sixty sappers to the docks. There were now 156 men of the corps and
150 of the line in the Karabelnaia. A party of linesmen was also
sent up daily from the camp, so that the working means at the
disposal of the engineers was swelled to a force of about 500 of all
ranks. This perhaps was the greatest number employed in the
demolitions. Nine hours the men worked daily; but on the 24th
November, as important events were evolving which seemed to urge a
rapid completion of the service, the whole 24 hours saw reliefs of
sturdy men in the mines. Each relief was on duty eight hours. Now it
was that serious impediments occurred from the presence of water in
the shafts and galleries, but the chief result of these untoward
obstacles was the exercise of an energy as extraordinary as
continuous. When, however, about the 17th December, the frost set in
and the miners suffered severely, night duty, except on pressing
occasions, was given up; but to make up for this remission, the
sappers and infantry miners toiled in reliefs thirteen hours a-day.
In the middle of January, 1856, the 18th foot was relieved by an
equal number of the 48th, and the ninth company, brought from
Kamara, took the place of the 11th. The second, fourth, and eighth
companies of the corps also shared in the operations. Major
Nicholson was the superintending engineer.
The docks were situated on the southern extremity of the Karabelnaia
creek, and their destruction was a mutual operation between the
French and English. For their share the allies took the two outer or
northern locks with the three interjacent locks; while that
apportioned to the English were the three inner or southern docks.
Between these structures was an immense quadrangular fitting-basin
rising nearly 30 feet above the level of the Black Sea, supplied
with water from the Tchernaya, pouring into the reservoir through
aqueducts and tunnels. Thus provided, it fed the five docks; and the
outlet for the waste run between the two French docks by a channel
with a series of prodigious locks into the sea. Of this basin the
French was charged with the destruction of the half contiguous to
the northern docks, and the English that adjacent to the southern.
Of the nature of the duty which had devolved on the assailants some
idea may be gleaned from a consideration of the dimensions of the
docks. Stretching a line longitudinally from end to end the mean
distance was 205 feet. The width was 92 feet; the depth 29 feet. The
floors measured 190 feet long, compressed at the sides into a width
of 40 feet. The revetments at the top were nearly 7 feet. The French
docks were each 188 feet long and 92 feet broad. All the works were
of the most solid kind. The hills out of which they were hollowed
were of clay abounding with rock. They were thus in great part
embedded in rock or hewn out of it at every point where the
geological strata favoured the adaptation of natural expedients to a
great end. Hard limestone was abundantly used in the work; so also
was a material of a softer kind in unexposed situations. Granite of
different colours in heavy blocks was used in all parts where
resistance and impregnability were essential. In their massiveness
and durability both docks and basin seemed likely to tire the
patience of old Time himself. The steps—of the heaviest masonry—cut
around the elliptical hollows, forming them, as it were, into
amphitheatres, were “fit for a giant’s staircase.” But what seemed
impenetrable to the wear and tear of ages and innocuous to those
influences which insidiously eat away vitality from the mightiest
fabrics was, in a few short months, torn up by mines and dashed into
ruins as prodigious perhaps as those of Nineveh. Curved iron gates,
unrivalled for size and strength, and covered with thick iron sheets
overlapping each other and rivetted like the plates of a leviathan
boiler, closed the entrances to the several docks. They might have
served to turn back the sea in some turbulent strait; and when it
was required to move a single pair of them as memorials of Russian
greatness and our own energy, it took no less than 140 artillerymen
under a skilful engineer, Lieutenant-Colonel Bent, to lift them from
their position, not in their entirety, but rib by rib and sheet by
sheet.[203]
To accomplish the overthrow of such stupendous works shafts and
galleries were sunk and driven in various places to different depths
and lengths. The shafts behind the revetments were at least 30 feet
deep; those running along the floors not less than 12, whilst others
sunk in salient spots varied between the extremes. The shafts were
more than 70; the mines not less perhaps than 150. Culverts were
also employed as galleries where their use promised to be of
