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 1s. 3d. and 2s. 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 907l. 12s. 11½d. Of this sum only 92l. 3s. 1d. 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[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]]

StationsObservations in progress. Officer or non-commissioned Officer in charge of the Instrument.Strength of the Sappers.Number of Nights on which Observations were made.Number of Single Obserations.
FromTo
South Barule, Isle of Man.}11 Oct., 184212 Oct., 1842{Lieuts. Hornby and Gosset} 6 2 113
Blackdown, Dorset26 Nov. ” 1 Jan., 1843 Ditto 7 201087[[53]]
Precelly Mountain, Wales}11 Apr., 184310 May ”{Lieuts. Hornby and Luyken}5 17 674[[53]]
Forth Mountain, Wexford}29 May ”17 June ” Lieut. Hornby7 12 659
Hungry Hill, Co. Cork}30 June ”31 July ” Ditto7 9 295[[53]]
Feaghmann, Co. Kerry}14 Aug. ”26 Aug. ” Ditto7 9 395[[53]]
Tawnymore, Co. Mayo} 2 Oct. ”14 Oct. ” Ditto2 7 294
S. End of L. Foyle Base} 8 Nov. ”15 Nov. ” Ditto2 6 335
Monach, Stornoway16 June, 1844 3 July, 1844Lieut. Gosset5 10 180
Ben Hutich, Sutherlandshire} 5 Nov. ”24 Nov. ” Ditto6 10 480
Hensbarrow, Cornwall} 9 June, 184514 June, 1845 Corporal Steel 4 6 290
South Barule, Isle of Man}21 July ” 5 Aug. ” Ditto3 2 114
Ben Lomond 2 Sept. ” 4 Oct. ” Ditto4 11 635
Ben Heynish, Isle of Tiree}11 Nov. ”28 Dec. ” Ditto4 10 267
Week Down, Isle of Wight}26 Apr., 184617 May, 1846 Ditto4 11 556
Dunnose, ditto24 May ”6 June ” Ditto4 13 643
Boniface Down, ditto}13 June ”21 June ” Ditto4 7 356
Port Valley, ditto}28 June ”14 July ” Ditto4 10 411
Saxavord, Unst, Shetland} 3 Oct. ”26 Jan., 1847 Ditto4 20 566
Gerth of Scaw, ditto}16 Feb., 184710 Apr. ” Ditto4 21 581
Balta, in Shetland Isles}30 Apr. ”13 July ” Ditto4 20 732[[54]]
Cowhythe, Banffshire} 7 Aug. ”27 Sept. ” Ditto4 18 641
Southampton21 Oct. ” 4 Sept., 1848{Sergt. Steel and Corp. W. Jenkins}21808730
St. Agnes, Scilly}13 May, 1850 1 June, 1850 Sergeant Steel4 11 418
Goonhilly Down, Cornwall}25 June ”28 July ” Ditto4 9 442
North Rona, Co. of Ross}11 Sept. ”16 Sept. ” Ditto4 5 428
Great Stirling, Aberdeenshire}14 Nov. ” 6 Dec. ” Ditto4 9 439

“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.