On the 24th March, the sixth company, of sixty-two total, sailed for Corfu on board the ‘Baltic’ merchant transport, and landed there on the 14th May. This addition to the command was made at the instance of the Ionian government for the purpose of executing the works and fortifications at Corfu and Vido. By the warrant for raising this company, dated 4th April, 1825, the corps mustered fourteen companies, and counted 876 officers and soldiers of all ranks. All the regimental and working disbursements of the company, and of others arriving at the station in periodical relief, were for a number of years paid from the Ionian exchequer.
While the instruction of the first survey company was still in progress, steps were taken for the formation of another company for the same service. The Duke of Wellington expressed his conviction of the propriety of the measure from the satisfactory advancement already made in the professional education of the company raised for the duty early in the year. On the 4th April, 1825, therefore, his Grace obtained another warrant for the employment of a second company in the operations of the survey of Great Britain and Ireland. This company was numbered the fourteenth; and being of the same numerical organization as the other companies, viz., sixty-two men, the establishment of the corps was raised from 876 to 938.
At Harwich, Hull, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Liverpool, Cornwall, Fort George, as well as in London and Edinburgh, recruiting for these companies was carried on very briskly. Recruiting at Dublin was also permitted; and some draftsmen from the Dublin Society School were, about this period, enlisted for the survey companies. The Military Asylum at Chelsea and the Hibernian School were likewise canvassed to procure eligible boys for training; but such was the circumscribed nature of the education imparted to the children at Chelsea, that of the number selected to join the companies, a few only were found that gave promise of future aptitude and usefulness; and of those who succeeded, none ever distinguished themselves by their talents. From the Hibernian School ten boys were received, all of whom were clever and intelligent; but one lad far outshone his comrades, and in time, by his zeal, extensive mathematical attainments, and varied acquirements, gained the highest position in the sappers on the survey. The person alluded to is Quartermaster William Young.
The fourteenth company quitted Chatham for the survey, and landed at Belfast, its first head-quarters, on the 15th July.
On the 26th September, a trial of the capabilities of the pontoons invented by Sir James Colleton, Colonel Pasley, and Major Blanshard, took place at Chatham in the presence of the Duke of Wellington; and the men of the corps employed on the occasion displayed much zeal, spirit, and activity. Sergeant Jenkin Jones was particularly praised for his conduct in managing the pontoons of Major Blanshard; and as the Master-General arrived a day earlier than was expected, and ordered at night the exhibition to take place the next morning, much of the success of the efforts in favour of the cylindrical pontoons is ascribed to the sergeant’s able and zealous arrangements and personal exertions. This induced Colonel Pasley to recommend sergeant Jones as a non-commissioned officer fit to be entrusted with any difficult or important detached duty, which might save the services of an officer. One private, William Berry, fell from a raft during the trial, and was drowned.
Sergeant William Addison and second-corporal James White embarked at Portsmouth on board the ‘Despatch’ in November for the coast of Africa, and were employed under the direction of Captain R. Boteler, R.E., in surveying the British dependencies and forts at Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast. The corporal died on the service, and the sergeant landed at Portsmouth 10th August, 1826, and rejoined his corps.
A third survey company, of sixty-two non-commissioned officers and men, was formed in December, under a royal warrant, dated 20th October, 1825, and was numbered the sixteenth. The establishment of the corps was thus augmented from 938 to 1,000 officers and soldiers. The rates of working pay authorized by the successive warrants were limited to the three ordinary classes of 6d., 9d., and 1s. a-day; but extraordinary powers were granted to Colonel Colby, of awarding increased rates, proportionate to the attainments and exertions of the men, up to 2s. a-day. The maximum allowance was rarely bestowed, and then only upon non-commissioned officers, whose undoubted talents and services rendered them deserving of the distinction which the exclusiveness conferred.
By the end of the year the effective men on the survey counted 109 of all ranks, who were chiefly dispersed in the field. Several were employed in offices as draftsmen and computers; but at this early period very few were intrusted with any particular responsibility. Civilian assistants, for the most part, were second to the officers, and aided in superintending the management of the districts; but in the field, the sappers took the lead as surveyors, never working as chainmen, or subordinately to the civilians. As the duty was new, their qualifications required tact and practice before a fair return of progress could be realized. In August very few had proved themselves of sufficiently matured acquirements to merit advancement to Colonel Colby’s classes, and five only of the number had graduated as far as 1s. 4d. a-day.
The third survey company proceeded to Ireland in September. In December the total force there numbered 129 of all ranks, and 61 men were under training at Chatham.
At the close of the year a party of the corps was attached to Captain Drummond to assist him in carrying on experiments and observations with his lamp and heliostat. The observing station was on Divis Mountain, near Belfast, and the season was fearfully inclement. Frequently the mountain and the camp were enveloped in snow, and the blowing of a keen cold wind made their situation anything but agreeable. On two or three occasions a storm visited their desolate location, and carried away in its blast, tents, baggage, and stores. Still the men were sturdy in frame, willing in disposition, and exerted themselves in the discharge of their duties under trials of no ordinary character. A few men of the party, thirteen in number, were removed to Slieve Snacht in Donegal, to exhibit the light, that it might be observed from Divis. The distance between the heights was sixty-six miles. The camp on Snacht was at an altitude of 2,000 feet, and the party peculiarly exposed. Few in number, they were ill able to buffet with the tempests of those cold regions; “and the tents were so frequently blown down,” and had become so shattered and torn, “that, after the first few days, they abandoned them, and constructed huts of rough stones, filling the interstices with turf.” On this bleak mountain the success of the light was first proved. At night the lamp was directed on Divis. It was then dark, and both the camps were covered with snow. The wind blew piercingly over the mountain tops, and almost flayed the faces of the men as they worked. But it was on that stormy night that the light, first seen by the sapper sentry, “burst into view with surpassing splendour,” and afterwards became one of the most useful agencies in the prosecution of the survey.[[251]]