Chapter II: Part 2

Augmentation to corps—A calculating prodigy—Company removed from
Portsmouth to Ireland—Chartist demonstration and services of the
sappers in London—Road-making in Zetland—Company to the
Mauritius—Major Sandham—Sergeant Anderson—Sergeant Ross—Sir
Harry Smith’s frontier tour at the Cape—Passage of the Mooi;
corporal Pringle—Passage of the Konap; sergeant McLeod; also of
the Orange River—Boem Plaatz—Spirited conduct of a party in
removing an ammunition tumbril, which had upset in some burning
grass—Peace—Inspection at Gibraltar by Sir Robert Wilson—Also at
Hong-Kong by Major-General Stavely—Company at Corfu—Return of
party to England from the Falkland Islands—Sergeant Hearnden.

The nineteenth company was formed on the 1st of April and appropriated for the duties of the survey.[32] On the 1st of September, another company, numbered the 20th, was organized, which increased the establishment from 1,800 to 2,000 of all ranks. The detachment of one sergeant, one corporal and twelve privates, formed by royal warrant in July, 1839, for service in South Australia, merged into the establishment in December, by an order dated 15th of that month, and thus reduced the corps from 2,000 to 1,985 of all ranks. This measure was effected to simplify details and to make the detachment form part of a company, without removing it from the province. Its expense still continued to be borne by the colonial government.

The company at Portsmouth, ninety-eight strong, under Captain Robertson, R.E., was sent by rapid conveyances to Dublin, and arrived there on the 2nd of April, to assist in quelling the rebellion in Ireland. Late in July, Lieutenant Akers, R.E., with one sergeant and fifteen rank and file, accompanied the troops under the command of Major-General Macdonald to Thurles, and encamped about a mile from the town, and returned to Dublin in September, without any necessity for their services arising. The meditated revolt was crushed, and Smith O’Brien with some other demagogues, convicted of traitorous designs, were expatriated. The company on being withdrawn from Ireland, removed to Woolwich, where it arrived on the 19th of February, 1849.

A rising of the Chartists being anticipated, measures were taken to thwart their designs. Troops were collected with rapidity from all quarters and appointed to various posts in London, to act if occasion required. Late in the evening of Saturday the 8th of April, a company of 100 strong with sergeant-major Bradford, under the command of Captain Tylee, R.E., was detached from Woolwich to the Tower of London. Each man took with him forty rounds of ammunition. The company slept in the Tower that night, but early next morning, two sergeants and thirty-two rank and file, under Lieutenant Sedley, R.E., were sent to the Ordnance Office, Pall Mall, to oppose any attempt at possession by the Chartists. Another party with sergeant-major Bradford under Lieutenant Wilkinson, R.E., was removed to the Bank of England. On the roof of this edifice were built platforms; and at certain places, massive timbers with loop-holes were run up as positions for defence. Several thousand sand-bags filled the upper tier of windows facing the Royal Exchange, and others as high as a man were piled upon the parapet of the roof, with apertures between them for musketry. Over the entrance of the building, a strong wooden machicouli, resting upon ponderous beams, projected into the street, which held a party of the corps ready to open a volley on the rabble, had an attempt been made to force an entrance. In the yard leading to the workshops, &c., the sappers also erected an enormous barricade of casks, handcarts, &c.

The detachment at the Tower was no less zealous. At the Byward tower, the face—overlooking the entrance to the fortress from the Thames by the bridge—was loop-holed, as also a building to command the other entrance. About thirty yards inside—from the gate of the Byward tower—a strong intrenched stockade was erected; and on the wharf near the Traitor’s tower, two barricades were constructed of crates with bricks in them, iron coal boxes, &c., which were loop-holed for musketry. Along the Traitor’s wall was an erection of sand-bags with openings for firing, and on the roof of the barracks, banquettes, to enable the troops to play on the mob in the rear near to the Mint, were formed of scaffolding and military forms. The old bricked-up embrasures facing Tower Hill were also rendered ready for the reception of guns by picking out the bricks and clearing away the debris, which for years had been accumulating there. Fortunately no outbreak occurred, and the company returned to Woolwich on the 14th of April.

There happened at the time to be a handful of the corps in London employed in the metropolitan survey, who, as the occasion was ominous and pressing, were relieved from their professional operations to assist in those of defence. So well did they discharge the duties intrusted to them in barricading the entrances to the high offices of the State, that their conduct was acknowledged in a communication from Lieut.-Colonel Alderson of the engineers in these terms. “I have been requested by Mr. Trevelyan, on the part of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other authorities of the government, to express their satisfaction at the good conduct of the detachment of royal sappers and miners, under the command of colour-sergeant Smith, during their employment under me at the Treasury and government-offices on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday last; also in the efficient professional aid they afforded, in putting the Treasury-buildings and Downing-street in a state of defence.”

In May, Captain Webb, R.E., with one sergeant and one private, both surveyors, proceeded to Zetland by an order from the Commissioners of the Treasury, and laid out and surveyed nearly ninety miles of road, upon which the poor of the islands were employed to afford them relief. In September, the party returned to Woolwich, where Captain Webb and the sergeant completed the plans of the work for the Home Office. The conduct and zeal of sergeant R. Forsyth were specially brought to the notice of the Treasury, and in a letter from Sir Charles Trevelyan to Captain Webb, dated 26th of December, 1848, it is stated, “that my lords have received with satisfaction your report of the zeal and intelligence displayed by sergeant Forsyth in assisting in this service; and that if his exertions shall continue to be equally useful, they will be prepared to grant him some moderate additional remuneration when these operations have been brought to a close.”[33]

A new station was opened for the corps this year, by detaching to the Mauritius a company of 100 strong, under the command of Captain J. Fenwick, R.E., which embarked at Gravesend on the 2nd of May, and landed from the ‘Edmundsbury’ on the 19th of August. A half company had previously been employed there, but on the completion of the citadel in 1840, it was removed to the Cape of Good Hope.

