Chapter III: Part 3

On the 6th October an experiment was made at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, to blow in the barrier-gate of the bastion-fort, which cost the lives of the sergeant and one of the privates employed. Sergeant John Cameron under Major Adams, had the conduct of the arrangements and the preparation of the fuse. Nine pounds of powder were placed in a sand-bag having a canvas tube joining into the middle of the powder. In this canvas tube was fixed a grenade fuse with a piece of cotton in it, calculated to burn a sufficient time after the cotton should burst into flame. The bag of powder placed against the barrier, was covered over with a curved iron shield with a hole in it to permit the fuse to come through, and then four sand-bags were lodged against the shield. The arrangements being completed, all the sappers retired except the sergeant and a private to ignite the fuse. Suddenly the explosion took place, and at once the sergeant was blown into the wet ditch, and the private knocked down on the berm. Both were mutilated in a frightful manner and in a few days expired. The accident is supposed to have arisen from some defect in the fuse which was made by the sergeant. Sergeant Cameron was a zealous and talented non-commissioned officer, had several seasons been employed with great advantage at the college, and presented the institution with some interesting military models. His widow was granted a pension of 10_l._ a-year.

-----

Footnote 38:

The ‘Times,’ 12th January, 1849. ‘Corps Papers,’ i., pp. 415, 416.

Footnote 39:

Sir John Richardson, ii., p. 138.

Footnote 40:

Ibid.

Footnote 41:

Sir John Richardson, ii., pp. 138-141.

Footnote 42:

Ibid. ii., p. 144.

Footnote 43:

Sergeant Robert Gardiner, the senior non-commissioned officer of the
party, by great assiduity and application so improved his attainments,
that he was recommended for the appointment of clerk of works in the
royal engineer department. His drawings of the Supreme Court of
Adelaide gained him much credit, and his services were marked by
skill, zeal, and usefulness up to the period of his discharge, in
February, 1854. Military men, particularly in the distant south, have
every means of improving their condition; and if they possess a
commercial bias, may, with tact, accumulate wealth. Gardiner has not
been unmindful of his interests in this respect, and he is in a fair
way of making his fortune. Offered for his good services to the public
the situation of foreman of works to the department at Hobart Town, he
declined it, and he now fills an advantageous appointment in the
survey department of the colony of South Australia.

Footnote 44:

‘Cape Town Mail,’ November 17, 1849.

Footnote 45:

General Mudge measured the line in 1794.

Footnote 46:

While on Salisbury Plain he was visited by Lieutenant-General Sir
Charles Pasley, frequently by Colonel Hall and Captain Yolland, and by
about fifty other officers of the royal engineers; also by Professors
Airy, Sheepshanks, and Cape. The last gentleman was very free in his
inquiries. The mode of aligning the instrument did not, at first,
satisfy him, but eventually the process having been minutely explained
by the sergeant, he went away convinced and gratified. Captain Gosset
was present at the laying of the first bar and Captain Hawkins at the
last.

Footnote 47:

In the reign of Tarquin I., 606 B.C., a force of Roman soldiers,
ordered to construct common sewers, considered the employment an
indignity and destroyed themselves. The self-esteem of the Roman
soldier which led to so fatal a result, had a different effect on the
modern; for the pride of the latter, tempered by a consideration of
duty, urged him into the midst of danger and for the sake of humanity
to seek it. Reflecting too, that the service, though paramount, was
too objectionable for even convicts to perform, the warm eulogy of the
Marquis may not be regarded as undeserved by those on whom it was
conferred.

1850.

Sir Robert Gardiner’s opinion of the corps—Party to the penal settlement
at Swan River—Detachment to New Zealand—Draft to Hong-Kong—Mining
operations at Seaford Bay—Determinations of the latitudes of various
trigonometrical stations—Sergeant James Steel—Professor Airy—The
leisure of the sergeant—New method of acquiring a knowledge of
chess—Hardships of a party landed at Rona.

Early in the year, Sir Robert Gardiner, the governor at Gibraltar, wrote a complimentary letter to Sir John Burgoyne, relative to the companies of the corps under his Excellency’s command. “My opinion of the sappers,” he says, “is everything that you, in your personal, natural, and official station would desire; their movements surprise me, and are proofs of the care and attention of the officers, who must be good tacticians, as well as good engineers.”

On the 15th February, five rank and file embarked at Deptford in the ‘Scindian’ convict ship, under Captain E. Y. W. Henderson, R.E., for the Swan River settlement, and landed at Freemantle on the 11th June. The captain had been appointed comptroller-general of prisons, and obtained the authority of Earl Grey, then Secretary of State for the colonies, to take with him this small detachment. The men were experienced as soldiers and tradesmen: one of their number was a competent draughtsman and architect, and another was acquainted with surveying, camp-duty, and the mode of blasting rock. On their arrival in the colony, they were appointed warders over the convicts, as well to keep them in discipline as to direct them in the execution of the various works that might be undertaken for the establishment of a penal settlement and the development of the colony. The party was also intended to superintend the submarine operations required in the removal of the bar at the mouth of the harbour. The rates of working-pay granted to them, ranged between 1_s._ 3_d._ and 2_s._ a-day. A full company has since been added to the command on the recommendation of Captain Henderson, R.E.

Late in March one sergeant and twenty-six rank and file embarked for New Zealand, under Lieut. F. R. Chesney, R.E., and landed at Auckland on the 26th August, increasing the detachment there to a half-company of forty-one strong. The removal of this party from Woolwich was occasioned by the loss by shipwreck, near the Cape of Good Hope, of the detachment which sailed for that colony in April, 1849.

Fifteen rank and file embarked on the 15th May for China, and landed at Victoria on the 18th October. This was the fifth detachment sent to that country. Two men sent from Woolwich in April, to superintend the laying of asphalte on the government works, arrived at Hong Kong on the 17th June.

