part 2
, 1788.
Footnote 15:
London Gazette, 12,256. 25 to 29 December, 1781.
-----
General Eliott in his despatch on this sortie, observes, “The pioneers,” meaning artificers, “and artillerists, made wonderful exertions, and spread their fire with such amazing rapidity, that in half an hour, two mortar batteries of ten 13-inch mortars, and three batteries of six guns each, with all the lines of approach, communication, traverses, &c. were in flames and reduced to ashes. Their mortars and cannon were spiked, and their beds, carriages, and platforms destroyed. Their magazines blew up one after another, as the fire approached them.”[16]
-----
Footnote 16:
London Gazette, 12,256. 25 to 29 December, 1781.
-----
Shortly after the sortie the repairs to the defences at the north front and other works of the fortress, found full employment for the company. Leisure could not be permitted, and the necessary intervals of rest were frequently interrupted by demands for their assistance, particularly in caissonning the batteries at Willis’s.[17] Sickness also set in about this time; nearly 700 of the garrison were in hospital; the working parties were curtailed; and officers' servants and others, unused to hard labour and unskilled in the use of tools, were sent to the works to lessen the fatigue to which their less-favoured comrades were constantly subjected. Much extra duty and exertion were thus necessarily thrown upon the company, and though frequently exposed to imminent danger, they worked, both by night and day, with cheerfulness and zeal. In the sickness that prevailed, they did not share so much as might be supposed from the laborious nature of their duties, sixteen only being returned sick, leaving eighty-one available for the service of the works.
-----
Footnote 17:
To narrate the different services performed by the company during the siege, would not only be tedious, but necessarily incomplete, from no _detailed_ record of them being preserved. A reference, however, to ‘Drinkwater’s History,’ though particularization is not even there attempted, will afford a tolerable idea of their labours.
-----
On a fine day in May 1782, the Governor, attended by the Chief Engineer and staff, made an inspection of the batteries at the north front. Great havoc had been made in some of them by the enemy’s fire; and for the present they were abandoned whilst the artificers were restoring them. Meditating for a few moments over the ruins, he said aloud, “I will give a thousand dollars to any one who can suggest how I am to get a flanking fire upon the enemy’s works.” A pause followed the exciting exclamation, when sergeant-major Ince of the company, who was in attendance upon the Chief Engineer, stepped forward and suggested the idea of forming galleries in the rock to effect the desired object. The General at once saw the propriety of the scheme, and directed it to be carried into execution.[18]
-----
Footnote 18:
Whether the sergeant-major obtained the thousand dollars as a douceur from the General is a question never likely to be satisfactorily answered. The probability is, that he did not receive the reward for his suggestion in this form, but some daily allowance commensurate with his skill and the importance of the duty. I was informed by the late Quarter-master-sergeant Britton Francis, who possessed a remarkable memory, and whose father was in the company before him, that Ince contracted for the work, and—such was the story current in his day—received for all the excavations, one guinea per running foot! Judging from an expression in a letter from the Duke of Richmond to Captain Evelegh, the Commanding Engineer at Gibraltar, dated 4th August, 1784, this tradition is an extravagant exaggeration. His Grace observes, “I am told that the excavation of the galleries is now constructed for, all expenses included, at one rial per foot cube;” and he adds, “I am very glad to find that a work which promises to add such effectual defences to the place, can be carried on at so cheap a rate; and I make no doubt, that great improvements will still be made by the Governor in this system of defences and lodgment for stores and troops under the rock.”
