The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-05 00:00:00

THE NAVVIES AT BALAKLA VA .

Further accounts from the Criniea speak not only of
the railway at a rate that has outstripped the expecta-
tions founded upon the first hasty survey, but also of
the progressive cheerfulcess and contentedness of all
engaged upon it, and of their daily-growing popularity
with the military a:id civil authorities at Balaklava, and
all with whom they come in contact at that motley-
peopled place. Lord Raglan, in particular, as. may
be inferred from his despatches, regards the enterprise
with the greatest fevour, and whatever the infrequency
of his visits to the camp, he has inspected the " works"
sufficiently often, and been sufficiently complimen-
tary in his encomiums upon those engaged upon them,
to have rendered himself highly popular with the men.
One of the navvies, writing on the 13th, from the
"Balaklava Railway Station," says tint his lordship
came into the town the previous Saturday, " looking
first rate," and having said how pleased he was to see
so fine a body of Englishmen so actively occupied on a
work of such great value, gave the head of one of the
gangs a sovereign to drink his health—an injunction
which the unlicensed vintnery of the place soon enabled
them to comply with, inasmuch as there aro peripa-
tetic grog-shops going about in the shape of rums
vendors, from whom the desired stimulant is obtain-
able, often with a facility that would render a
little curtailment of the liberty of the subject in
that particular highly commendable. At the same
time, such an antiseptic is almost indispensable, and in
tolerable quantities too, seeing that, according to the
unsophisticated writer alluded to (and his testimony is
corroborated by a thousand witnesses), "the roads are
in a frightful state, up to our muddler in mud, and dead
horses lying all over the ground and hills ; in summer
it will be dreadful." It is to be hoped, however,
that before the time shall have arrived for the antici-
pation here expressed to be realised, that Mr. Raw-
linson, the engineer to the Sanitary Commission,
despatched on the 22d of last month, will have
caused the interment of these pest-producing carcases,
and will have cleansed the' vicinage of ilia harbour
and camp from those accumulations of indescribable
feculence which await but the action of the sun to gene-
rate disorders compared with which the cholera of Bul-
garia and the dysentery and frost-sores of the Crimea
would be innocuous. Hitherto the health of the navvies
has been all that could be desired. Not a single case of
serious illness has occurred amongst them, and only one
accident, a fatal one, through falling down a ship's hatch.
way. The only grievance they complain of isthe dearness
of the provisions they have to purchase, butter, for in-
stance, being 3s. per lb., and only to be obtained on ship-
board. But objections on this score are diminishing daily;
and with the introduction of a little methodical order into
the harbour arrangements, the enormous amount of sup-
plies pouring in from all quarters must speedily secure
something liken reasonable tariff. Vegetables continue to
be a great desideratum, the prolonged use of salt meat and
biscuit superinducing the development of whatever scor-
butic virus may be in the men's system. As the season ad-
vances, this want becomes more urgent, but it does not ap-
pear to be ministered to with an alacrity proportioned to
the necessity. We speak now of the soldiery, not of the
navvies. One cause of this deficiency is doubtless the bulky
and perishable nature of the article, and the fact that mar-
ket gardening, even on the most circumscribed scale for
domestic uses, is still a science in the most rudimentary
stage, not only in the East proper, but within a radius
of a thousand miles of Sebastopol. Hence great in-
terest is attached to the experiments about to be made
in Calm's Compressed Vegetables—the ingenious pre-
paration of a Company at Frankfort, and which has
been tried with great success in the French army.
All the virtue and flavour of the vegetable, whe-
ther potato, parsnip, carrot, bean, or other esculant,
in its fresh-gathered state, are retained, but in so
concentrated a form that a single pinch suffices for
a ration ; while, on being steeped in water for about an
hour before boiling, it swells to dimensions not greatly
inferior to what the original vegetable itself assumes
when served in the ordinary way for table. Some
samples of these preparations were taken out from the
London agents by the Sanitary Commission alluded to ;
and if found to answer as they have done in the case of
the French, will doubtless be adopted in both our army
and navy, the economy of cost, not less than their ex-
treme portability, and being always good if kept from
damp, strongly enhancing the value they must otherwise
possess in the eyes of the authorities.