At Seaford Bay, on the coast of Sussex, the sea had made considerable encroachment, so as to jeopardise much of the adjacent property, and also the defences and martello-tower in its vicinity. Large sums of money had been expended in the construction of wood groins and clay embankments, with only partial success; and as an effectual remedy, it was proposed to throw down by mining a portion of the chalk rock itself, in the direction of the tidal current, and thus cause it to accumulate the shingle and protect the land and contiguous property. The cliff was high, bold, and bare, and worn at the base into hollows and long perpendicular crevices by the lashing of the waves, which, at high water, rushed up its aged and craggy face. With the view to efficiency and economy, the Master-General approved of the operations being carried out by a detachment of sappers and miners; and accordingly two sergeants and forty-four rank and file of the fourth company left Portsmouth at the end of July under Lieutenant E. W. Ward, R.E., who, on arriving at Seaford, lost no time in commencing the interesting undertaking. Late in August, the party was increased by ten rank and file under Captain Craigie, to assist in completing the final arrangements, and to take the military duty consequent upon the anticipated explosion.

The works were conducted under the direction of Colonel G. G. Lewis, R.E., with Captain E. C. Frome as his executive officer. In the face of the cliff, about thirty-five feet above high-water mark, a nearly horizontal gallery was cut a considerable distance into the chalk. The mouth of this gallery was approached by a ladder and platform, supported by scaffolding. Inside the opening a cave was formed for spare tools and materials, and another also was excavated at the end of the gallery for a similar purpose. At right angles from this gallery, extending fifty-five feet to the right and sixty-five to the left, were corresponding galleries, at the extremities of which were two chambers of about seven feet cube, containing 12,000 lbs. of powder each. Two wires, respectively in connexion with two of Grove’s batteries, completed the arrangements for exploding these charges simultaneously. The chambers of powder were about seventy feet from the face of the cliff, and were intended to drive out its under portions and roll them towards the sea. Upon the surface of the rock, eighty-four feet from its edge, were sunk five vertical shafts, at the bottom of which other chambers were excavated, containing, in three of them, each 600 lbs. of powder, to be fired simultaneously with the two great charges. The two other chambers were not loaded, from the non-arrival of a sufficient quantity of powder. The shaft chambers were connected by wires to a Smee’s battery, placed in a wooden shed erected about 180 feet from the edge of the cliff. The wires to convey the electric fluid to each chamber were covered with tape and varnished or tarred over. The galleries were tamped with sand and chalk, in bags, to within fifty feet of the mouth, both branches being tamped up, and twenty feet down the large gallery. “The men worked in reliefs for the whole twenty-four hours. For the gallery three reliefs of four men each, were appointed; and subsequently for the branches three reliefs of six men for the two.... The relieving hours were 6 A.M., 6 P.M., and midnight, except at periods when the high spring tides prevented the relief passing a projecting part of the cliff at the proper hours, when arrangements were made to equalize the extra time the men were so employed.... The work was hardly ever interrupted in its progress, for by compelling each relief to be in barracks six hours before their turn came for work, the men were invariably fresh at the commencement of their time; and as the working pay was good and the best miners were always employed, the average amount of work performed by night equalled that accomplished by day.”

All the necessary operations being completed, the great explosion, on a signal from the galvanic battery by sergeant Edward Wright took place on the 19th September, under the immediate orders of Colonel Lewis. The effect of firing the two great chambers was to throw out the under portions of the rock, which, from the downward pressure of the superincumbent masses, rolled with a convulsive heaving towards the sea, carrying with them the three smaller chambers unexploded, and causing deep fissures in the chalk as far back as the very foundation of the battery shed. The undertaking, so far as dislocating an immense mass of chalk from the cliff was concerned, was thus perfectly successful; but subsequent experience has thrown doubts upon its utility as a breakwater, for the chalk is gradually being washed away, and if some natural intervention does not take place to conglomerate the mass into a compact resisting body, time will remove the headland altogether, and expose as before the land and its defences to the gradual invasion of the sea.

The explosion was one of the largest that had ever occurred, and passed off without accident, delay, confusion, or inconvenience to any one of the detachment engaged, or to the thousands of spectators who witnessed the operation.[48] The quantity of chalk displaced was about 200,000 cubic yards, or about 292,000 tons. The distance the debris was hurled in front of the original line of cliff was more than 300 feet. The average breadth of the mound formed was about 360 feet, and its mean height about 50 feet.

Much of the expense of the service was paid by Mr. Catt, jun., a miller, to whom the surrounding property belonged, and who, as well for his own interest as for the welfare of Newhaven and its harbour, undertook a large share in the liability. The total cost of the work was 907_l._ 12_s._ 11½_d._ Of this sum only 92_l._ 3_s._ 1_d._ was spent on sapper labour, which included their services for levelling the ground, and other preliminary duties, excavating the galleries, shafts, and chambers, digging a trench above the cliff, loading and tamping the mines, making surveys and sections of the cliff and the works, preparing and laying wires, clearing away the debris, and various other miscellaneous duties, which the extensive and peculiar character of the operations rendered essential.

