In June the soldier-artificer corps at Gibraltar was incorporated with the royal military artificers. Ever since its formation in 1772 it had held a distinct position, and was an integral body of itself. Its establishment was two companies of 5 sergeants, 5 corporals, 2 drummers, and 125 private artificers each, with 1 sergeant-major to both companies; but its actual strength on the amalgamation was only 255 of all ranks. In the regular monotonous routine of that garrison there was little occasion for their services except as artificers. At this period their conduct was far from commendable. Much addicted to drunkenness, they were the constant subjects of courts-martial; but on the works, under the eye of their officers, they behaved well and were very good mechanics, particularly the non-commissioned officers, who, besides, were skilful foremen. By the incorporation of these companies with the corps, it was increased from 801 to 1,075 of all ranks; but its actual strength only reached 759 men.
Sir Ralph Abercrombie having resolved to make an attempt on the island of Trinidad, an expedition under himself and Admiral Harvey sailed accordingly from Martinique on the 12th February. To this force were attached one sergeant-major, two corporals, and nineteen artificers, under Major Charles Shipley, and Lieutenants Gravatt and Lefebure, royal engineers. From an accident by fire, which consumed the enemy’s ships on the night preceding the morning arranged for the attack, the island became an easy conquest and surrendered by capitulation on the 18th February.
Soon after the taking of this island, a detachment under Lieutenant Ford, R.E., of three sergeants, two corporals, and twenty privates, drafted from the Portsmouth company, landed and joined Major Shipley’s company at Martinique, the strength of which, with the increase, amounted to sixty-five of all ranks.
Sir Ralph Abercrombie and Admiral Harvey now assembled an expedition against Porto Rico and landed there on the 17th April. The company of artificers furnished about forty non-commissioned officers and men for this service, including Lieutenant Ford’s party. Here they constructed, assisted by a party of the 14th regiment, two batteries, one for mortars and the other for guns. A large magazine abandoned by the enemy, was also partially converted into a battery for two mortars, but its completion was relinquished in consequence of the ordnance intended to arm the battery having been swamped in a morass in crossing. Notwithstanding the exertions made to reduce the place, the enterprise failed, and the troops were withdrawn on the 30th April. Previously, however, to effecting the evacuation, the artificers, to prevent the enemy following in the retreat, destroyed the bridge which connected the island of St. Julien with the main; and afterwards hastily reared a breastwork of sandbags to cover the embarkation, which, however, was not required, as the expedition was suffered to leave the island unmolested. The casualties in the military artificers were five privates killed, viz., Joseph Featherstone, George Clark, Samuel Hague, George Winter, and John Cameron, and four severely wounded; besides about twenty more who sustained slight contusions or mutilations.[[102]]
Among the measures suggested for reducing Porto Rico was one for taking the town, by forcing the troops through the lagoon bounding the east side of the island. Before the project could be entertained, it was considered advisable to ascertain if the stream were fordable. An officer of Sir Ralph’s staff having requested permission to undertake the service, he was voluntarily accompanied by private David Sinclair of the military artificers. In the night, at the appointed hour, both entered the lagoon together, each provided with a long staff. With this support they probed their adventurous way, and at length succeeded in gaining the opposite slope; where, standing near one of the redoubts which defended a broken bridge, they distinctly heard the vigilant sentinels talking and walking on their beats. With the same caution as before, they picked their course back again, and then coolly repeated the duty without the aid of props. The officer reported the ford to be fully practicable, and at the same time lauded the intrepidity of the soldier who accompanied him. Thereupon Sir Ralph praised him for his gallantry and rewarded him with a johannes—a piece of eight dollars. The idea of making the assault by passing the stream was given up, in consequence of the British force being too weak to cope with an enemy powerful in men and means, and almost impregnable in position. Sinclair died the 28th July, 1797, and during his short career in the West Indies, an officer under whom he served has left this testimony to his worth, “that he was ever conspicuous in every service.”