Captain John Walpole, R.E., was commissioned as brigade-major to the corps on the 1st of June, 1848, _vice_ Major Sandham removed to the ordnance office as second inspector-general. With the sappers, Major Sandham had served for many years, and the great interest he took in their concerns is well known. Strict impartiality and a penetrating discrimination marked his whole conduct; and his attention to the discipline and drill, raised the character of the corps for military appearance and efficiency. The ready testimony of Lord Bloomfield, the commandant of Woolwich garrison, was frequently awarded to Major Sandham for his success in these particulars, and never was the corps present at a garrison parade, but his lordship called the attention of his staff to its correct marching and manœuvring. A sterling friend to the sappers, Major Sandham, with hearty goodwill, provided many non-commissioned officers and men with comfortable and lucrative situations in civil life, although in doing so, he laid himself under many and deep obligations to those from whom he obtained the patronage.[34]

At the Cape of Good Hope, the companies were still dispersed to about fifteen stations on the eastern frontier and at Pieter Maritzburg. In February, corporal George Pringle, having under him twelve men of the 45th regiment, threw a raft of casks for the passage of his Excellency Sir Harry Smith and his guard, over the rivers Umgani, Mooi, Bushman’s, and the two Tugelas. Sir Harry was taking a peaceful tour of the colony from the frontier to Natal, during which he inquired into the disaffection of the Boers, and settled matters with Pretorius relative to the sovereignty of some territory north of the Orange river, and eastward as far as the Draakenberg mountains.[35] Corporal George Pringle and party, under Lieutenant Gibb, R.E., went from Pieter Maritzburg to the foot of the Draakenberg range, about 120 miles, to meet him. His Excellency noticed corporal Pringle for the activity and intelligence he displayed on this service. When crossing the Mooi, in consequence of the strain on the hawser which had been previously fastened to the opposite bank, the raft capsized, and threw the pontoon party and fifteen men of the Cape mounted rifles into the stream. Corporal Pringle and a man of the 45th regiment, alone clung to the raft; and as it swept along with the rapid current, whirling round and round with the eddy, the corporal dexterously seized the end of a breast-line, jumped into the stream, and swimming to the shore, moored the raft to a clump of bush, by which it swung in safety. All the saddles and carbines, the waggon, and Sir Harry Smith’s horse, which were on the pontoon at the time, were thrown into the river. The horse, by means of a lasso, was soon rescued; and the waggon, about five feet under water, was recovered by the coolness of the corporal, who swam to the spot, and lashing it to the boom, hauled it, with the assistance of his party, to the bank. All the soldiers were saved. The corporal now adopted another method to take his Excellency and the guard across, and the passage of the Mooi, more than fifty yards wide, was eventually effected without accident to the troops or injury to the baggage.

Six privates, under sergeant Alexander M. M‘Leod, left King William’s Town on the 2nd August with a division commanded by Sir Harry Smith, to chastise the rebel Boers at Boem Plaatz. On nearing the Konap, the party was sent in advance to discover the ford. All night was spent in the tedious search, but by daylight next morning it was effectually traced and the march across the Konap commenced. The train, however, was soon stopped in its progress, as the leading waggon, unskilfully conducted by the vorlooper in charge of it, got off a ledge of rock upon which it was proceeding safely, and sinking into the water, the gunpowder it contained was destroyed. At the same time the vorlooper, young and weak, unable to stand against the current, was swept off his legs. In this emergency Colonel Buller directed the sergeant to assist the train in crossing. Standing in the centre of the stream, he controlled the refractory oxen and drove them to the opposite shore. There, however, fresh difficulties arose, for, as the soil was greasy and the bank steep, the oxen could not draw the waggons out of the river. Instantly the party of sappers reduced the bank, and throwing the excavated earth on the slippery beach, the waggons were at length dragged to the shore.

Arriving at the Great Fish River, the troops, guns, and baggage were ferried across on the India-rubber raft taken with the sappers, while the empty waggons were drawn over by means of a hawser. On the 20th the Orange River was reached; next day four other sappers were added to the party, and on the 22nd, at day-light, the India-rubber float was launched for the passage of the division. The river was 250 yards wide and a very rapid tide was running, when, having stretched a sheer line across the stream fastened on either shore to a tree, the operation was successfully carried out. Forty men were ferried across at a time, the expedient of the guiding hawser considerably lessening the labours of the party. Three guns and several waggons were also taken over. The latter were simply rolled on the raft without disturbing their loads, and were deprived of any dangerous motion by blocking their wheels. Not a single accident occurred; and in compliment to the unfailing zeal and efficiency of the men, Sir Harry Smith took occasion, on a general parade at Graham’s Town in October, 1848, to acknowledge that to the royal sappers and miners he was “greatly indebted for the means with which he had been enabled to make the passage of the Orange River, many of the men swimming in the river like dolphins in getting across the baggage and material.”[36]

Marching for Boem Plaatz the detachment was present in an engagement with the Boers, remaining for a time in the rear in charge of ten ammunition tumbrils, and four engineer waggons, containing engineer tools and stores; but ordered to the front by the Governor’s aide-de-camp, Captain Holdich, they pressed forward with four ammunition waggons, and did good service, during the remainder of the action, by serving out the cartridges to the troops.

