1842. The quartermaster-sergeant was appointed for duty at Chatham,

and sergeant Thomas Fraser was promoted to the rank.[395] ----- Footnote 395: Fraser was a successful modeller, and although a carpenter by trade, made himself useful as a wood engraver. Many of the wood-cuts in Colonel Pasley’s ‘Practical Operations of a Siege,’ were executed by him, and although they exhibit but little artistic merit, they yet afford scope to show how he adapted himself to circumstances. He also assisted in the task of engraving the most difficult of the plates to the ‘Architectural Course.’ None of his works in this line betray any ambition, but his models were put out of hand in a skilful and workmanlike manner. As a whole, he was a man of singular simplicity. In July, 1849, he was pensioned at 2_s._ 3_d._ a-day, and retiring to Kilochunagan, settled down as a farmer. ----- Private Henry Entwistle distinguished himself on the 30th August, 1841, at pontoon practice, by plunging into the rapid stream of the Medway near Rochester Bridge, and at imminent personal risk, rescuing from drowning private Samuel Turner of the corps, who had fallen overboard and was unable to swim. His courage on this occasion gained the admiration of the Royal Humane Society, which awarded him a silver medallion accompanied by a vellum certificate, recording the particulars of his intrepidity, signed by the Duke of Northumberland.[396] ----- Footnote 396: Became a sergeant, and after serving at Corfu and China, was employed in the expedition under Lord Raglan to Turkey, Bulgaria, and the Crimea, where, from disease contracted in the trenches in front of Sebastopol, he died in camp before the conclusion of the siege. ----- The detachments at Sandhurst during the year greatly exerted themselves in the field-work instruction, and returned to the corps receiving much praise for their zeal and good conduct. Corporal John Carlin was in charge of both parties, and was extremely useful. In the spring term he skilfully prepared the apparatus for a series of subaqueous explosions by the voltaic battery;[397] and, at the autumn examination, the rafts and bridges exhibited on the lakes and canals were constructed by him and his party. These consisted of rafts of rough timber and bridges upon various principles, such as floating, suspension, and trestle; also spars heavily loaded at one end to act as levers, and others interlaced upon a system of mutual pressure. In carrying out these services corporal Carlin was honourably noticed, “as a non-commissioned officer of much merit and ingenuity.”[398] Corporal John Cameron was also mentioned in the Governor’s reports for his activity and ability, and for having executed with great neatness a quantity of sod revetments for the scarps of the field-works. ----- Footnote 397: ‘United Service Journal,’ ii., 1841, p. 267. Footnote 398: ‘United Service Journal,’ iii., 1841, p. 563. Carlin became a colour-sergeant, and prior to his discharge had served at Gibraltar and Malta, Turkey and the Crimea. When at Portsmouth, he received from Lord Frederick Fitzclarence a gold pen and engineering pencil-case, in return “for his most useful services in carrying out instruction in musketry, in which he proved himself to be exceedingly clever in calculations of a rather puzzling nature, and to be a most zealous, active, and painstaking non-commissioned officer.” ----- Colonel Pasley was removed from the appointment of director of the royal engineer establishment at Chatham in November, 1841, on promotion to the rank of Major-General.[399] Nearly thirty years he had held the office, and fulfilled its various functions with a genius, composure, and success, that no successor can ever hope to surpass. To him the corps is largely indebted for that military efficiency which has characterized its progress since 1812. Diligently superintending its practical exercise in all the operations of a siege, as well as in mining, pontooning, and bridge-making, and in the numerous other essential details of the field establishment, he made the corps fully equal to the prosecution of any service in which its assistance might be required. Some well-meaning officers of high rank did not see the necessity of training the corps in the principles of elementary fortification,[400] but Colonel Pasley finally overcame their honest scruples by earnest argument. He not only gained this concession, but was permitted to teach the corps the elementary principles of geometry and plan-drawing; and ultimately, so extensive and complete had his system become, that some hundreds of non-commissioned officers and men passed from his schools, as surveyors and draughtsmen, to the survey of Ireland. As a disciplinarian he was rigid; and in exacting from all under his command that obedience, attention, and punctuality which were the characteristics of his own laborious career, he was blind to that partiality or favouritism which could cover the indiscretion of one offender and punish that of another. ----- Footnote 399: The names of the succeeding directors of the royal engineer establishment are given in the Appendix III. Footnote 400: ‘Military Policy.’ ----- Here it may be right to show what was the public opinion of the corps at this period, as contrasted with its state at the commencement of the Peninsular war, and to whom its improved organization and perfect efficiency were chiefly attributed. “With respect to our engineer establishment, it would perhaps be difficult to name any occasion on which a modern European army took the field so utterly destitute of efficient means for conducting siege operations as were the British troops at the opening of the last war. At this moment, on the contrary, no army in the world possesses engineer officers and soldiers better instructed in all that relates to the science and practice of this branch of the service. We have heard one of the most able and most experienced of those officers declare, that when he was first called upon to take part in some siege operations at the very outset of the war, he had never seen a gabion, nor was there a soldier in the force who knew how to make one. To carry on a sap, or drive the gallery of a mine, was alike an impossible attempt. The army had neither a single sapper, miner, or pontoneer, and a few drunken and worthless military artificers formed the only engineer troops.... The lessons of experience thus dearly bought have not been acquired in vain. The practical engineer school at Chatham, organised and long directed by Colonel Pasley, has produced a corps of sappers and miners equal to any in Europe. Their exercises on the Medway have likewise given them the qualities of excellent pontoneers.”