Under the authority of a royal warrant dated 24th February, a detachment of one sergeant, two corporals, and twelve privates was raised for the survey of Van Diemen’s Land, which brought the establishment of the corps to a force of 2,200 officers and men. In anticipation of this sanction, the party had been organized and sent to Hobart Town in 1852.
On the 1st April two Quartermasters were added to the corps by the Master-General—Lord Raglan. One was attached to the royal engineer establishment at Chatham, and the other to the companies employed on the ordnance survey. Major Walpole originated the former, Lieutenant-Colonel Hall the latter, and Sir John Burgoyne, the inspector-general of fortifications, ably supported the suggestions by his recommendation. These commissions were bestowed to reward merit, and to place the corps on an equal footing of advantage with the royal artillery, which regiment, taking its published force at the time as a datum, gave one commission from the ranks for every 700 men.
The eleventh company was removed from Alderney to Woolwich on the 2nd June, owing to the diminished strength of the corps there and at Chatham, rendering the withdrawal expedient. For twelve months it had been stationed on the island, and during that period its services were confined principally to the construction of the Longy lines and to scarping the rock in front of them, with the view of making the place less accessible to invasion. The masons always had full employment, but the greater part of the company, failing work at their own trades, took service in the quarries, and furnished the stones for the fortifications. Private Simon Williams was noticed as the best and most successful cutter and builder. On the removal of the company, a small party was left for special duties as foremen and clerks.
An incident occurred in July which from its novelty is deserving of record. Private William Calder committed forgery and theft, and deserted from the corps. His movements being traced and his assumed name discovered, second-corporal James S. Taylor, fully acquainted with his delinquencies, was sent to the United States, provided with a warrant from the Foreign Secretary, to demand, under the Convention, the apprehension and extradition of the culprit. He had embarked at a Scottish port on board the ‘Dirigo,’ and as she was sailing up to New York, corporal Taylor, who had arrived in a steamer before her, boarded the trader, captured the thief, and found in his possession all the property he had stolen from his comrades and the Ordnance. The case was taken before Judge Edmonds—notable for his eccentric decisions—and, contrary to the clearest evidence, he discharged the offender, and insinuated, from some extraordinary reasoning he employed, that the corporal himself had committed the forgery. Protesting against the inference, with soldier-like forbearance and respect, he induced the judge to make a promise to cancel his unjust remarks, but his Honour, regardless of his word, afterwards published them without modification. The unmerited accusation, however, did not discourage the corporal from following up his duty; and he made two other attempts to secure the person of the deserter, by asking a remand until direct evidence could be adduced from England, but the partisan judge, proof against proof, ordered the unconditional dismissal of the thief, and thus afforded an asylum to a fugitive, whose character is a reflection on the verdict that shielded him from justice. The exemplary conduct of second-corporal Taylor, eulogized by Sir John Burgoyne and Lord Raglan, gained for him promotion to the rank of corporal. ‘The Albion,’ a New York Paper, of 3rd September, 1853, gave a spirited leader in vindication of the “soldierly honour” of the corporal; and added, that he “gave his testimony with an air and tone manly, direct, and irreproachable.” On the other hand, the forensic turpitude of Judge Edmonds was strongly condemned, for treating the prisoner as the victim of government persecution instead of a renegade charged with heinous and multiplied crime. The prompt measures taken in the case were intended not merely to punish the offender but to deter others of the corps intrusted with responsibility, money, and property, from the commission of similar offences; and though it failed to secure the delinquent, it opened up for future guidance a sure line of proceeding, which it is hoped there may never be occasion to resort to.
Soon after the close of the Kaffir war the ninth company was withdrawn from the Cape, and landed at Woolwich the 19th September. During its service in the colony, its casualties in action were ten men killed and eleven wounded.
On the representation of Lieutenant-Colonel Waters, commanding royal engineer at the Mauritius, a company was detached from head-quarters in May, which disembarked there on the 25th September. On landing, the fine appearance of the men, their size and soldierlike bearing, attracted the attention of the staff officers and officers of the garrison. In the afternoon they were entertained with a substantial repast, furnished by the spontaneous generosity of the company of royal artillery there. On the following day they were inspected by Major-General Sutherland, who complimented Colonel Waters by observing, “that they were the finest company of soldiers he had for a long time seen.” A testimony like this from the Major-General, who is known not to be satisfied with even mediocrity, was certainly flattering.