-----
Upon orders being issued by the Chief Engineer, twelve good miners of the company were selected for this novel and difficult service, and sergeant-major Ince was nominated to take the executive direction of the work. On the 25th of May, he commenced to mine a gallery from a place above Farringdon’s Battery (Willis'), to communicate, _through the rock_, to the notch or projection in the scarp under the Royal Battery. The gallery was to be six feet high and six feet wide. The successful progress of this preliminary work was followed by a desire to extend the excavation from the cave at the head of the King’s lines, to the cave at the end of the Queen’s lines, of the same dimensions as the former gallery. A body of well-instructed miners was expressly appointed for the duty,[19] and on the 6th July, they began this new subterranean passage. On the 15th, the first “embrasure was opened in the face of the rock communicating with the gallery above Farringdon’s.” To effect this, “the mine was loaded with an unusual quantity of powder, and the explosion was so amazingly loud, that almost the whole of the enemy’s camp turned out at the report: but what,” adds the chronicler, “must their surprise have been, when they observed whence the smoke issued!”[20] The gallery was now widened to admit of the placement of a gun with sufficient room for its recoil, and when finished, a 24-pounder was mounted in it.[21] Before the ensuing September, five heavy guns were placed in the gallery; and in little more than twelve months from the day it was commenced, it was pushed to the notch, where a battery, as originally proposed, was afterwards established and distinguished, on account of its extensive capacity, by the name of “St George’s Hall.”[22]
-----
Footnote 19:
The Chief Engineer’s orders for the performance of this service were as follows:—“22nd May, 1782. A gallery 6 feet high, and 6 feet wide, through the rock, leading towards the notch nearly under the Royal Battery, to communicate with a proposed battery to be established at the said notch, is immediately to be undertaken and commenced upon by 12 miners, under the executive direction of sergeant-major Ince.” Again: “5th July, 1782. A gallery of communication, 6 feet 6 inches high, and 6 feet wide, through the intermediate rock, between the cave at the head of the King’s lines, and the cave near the west end of the Queen’s lines, is forthwith to be commenced upon by a body of miners and labourers expressly appointed for that service.”—See also ‘Drinkwater’s Siege,’ Murray’s edit., 1846, pp. 112 and 117.
-----
Footnote 20:
‘Drinkwater’s Siege,’ Murray’s edit., 1846, p. 118.
-----
Footnote 21:
Drinkwater observes, page 118, that “the original intention of this opening was to communicate air to the workmen, who, before, were almost suffocated with the smoke which remained after blowing the different mines; but on examining the aperture more closely, an idea was conceived of mounting a gun to bear on all the enemy’s batteries, excepting Fort Barbara.” To ascribe it to this accidental circumstance is natural enough, but there is reason to suppose, the statement excusably differs from the fact. The galleries were begun with the express object of arming them with ordnance to play on the enemy’s works; and the formation of the embrasure alluded to, was simply the earnest of a settled scheme; the first hostile step in its development.
Footnote 22:
‘Drinkwater’s Siege,’ Murray’s edit., 1846, note, p. 118.
-----
At Princess Anne’s Battery (Willis'), on the 11th June, a shell from the enemy fell through one of the magazines, and, bursting, the powder instantly ignited and blew up. The whole rock shook with the violence of the explosion, which, tearing up the magazine, threw its massive fragments to an almost incredible distance into the sea. Three merlons on the west flank of the battery, with several men who had run behind them for shelter, were blown into the Prince’s lines beneath, which, with the Queen’s lower down the rock, were almost filled with the rubbish ejected from the upper battery, as also with men dreadfully scorched and mangled. The loss among the workmen was very severe. Fourteen were killed and fifteen wounded.[23] Private George Brown, a mason of the company, was amongst the former.
-----
Footnote 23:
‘Drinkwater’s Siege,’ Murray’s edit., 1846, p. 113.
-----
In July the company could only muster ninety-two men of all ranks, including the wounded and sick, having lost twenty-two men during the siege by death, six of whom had been killed. This was the more unfortunate, as the siege was daily assuming a more serious aspect, the enemy collecting in greater force, and the effect of the cannonade upon the defences more telling and ruinous. Naturally the Governor’s attention was called to the deficiency; and as his chief dependence rested upon the soldier-artificers for the execution and direction of the more important works, he was not only anxious for their completion to the authorized establishment, but convinced of the desirableness of augmenting them. In this view he was the more confirmed, by the representations of Major-General Green, the chief engineer, and Lieutenant-General Boyd. As soon, therefore, as an opportunity offered, he urgently requested the Duke of Richmond, then Master-General of the Ordnance, to fill up the company with mechanics from England, and also to make a liberal increase to its establishment. His Grace accordingly submitted the recommendation to His Majesty, and a Warrant, dated 31st August, 1782, was issued ordering the company to be increased with 118 men. Its establishment now amounted to—
1 Sergeant-major. 10 Sergeants. 10 Corporals. 209 Working-men. 4 Drummers. —— Total 234
To carry out the wishes of General Eliott, the Duke of Richmond employed parties in England and Scotland to enlist the required number, which for the most part consisted of carpenters, sawyers, and smiths. With great spirit and success the recruiting was conducted; and in less than a month 141 mechanics—more than enough to meet both the deficiency and the authorized increase—were embarked for the Rock on board the transports which accompanied the relieving fleet under Lord Hood. Twenty landed on the 15th October; a similar number next day, and the remaining 101 on the 21st. By this increase the carpenters were 66 in number, the sawyers 31, and the smiths 57. The masons at this time were 30 strong.
