[18] Sir Isambard’s journal of this eventful night consists—as he was not himself present—of Mr. Beamish’s journal, with a few words in warm commendation of that gentleman’s ‘judgment, coolness, and courage,’ followed by observations upon the stability of the shield. He then gives a statement made by Mr. Gravatt, and taken down in shorthand. No extracts are given in the text from Mr. Beamish’s narrative, as he has already inserted it in a condensed form in his Life of Sir Isambard Brunel, pp. 244-248.

[19] Mr. Michael Lane, at this time foreman bricklayer, became one of Mr. Brunel’s most valued assistants, and was employed by him on the Monkwearmouth Docks and the Great Western Railway. After filling various posts in the service of that company, he was in 1860 appointed their principal engineer, an office which he held till his death, in February, 1868.

[20] On this occasion an amusing incident occurred. Mr. Brunel was exceedingly unwilling to permit his visitors to make this expedition into the arch; but on the assurance that they could all swim perfectly well, he consented to take them, with the understanding that, if he jumped overboard, they were immediately to follow his example, and swim after him to the shaft. While they were in the arch Mr. Brunel (as Sir Isambard mentions) fell overboard. As soon as he recovered himself, and turned to swim back to the boat, he remembered that he had unwittingly given to his companions the signal to jump out into the water. He was much amused, on looking up, to see that they were not swimming after him, but were still sitting in the boat clinging to the gunwale, with faces expressive of blank despair.

[21] Mr. Brunel’s comment in his diary is as follows:—‘Without ascribing any particular merit to myself, I cannot help observing, for my future guidance, that being alone, and giving few but clear orders, and those always to the men who were to execute them, I succeeded in an operation not altogether mean, and which a very trifling want of precaution or order might have caused to be a total failure.’

[22] On January 15, 1828, the Directors of the Thames Tunnel Company passed the following resolution, which they ordered to be advertised in the Times, New Times, Herald, Ledger, and Courier:—‘That this court, having heard with great admiration of the intrepid courage and presence of mind displayed by Mr. Isambard Brunel, the company’s resident engineer, when the Thames broke into the Tunnel on the morning of the 12th instant, are desirous to give their public testimony to his calm and energetic endeavours, and to that generous principle which induced him to put his own life in more imminent hazard to save the lives of the men under his immediate care.’

[23] The Thames Tunnel was not successful as a commercial undertaking; but it has always been considered, especially by foreigners, one of the most interesting sights in London, and has been visited by several millions of persons. In 1865 it was purchased by the East London Railway Company, and trains now (March, 1870) run through it. The possibility of using the Tunnel as a railway had been considered in Mr. Brunel’s lifetime, and the idea was approved of by him.

[24] This description is based on the translation given by Mr. Drewry (Suspension Bridges, London, 1832, p. 75), from the Mémoire sur les Ponts Suspendus, by M. Navier (Paris, 1823, p. 49). M. Navier saw the bridges when they were erected at Sheffield in May 1823.

[25] The dimensions of these designs were as follows:—

(a.)Length of floor890feet.
Distance between points of suspension980"
Length of chain1,300"
With a capacity to bear excessive load of650tons.
(b.)Length of floor916feet.
Distance between points of suspension1,160"
Length of chain1,468"
With capacity to bear excessive load of650tons.

[26] On plate I. is given (fig. 1) a facsimile on a smaller scale of the drawing sent in by Mr. Brunel for the last-mentioned (b) of these two designs.