Notwithstanding the inclement weather, the health of the detachment continued to be robust. Fourteen months they had been at the Falkland Islands without a doctor; but in March one was added to the settlement from the ‘Philomel.’
After having erected comfortable residences for nearly the whole of the official establishment, the seat of government, by orders from the Colonial Office, was removed to Port William. The proclamation for this purpose was read to the inhabitants of Port Louis by sergeant Hearnden on the 18th August, 1843. Jackson’s Harbour was selected by the Lieutenant-Governor for the future settlement. Soon after, the detachment marched overland to the spot, and continued there during the remainder of the year—except when temporary service required their presence at Port Louis—preparing the location for the Governor and the official officers. A sod-hut was soon run up for one of the married families, and the rest were tented on boggy ground about twenty yards from the river. In stormy weather the ground, as if moving on a quicksand, would heave with the fury of the wind; and what with the whistling of the gale through the cordage, the flapping of the tents, and the roaring of the waves, the men at night were scarcely free from the hallucination of fancying themselves at sea.
Their early operations at Jackson’s Harbour were very harassing, much of the material required for building having to be brought from a distance; but before the close of the year a two-roomed wooden cottage was erected with some convenient outhouses for domestic purposes. A portable house for the surveyor was also constructed, and one built in Mare Harbour. A rough jetty of planks, piles, and casks was likewise made, and the high grass for miles about the settlement was burnt down. This service was not accomplished without difficulty, for the continual rains having saturated both grass and ground, prevented the spreading of the flames, and required unceasing efforts for more than a month to insure eventual success.
While out on this duty sergeant Hearnden discovered a good ford for horses about 150 yards from Turner’s Stream, and marked the spot by a pile of stones, the summit of which was on a level with high-water mark. Turner’s Stream was named in compliment to a private of that name, who carried the Governor in his journeys over the shallow waters and lagoons that intersected his track.
Much discomfort and some privation were experienced by the men in the first months of their encampment at Jackson’s Harbour. To get meat they usually travelled to Port Harriet, or some eight or nine miles from the location. The bulls they shot were always cut up on the spot and their several parts deposited under stones till required for use at the camp. In these expeditions the bulls were frequently seen in herds and wild horses in troops, sometimes as many as fifteen in a group. Once the camp was attacked by a number of wild horses and four savage bulls. The party, about four in number, were at breakfast at the time they approached, and, at once seizing their loaded rifles, ran out of the tent to meet them. Two of the bulls only, stood their ground; and though struck by two bullets, rushed on furiously, and forced the party to beat a hasty retreat. A position was rapidly taken up among some barrels and timber, under cover of which the men were reloading; but the onslaught of the bulls was so impetuous that the operation was interrupted and the party driven into the tents. One of the animals now trotted off; but the other, still pursuing, bolted after the men into the marquee. A ball from private Biggs’s rifle fortunately stopped his career, and, turning round, the infuriated animal tore up the tent, committed great havoc through the camp, and made a plunge at private Yates, who dexterously stepped aside, and, firing, shot the bull in the head, and the combat ceased.
Lance-corporal John Rae and private Thomas Smith were employed in January under Lieutenant G. R. Hutchinson, R.E., in the demolition and removal by blasting of a portion of the Round Down Cliff, near Dover, for the purpose of continuing the South Eastern Railway in an open line, supported by a sea-wall, up to the mouth of Shakspeare Tunnel. The summit of the cliff was about 380 feet above high-water mark, and 70 feet above that of Shakspeare Cliff. The two sappers had the executive superintendence of the mines, the placement of the charges, and various duties connected with the management of the voltaic apparatus and wires. No less than 180 barrels of gunpowder were expended in the operation; and the explosion by electric galvanism brought down, in one stupendous fall, a mass of chalk—about 400,000 cubic yards—which covered a space of 15½ acres, varying in depth from 15 to 25 feet, and saved the South Eastern Railway Company the sum of 7,000l.
Six corporals under Captain Robinson, R.E., with Lieutenant Pipon, were attached, under orders from Lord Aberdeen, to the commission of which Lieutenant-Colonel Estcourt was the chief, for tracing the boundary line between the British dominions in North America and the United States, as settled by the Ashburton treaty. Dressed in plain clothes, they embarked at Liverpool on the 19th April, and arriving at Halifax on the 2nd May, proceeded by Boston and New York to the Kennebec road and entered the woods late in the month. In May, 1844, the party was increased to twenty men by the arrival of fourteen non-commissioned officers and privates from the English survey companies. The co-operation of this party was urged as of paramount importance. It enabled the work, so says the official communication, to be carried on over a large portion of country at once with energy and rapidity, and in such a manner as to insure a more vigorous and correct execution of it than if the Commissioners were left to depend on the assistance to be met with on the spot; and which, although greatly inferior in quality, would have entailed more expense on the public than the employment of the military surveyors. Each sapper was selected as being competent to work by himself, and to survey and run lines of levels, besides keeping in constant employment a staff of labourers.