advantage. All the chambers held specific charges calculated with
extreme nicety. In each case the result was a more than tantamount
destruction with the least possible show. The English docks being
four feet below those of the French were never free of water. There
the land-springs, seeking the lowest levels, emptied themselves. To
cope with a difficulty of such magnitude it needed more than the
resource of the bucket and pulley; and yet these simple means were
not less serviceable than more ambitious appliances. Pumps of
various kinds were employed, but failing in the deep shafts to raise
the water to the summit, their use was confined to the pits of the
floors, where they seemed more successful. In the deep shafts the
run of the bucket was incessant, for a suspension of labour, however
short, was likely to be attended with an influx that would have
overmatched any exertion. “The sappers,” observed ‘The Times,’
“experienced great difficulty in firing the mines in consequence of
the water running in on them from the clay, but with their usual
energy they worked away and formed the mines.”[204]
The works pressed on satisfactorily till the 16th December, when
there occurred a storm which had been ushered in by two or three
days’ heavy rain. As may be expected, the shafts were inundated;
those behind the revetments were filled nearly to the surface; some
had twenty feet of water in them, while the bottoms of the docks
were covered with the tempest rain to the height of two feet and
more. Against such obstacles who could bear up? And yet none
concerned in the works succumbed. To clear the water from the deep
shafts with the means at command was impracticable. It was therefore
permitted, in great part, to waste away; while the primitive service
of the bucket and pulley aided somewhat to reduce the quantity. On
the floors of the docks coffer-dams were constructed to detach the
several shafts from the general flow, and pumps were worked by stout
hearts to draw off the water; but the pressure for progress did not
allow of this tedious process, and luckily the expedient was hit
upon of cutting a channel through the revetment wall of the entrance
into the feeder of each dock. The French miners made the desired
opening, and the docks were almost drained. Still the shafts were
full, and it was only by a sustained outlay of unrelaxed effort that
the water was sufficiently reduced to enable the sappers to go below
and fashion the galleries.
It was a great blow to the works was this storm. Everything was put
back by it. Some of the shafts were given up as beyond all power to
continue them, and many of the galleries, almost completed, had to
be driven anew. Choked up with mud, the difficulties of working them
were tenfold more trying than before. To master them the labour was
as unsparing as incredible. Even in home works, away from the
annoyance of an enemy, to overcome such obstacles would have been
regarded as extraordinary. In such circumstances it needed
artificial stimulants to maintain the strength and spirit of the men
and offer an antidote against ills to which they were constantly
exposed. An extra half-gill of rum was therefore issued daily to the
sappers and linesmen, under the sanction of the Commander-in-Chief.
But it did little to check the sickness which the miseries of the
enterprise gave rise to. A nipping frost having succeeded the storm
added greatly to their risks. Working in wet shafts in a close
atmosphere, with vapour rising in streams from the depths, weakened
the men by excessive perspiration. It is also recorded that many of
them on reaching the surface from the galleries became frozen. Colds
were so frequent and coughs so general that the barrack was like an
hospital. Dredging-boots were scarcely any protection to the sappers
and line miners, for the water poured in over the thigh tops and
kept the limbs in perpetual slop. The few who were covered in
miners’ suits were hardly better off than their comrades. To them
was assigned the most laborious portions of the work. Driving wet
and muddy galleries was a relief compared with the operation of
stowing away the powder in the chambers. Inclosed in three or four
boxes or casks, the charge—sometimes weighing with its cases as much
as 320 lbs.—was pushed on skids to the extremity of the narrow
gallery. It required a series of plunges to move the burden to its
place and give it a compact standing in a safe corner; and this
frequently was done while the miners were up to their waists in
water. Soaked to the skin, and coated with clay, it was a wonder
that the workmen did not flinch from such hardships and break up
under such trials. He indeed was a strong man who had worked his way
through the entire demolition without a chest complaint or a
pulmonary disease!
