1840.

Return of the detachment from Spain—Its conduct during the war—Survey of the northern counties of England—Notice of sergeant Cottingham—Secondary triangulation of the north of Scotland—Increase to survey allowances—Augmentation to the survey companies—Renewal of survey of the disputed boundary in the state of Maine—Corporal Hearnden at Sandhurst—Wreck of the ‘Royal George;’ duties of the sappers in its removal—Exertions of sergeant-major Jones—The divers—An accident—Usefulness of the detachment engaged in the work—Boat adventure at Spithead—Andrew Anderson—Thomas P. Cook—Transfer of detachment from the Mauritius to the Cape—Survey of La Caille’s arc of meridian there—Detachment to Syria—Its active services, including capture of Acre—Reinforcement to Syria.

The services of the sappers in Spain were of a nature similar to those in which they were engaged during the greater part of the previous year; and the diligence and ability shown in their execution drew repeated expressions of admiration from Lord John Hay. “They could turn their hands,” it is recorded, “to anything and everything.” Under orders from the Admiralty, the detachment, nineteen strong, was withdrawn from Spain and arrived at Woolwich in the ‘Alban’ steamer, 22nd August, 1840. Its original strength increased by subsequent reinforcements, reached thirty-six of all ranks: the difference was occasioned by the removal of invalids, five deaths, and one killed by falling over a precipice.

Lord John Hay, in a letter to Lieutenant Vicars, R.E., parted with the detachment in the following eulogistic terms:—

“The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having ordered me to embark the detachment of royal sappers and miners under your command for a passage to England, have directed me at the same time to convey to yourself, the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the detachment, their lordships' marked approbation of the zeal, gallantry, and good conduct which have been displayed by them on all occasions during the long course of service in which they have been employed on this coast.

“In communicating this expression of their lordships' satisfaction, I avail myself of the opportunity of again recording my thanks to yourself, the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the detachment, for the zeal and gallantry with which my orders have at all times been carried into effect, and particularly for the ability displayed in the erection of the various works of defence entrusted to you.”

At the commencement of the principal triangulation of Great Britain, it was carried forward more with a view to the solution of the astronomical problem connected with the size and figure of the earth than as a basis for an accurate topographical survey. In pursuance of this object, a series of triangles had been carried northward from the Isle of Wight, and continued to the north coast of Yorkshire in 1806; but a portion of the east of Yorkshire was still left without any fixed points or stations. The series went along the eastern edge of the Cleaveland vale; but at that time the mountainous country on the west of Cleaveland, and in Derbyshire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, Durham, and Northumberland, was inaccessible for trigonometrical stations from the want of roads, or other local approaches. These having been subsequently constructed, a detachment of the corps was sent in May, 1840, under Lieutenant Pipon, R.E., into the northern counties, to visit some stations in order to fix the points to expedite the topographical survey. The party encamped on the Great Whernside mountain near Kettlewell, and from this time a force of the corps has ever since been employed in the English surveys, gradually swelling the numbers of the latter, as the progress of the work in Ireland permitted their removal.[[372]]

For the secondary triangulation of the north of Scotland, sixteen rank and file were provided in May, and by the fall of the year they had increased to thirty-one men. From this period Scotland has always had a few sections of sappers employed in its national surveys; but of late, the numbers have swelled to some magnitude.

Similar advantages as to working pay granted to the sappers in Ireland were extended to the detachments occupied in the surveys of Great Britain, to give due encouragement to their exertions. Four shillings a-day were also granted to non-commissioned officers superintending large forces of field surveyors, to cover the extra expenses incurred, and compensate for the labour and fatigue endured in the performance of this duty.

On the 19th June, 1840, by order of Sir Hussey Vivian, the Master-General, the survey companies were increased by one sergeant, one corporal, and one second corporal, but to make up for this addition, the privates were reduced three men per company. The establishment for each of the three companies was therefore fixed as follows:—

Col.-Sergts.Sergts.Corporals.2nd Corpls.Buglers.Privates.Total.
1677282105

This measure was recommended by Colonel Colby because, as he expressed it, “the general conduct of the non-commissioned officers was so excellent that a selection for promotion could seldom be given as a reward for a special service without showing a preference for some class of duty to the exclusion of others equally onerous and well performed;” and even with this increase, a non-commissioned officer higher than the rank of lance-corporal, could not be spared to assist in the charge of the detachment on the Great Whernside Mountain.

