Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List

(From an English Paper.)

On Saturday, the 4th December, the divers worked for the last time in searching for guns, to which, their efforts had been exclusively devoted for more than six weeks, in consequence of the whole of the wood work of this celebrated wreck having previously been removed. Since our last notice of these operations, only one brass 12-pounder was recovered by Corporal Jones, on the 27th of October, after which, notwithstanding the frequent use of the half-anchor creeper, and the zealous personal researches of the divers, none could be found in the course of the eight following days, when the work terminated as a matter of necessity, for the water was becoming so cold that the divers could no longer work to advantage, their hands, the only part exposed, being benumbed by cold. When the Royal George went down, in 1782, there were 100 guns on board, viz., 28 iron 32-pounders, 16 iron 12-pounders, 28 brass 24-pounders, and 28 brass 12-pounders. Of the above, 6 iron 12-bounders and 9 brass 12-pounders were removed in the course of the same year by means of the diving bell, after which nothing vas done till the year 1834, when Mr. Charles Anthony Deane first brought the diving helmet and dress, which was a very old idea, suggested in various books for nearly three centuries back, to such a state of perfection, as to render it available for the most important practical purposes, to which it never had been applied until he showed the example. In this improvement, or rather invention, for it will perhaps be considered worthy of that name, he has the same merit as the celebrated Bramah, who converted what was called the hydrostatic paradox from a sort of puzzle into a most powerful and useful machine.

In the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, Mr. Deane recovered 7 iron 32-pounders, 18 brass 24-pounders, and 3 brass 12-pounders, 28 in all ; for which he received salvage from the Board of Ordnance, after which, the remaining guns being buried in mud, or under the timbers of the upper parts of the wreck, eluded his efforts, as nothing but gunpowder could render them accessible. In 1839, when Major General Pasley, then Colonel of the Royal Engineers, commenced his operations, in which he has never spared that most essential article without which nothing could have been done, he recovered 12 guns, 11 more in 1840, and 6 in 1841; but in 1842 he only recovered 1 iron 12-pounder, because he then directed that the divers, who had got down to the floor-timbers and keel, should not lose time by searching for guns, but should confine their efforts to the removal of the woodwork of the hull, and he pursued the same system in the summer of 1843, until the whole of the keel and bottom planking were got up, after which the half-anchor creeper drawn transversely, and a frigate's anchor longitudinally, across the original position of the hull, proved that no more woodwork remained, when he directed that guns only should be sought for, in consequence of which no less than 13 have been recovered this season. Hence 42 guns in all have been recovered by the divers employed under Major-General Pasley, which, with 15 recovered in 1782, and 29 recovered by Mr. Deane, as before mentioned, amount to a total of 86, leaving 14 guns still at the bottom, of which number 6 are iron 12-pounders, 1 is a brass 24-pounder, and 6 are brass 12-pounders. The quantity of iron ballast in the hold of the Royal George when she sank was 126 tons 12 cwt. generally in pigs of seven to the ton, of which more than 119 tons have been sent up by the military divers, and delivered into Portsmouth dockyard, so that the quantity now remaining at the bottom is less than seven tons, being only 47 pigs, which having been scattered about by the constant creeping, and by the numerous explosions, cannot obstruct the anchorage. In respect to the 14 guns still remaining, all buried about four feet under the mud, and of which one only is a heavy gun, should a ship's anchor hereafter get hold of one of them, which is possible, though very unlikely, it will, on being weighed, raise the gun up to the surface of the mud, or a little above it, after which it will release it ; and if the spot be marked by a small buoy to guide a diver down to the gun, he may slung it with ease, whilst from its form it can in the meantime have done no injury, either to the ship's anchor or cable. The quantity of gunpowder fired this season amounted to 19,193 lbs., that is to nearly 214 barrels.

The Success frigate hull, in which Lieut. Hutchinson, as well as the detachments of Royal and East India Company's Sappers and Miners under his command, and generally about eighty other workmen, chiefly pensioner-seamen of the Royal Navy, were quartered, was towed into harbour from Spithead on Tuesday the 7th December, and the two lumps or mooring lighters followed next day, and after having delivered up all the stores into the dockyard, excepting the guns recovered and the gunpowder not expended, the former of which were delivered to the Ordnance storekeeper at the gun wharf, and the latter into the magazine at Priddy's-yard, the officer, with the Sappers and Miners under his command, set off by the South Western Railway for Woolwich, whilst the pensioners, being natives of Portsmouth, retired to their homes.

Mr. Purdo; the principal master-attendant of Portsmouth dockyard, having examined the spot, by dragging a frigate's anchor repeatedly over it, and meeting no obstruction, reported to Rear Admiral Hyde Parker, that the ground where the wreck of the Royal George formerly lay was now clear, and quite as fit for the use of her Majesty's ships as any other part of the anchorage at Spithead, which report, in corroboration of General Pasley's opinion, having been communicated officially to the Admiralty, their Lordship's have ordered the wreck-buoy to be removed from the spot, as being no longer necessary. In the sailing instructions annexed to the tide tables, annually published by order of the Admiralty, it will be seen that there were six or seven fathoms of water only over the wreck of the Royal George, the hull of which, then nearly perfect, stood 33 feet higher than the general level of the anchorage ground. At present, the ground where the wreck lay is on the same level nearly with the remainder of the anchorage, as Lieutenant Hutchinson ascertained by sounding it with great accuracy, the difference in the sounding nowhere exceeding a foot and a half.

Though the demolition and removal of this celebrated wreck commenced in 1839, yet only two months of that year, and six months of each of the four succeeding years, that is twenty-six months, or little more than two years, were employed in actual labour; and this object might have been accomplished much sooner, perhaps in half the time, if Major-General Pasley, who directed, and the officers and men who executed, this important undertaking, had possessed, on commencing it, the experience they had afterwards acquired in the course of their operations, to which there was no parallel in the history of mankind, but to which Mr. Charles Anthony Deane's introduction of the diving helmet, and the improvements in the voltaic battery, especially that made by Professor Daniell, undoubtedly paved the way, though in the course of these operations Mr. Siebe's improved diving apparatus was used exclusively after the first year or two, as being safer and more convenient than Deane's original pattern ; and latterly plate batteries of zinc and iron. were used instead of Daniell's constant battery, having been found more convenient for firing gunpowder, though not considered better for other purposes.

Major-General Pasley has ascribed the gratifying result of his operations to the cordial, prompt, and efficient aid afforded to him by the successive Admirals Superintendent and the officers of her Majesty's Dockyard at Portsmouth, in supplying him with all the articles of store and fitments necessary, and to the skill, zeal, and indefatigable exertions of Lieutenant Symonds, who commenced, and Lieutenant Hutchinson, both of the Royal Engineers, who finished them, ably seconded by the naval commanding officers and privates of the Royal and Honorable East India Company's Sappers and Miners, to whom the important task of preparing all the charges to be fired by the voltaic battery was entrusted ; whilst the still more arduous duty of diving, including the placing of those charges, also exclusively devolved upon them for the last three years. The riggers supplied from the dockyard, of whom Mr. John Clewitt and Mr. Taylor were the leading men, also bore a very important part in these operations, in which they were ably assisted by the gallant pensioners or veteran seamen. Mr. Blakey, the master of the sailing-lighter, with the crew of that small vessel, were no less useful. were delivered to the Ordnance storekeeper at the gun wharf, and the latter into the magazine at Priddy's-yard, the officer, with the Sappers and Miners under his command, set off by the South Western Railway for Woolwich, whilst the pensioners, being natives of Portsmouth, retired to their homes.

P 053 - 04 May 44

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