The non-commissioned officers,[24] as they stood immediately after this augmentation, were as follows:—
_Sergeant-major_—Henry Ince.
_Sergeants_:—
David Young, _carpenter_. Edward Macdonald.[25] Robert Blyth,[26] _mason_. Alexander Grigor. James Smith, _smith_. Thomas Jackson, _smith_. Robert Brand, _mason_. Robert Daniel. Joseph Makin, _mason_. Thomas Finch,[27] _carpenter_.
_Corporals_:—
Robert Newell, _mason_. Hugh Sirrige, _carpenter_. Joseph Chambers,[28] _mason_. James Carey, _carpenter_. Joseph Woodhead,[29] _mason_. John Morrison, _mason_. John Harrison, _mason_. John Fraser, _carpenter_. Thomas Harrenden, _carpenter_. Antonio Francia,[30] _mason_.
And the officers were, in addition to those mentioned at pp. 4 and 5, Lieutenants William M‘Kerras, John Johnston, and Lewis Hay.
-----
Footnote 24:
It is not intended to give the names of the non-commissioned officers entire at any future period. In this instance they have been mentioned, not so much for the interest of the general reader, as to preserve them. With those whose names have already been noted, these constitute the first race of non-commissioned officers in the corps.
-----
Footnote 25:
By the Chief Engineer’s Order of 27th October, 1781, sergeant Macdonald, an active and good non-commissioned officer, was appointed to inspect and take care of all the drains throughout the fortress in the room of sergeant-major Bridges, as also to keep the keys of the gratings, and to see them locked, to prevent ingress or egress by their means. This duty was considered a very important one, both from the facility the drains afforded for the entrance of the enemy and for desertions from the place, and also from the health of the garrison being in a great measure affected by their state. Not unfrequently during heavy rains, the gravel on the rock, washed down by the torrent, would rush into the drains and choke them up. To clear them, the company of artificers was invariably called upon, often at night; and on one occasion, in April, 1813, private William Liddle, who was foremost in one of the great drains, after unlocking the grating, was carried down the sewer with the flood into the sea, and drowned.
-----
Footnote 26:
Blyth served fifteen years in the 2nd Foot, and joined the company 14th June, 1773. He was promoted to be sergeant on the 18th April, 1781, in succession to sergeant Brown who died at Fez, and whose widow became the Sultana of Morocco. By his industry and frugality he amassed considerable property, and expended about 20,000 dollars in buildings at the fortress. He was well known as a zealous freemason, and erected a wine-house at the corner of the Eleventh, since called South Parade, in which the meetings or lodges of the fraternity were held free of expense. He was much respected by the inhabitants, and became very popular among them. On the 31st January, 1800, he was discharged from the corps, after a service of nearly forty-two years, and died at the Rock about 1804, Blyth had a nephew in the Tripoline navy, of whom a few particulars may not be uninteresting. His name was Peter Lisle. When quite a youth, Peter was wrecked at Zoara, on the coast of Tripoli. He was one of three only who escaped. For a time he endured great hardships, but at length succeeded in getting on board a British merchantman. In 1792 he was at Gibraltar, on board the ‘Embden’ letter of marque, Lynch and Ross, owners. This vessel afterwards went to Tripoli with two consuls on board; and Lisle, then chief mate, was placed in charge of the cargo, some of which was corn. On arriving at Tripoli, the barrels containing the corn were found to have been plundered, and Lisle was called upon to account for the deficiency. This he could not do; a quarrel ensued between the captain and himself, and resigning his situation, he landed, and entered the service of the Bashaw. Having been chief mate of an English vessel was a strong recommendation in his favour, and he was at once appointed gunner of the castle. Associated with a strange people, he readily conformed to their manners and customs, embraced Mahommedan tenets—at least in appearance—and assumed the name of Mourad Reis. About 