Second-corporal John McQueen was sent in the summer with Captain Broughton, R.E., and Mr. Featherstonhaugh to the disputed territory in North America, to aid in its reconnaissance and survey. He was dressed in plain clothes and wore in his girdle a brace of pistols. Operations commenced on the 1st August at the Grand Falls, and ceased for the winter on the 5th October, at which date the commissioners reached Quebec. Throughout this period corporal McQueen was in the bush. His duty, apart from the general services of the survey, comprised the registration of the barometers and thermometers every hour, often at intervals of half an hour, taking the bearings of the several streams, superintending the movements of the camp equipage and stores, and issuing the provisions.

The service was not accomplished without hardship and occasional privation. The marching, too, was toilsome, and it was the lot of the corporal sometimes to struggle through swamps and ford streams where the exertion of swimming was necessary for his safety. The snow at times was deep; the cold in the morning great; but generally at mid-day the heat from the density of the woods was almost insupportable. The sandflies which infested the bush were a distressing nuisance; and the expedition, to protect themselves from swollen faces and blindness, resorted to the expedient of covering the face with a gauze veil, or of tying round their hats a piece of burning cedar, by the hostile fumes of which the stinging swarm was kept at bay. On the party reaching Quebec, corporal McQueen was quartered in the artillery barracks, and worked during the winter in the engineer department, preparing for the next summer expedition such utensils and conveniences as the experience of the past had proved to be desirable.

Both terms at Sandhurst the detachment employed with the gentlemen cadets, was in charge of corporal Robert Hearnden, and being an active and intelligent non-commissioned officer, he acquitted himself extremely well. “With his own hands he completed,” says the official report, “the masonry of a small splinter-proof magazine, including a roof ingeniously constructed of tiles so arranged as to break joint, and imbedded in cement, which gives to the whole work the appearance and strength of a stone roof.” Both parties laboured with readiness and industry, and maintained their usual exemplary character. Corporal Joseph T. Meyers had been several times at Sandhurst, and was found so assiduous and deserving a non-commissioned officer, that the governor of the College rewarded him by giving him the appointment of staff-sergeant at that institution.[[373]]

Early in May, one bugler and twenty-two rank and file, with serjeant-major Jones, returned to the wreck of the ‘Royal George’ at Spithead, and under the executive charge of Lieutenant Symonds, R.E., resumed the operations which were suspended in the winter of the previous year. Colonel Pasley had the direction of the service. The duties of the sappers were similar in all respects to those mentioned on the former occasion, and the composition of the party rendered it fully equal to the varied and novel circumstances of so peculiar an undertaking. On the 27th October, the winter then having completely set in, the operations were again suspended, and the detachment returned to Chatham.

When Lieutenant Symonds quitted early in October, sergeant-major Jones took charge of the service, which he managed with success, and was fortunate in recovering a considerable portion of the wreck. Throughout the season his zeal, judgment, and activity gained the high commendation of Colonel Pasley.

Corporal David Harris was employed for several months as a diver. Ambitious to earn fame in the art, he rivalled by his exertions the professional civil divers. With exciting rapidity he sent aloft planks, beams, staves, iron knees, grape-shot, fragments of gun-carriages, abundance of sheet-lead, remnants of the galley, and a thousand et ceteras. It was he who ferreted into the store-room, and cleared out its heterogeneous contents, recovering by his zeal crates of brass locks, bolts, nuts, copper hoops, and axletrees. Now he would penetrate into a magazine, and remove its powder-barrels and bulls' hides; then, tearing down the decks and walls, would anon push into a carpenter’s shop, and surprise all hands with instalments of sash-frames, window-weights, plate-glass, and engine-hose. Into the craters formed by the large explosions he would fearlessly enter, and, probed on all sides by projecting spars and splintered beams, would drag from the abysses huge timbers and unwieldy masses of the wreck, that strained from their weight the powerful shackles and gear used to raise them on board. An entire 32-pounder gun-carriage he also obtained; and only for the snapping of the slings, would have had a gun recorded to his credit. Indeed, it was on the way to the surface, when it dropped from the broken ropes and was lost for the summer. A guinea of 1768, the only one which saw the light during the season, was among the spoils which Harris had recovered. For experiment this corporal tried to dive in one of Bethell’s dresses, but after two or three attempts it had so exhausted his energies, that he was compelled to abandon its use. From the 29th May till the winter set in, he dived incessantly, except when prevented by heavy gales of wind, the strength of the tide, or the occasional sickness which was inseparable from so hard a duty. Frequently he earned as much as 4s. 6d. a-day working pay.