The blowing up of the docks was controlled by circumstances. It was
hoped to level at a crash the entire works by a simultaneous burst
of the whole magazines. The intention, however, was shown to be
abortive by the constant intrusion of water into the mines, which
necessitated the less striking resort to a piecemeal demolition. The
explosions were numerous, but three or four large ones were ventured
which amply repaid by their success the risk of the experiments.
Several failures took place, as was natural in an undertaking so
great, from the unavoidable dampness of the powder and accidents to
the agencies of ignition. The quantity of powder used was 49,384
lbs. or more than 22 tons! On the 6th of February the last explosion
took place, and the memorable docks of Sebastopol were numbered with
the structures of the past.
Who could look over the ruins without melancholy reflections on the
insignificant origin of such a catastrophe? At an outlay of treasure
that would have made an ordinary kingdom bankrupt those once superb
docks were built. It took years to construct them, but a few months
were more than enough to blot them out of the roll of Russian
wonders! Uprooted from their foundations and tumbled over in the
hollows, scarcely any two blocks maintained their former fellowship.
Counterforts, copings, quoins, steps, and the general masonry were
broken up and hurtled into strange heaps. Mingled with the tumuli
were fractured beams and timbers, massive frames, and portions of
the ponderous gates. Here and there were torn sheets of iron,
splintered pintels, fragments of heavy posts, broken ribs, and bolts
like crowbars, with clump heads as large as sledge-hammers. Sticking
up in the confusion were the angles of mammoth blocks of granite,
some red, some blue, which by their garish aspect in the midst of so
much devastation gave a play of vividness to the desolation. All
that remained were a few dingy cantles of wall smoked by the
explosions tottering upon the corners of some broken steps, waiting
for a gust of wind to blow them down. As if to remind one of the
incalculable loss to which the aggressive pride of Russia had given
rise, there in all their vastness stood the scarps of the hills in
which the overthrown docks had been reared. Fissured and caved they
resembled frowning cliffs eaten away by a surging sea and the wear
of centuries. Blackened craters and chasms intervened among the
piles of fallen greatness and helped to augment the sternness and
solitude of a demolition which was as complete as engineering skill
could make it.
Beyond the ailments induced by wet, cold, and fatigue, the sappers
quitted the docks, having suffered but triflingly from accidents.
Private William Harvey was injured while at the bottom of a shaft by
a man of the 18th regiment falling on him. A private of that
regiment fell, on the 10th December, at night, into a pit upwards of
thirteen feet deep and three parts full of water. His breast struck
against an obstruction, which took away his consciousness. Corporal
Cray, whose recklessness of self repeatedly gained him praise,
descended the shaft to rescue the miner. The water was thick and
discoloured with clay. Unable to feel the man, he was obliged to
come up to recover breath. The second descent took him to the end of
one gallery without success, and the third gave him the only hope of
finding him in the other gallery. The struggles of the linesman had
carried him in that direction, and Cray, almost exhausted, bore him
to the top of the shaft, but life was extinct. Cray—poor
fellow—ready in every danger, and foremost in many, was not, though
he had escaped often and strangely, invulnerable against exposure,
and the result of his gallant efforts was an attack which, reducing
his voice to the feebleness of a whisper, sent him an invalid to
England.