1794 he was nominated captain of a xebeck mounting eighteen guns; and in the course of time, by his naval skill and abilities, became the High Admiral of the Tripoline Fleet and Minister of Marine. He married one of the daughters of the Bashaw, Sidi Yusuf, had a fine family, and enjoyed an ample income. Besides a house in the city, he had a villa and gardens in the Meshiah among the date-groves, which exhibited evidence of great taste and care, and were enriched with many trees of various species brought by him from different places at which he touched in Europe. He was a prudent and sagacious counsellor, gave excellent advice to the Bashaw, which was always based on good common sense—a quality not superabundant in the Divan—and was of great service to Lord Exmouth during his Algerine expedition. His appearance was venerable, he dressed richly, commanded much respect, and when addressing British officers—whom he always treated with great courtesy and hospitality—spoke with a broad Scotch accent, and sometimes entertained them with a relation of his own stirring adventures. He was unpopular at times, as great politicians sometimes are. Blaquiere says (1813), “Poor Peter was no longer an object of consideration with any party.” During the stay of Captain Lyon at Tripoli in 1818, Peter was in banishment, but the consul and chief people gave him an excellent character. Later, however, he again rose into confidence, for when Captain Beechey was there in 1821, Mourad Reis was much considered by his Highness, and acted as interpreter on the occasion of the Captain’s audience with his Highness the Bashaw. He also proved of great service to Captain W. H. Smyth, R.N. On the fall of the Bashaw—Yusuf Karamanli—he retreated to Sfax in Tunis, since which his fate is uncertain. When in the zenith of his power and greatness he paid occasional visits to Gibraltar. On entering the bay, he always fired a salute of four guns in honour of his uncle, serjeant Blyth, whom he treated with marked respect. This practice, however, he at length discontinued, owing to a shot, fired by mistake from one of his guns, having struck the wall of a ramp just above Hargrave’s Parade whilst he was paying his relative the usual affectionate compliment.
-----
Footnote 27:
Finch joined the company on the 21st October, 1782, at the request of the Duke of Richmond, in whose service he had been employed at Goodwood. Anxious to secure him for the company, his Grace promised not only to make him a sergeant at once, but to give him a written protection to preserve to him as long as he remained, irrespective of his conduct, the pay of that rank. Under these circumstances Finch accepted the protective credential, enlisted, and sailed with Lord Hood for the Rock. Holding such a charter, it was not to be wondered at if he sometimes overstepped the line of prudence. Not by any means particular in his appearance, nor scrupulous in his conduct or habits, he was not unfrequently brought before his officers; but no matter how flagrant his offence, the only punishment that could be awarded to him was suspension for a month or two from rank, but not from pay. Captain Evelegh, of the engineers, finding that Finch was becoming rather troublesome, and his sentences of but little effect, endeavoured to obtain the Duke’s warrant from its possessor, but he refused to surrender it, observing to the captain, “If you get hold of it, good-bye to my rank and pay.” Finch, however, was a first-rate carpenter and foreman, and these qualifications more than counterbalanced his occasional delinquencies. He was discharged from the corps on the 13th April, 1802.
-----
Footnote 28:
Chambers joined the company 21st September, 1772, from the 2nd Regiment of Foot, in which he had served two years. In 1791 he was promoted to be sergeant-major, on the discharge of Ince. In the summer of 1796 he was sent to Woolwich in a deranged state of mind, and on the 1st December of that year was discharged. Soon afterwards he was domiciled in a madhouse, where, his malady increasing, he was—it has been reported—smothered according to the cruel practice then in vogue with regard to incurable cases.