Lieutenant-General Sir John Burgoyne, the inspector-general of fortifications, Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Pasley, and a number of officers of royal engineers, were present to witness the explosion. Later in the day the non-commissioned officers and privates commemorated the success of their exertions with an excellent dinner. “Night and day,” wrote Colonel Lewis, “the detachment worked with great zeal and alacrity, exposed to colds from draughts and alternations of temperature, and to injury from falling masses. Nevertheless, no material accident occurred to any one, and all gained the praise of their officers, and the respect of the inhabitants of Seaford for their courteous behaviour and good conduct.”[49]

The observations made with Airy’s zenith sector for the determination of the latitudes of various trigonometrical stations used in the ordnance survey of the British Isles, which commenced in 1842, terminated in December 1850, and the results have become the subject of an important volume from the pen of Captain Yolland, R.E. The instrument at first was in charge of officers of the corps, but in course of time, from a paucity in their number, it devolved upon corporal, afterwards sergeant, James Steel. The first man of the sappers honoured with the use of the instrument was private Benjamin Keen Spencer,[50] who was employed with the earliest parties in carrying on the observations; and it is not a little curious to add, that General Colby directed his own personal observations, the work of his most able days to be tested by sergeant Steel. This is a striking proof both of the greatness of his mind, and his freedom from those petty jealousies which sometimes mar the superiority of distinguished characters.[51]

The following table (p. 48), taken from Captain Yolland’s Sector Volume, “shows in a condensed form the stations observed from, the period during which the observations were in progress, the officer of royal engineers, or non-commissioned officer of royal sappers and miners in charge of the instrument, and the strength of the party; also the number of nights on which observations were made, and the number of observations registered at each station.”[52]

────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────
│ │ │ Officer or Number of Number
│Observations in progress. │non-commissioned Nights on of
Stations │——————- │——————- │ Officer Strength which Ob- Single
│ │ │ in charge of of the servations Obser-
│From │To │the Instrument. Sappers. were made. vations.
────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────
South Barule, │11 Oct., 1842│12 Oct., 1842│ Lieuts. Hornby 6 2 113
Isle of Man. │ │ │ and Gosset
│ │ │
Blackdown, │26 Nov. ” │1 Jan., 1843 │ Ditto 7 20 1087[53]
Dorset │ │ │
│ │ │
Precelly │11 Apr., 1843│10 May ” │ Lieuts. Hornby 5 17 674[53]
Mountain, │ │ │ and Luyken
Wales │ │ │
│ │ │
Forth Mountain, │29 May ” │17 June ”│ Lieut. Hornby 7 12 659
Wexford │ │ │
│ │ │
Hungry Hill, Co.│30 June ” │31 July ” │ Ditto 7 9 295[53]
Cork │ │ │
│ │ │
Feaghmann, Co. │14 Aug. ” │26 Aug. ” │ Ditto 7 9 395[53]
Kerry │ │ │
│ │ │
Tawnymore, Co. │ 2 Oct. ” │14 Oct. ” │ Ditto 2 7 294
Mayo │ │ │
│ │ │
S. End of L. │ 8 Nov. ” │15 Nov. ” │ Ditto 2 6 335
Foyle Base │ │ │
│ │ │
Monach, │16 June, 1844│3 July, 1844 │ Lieut. Gosset 5 10 180
Stornoway │ │ │
│ │ │
Ben Hutich, │ 5 Nov. ” │24 Nov. ” │ Ditto 6 10 480
Sutherlandshire│ │ │
│ │ │
Hensbarrow, │ 9 June, 1845│14 June, 1845│ Corporal Steel 4 6 290
Cornwall │ │ │
│ │ │
South Barule, │21 July ” │5 Aug. ” │ Ditto 3 2 114
Isle of Man │ │ │
│ │ │
Ben Lomond │ 2 Sept. ” │4 Oct. ” │ Ditto 4 11 635
│ │ │
Ben Heynish, │11 Nov. ” │28 Dec. ” │ Ditto 4 10 267
Isle of Tiree │ │ │
│ │ │
Week Down, Isle │26 Apr., 1846│17 May, 1846 │ Ditto 4 11 556
of Wight │ │ │
│ │ │
Dunnose, ditto │24 May ” │6 June ” │ Ditto 4 13 643
│ │ │
Boniface Down, │13 June ” │21 June ” │ Ditto 4 7 356
ditto │ │ │
│ │ │
Port Valley, │28 June ” │14 July ” │ Ditto 4 10 411
ditto │ │ │
Saxavord, Unst, │ 3 Oct. ” │26 Jan., 1847│ Ditto 4 20 566
Shetland │ │ │
│ │ │
Gerth of Scaw, │16 Feb., 1847│10 Apr. ” │ Ditto 4 21 581
ditto │ │ │
│ │ │
Balta, in │30 Apr. ” │13 July ” │ Ditto 4 20 732[54]
Shetland Isles│ │ │
│ │ │
Cowhythe, │ 7 Aug. ” │27 Sept. ” │ Ditto 4 18 641
Banffshire │ │ │
│ │ │
Southampton │21 Oct. ” │4 Sept., 1848│Sergt. Steel and 2 180 8730
│ │ │Corp. W. Jenkins
│ │ │
St. Agnes, │13 May, 1850 │1 June, 1850 │ Sergeant Steel 4 11 418
Scilly │ │ │
│ │ │
Goonhilly Down │25 June ” │28 July ” │ Ditto 4 9 442
Cornwall │ │ │
│ │ │
North Rona, │11 Sept. ”│16 Sept ” │ Ditto 4 5 428
Co. of Ross │ │ │
│ │ │
Great Stirling, │14 Nov. ”│6 Dec. ” │ Ditto 4 9 439
Aberdeenshire │ │ │
────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────

“The list of stars,” says Captain Yolland, “selected for observation fell within the parallels of declination of 37° 38´ and 69° 54´. About two-thirds of this number were originally chosen, so as to admit of a continuous series of observations being made when the weather proved favourable throughout the night, and two observers were for some time employed with the instrument, who relieved each other after an interval of several hours’ work. The observations were frequently carried on continuously for upwards of eight hours, but six hours’ constant observing was reckoned a good night’s work for one person, in consequence of the fatigue caused by his having to ascend twice to the table to make each complete or double observation.”[55] In the course of the service additional stars, not originally selected for observation, were occasionally observed, some of which were not found in the works of the best authorities.[56] Two men, ready penmen, were also employed in booking, and afterwards copying, the observations on the skeleton forms, for transmission to the map office at Southampton, where the necessary computations in connection with the observations, were carried out and completed under the direction of Captain Yolland, R.E.

