100 guns, was overset

at Spithead June 28th, 1782,[361] and for nearly sixty years, that

leviathan wreck had been lying in the roadstead, a danger to

shipping. Several enterprising individuals had attempted or proposed

to raise or remove it, but with unavailing results. At length

Colonel Pasley undertook the task, and in a few summers, by means of

gunpowder, effected its entire demolition and removal. Many guns had

been previously recovered, but the number still at the bottom was

estimated in value at more than 5,000_l._

-----

Footnote 361:

By this catastrophe, Admiral Kempenfeldt and a crew of many

hundreds of seamen, with nearly 100 women and 200 Jews, then on

board, perished.—‘Haydn’s Dates.’

-----

Under the auspices of the Admiralty, Colonel Pasley repaired to

Portsmouth from Chatham with the necessary stores and a detachment

of the corps, consisting of sergeant-major Jenkin Jones, one bugler,

a clerk, and thirteen rank and file under the command of Captain M.

Williams, of the corps, who was afterwards relieved by Lieutenant J.

F. A. Symonds, royal engineers. The rank and file comprised a

collar-maker and a cooper, with a proportion of carpenters,

blacksmiths, and tinmen. After being removed from the ‘Queen,’ navy

lighter on the 20th August, to the ‘Success,’ frigate hulk, then

anchored near the wreck, operations commenced on the 21st, and were

continued with diligence till the 4th November. They were then

suspended till the return of the summer. During the service, the

sappers, and the seamen, marines, &c., were divided into two squads,

and attached to two lumps moored about 100 fathoms apart, with the

wreck between them. From these lumps the work was usually carried

on. Each lump had its own diver. Lieutenant Symonds directed the

operations of one, and sergeant-major Jones the other. “Thus a

friendly emulation took place between the whole of the men

employed,” each party working for the success of its own diver, “and

the divers themselves being no less anxious to surpass each

other.”[362]

-----

Footnote 362:

‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 164.

-----

Two of the great explosions failed, but two succeeded, besides a

vast number of smaller ones, which shook the wreck and opened its

sides and cleared its decks. The labour consequent on the success of

the divers was immense, and the recovery of articles and guns gave

promise of realizing more than sufficient to cover the outlay in

carrying on the work. The more particular duties of the sappers did

not prevent them taking a full share of the labour at the capstan

and the ropes. When not employed in the general duties of the

operation, they were confined to the performance of special ones;

such as preparing the various explosions, managing the voltaic

battery and apparatus, and repairing the latter when needed. “They

also repaired the diving-dresses, and did all the coopers',

blacksmiths', and carpenters' work necessary, including the fitting

up and occasional repairs to launches used for receiving the

materials.” In all these duties they were found particularly

useful.[363]

-----

Footnote 363:

Ibid., i. 1840, p. 338.

-----

When Mr. Dewar, the only bell-diver, was discharged, it became

necessary to train volunteers to succeed him. Two men of the

detachment readily offered to try the service. These were corporal

David Harris and private William Reid. On the 27th August, with

Colonel Pasley and Lieutenant Symonds, they entered the bell, and

twice were lowered, the second time with the intention of going down

on the wreck; but before they had descended low enough, a pleasure

yacht having run foul of the lump from which the bell was being

lowered, it was in consequence hauled up, as every man was wanted to

assist in saving the yacht.

The diving-bell was employed a second time on the 4th September,

with lance-corporal Harris and private John Skelton, as the

sub-marine operators. When the vessel had descended about eight

fathoms, the message-board and caution-line got entangled, and the

divers were consequently hauled to the surface. A mishap of this

kind would have discouraged some beginners, but spirited and

willing, they only cared to succeed, and down again they went,

reaching the bottom in little more than fourteen fathoms. As,

however, no less than two and a-half feet of water had entered the

bell, it was rendered inefficacious for any useful result. Owing to

50 men, hardy seamen and marines from the ‘Pique’ frigate, working

the capstan and machinery, the descent was accomplished in ten and

a-half minutes, and the re-ascent in eight and a-half; but when only

30 men were employed on the former occasion, the ascent went through

the insufferably tedious period of 27 minutes. After these trials,

the diving-bell, which from its unwieldy weight required no less

than forty-nine men to be employed in various ways to raise it, was

discarded and sent into Portsmouth dockyard.[364]

-----

Footnote 364:

‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 153.

-----

On the 5th September a large wrought iron cylinder filled with

powder to be fired against the wreck, was found to have a small leak

in it. “This would have been of no importance, as only a few pounds

of powder were thereby spoiled; but when the whole of the powder was

ordered to be emptied out that the hole might be repaired,

unfortunately, the operation was carelessly executed,” inasmuch as

water which should have been poured into the cylinder was not done.

When, therefore, private Charles Brabant was afterwards employed in

soldering a piece of tin over the hole, the powder still remaining

in the cylinder blew up, and a fragment from it broke one of his

thighs, and then indented itself in the deck. “This accident was

much regretted by every one, especially as the young soldier thus

injured bore an excellent character, and was one of the most useful

men employed, his services as a tinman being in constant

requisition.”[365]

-----

Footnote 365:

‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 156. Brabant was discharged

in April, 1841, on a pension of 6_d._ a-day. He was quite lame,

but shortly after obtained the situation of turnkey to Maidstone

gaol.

-----

The method adopted for unloading the powder from the cylinders when

any was found to be damaged, and for preserving the good powder, was

as curious as it was dangerous. “Having removed part of the outer

casing of lead, corporal David Harris cut a hole through the side of

the wood-work, by which, after emptying a part of its contents, he

got _into_ the cylinder, and continually kept filling a copper

shovel with powder, which he handed out from time to time when full.

At those periods only could any portion of him be seen. When rising

up in his hole he displayed a face as black as a chimney-sweep’s.”

To knock off the powder which had become caked either by wet or

compression, he was provided with a wooden wedge and a copper

hammer. Every precaution was taken to prevent accident, such as

putting out the fires, laying hides on the deck and wetting them

occasionally, as well as working in slippers. The duty was very

unpleasant, and required in the operation more than ordinary

courage.[366]

-----

Footnote 366:

‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 320.

-----

Soldering the loading-hole of the cylinder was also a dangerous

service. “The neck and loading-hole were of brass, in the form of an

hour-glass, soldered to the iron-work. As the hole was to have a

disc of metal soldered over it after the cylinder was filled with

powder, with a plug and some inches of clay between the powder and

the disc, Mr. Taplin, a foreman in Portsmouth dockyard, was

requested to send one of his artificers to do it who was accustomed

to that sort of soldering; but the man sent to do it was

horror-struck at the idea of the thing, and declared he would not

attempt it for a thousand pounds!” The hole was eventually soldered

by private Skelton, though unused to the work.[367]

-----

Footnote 367:

Ibid., p. 323, 324.