It was not long before the Boers were beaten, and the column advanced, followed by the sappers and the train of waggons. The grass was on fire on either side of the road. Just at this time the fore-skean or linch-pin of the leading waggon broke, the near fore-wheel came off, and the tumbril upset. Another minute and the burning grass would have blown it up; but there were resolute spirits in the party, who, undaunted by the danger, rushed to the spot, raised the dismembered waggon from the fire, and replacing the wheel, fastened it by the drag-chain through the spokes to the tessel-boom. The expedient answered its purpose for twelve miles, when, by Sir Harry Smith’s orders, the ammunition was removed to a commissariat waggon.

On the 30th August, at Bloem Fontein, the Sovereignty was proclaimed to be British territory. A few days after, marching for Wynberg, the sappers cut a road up the steep and rugged banks of the river they crossed on the route, and repaired a drift for the waggons at Wynberg. There a review was held by Sir Harry Smith. Moshes, the paramount chief of the Sovereignty, and his sons were present, attended by a cortege of 800 armed horsemen clothed in European garb, and 1,500 foot warriors in their war costume and accoutrements. When the display terminated, the Kaffirs formed a circle round Sir Harry Smith and the chief Moshes, and performed a frantic war-dance to serve as an additional proof of the re-establishment of peace. The sappers with the other troops witnessed this barbaric demonstration, and afterwards returned to Bloem Fontein.

The companies at Gibraltar, brought to a strength of 197 men by the arrival of a reinforcement of 53 rank and file, were inspected by the Governor, Sir Robert Wilson, in May, and his report complimented them on their efficiency, zeal, and capacity. “Under arms,” Sir Robert added, “their appearance is soldier-like, and their exercises were creditably performed.” His Excellency, however, had to regret “that the vice of drunkenness should exist in a corps otherwise so respectable.”

In October, Major-General Stavely inspected the half company at Hong Kong, but while he commended the men for their “fine looks” and “being well dressed,” he censured the irregularity which had recently marked their conduct. Intoxication, the greatest bane of the colony, was the chief predisposing cause of disease; and the sappers, who from the nature of their service were continually employed and often much exposed to the sun, carried the propensity to an extent which produced much sickness, and justly called for the Major-General’s animadversion.

Very different, however, was the conduct of the seventh company at Corfu, which, having completed its tour of foreign duty, was relieved early in the year and returned to Woolwich. The Lieutenant-General spoke of their constant good conduct and exertions during the period they had been under his command, and commended them for the excellency of their services. In parting with the company he expressed his good wishes for their welfare, and a vast concourse of the inhabitants cheered them through the streets to the point of embarkation. Since 1824, the companies successively sent to Corfu were chiefly employed in the works of the citadel, and the defences of Vido. Fort Neuf and the church in the citadel, as well as Fort George, Lunette Wellington, and the Maitland Tower at Vido, attest the skilful workmanship of the sappers. Individuals or small parties were at different times detached on particular duty to Santa Maura, Zante, Paxo, and Cephalonia. Of this special duty some idea may be formed, from the nature of the employment of a corporal, who being sent to Santa Maura in December, 1845, by order of the Lord High Commissioner, superintended the workmen engaged in opening a new channel into the port, to render the inner passage once more practicable for ships sailing either up or down the coast.

The detachment at the Falkland Islands was removed from that settlement on the recall of Governor Captain Moody, and landed at Woolwich the 29th November, 1848. For more than six years the party had discharged all the duties of soldiers and artificers, assisted by about forty civilians chiefly labourers; and in that short period a considerable improvement had been made in the colony. Several buildings had been erected, including the Government-house and offices; also a school-house and barracks, and cottages for emigrants and workmen, with houses for boats and stores. Jetties were also constructed, sea-walls made, roads traced and formed, bridges thrown, weirs made for fishing, and kraals for cattle, with numerous ditches, drains, sod walls, and sod huts. To these must be added the performance of an endless variety of services, which the wants and contingencies of a new and inhospitable colony rendered indispensable. Four of the detachment were discharged in the settlement, and the remaining four, soon after reaching England, left the corps by purchase or on pension.[37]

-----

Footnote 32:

This year was enlisted a calculating youth named Alexander Gwin, a
native of Londonderry, who had a brother and an uncle in the corps.
When only eight years of age, he had “committed to memory the
logarithms of all the natural numbers from one to a thousand.” Two
years later, his fame having spread, his precocity was tested at
Limerick “in the presence of Colonel Colby, Lord Adare, and several
other gentlemen of distinction,” to whom he repeated the whole series,
without a mistake, taking up two hours and a half to deliver himself
of that gigantic mental effort! “His rapidity and correctness in
calculating trigonometrical distances, triangles, &c.” were equally
remarkable. “In less than one minute, he could make a return in acres,
roods, perches, &c., of any quantity of land, by giving him the
surveyor’s chained distances; while,” it is added, “the greatest
mathematician with all his knowledge would certainly take nearly an
hour to do the same, and not be sure of truth in the end.”—‘Year-Book
of Facts,’ 1842. ‘Boys’ Own Book,’ p. 381, published by Bogue. This
calculating boy, making allowance for the hyperbole of his admirers,
was without doubt a youthful prodigy. He is now a corporal on the
survey, useful and energetic in his duties; but as the opportunities
for improving his faculty for figures have been considerably lessened
by the nature of his employments, he has not become what his infantine
capabilities promised—another Bidder.