Lance-corporal John Skelton, and privates Charles Symon, Richard Pillman Jones, Thomas Penny Cook, Joseph Ireland, and Andrew Duncan, also dived at intervals when available dresses offered them chances of engaging in the perilous service. In the journal of the operations Lieutenant Symonds writes—“I find but little difference between them and the other divers, except that the sappers work with a better will.” The first two of these young divers were the most promising. The former, moreover, from his skill and ingenuity as an artificer, made himself very useful, and his diligence as a workman was felt in various ways. Most of the delicate work connected with the diving-apparatus, air-pumps, voltaic-batteries, etc., in which approved judgment and intelligence were required, was turned out of the hands of this craftsman in a manner that satisfied to the utmost those whose lives depended upon the accuracy and completeness of his labours.

Only one accident of a serious nature occurred: this was to private Andrew Duncan, who a day or two before had slung a large beam of the orlop-deck with knee attached, which was hove on board with great difficulty. He had on one of Deane’s dresses, which required the head and helmet to be kept upright. Losing this position he toppled over, and falling into a hole, the water rushed into his helmet and nearly drowned him. On being brought up his face was cased with mud, and he remained insensible for several minutes, bleeding from the mouth and ears. Chafing, with other simple remedies, however, soon restored him.

Corporal William Read[[374]] had again the management of the voltaic battery, which was almost in constant use, and gave every satisfaction. The powder expended in the operations was 15,000 lbs. Innumerable were the charges fired against the wreck, none containing less than 18 lbs. of gunpowder, nor more than 260 lbs. All the privates showed the greatest energy and activity in the duties they were called on to perform. Both in boats and the work necessary for getting up the fragments of the wreck, whether at the windlass or capstan, &c., in the repair of the launches, the preparation of the charges, and the loading and unloading of the cylinders, they were found prompt, spirited, and efficient, and their example was very beneficial in exciting the emulation of the sailors. So well indeed had the detachment been constituted, that, for its numbers, it was equal to the execution of any mechanical service which the operations demanded. In their general duties privates James Hegarty and Joseph Ireland were the most conspicuous.[[375]] Exertion and ship fare made the whole party strong and hardy, and a few weeks roughing it on shipboard turned them out as weather-beaten and brawny as seamen.

During this season at Spithead there was a strong gale from the eastward, and the storm-flag was hoisted at Gosport. No boats would venture out, and the ‘Success’ frigate, with a part of the detachment on board, was in danger of parting from her anchors and drifting to sea. Lieutenant Symonds was on shore at the time, and thinking his presence necessary to secure her safety, determined to attempt the passage. The civil divers, accustomed to perilous boat service, said no boat could live in such a sea, and the Port-Admiral refused his permission for Lieutenant Symonds to proceed unless on his own responsibility. Unable from the raging storm to row out of the harbour, he, with four sappers, hauled the gig along shore for more than two miles, and when a good offing was gained, the lug-sail was hoisted and the boat pushed off. With the tact and sagacity of a skilful pilot, Lieutenant Symonds guided the gig, now skirting the furious wave, now skimming across its angry top, and anon lost for a time between the furious billows of a long, deep trough. To lessen the danger of the fearful venture, the men lay down in the boat for ballast, and pulling off their boots, used them, with noble exertion, in baling out the water as she shipped the sea. At length, to the utter amazement and joy of the party on board, the gig reached the frigate. Then, however, the peril was increased, for frequently like a log she was dashed against the hull of the vessel, and as frequently nearly foundered; but by the spirited exertions of the brave lieutenant and his intrepid crew, the boat was eventually secured, and all gained unhurt the deck of the ‘Success.’ Lieutenant Symonds then took such further precautions as were indispensable for the safety of the ship, and she successfully outrode the storm. The names of the gig’s crew were privates John Hegarty, Andrew Anderson,[[376]] Thomas P. Cook,[[377]] and John Campbell:[[378]] the two latter became colour-sergeants in the corps.

