The loss in the West India company by fever and other diseases during the year amounted to twenty, whose vacancies were immediately filled up by transfers from the line.
In May the working dress consisted of a blue cloth jacket with skirts, two serge waistcoats with sleeves, two pairs of blue serge pantaloons, a black round hat, and a pair of half black gaiters. One of the waistcoats and a pair of pantaloons formed the second working dress. The new jacket was made of stouter and better cloth than formerly; sleeves were added to the serge waistcoats, and the second pair of pantaloons were substituted for the canvas ones. These improvements were considered equivalent to a linen shirt, a pair of stockings, and a canvas jacket previously supplied with the working suit, but which, from this year, ceased to be issued to the corps.
At the opening of the year the military artificers with the British mission to Turkey, reduced to fifteen men, were occupied in the erection of the new bastion at Jaffa, which was finished and the guns placed on the platforms with great pomp on the 27th January. Of the detachment with the mission, two were styled labourers, from their not having been promoted to the rank of artificers; and they, when not immediately occupied on the works, acted in the capacity of servants to Major Holloway. One of these labourers when out one afternoon some distance from Jaffa, exercising the Major’s horses, was attacked by a party of Arabs on a predatory excursion, by whose fire the Major’s horse was killed, and the bâtman wounded with balls and slugs in nine different places. The servant of Major Hope, R. A. was also in the assault; and by great exertion succeeded in bearing his comrade back to the camp. Dr. Wittman, of the mission, with celerity equal to his skill, extracted the missiles and the sufferer speedily recovered.[[123]]
On the 2nd February, Captain Lacy, royal engineers, was despatched to El Arish to collect military information, accompanied by a private of the artificers who early fell a sacrifice to the plague that prevailed there. On the 25th of that month, the Ottoman army commenced its march to Grand Cairo, the British mission being attached to the body guard of his Highness the Vizier, mounted on fine horses superbly caparisoned, and attended by Arabs. Passing through Ashdod, the army encamped for a while at Gaza, where the military artificers were separated into three parties, and attached to the divisions respectively commanded by the Grand Vizier, Mahomed Pacha, and Taher Pacha; but it is difficult to record with satisfactory distinctness, the particular services in which they subsequently participated. On the 28th March the army entered the Desert at Kahnyounes, and traversing that arid and inhospitable region for about 150 miles, subjected to occasional deprivation of food and water, and exposed to sultry heats, infectious diseases, and danger, reached Salahieh on the 27th April, after a tedious and harassing march of thirty-two days. Two of the military artificers died in the Desert; and the survivors, who were present at the capture of Salahieh and Belbeis, and in the action near the village of Elhanka, entered Cairo on the 11th July. There they were employed during the remainder of the year, in renewing the bridge of boats across the Nile constructed by the French to preserve a communication with Gizeh, and also in repairing the fortifications of the city, until the 19th February, 1802, when they quitted for Rosetta. From this town they were removed to Alexandria, and afterwards to Malta, where, finally embarking for England, they arrived at different periods in the fall of 1802 and spring of 1803.[[124]] The strength of the detachment on joining the Turkish mission, was twenty-four of all ranks; eleven only returned! Of the casualties eleven died of fever or the plague, and two were drowned accidentally. “After a series of painful, harassing, and critical events,” says the journalist, “the labours of the mission closed; and the patience, forbearance, and circumspection of the individuals engaged in this long and perilous service, were manifested on a variety of trying occasions, which required all the energy inherent in the British military character.”[[125]]
Meanwhile the detachment of the corps with the force under the command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie reached Marmorice Bay; and with the exception of the party on board the ‘Ajax’,[‘Ajax’,] landed, and prepared a shipload of fascines and gabions to be used in the intended enterprise. Five of the ‘Ajax’ men were employed in different repairs to the vessel; and the other two, assisted by a corporal of the 44th regiment, made an elegant double couch of mahogany covered with various beautifully-marked skins from Rhodes, for the Turkish General Mustapha, which was presented to him by Captain the Hon. Alexander Cochrane, R.N. On the 17th February, the fleet set sail for Egypt, and running into Aboukir Bay on the 1st March, the troops landed on the 7th, and then followed a display of invincible ardour and bravery on the part of the British, that checked France in her career of success, and turned all her glorious Egyptian conquests into painful disasters and capitulations.
With the first division were landed the seven military artificers of the ‘Ajax,’ who were present in the action of that morning; and eight hours afterwards commenced to trace the necessary works for besieging Aboukir Castle. Next day the remainder of the detachment landed from the ‘Asia’ transport, and dispersed in small parties of about four each to the several brigades of the army, advanced to Alexandria. Under the direction of their officers, the ‘Ajax’ artificers superintended the construction of batteries for eleven guns and three mortars in front of Aboukir, laying all the platforms themselves, and restoring, when damaged by the enemy’s fire, the cheeks of the embrasures which were formed by a double row of sand-bags backed or strengthened by a row of casks filled with earth, a plan suggested by Major M‘Kerras, royal engineers, previously to his being killed; but which was not again resorted to, during the subsequent operations of the campaign. On the 19th March the castle surrendered.
On the heights of Alexandria, the artificers with the column under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, superintended the erection of batteries and redoubts of sand-bags, fascines, and gabions, which formed a strong line of defence from the sea to Lake Maedie. The Aboukir party joining on the 20th, also assisted in the works until their completion. Unable, from being unarmed, to take an active part in the battle of Alexandria on the 21st March, they occupied themselves in the essential duty of carrying shot, shell, and ammunition to the artillery and the troops.
After the battle the military artificers had the charge, under their officers, of renewing the works on the heights, and when completed were appointed to aid in effecting the inundation of a portion of the country. This was accomplished by cutting seven channels in the dyke of the canal of Alexandria, through which the waters of Lake Aboukir rushed into Lake Mareotis, then nearly dry, and about ten feet below the level of Lake Aboukir. Across the Nile they subsequently threw a bridge of boats, to facilitate the communication between Alexandria and Rosetta, re-forming it when swept away by the rapidity of the current; and afterwards they assisted in the construction of a similar bridge across the openings in the dyke of the canal of Alexandria for the convenience of the shipping.
Four of the artificers who were at the siege of the castle of Aboukir were attached to the brigade under Colonel Spencer, and served at the reduction of Rosetta, Fort St. Julian—against which they constructed batteries for two guns and two mortars—Elhamet, Alkam, and Rahmanieh.
Shortly after they proceeded to Grand Cairo and were present at its surrender on the 27th June. A brief interval elapsed, when they returned to Alexandria, by the river Nile, in the large[large] which contained the field equipment of the detachment. On reaching Alexandria, the entire detachment was divided into two parties, one under Captain Bryce, the chief engineer, and the other under Captain Ford, royal engineers; and were subsequently present at the siege of the castle of Marabout, the taking of Redoubt de Bain, and at the final fall of Alexandria on the 27th August. No casualties in killed and wounded are reported to have taken place among the men during the campaign; and though no particular testimony to their merits appears to have been recorded, from the circumstance of their being so few in number, and from the absence of prominent occasions of exhibiting their zeal and efficiency, arising from the enemy capitulating and surrendering many of his works without resistance, still they were permitted in common with the other troops that served in Egypt, to wear the device of the Sphinx on their appointments. A like honour was also conferred upon the military artificers who served with the mission to Turkey.