Footnote 33:

He never received any additional remuneration at the close of the
work, but his high rate of working-pay may have been considered a
sufficient equivalent for his services.

Footnote 34:

Sergeant James Anderson was one of those who was thus favoured. On
obtaining his discharge, with a pension of 1_s._ 10_d._ a day, in
August, 1845, he received an appointment in Worsley-yard, belonging to
the estate of Lord Ellesmere, as superintendent and storekeeper of the
yard, at a salary of 120_l._ a-year, with a residence. Since then,
such has been his scrupulous character for honesty and careful
supervision, that a very handsome addition has been made to his
income, and the utmost confidence is reposed in him.

Another was colour-sergeant John Ross, a very ingenious mechanic, who
after his discharge, in April, 1848, was appointed engineer at
Runcorn, to attend to a small steam fleet in the canal, under the
Bridgewater Trust. He invented the drawbridge at the entrance of Fort
Albert, Bermuda, the largest of its class in any military
fortification, and which can be easily worked by two men, either in
throwing it across the ditch, or pulling it in. Many years of his life
had been spent in perfecting a new system of locomotion for ships. His
great idea was the construction of a vessel which should ride above
the control of the waves, resting upon an arrangement of large
cylinders, to serve, like the piers of a bridge, as the natural
supports of the ship, and within which should be placed his revolving
paddle-wheels, to be moved by steam appliances. By a very ingenious
contrivance he provided that the sea, which should come in contact
with the paddles, should not only be deprived of its resistance, but
made to assist in the propulsion of the vessel. The speed he
calculated to obtain by his system was almost incredible. Personal
trials of an imperfect model, in the waters at Bermuda, convinced him
of the practicability of his bold scheme. After quitting Runcorn,
ambitious of higher employment, he emigrated to Canada, where he is
pursuing the study and development of his novel notions of
shipbuilding and locomotion. He received a gratuity and medal for his
services in the corps, and might have been promoted to the rank of
sergeant-major, but, restless and speculative, he preferred to try
what his mechanical genius would yield him in civil life.

Footnote 35:

‘Cape and the Kaffirs,’ by Mrs. Captain Ward. Bohn’s edit. 1851, p.
230.

Footnote 36:

‘Graham’s Town Journal,’ October 14, 1848.

Footnote 37:

Sergeant Hearnden, so frequently spoken of in these pages, purchased
his discharge and emigrated with his savings, nearly a thousand
pounds, to North America, where, from his enterprising spirit and
commercial tact, he is realizing a fortune. Throughout his service of
twelve years in the corps he was constantly employed on particular
duty. In the practical instruction of the Cadets at Sandhurst and
Woolwich, and in one of the early expeditions to the disputed
territory in the state of Maine, he showed much talent and energy, and
obtained great credit. For his services at the Falkland Islands no
higher testimony could be afforded to a soldier than the repeated warm
acknowledgments of Governor Moody. A word may also be given about his
horse. Blanco was brought from South America; was perfectly white, and
exhibited signs of good breeding. Hearnden purchased him at a rather
high figure; but his subsequent usefulness and hardihood in a trying
climate gave him ample reason to be satisfied with his bargain. On the
7th January, 1847, at the Falkland Island races, Blanco had the good
fortune to win the Governor’s cup, worth 50l. The cup, made of silver,
by Hunt and Roskill, stood about eighteen inches high, and was richly
ornamented and chased. On one side the sergeant was represented
mounted, with sword, sabre-tache, and gauntlets. In another panel was
the inscription. The cover was very massive, and both cover and cup
were lined with silver gilt.

1849.

Breach in the sea embankment at Foulness—Company to
Portsmouth—Augmentation to corps—Homeward journey of the Arctic
expedition—Private Brodie—Great Slave Lake party—Expedition arrives in
England—South Australia—Sergeant R. Gardiner—Road-making in
Zetland—Survey of Dover—Wreck of the ‘Richard Dart’—Miserable
condition of the survivors on Prince Edward’s Island—Found, and taken
to the Cape—Remeasurement of the base-line on Salisbury
Plain—Shoeburyness—Eulogium by the Marquis of Anglesey—Fatal accident
at Sandhurst College.

On the 10th January fifty-five men, under Captain Tylee of the engineers, were sent by express conveyances from Chatham to Foulness Island, near the entrance of the river Burnham on the coast of Essex, to repair the sea embankment which for about 200 feet had been forced away by a heavy sea. The detachment took with it a quantity of intrenching tools, water-boots, and stores, including 300 fascines and 3,000 sand-bags, which were made and filled in about three hours. In less than twelve hours from the commencement of the work, the breach was effectually mended by an ingenious placement of fascines and sand-bags, at an expense not exceeding 6_l._ 10_s._ The party worked in two divisions. The day was extremely wet, but the men laboured with the utmost zeal, and their conduct both on sea and land was exemplary.[38]

A company was sent from Woolwich to Portsmouth in January to supply the place of the one removed from that garrison to Dublin in February, 1848. The return of a company to Portsmouth induced much opposition to its employment on the part of the civil workmen, and disparaging remarks, with respect both to its conduct and its mechanical abilities, appeared in the provincial journals of the time.