It would be out of place here to make any copious detail of the employment of the sappers on this special duty, belonging as it properly does to the history of the operation, and being so amply recorded in Captain Yolland’s Sector Volume; but exception may fairly be taken to a few particulars in the personal services of the sergeant, which may prove interesting to the reader, and induce other non-commissioned officers in the corps to render themselves not only useful to their officers, but to deserve, in executing any important duty for which they may be selected, their confidence and approbation.

Sergeant Steel’s first station was at Hensbarrow,[57] from which he was removed to South Barule, and after completing his observations there, he was stationed for a time on the wild and romantic hill of Ben Lomond. There he witnessed a phenomenon which, perhaps, had never before been seen by any one. He had frequently been _above_ the clouds, and at Hensbarrow, of a low altitude compared with Ben Lomond, he had observed the stars a whole night when the clouds _beneath him_ were saturating with their vapour the little village of Roach below; but on Ben Lomond he saw extensive masses of cloud settle down into a level wide-spread stratum, the upper surface of which was at least 500 feet beneath the camp. This was after sunset, on the 10th September, 1845, with a beautiful moon and a clear blue sky above, altogether presenting an impressive _coup d’œil_. Such was the depth and density of the mass, that it required the powerful influence of the sun’s rays for the two following days to dispel it. The whiteness of snow was grey, contrasted with the silver hoar of the heavy cloud when the sun rose on the 11th, and it offered, said Steel, in his forcible language, “a strong temptation to a lover of nature’s wildest grandeur, to treat himself to a celestial walk on its upper surface to the peak on the neighbouring hill.” Some tourists ascended the mountain on the 11th and 12th of September in the true spirit of enthusiastic enterprise, wishing to connect their names in history with this startling, yet truly magnificent phenomenon, but their amazement was indeed great, when, after penetrating the cloud, they saw above them an encampment of soldiers carrying on the official services of the station, with all the activity and fearlessness of men accustomed to such extraordinary appearances.

At Ben Heynish, in Tiree, one of the westerly isles of Scotland, the sergeant had to struggle in watching and taking a few observations between the almost incessant storms. Next he was employed in the remeasurement of the latitude of Dunnose, the southern extremity of a British arc of meridian, to verify its result as determined with Ramsden’s zenith sector in 1802, and also to test the value of Professor Airy’s sector. The observations for this purpose were carried on both at Week Down and Dunnose. “The near agreement in the results of the comparison proved very satisfactory as regards the work performed with both instruments; but to endeavour to trace the extent and amount of the disturbance that evidently affected the inclination of the plumbline at Dunnose,” the sergeant afterwards made observations both at Boniface Down and Port Valley, in the Isle of Wight, by which “the difference in the geodetic and astronomical amplitudes between Greenwich and Port Valley were found to be almost insensible, and the comparison with Boniface Down and Week Down tolerably good.” The discovery, however, of singular disagreements in the observations at “one of the stations in the Isle of Wight, which had hitherto been looked on as the southern extremity of the longest of the British arcs of meridian, and where no sensible deviation could _à priori_ have been anticipated, led to the re-examination of the northern extremity of the same arc, situated in Balta Island, by revisiting it, and by observing also from two other stations in the Shetland Islands contiguous to it, viz., Gerth of Scaw and Saxavord.”[58] The disturbance alluded to—the effect of local attraction—caused the plumbline and level to be deflected or acted upon, as a loadstone would influence the needle of a mariner’s compass, and thus, when the levels indicated that the instrument was pointed at zenith, it was in fact directed to a point nearly four seconds to the north of it.

To Unst, in Shetland, the northern extremity of the arc just mentioned, sergeant Steel now repaired, and ascertained the existence of a disturbance at Saxavord, but in the contrary direction. This was fully established by taking a similar series of observations at the Gerth of Scaw, near Lambaness, and on the small uninhabited island of Balta. The relative position of these stations he fixed astronomically as to latitude, and geodetically by triangulation and levelling from the mean level of the sea, which involved observations with regard to the ebb and flow of the tides. By the series of observations so far made, it was clearly proved, that the latitude of a place could not be measured with the degree of certainty formerly supposed, and that though astronomers may profess to give seconds, tenths, and even hundredths of a second of their latitude, yet the real truth is, that the record may often be _several whole seconds in error_. The discovery, now confirmed by sergeant Steel’s inflexible accuracy, is likely to produce some interesting discussion in the scientific world, and has already been made the subject of an article in the ‘Philosophical Journal of Science’ for April, 1853, embraced in a review of Captain Yolland’s Sector Volume.[59]

After passing a station at Cowhythe Hill, in Banffshire, to verify the sector operations of 1813, and which object was satisfactorily attained, the sergeant fixed his observatory at Southampton, where, in carrying on the duty, he made various experiments to ascertain the cause of apparent errors. In taking the usual readings of the telescope micrometers, the value of the zenith point, derived from each double observation of a star, varied sensibly. To determine this more accurately, by ascertaining the true value of the divisions of the screw, and correcting the error involved in the reduction of the whole of the observation, he adopted the method of making two distinct observations of the same star without reversal of the revolving frame, in the manner described in the Sector Volume, page xxvii, and so excellent was this method considered, that the value of the screw thus obtained, was finally applied to all the observations.

