A select committee on public income and expenditure sat early this year to scrutinize the Ordnance estimates. By this committee the duties and services of the corps were considered. In the report upon the evidence adduced, the committee strongly recommended that all work which admitted of being measured should be done by contract, and that the sappers and miners employed on buildings at day-work should be diminished.[[263]] The effect of this measure was simply to confine the labours of the corps to the repairs and fortifications, and occasionally to building, without reducing its numerical establishment.
Another trial of pontoons took place at Chatham in July, and the exertions of the detachment employed on the occasion under Captain J. S. Macauley, R.E., were warmly acknowledged by Sir James Colleton, one of the competitors. Captain White of the royal staff corps, who was engaged on the part of Sir James, thus wrote of the sappers:—“During my long acquaintance with military men, I never witnessed in any troops a greater determination to perform to the utmost of their power the duty on which they were placed. Where all have done their duty with such energy, I cannot make any distinction in conveying to you my good wishes towards them, except in the conduct of corporal James Forbes, who appears to me to be a first-rate non-commissioned officer, and who has on this occasion done his duty in a manner highly creditable to himself.”[[264]]
An epidemic fever of nearly equal severity to the one of 1804 raged at Gibraltar in September and October. The greater part of the sappers at the Rock were seized with the complaint and nineteen died. Being quartered in the barracks near the unhealthy district and in the vicinity of the line of drains, the companies furnished the first victims to the disease;[[265]] and to lessen the mortality which this circumstance was likely to induce, they were, for a time, encamped on a rocky flat below Windmill Hill. The deaths at the fortress during the prevalence of the fever were 507 military and 1,700 civilians.[[266]]
Lieutenant H. R. Brandreth, R.E., early in 1829 proceeded to Ascension, and having made a survey of the island, returned to England and reported on its capabilities for defence and eligibility for an Admiralty station. Lance-corporal William Beal was attached to that officer and employed under him from March to September. His duty was chiefly that of a clerk, but he also assisted in making the measurements of the survey, and in collecting geological specimens to illustrate the character of the strata. In the discharge of these services, his zeal and intelligence were found very useful, and on his return he was deservedly promoted to be second-corporal.
In June the forage caps were somewhat altered. The yellow band was abolished, and hoops and stiffening were forbidden. The cap was now of plain blue web, with leather peak and chin strap. The sergeants' caps were of plain blue cloth, hooped and stiffened, with three chevrons of gold lace in front over the peak. The staff-sergeants retained the gold bands.
Nova Scotia, which ceased to be a station for the corps in 1819, was again opened for a company this year, which landed from the ‘Sophia’ transport on the 10th June, 1829. A company of the corps has ever since been employed there in carrying on the ordinary works and fortifications, and in the erection of the citadel.
Twelve privates under corporal James Forbes, were, in September, for the first time, sent to Sandhurst to afford practical instruction in sapping, mining, &c., to the gentlemen cadets at the Royal Military College. The term extended over September and October, and the party returned to Chatham with the highest character. Much praise was awarded to corporal Forbes for his exertions and attainments, and his promotion to the rank of sergeant followed in consequence. From that time a detachment has, during each term, been attached to the college for the same useful purpose, and has invariably performed its duties with credit and effect.
1830-1832.
The chaco—Brigade-Major Rice Jones—Island of Ascension—Notice of corporal Beal—Detachment to the Tower of London—Chatham during the Reform agitation—Staff appointments—Sergeant M‘Laren the first medallist in the corps—Terrific hurricane at Barbadoes; distinguished conduct of colour-sergeant Harris and corporal Muir—Subaqueous destruction of the ‘Arethusa’ at Barbadoes—Return of a detachment to the Tower of London—Rideau canal; services of the sappers in its construction; casualties; and disbandment of the companies—Costume—First detachment to the Mauritius—Notice of corporal Reed—Pendennis Castle.
The chaco was altered this year to one of a reduced form, and decorated with yellow lines and tassels, which fell upon the shoulders and looped to the centre of the breast. The brasses comprised a radiated star with three guns, carriages, and sponges, surmounted by a crown. The scales were, for the first time, worn under the chin, and a goose feather ten inches long, was held upright by an exploded shell. The ear-cover was removed, and a patent leather band was substituted.—See Plate [XIV]., 1832. The sergeants and staff-sergeants had chacos of a superior description with ornaments of fine gilt, bearing guns, carriages, and sponges of silver. The lines and tassels were of gold cord, and were worn only at reviews or on special occasions. Oil-skin covers were sometimes worn by the officers, and oil-skin cases for the feather by all ranks in rainy weather. Worsted mitts were also adopted at this time instead of leather gloves. The sergeants and the staff wore white Berlin gloves.