One company, the twenty-first, was raised 1st February, and another, the twenty-second, on the 1st March, thereby increasing the establishment of the corps from 1,985 to 2,185 of all ranks. The royal warrant, authorizing the formation of the last eight companies, is dated 22nd August, 1849, and on its authority the companies were organized as follows,—

Colour
Ser- Ser- Cor- 2nd Pri- General
geant. geants. porals. Corp. Bugl. vates. Total. Total.
17 Companies, Service, each 1 4 5 5 2 83 100 = 1,700
1 Company, Corfu 1 2 3 3 2 51 62 = 62
3 Companies, Survey, each 1 6 7 7 2 82 105 = 315
1 Company, Survey 1 4 5 5 2 83 100 = 100
——-
2,177
Staff—1 Brigade-Major, 1 Adjutant, 1 Quartermaster, 2 Sergeant-majors, } 8
2 Quartermaster-sergeants, and 1 Bugle-major,
——-
Total 2,185
——-

When the summer fairly set in, the arctic expedition under Sir John Richardson commenced its return. The van, with corporal Mackie, started about a week before Sir John, who followed on the 7th May with Mitchell, Brodie, and three seamen. In five and a half days the journey over the ice was completed, and on the 12th they encamped at Cape Macdonald, clearing away for the purpose snow to the depth of five feet. They then moved on to Fort Franklin, where the advance division had arrived with a good supply of provisions for the voyage. Soon afterwards a detached party was commissioned to Fort Norman for a barge and stores, for which Sir John Richardson waited nearly a month, having with him Mitchell and Brodie and two fishermen, who, in the mean time, lived on trout, whitefish, herrings, and geese, and “bivouacked under the shelter of a boat’s sail as a substitute for a tent.” In time they quitted the vicinity of the fishing-hut, and moved to the banks of the Bear Lake river, where they encamped until the 9th June, when the descent of the river commenced. In the fishing coble brought from Fort Norman, Sir John Richardson with three of the party embarked, whilst Mitchell, Brodie, and a fisherman named Morrison, walked along the bank of the river, each of them carrying his own bedding and clothing. Narcisse, another fisherman, was left behind in charge of some stores. Half an hour after setting out, the party in the coble put ashore, “and in a short time Corporal Mitchell and Morrison joined them, but private Brodie, having struck into the woods with the view of making a straighter course, did not arrive in the hour that the chief waited for him;” and expecting that he had gone past, the voyage was resumed with Mitchell and Morrison added to the party in the boat.[39]

Fourteen miles from the lake a _cache_ was reached; and as Brodie had not arrived in the course of the day, it was evident he had lost himself, and therefore corporal Mitchell and Morrison were sent “back to the lake to acquaint Narcisse with what had happened, and to engage an Indian living at the fishery to go in quest of Brodie. In the meantime the party at intervals fired their fowling-pieces, and set fire to some trees, that the smoke might be seen by the strayed wayfarer at a distance.”[40]

Next day the men came back from the lake. “After placing written directions for Brodie in the _cache_, the expedition re-embarked, and in a short time came to the influx of the Black River, then flooded. There another paper of instructions was left for Brodie, directing him to the _cache_ for provisions, and to remain with Narcisse until the barge came for him.” “The incident,” writes Sir John Richardson, “of Brodie’s straying gave me much uneasiness, as I feared he would experience some suffering, though I did not apprehend he would lose his life. He was a man of much personal activity and considerable intelligence. When he discovered he was walking in a wrong direction, he began to mend his pace, and to run, as is usual in such cases, but took an inland course, and at length came to the borders of an extensive swamp. Here the woods being more open he obtained a distant view of the ‘hill at the rapid,’ which he recognized, from having seen it on his former journey to the _cache_; and as he knew that he must pass it in descending the river, he resolved on walking straight for it, in the hope of arriving there before us. After this he came to the Black River,” a rapid, unfordable stream, scarcely passable by a raft; but, continues Sir John Richardson, “being a fearless swimmer, he swam across it carrying his clothes on his head. The stream being very tortuous, came again in his way, when he crossed it a second and a third time in the same manner; but on the last occasion, his bundle slipping off, floated away, and he regained the bank with difficulty in a state of perfect nudity. After a moment’s reflection, he came to the conclusion that without clothes he must perish, and that he might as well be drowned in trying to recover them as to attempt proceeding naked. On which he plunged in again, and fortunately landed this time safely with his habiliments. He now refreshed himself with a part of a small piece of dried meat, which in his anxiety he had hitherto left untouched, and forthwith decided on finding the _cache_ and returning from thence to the lake. On the third day (11th June) he found my note, together with some provisions which had been suspended to a pole for his use, but he had so husbanded his own small supply, that he had still a morsel of dried meat remaining. He had no difficulty afterwards in joining Narcisse, by keeping sight of the river the whole way;”[41] and in due course he joined the expedition at Fort Simpson, in a barge sent to receive him.

At this fort also joined the ten sappers who had wintered on the Great Slave Lake; and on the 25th June Sir John started again on his homeward journey, encountering a succession of hardships, until he arrived at Norway House on the 13th August. The services of the mission were now wholly ended, and of the sappers, Sir John Richardson thus recorded his opinion: “During the time these men were under my command, not a single act of disobedience occurred. Crews better fitted for heavy portage work and for the ordinary duties of a winter’s residence in the north, might doubtless have been selected _in the country_, but none that I could have depended upon with so much confidence in adverse circumstances.”[42]

The arctic travellers arrived in England in November 1849, when three or four, in recognition of their usefulness, received gratuities of 15_l._ each, and the remainder 10_l._ each.