Sergeant-major James Forbes retired from the corps on the 11th of April on a pension of 2s. 2d. a-day. He was succeeded by colour-sergeant George Allan,[[429]] an excellent drill non-commissioned officer, who was appointed to the staff at Chatham, vicê sergeant-major Jenkin Jones, removed to the staff at Woolwich.
The merits of sergeant-major Forbes have been frequently alluded to in these pages, but there still remain some other points in his history to be noticed. To the royal military college at Sandhurst, he presented several models made by himself on military subjects. About two years before his retirement he invented the equilateral pontoon, a vessel of a very ingenious character. Its sides consist of “portions of cylinders, supposed to be applied to three sides of an equilateral triangular prism, each side of the triangle being two feet eight inches long; so that the cylindrical portions meet in three edges parallel to the axis of the pontoon. The sagitta, or versed sine of the curvature being about one-fifth of the side of the triangle, it follows that each side of the pontoon forms, in a transverse section, an arc of nearly 90°. Each end of the pontoon consists of three curved surfaces, corresponding to the sides of the vessel, and meeting in a point, as if formed on the sides of a triangular pyramid.”[[430]] “The form,” says Sir Howard Douglas, “appears to be well adapted for the purposes of a good pontoon; as whichever side is uppermost it presents a boatlike section to the water, and a broad deck for the superstructure. It possesses, also, the advantage of a horizontal section gradually enlarging to the highest point of displacement, by which means stability and steadiness in the water are obtained in a high degree. The area of a transverse section of this pontoon is greater than that of the present cylindrical pontoon; and the greater capacity produces more than a compensation, in buoyancy, to the small excess of weight above that of a cylindrical pontoon.”[[431]] A raft of this form of pontoon was prepared under the eye of the sergeant-major and sent to Chatham for trial, but although it gained much favour for its decided excellences, it was finally set aside on account of “some inconvenience in the management causing a preference to be given to those of a simple cylindrical form”[[432]]—the construction, in fact, established for the service. He was however awarded by the Board of Ordnance, in consideration of his trouble and as a tribute to his skill, the sum of one hundred guineas.
On leaving the royal sappers and miners, he was appointed surveyor to a district of the Trent and Mersey canal, at a salary of 215l. a year, with a fine residence and five acres of land attached. He was also allowed forage for two horses, and all his taxes and travelling expenses were paid. Some two years afterwards his salary was increased to 280l. a year, and in 1846, so highly appreciated were his services, that the Directors of the company proposed him to fill the office of engineer to the canal. His integrity however was such, that he would not be tempted by the great increase of salary the promotion promised, and declined it, from a modest feeling that he might not be able to do justice to so important and onerous a charge. Quickly upon this, he received the thanks of the Directors, accompanied by a special donation of 100l. Determining upon other arrangements for the execution of their works, the company disbanded its establishment of workmen and superintendents, retaining only the engineer and Mr. Forbes; and such was his character for alacrity, resolution, and discrimination, that the Directors appointed him to superintend all the works undertaken for the company, both on the canal and the North Staffordshire Railway, which was now incorporated with the Trent and Mersey Canal proprietary. This alteration in the company’s affairs, caused his removal from Middlewich to a commodious residence in Etruria, in Staffordshire, where his energy and influence in the parish soon gained him the post of churchwarden, and the honour of being invited to a public breakfast, at which, while the Bishop of Lichfield held the chair, he had the distinction of filling the vice-chair. Latterly he has appeared before the public as a writer. His pamphlet on the National Defences, proposing a locomotive artillery, addressed to Lord John Russell, was perused by that nobleman and received the attention of Sir John Burgoyne. Frequently he has written in the public journals on pontoons. He has also published a pamphlet on the subject, and another relative to a pontoon-boat, which he has invented.[[433]] The latter is of great interest and may yet receive the attention its ingenious suggestions deserve. On the 6th of May, 1853, he was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers, for which honour he was proposed by the great Robert Stephenson and Mr. S. P. Bidder, the two leading civil engineers of this country. Within the last year, he has been advanced to the post of engineer to the company, and he enjoys the perfect satisfaction and confidence of his employers. His salary and emoluments exceed 400l. a year.