-----

The first helmet divers were corporal Harris and private William

Reid,[368] who volunteered to act if required. They went down for

trial in fifteen fathoms water near the ‘Success’ frigate one day

when the regular divers were not required at the wreck. On another

occasion when Hiram London had injured his hand, “corporal Harris

went down four times to the wreck in one slack, and succeeded in

slinging four pieces of timber, all of which were brought up.”[369]

-----

Footnote 368:

A man of varied acquirements, a good surveyor, and an expert

draughtsman and clerk, and assisted in executing the wood

engravings in Colonel Pasley’s ‘Practical Operations of a Siege,’

for which his name is recorded at page 76 of the first edition of

that work. Disposed to habits of irregularity, he never received

promotion, and was pensioned at 1_s._ a-day in January, 1850.

Footnote 369:

‘United Service Journal,’ i. 1840, p. 333.

-----

Sergeant-major Jones, it is recorded, assisted Lieutenant Symonds

with great efficiency, “and being very nearly as skilful in the

management of boats and application of the mechanical powers as in

the use of gunpowder,” his services were very important. Private

William Read[370] prepared the voltaic battery for use, assisted

by one or two others of the detachment, and his skill and

steadiness, at all times apparent, were more decided in moments of

difficulty. “Private John Skelton, a blacksmith, not only did

everything essential in his own trade, but worked as a tinman in

soldering up the loaded cylinders, and contrived to put the

air-pipes in good order when the attempt seemed hopeless. Being

also one of the most active men in boats or at the capstan, when

not employed as an artificer, he and private William Read were

appointed lance-corporals on the conclusion of the service.”[371]

The detachment returned to the corps at Woolwich in the ‘Medea’

steamer on the 6th November, 1839. The working pay of the

sergeant-major was 2s. a-day, and the rank and file 1s. a-day

each.

-----

Footnote 370:

Now sergeant-major at the royal engineer establishment, Chatham.

Footnote 371:

‘United Service Journal,’ 1840, p. 337. A minute and faithful

record of the operations will be found in the ‘United Service

Journal,’ i. 1840, pp. 72-83, 149-164, 319-338.

-----

1840.

Return of the detachment from Spain—Its conduct during the

war—Survey of the northern counties of England—Notice of

sergeant Cottingham—Secondary triangulation of the north of

Scotland—Increase to survey allowances—Augmentation to the

survey companies—Renewal of survey of the disputed boundary in

the state of Maine—Corporal Hearnden at Sandhurst—Wreck of the

‘Royal George;’ duties of the sappers in its removal—Exertions

of sergeant-major Jones—The divers—An accident—Usefulness of the

detachment engaged in the work—Boat adventure at Spithead—Andrew

Anderson—Thomas P. Cook—Transfer of detachment from the

Mauritius to the Cape—Survey of La Caille’s arc of meridian

there—Detachment to Syria—Its active services, including capture

of Acre—Reinforcement to Syria.

The services of the sappers in Spain were of a nature similar to

those in which they were engaged during the greater part of the

previous year; and the diligence and ability shown in their

execution drew repeated expressions of admiration from Lord John

Hay. “They could turn their hands,” it is recorded, “to anything and

everything.” Under orders from the Admiralty, the detachment,

nineteen strong, was withdrawn from Spain and arrived at Woolwich in

the ‘Alban’ steamer, 22nd August, 1840. Its original strength

increased by subsequent reinforcements, reached thirty-six of all

ranks: the difference was occasioned by the removal of invalids,

five deaths, and one killed by falling over a precipice.

Lord John Hay, in a letter to Lieutenant Vicars, R.E., parted with

the detachment in the following eulogistic terms:—

“The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having ordered me to

embark the detachment of royal sappers and miners under your command

for a passage to England, have directed me at the same time to

convey to yourself, the officers, non-commissioned officers, and

privates of the detachment, their lordships' marked approbation of

the zeal, gallantry, and good conduct which have been displayed by

them on all occasions during the long course of service in which

they have been employed on this coast.

“In communicating this expression of their lordships' satisfaction,

I avail myself of the opportunity of again recording my thanks to

yourself, the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of

the detachment, for the zeal and gallantry with which my orders have

at all times been carried into effect, and particularly for the

ability displayed in the erection of the various works of defence

entrusted to you.”

At the commencement of the principal triangulation of Great Britain,

it was carried forward more with a view to the solution of the

astronomical problem connected with the size and figure of the earth

than as a basis for an accurate topographical survey. In pursuance

of this object, a series of triangles had been carried northward

from the Isle of Wight, and continued to the north coast of

Yorkshire in 1806; but a portion of the east of Yorkshire was still

left without any fixed points or stations. The series went along the

eastern edge of the Cleaveland vale; but at that time the

mountainous country on the west of Cleaveland, and in Derbyshire,

Westmoreland, Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland, was

inaccessible for trigonometrical stations from the want of roads, or

other local approaches. These having been subsequently constructed,

a detachment of the corps was sent in May, 1840, under Lieutenant

Pipon, R.E., into the northern counties, to visit some stations in

order to fix the points to expedite the topographical survey. The

party encamped on the Great Whernside mountain near Kettlewell, and

from this time a force of the corps has ever since been employed in

the English surveys, gradually swelling the numbers of the latter,

as the progress of the work in Ireland permitted their removal.[372]

-----

Footnote 372:

Ambrose Cottingham was the first sergeant detached from Ireland

for the survey of England, and he assisted in superintending a

large force of field surveyors. It is recorded that “he performed

this arduous and important duty in a manner highly advantageous to

the service, and caused considerable saving of expense in that

branch of the work.” Beyond, however, his zeal, industry, and the

capability of keeping large bodies of men in full activity, he

possessed no available acquirements. In April, 1844, he quitted

the service on a pension of 1_s._ 8_d_ a-day, and having amassed

some property by his frugality, retired to Mayfield in Sussex.

-----

For the secondary triangulation of the north of Scotland, sixteen

rank and file were provided in May, and by the fall of the year they

had increased to thirty-one men. From this period Scotland has

always had a few sections of sappers employed in its national

surveys; but of late, the numbers have swelled to some magnitude.