In prosecuting the work, it was also evident, that the most northerly stars furnished the greatest, and the most southerly the least resulting latitudes. To arrive at the cause of this anomaly, sergeant Steel devoted much of his time to careful investigation, and his efforts and experiments were both ingenious and interesting. These embraced comparisons of the arc with Simms’ dividing engine, by which the non-existence of any sensible error in the divisions of the limb that would account for the observed errors was proved; but it was at the same time clearly ascertained, after a patient examination of the micrometer screws, the levels, the lenses, and the fullest consideration of the law of expansion by heat or contraction either by cold or pressure, that the immediate cause of the disparity arose from the compression of the divided limb by the downward pressure of the upper screw pivot, which, at each station, varied in proportion to the degree of pressure supplied. This was, ever after, a special point of attention with the sergeant, and as, from the construction of the instrument, no absolutely permanent and uniform pressure could be insured at all times, he regulated its extent as well by his judgment as his recollection.

It was a rule with him, notwithstanding the apparent errors that might be the result, to register his observations with the strictest exactness. Experience had taught him to expect them as well from local as from indefinable causes. He considered, moreover, that the more perfectly an instrument was constructed, the more honestly would it report the discrepancies of both maker and observer, and that although the conclusions would seem to be a volume of errors, more credit and merit were due to the observer for ascertaining, instead of concealing or covering his errors. Influenced by this novel consideration, he threw an amount of earnestness, care, and faithfulness into his work, that rendered his observations of the highest class for accuracy, and deserving of the fullest confidence.

At Southampton he was assisted in the sector service for nearly twelve months by corporal William Jenkins: the one observed from sunset till midnight, and the other from midnight till sunrise. His final observations were at St. Agnes in Scilly, Goonhilly Down near the Lizard Point, North Rona, and Great Stirling—the north-east peak of Scotland. By this series of observations, the arc of meridian, which before terminated at Forth Mountain in the county of Wexford, and Monach in Lewis, was extended to St. Agnes in the south, and to Rona in the north, a small, unknown, and stormy island, about 100 miles west of Orkney.

At Stirling, according to instructions, he examined the promontory to select for his observations a spot, which would be probably free from unequal attraction, and fix its position by triangulation. In this he was quite successful. The point was “so far to the east as to be out of the direct meridional line of attraction of the hills lying south of Cowhythe,” and by this series of observations it was ascertained, “that the deflection existing at Cowhythe, is not general in those latitudes, and that the discrepancy between its observed and calculated latitude, is not due to an error in the figure used in computing the geodetic result, but to local attraction affecting the astronomical latitude.”[60] The fact of local attraction was now fully established; but from some peculiarities of its influence in particular districts, the inference derivable from it is, notwithstanding the skilful conclusions of scientific men, that the figure of the earth is _different_ to the commonly-received opinion of its form.

In these later services he and his party were alike exposed to dangers at sea, and to trials and privations on land; and besides encountering many perils in difficult boat service, and in landing on almost inaccessible coasts and islets, they were on several occasions nearly shipwrecked.

A small party at Rona was subjected to severe hardships. Its number consisted of corporal Michael Hayes and ten civil labourers, who embarked with sergeant Steel’s party on the 29th of August, 1850, to survey the island. On the following day, by a desperate effort, the corporal and his labourers pushed into the boat, and taking with them a little provisions scrambled amid the surf on shore; but as the weather was boisterous, and there was no harbour or anchorage in which the schooner could lie-to, she was compelled to return that evening to Stornoway with sergeant Steel and the sector party. Several days were now spent in intrepid attempts to regain the island, but such was the roughness of the sea, and such the fury of the wind, that all efforts to do so proved fruitless; thereupon, the master of the vessel considering the undertaking to be impracticable threw up his contract, and it was not until the 7th of September, when another vessel had been engaged for the service, that Rona was approached, and a landing effected. All this time, seven days and eight nights, corporal Hayes and his party were pent up in Rona upon a very scanty allowance of food, and exposed without shelter of tent or hut, or even the comfort of warm clothing, to the cold and tempestuous storms of that dreary and desolate island.

-----

Footnote 48:

The accidental destruction of the three smaller chambers was
providential, for had they exploded, the battery-shed, with Captain
Frome and his assistant, would inevitably have been carried away, and
crushed among the falling masses: as it was “the electricity of the
two Grove’s batteries, on igniting the powder in the larger chambers,
caused an instantaneous disconnection of the Smee’s battery from the
smaller chambers, and, at the same time, the table on which they stood
was jerked violently forward between two and three feet, upsetting the
Smee’s battery on the floor, and throwing out from the others also a
quantity of the acids.”—‘Illust. Lond. News,’ September 28, 1850.

Footnote 49:

‘Professional Papers,’ i., N. S., 68-86. Colonel Lewis’s Paper in
‘Jones’s Journal,’ November, 1850.

Footnote 50:

Now a quartermaster-sergeant. In his early career he was employed in
the chronometrical determination of the longitude of Valentia, and for
many years rendered very useful services in filling in the railways on
the one-inch map. His talents and energy have singled him out at
different times for the execution of particular duties. He was
intrusted with the local superintendence of the survey, &c., of Her
Majesty’s domain at Osborne, in the Isle of Wight; and as a mark of
approbation for the “attention and care” he exercised in discharging
the duty, His Royal Highness Prince Albert presented him with a cheque
for ten pounds. He also had subordinate charge of the survey made for
the military encampment at Chobham Common.

Footnote 51:

‘Professional Papers, R. E.,’ iii., N. S., p. xxiii.

Footnote 52:

Captain Yolland, ‘Sector Volume,’ p. xiii.

Footnote 53:

Private B. K. Spencer took a few observations at these stations.

Footnote 54:

A few observations were taken at this station by Corporal Jenkins.

Footnote 55:

Captain Yolland, ‘Sector Volume,’ xiii.

Footnote 56:

Ibid., xiv.