-----
Footnote 29:
Woodhead joined the company 16th May, 1774, from the 12th Regiment, in which he had served seven years and a quarter. In November, 1791, he was promoted to be sergeant, and was discharged 17th July, 1807, on a pension of 2_s._ 7_d._ a-day, after a service of upwards of forty years. At Gibraltar he was found to be invaluable in the construction and repairs of the sea-line wall. He possessed a good share of intelligence; was a strong, portly, blustering mason, and well adapted for the heavy and laborious duties for which he was always selected. At Woolwich he was the military foreman of masons for many years, and was intrusted by Captain Hayter, then Commanding Royal Engineer, with the building of the wharf wall in the Royal Arsenal—a work highly creditable to the Engineer Department, and to Woodhead as the executive overseer.
Footnote 30:
Afterwards anglicised to Anthony Francis, was wounded by a shell at Willis’s. He and his brother Dominick were natives of Portugal, and the only foreigners in the company. Antonio was a Catholic; and as it was desired to preserve the Protestant character of the corps, a simple but effectual plan was taken to win his adherence to the Church of England. He asked leave to be married. The indulgence was refused unless he became a Protestant. _La Fiancée_ was also a Catholic; but as a great event in their lives—which promised them no end of happiness—was likely to be indefinitely postponed by a stubborn acquiescence to a creed for which, probably, they felt but little interest, both renounced the belief of their fathers, and were married as members of the national faith. Their family were baptized and educated as Protestants, but the old man on his death-bed, returned to Mother-Church and died a Catholic. Three of his sons, now old men, fill comfortable appointments at Gibraltar. Their cousins, merchants at the Rock, own the plain called the “Spanish Race-course,” above a mile beyond the Lines. One, Mr. Francis Francia, is British Consul at San Roque. Midway between the village of Campo and the consulate stands his farm, which is cultivated with enlightened taste, and enriched with rare exotics in fruits and flowers.—Kelaart’s Botany and Topography of Gibraltar and its neighbourhood, pp. 179, 183.
-----
1782-1783.
Siege continued—Magnitude of the works—Chevaux-de-frise from Landport Glacis across the inundation—Précis of other works—Firing red-hot shot—Damage done to the works of the garrison, and exertions of the company in restoring them—Grand attack, and burning of the battering flotilla—Reluctance of the enemy to quit the contest—Kilns for heating shot—Orange Bastion—Subterranean galleries—Discovery of the enemy mining under the Rock—Ulterior dependence of the enemy—Peace—Conduct of the company during the siege—Casualties.
In August the siege daily wore a more significant appearance, and the enemy was diligent in concentrating his resources—unlimited both in means and materials—to make an extraordinary attack upon the fortress. To cope with these preparations General Eliott was no less alert. All was ardour and cheerfulness within the garrison, and every one waited impatiently for an opportunity to end the strife, which had held thousands close prisoners to their posts for more than three years.
At this time the defensive works were very extensive, and many important alterations had yet to be made in several of the batteries, to afford more effectual cover to the artillery. The workmen consequently were greatly increased. Daily, nearly 2,000 men of the line were handed over to the engineers for the service of the fortifications; and the soldier-artificers were employed in their greatest force—two only being in hospital—to instruct and oversee them. In the more difficult works requiring experience, and the exercise of skill and ability, the company always laboured themselves.
In the most vulnerable part of the fortress, from the foot of Landport Glacis adjoining Waterport, to the sloping palisades on the causeway across the inundation, the greater part of the carpenters of the company were occupied in fixing a chevaux-de-frise. They completed the work without the least interference from the enemy—a surprising instance of his inattention or forbearance.
While the chevaux-de-frise was in course of erection, covered ways were being constructed at the different lines on the north front, large and lofty traverses were raised along the line wall, the flank of the Princess Anne’s Battery was rebuilt, the subterranean passages were pushed forward with vigour, and a covered way from the Grand Parade to the Orange Bastion was completed. Green’s Lodge and the Royal Battery were also caissoned with ship-timber, and considerable alterations were made at Willis’s. Indeed nothing was omitted to render the fortress capable of sustaining any attack to which it might be subjected from the enemy’s immense and well-armed batteries.