[401] ----- Footnote 401: ‘United Service Journal,’ i., 1842, pp. 26, 27. ----- Another extract from the same journal, relative to the conduct of the corps and the impolicy of the reductions which have taken place in its numbers since the return of the army of occupation from France in 1818, should not be suppressed:—“The reductions in the sappers and miners since the war are much to be regretted; and it would be more wise to organize them equivalently to two battalions of eight companies. They are a description of troops invaluable in every respect,—being as soldierlike, and well trained in the duties of infantry, as the best regiments of that arm, and therefore equally available for all military services in garrisons and quarters; while their qualities as artificers are by no means confined to admirable proficiency in their proper business as engineer-soldiers, in the management of the pontoon-train and the conduct of siege operations. Their exemplary conduct offers an illustration of a principle too much neglected in the discipline of modern armies—that to find constant and wholesome occupation for troops, as indeed for mankind in every situation, is the best security both for happiness and good order.... But in the case of this engineer corps, apart from the important object of keeping up an efficient body for those peculiar duties of their arm in the field, which require a regular course of practical education, we are convinced it would be found true economy to increase its force for the repair and maintenance of the numerous fortifications in every quarter of our colonial empire.”[402] ----- Footnote 402: ‘United Service Journal,’ i., 1841, p. 443. ----- This perhaps is the fittest place to introduce a glowing testimony to the corps, penned by one well acquainted with its merits and defects, and too impartial to append his name to any but a faithful record. “Indeed,” writes Sir John Jones, “justice requires it to be said, that these men, whether employed on brilliant martial services, or engaged in the more humble duties of their calling, either under the vertical sun of the tropics, or in the frozen regions of the north, invariably conduct themselves as good soldiers; and by their bravery, their industry, or their acquirements, amply repay the trouble and expense of their formation and instruction.”[403] ----- Footnote 403: Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ ii. p. 391, 2nd edit. ----- Nor should the testimony of the chaplain-general, the Rev. G. R. Gleig, be omitted. Unconnected as he is with the royal sappers and miners, his opinion has been formed without the prejudice of interested feelings. In taking a bird’s-eye retrospect of the formation and growth of some of our military institutions, he thus speaks of the corps: “Besides the infantry, cavalry and artillery, of which the regular army was composed, and the corps of engineers, coeval with the latter, there sprang up during the war of the French Revolution other descriptions of force, which proved eminently useful each in its own department, and of the composition of which a few words will suffice to give an account. First, the artificers as they were called, that is to say, the body of men trained to the exercise of mechanical arts, such as carpentry, bricklaying, bridgemaking, and so forth, which in all ages seem to have attended on a British army in the field, became the royal sappers and miners, whose services, on many trying occasions, proved eminently useful, and who still do their duty cheerfully and satisfactorily in every quarter of the globe. During the late war, they were commanded under the officers of engineers, by a body of officers who took no higher rank than that of lieutenant, and consisted entirely of good men, to whom their merits had earned commissions. Their education, carried on at Woolwich and Chatham, trained them to act in the field as guides and directors to all working parties, whether the business in hand might be the construction of a bridge, the throwing up of field works, or the conduct of a siege. Whatever the engineer officers required the troops to do was explained to a party of sappers, who, taking each his separate charge, showed the soldiers of the line both the sort of work that was required of them, and the best and readiest method of performing it. The regiment of sappers was the growth of the latter years of the contest, after the British army had fairly thrown itself into the great arena of continental warfare, and proved so useful, that while men wondered how an army ever could have been accounted complete without this appendage, the idea of dispensing with it in any time to come, seems never to have arisen in the minds of the most economical.”