Footnote 57:

On journeying from Roach, in Cornwall, to Exeter, he sat by the side
of the Astronomer Royal, who made various inquiries concerning the
survey. At length, he asked, “What _instrument_ have _you_ been
using?” “Professor Airy’s zenith sector,” was the reply. “Indeed, _I_
am Professor Airy!” The surprise and pleasure of the sergeant, before
unconscious of the presence of the eminent astronomer, may be left to
the imagination of the reader to conceive. The incident is memorable,
on account of the introduction, thus singularly obtained by sergeant
Steel, and of the information he received from the Professor in the
efficient use of the instrument, as well as in some salient points
connected with astronomy.

Footnote 58:

Captain Yolland’s ‘Sector Volume,’ pp. xi. xii.

Footnote 59:

When oppressed by the monotony of his employments sergeant Steel
sometimes resorted to the study of extraneous subjects to hold his
mind fresh for his public duties. In this way he learned phonography
and the grave game of chess. The latter he acquired, not by the
teaching of any interested instructor, but by an examination of a
series of numbers of the “Illustrated London News.”

It may be allowed to expatiate a little on this matter. A gentleman,
who had visited the Shetland group, being kindly entertained by Mr.
Spence of Haroldswick in Unst, quitted the country favourably
impressed with the homestead of that good man. Shortly after, “The
Illustrated London News” was sent to Mr. Spence, and has ever since
been regularly forwarded to him, either by the unknown visitor or the
proprietor himself. The mystery which Still hangs over the generous
transaction is not without interest in Unst. From Mr. Spence the
illustrated journal was weekly supplied for the perusal of the
sergeant, then encamped on the lonely island of Balta, who, after
devouring its contents, turned his attention to the study of chess.

Discovering no analogy between the powers of the puppets and their
forms or designations, he first applied himself to manufacture a suite
of men, which should at least have the merit of corresponding in
character with the authority they possessed. Eschewing those fantastic
shapes in which chessmen are usually carved, and which, indeed, seem
as ancient as the grotesque figures on the court cards of a genuine
pack, he devised a simple scheme to remind him of their powers.
Thirty-two cubes of wood, sixteen stained white and sixteen black,
were marked with lines on all their faces, agreeably to the ranks of
the warriors, and the liberty they possessed in moving over the board.
The definitions were shown by black lines on the white cubes, and
white on the black. The bishop having power to roam, under certain
restrictions, in diagonal directions, a piece was assigned to his
reverence with diagonal lines marked across the square. The rook
having a rectangular motion was indicated by a rectangular figure,
while the redoubtable knight, always moving obliquely, was reticulated
with lines which pointed out the avenues of his march in quest of the
enemy. The queen, combining in her will, the power of motion exercised
both by the rook and knight, exhibited on her royal square the
necessary lines to make plain the extent of her liberty. Just so with
the king, who, in this respect had equal power with his consort; but
as the queen had authority to move forward or backward as far as the
chequers were open, and the king could only plant his royal foot in
one check at a time, Steel, to show the curious difference between
their majesties, introduced into the king’s escutcheon, a pellet
between each pair of lines to mark the limit of his government and
distinguish him from his royal spouse. The pawn—the common soldier of
the board—permitted only to move forward perpendicularly, and to
capture like his knight obliquely, was singled out from the other
puppets by three lines issuing from a common centre—one directed
upwards to the edge of the square and the other two diverging
obliquely to the angles. By this facile application of geometrical
combinations he never required to charge his memory with the relative
powers and movements of the several pieces, and thus became a fair
player at the game of chess.

Footnote 60:

Captain Yolland’s ‘Sector Volume,’ p. xii.

1851.

Malta—Portsmouth—Swan River—Brown Down batteries—Kaffir war—Strength of
sappers at the Cape—Corporal Castledine—Attack on Fort
Beaufort—Whittlesea, &c.—Skirmish near Grass Kop Tower—Also in
Seyolo’s Country—Patrol—Fight at Fort Brown—Patrol—Storming Fort
Wiltshire—Patrols—Action at Committy’s Hill—Gallantry of corporal
James Wilson at Fort Cox—Patrols—Increase to the Cape by withdrawal of
Company from the Mauritius—Sir Harry Smith’s opinion of the
sappers—Eulogies concerning them by Lieutenant-Colonel Cole and
Captain Stace, R.E.

The fourth company under the command of Captain Craigie, R.E., was removed from Portsmouth on the 3rd January, and sailed from Southampton for Malta, where it landed on the 17th of that month. This was a new station for the corps, and its employment there was recommended on the ground that its services would be of great advantage in the erection of the proposed fortifications, and in providing an efficient force for the purpose of defence, in the event of the contingencies of the times rendering its co-operation desirable. Head-quarters were established at Valetta, and a large detachment was sent to St. Clement’s to build new barracks. Much opposition was shown by the working people to the employment of the company for months after its landing, and even violence in some instances was resorted to. The press of the island also entered into the controversy, and the ‘Mediterraneo’ used its agency in strong editorial articles against the company to effect if possible its removal from the island; but the ‘Malta Times’ ably defended it, and successfully exposed the statements of its contemporary. Malignant as the ‘Mediterraneo’ was, it nevertheless concluded one of its articles thus:—“The sappers and miners are, we admit, a most efficient and therefore highly useful body of men everywhere.”

Immediately on the removal of the company to Malta another from Chatham succeeded it on the works of the royal engineer department in the Portsmouth district.