A fatal accident occurred to a private of the 48th regiment working
at the bottom of a shaft close to the ruins of a culvert which had
only a few hours before been blown up. It was near a dock-gate, and
the gas from the explosion having penetrated the intervening earth
diffused through the gallery, which had been driven in about
twenty-eight feet. The 48th man was at its end and private Neville
of the sappers at its mouth. Both becoming insensible, “with
infinite alacrity and courage,” wrote ‘The Times,’ “non-commissioned
officers and soldiers descended the shaft, braving a danger which
seemed the greater because its extent and nature were unknown, to
succour their comrades, and as they got down they in turn were
overpowered by the offensive gas. Major Nicholson and Lieutenant
Graham also went down and suffered in consequence.” The former was
insensible when, supported by his men, he reached the top of the
shaft, and it was some time before he recovered.[205] Besides the
48th man who perished six or eight other miners were seriously
affected, particularly private Neville. The sappers who behaved so
nobly were second-corporal Alexander Gray, who had charge of the
shaft and was the first to descend; lance-corporal Marks, who got
out Neville and Gray, and was himself thrown down by the poisoned
air; and lance-corporal Normansell, who sent up corporal Marks and
recovered the 48th man. Normansell had a rope round him, and feeling
the gradual loss of power in his wrists and arms rushed to the end
of the gallery, quickly tied the rope round the miner, dragged him
to the mouth of the shaft, when, calling for help, both were borne
to the surface. The corporal was unconscious, and remained so for
some time, but the poor linesman was irretrievably gone.
While the operations were progressing the enemy fired at times with
some briskness. Many shells pitched into the docks and exploded, but
generally they fell short or wide of the shafts; “and though,” says
the official record, “the working party had some extraordinary
escapes, only one sapper was wounded, and a private of the 18th
regiment lost his arm.” The sapper alluded to was second-corporal
William Eastley, who was severely struck on the 19th January, 1856,
in the right shoulder by the splinter of a shell. He was, however,
returned as only slightly injured. This was the third time that the
corporal was wounded during the siege.
Well may the corps refer to the destruction of these docks as a
proof of their usefulness and of their capacity to undertake any
skilled employments which war might suddenly throw in their way.
Among the many operations of difficult and hazardous labour which
have been achieved by their intelligence and industry, none,
perhaps, will display in the chronicles of military engineering a
more creditable page than this—the great concluding event of the
struggle with Russia. At every stage of the work their movements
were known to those whose commendation it was an honour to merit;
and when all was over their conduct and exertions were alluded to in
terms of praise in a dispatch of the 2nd February from the
Commander-in-Chief to the Minister for War.
“Amid great difficulties of cold and wet,” wrote Sir William
Codrington, “a very severe frost at one time and perpetually
recurring pressure at another, the work went steadily on; and great
praise is due to all those concerned—the engineers and sappers,
parties of the royal artillery, the 18th regiment, and latterly the
48th. These parties return to their duties to-morrow after constant
and laborious work.[206]
“The casualties have been but six, of which two only have been
fatal; and one man of the 48th was lost by foul air in a shaft;
after several vain attempts by Major Nicholson, other officers, and
men—themselves descending at great risk—the poor fellow’s body was
brought up, but life was gone.”
It only remains to close the mention of this signal service by
appending the copy of a letter from the commanding royal engineer at
Sebastopol, affording some details of the demolition and eulogizing
the corps among others for its exertions:—
“_Head-Quarters, Camp, Sebastopol,
February 1._
“SIR,
“After a period of three months’ unceasing labour in the
dock-yard, for the destruction of the docks, in compliance with
Lord Panmure’s orders, it affords me very great satisfaction to
report, for your Excellency’s information, the termination of our
exertions in the demolition of that portion allotted to the
English, which consisted of the three docks on the south side, and
one-half of the east and west sides of the basin.
“The result of our operations has been the perfect destruction of
the whole, the foundations being completely torn up. The length of
time occupied in effecting the above object has, I regret, far
exceeded what had been anticipated, owing to many circumstances
over which no human being could have any control. Your Excellency,
I believe, is aware that on the morning of the 16th December,
1855, after a very heavy and continuous fall of rain, all the
shafts which had been sunk behind the revetment walls of the docks
were found to have 20 feet of water in them, the shafts being 30
feet deep; and the shafts along the bottoms of the docks, which
had been sunk to a depth of 12 feet, were not only quite full of
water, but had two feet six inches of water above the floors of
the docks themselves.