These works and many others of a similar nature were in progress when the firing of red-hot shot from the north front, under General Boyd’s directions, commenced upon the enemy’s batteries. The effect of this destructive expedient was astounding, and the demolition of the enemy’s lines in great part soon followed. Panic-stricken or confused, the besiegers returned but a tardy fire, and the injury sustained by it was of little moment.
The bold attack of the garrison, however, aroused the Spaniards, who, quickly repairing their works, opened, on the next day, a warm and powerful fire upon the Rock from 170 guns of large calibre. Nine line-of-battle ships also poured in their broadsides, in which they were assisted by fifteen gun and mortar boats. Considerable injury was thus done to the north front, as also to the Montague and Orange Bastions; the obstructions at Landport were likewise in great measure demolished, and many other works were partially razed. The engineers with the artificers and workmen were unremitting in their exertions, both during the night and in the day-time, to restore the defences where their importance, from their exposed situation, rendered immediate reparation desirable. At Landport, notwithstanding the sharp firing of the enemy, the carpenters of the company were constantly detached to repair the fresh-recurring breaches, which, Drinkwater states, “were kept in a better state than might have been expected.”
This attack and retaliation, however, were as yet only preliminary to the greater one which was to follow. The interval was filled up by discharges of cannon, averaging 4,000 rounds in the twenty-four hours. On the 12th September the combined fleets of France and Spain arrived before the Rock with ten floating batteries, bearing 212 guns; while their land batteries, strong and terrible, mounted 200 heavy guns, and were protected by an army of 40,000 men.
In their several stations the battering flotilla were soon moored, and the fleet anchored in less than ten minutes. The first ship having cast her anchors, that moment the garrison artillery began to throw its burning missiles. A tremendous rejoinder from the enemy succeeded. Upwards of 400 pieces of the heaviest artillery were disgorging their dreadful contents at the same instant. Of these the garrison only employed 96. For hours the balance of the contest was equal, the battering ships seemed invulnerable; but, at length, the red-hot shot gave evidence of their efficacy in the sheets of resistless flame that burst in all directions from the flotilla. By the 14th the whole of the floating batteries were burnt: their magazines blew up one after another; and it was a miracle, that the loss of the enemy by drowning did not exceed the numbers saved by the merciful efforts of the garrison.
Notwithstanding this appalling reverse the enemy were still reluctant to quit the contest. Many proofs they had had of the unconquerable spirit of the besieged even whilst suffering from pinching privation, and warring against such overwhelming odds; but they still clung to the hope of compelling the surrender of their invincible adversaries, though their repeated defeats should have taught them a far different lesson.
This obstinacy, of course, necessarily caused other and more effectual preparations to be made in the fortress, to meet and withstand any future attacks. Red-hot shot was considered to be the grand specific. To supply it in sufficient quantities, the company of artificers erected kilns in various parts of the garrison. Each kiln was capable of heating 100 shots in little more than an hour. By this means, as Drinkwater writes, “the artificers were enabled to supply the artillery with a constant succession for the ordnance.”
The struggle continued for some time much less terrific than has just been stated. From 1,000 to 2,000 rounds, however, were poured into the garrison in the twenty-four hours, and were followed up with more or less briskness for a few months, according to the varying caprice of the assailants. During this cannonade, the artificers under the engineers were constantly engaged in the diversified works of the fortress, and they began to rebuild the whole flank of the Orange Bastion on the sea-line, 120 feet in length. All the available masons and miners of the company were appointed to this important work, and were greatly strengthened on the arrival of the 141 mechanics under Lord Hood. In the face of the enemy’s artillery, the artificers continued fearlessly to rear the flank, and at last completed it in about three months, to the amazement and satisfaction of the Governor and the garrison. The erection of such a work, in solid masonry, and under such circumstances, is perhaps unprecedented in any siege, and is alike highly honourable to the engineers and to the company.
Nor was the subterranean gallery under Farringdon’s Battery prosecuted with less zeal under serjeant-major Ince. Five embrasures by this time had been opened in the front of the Rock facing the neutral ground. The miners exerted themselves with an energy that was conspicuous and commendable. This singular work seemed to be the Governor’s hobby; he expected much from it, and ordered a similar Battery for two guns to be cut in the Rock, near Croutchet’s Battery, above the Prince of Hesse’s Bastion. Its completion, however, was not effected until after the siege.
