Of the ulterior active services of this detachment, nothing can be satisfactorily traced. It was, seemingly, broken up into small parties, and disposed of at St. Marc, Jeremie, Grande Ance, the Mole, and Port au Prince, superintending under their officers, the execution of various works which were deemed essential for defence, on account of the arrival at Cape François of Rochambeau, Santhonax, and several other republicans of consequence. In these and former works the men seem to have exerted themselves with zeal, and to have obtained commendation for their good conduct. “Indeed, I must say,” writes Captain M‘Kerras to Sir William Green, the chief engineer, under date July, 1796, “that I have never seen a better set of people in every respect and manner than they were.”
To a great extent the fever still prevailed in the West Indies, and had raged fearfully during the months of June and July. It was not confined to any particular island, but was general throughout the group. Never had a more melancholy scene of mortality attended any expedition than befel those to St. Domingo and the Windward Islands. Of the company of military artificers at the former island, twenty-five had died in June and July alone, and by the end of the year it was reduced to nineteen men only. The Caribbee Islands' company, during the same period, suffered still more severely; inasmuch as it was diminished from seventy-seven to thirty-one of all ranks; whilst the company that served at the captures of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Gaudaloupe, in 1794, had frittered away by deaths and invaliding to eighteen non-commissioned officers and men.[[100]] Of the survivors more than half were incapacitated for duty from sickness, and, consequently, the services of the department pressed very heavily upon the effectives. On the 1st September the remnants of the two latter companies were amalgamated, and reached a total of 49 of all ranks.
In June a detachment of one sergeant, two corporals and twenty artificers, embarked for Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the classes of tradesmen most needed for the works could not be obtained except at extravagantly high wages. Some care was therefore taken to select mechanics fully equal to the requirements of the settlement. The detachment landed in September following, and Captain James Straton, commanding royal engineer, was appointed to command it. Various works were in progress at the time of their arrival, to which they were distributed according to circumstances; but the service upon which they were chiefly employed was the erection of the lighthouse in Halifax harbour. Over this work, private Dougal Hamilton, a very intelligent and skilful mason, was appointed foreman, and acquitted himself throughout with credit. Subsequently, when about to quit the province as an invalid, H.R.H. Prince Edward ordered his immediate disembarcation, and placed him at the disposal of the treasurer of the settlement, by whom he was employed as a foreman in building the Shelburne Lighthouse on the coast of Halifax.
Early in the spring a party of the Portsmouth company was detached to Calshot Castle to repair and strengthen it; and another from the Guernsey half company, to renew the defences at the Island of St. Marcou. In carrying on the works at the latter place, privates Roger Hambly and Hugh M‘Laughlin were dreadfully wounded by the explosion of a mine in the execution of their duty.
1797.
Detachments to Portugal—To Dover—Transfers to the Artillery—Enlistment of artificers only—Incorporation of Gibraltar companies with the corps—Capture of Trinidad—Draft to West Indies—Failure at Porto Rico—Fording the lagoon, by private D. Sinclair—Private W. Rogers at the bridge St. Julien—Saves his officer—Casualties by fever in Caribbean company—Filling up company at St. Domingo with negroes—Mutinies in the fleet at Portsmouth—Conduct of Plymouth company—Émeute in the Royal Artillery, Woolwich—Increase of pay—Marquis Cornwallis’s approbation of the corps—Mutiny at the Nore—Consequent removal of detachment to Gravesend—Alterations in dress.
Early in January, Lieutenant F. W. Mulcaster, R.E., with a party of one sergeant, one corporal, five artificers, and four labourers of the Woolwich company, embarked for Portugal to join the force under the command of Lieutenant-General Charles Stuart, which was sent to that country for the purpose of preventing its invasion by the armies of France or Spain. The nature of the service did not call for any display of character, and the detachment being withdrawn in October 1798, immediately proceeded with the expedition to Minorca.
In February one corporal and seven miners of the Plymouth company were detached to Dover to carry on the mining operations at that station under Captain H. Bruyeres, R.E. They were farther increased in October to two corporals, eleven artificers, ten labourers, and one drummer, as well to conduct the mining as to assist in repairing the works on the Western Heights. A detachment was also sent from this company to Berryhead near Torbay, to erect fortifications.
A great deficiency occurring in the numerical establishment of the royal artillery, the Master-General desired that as many of the labourers of the corps of artificers as were anxious to avail themselves of the opportunity of transferring their services to that regiment, should be permitted to do so. The transferring continued from March to May, and the corps was thus reduced sixty-seven men, each of whom received one guinea on being accepted by the Artillery.[[101]]
This reduction in the establishment of the labourers was followed in August by an order, that the recruiting for the corps should be limited to the artificer part only. Labourers and men not bred to the regulated trades were no longer enlisted, and every artificer so enlisting only received the bounty and subsistence of a labourer, until he had been approved as a competent artificer. This was a wholesome precaution, as those enlisted under the assumed name of mechanics were continued as labourers, until industry and improvement had rendered them worthy of advancement.