The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-27 00:00:00

proved to be one of the anchors of the Edgar, hav-
ing the two palms and the stock broken off, so
that it nearly resembled the form of the broad
arrow marked on Government stores. The ex-
treme distance between the ends of the broken arms
was a little more than five feet, whilst the dia-
, meter of the shank varied from about 8 to 10i inches;
its length, as measured from the broken end to the
crown, being 6 feet 2 inches. This curious relic,
found about 120 fathoms to the north and eastward of
the same shoal, shows the violence with which it
must have been propelled by the explosion of the
ship's magazines ; but this was proved in a still more
striking manner on the 28th of the same month,
when, after having swept before day, by a beautiful
moonlight, without success, Corporal Jones and his
assistant, on resuming the same process in the fore-
noon tide, sent up what proved to be a large frag-
ment of an 18-pounder gun, 7 feet in length, which
they found about 160 fathoms to the north and east-
ward of the position of the hull, whilst the first
group or nest of guns of the Edgar, as the seamen
termed them, nearly twenty in number, had been
found 80 fathoms to the southward of the same spot;
so that, making allowance for the difference of bear-
ing, this isolated gun, launched into the air from the
larboard side of the wreak of the Edgar, must have
fallen at the distance of 200 fathom's from the group
of guns that were thrown from her starboard side.
From that time nothing of importance occurred
till the sth of October, when privates Sticklen
and Herbert, of the East India Company's service,
who were employed sweeping about thirty fathoins
south-east of the position of the hull, discovered and
sent up two guns, a 12-pounder and a 32-pounder.
Next day Corporal Jones and private Sticklen sent
up one iron 12-pounder and a fragment of another
seven feet in length, and the tide ran so strong during
part of the time they were employed about this frag-
ment, that private Sticklen was obliged to hold Cot-
poral Jones to prevent him from being carried away,
whilst the latter was digging round it with a spade,
and afterwards slinging it, which they did not ac-
complish until half-past eight o'clock in the evening,
after having remained nearly four hours under water
without intermission. On the day following they were
equally successful, sending up a 12-pounder and a
6-pounder, and on the 11th Corporal Jones sent up
another 12-pounder. At this time the divers gene-
rally worked three slack tides, as in the middle of
summer, so that they were often out before daylight
and when anything interesting occurred, they conti-
nued their work long after dark. The weather had
frequently been so tempestuous as to oblige them to
suspend their labours, but particularly on Monday, the
14th of October, when a violent gale set into the har-
bour, accompanied by such a swell, that Major-Gene-
ral Pasley, who came from London on that day to
inspect the work, was obliged to return in the even-
ing, without having been able to get out to Spithead
in his boat. Next morning the weather was still too
boisterous for sweeping, but the diving over the hull
was resumed, and three slack tides were worked with
great zeal. This day her Majesty passed alongside of
the Success frigate hulk in her steam yacht on her
way to visit the French war steamer Gomer, which
had anchored near the same spot ; and as this took
place during the interval between the first two slack
tides, when the men employed in these operations
were not at work, they saluted her Majesty and Prince
Albert with hearty and loyal cheers, but not with
msnned yards, as the Success frigate, though cele-
brated in our naval history in former times, had
neither mast nor yard at this period. On the 18th of
October Corporal Jones was sent for with his diving
apparatus to recover the mooring bridles by which the
Gorner had been anchored in Portsmouth harbour,
which by some accident had gone to the bottom on
being cast off when that ship got under weigh. These
he slung and sent up in half an hour, without even
losing one of the regular slack tides at Spithead,
though the usual mode of sweeping for them with
boats, under the direction of the Master Attendant of
the Dockyard, had been repeatedly tried and failed.
This is one arnontrat many proofs of uti-
lity of helmet diving.
On the 28th of October, Major-General Pasley
paid his last visit of inspection to Spithead, and find-
ing that the divers could not go on much longer, as
the water was becoming too cold for them to work
with comfort, he directed Lieutenant Barlow to con-
tinue the sweeping for guns only one day more,
after which he was to go into harbour and break up
the whole establishment ; which was done accord-
ingly. By this time the great mass of woodwork of
the hull had been entirely removed, together with the
greater part of the sheel in which it was embedded,
the general height of which hal been reduced more
than ten feet. Amongst the large timbers brought
up were several pieces of the keel, measuring in all
72 feet 3 inches, out of 124 feet, its original length.
