The operations against the wreck of the ‘Royal George’ were resumed, for the fifth time, early in May, with a detachment of fifteen royal sappers and miners, eight East India Company’s sappers, and about eighty seamen, riggers, &c., under the direction of Major-General Pasley, with Lieutenant G. R. Hutchinson as the executive officer. At the end of 1842, almost all the floor timbers had been got up and 101 feet of the keel, leaving only about 50 feet more at the bottom; and out of 126 tons of pig-iron ballast, 103 tons had been safely wharfed. There was therefore confident reason to expect the entire removal of the wreck before the close of the season; and such indeed was the success of the enterprise, that Major-General Pasley, on quitting the work in November, declared that the anchorage ground, where the wreck had lain, was as safe and fit for the use of ships as any other part of Spithead. At first four divers went down regularly, and afterwards five or six were at work at every slack tide, generally three times a day.
After a few weeks of unsuccessful effort, the firing of three charges each of 675 lbs. of powder in puncheons, removed a bank of shingle which chiefly interfered with the divers' success. These charges were fixed by corporals Harris and Jones, and private Girvan. In one week afterwards, the divers effected as much as in the five weeks previously, for not only were the keel and bottom planking somewhat bared, but a great deal of the remaining iron ballast was rendered accessible. Six other charges, of 720 lbs. of powder each, and numerous smaller charges, were subsequently fired, with results that gave ample employment for all the divers and the detachment on board.
One or two failures occurred which arose from want of experience in firing conjunct charges at Spithead; but in other respects, the operation, which was exceedingly difficult, was conducted with skill and success, owing to the able arrangements of Lieutenant Hutchinson, assisted by the leading riggers, and by lance-corporal Rae and private Alexander Cleghorn, who had the preparation of the charges and the voltaic batteries. The divers, too, did everything necessary at the bottom, and were well seconded in every department by the sappers and others employed. “In short,” adds the narrative,[[434]] “this operation, including the separation of the two mooring lighters before the explosion and bringing them together afterwards,” could not, in consequence of the severe weather, have possibly succeeded, “if all the men had not, from long experience, known their respective duties well and entered into them with laudable zeal.”
“On the 9th of July private John Girvan slung the largest and most remarkable piece of the wreck that had been met with this season, consisting of the fore foot and part of the stem, connected by two very large horse-shoe copper clamps bolted together; the boxing by which it had been connected with the fore part of the keel was perfect, from which joint six feet of the gripe had extended horizontally, and terminated in the curve of the stem, which was sheathed with lead.—The length of this fragment was sixteen feet, measured obliquely, and its extreme width five feet.”[[435]] At another time he recovered an enormous fish-hook, no less than eight feet nine inches in length from the eye to the bow!
By corporal Jones, on the 17th following, was slung a large iron bolt, ten feet long; which, on being brought on deck, was observed by him to exhibit marks of having been in contact with brass. He therefore rightly conjectured there must be a brass gun at the spot, and descending again recovered a brass 24-pounder, nine and a half feet long, of the year 1748.[[436]]
“On the 31st of July, private Girvan discovered a gun buried under the mud, but it was not till the 3rd of August that he succeeded in slinging it, assisted by corporal Jones, with whom he generally worked in concert this season;”[[437]] and shortly after, the latter diver recovered the last remnant of the keel, measuring nearly twenty-two feet in length, corporal Harris having previously sent up portions of it in the early part of the summer amounting in length to thirty-six feet,[[438]] and private Girvan, six feet.
The only money got up this season was a guinea of 1775, found on a plank sent up by Jones.
Increased exertions were now made to recover the guns, which were embedded some depth in the mud, and the divers cleared the way by sending up everything they could meet with, until nothing but insignificant fragments could be found. To assist them, two frigate anchors and the half anchor creepers with some auxiliary instruments, drawn backwards and forwards as well as transversely over the site of the wreck, were made to do effectual work. The East India Company’s sappers had been removed before these labours began;[[439]] the whole of the subsequent diving, therefore, was exclusively carried on by the royal sappers and miners,[[440]] and to their vigilance of observation and unceasing zeal, was attributed the recovery of thirteen guns late in the season. Of these, corporal Harris got up three iron and six brass guns, corporal Jones three brass, and private Girvan one iron.
Here it should be explained “how much more successful than his comrades corporal Harris was towards the close of the season, in recovering guns, though the other divers, corporal Jones and privates Girvan and Trevail, had been equally successful in all the previous operations. Corporal Harris fell in with a nest of guns, and it was a rule agreed upon, that each first-class diver should have his own district at the bottom, with which the others were not to interfere.”[[441]]
Jones, though satisfied with the arrangement as a general rule, was a little disposed to feel aggrieved when, by contrast, the odds were against him. He was curious to know by what means Harris turned up the guns with such teasing rapidity, and going down with the secret intention of making the discovery, tumbled over a gun with its muzzle sticking out of the mud. This piece of ordnance legitimately belonged to Harris, for it was in his beat; but, as Jones enthusiastically expressed it, seeming to invite the favour of instant removal, he could not resist the temptation to have its recovery registered to his credit. He therefore securely slung it, and rubbing his hands with delight at the richness of the trick, gave the signal to haul up. Harris, suspecting that his territory had been invaded, dashed down the ladder and just reached the spot in time to feel the breech of the gun slipping through his fingers. Jones, meanwhile, pushed on deck, and was pleased to see that the plundered relic was a 12-pounder brass gun of the year 1739. Jones a second time applied to the district over which Harris walked with so much success, and filched from the nest a brass 12-pounder gun—the last one recovered this season.