“A very large party was employed day and night endeavouring to
reduce the water, and effected this object but slowly, as the
water continued to find its way in by percolation. At this stage
of the work the wet weather was suddenly succeeded by intense
frost, which for some days rendered our pumps useless, thus
causing a further delay, and obliging us to bale the water out of
the shafts, resuming the pumping as soon as the pumps would work
again, which has been continued to the very last.
“It was the intention to have destroyed one entire dock at a time,
but owing to the influx of water such an arrangement was obliged
to be abandoned, and such charges only as could from time to time
be prepared were fired, the pumping in many cases being kept up
day and night until the last moment. The bottoms and sites were
blown up before the sides were destroyed, which enabled us to be
satisfied that the former were thoroughly demolished.
“I must observe that, as the demolition of the northern portion
was carried out by the French, it is incumbent on me to explain
why their operations were not subjected to as many difficulties as
fell to our lot. Their docks were four feet higher in level than
ours, and in no instance had they, I understand, any water to
contend against, or, at least, so small a quantity as to be
scarcely appreciable. Their charges in the bottoms were not more
than six feet deep, whereas ours averaged ten feet six inches in
depth.
“Though the external effect of some of our explosions may not
appear great, I am happy to say that every portion of the masonry
is either absolutely torn down or left in so dangerous a condition
that it will very much add to the difficulties of rebuilding.
“I was extremely anxious that the facilities afforded by Her
Majesty’s Government for the employment of voltaic batteries on a
large scale, as sent out by the Admiralty under Mr. Deane, should
be fairly tested under the most favourable circumstances. I
applied to Vice-Admiral Sir E. Lyons, who kindly offered the
services of Mr. Deane, submarine engineer, to carry out the
voltaic operations; and this gentleman had every assistance in
skilled labour afforded him from the royal sappers and miners.
“Many failures having taken place in firing the charges of
electricity, owing to different causes, I am inclined to doubt its
advantages as applicable generally to military purposes.
“The pair of dock-gates ordered to be taken down and sent as
trophies to England were removed with considerable difficulty,
being very massive and strongly put together with bolts, nuts,
&c., which had become rusty.
“I cannot say too much in praise of the exertions both of officers
and men, including a party of 350 of the 18th and 48th regiments,
in addition to the royal sappers and miners, amounting to 85,[207]
in the destruction of the docks, though they had to work, for the
greater part of the time, day and night during the severest
weather; and in having brought this service to a successful issue,
after so many drawbacks, which, instead of causing despair and
dispiriting those employed, only stimulated them to renewed
exertions.
“I should be remiss in my duty were I to omit acknowledging the
very valuable assistance I have received throughout from Colonel
Gordon, C.B., the executive officer, Major Nicholson, who was the
resident engineer, and Lieutenants Cumberland, Graham, and C.
Gordon, royal engineers; their unremitting zeal, attention, and
devotion to the work, in accomplishing this troublesome task under
difficulties of no ordinary nature, claim my warmest thanks. I am
also much indebted to Mr. Deane, submarine engineer, whose
valuable services in preparing and firing most of the mines by
voltaic action were kindly placed at my disposal by his Excellency
Vice-Admiral Sir E. Lyons.
“I must not omit to acknowledge the professional aid received from
the chief and assistant engineers of Her Majesty’s ship ‘Royal
Albert,’ (until that ship sailed for Malta,) in the taking to
pieces of the dock-gates. In connexion with this service, the
assistance afforded by a large party of the royal artillery,
placed at my disposal by Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Dacres,
and under the superintendence and direction of Lieutenant-Colonel
Bent, royal engineers, I cannot but greatly appreciate.
“I have, &c.,
(Signed) “E. T. LLOYD,
“Lieut.-Colonel Commanding Royal Engineer.
“_His Excellency,
General Sir W. Codrington, K.C.B.,
Commander of the Forces._”