[404] ----- Footnote 404: Gleig’s ‘Mil. Hist.,’ ch. xxvii., pp. 286, 287. ----- 1842. Party to Natal—The march—Action at Congella—Boers attack the camp—Then besiege it—Sortie on the Boers' trenches—Incidents—Privations—Conduct of the detachment; courageous bearing of sergeant Young—Services of the party after hostilities had ceased—Detachment to the Falkland Islands—Landing—Character of the country—Services of the party—Its movements; and amusements—Professor Airy’s opinion of the corps—Fire at Woolwich; its consequences—Wreck of the ‘Royal George’—Classification of the divers—Corporal Harris’s exertions in removing the wreck of the ‘Perdita’ mooring lighter—Assists an unsuccessful comrade—Difficulties in recovering the pig-iron ballast—Adventure with Mr. Cussell’s lighter—Isolation of Jones at the bottom—Annoyed by the presence of a human body; Harris, less sensitive, captures it—The keel—Accidents—Conflict between two rival divers—Conduct of the sappers employed in the operations—Demolition of beacons at Blythe Sand, Sheerness—Testimonial to sergeant-major Jones for his services in connection with it. In January, 1842, a small force under the command of Captain Smith, 27th regiment, was sent to the Umgazi, about ten miles south of the Umzimvooboo, to watch the movements of the Boers, who had attacked a native chief in alliance with the colonial government. With this force was detached a party of eight royal sappers and miners under Lieutenant C. R. Gibb of the engineers. There the expedition was encamped for a season, when a portion of it, on the 31st March, quitted the Umgazi for Natal, taking with them seventy wheeled carriages and numerous oxen. The sappers took the lead of the column to remove obstructions on the route. The force comprised about 250 men, chiefly of the 27th regiment, and a few artillerymen. In the journey to Natal, a distance of more than 600 miles, the greatest difficulties were encountered. Much of the ground traversed was very marshy. Rivulets and larger streams were so much increased by the rains that the broken drifts across them had frequently to be renewed or repaired after one or two waggons had crossed. Several very steep hills had to be surmounted, one of which was the Umterda, over which the hunter and trader had never attempted to take his waggon without first dismantling it, and then carrying it up or down. Up this rugged hill, formed of huge boulders of granite imbedded in a swamp, a rough road was constructed; and by putting three spans of oxen—thirty-six bullocks—to each waggon, all, after three days' heavy labour and fatigue, were got to the summit. Constantly in their progress, they had to improve the roads, to cut through wood and bush, to toil along the sand on the shore, and occasionally, harnessing themselves with ropes, drag the unwieldy train along wild passes and almost impenetrable tracts of fastness. At length, after a most harassing march of six weeks, of straining energy and arduous exertion, having crossed one hundred and seventy-two rivers and streams, much of the journey under violent rain, and often sleeping at night on the swampy ground, the troops reached Natal on the 3rd May, and encamped at the head of the bay; from whence they afterwards removed to the Itafa Amalinde, where they intrenched themselves, and placed beyond the parapet, for additional protection, the waggons which accompanied the force. The Boers were opposed to the presence of the troops, and desired them to quit the country. This was unheeded by the English commandant, and hostilities at once commenced. On the night of the 23rd May, Captain Smith, in command of a portion of his force, left the camp and attacked the Boers at Congella, taking with him seven sappers and miners, armed and carrying tools. When the enemy opened fire, the troops were in file up to their knees in water. Private Burridge fired the first shot in the engagement. More than an hour the contest continued without any one being able to take a direct aim; and, when the troops commenced the retreat, they were up to their armpits in water. Here a sergeant of the 27th was shot, who would have been carried away in the receding tide, had not sergeant Young with two of the sappers, brought him across the bay to the camp, where his remains were interred. Private William Burridge was wounded in the knee. On regaining the camp all were served out with fresh ammunition, and, when about to lie down, the Boers attacked the position and only retired at daylight in the morning. During the action half of the pole of the sappers' tent was carried away by a shot, and the waggon in their front was pierced by eleven balls. Private Richard Tibbs on this occasion received three balls in his clothes and was wounded. Soon afterwards (31st May) the Boers, comprising a force of about 1200 men and nine guns, commenced to besiege the camp. This they continued with vigour till the 26th June, when a reinforcement having reached the cantonment from the frontier, hostilities ceased. Throughout the operations the eight sappers were employed superintending the execution of such works as the circumstances of the siege rendered indispensable. These included a redoubt, to preserve the communication with the port and village, and a magazine. They also assisted in constructing a large kraal of stakes and abattis, for the safety of the cattle. The waggons were likewise drawn closer in, to make the defence more compact; and from a trench, dug on the inside, the earth was thrown under the body of the waggons, which were thus imbedded in the parapet. By this means the troops were enabled to fire over the parapet and underneath the bed of the waggons; and by leaving traverses in the line of trench, the camp was protected from enfilade. Daily the sappers were occupied in repairing the earth-works, and almost unassisted, built a battery for an 18-pounder gun in the south angle of the intrenchment. Sergeant Young, under Lieutenant Gibb, was the executive non-commissioned officer in conducting the field-works, and twice every day he went round the trenches, reported what was necessary to strengthen the defences, and carried out the directions of his officer. On the night of the 8th June, sergeant Young and three sappers carrying their arms and intrenching tools, accompanied the sortie to the Boers' trenches under Lieutenant Irwin, 27th regiment. The enemy retreated and the trenches were destroyed. On the 18th following three sappers were present in a second sortie under Lieutenant Molesworth of the 27th, and led the column to the points of attack. The conflict was short but fierce, and the troops returned to the camp with the loss of one officer and three men killed, and four wounded. Among the latter was private Richard Tibbs of the