A party of three men embarked under Captain A. P. G. Ross, R.E., for the colony of Victoria, landed at Melbourne on the 14th October. Selected as they were with reference to their qualifications as mechanics and general intelligence, they had been appointed to oversee the skill and labour employed in the construction of works for the defence of the harbour, and the rapidly-increasing towns in its vicinity. The defence of the bay by the contemplated fortifications was reported by the Captain to be impracticable, and the party awaited for a time the decision of the provisional government on the point. Meanwhile the sappers were efficiently employed in carrying out some subordinate details connected with the Melbourne Exhibition. It was also proposed by the Harbour commission that works should at once be commenced for the extension of the wharfage on the river Yarra, to give importance and vitality to the shipping and commercial aspects of the colony. Tenders were even called for to carry out the work, but, difficult to satisfy the antagonistic views of a capricious legislature, the suggestion was indefinitely postponed[postponed]. Thereupon the Captain and his three sappers returned to England, arriving at Woolwich in the summer of 1855.[[118]]
The yellow fever, so frequently the scourge of the Bermuda islands was prevalent at St. George’s from August to November, and carried off its victims in greater numbers than in the fatal epidemics of 1819 and 1843. It commenced among the convicts in the ‘Thames’ hulk, and spread with frightful rapidity, first to the military and civil establishments, and then to the residences of the native population. The first soldier who died was a sapper, and before the sickness had ceased, no less than twenty-five men of the corps, out of a detachment of forty-seven of all ranks, became its victims. Three women and one child of the party also died. Colonel Phillpotts, the commanding royal engineer, and Lieutenant Greatorex, R.E., were among the dead, as also the wife of Lieutenant Whitmore, R.E. All the men of the detachment except three were attacked with the fever, and many suffered relapses. To relieve them as much as possible from the influence of infection, they were early removed from their quarters to an encampment on the north side of the island, near the naval tanks, and finally to Prospect Hill and Port’s Island. “Those who were able,” reports Captain White, R.E., “showed themselves to great advantage by the cheerful way in which they attended to the sick. Their exertions were above all praise.” Several opinions have been ventured relative to the exciting cause of the epidemic, but the general belief was, that from some disturbance in the position of the hulk by the pressure of strong winds and agitated tides, the atmosphere became impregnated with mephitic gases emitted from the accumulation of impurities around her bottom. Ireland Island, where a half company of sappers was stationed, was not visited by the calamity.
A warrant dated 15th of August, sanctioned the formation of a detachment of one sergeant, one corporal, three second-corporals and eleven privates, for service in the mint at New South Wales, which increased the corps to a total of 2,218 of all ranks. To fit them for the duty, they were quartered for several months within the royal mint, near the Tower, where the departments of the establishment were thrown open for their instruction. From a desire to monopolize the craft of the mintage to themselves and their families, the moneyers viewed the employment of the sappers in this confidential work with jealousy and opposition, and just imparted to their military pupils as much knowledge of the art as they cared to divulge. The party, however, made up by attention and observation for what was withheld from them, and promptly acquired full information with respect to the working of the machinery, and the various processes used in coining. Two or three of the smiths were also initiated in the method of adjusting weights and scales, and in the construction of balances and patent locks and safes. Instruction in these mechanical expedients was given them by Mr. Hobbs, celebrated for his exploits in picking locks before considered invulnerable. The first instalment of the detachment, consisting of sergeant Archibald Gardner and nine rank and file, embarked at the London Docks on board the ‘Maid of Judah,’ on the 3rd of December, 1853, and landed at Sydney in March, 1854.
The grey greatcoat, which for nearly half a century had been worn by the corps without improvement, was in November of this year superseded by a blue cloth greatcoat of the same cut and fashion as its predecessor, except that the cuffs for all ranks were abolished, the capes diminished, and the sergeants’ collars were of scarlet, instead of blue cloth.