Determined upon relinquishing Porto Rico, Sir Ralph ordered Lieutenant C. Lefebure, of the royal engineers, with a detachment of the artificers, early in the morning of the 30th April, to repair to the bridge which connected the island of St. Julien with the Main and demolish it, for the purpose of preventing the Spaniards following and harassing the army during the retreat. The bridge was an old crazy structure of stone consisting of nine arches. All were directed to work at the road-way of the centre arch, but to private William Rogers, at his particular request, was assigned the difficult and dangerous duty of dislodging the key stone. The ground was soon harrowed up, a gap made across the middle, several stones were removed from the pier-heads, and the bridge exhibited signs of instability. Nothing daunted, Rogers boldly stepped upon the crown of the arch, and after a few heavy blows with his pickaxe, scooped the stone from its bed. At once the arch gave way; and the others leaning towards it, cracked as though torn by an earthquake and fell beneath him. Rogers’s situation was one of imminent peril, but with a fearlessness that was remarkable, he plunged from the crumbling bridge into the stream, and was fortunately preserved from any serious harm, whilst five of his comrades were crushed to death by the fall; four also were severely wounded; and all the rest, save corporal William Robinson, were injured.
Nor was this all. Rogers swam about the heap to afford help to those who were suffering and dying. It was yet dark, and the thick dust still rising from the fall, made the darkness denser. Groping, therefore, among the ruins, he found an individual who still had signs of life, struggling, ineffectually, to free himself from some massive fragments that entangled him. Rogers set to work to release the drowning man: this he quickly accomplished, and, swimming with his charge to the shore, the rescued turned out to be his own officer—Lieutenant Lefebure. The life of that gallant subaltern, however, was only prolonged to fall a sacrifice to his heroism on the walls of Matagorda in 1810. Rogers’s exertions were not confined to his officer only, for several of his comrades who were precipitated into the water and were unable to swim, he saved, assisted by those of the party who had sustained but trivial injuries.
A desolating epidemic still raged in the Caribbee Islands and greatly diminished the numbers of the company. In November particularly, the climate was extremely hot and unhealthy and the deaths by fever considerable. During the year the casualties were, deaths, thirty-one, of which fifteen occurred in November; sent home invalided, six; deserted, two; total, thirty-nine; leaving the company, of all ranks, only thirty-three strong at the end of the year.
At St. Domingo the great want of artificers for the service of the engineering department being severely felt, Captain McKerras, R.E., in February, represented the expediency of keeping up the company with negroes. The number of the military artificers then serving in the colony was nineteen of all ranks, a third of whom were constantly unfit for any kind of duty, suffering as they did from over exertion and frequent relapses of remitting fever. To Europeans the climate was “the most pernicious and abominable in the universe,” and none but the strongest could at all bear up against its influences. To fill up the vacancies in the company, therefore, by drafts of mechanics from England, would have incurred a heavy outlay without reaping a commensurate return. Considerations like these prompted Captain McKerras to suggest the measure, and he was further influenced by the conviction, that, since civil labour could not be procured in the colony unless at an enormous expense, that of the slave would, after receiving instructions from the present climatized artificers of the company, be found of great advantage to St. Domingo, and a vast saving to the public. The slave artificer was to receive food, clothing, and barrack accommodation, but no pay. Whatever attention may have been paid to the proposal, certain it is, that the company was never recruited by blacks. This probably arose from the island having been abandoned in the autumn of 1798.[[103]]
The memorable mutinies in the fleet at Spithead at this time were followed by the rising of some unprincipled men, who, as emissaries of revolt, traversed the country endeavouring by every device to shake the allegiance of the soldiery. Efforts of this kind were also attempted with the royal military artificers, particularly at the ports, but beyond a few desertions, without effect. Most of the companies publicly opposed these agencies; but the Plymouth company in an especial manner distinguished itself by its open and soldierlike activity against their disloyal exertions.