Similar advantages as to working pay granted to the sappers in

Ireland were extended to the detachments occupied in the surveys of

Great Britain, to give due encouragement to their exertions. Four

shillings a-day were also granted to non-commissioned officers

superintending large forces of field surveyors, to cover the extra

expenses incurred, and compensate for the labour and fatigue endured

in the performance of this duty.

On the 19th June, 1840, by order of Sir Hussey Vivian, the

Master-General, the survey companies were increased by one sergeant,

one corporal, and one second corporal, but to make up for this

addition, the privates were reduced three men per company. The

establishment for each of the three companies was therefore fixed as

follows:—

Col.-Sergts. Sergts. Corporals. 2nd Buglers. Privates. Total.

Corpls.

1 6 7 7 2 82 105

This measure was recommended by Colonel Colby because, as he

expressed it, “the general conduct of the non-commissioned officers

was so excellent that a selection for promotion could seldom be

given as a reward for a special service without showing a preference

for some class of duty to the exclusion of others equally onerous

and well performed;” and even with this increase, a non-commissioned

officer higher than the rank of lance-corporal, could not be spared

to assist in the charge of the detachment on the Great Whernside

Mountain.

Second-corporal John McQueen was sent in the summer with Captain

Broughton, R.E., and Mr. Featherstonhaugh to the disputed territory

in North America, to aid in its reconnaissance and survey. He was

dressed in plain clothes and wore in his girdle a brace of pistols.

Operations commenced on the 1st August at the Grand Falls, and

ceased for the winter on the 5th October, at which date the

commissioners reached Quebec. Throughout this period corporal

McQueen was in the bush. His duty, apart from the general services

of the survey, comprised the registration of the barometers and

thermometers every hour, often at intervals of half an hour, taking

the bearings of the several streams, superintending the movements of

the camp equipage and stores, and issuing the provisions.

The service was not accomplished without hardship and occasional

privation. The marching, too, was toilsome, and it was the lot of

the corporal sometimes to struggle through swamps and ford streams

where the exertion of swimming was necessary for his safety. The

snow at times was deep; the cold in the morning great; but generally

at mid-day the heat from the density of the woods was almost

insupportable. The sandflies which infested the bush were a

distressing nuisance; and the expedition, to protect themselves from

swollen faces and blindness, resorted to the expedient of covering

the face with a gauze veil, or of tying round their hats a piece of

burning cedar, by the hostile fumes of which the stinging swarm was

kept at bay. On the party reaching Quebec, corporal McQueen was

quartered in the artillery barracks, and worked during the winter in

the engineer department, preparing for the next summer expedition

such utensils and conveniences as the experience of the past had

proved to be desirable.

Both terms at Sandhurst the detachment employed with the gentlemen

cadets, was in charge of corporal Robert Hearnden, and being an

active and intelligent non-commissioned officer, he acquitted

himself extremely well. “With his own hands he completed,” says the

official report, “the masonry of a small splinter-proof magazine,

including a roof ingeniously constructed of tiles so arranged as to

break joint, and imbedded in cement, which gives to the whole work

the appearance and strength of a stone roof.” Both parties laboured

with readiness and industry, and maintained their usual exemplary

character. Corporal Joseph T. Meyers had been several times

at Sandhurst, and was found so assiduous and deserving a

non-commissioned officer, that the governor of the College rewarded

him by giving him the appointment of staff-sergeant at that

institution.[373]

-----

Footnote 373:

On quitting the college became a clerk to the military prison at

Gosport.

-----

Early in May, one bugler and twenty-two rank and file, with

serjeant-major Jones, returned to the wreck of the ‘Royal George’ at

Spithead, and under the executive charge of Lieutenant Symonds,

R.E., resumed the operations which were suspended in the winter of

the previous year. Colonel Pasley had the direction of the service.

The duties of the sappers were similar in all respects to those

mentioned on the former occasion, and the composition of the party

rendered it fully equal to the varied and novel circumstances of so

peculiar an undertaking. On the 27th October, the winter then having

completely set in, the operations were again suspended, and the

detachment returned to Chatham.

When Lieutenant Symonds quitted early in October, sergeant-major

Jones took charge of the service, which he managed with success, and

was fortunate in recovering a considerable portion of the wreck.

Throughout the season his zeal, judgment, and activity gained the

high commendation of Colonel Pasley.

Corporal David Harris was employed for several months as a diver.

Ambitious to earn fame in the art, he rivalled by his exertions the

professional civil divers. With exciting rapidity he sent aloft

planks, beams, staves, iron knees, grape-shot, fragments of

gun-carriages, abundance of sheet-lead, remnants of the galley, and

a thousand et ceteras. It was he who ferreted into the store-room,

and cleared out its heterogeneous contents, recovering by his zeal

crates of brass locks, bolts, nuts, copper hoops, and axletrees. Now

he would penetrate into a magazine, and remove its powder-barrels

and bulls' hides; then, tearing down the decks and walls, would anon

push into a carpenter’s shop, and surprise all hands with

instalments of sash-frames, window-weights, plate-glass, and

engine-hose. Into the craters formed by the large explosions he

would fearlessly enter, and, probed on all sides by projecting spars

and splintered beams, would drag from the abysses huge timbers and

unwieldy masses of the wreck, that strained from their weight the

powerful shackles and gear used to raise them on board. An entire

32-pounder gun-carriage he also obtained; and only for the snapping

of the slings, would have had a gun recorded to his credit. Indeed,

it was on the way to the surface, when it dropped from the broken

ropes and was lost for the summer. A guinea of 1768, the only one

which saw the light during the season, was among the spoils which

Harris had recovered. For experiment this corporal tried to dive in

one of Bethell’s dresses, but after two or three attempts it had so

exhausted his energies, that he was compelled to abandon its use.

From the 29th May till the winter set in, he dived incessantly,

except when prevented by heavy gales of wind, the strength of the

tide, or the occasional sickness which was inseparable from so hard

a duty. Frequently he earned as much as 4_s._ 6_d._ a-day working

pay.

Lance-corporal John Skelton, and privates Charles Symon, Richard

Pillman Jones, Thomas Penny Cook, Joseph Ireland, and Andrew Duncan,

also dived at intervals when available dresses offered them chances

of engaging in the perilous service. In the journal of the

operations Lieutenant Symonds writes—“I find but little difference

between them and the other divers, except that the sappers work with

a better will.” The first two of these young divers were the most

promising. The former, moreover, from his skill and ingenuity as an

artificer, made himself very useful, and his diligence as a workman

was felt in various ways. Most of the delicate work connected with

the diving-apparatus, air-pumps, voltaic-batteries, etc., in which

approved judgment and intelligence were required, was turned out of

the hands of this craftsman in a manner that satisfied to the utmost

those whose lives depended upon the accuracy and completeness of his

labours.

