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 6l. 10s. 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 sergeant. | Ser- geants. | Cor- porals. | 2nd Corp. | Pri- vates. | Bugl. | Total. | General 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, 2 Quartermaster-sergeants, and 1 Bugle-major, | } | 8 | ||||||||
| 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 15l. each, and the remainder 10l. 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]]
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 10l. a-year.