sappers. During the siege, private John Howatson had made some wooden cradles for surgical purposes, and on finishing one, begged the doctor to look at it. Both stooped to do so, when a 6-pound shot passed within a few inches of their heads and whizzed by the rest of the party in the trench. When Lieutenant Gibb’s servant was killed, corporal Deary and private Burridge buried him outside the waggons, and the melancholy service was not accomplished without much daring and danger. As the siege progressed provisions became scarce and the troops were put on the smallest possible allowance. Horses were killed and their flesh made into biltong. This, with a little beef, formed the daily repast of the camp; and in lieu of meal and biscuit, ground oats were issued. Upon this fare it was impossible to hold out more than fourteen days, but a strong reinforcement arrived on the 26th June, and effecting a landing, the Boers retreated with loss and haste from the beach and the trenches, and the siege terminated. With the relief were three men of the sappers, who increased the strength of the Natal party to eleven of all ranks.[405] ----- Footnote 405: Much of the above information is taken from Captain Gibb’s ‘Memoranda in Corps Papers,’ i., pp. 230-238. ----- Lieutenant Gibb in his report to head-quarters praised sergeant Young, corporal Deary, and the detachment for their usefulness, alacrity, and cheerfulness; and Captain Smith in command, eulogized them for their uniform activity and readiness of resource in the presence of the enemy. When quitting Natal, the latter officer favoured sergeant Young with a testimonial in the following terms: “As I am about to relinquish the command, I am desirous to bear testimony to the high and irreproachable character of sergeant Young of the royal sappers and miners. Having accompanied the expedition from the Umgazi to Natal early in 1842, and shared in all its subsequent dangers and privations, I cannot speak too highly of his courage and self-possession, and his unwearied zeal in the performance of his various and arduous duties. He was always at his post and never found wanting; and I therefore beg to recommend him to notice as one of the best and most trustworthy non-commissioned officers I have met with during my long course of service.” After the siege the detachment built a sod wall round the camp and loopholed it, within which they constructed a temporary barracks of wood, working from daylight to dark even on Sundays. A wattle barracks for 300 men was next erected by them, and afterwards a block-house at Port Natal. They also extended their services to the requirements of Fort Napier, Van Vooren, Bushman’s River, and the neighbouring posts in the district, during which time their head-quarters was established at Pietermauritzburg, where a party of ten or twelve men have ever since been employed.[406] ----- Footnote 406: Young, as a sergeant, was overseer of the works at Natal, at 2_s._ 6_d._ a-day, in addition to his regimental allowances; and, for his gallant conduct in action and useful services, was awarded a silver medal and an annuity of 10_l._ a-year. In July, 1850, he retired to Charleston, of Aberlour, in Banffshire, on a pension of 2_s._ a-day. He was a stern and an abrupt soldier, but an example of faithfulness, accuracy, and exertion. ----- Sergeant Robert Hearnden and eleven rank and file, detached in the brig ‘Hebe’ in October, 1841, to the Falkland Islands, under Lieutenant R. C. Moody, R.E., the Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, arrived there on the 15th January, 1842. Three women and seven children accompanied the party. The men were volunteers and of trades suitable to the experiment of improving an old but neglected settlement. They were armed with percussion carbines, carrying a sword with a serrated back, which was affixed to the piece when necessary as a bayonet.[407] ----- Footnote 407: This weapon was proposed for adoption in the corps both as a sword for personal defence and an instrument for removing obstructions on active service; but Sir George Murray, then Master-General, refused to sanction its introduction, considering it to be an improper weapon to be used in civilized warfare. ----- After bearing up Berkeley Sound the party landed at Port Louis on the 23rd January, and were present as a guard of honour to his Excellency on taking over the government of the Falkland Islands. The inhabitants were assembled to receive him and the Lieutenant-Governor made them a gracious speech. Soon the men became acquainted with the nature of the country they had been sent to improve. Its land was unfruitful and its character inhospitable. Vegetation was so scant and the soil so poor, that nowhere could a tree be seen. Large barren tracts of country, softened into mud by perpetual rains, everywhere met the eye; and the luxuries of living embraced but few varieties beyond fish, flesh, and fowl. Houses there were none, nor was there any society or amusement. What with rain, snow, fogs, gales, and tempests, the Falkland Islands have well been called the _region of storms_. The population, not more than 200 in all, consisted of a dissipated set of ruffians, the depraved renegades of different countries. After landing the stores and provisions from the ‘Hebe,’ the detachment was put to work. Two portable houses were in course of time erected; one for his Excellency, and the other for the sappers. For durability they were built on stone foundations, and the roofs, to keep out the rain, were covered with tarred canvas and thatched with tussack. A number of outhouses and sheds to suit every convenience and want were rapidly run up, and the old dreary settlement gave unmistakable signs of vigorous industry and improvement. One of the houses, with six apartments, was erected as an addition to the old government-house, which was a long, narrow, crazy structure of one story, with thick stone walls, a canvas roof, and five ill-contrived rooms. The other for the sappers, was constructed a little distance in the rear of the Governor’s