Captain Freeling, R.E., appointed surveyor-general in South Australia, with a party of five surveyors—sappers and miners—sailed for Port Adelaide on the 6th March, and landed there the 21st June. These men were forwarded to the colony to fill the vacancies occasioned by men discharged. Captain Frome, R.E., who had commanded the detachment in that province since 1839, was recalled to the corps in consequence of his period on the seconded list having expired.[43]

Early in March one sergeant and five rank and file under the orders of Captain Webb, R.E., returned to Zetland to lay out and superintend the construction of the roads surveyed in the two previous years. Up to this time, there was nothing in the island that could be called a road, except from Lerwick to Scallaway, a distance of about six miles, which, though not finished, was passable for riders, &c. Captain Craigie, R.N., the commissioner for Zetland, accorded them high credit for their exertions in directing the work, and controlling the poor employed upon it; and in a report to the Edinburgh section of the Central Board, he thus wrote of their usefulness and merits: “I cannot close this report without bearing my humble testimony to the invaluable services of Captain Webb, R.E., sergeant Forsyth and the staff of royal sappers and miners, and recording the gratitude felt towards Government by the whole community, for their consideration in granting an officer so eminently fitted to conduct and carry out to completion, works of such public and permanent utility. But great and most important as these works unquestionably are, they fall into comparative insignificance as compared to the social regeneration now in progress, in the industrious habits of the people, and to which their efforts have mainly contributed. The patience, forbearance, the tact and temper with which Captain Webb and his staff have led the people on, step by step, to a knowledge of their physical powers; their indefatigable industry and disregard of difficulties of no ordinary kind in such a climate and country; but above all, their being looked up to as the organ and representatives of government in this remote region, have invested them with a moral influence among all classes which can scarcely be calculated.”

In April eight rank and file from Chatham were employed under the direction of Lieutenant Stotherd, R.E., in completing the survey and contouring of Dover.

A detachment of one sergeant, one corporal, and twenty-six privates, with four women and nine children, embarked at Woolwich on the 3rd April, 1849, on board the brig ‘Richard Dart,’ for New Zealand, under the command of Lieutenant Liddell, R.E. The ship sailed from Gravesend on the 5th April, and made a pleasant voyage until the 15th June, when, to the southward of the Cape of Good Hope, foggy and rainy weather set in, which continuing till the 19th, the ship was carried to the north side of Prince Edward’s Island and struck on the rocks. The waves at the time ran high, and within a few short minutes, the stern cabin-windows were stove in, the boats were filled and torn from the quarter, and while the vessel, beaten by a raging sea fell to pieces, wave after wave swept the decks and rigging and carried forty-seven of the crew and passengers into the deep. Of this number twenty-four men belonged to the detachment of sappers, who, with all their wives and children, and Lieutenant Liddell, perished.

Eleven souls only out of sixty-three were saved. Among those who escaped were the captain of the ship—Samuel Potter—and four sappers, named Thomas Inglis, Owen Devany, James Reid and William Goldsmith. They took refuge in the mainmast rigging; and the wreck, having been driven broadside to the shore, the mainmast went by the board, falling fortunately upon the rock, and the survivors crawled along the shaking spar to the shore. The rocks being exceedingly steep and difficult of access, the men had to undergo much labour and fatigue in reaching the summit of the cliff, occasionally hanging on by fragile sea-weeds and every now and then throwing themselves into crevices to prevent the receding surge drawing them into the sea. Most of the party were barefoot and thinly clad. The night was cold; the snow fell fast and thick, and beating upon their drenched and shivering frames, their sufferings may possibly be imagined but never adequately described.

The island was a mass of black rocks, torn by volcanic violence, and wore an aspect of wild and sterile desolation. Selecting a small green spot where fresh water was found, they made it a temporary residence, and built with the wood recovered from the wreck and some sods, a small hut, which sheltered them in a measure from the bitter wind and frost. A few sperm candles and some blankets, washed from the wreck, were all that could be found to reward their anxious exertions. No provisions of any kind could be picked up; but at length, when forced by hunger, they killed some young albatrosses and fed sparingly on the raw flesh. The candles in this extremity became savoury morsels and were devoured with considerable relish. As they were without fire, or the means of procuring any to assuage the bitterness of their distress, they determined, on the seventh day of their deliverance, to explore the island and see what Providence might turn up to their hopes.

Two of the men, from being frostbitten and cut in the feet, were unable to walk. The remaining nine, therefore, started, leaving a stock of raw meat with the two sick sappers, who laid themselves down on the cold ground only to feel the increase of pangs which the presence even of a spark of fire would have helped to soften. Without a cheering ray to palliate their wretchedness, with the nipping frost gnawing their reeking wounds, they gave themselves up to the destiny which seemed to await them. Hourly the toils and miseries of the adventurers increased. After travelling all day, sometimes over high hills covered with sharp vitrified cinders, sometimes on marshy ground up to their hips in bog, they stopped for the night by the side of a frowning rock. The rain poured in torrents; shelter could not be found; no expedient for kindling a flame succeeded; and in this deplorable condition they sat down on the charred ground, huddled together to preserve some little warmth among them, exposed throughout the night to the drenching storm, covered only by their blankets.

Next morning, resuming their travels, they gained a beach where four sea-elephants were lying basking in the sun, for the day opened with a cheering summer’s warmth. Two of the monsters they killed, but made no use of them. Here the travellers waited for a few days to recruit their strength. The place was called “Double Beach,” but no fissure or cavity could be found to hide them from the winds and rains; and so night after night, rolling themselves up in their blankets, they slept in the open air. After a few days, private Reid, with some others, returned to the first location to visit the invalids. Private Goldsmith—a mere lad, slim and weakly by nature—was much worse; his frame was frightfully emaciated, his agony intense, and his toes were sloughing with gangrene; but private Devany—constitutionally stout and strong—was improving though unable to walk. Three days they remained with their sick comrades to encourage and cheer them with a narrative of their proceedings and a recital of their hopes; and on the 1st July they again repaired to Double Beach, leaving with the sick men the raw flesh of six birds, equal to a week’s provisions. Devany was most assiduous in his attentions to the dying man, and to save his poor mouth from the exertion of mastication, tore up the uncooked flesh into small pieces, and fed him. But the time came when he was no longer able to receive the morsels—the last struggle was upon him—and he closed his eyes for ever.