The small party of five men at Freemantle, Western Australia, was this year increased to a company by the arrival of ninety-five non-commissioned officers and men under Lieutenant Wray, R.E. The additional force was sent out to superintend the convicts in the erection and repair of the various public works and buildings, and to afford military protection to the colonists in the event of any demonstration of the convicts against authority or the settlers. The first detachment of sixty-five non-commissioned officers and privates embarked at Woolwich 10th September, 1851, under Lieutenant Wray, and anchored in Gage’s Roads 17th December, 1851. The second, under Lieutenants Crossman and E. F. Du Cane, R.E., of two sergeants and twenty-eight rank and file, embarked as a convict guard 21st October, 1851, and landed 2nd February, 1852. The number of women and children that accompanied the parties were seventy-one of the former and ninety of the latter, and ten children were born on the voyage. Located for a time as a sanitary expedient on a slip of land running into the sea, called Woodman’s Point, the company was removed, as soon as the restriction was rescinded, to Freemantle, where the projected works for the formation of the convict establishment at once commenced. Many of the men were appointed instructing-warders, with working pay at 2_s._ a-day each. The company was soon after distributed in small sections through the penal district, superintending the formation of labour depôts for ticket-of-leave men, or working at their trades at the different convict buildings, bridges, &c., and also in the making of roads. One man for many months assisted in the duty of exploring and surveying a portion of the colony under the Surveyor-General; and another—private John Cameron—did good service as a diver in recovering from the wrecks of vessels on the coast, treasure and valuable property.

An additional company was added to the Portsmouth district by the arrival at Gosport from Woolwich on the 10th December, of the second company under the command of Captain J. H. Freeth, R.E. The object of this reinforcement was to enable the commanding royal engineer to construct two large earthen batteries on the sea-shore at Brown Down, some two or three miles below Gosport. As soon as the works were completed, the company, early in April, 1852, was removed to Chatham for instruction in the field duties of the corps.

Hostile irruptions had occasionally been made on the frontiers of the Cape of Good Hope by the Kaffirs from the adjacent territories, and murders of peaceable subjects perpetrated, which rendered it essential to check by force of arms their incursions and their crimes. With that intention the first movement of troops took place in December, 1850. The opposition of the enemy was determined and furious, and there was every appearance in the onslaught to induce the belief that the contest would be severe and protracted.

At the period of the outbreak the total of the sappers in the colony, scattered to fifteen posts and forts on the frontiers, was about 200 of all ranks, and notwithstanding that their services were much required in carrying on the temporary defences in the several localities, they were, in this war, called upon for a more general co-operation than in any previous struggle in the colony.

From the unexpected firing of a field-piece from the tower of Fort Beaufort on the 20th January, 1851, it was feared that the enemy by some means had entered the place unobserved. Corporal Benjamin Castledine of the corps, without any delay, reported the circumstance to Colonel Sutton, Cape mounted rifles, and received his orders to assemble the troops under arms at their several posts. The order was promptly obeyed; but scarcely had it been effected when a reinforcement of the Graaf Reinet levy rode up, and the tumult was readily explained. The firing was given as a salute to the reinforcement by some imprudent civilians who had not communicated their intentions to the authorities. The people who had thus so alarmed the fort were arrested, so that the affair might be fully sifted; but while measures were being taken with this object by Captain Pennington and a detachment of the 91st regiment to secure the persons of the offenders, a concourse of people assembled at Colonel Sutton’s quarters, where his lady was alone and unprotected, and there deported themselves with gross outrage, at the same time demanding an entrance. Corporal Castledine arrived at the moment, threw himself between the garden-gate and the excited people, and effectually prevented, by his firmness and military bearing, the ingress they so valorously sought. The party then made off, but all concerned were afterwards arrested to await the result of a full inquiry into their conduct. At this investigation, the explanations given being sufficiently satisfactory to exonerate them from the perpetration of intentional alarm or of complicity with the enemy, the Colonel at once released them from restraint. The “Graham’s Town Journal” of the 8th February, contained some animadversions on the conduct of corporal Castledine in this matter, which led Colonel Sutton, in the impression of that Journal for the 22nd February, to vindicate in every particular the corporal’s conduct, and added “Corporal Castledine is one of those well-educated, respectable, and efficient soldiers which are only at present occasionally met with.... During twenty-four years’ service as a regimental officer I have never met corporal Castledine’s superior in his position—seldom his equal.”

In the attack on Fort Beaufort in which Hermanus was killed, corporal Castledine was posted with seven sappers in charge of a tower where the ammunition was kept, and commanded a 24-pounder howitzer mounted on it. The post of honour was given to this trustworthy non-commissioned officer in anticipation of an attack from Sandilli, who showed in force on the opposite side of the town. At the commencement of the action corporal Castledine was nominated to be garrison sergeant-major, and held the appointment until ill health compelled him to resign. This occurred in February, 1852, when Major-General Somerset, in a division order, acknowledged that “corporal Castledine had performed its arduous duties with the highest credit.” Colonel Sutton, for many months, was the only officer at Fort Beaufort, and on many occasions, when the nature of the service required his presence elsewhere, corporal Castledine commanded the garrison in his absence. Often he had to send escorts of provisions and ammunition to supply General Somerset’s division, which service was always so satisfactorily performed that both the General and Colonel Sutton repeatedly commended him for his judgment, promptitude, and zeal.

Five rank and file attached to Captain Tylden, R.E., employed surveying in the territory of the chief Mapassa, being interrupted in the duty, were now necessarily occupied in adopting expedients for protection. Early in the year they assisted the inhabitants of Whittlesea in strengthening their houses against attack, and in converting the village into a strong defensible position. Afterwards they constructed a small musket-proof redoubt of dry stones, twelve feet square, with walls three feet thick and seven high, round their own camp, to protect the field guns, military stores, and equipment. The waggons were also brought into requisition, and stone walls were built up under them to render them defensible. By the evening of the second day everything was completed. Into this miserable post the Captain with his five sappers, one officer, a sergeant of police and his wife and four children, took refuge. The sappers worked so hard during the day that the Captain had to take his turn at sentry during the night.[61] Soon after these precautionary services, repeated actions took place between the garrison with the levied troops raised by Captain Tylden, and the neighbouring tribes, in every one of which, though attacked by an immensely-superior force, the little band beat off their assailants with severe loss, and gained for it the admiration and thanks of the General commanding-in-chief. The desperation and difficulties of their isolation, coupled with the paucity of their numbers, whetted their spirit of enterprise, and though their endurance and heroism might be equalled, they could never be excelled. In all the operations at Whittlesea, and in the actions with the tribes at adjacent places, as many of the few sappers as could be spared from the redoubt and the village were engaged, who participated with credit in the frequent desperate attacks, exceeding twenty in number, which it fell to the good fortune of Captain Tylden to repel, and to his strategical tact and prowess to win.