dwelling. Two ruinous cottages at Pig Brook were also fitted up, and two cottages at German’s Point rebuilt. To make the habitations of the location more homely and English, enclosures were fenced in for gardens and pasturage. A well likewise was built of dry stone with an oval dome and approached by stone steps. For purposes of correction, an oven built by the French settlers under Bougainville, about 1760, the oldest building in the group, was used for the confinement of refractory characters. The detachment, in addition to its other duties, served as the police of the settlement, and sergeant Hearnden was appointed chief constable. Much of the time of the men was spent in boat service to Long Island and other places to get tussack, oxen, horses, peat, &c. The last was obtained in large quantities and stacked for winter fuel. Occasionally a few were out on reconnoitring excursions examining portions of the country, and surveying the islands and patches of land of colonial interest. In this service corporal William Richardson, who was a surveyor and mathematician, was the most conspicuous. When opportunity permitted, some were employed quarrying stone, repairing landing-places, making roads, and improving the paths and approaches to the settlement. To add to the diversity of their duties, a few were sometimes occupied in marking out allotments and indicating the passes or routes across bogs and lagoons by means of poles. The first pole was placed on the loftiest hill between Port Louis and Saint Salvador, which his Excellency, in honour of his sergeant, named _Hearnden Hill_. In short the men were compelled to turn their hands to anything, for an abandoned and desolate settlement rendered numerous services essential for the convenience and comfort of the settlers. Sergeant Hearnden was clerk of the works, and also filled with energy and ability a number of other offices of colonial necessity.[408] Frequently he was detached to considerable distances, and his reports upon the aspects and capabilities of particular sites and places were invariably received with approbation and his suggestions carried out. ----- Footnote 408: Such as auctioneer, excise-officer, &c. In carrying on the former duty, among his many sales, he disposed of the ‘Melville’ schooner, a vessel belonging to four partners, obtaining for it, from one of the partners, only 720 dollars! This may be taken as a fair specimen of the wealth of the colonists. ----- Sections of the detachment were often sent on duty to Long Island, Green Island, Salvador Bay, Johnson’s Harbour, Port William, &c. Two or three times the men sent to Long Island could not return to the location, as the boats on each occasion were, by a driving gale, dashed back on the beach, and the men exposed through the weary night to the pelting storm. Once under such circumstances the party was without food for twenty-three hours. Two men detached to Jackson’s Harbour, when returning home, were caught in a snow-storm and with great difficulty reached the untenable hut at Fishhouse Creek. There, benumbed and fatigued, they sought shelter for the night, being unable to proceed further or to assist themselves. To relieve the monotony of their public duties, the men were permitted to follow any sport which their inclination suggested. Boating, hunting,[409] shooting, fishing, and angling, were among the varieties of their diversions. Game was plentiful, and the men usually returned from their excursions laden with rabbits, geese, and birds of different form and plumage. In fishing, the party at one time in a single haul, caught at Fishhouse Creek thirteen hundred weight of mullet. The Governor, too, was ever ready to devise means to promote their amusement and comfort, and on one occasion so pleased was he with their general good conduct and exertions, that he honoured them with an excellent dinner from his own purse and shared himself in the festivities. ----- Footnote 409: All had horses, as travelling on horseback was frequently necessary. The Governor presented one, with harness complete, to sergeant Hearnden. The men made themselves very expert in the management of horses, and throwing aside the rude thongs of raw hide by which they were controlled, quickly adapted the draught-horses to the use of artillery harness and collars. ----- With the view of verifying the reported peculiarity of the tides at Southampton, Professor Airy, in February, proceeded thither to examine the rise and fall of the water. Some non-commissioned officers and privates were placed by Colonel Colby at his disposal for this purpose, who prepared and fixed the vertical scale of feet and inches, and kept a watch upon the general accuracy of the observed tides. “I was,” says the Professor, “extremely glad to avail myself of this offer, for I believe that a more intelligent and faithful body of men does not exist than the sappers employed on the trigonometrical survey; and I know well the advantage of employing upon a tedious business like this, a set of regular service men stationed on the spot.”[410] ----- Footnote 410: ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ i., 1843, p. 45. ----- On the 19th March about 150 non-commissioned officers and men of the corps at Woolwich under Lieutenant F. A. Yorke, R.E., were present in the night at a fire, which burnt the ‘Bull’ tavern to the ground.[411] The sappers were the first to render assistance and to secure from destruction much of the property.[412] By the falling of the principal wall of the building eighteen persons were severely crushed and wounded, six of whom were privates of the corps. Private Malcolm Campbell, one of the injured, rescued the landlord, Mr. Boyd, from being burnt to death. The latter in a state of great bewilderment rushed back into the burning tavern, and Campbell dashing after him dragged him through the flames and falling timbers, from a back room of the building, into the street again.