The quantity of powder exploded during the whole
season in small charges, placed by the divers and
fired by the voltaic battery, was 6,222 lbs. A few
of the largest charges consisted of about 130 lbs.
each. None of the others exceeded 50 lbs.; many
were smaller.
After the Success frigate and the two mooring
lighters had been towed into harbour, the stores were
delivered into the dockyard, and on Saturday, the 2d
of November, Lieutenant Barlow conducted his de-
tachment of Sappers and Miners to London by the
South-Western Railway, whence he took the Royal
and Miners to Woolwich by steam-boats, and
sent the East India Company's men by the Eastern-
Counties Railway to their dep6t, at Worley, in Essex,
the same evening ; both parties thus performing in one
day a journey which, in former times, would have re •
quired at least five or six days' march.
On the Ist of September, Quartermaster Germain
and a second party of volunteer seamen from her Ma-
jesty's ship Excellent had been sent out to Spithead
to practise diving, which they did till the end of the
season, under the direction of Lieutenant Barlow, and
gave no less satisfaction by their zeal, good conduct,
and improvement, than the first party of men from
the same ship had done. Besides Lieutenant Fair-
holme, , Lieutenant Peel, R.N., also
practised
season, before he sailed for
South America
divingel ibyrei Ea
Lieutenant
Excellent,
the
thisl l ent
e o 1.1
gwood, as had previously
b
Barlow himself. Major-
General Pasley, who was prevented by his duties as
Government Inspector-General of Railways from
giving so much personal attention to the operations
at Spithead as in former years, was so ably seconded
by Lieutenant Barlow, the executive engineer, and
all the men employed, whether Sappers and Miners,
riggers, or naval pensioners, of whom that officer
reported most favourably, and the service was so
efficiently promoted by the aid afforded from the
dockyard, by order of the Admiral Superintendent,
that the General had no cause to regret his own ab-
sence from the scene of action.
The Master-General and Board of Ordnance have
approved of a portion of the guns recovered from the
Edgar being preserved as memorials, at the principal
ordnance stations, and also at the East India Com-
pany's depot, at Warley, and at their military semi-
nary at Addiscombe, the guns having been recovered
by military divers of the Sappers and Miners of both
een
done
services; and the Admiralty have approved of pieces
of the keel, &c., both of the Royal George and the
Edgar, being preserved in her Majesty's dockyards,
or in public museums.
The original armament of the Edgar was 70 pieces
of ordnance, of which 54 whole guns and five frag-
ments have been recovered in the course of Major-
General Pasley's operations, each of the latter being
usually the breech part of the gun, broken off in front
of the trunnions, and therefore larger and heavier
than the corresponding part of the same gun at the
bottom.
The first guns of the Edgar lay in groups or masses
near the same spot, and there was no trouble in find-
ing them by the common process of sweeping from
boats, but the last guns were at such great distances
apart, and discovered with so much difficulty, that if
we were not possessed of an authentic account of the
number, it would be natural to conclude that all were
got up; instead of which it is known, from the records
of the Ordnance Department, that 11 whole guns
and five fragments are still at the bottom ; and, judg-
ing by those already found, none of which were en-
tirely buried under the mud, it is to be presumed that
the guns and fragments which still remain must also
lie nearly on the level of the surface of the bottom;
and, consequently, though the chances are perhaps
1,000 to 1 against the contingency, yet, however im-
probable, it is net impossible that a man-of-war's an-
chor being cast atthis part of Spithead mightstrike one
of them. A doubt, therefore, naturally suggested itself,
whether the safety of a ship would thereby be endan-
gered, which having been submitted to the Lords 9f the
Admiralty by Major-General Pasley, in his report of the
concluding operation of the season, as a naval ques-
tion upon which he would not presume to give an
opinion himself, but upon which it would depend
whether his operations should finally close, or be re-
sumed next summer on a small scale, their Lordships
decided that the anchorage at Spithead might nor be
considered safe, in spite of those guns. In fact every
man-of-war is provided with more .anchors than one,
so that if the first, in being cast at this part of Spit-