Only one accident of a serious nature occurred: this was to private

Andrew Duncan, who a day or two before had slung a large beam of the

orlop-deck with knee attached, which was hove on board with great

difficulty. He had on one of Deane’s dresses, which required the

head and helmet to be kept upright. Losing this position he toppled

over, and falling into a hole, the water rushed into his helmet and

nearly drowned him. On being brought up his face was cased with mud,

and he remained insensible for several minutes, bleeding from the

mouth and ears. Chafing, with other simple remedies, however, soon

restored him.

Corporal William Read[374] had again the management of the voltaic

battery, which was almost in constant use, and gave every

satisfaction. The powder expended in the operations was 15,000 lbs.

Innumerable were the charges fired against the wreck, none

containing less than 18 lbs. of gunpowder, nor more than 260 lbs.

All the privates showed the greatest energy and activity in the

duties they were called on to perform. Both in boats and the work

necessary for getting up the fragments of the wreck, whether at the

windlass or capstan, &c., in the repair of the launches, the

preparation of the charges, and the loading and unloading of the

cylinders, they were found prompt, spirited, and efficient, and

their example was very beneficial in exciting the emulation of the

sailors. So well indeed had the detachment been constituted, that,

for its numbers, it was equal to the execution of any mechanical

service which the operations demanded. In their general duties

privates James Hegarty and Joseph Ireland were the most

conspicuous.[375] Exertion and ship fare made the whole party strong

and hardy, and a few weeks roughing it on shipboard turned them out

as weather-beaten and brawny as seamen.

-----

Footnote 374:

Now sergeant-major of the royal engineer establishment.

Footnote 375:

‘Corps Orders,’ Chatham, 29th October, 1840. ‘Manuscript Journal

of the Operations.’

-----

During this season at Spithead there was a strong gale from the

eastward, and the storm-flag was hoisted at Gosport. No boats would

venture out, and the ‘Success’ frigate, with a part of the

detachment on board, was in danger of parting from her anchors and

drifting to sea. Lieutenant Symonds was on shore at the time, and

thinking his presence necessary to secure her safety, determined to

attempt the passage. The civil divers, accustomed to perilous boat

service, said no boat could live in such a sea, and the Port-Admiral

refused his permission for Lieutenant Symonds to proceed unless on

his own responsibility. Unable from the raging storm to row out of

the harbour, he, with four sappers, hauled the gig along shore for

more than two miles, and when a good offing was gained, the lug-sail

was hoisted and the boat pushed off. With the tact and sagacity of a

skilful pilot, Lieutenant Symonds guided the gig, now skirting the

furious wave, now skimming across its angry top, and anon lost for a

time between the furious billows of a long, deep trough. To lessen

the danger of the fearful venture, the men lay down in the boat for

ballast, and pulling off their boots, used them, with noble

exertion, in baling out the water as she shipped the sea. At length,

to the utter amazement and joy of the party on board, the gig

reached the frigate. Then, however, the peril was increased, for

frequently like a log she was dashed against the hull of the vessel,

and as frequently nearly foundered; but by the spirited exertions of

the brave lieutenant and his intrepid crew, the boat was eventually

secured, and all gained unhurt the deck of the ‘Success.’ Lieutenant

Symonds then took such further precautions as were indispensable for

the safety of the ship, and she successfully outrode the storm. The

names of the gig’s crew were privates John Hegarty, Andrew

Anderson,[376] Thomas P. Cook,[377] and John Campbell:[378] the two

latter became colour-sergeants in the corps.

-----

Footnote 376:

His career in the corps was somewhat eventful. A noble soldier,

with a spirit that nothing could depress, he was often selected

for unusual enterprises. He received a medal for the Kaffir war of

1846-7. Another he received, and a second-class prize of five

pounds, for his services at the Great Exhibition. Was also

honoured with the order of the Medjidie for his heroic conduct at

the battle of Guirgevo, and wore a medal for the Crimea. After

serving a period in the trenches before Sebastopol, his life was

sacrificed to his excesses. One morning, to the deep regret of his

officers and his comrades, he was found dead in his tent.

Footnote 377:

Was recorded for distinguished conduct in the Kaffir war of 1846.

Accompanying that portion of the corps which served at Gallipoli

and Bulgaria, he was, on account of his experience and

soldier-like deportment, appointed sergeant-major to the

expedition. Through sickness his strong-built frame had become so

weak and attenuated, that when the cholera seized him he was

carried off in a few hours. He died on board the ‘Andes,’ when

sailing for the Crimea.

Footnote 378:

Will be found noted on the same page with his late comrade,

sergeant Cook, for the determination and intelligence he displayed

in the Kaffir war of 1846.

-----

On the completion of the citadel at the Mauritius, the half-company

stationed there was removed on the 7th October, under the command of

Lieutenant G. R. Hutchinson, R.E., in the ‘Isabella Blyth’ to the

Cape of Good Hope, where it landed on the 27th of the same month.

The chief of the work at Port Louis was executed by the sappers, in

which privates William Reynolds and William Crawford[379] displayed

the most skill and obtained the most credit. Four detachments had

been sent to the Mauritius, whose united strength reached fifty of

all ranks: of these the casualties amounted to ten deaths and one

drowned.

-----

Footnote 379:

Both were discharged from the corps by request at the Cape of Good

Hope.

-----

Sergeant John Hemming and seven rank and file embarked at Woolwich

on the 9th April, 1840, and landed at the Cape of Good Hope in July.

The party was detached under Captain Henderson, R.E., to assist the

colonial astronomer, Mr. Maclear, in the remeasurement of La

Caille’s arc of the meridian. All were armed with rifles and

accoutrements to protect them in a wild country, and the sergeant

was selected to take charge of the detachment from his well-known

steadiness and intelligence. Working pay was granted to each for his

services, according to individual exertion and general usefulness,

up to 3_s._ per day.