[413] ----- Footnote 411: Reference would not have been made to this service only for the accident which attended it. Often it is the lot of the corps at the various stations to distinguish themselves at fires, and by their promptitude and cheerful exertions, to save both lives and property. Footnote 412: An insurance company, in no respect under obligations to the parties who assisted at the fire, felt interested in the exertions of the sappers and awarded them 5_l._ As the sum was too small for distribution, it was well expended in the purchase of a clock for the barracks at Woolwich. Footnote 413: After serving a station in China, died at Woolwich, in July, 1847. ----- During the summer a corporal and twenty-three rank and file of the royal sappers and miners, and nine men of the East India Company’s sappers were employed at Spithead under Major-General Pasley, in the removal of the wreck of the ‘Royal George.’ The operations were carried on from the 7th May to the end of October under the executive orders of Lieutenant G. R. Hutchinson, R.E. In all respects the duties, labours, and responsibilities of the sappers were the same as on previous occasions, except that the diving was carried out by the party, and a few of the East India Company’s sappers and miners, without in any one instance needing the help of professional civil divers. On the 2nd November the detachment rejoined the corps at Chatham. Four divers were at first employed. On the 13th May the number was increased to five, and on the 3rd June to six, which force continued at the duty throughout the season. Several other men during the summer had been so employed when casualty or other cause prevented the regular divers descending, and the whole who had distinguished themselves in this work by their activity and success, were classified as follows:— _First-class divers_:—corporal David Harris: lance-corporals Richard P. Jones, and John Rae: privates Roderick Cameron, James Jago, John Williams, and William Crowdy. _Second-class divers_:—privates Alexander Cleghorn and John Girvan. _Third-class divers_:—lance-corporal W. Thompson: privates William Browning, William Penman, and Edward Barnicoat.[414] ----- Footnote 414: The nine men of the East India Company’s sappers, whose names are appended, dived more or less as occasion offered. Lance-corporal Thomas Sherstone, privates James Hewitt, James Beale, George Taylor, William Brabazon, John Hunt, William England, John McIvor, and John A. Goodfellow. Hewitt was the best, Sherstone the next, and Beale and Taylor were very promising. ----- Corporal Harris almost entirely by his own diligence removed, in little more than two months, the wreck of the ‘Perdita’ mooring lighter, which was sunk in 1783 in the course of Mr. Tracy’s unsuccessful efforts to weigh the ‘Royal George.’ It was about sixty feet in length, and embedded in mud fifty fathoms south of that vessel. The exposed timbers stood only two feet six inches above the level of the bottom, so that the exertions of Harris in removing the wreck were herculean. Completely overpowered by fatigue, he claimed a respite for a day or two to recruit his energies, and then resumed work with his accustomed assiduity and cheerfulness. There was a sort of abnegation—an absence of jealousy—in the character of Harris which, as the rivalry among the divers made them somewhat selfish, gave prominency to his kindness. He met Cameron at the bottom, who led him to the spot where he was working. For a considerable time Cameron had fruitlessly laboured in slinging an awkward timber of some magnitude, when Harris readily stood in his place; and in a few minutes, using Cameron’s breast-line to make the necessary signals, sent the mass on deck. It was thus recorded to Cameron’s credit, but the circumstance, on becoming known, was regarded with so much satisfaction, that honourable mention was made of it in the official journal. Lance-corporal Jones, a sagacious and indefatigable diver, was the most conspicuous for his success at the ‘Royal George.’ In one day besides slinging innumerable fragments, he sent up nearly three tons of pig-iron ballast. The duty of recovering it, which was excessively trying, was confined to him. So painful and enlarged had his hands become in discharging it, he was at last fairly beaten, and for a few days, took an easier area at the bottom. Meanwhile private Hewitt of the East India Company’s sappers, one of the most spirited divers of his party, succeeded him, and led by mark-lines to the spot, commenced his arduous task. Hard indeed did he labour to follow his predecessor even at a remote distance; but on coming up, he declared it was impossible for any one to work there. It appeared for some time, that Jones in his dogged perseverance, had run his adventurous chances in gaps and gullies over his head in mud, and could only feel the ballast by forcing his hands down among the shingle as far as his strength permitted him to reach. On another day Jones lodged on deck from his slings a crate containing eighty 12-pounder shot. With singular success he laid the remainder of the kelson open for recovery, and then, sinking deeper, drew from the mud in two hauls nearly 35 feet of the keel. He also weighed a small vessel of six tons burden belonging to a Mr. Cussell, which drove, under a strong current, upon one of the lighters. Becoming entangled, the craft soon filled and foundered, grappling in her descent with the ladder of one of the divers. Grounding at a short distance from the interval between the lighters, Jones was selected to try his skill in rescuing her. At once descending he fixed the chains under her stern, and while attempting to hold them in position by passing them round the mast, the tide turned, the vessel swung about, and the mast fell over the side, burying Jones under her sails and rigging. Perilous as was his situation, his fearlessness and presence of mind never for a moment forsook him. Working from under the canvas and carefully extricating himself from the crowd of ropes that ensnared him, he at last found himself free. A thunderstorm now set in, and obedient to a call from above, he repaired to the deck; but as soon as the