A snow-storm now set in, which lasted all night and throughout the day of the 2nd. Raw flesh was their only repast, and of this, from the want of powder and gun, they could not obtain a sufficiency to sustain their strength. Weak and attenuated, and completely benumbed by exposure to frost and snow, but little could be done in the way of exploration. Nevertheless they lagged on in their desperate mission, like men contending against some crushing adversity, determined to win. Crusoes they could not hope to be in such a clime and such a barren sea-holm; but whatever was practicable to their ingenuity and strength, they adapted to their use to support life till deliverance gave them succour.

The night of the 2nd July was still more severe in its effects upon the spirits and constitutions of the party, and the rain poured on them incessantly. Miserable nights were these to spend their vigils. Up, however, they rose with the returning dawn—stiff and aching in every limb; then wringing the wet from their stanched blankets, and feasting upon the raw breast of an albatross, journeyed on to seek a retreat from the recurring storms. On the 3rd, private Inglis discovered a cave close to the shore, whither the party joyfully repaired; and as the day was fine, they dried their dripping clothes and blankets. Meanwhile, watching from their lairs upon the passing birds, they brought down eighteen from the wing to replenish their impoverished game store. Stones they threw as if fired from rifles and used sticks with an address not inferior to Kaffirs. Necessity indeed was indulgent to give certainty to the primitive means they employed to secure their prey. Next day, from the return of a severe frost, all power of feeling and motion left their feet and fingers, and confined them to the dreary cave for a full week.

Until the 26th July, the cave afforded them a partial retreat from the severe inclemencies of the weather. On that day, private Inglis, the most successful of the adventurers, discovered a small hut about three miles away, in which a number of men’s names were carved. Under the last name was cut the words, “On a journey round the island, 27th May, 1849.” This unlooked for intimation gave rise to strange emotions and speculations, and the last cloud of despair vanished before the sudden hope which sprung up in his breast. How intensely did he gaze upon the portentous words! and how often did he read them to assure himself that the passage was not the insane impression of a diseased mind! Satisfied that the inscription was not a mental caprice, he started off to announce to his fellow-sufferers the purport of his discovery. All received the intelligence with wondering doubt. “Where! where!” burst from every lip, and hastening forward, they followed Inglis to the hut. There indeed was the “handwriting on the wall;” and seeing in that ominous sentence, the legacy of their lives bequeathed to them by Providence, each voice was swelled in thankful ascriptions to that gracious Power, which, hitherto, had so marvellously preserved them.

It was now resolved that the captain, one seaman, and privates Reid and Inglis, should take a circuit of the sea-girt isle, until they regained the cave, to see whether any one was near to help them. Having started, they reached the hut early in the morning; but as, at the time, it was blowing a heavy gale and snowing hard, they waited a day or two for the weather to moderate. During this interval they consulted together as to their future movements; and private Reid having volunteered to remain alone at the hut, the others commenced, on the 30th July, to make the special tour. Next day two of the party returned to the hut, so that on the 31st July the adventurers were thus dispersed—three on the search, three at the hut, two at the cave, and one of the two sailors in charge of the two sappers at the sick dêpot. The explorers made a long march the first day, examining every nook and every cliff for fresh evidences of habitation. The rain pelted on them; the snow sat in flakes on their gaunt frames; and wearied and foot-sore they dropped at night on the spot where the last speck of twilight left them in darkness. Next morning they were early afoot, and onward they travelled in pursuit of what, so far, seemed an ignis fatuus. Resolved to win their spurs, they would not suffer despondency or gloom to cheat them of their expectations; and another morning had scarcely opened upon them when the reward of their endurance and exertion was within their grasp. It was on the 1st August, when, after rambling about the island for no less than six weeks, shaken and enfeebled by hunger, pain, toil, and frost, they fell in with a party of twelve seafaring men in the service of Mr. Geary of Cape Town. The meeting was one in which mutual amazement and happiness were keenly felt; and for the following thirty-two days, no vessel having touched at the island, the Cape seamen generously shared with the adventurers their scanty stock of farina. Poor Goldsmith was still alive. The strangers carried him more than thirty miles to the cave on the south beach of the island in which they resided. One by one his toes dropped from his feet, and he perished on the 24th August. With every feeling of affection and sorrow for his unhappy fate, his comrades interred his remains on the spot where he ceased the mortal struggle.

The schooner ‘Courier,’ of Cape Town, at length brought up at the island with a supply of provisions; and the survivors of the wreck, after seventy-two days’ sojourn in that bleak and desolate region, having embarked on board of her, landed at Table Bay on the 10th November, where they were gratefully welcomed and entertained by a party of the corps.[44]

A party of sixteen non-commissioned officers and men, afterwards increased to nineteen of all ranks, under sergeant James Steel, was detached on the 1st May with sufficient camp-houses, equipage, and stores, to carry out the remeasurement of the base line on Salisbury Plain, by means of the compensation bars invented by General Colby.[45] No man or officer on the survey had ever seen the apparatus in position before; and sergeant Steel, therefore, has the credit of acquiring a full knowledge of the adaptation and uses of the various instruments belonging to the apparatus, unassisted by the teaching of any practician. This he achieved by more than three months’ unwearied study of some manuscript records on the subject, and by closely observing the results of a series of experiments which he conducted.