A few weeks were spent in the preliminary business of adjusting the

instruments in Cape Town, when the party, to which some men of the

25th regiment had been added, left in September for Zwartland and

Groenekloof, west of the Berg River. On this extensive plain the

base was measured with the compensation bars invented by Colonel

Colby, but as La Caille’s arc could not be identified, a new line

very near to it was laid out and measured about seven miles in

length, which occupied from October, 1840, to April, 1841.[380] In

this service the party carried out the subordinate details. They

assisted in driving the pickets and the placement of the trestles to

sustain the bars. These were scientifically fixed by the colonial

astronomer and Captain Henderson, aided by the sappers. Two men were

also appointed to guard the last point of observation whilst the

bars were being carried forward and adjusted; and another

occasionally attended to the registration of the observations. Thus

the work continued until the whole distance was measured. The

delicate nature of the duty rendered it very irksome, and required

much assiduous care in its performance. The jar of a bar simply

would have been sufficient to cause the loss of a day’s work. Nearly

the whole time the sappers worked from four in the morning till

eight or nine at night. In July, 1841, the party returned to winter

quarters.

-----

Footnote 380:

‘Prof. Papers,’ New Series, i. p. 32.

-----

By the terms of a treaty, dated 15th July, 1840, Mehemet Ali was

required to accept certain conditions within a limited time, and, if

he declined, the forfeiture of the pachalic of Acre and the loss of

Egypt were to follow. Having allowed the time to elapse, offensive

operations commenced to compel him to evacuate Syria. England being

greatly involved in the treaty, the British Cabinet at once sent a

fleet under Admiral Sir Robert Stopford to the coast, with which was

a small force of the ordnance corps, to assist the troops of the

Sultan in this service.[381]

-----

Footnote 381:

‘Prof. Papers,’ Royal Engineers, vi. p. 47.

-----

On the 7th August one sergeant and eleven rank and file embarked at

Gibraltar on board the ‘Pique’ frigate, under Colonel Sir Charles

Smith, Bart., R.E., for active duty with the fleet. A liberal

assortment of intrenching and tradesmen’s tools accompanied the

party. On the 1st September it arrived at Beirout, and a landing was

effected on the 10th. Second-corporal John Moore[382] accompanied

the first detachment that landed, and was present at the advanced

position above the Dog River.

-----

Footnote 382:

This non-commissioned officer afterwards broke his leg at Beirout

in falling from the roof of the ordnance store in endeavouring to

get access to a building adjoining it which was on fire. In

January, 1843, he was pensioned at 1_s._ 9_d._ a-day, and

emigrated to Canada.

-----

On the same day the sappers landed at D’Junie from the ‘Pique’

frigate, and after occupying the lines were employed in repairing

and improving them until the 10th October. Corporal Henry Brown and

private John Greig[383] were in the meantime sent on in the ‘Hydra’

steamer, and were present on the 25th and 26th September at the

taking of Tyre and Sidon. Soon after their return to D’Junie, the

whole party embarked in the ‘Stromboli’ steamer, and served at the

capture of Beirout on the 10th and 11th October. On the 3rd

November, sergeant Black and three privates were present on board

the ‘Princess Charlotte’ at the taking of Acre, and were the first

troops that entered that famous city. In all these operations the

sappers were under the orders of Lieutenant Aldrich, R.E. “Their

conduct,” writes that officer, “in their extensive and arduous

duties, and under suffering from great sickness, has been most

exemplary;” and again, in a despatch from Lord Palmerston, the

approbation of Her Majesty’s Government is conveyed for the share

the party took in the capture of Acre, and for the zeal and ability

displayed by them in restoring the defences of the place after its

capture.

-----

Footnote 383:

Was a clever mechanic and a handsome soldier, but his constitution

eventually gave way under the influence of the Syrian fever, and

he died in October, 1847.

-----

A second detachment of ten rank and file arrived at Beirout on the

13th December in the ‘Hecate’ steamer, under Lieutenant J. F. A.

Symonds, R.E., from Woolwich, and was sent in the ‘Vesuvius’ to

Acre, to reinforce the sappers, and to assist at the breaches,

taking with them a supply of intrenching tools. The sapper force in

Syria now consisted of one sergeant and twenty-one rank and file.

1841.

Syria—Landing at Caiffa; Mount Carmel—Cave of Elijah;

epidemic—Colour-sergeant Black—Inspection at Beirout by

the Seraskier; return of the detachment to England—Expedition

to the Niger—Model farm—Gori—Fever sets in; return of

the expedition—Services of the sappers attached to it—Corporal

Edmonds and the elephant—and the Princess—Staff-sergeant’s

undress—Staff appointments—Wreck of the ‘Royal George’—Sergeant

March—Sapper-divers—Curiosities—Under-water pay; means

used to aid the divers—Speaking under water—Gallantry

of private Skelton—Alarming accidents—Constitutional unfitness

for diving—Boundary survey in the state of Maine—Augmentation

to corps for Bermuda—Sandhurst; corporal Carlin’s

services—Quartermaster-sergeant Fraser—Intrepidity of private

Entwistle—Colonel Pasley—Efficiency of the corps—Its conduct, and

impolicy of reducing its establishment—Sir John Jones’s opinion of

the sappers—And also the Rev. G. R. Gleig’s.

A portion of the detachment in Syria was removed from Acre to Jaffa

on the 11th January. About this time, lance-corporal Hugh Smith[384]

accompanied Lieutenant Aldrich to Medjel. From the 23rd February to

the 12th April, three of the party from Acre assisted Lieutenants

Aldrich and Symonds in the survey of Jerusalem and Sidon, halting on

the route at Jericho, Nablous, and Safed. Sergeant Black was left in

charge of the restorations at Acre; but owing to the plague which

had been so fatal to the royal marines, he was soon after removed

with the remainder of the detachment to Jaffa, in the defensive

occupation of which he and his men were engaged for about six weeks.

The party then returned to Beirout, and was occupied in various

contingent services; such as repairing the billets provided for the

troops by the Ottoman government. Here the three men rejoined from

Jerusalem and Sidon. All the party was subjected to much

inconvenience from the want of those essentials in barrack furniture

which formed no part of the inventory of a Turkish soldier’s

accommodation; and, to supply the deficiency, the carpenters of the

detachment made some tables, forms, and other indispensable

utensils.

-----

Footnote 384:

Was discharged in October, 1850, and pensioned at 1_s._ 9_d._

a-day. Out of a service of thirteen years in the corps, he was

eleven abroad, at Gibraltar, in Syria, and China. From the last

station he returned in a distressing state of emaciation and

weakness. There, though a sergeant, the necessities of the service

required that he should labour at the anvil, and the skilfulness

of his work was superior to anything that could be procured at

Hong Kong.

-----

On the 23rd April twelve of the sappers sailed in the ‘Phœnix’

for Caiffa, and in disembarking, under rain, the boat was swamped in

a heavy surf. The men made the shore as best they could, but lost

most of the public stores and their baggage. Before sunset they were

tented on the beach, and, in a few days, the encampment was removed

under Mount Carmel,[385] there to await the cessation of the plague,

and afterwards to repair again to Acre to strengthen the defences.

