On the 7th June, one sergeant and twenty-five rank and file were removed from Woolwich to Shoeburyness to erect temporary barracks, &c., for the royal artillery, and also to lay platforms, build batteries, and to execute the varied works which a new station might call for, both for the convenience of the ordnance troops and the interests of the service. The party was increased to thirty of all ranks in July, but in October following was reduced to six non-commissioned officers and privates. Ever since this period, a small detachment has been retained at the station to carry on the current repairs and improvements, and its strength has fluctuated from time to time, in accordance with the prevailing emergencies.
The convicts had been working for a time in repairing the main-sewer in the royal arsenal at Woolwich, but in consequence of the unhealthiness of the duty, were withdrawn from it. As the work was one of considerable importance to the locality in a sanitary point of view, volunteers to finish the drain were therefore demanded from the royal sappers and miners. One sergeant and eight privates at once undertook the work, continuing at it during a portion of the month of August, and its execution was effected without the slightest injury to any one engaged. This led the Marquis of Anglesey, then Master-General, on the 5th September to extol the labours of the party in these words: “I desire to mark my high approbation and admiration of the gallant conduct of the corps of royal sappers and miners, in volunteering an unpleasant and even dangerous service in the cause of humanity. Such self-devotion, wholly devoid as it is of the stimulus of public honour and of glory, far exceeds the renown gained in the battle-field. I offer my thanks to all the individuals concerned.”[[47]]
On the 6th October an experiment was made at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, to blow in the barrier-gate of the bastion-fort, which cost the lives of the sergeant and one of the privates employed. Sergeant John Cameron under Major Adams, had the conduct of the arrangements and the preparation of the fuse. Nine pounds of powder were placed in a sand-bag having a canvas tube joining into the middle of the powder. In this canvas tube was fixed a grenade fuse with a piece of cotton in it, calculated to burn a sufficient time after the cotton should burst into flame. The bag of powder placed against the barrier, was covered over with a curved iron shield with a hole in it to permit the fuse to come through, and then four sand-bags were lodged against the shield. The arrangements being completed, all the sappers retired except the sergeant and a private to ignite the fuse. Suddenly the explosion took place, and at once the sergeant was blown into the wet ditch, and the private knocked down on the berm. Both were mutilated in a frightful manner and in a few days expired. The accident is supposed to have arisen from some defect in the fuse which was made by the sergeant. Sergeant Cameron was a zealous and talented non-commissioned officer, had several seasons been employed with great advantage at the college, and presented the institution with some interesting military models. His widow was granted a pension of 10l. a-year.
1850.
Sir Robert Gardiner’s opinion of the corps—Party to the penal settlement at Swan River—Detachment to New Zealand—Draft to Hong-Kong—Mining operations at Seaford Bay—Determinations of the latitudes of various trigonometrical stations—Sergeant James Steel—Professor Airy—The leisure of the sergeant—New method of acquiring a knowledge of chess—Hardships of a party landed at Rona.
Early in the year, Sir Robert Gardiner, the governor at Gibraltar, wrote a complimentary letter to Sir John Burgoyne, relative to the companies of the corps under his Excellency’s command. “My opinion of the sappers,” he says, “is everything that you, in your personal, natural, and official station would desire; their movements surprise me, and are proofs of the care and attention of the officers, who must be good tacticians, as well as good engineers.”
On the 15th February, five rank and file embarked at Deptford in the ‘Scindian’ convict ship, under Captain E. Y. W. Henderson, R.E., for the Swan River settlement, and landed at Freemantle on the 11th June. The captain had been appointed comptroller-general of prisons, and obtained the authority of Earl Grey, then Secretary of State for the colonies, to take with him this small detachment. The men were experienced as soldiers and tradesmen: one of their number was a competent draughtsman and architect, and another was acquainted with surveying, camp-duty, and the mode of blasting rock. On their arrival in the colony, they were appointed warders over the convicts, as well to keep them in discipline as to direct them in the execution of the various works that might be undertaken for the establishment of a penal settlement and the development of the colony. The party was also intended to superintend the submarine operations required in the removal of the bar at the mouth of the harbour. The rates of working-pay granted to them, ranged between 1s. 3d. and 2s. a-day. A full company has since been added to the command on the recommendation of Captain Henderson, R.E.
Late in March one sergeant and twenty-six rank and file embarked for New Zealand, under Lieut. F. R. Chesney, R.E., and landed at Auckland on the 26th August, increasing the detachment there to a half-company of forty-one strong. The removal of this party from Woolwich was occasioned by the loss by shipwreck, near the Cape of Good Hope, of the detachment which sailed for that colony in April, 1849.
Fifteen rank and file embarked on the 15th May for China, and landed at Victoria on the 18th October. This was the fifth detachment sent to that country. Two men sent from Woolwich in April, to superintend the laying of asphalte on the government works, arrived at Hong Kong on the 17th June.
At Seaford Bay, on the coast of Sussex, the sea had made considerable encroachment, so as to jeopardise much of the adjacent property, and also the defences and martello-tower in its vicinity. Large sums of money had been expended in the construction of wood groins and clay embankments, with only partial success; and as an effectual remedy, it was proposed to throw down by mining a portion of the chalk rock itself, in the direction of the tidal current, and thus cause it to accumulate the shingle and protect the land and contiguous property. The cliff was high, bold, and bare, and worn at the base into hollows and long perpendicular crevices by the lashing of the waves, which, at high water, rushed up its aged and craggy face. With the view to efficiency and economy, the Master-General approved of the operations being carried out by a detachment of sappers and miners; and accordingly two sergeants and forty-four rank and file of the fourth company left Portsmouth at the end of July under Lieutenant E. W. Ward, R.E., who, on arriving at Seaford, lost no time in commencing the interesting undertaking. Late in August, the party was increased by ten rank and file under Captain Craigie, to assist in completing the final arrangements, and to take the military duty consequent upon the anticipated explosion.