squall had subsided he again disappeared and cleverly jamming the slings, the boat was hove up; but she had become a complete wreck and was taken on shore. Nothing was too venturesome for him to undertake, and the trial of enterprising expedients only whetted his wish to be the chief in their execution. It was desired to ascertain how long a diver could exist in his dress without communication with the external air. Jones offering himself for the experiment, remained ten minutes on the deck of the lighter, cased up as if hermetically sealed, without experiencing any inconvenience. A more dangerous trial followed. A clever man had expressed his conviction, that if the air-pipe were to burst on deck and the diver not instantly drawn up, he would be suffocated. Notwithstanding this scientific speculation, Jones descended, and the pump, by signal, ceased. Five minutes he continued unsupplied from above, but a feeling of pressure having then commenced on his chest, he signalled for air. The knowledge thus acquired, proved that a diver had ample time to be hauled up before the air in his dress should become too vitiated to sustain life. On going down to examine the progress made in the removal of the ‘Perdita,’ Jones encountered a human body which had been drowned about six weeks. It felt round and hard; was nude to the waist but clothed in trowsers to the ankles. Jones was a long time before he could discover what it was that annoyed him. On tracing with his fingers the course of the spinal column, it felt as if the vertebræ were as distinct as the bars of an iron grating. The thought suddenly possessed him that he was handling the remains of a fellow creature. Horror-stricken at the idea, he rushed up the ladder, and it was a few hours before he could sufficiently master his feelings to redescend. When he did so he went to the spot where the body visited him, and removed the timber he had previously secured. He was, however, no more troubled with this submarine apparition nor with a return of his melancholy emotions. Two days after, Corporal Harris had an interview with a strange substance at the foot of his ladder; but not over-nice in his sensations, he struck his pricker into it. When pulled up to the surface, it turned out to be the mutilated remains that molested the sensitive Jones. These two non-commissioned officers were now equal to the best divers in Europe, and their daring exploits at the bottom of the sea under a great depth of water, with a strong tide, and traversing a space covered with thick mud, embarrassed by iron and shingle ballast, huge timbers, guns, and a thousand other obstacles, were constantly recorded in the newspapers of the day, and filled the public with wonder. A sort of fixed intention possessed the minds of the divers this season to bring up the leviathan keel at all hazards. Several therefore shared in the honour of recovering a portion of it. Cameron was the first to burrow under it, and he slung a short piece, which was scarfed, connected with six pairs of copper bolts, measuring one foot six inches long, and also the clamps for securing the false keel. Private James Hewitt of the East India Company’s sappers also recovered a short length. Jago, more successful, sent up six feet; Harris sixteen feet; and Jones came in for the lion’s portion, having slung no less than thirty-four feet six inches. Crowdy also added to the registry of his achievements, the recovery of a guinea; and Cleghorn had the good fortune to send up an 18-pounder iron gun, the only one disembowelled from the deep this summer. A few accidents occurred during the season, only one of which was serious. Corporal Jones, as usual, fell in for his share of them. Slinging, on one occasion, five pigs of ballast, he jumped upon the chains to tighten the load and secure it from slipping. In so doing the weight whirled round and imparted a rotating motion to the bull rope to which the chains were attached. The rope coming in contact with his air-pipe and life-line twined several times round them, and interrupted, in a measure, the channels of communication. To avert the danger which threatened, Jones threw himself on his back, declining the slow process of climbing his ladder; and permitting the air in proper quantity to take vent through the escape valve, passed motionless through the water, except the simple action of his hand occasionally to rectify his balance. His upward flight was something like the downward pitch of a bird, which, laying its wings on the air, descends with scarcely a flutter to the ground. Quickly hauled on board, it was not without much difficulty he was extricated from the entanglement in which his zeal had unwittingly involved him. At another time, being very wet, he was compelled to re-ascend to ascertain the cause of the inconvenience. On examining his helmet, the escape valve was found to be open owing to the presence of a small stone in the aperture, which opposed the true action of the valve and admitted water into his dress in a small but unchecked stream. Private John Williams early in the season tore his hands very severely in attempting to sling a mass of the wreck with jagged surfaces and broken bolts. After a few days' rest, he re-appeared in his submarine habit and dived as before; but, from excessive pain in the ears, was again _hors-de-combat_ until the 11th July; when, on re-descending, he was grievously injured by the bursting of his air-pipe a few inches above the water. This casualty was indicated by a loud hissing noise on deck. A few seconds elapsed before the rupture could be traced and the opening temporarily stopped. With great alertness he was drawn up; and on being relieved of his helmet presented a frightful appearance. His face and neck were much swollen and very livid, blood was flowing profusely from his mouth and ears, his eyes were closed and protruding, and on being laid on deck, he retched a quantity of clotted gore. Though partially suffocated he possessed sufficient sensibility to speak of the mishap. A sudden shock, it seems, struck him motionless, and then followed a tremendous pressure as if he were being crushed to death. A month in Haslar hospital restored him to health, and on returning to the wreck, he at once re-commenced the laborious occupation of diving. He was quite as venturesome and zealous as before, but was again soon obliged to leave off, having resumed the duty at too early a period of his convalescence. A dangerous but curious incident occurred this summer between corporal Jones and private Girvan—two rival divers, who in a moment of irritation engaged in a conflict at the bottom of the sea, having both got hold of the same floor timber of the wreck which neither would yield to the other.