As the huts for the workmen progress, the navvies
exercise their prescriptive priority of nomenclature
in respect to all temporary structures they have a hand
in. Thus, of the first five wooden edifices erected, they
named the principal one Peto-terrace, the next Preston-
hall, and so on. Though satisfied themselves with, and
satisfying everybody else by, their exertions, these can
only be successfully prosecuted by a continuance of
means and appliances from England, especially horses,
and the wherewithal for keeping them in working con-
dition. Accordingly, on Friday last, the North t f
Europe Steam Navigation Company's paddle-ship City
of Norwich, sailed from Lowestoft with 80 horses and
30 drivers, with six weeks' fodder, for Balaklava, an
urgent request having been sent for them to work the
line, as neither cattle nor food for their sustenance could
be procured there. The order was given on Thursday,
the 22d February, end as the Thames at the time was
closed dry, all the resources of that company's establish-
ment at Lowestoft were brought into use. The ship
was immediately fitted for horses ; the requisite fodder
sent clown by rail ; and the ship had sailed in just eight
days after the order was given, and would have sailed
two days earlier, but was delayed to complete repairs in
her machinery. The Propeller will also leave in a few
days, with a further quantity of fodddor, of which it is
to be regretted that there is the greatest want in the
Crimea, there being no local supply, and apparently no
means of creating one nearer than England, for some
reason or other not easy to understand.
In one of the morning journals of Saturday it was
stated that the navvy horses which had already reached
Baiaklava required rest, having suffered from the bad
ventilation of the ship that conveyed them. This is
' altogether incorrect. The horses were not in the hold
at all, as alleged, bnt on the 'tweets decks ; and it was
wholly impossible that any ship could be better venti-
lated than was the Levant. But it was natural the
horses should require rest after a four weeks' voyage,
the greater part of it being a very rough one. In the
present instance, the C;ty of Norwich, taking out the
horses now despatched, is a paddle-ship constructed ex-
pressly to carry horses and cattle, having been long en-
gaged in that species of traffic as carried on between
Denmark and England via the Danish port of Tonning.
She has accordingly ample room between decks, is very
fast, and well ventilated ; and it is expected she will
make a very quick passage.
An editorial remark in Friday's Time:, reiterating an
opinion expressed by some of its correspondents, as to
the superiority of a plank-road over a railroad between
Balaklava and the camp, has given rise to commentary of
of an adverse kind. It is urge that the difference between
a railroad and a plank-road is the difference of theirbulk
in carriage. The plank-road of 20 feet wide would require
50 feet bulk pet yard ; the railroad requires about four
feet of bulk per yard. According to this data, it
would follow that if it required 10 ships to carry the
bulk of material for a railroad of 15 miles long, it would
require 100 ships of the same size to carry the plank
for the road, supposing the men and animals to occupy
the same space in both. It is further urged that a plank-
road, hastily constructed, as this must be under any
circumstances, and not having the requiste time to
" settle" on such a soil as intervenes between the har-
bour and the heights, and during such weather as has long
made that space literally a quagmire ; and considering,
moreover, the extreme steepness of ascent for a great part
of the distance, would be quite inadequate to sustain the
enormous weight of ordnance and ammunition now de-
manded for the siege. It is the expected facile transit of
these, direct from the ships to the batteries, that invests
the railway with its peculiar attractiveness in the
eyes •f those on the spot, whom the want of such an
auxiliary has condemned to paralysis and bewilder-
ment, or at least furnished them with an apparent
extenuation for having floundered into the state so
universally complained of. How far a plank-road, if
commeneed when it was found that an ordinary
road was impracticable, would have, or ought to have
superseded a railroad, it is now, like so many other
Crimean calculations, " too late" to inquire. It is at
least gratifying to know that that undertaking at_ allf
events, forms the one bright exception to te
most
n f general
officialroutine
mismanagement
bei it said, aiind , theha for, to
the
roracu-
lar o
credit
otels
exponent of Peninsular precedent
a dentmaoddmetosf that tghe.
e
navvy expedition is in all re
meat and forethought,lancnkdin
com-
pletion but more horses
furnished with the utmost rapidity.—Morning Post.
Igo dndoe ner, antdisinbge or
:ireits
being