Services of the detachment in Spain—Last party of the artillery on the survey—Survey of South Australia—Inspection at Limerick by Sir William Macbean—Triangulation of north of Scotland—Also of the Clyde—Pontoons by sergeant Hopkins—Augmentation of the corps—Also of the survey companies—Supernumerary rank annulled—Tithe surveys; quality of work executed on them by discharged sappers; efficient surveys of sergeant Douli—Increase of survey pay—Staff appointments on the survey—Responsibility of quartermaster-sergeant M‘Kay—Colonel Colby’s classes—Based upon particular attainments—Disputed territory in the State of Maine—Movements and services of the party employed in its survey; intrepidity of corporal M‘Queen—Experiments with the diving-bell—Also with the voltaic battery—Improvement in the priming-wires by Captain Sandham; sergeant-major Jones’s waterproof composition and imitation fuses—Demolition and removal of the wreck of the ‘Royal George’—Organization of detachment employed in the operation—Emulation of parties—Success of the divers; labours of the sappers—Diving bell abandoned—Accident to private Brabant—Fearlessness of Corporal Harris in unloading the gunpowder from the cylinders—Hazardous duty in soldering the loading-hole of the cylinder—First sapper helmet divers—Conduct and exertions of the detachment.
The detachment in Spain was not called upon during the year to take part in any active operation. Its services were, therefore, confined to the works. At Passages the men performed several duties connected with the squadron; and in addition to fitting up Her Majesty’s ship ‘Nightingale’ for stores, made various essential alterations and fitments in Lord John Hay’s vessel, the ‘North Star.’ Sections of the detachment were for months at Aquirre completing the construction of a redoubt and magazine, and repairing the fortified house there, and building a barrack and magazine at Cachola Fort on the Hernani road. Others were also occupied for a period in fitting up the hospital at San Sebastian, repairing the barracks of the royal artillery and royal marines, and attending to the security of the different forts in front of the fortress.
A detachment of the artillery had, ever since the commencement of the national survey, been employed on that duty, whose numbers, by degrees, were reduced to five non-commissioned officers and privates. This year saw the last of that regiment on the survey, for the men alluded to were transferred to the corps on the 1st April.
On the 20th September, one sergeant, two corporals, and twelve privates landed at Port Adelaide, South Australia, from the ‘Recovery’ emigrant ship. The royal authority for the organization of this party to carry out the surveys of the colony, under the direction of Captain E. C. Frome, royal engineers, was dated 2nd July, 1839. Lord Normanby, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, at the instance of the South Australian Commissioners, recommended the measure. By this addition, the corps was increased from 1,048 to 1,063 of all ranks. The party was composed of men chiefly from the survey, married, with families, and well adapted for the service of the settlement. Soon the men were dispersed over a wide extent of the province, surveying a wild unoccupied territory, and also in setting off and surveying blocks of land for the emigrants. The duty was not without its trials; and for months the surveyors obtained no better shelter than the bush, the shade of some bold cliff, or the cover of a frail canvas tent. In 1844, when it became indispensable to effect some changes in the surveying department and in the mode of its action, in consequence of the increased population of the colony and its great inland distribution, his Excellency Captain G. Grey expressed before the Legislative Council his sense of the accuracy and ability with which the detachment had conducted the surveys, and added, that no greater efficiency could be desired in effecting the trigonometrical survey than that displayed in their labours.[[352]] Some of the party were constantly at Port Adelaide engaged in the contingent duties of the station, such as working at their trades, drawing, &c., and in superintendence. At first all expenses were borne by the Commissioners, but eventually they were defrayed from the colonial revenue. The working pay of the party continues to range between 1s. and 5s. a-day each, exclusive of regimental allowances and rations. The sergeant in charge receives the highest rate, and the privates seldom less than 2s. a-day each.
On the 23rd May, the sixteenth company under the command of Captain Stotherd, R.E., was inspected at Limerick by Major-General Sir William Macbean, and commended by the General for their soldier-like conduct and appearance.[[353]]
One corporal and twenty privates were detached in May under Lieutenant Robinson, R.E., to the north of Scotland, and continued on the trigonometrical survey of that portion of the country until late in December, when they rejoined their companies.
Captain A. Henderson, having with him one corporal and six privates, was employed in the secondary triangulation of the Clyde from May to the 10th October.
At the summer examination of the gentleman cadets at Sandhurst, there was “exhibited a pontoon raft of very ingenious construction, made by the sappers employed at the college under the direction of sergeant John Hopkins.” The raft was supported on two wicker boats formed after the fashion of the old Welsh coracle, covered with waterproof canvas, “each being ten feet long by three feet wide, and two feet three inches deep. The buoyancy and firmness of the raft were such as to show, that by giving a small additional length to the coracles, it might be rendered capable of bearing field artillery, and it was so light as to be swiftly impelled by a pair of oars. The experiment was extremely satisfactory, and proved that a very valuable resource in the field might be found in such constructions for passing rivers.”[[354]] On several occasions during the term the detachment were out day and night extinguishing fires—the work of incendiaries—in the plantations near the college, and their effectual exertions prevented the destruction of much of the crown property. Sergeant Hopkins was highly praised for his activity and intelligence in the practical work of instruction, and corporal Robert Hearnden for his skill in the construction of revetments.
By the authority of a royal warrant dated 3rd July, 1838, a company of eighty-nine strong, numbered the tenth, was added to the corps on the 1st July, 1839, which increased the establishment from 1,063 to 1,152 of all ranks. The formation of this company was occasioned by the removal in the previous year of a company from home duty to the Canadas.
In 1838 the Government threw the tithe surveys in England into the hands of contractors, whereby the parishes were burdened with an expense of 9d. an acre, while the survey executed by the Ordnance cost but little more than half the sum. The higher price thus paid to the contractors, enabled them to attract to their employment civil assistants trained by the Ordnance, to do their work. Many resignations of superior surveyors and draughtsmen were therefore the result, and so great a loss from a single class, necessarily deferred the completion of a large portion of surveyed work. To provide against injury from any similar contingency, a warrant dated 2nd July, 1839, authorized an augmentation of two sergeants, two corporals, two second corporals, and ten privates to each survey company, which, for the three companies devoted to that service, gave an increase of forty-eight men, making the total sapper establishment on the survey amount to—