To the schemes of the enemy there appeared to be no end; neither did they lack hope nor want confidence. They had failed to obtain the submission of the garrison by famine; equally so, by a protracted bombardment; nor was their tremendous attack by a bomb-proof flotilla, assisted by their formidable land batteries, attended with better success. They now attempted a fourth stratagem, to mine a cave in the Rock by which to blow up the north front, and thus make a breach for their easy entrance into the fortress. Chimerical as the project might appear, it was conducted with some spirit, and occasioned the garrison much employment. Information of the infatuated design was, in the first instance, given by a deserter from the enemy, which, however, was cautiously received; and as it was impracticable to perceive the miners at work, doubts still existed whether the enemy had actually embarked in the scheme. These doubts were at length removed by sergeant Thomas Jackson,[31] of the artificer company, by whose enterprising efforts the movements of the enemy were rendered indisputable. It was his duty to reconnoitre[32] the north front, in addition to other services for which he was held responsible. Anxious to ascertain the cause of so much mysterious activity at the Devil’s Tower, he descended the steep and rugged rock by means of ropes and ladders. The attempt was as bold as it was hazardous. Stopped by an opening very near to the base of the cliff he explored the entrance, and hearing the hum of voices and the busy strokes of hammers and picks he was well assured of the purpose for which the excavation was intended. Climbing the steep again, he reported what he had discovered. A stricter watch was therefore kept upon the Tower to prevent communication between it and the Rock. Hand-grenades and weighty fragments of stone were frequently hurled over the precipice to terrify the workmen below, and choke up the entrance to the gallery; and though these means did not make the intrepid miners relinquish their project, they yet greatly interrupted its progress. The notion of the engineer who proposed the mine must have been the result of desperation, for what must have been its nature to crumble in its explosion a huge mass of compact rock, nearly 1,400 feet of perpendicular height, into a roadway, by which to enter the fortress as through a breach?
-----
Footnote 31:
Joined the company August, 1776, from the 56th Foot, in which he had served eleven years. Discharged about 1789.
Footnote 32:
Reconnoitering appears to have been a duty that devolved upon sergeants of the company. On the 25th December, 1782, two soldiers attempted to desert from Mount Misery; one “got down, though the rope broke, which accident was the cause of the other being retaken. A few days after a sergeant of the artificers was ordered to reconnoitre the place where this deserter descended, and he got down far enough to discover the unfortunate man dashed to pieces at the foot of the precipice,”—‘Drinkwater.’ Murray’s edit., 1846, p. 100.
-----
Since the flotilla had been burnt and the fleet had disappeared, it was evident that the enemy now depended for a triumph on their gun-boats and land-batteries, and also the mine at the Devil’s Tower. For a time they warmly plied the fortress with shot and shell, to which the garrison responded with considerable animation. Intervals followed, induced by indecision or caprice, in which the firing from the enemy was very desultory and inefficacious; but that from the garrison was always well sustained. The soldiers of the Rock seemed to rise in spirit and activity as the enemy declined in these qualities. With the latter, the barometer of their hopes fell with their energies. Still they fruitlessly laboured on, the mine under the Rock being the principal object of their attention, until relieved from the disgrace of another defeat, by the arrival of news from home of the signing of preliminaries for a general peace. The intelligence was communicated to the garrison on the 2nd February, 1783, and on the 5th, the last shot in the conflict was fired from the fortress. Thus terminated a siege, extending over a period of nearly four years, which, when all the circumstances connected with it are taken into account, can scarcely find its parallel in the chronicles of ancient or modern warfare.
During the whole of this memorable defence, the company of artificers proved themselves to be good and brave soldiers; and no less conspicuous for their skill, usefulness, and zeal on the works. With their conduct and exertions in the performance of their various professional duties, their officers were always well pleased; and, not unfrequently, the Governor, and General Boyd, in witnessing their services, encouraged and flattered them with expressions of their admiration. In later days, when the expediency of raising a _corps_ of military artificers was discussed in the House of Commons, Captain Luttrell stated, “that during the siege, the corps at Gibraltar had been found of infinite service.”[33]
-----
Footnote 33:
‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ 58,