On the completion of the citadel at the Mauritius, the half-company stationed there was removed on the 7th October, under the command of Lieutenant G. R. Hutchinson, R.E., in the ‘Isabella Blyth’ to the Cape of Good Hope, where it landed on the 27th of the same month. The chief of the work at Port Louis was executed by the sappers, in which privates William Reynolds and William Crawford[[379]] displayed the most skill and obtained the most credit. Four detachments had been sent to the Mauritius, whose united strength reached fifty of all ranks: of these the casualties amounted to ten deaths and one drowned.

Sergeant John Hemming and seven rank and file embarked at Woolwich on the 9th April, 1840, and landed at the Cape of Good Hope in July. The party was detached under Captain Henderson, R.E., to assist the colonial astronomer, Mr. Maclear, in the remeasurement of La Caille’s arc of the meridian. All were armed with rifles and accoutrements to protect them in a wild country, and the sergeant was selected to take charge of the detachment from his well-known steadiness and intelligence. Working pay was granted to each for his services, according to individual exertion and general usefulness, up to 3s. per day.

A few weeks were spent in the preliminary business of adjusting the instruments in Cape Town, when the party, to which some men of the 25th regiment had been added, left in September for Zwartland and Groenekloof, west of the Berg River. On this extensive plain the base was measured with the compensation bars invented by Colonel Colby, but as La Caille’s arc could not be identified, a new line very near to it was laid out and measured about seven miles in length, which occupied from October, 1840, to April, 1841.[[380]] In this service the party carried out the subordinate details. They assisted in driving the pickets and the placement of the trestles to sustain the bars. These were scientifically fixed by the colonial astronomer and Captain Henderson, aided by the sappers. Two men were also appointed to guard the last point of observation whilst the bars were being carried forward and adjusted; and another occasionally attended to the registration of the observations. Thus the work continued until the whole distance was measured. The delicate nature of the duty rendered it very irksome, and required much assiduous care in its performance. The jar of a bar simply would have been sufficient to cause the loss of a day’s work. Nearly the whole time the sappers worked from four in the morning till eight or nine at night. In July, 1841, the party returned to winter quarters.

By the terms of a treaty, dated 15th July, 1840, Mehemet Ali was required to accept certain conditions within a limited time, and, if he declined, the forfeiture of the pachalic of Acre and the loss of Egypt were to follow. Having allowed the time to elapse, offensive operations commenced to compel him to evacuate Syria. England being greatly involved in the treaty, the British Cabinet at once sent a fleet under Admiral Sir Robert Stopford to the coast, with which was a small force of the ordnance corps, to assist the troops of the Sultan in this service.[[381]]

On the 7th August one sergeant and eleven rank and file embarked at Gibraltar on board the ‘Pique’ frigate, under Colonel Sir Charles Smith, Bart., R.E., for active duty with the fleet. A liberal assortment of intrenching and tradesmen’s tools accompanied the party. On the 1st September it arrived at Beirout, and a landing was effected on the 10th. Second-corporal John Moore[[382]] accompanied the first detachment that landed, and was present at the advanced position above the Dog River.

On the same day the sappers landed at D’Junie from the ‘Pique’ frigate, and after occupying the lines were employed in repairing and improving them until the 10th October. Corporal Henry Brown and private John Greig[[383]] were in the meantime sent on in the ‘Hydra’ steamer, and were present on the 25th and 26th September at the taking of Tyre and Sidon. Soon after their return to D’Junie, the whole party embarked in the ‘Stromboli’ steamer, and served at the capture of Beirout on the 10th and 11th October. On the 3rd November, sergeant Black and three privates were present on board the ‘Princess Charlotte’ at the taking of Acre, and were the first troops that entered that famous city. In all these operations the sappers were under the orders of Lieutenant Aldrich, R.E. “Their conduct,” writes that officer, “in their extensive and arduous duties, and under suffering from great sickness, has been most exemplary;” and again, in a despatch from Lord Palmerston, the approbation of Her Majesty’s Government is conveyed for the share the party took in the capture of Acre, and for the zeal and ability displayed by them in restoring the defences of the place after its capture.

A second detachment of ten rank and file arrived at Beirout on the 13th December in the ‘Hecate’ steamer, under Lieutenant J. F. A. Symonds, R.E., from Woolwich, and was sent in the ‘Vesuvius’ to Acre, to reinforce the sappers, and to assist at the breaches, taking with them a supply of intrenching tools. The sapper force in Syria now consisted of one sergeant and twenty-one rank and file.