It was at first intended to take up a station near the convent on

the mount, but that quarter was found to be in quarantine, on

account of the plague being at Caiffa, only a few hundred yards off.

No resource was left but to seek shelter under canvas, which, in a

country subject to endemics, was very inimical to health; and that,

combined with the circumstance of the party being detached without a

medical officer, might have added one more calamity to the fatal

incidents of the campaign. A quarantine cordon was therefore formed

around the encampment, and every means adopted to prevent fever,

from contiguity or local miasma, appearing in the tents.

-----

Footnote 385:

See a representation of the encampment in the ‘Professional

Papers, R.E.’ vi., p. 22. This was the note affixed to the first

edition, but the plate referred to is on so small a scale, it

would need more than the assistance of a powerful glass to

discover the site of the tents.

-----

The sappers now took their meals in the sacred cave of Elijah—a cool

but ill-ventilated retreat. The water at the camp was deleterious to

health; but, after the 21st June, mountain spring-water, obtained

three miles away, was brought for their use. In a country subject to

plague and fever, a European holds his life by a precarious tenure:

the detachment felt this, but bore up well, notwithstanding the

absence of a medical officer. Dr. Zorab, a Turkish practitioner,

made one or two professional visits to the party, and then Mr.

Robertson, Deputy Inspector-General, voluntarily joined the camp

from Beirout. Three weeks afterwards, he was relieved by

Assistant-Surgeon Acton, R.N., who had scarcely commenced his duties

when the fever attacked the party. The two men employed outside the

cordon were the first seized with the malady, and every man of the

party was soon under treatment. In most of the cases the seizure was

highly dangerous, and in forty-eight hours the strongest man was

completely prostrate. It was not until the shelter of a building for

the sufferers could be obtained that the skill of Dr. Acton was of

any avail. Four of the men died, and the remainder were conveyed in

the ‘Stromboli,’ on the 10th July, to Beirout. Two more were

invalided to England, and the other six only regained convalescence

after a long period of illness.

Constantly moving along the coast, embarking and disembarking the

stores, made the duties of the detachment laborious; and both

colour-sergeant William Black[386] and second-corporal Henry

Brown[387] were promoted, in consequence of the efficient manner in

which they executed those services, and for their zeal before the

enemy. At one time, the engineer park in charge of the former

consisted of 100,000 sand-bags with a proportional quantity of field

implements and tools, and was never less than 72,000 sand-bags. He

also issued commissariat stores to the whole camp.

-----

Footnote 386:

Was pensioned at 2_s._ a-day in January, 1851. In the corps he

served nearly twenty-four years, of which period he was seventeen

and a-half abroad, at Corfu, the Euphrates, Gibraltar, Syria, and

Halifax, Nova Scotia. His great merits obtained for him the grant

of an annuity of 10_l._ a-year, and a silver medal, and an

appointment as messenger to the commanding royal engineer’s

office, in the London district. Through Lieutenant-Colonel

Aldrich, his commanding-officer in Syria, he was also appointed a

yeoman of the Queen’s Guard. The emoluments derived by him from

these different sources, amounting to about 160_l._ a-year, with

excellent quarters, are the hard and just earnings of a life full

of vicissitude and devotion to the service.

Footnote 387:

Now a quartermaster-sergeant in the corps; and besides serving a

second tour at Gibraltar, was present at the reduction of

Bomarsund and the siege of Sebastopol. Is in receipt of an annuity

of 10_l._ a-year, and wears five medals and a clasp for his active

services.

-----

At Beirout the party was occasionally employed on the works, and

furnished a guard for the station, in concert with the royal

artillery. On the 1st December, the Seraskier, Selim Pacha, and

Colonel Rose, commanding the expedition, inspected the detachment,

and expressed themselves in a flattering manner relative to their

services in the country. The latter, in orders, added his assurance

that he entertained the highest sense of their zeal and efficient

services on all occasions; and the Sultan awarded to each a medal in

commemoration of the campaign.[388] From the inspection parade of

the Seraskier, the detachment, reduced from twenty-two to fourteen

men, embarked on board the ‘Thunderer,’ and landed at Malta on the

27th December, where they passed two months in the Forts of Manoel

and St. Elmo, and landed at Woolwich from the ‘Gorgon’ steamer on

the 23rd March, 1842.

-----

Footnote 388:

The medals were _copper_, but washed, at the expense of the

wearers, with a preparation that gave them the appearance of

_gold_. In 1848, the British Government awarded them silver medals

for the same campaign.

-----

On the 20th February, one corporal and seven privates embarked with

the expedition under the command of Captain Trotter, R.N., to the

Niger. Its object was to explore the source of the river, to

introduce civilisation into Africa, and to prevail on the chiefs to

extinguish slavery. The sappers were divided into two sections: one

was added to the crew of the ‘Albert’ steamer, and the other to the

‘Wilberforce.’ They had been specially taught at Chatham the mode of

blasting rock under water, with a view to removing obstructions in

the navigation of the streams of the Niger yet unsurveyed. Five were

men of excellent character, but three were not irreproachable in

point of sobriety. The royal warrant sanctioning the formation of

this special detachment is dated 7th December, 1840, and the corps

was thereby increased from 1200 to 1208 of all ranks. The party was

armed with rifles and bayonet-swords.

Late in June the expedition reached Freetown, and, steaming along

the coast, crossed the mouth of the Niger on the 13th August. After

passing the Bight of Benin, the steamers anchored off Ibu on the

26th; and the king, Obi, with the heir-apparent, Chikuna, and a vast

retinue, visited the ‘Albert.’

On the 2nd September the expedition was off Iddah. To the king, or

Attàh of Egarrah, a visit was paid by Captain Trotter. The sappers

and seamen formed the guard of honour. Corporal Edmonds commanded,

and he and all the men were grotesquely habited and decorated, to

suit the barbaric taste of his majesty.

Near the confluence of the rivers Niger and Tchadda were landed the

wooden houses to form the model farm on Mount Stirling, purchased

from the King of Egarrah for 700,000 cowries. The Kroomen and seamen

were the labourers in this service, and the sappers superintended

the construction of the farm and the erection of the magnificent

tent used in the Eglintoun tournament. The manipulation of the

houses was prepared in England, leaving nothing to do but to put the

materials together. To do this effectually, some trivial details in

wood and iron were made on the spot by the sappers. Private John

Craig surveyed the island and accomplished his work with quickness

and credit. The duties of the farm were greatly interrupted by the

intolerable heat, and numbers seized by the fever were sent away in

the ‘Wilberforce’ and the ‘Soudan.’ The whole of the model

arrangements were at length concluded, and on the 21st September the

‘Albert’ got under weigh again. The sappers were then healthy.