[415] Jones at length fearful of a collision with Girvan, he being a powerful man, made his bull-rope fast and attempted to escape by it; but before he could do so, Girvan seized him by the legs and tried to draw him down. A scuffle ensued, and Jones succeeding in extricating his legs from the grasp of his antagonist, took a firmer hold of the bull-rope and kicked at Girvan several times with all the strength his suspended position permitted. One of the kicks broke an eye or lens of Girvan’s helmet, and as water instantly rushed into his dress, he was likely to have been drowned, had he not at once been hauled on board. Two or three days in Haslar hospital, however, completely cured him of the injuries he thus sustained, and these two submarine combatants ever afterwards carried on their duties with the greatest cordiality. ----- Footnote 415: ‘United Service Journal,’ iii. 1843, p. 139. ----- As artificers, lance-corporal Thompson and private Penman were skilful and diligent. Lance-corporal Rae and private Thomas Smith were in charge of the gunpowder and voltaic battery, and made all the mining preparations for explosion. Nearly four tons and a quarter of powder were fired in numerous small charges from 18 to 170 lbs., which will afford some idea of the importance of the duty.[416] ----- Footnote 416: Much of the information given about the wreck of the ‘Royal George,’ has been gleaned from the ‘Hampshire Telegraph,’ ‘Army and Navy Register,’ and the ‘Manuscript Journal of the Operations.’ ----- General Pasley in his official report, besides highly commending the men above named, wrote in praise of the general good conduct of the entire detachment and of its useful and active services. Corporal Blaik, who assisted in the superintendence of the whole of the workmen in one of the two mooring lighters, the General alluded to as a non-commissioned officer of much merit and strict integrity. His courteous behaviour, too, elicited the respect of every man employed, and attracted the favourable notice of many officers and gentlemen who visited the operations.[417] ----- Footnote 417: Afterwards a sergeant. Was generally employed in duties of importance far exceeding his rank, at the Cape of Good Hope, Isle of France, and Hong-Kong. In 1847 he was present in the expedition to Canton, blew up the Zigzag Fort, and otherwise conspicuously distinguished himself. He died at Hong-Kong, after five years' service there, in 1848. Blaik had been brought up at the royal military asylum, Chelsea. ----- Early in September, at the request of the Trinity corporation, Colonel Sir Frederick Smith, director of the royal engineer establishment, undertook to demolish two barges formerly used as the foundations of beacons at Blyth Sand, Sheerness. For this purpose he sent Lieutenant Bourchier, R.E., sergeant-major Jenkin Jones and seven men of the corps to the spot in the ‘Beaconry,’ one of the Trinity steamers. A number of small charges deposited in tin cases were fixed at low water, and fired to shake the wrecks. By the explosion of a large charge on the 3rd September, one barge was completely destroyed and dispersed; and on the 5th, by the firing of a still greater charge, the other barge shared the fate of its consort. Masses of the wreck on the first explosion were projected to a height of about 200 feet, and about 400 feet from the scene of operations, while at the same time a column of water, eighty feet high, was forced into the air. On the second occasion, Sir Thomas Willshire, the commandant of Chatham garrison, and Captain Welbank, chairman of the Trinity corporation, were present, but the effect was less striking, although a much greater quantity of powder was used, in consequence of there being at the moment twenty feet of superincumbent water pressing on the barge. Captain Welbank personally complimented the “indefatigable” sergeant-major for his success, and the corporation of Trinity House afterwards, with the permission of the Master-General, presented him with a silver-gilt snuff-box to commemorate the assistance he rendered in the dispersion of the wrecks.[418] ----- Footnote 418: Four years previously, August, 1838, sergeant-major Jones was presented with a silver tankard, “by the sergeants of Chatham garrison, in testimony of their gratitude for the undeviating attention he evinced in superintending the formation of a military swimming-bath at that station.” ----- 1842. Draft to Canada—Company recalled from thence—Its services and movements—Its character—Labours of colour-sergeant Lanyon—Increase to Gibraltar—Reduction in the corps—Irish survey completed; force employed in its prosecution—Reasons for conducting it under military rule—Economy of superintendence by sappers—Their employments—Sergeants West, Doull, Spalding, Keville—Corporals George Newman, Andrew Duncan—Staff appointments to the survey companies—Dangers—Hardships—Average strength of sapper force employed—Casualties—Kindness of the Irish—Gradual transfer of sappers for the English survey—Distribution; Southampton. The company in Canada which accompanied the troops to that province on the occasion of the unsettled state of affairs on the American frontier, was increased to a full company by the arrival of thirteen men on the 8th July, 1842. Scarcely had the party landed before the company itself was recalled, and rejoined the corps at Woolwich on the 31st October,