During the first fortnight, the line, six miles and three-quarters in length as the crow flies, was three times measured with the chain, marked off, cleared of wood, furze, and other obstacles, and again roughly surveyed. The little wooden encampment of the detachment was by this time in excellent order; and, after three days’ tedious work in testing the apparatus by comparison with the standard bar, the first compensation bar in the remeasurement was laid at Beacon-hill. Owing to the steepness of the ground, and other causes, progress over the hill was both slow and wearisome; but having once mastered the descent, the operation throughout its length presented less difficulties than were at first encountered. From time to time the sergeant communicated to the ordnance map office at Southampton the obstacles, both physical and instrumental, he met with in his progress, and the contrivances he resorted to, to overcome them. The journal so sent was full of practical instruction, of a kind to be easily acquired on future reference, and was replete with interesting information.

The distribution of the party gave ample employment to every man, and the division of labour was adapted to the attainments of the men and the necessities of the duty. Corporal William Jenkins assisted the sergeant at the bars and microscopes. The latter compared the microscopes with the standard on Sundays; and frequently, after a severe day’s work, the same process was necessarily gone through, and other adjustments of the instruments effected. Corporal Edward Harkin constantly attended to the aligning instrument, whilst one man assisted him in preparing the stations, &c.; two privates levelled the triangles for the feet of the supporting stools for the bars; two attended to the adjustment of the stools on the triangles, levelled the camels on them, and moved forward the microscopes, &c.; two carried forward the bars and point-carriers, and levelled the former and fixed the latter; one registered the bars and microscopes, and otherwise aided in moving them forward and adjusting them; one, a carpenter, made the pickets, and repaired the mallets, tents, &c.; four attended to the shifting and placement of the tents; one was sentry over the bars at the dinner hour and during the night, to prevent any disturbance in the apparatus; and two attended to the domestic and miscellaneous duties of the huts.

The camp occupied three different positions on the line. It was thus moved twice forward. On each occasion, for a few days, no progress was made in the remeasurement, and sergeant Steel with two privates, filled up the interval in comparing the bars and microscopes with the standards. In the meantime, the remainder of the detachment fitted up the portable huts in the position selected for them.

Great nicety and precision were required in the placement of the bars; and so rigidly did the sergeant enforce the strictest exactness in their alignment and contiguity, that he would not order the “move forward” until he satisfied himself that the possibility of an error in the operation was not likely to exceed the 10,000th part of an inch. In this way the work was continued till the 16th October, 1848, when the 3,484th bar shot over the old Sarum terminus of the line. This was followed by a spontaneous cheer, hearty and sustained, from the assembled party who thus commemorated the successful accomplishment of the operation. By previous computations from the Lough Foyle base, the perfect accuracy of the remeasurement was proved; for, not only did the predetermined bar reach the gun, but the very inch of it entered the muzzle.

To ascertain by the usual computations whether any error by the omission in the registry of a bar or microscope could be detected, the line was divided into three parts, and each part was used as a base for a minor triangulation. Very great care was taken in executing this triangulation, but it failed to discover any inaccuracy in the measurement. Sergeant James Donelan and corporal William Jenkins, with the two 3-feet instruments, carried out this special service.

The results of the two measurements stand on record as under:—

By General Mudge with Ramsden’s steel-chains in 1794 36575·64 feet. By sergeant Steel, with Colby’s compensation-bars, in 1849 36577·95 ” Computed from Lough Foyle base 36577·34 ”

The precision of the two operations by such different instruments is strikingly close and beautiful, and not only illustrates the excellence of the instruments, but the perfection of the work.

On the completion of the service, corporal Jenkins was intrusted with one of the great theodolites, and removed with a camp party from the base detachment to a mountain station. The remainder were soon dispersed on the general duties of the survey, and sergeant Steel, after again comparing the bars and microscopes with the standard measures, returned with the compensation apparatus, &c., to Southampton.[46]

On the 7th June, one sergeant and twenty-five rank and file were removed from Woolwich to Shoeburyness to erect temporary barracks, &c., for the royal artillery, and also to lay platforms, build batteries, and to execute the varied works which a new station might call for, both for the convenience of the ordnance troops and the interests of the service. The party was increased to thirty of all ranks in July, but in October following was reduced to six non-commissioned officers and privates. Ever since this period, a small detachment has been retained at the station to carry on the current repairs and improvements, and its strength has fluctuated from time to time, in accordance with the prevailing emergencies.

The convicts had been working for a time in repairing the main-sewer in the royal arsenal at Woolwich, but in consequence of the unhealthiness of the duty, were withdrawn from it. As the work was one of considerable importance to the locality in a sanitary point of view, volunteers to finish the drain were therefore demanded from the royal sappers and miners. One sergeant and eight privates at once undertook the work, continuing at it during a portion of the month of August, and its execution was effected without the slightest injury to any one engaged. This led the Marquis of Anglesey, then Master-General, on the 5th September to extol the labours of the party in these words: “I desire to mark my high approbation and admiration of the gallant conduct of the corps of royal sappers and miners, in volunteering an unpleasant and even dangerous service in the cause of humanity. Such self-devotion, wholly devoid as it is of the stimulus of public honour and of glory, far exceeds the renown gained in the battle-field. I offer my thanks to all the individuals concerned.”[47]