Passing Mugah, the ‘Albert’ anchored off Gori on the 22nd, and

Captain Trotter paid a visit to the chief. Corporal Edmonds was with

the party. The chief and his officers were seated on mats in the

court-yard—a space measuring about twelve feet by eight, formed by

five ovally-shaped huts. He was an old man, and his counsellor

answered the questions put to his majesty in a reserved and evasive

manner. The streets of Gori were very narrow, crooked, and puzzling,

and in many places not wide enough to allow two persons to pass each

other. To make way, Captain Trotter would suddenly open his

umbrella, and the natives, surprised at the novelty, would scamper

off alarmed.

Continuing the ascent, the ‘Albert’ passed Bezzani, Kinami, and

Egga, and by the 5th of October, the sick had so greatly increased,

that the charge of the ship fell on one of the mates. The expedition

now turned for the sea, and passing the confluence on the 9th,

steamed down the river in its more navigable channels, and landed at

Fernando Po on the 18th. There for about six weeks, the expiring

expedition was stowed away in miserable quarters, and the sad

remnant re-embarking, put into Ascension, and returned to England in

the autumn of 1842. All the sappers had been seized with the river

fever, so called from its peculiarity. Some had severe relapses, but

only two died—William Rabling at the confluence, on the shores of

which he was interred, and William Moffatt, somewhere between the

Niger and Ascension.

The duties performed by the detachment were in all respects the same

as the marines, until the river Niger was reached, when they acted

as seamen; but were never required to go aloft. Their chief services

were rendered at the model farm. Corporal Edmonds was ship’s

corporal, and had charge of the after hold of the vessel containing

the provisions of the officers. Whenever Captain Trotter, or any of

the officers left the vessel for purposes of exploration, he always

accompanied them as coxswain, armed with a rifle and a full pouch of

powder. Others of the party were also occasionally employed in this

particular manner, and all, as their health permitted, assisted by

Kroomen, performed the last rites of sepulture on those fatal shores

to the many dead. The special duty they were sent out to perform was

not required of them, as nautical skill overcame the difficulties of

the navigation without subaqueous blasting. While serving with the

expedition, each sapper received double pay according to his rank,

and free rations. Corporal Edmonds and private John Craig were

specially noticed by Captain Trotter. “Their steady, zealous

conduct, even when sickness might have excused them from duty,

tended much to the good discipline of the ‘Albert,’ and merited,” as

the captain reported, “his best acknowledgments.” The latter

assisted with readiness, at all times, in some of the scientific

observations.

Above the confluence, corporal Edmonds[389] was out in the forest

with Doctors M‘William and Stanger, when suddenly turning round, he

saw, approaching from behind a tree, a young elephant, which was

near to him. In an instant he fired his rifle and the bullet pierced

the animal in the head. Fearing an attack by other elephants for

this assault, the gentlemen and the corporal hastened to the boats,

but as none made their appearance, the party returned into the

forest, when Edmonds, with a daring that bordered on rashness,

rushed up to the enraged beast and plunged his sword into its

throat. The poor animal gave a few hoarse groans and expired. As

trophies of this sanguinary incident, Edmonds brought away its

tusks, and Dr. M‘William one of its feet.

-----

Footnote 389:

An anecdote may be given of this non-commissioned officer. One of

the princesses of Iddah conceiving a liking for Edmonds, who was a

handsome, dark-complexioned man, with a brilliant black eye,

solicited the king, her father, to beg his retention there.

Captain Trotter consented to let the corporal remain until the

return of the expedition. Edmonds was not averse to the

arrangement provided he was permitted to have with him a comrade

from the ‘Albert.’ This, however, was not conceded, and the

corporal rejoined his ship; but before doing so, the love-stricken

princess contrived not to part with her paramour without easing

him of his silk handkerchief!—to keep, perhaps, in remembrance of

the interesting feeling he had unwittingly awakened in the royal

breast. Edmonds served two stations, at Bermuda and Gibraltar,

became a sergeant, and, on his discharge in 1854, was appointed

foreman of works under the Inspector-General of Prisons in the

convict establishment at Portland.

-----

On the 24th of February, an undress frock coat was established for

the staff sergeants of the corps. It was plain, without ornament of

any kind, single-breasted, of dark Oxford mixture, with regimental

buttons and Prussian collar. The same undress is still worn; but the

colour has been changed from dark Oxford mixture to dark blue.—See

Plate XVII., 1854.

By a commission dated 24th May, Captain Henry Sandham was appointed

brigade-major in the room of Major Edward Matson, promoted to be

assistant adjutant-general to the royal engineers. The latter

officer had for many years been attached to the corps, and never did

its character stand higher than under his command. No means did he

leave untried to elevate its ranks, and raise it in public

estimation. He was a disciplinarian in the right sense of the word,

but in enforcing his orders, he always evinced such a just measure

of mild consideration, that it was difficult to discover the

rigidity with which he really acted. So much had he gained the

gratitude of the corps, that the non-commissioned officers at

head-quarters respectfully solicited he would sit to an eminent

artist for his portrait. One hundred pounds was the sum intended to

be expended, if necessary, in its execution; but as the rules of the

service seemed to be opposed to such a testimonial, the Major felt

it to be his duty to decline the honour.

Early in May, sergeant-major Jones and twenty-four rank and file

proceeded to Spithead to resume the operations against the wreck of

the ‘Royal George.’ This was the third season of their employment

under the Admiralty; and Lieut. G. R. Hutchinson, R.E., was placed

in executive command of the party. The same round of duties and

toils which marked their previous service at the wreck, were

repeated with but little variation of detail this season. They were

constantly on board ship, or employed in boats or lighters attending

to the general business of the wreck, and often exposed to gales and

storms, amid difficulty and peril, emulated in their coolness and

exertions the weather-beaten seamen engaged for the service. All the

artificers' work of every kind was executed by them. They were also

entrusted with the entire management of the voltaic battery and

explosions, and for a portion of the time, the whole of the

helmet-diving devolved upon them. “Throughout the operations,”

writes Colonel Pasley, “they were of the greatest service by their

zeal and exertions.” The season closed on the 29th October, and the

detachment returned again to Chatham.