Sergeant John Poole accompanied a patrol of fifteen mounted men on the 18th February, under Ensign Gill of the Cape mounted rifles, in pursuit of Kaffirs. Near Grass Kop Tower the spoor of cattle was discovered and followed up to within sight of Double Drift, where some cattle were seen in charge of about twenty of the enemy. Taking at once to the bush, half the detachment advanced, unperceived, until within a few yards of the kraal, where the Kaffirs fought for a short time, and then fled to the river. In crossing the stream, sergeant Poole shot one of the rebel Kaffir police, and one of the two other Kaffirs who were killed on the occasion. In this gallant affair the patrol captured 106 head of cattle, 2 guns, 3 horses, &c., and received the approbation of Sir Harry Smith. Sergeant Poole was second in command of the party.

One sergeant and twenty rank and file were attached, on the 28th March, to a patrol of 900 men under Major Wilmot, R.A., and assisted in the devastation of Seyolo’s country until the 31st March. With a detachment of the 6th regiment the sappers remained in charge of the pack-horses and ammunition, and when attacked, vigorously dispersed the enemy. Private George Wilson killed two Kaffirs in this skirmish, and private Charles Jarvis was wounded, the ball striking the fore-finger and thumb, and lodging in the stock of his carbine.

Two rank and file under Lieutenant Jesse, R.E., were present in the field with Major-General Somerset’s division from the 27th March to 9th April. During this patrol the country was scoured near the old Tyumie Post, Hertzog, Eland’s Post, and the adjacent highlands. The two men were found very useful in repairing the numerous bad drifts through which the guns and waggons had to pass, and in the execution of various incidental services of a professional character.

Sergeant John Poole and one corporal of the corps were present in repulsing a midnight attack on Fort Brown on the 9th April. The enemy consisted of ninety-three Hottentots and fifteen Kaffirs. Robert Dunlop of the corps was the corporal of the guard that night. Hearing the dogs barking more than usual, he went out to see that the sentries were on the alert; but finding the Hottentot posted over the cattle, away from his post in a cloak, he was satisfied of the existence of some traitorous design, and discovered that the enemy was already in the kraal. Giving the alarm, the guard and the military in the fort were quickly assembled, and, under the command of Ensign Gill of the Cape mounted rifles, a sharp action for two hours was maintained, when the enemy was driven from the fort with great loss. The rebels attacked both the tower and the kraal; but from the latter they succeeded in carrying off about 200 head of cattle.[62]

From the 20th to the 24th April, four sergeants and seventy-six rank and file under Lieutenant Pasley, R.A., were despatched, with Major Wilmot’s patrol, into the country of Stock and Seyolo. Near the Keiskama the sappers and artillery were placed in ambush to attack the flank and rear of the enemy, while the main body of the patrol engaged the Kaffirs in front. The country through which the division passed was very perilous, consisting of high kloofs and dense bush, broken by precipices. In this march the sappers assisted in destroying about 100 huts, several large gardens of the enemy, and capturing some large granaries of corn. In returning, the detachment, acting with the 6th regiment as skirmishers, kept the enemy at bay and desolated their crops.

On the 30th April, two sergeants and forty-eight rank and file, in burgher jackets, and laden with provisions and the usual war equipment, were engaged with the Kaffirs on the march from the Chumie junction to Fort Wiltshire, and shared in storming and driving them from the heights, where they had occupied a strong position, under cover of the ruins of an old tower and a detached outwork. On the 1st May the party was again in action on the Keiskama; and after five days’ patrolling through the territories of Seyolo, Stock, Sonto, Tola, and Botman, regained King William’s Town on the 2nd May. The troops were reported to have conducted themselves admirably. As the sappers re-entered King William’s Town, Sir Harry Smith welcomed them by saying, with characteristic cordiality, “Well done, my lads; you can both build works and storm them!”

Two sergeants and sixty-nine rank and file, from the 9th to the 13th May, were employed with Major Wilmot’s patrol in the Amatola Mountains. In carrying out the service, the division penetrated difficult and precipitous fastnesses, surprised several of the enemy, and captured some cattle. The sappers were reported to have conducted themselves on this duty with willingness and zeal.

From the 17th to the 22nd May, one sergeant and twenty-one rank and file accompanied a patrol of 800 men under Major Wilmot to Seyolo’s country as far as Fort Peddie, and returned with a convoy of waggons, cattle, &c. A similar patrol of two sergeants and forty-one men scoured the Amatola range, was once engaged with the enemy near Bailie’s Grave, and returned to King William’s Town, after a harassing march of seven days, on the 31st May. One sergeant and twenty men were out with another detachment under Major Wilmot as far as Fort Peddie. The march extended over ten days, and the patrol returned to King’s William’s Town on the 14th June. Again from the 19th to 21st July two sergeants and forty-nine men were detached with Colonel Eyre’s patrol, and assisted in clearing the rebels out of the Buffalo Poorts and Mount Kempt. The marching was very heavy, being for the most part, between eighty and ninety miles, through dense bush.