Of individuals, Colonel Pasley makes honourable mention of the

following:

Sergeant-major Jones, for his able and zealous assistance to Lieut.

Hutchinson in the management of the operations and preserving the

discipline of the men.

Sergeant Samuel March was very useful in special duties of

importance; and his drawings and sketches of several hundred

interesting relics and detached portions of the wreck were well

executed.[390]

-----

Footnote 390:

Sergeant March was two seasons at Spitbead. Many of the sketches

of the wreck were executed by him with the assistance of the

camera lucida, kindly lent for the purpose by the late Captain

Basil Hall, R.N., from whom he received much useful instruction.

Almost the whole of his service has been passed in the

professional office of the director of the royal engineer

establishment at Chatham, in which, either as a draughtsman or a

confidential leading clerk, he has always been found, from his

attainments and constitutional energy of mind and body, efficient

and valuable. From time to time he has drawn the plates forming

the architectural course of the study of the junior officers of

the corps and the East India Company’s engineers, and also the

plans and other drawings and projects comprised in the military

branch of the course. He is an excellent colourist, and has a good

conception of light and shade. As an artist in water-colours, he

possesses undoubted talent and merit. Sergeant March is moreover

an intellectual man and well informed. His controversial letters

in reply to the calumnious attacks on the royal engineer

establishment at Chatham have been remarked for their honesty and

boldness; and his series of communications in the ‘United Service

Gazette,’ in answer to the forcible animadversions of the

celebrated ‘Emeritus’ in the ‘Times,’ concerning Ordnance finance,

were not only well and truthfully written, but deserve for their

vigour and appositeness as prominent a place in the columns of the

‘Times,’ as the communications of the more favoured ‘Emeritus.’

This non-commissioned officer is now quartermaster-sergeant of the

corps at Chatham.

-----

Corporal David Harris, lance-corporals Richard P. Jones and John

Rae, and privates John Skelton, John Williams, and Roderick Cameron,

made their services apparent in the duty of diving; and several

others, particularly privates James Anderson, James Jago, and

Alexander M‘Alpine, promised well. Of these second-rate divers

Anderson was so far advanced that besides slinging numerous timbers,

he probed his way to the dreary bottom of the ship and sent up 18

feet of the keelson. The successful exertions of the whole party

attracted admiration, and an immense pile of about 18,600 cubic

feet, or 372 loads of timber, got up from the wreck in the summer,

was deposited in Portsmouth dockyard, chiefly through their

exertions. The divers were six or seven hours a day, and sometimes

more, under water, at a depth of sixty or seventy feet; and so

skilfully had they learned to economize time and save labour, that

all sent up their bundles of staves, casks, or timber, as closely

packed together, as a woodman would make up his fagots in the open

air. In one haul, corporal Jones sent up fifty-eight such pieces

lashed together, and corporal Harris ninety-one! Only one

professional civil diver was employed in concert with them for about

half the season; and of the five guns recovered, two brass

24-pounders, the most valuable of the whole, and an iron 32-pounder,

were got up by corporal Harris. This non-commissioned officer was a

most confident and resolute diver, and in Siebe’s dress, repeatedly

plunged into the sea, head foremost, for experiment. However safe

might have been the apparatus, it required a bold spirit to make the

first essay. Lance-corporal Jones, from his superior intelligence,

rendered himself eminently useful. He was the first to get to the

bottom of the wreck; and to prove his title to the honour, sent up

13 feet of the keel.[391] The larboard side, which leaned over when

the vessel sunk, had fallen to pieces and was buried in the mud.

This was the most troublesome part of the work; and corporal Jones,

by tact and perseverance, after removing the timbers on that side,

got up 300 superficial feet of outside planking covered with copper,

under which he found the original ground on which the larboard bilge

rested. His exertions were immense, and the huge pile he recovered,

was increased by several tons of iron ballast slung by him. Corporal

Harris was no less successful in reaching places hitherto untouched,

for he wormed his way down to the floor timbers, found the lee side

of the wreck, and came in contact with another foundered ship of

some magnitude, from which he tore a couple of timbers and sent them

aloft. This discovery was due to an unusual mode of descent in which

Harris engaged. He went down from the yawl by the sweeps and was

stopped in his course by the unknown wreck. On re-ascending he

became entangled in the sweeps and the buoy-line, without, however,

experiencing any inconvenience beyond the extra exertion of

disengaging himself from their meshes.

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Footnote 391:

Three feet of the heel of it, with clamps attached, had been

recovered in the previous year by George Hall the civil diver.

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The curiosities obtained this season were in chief part sent up by

Corporal Harris, and though intrinsically trifling, were regarded

with infinitely more relish than the huge masses which made the

wharf groan with their weight. Nearly the first article recovered

was a human skull—sad relic of that catastrophe which engulfed in a

moment so many souls: then came a cumbersome musket with some

fragments of arms that might have done honourable service against

the foe. Not the least interesting was a stick of sealing-wax with

its Dutch advertisement, which translated announced its qualities in

these recommendatory terms—“Fine, well burning, fast holding

sealing-wax.” Skelton found a dog-collar inscribed with the name of

“Thomas Little. Victory. 1781.” The little favourite, no doubt, went

down with its young master, who was a midshipman on board the

ill-fated ‘Royal George.’ Singular that sixty years after, this

simple collar should be dug from the depths, to become a mournful

_souvenir_ of its perished owner.

Professional divers during the season could not be obtained, unless

at a cost each, sufficient to pay four or five military divers. The

latter, paid by the tide, usually earned three or four times as much

as the regular working pay of the corps, and their successful

exertions supplied work for about 100 men, who were daily employed

in removing the timbers, guns, ballast, &c. slung by them. To aid

the divers in their labours, large rakes and half-anchor creepers

were drawn over the shoal in which the remains of the wreck were

lying, by which means much of the mud was harrowed up and cleared

away. The timbers of the wreck were thus somewhat exposed, and five,

and sometimes six sapper-divers were down at a tide, forcing their

way through its dangerous tracks, and sending above its ponderous

fragments.

In the course of the season, corporal Jones and private Skelton

ascertained a curious fact before unknown in the annals of diving.

They met at the bottom, and to their surprise discovered, when

standing close together, they could hear each other speak; but the

knowledge thus obtained could not be turned to advantage, as the

continued effort to speak loudly, exhausted their powers and

rendered them unable to hold a connected conversation.[392] Skelton

also met George Hall in the wreck, to whom he introduced himself in

a way sufficiently courteous for divers, by tapping the _chêf_ on

the helmet with his iron pricker.

Footnote 392: