Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S. 38

Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S. 38

I may here as well mention that my brother and myself afterwards, at the

request of the Emperor, designed a complete naval establishment for this

place, utilizing as much as we could of the old construction, and this

design, I believe, was to some extent adopted.

 

We afterwards built four iron steamboats, with their engines, for the

Caspian Sea, which were the first ever afloat there. These vessels were

built in England, then taken to pieces, and sent with the requisite

number of workmen to Odessa. Thence by land they were transported to the

Caspian, where they were again put together, with their engines, and

answered their purpose well. We afterwards made the iron gates for the

docks of Sebastopol, a pair of which were subsequently brought to England

and France as war trophies. We also constructed several vessels of war,

worked by the screw, for the Baltic and Black Seas; amongst others a

yacht for the Emperor, to review his fleets in the Gulf of Finland, as

well as for pleasure excursions. This was a small vessel, about 260 tons,

with a pair of oscillating engines of the nominal power of 120 horses,

although capable of working up to three times that power, and making

fully 14 knots an hour. She was fitted up plainly but very neatly. From

circumstances over which we had no control, the completion was prolonged

to a later period of the year than we anticipated; and it was not before

the middle of October, 1850, that we were ready to leave England, when

my brother and his son George determined to go with her and deliver

her in person. She was well insured, and was navigated by an English

captain--who, I observed at the time, was not a very sharp fellow--and an

English crew. As she was a small vessel she had to take a considerable

quantity of coals on deck, which brought her down beyond her usual line

of floatation. I went with her as far as Gravesend, and saw them fairly

on their voyage, but before she reached the Baltic she encountered a

severe storm, when she behaved admirably. At Copenhagen she took in more

coals, and started again, and in the Baltic encountered another severe

storm, which she got through equally as well as before. The weather then

became fine, and they thought that all their troubles were over. The last

storm had driven her considerably out of her course, which the captain

had not taken a correct account of; and one fine starlight night, about

ten o’clock, they were steaming away with a smooth sea, at the rate of

about 10 to 12 knots an hour, when the engineer, putting his head out

of the engine-house to enjoy the fine evening, suddenly called out, “I

think I see land,” and went at once to the captain. The captain said,

“It is impossible. We cannot be nearer land than 30 or 40 miles.” The

captain and the Russian officer and my brother were at the time in the

cabin taking their grog comfortably before going to bed. But he quickly

went upon deck and soon discovered his error, and ordered the vessel to

be put about; but before this could be done she struck upon a rock, and

in spite of all their endeavours she could not be got off. The Russian

officer declined taking any of the responsibility, saying it lay with

the captain, and he would have nothing to do with it. At daylight they

found themselves hard and fast upon the Island of Dago. My brother,

finding that nothing could be done to get the vessel off, resolved with

his son to make his way at once to St. Petersburg, and report the loss

of the vessel. As the winter had begun, the journey was attended with

considerable difficulty. However, they reached St. Petersburg, and had an

audience of the Emperor Nicholas, who, when he heard the story, laughed

heartily, and said, “Now, if this had occurred under the command of

Russian officers and sailors, what would the English have said? why,

that no wonder an accident had occurred, when the vessel was confided to

those stupid fellows, the Russians. Now, you see, it has happened with

the English; and they, with all their pretended knowledge, don’t know

the Baltic yet, and are more stupid than the Russians.” Again he laughed

heartily, and said, “I am delighted to find that my sailors are, after

all, as clever as the English, and under the circumstances I am not sorry

that the yacht is lost. It will teach the English in future not to be so

proud of their knowledge, and to give the Russians credit for knowing the

Baltic as well as they do.”

 

Although the yacht was wrecked, we lost nothing, neither did the Emperor,

for he was insured to the full, and we received an order to make another

of precisely the same size. The underwriters, as soon as they heard

of the accident, sent out a clever fellow, Captain Farr, who, upon

arriving at the spot where the vessel was stranded, found that she had

not received much damage; he, therefore, finding that the season was too

far advanced to take her back to England, or even to get her into any

Baltic port, at once weighed her and then sank her in deeper water in

order that she might be protected during the winter. In the spring he

returned, weighed her again, and took her to Revel, where he repaired

the trifling damage she had received, then returned with her to England,

calling at Hamburg on his way, and from thence she made a quicker voyage

that had ever been made before. I saw her in the East India Dock, and she

looked quite new; and unless I had known I should never have supposed

that she had been stranded, and been a whole winter under water in the

Baltic. She afterwards sold, I think, for 9000_l._, having originally

cost 14,000_l._; and as the insurers had been paid nearly 4000_l._ for

the original insurance, the underwriters scarcely lost anything. Thus we

gained considerably by the accident, having to make two yachts instead

of one, and neither the Emperor nor the underwriters lost anything.

 

Leaving St. Petersburg I started for Moscow, traversing 400 miles of most

uninteresting country in an open droschky, drawn at the rate of 10 miles

an hour--as I paid liberally--by four horses abreast. The only noticeable

place I passed through was Novogorod, a considerable town, with a good

deal of activity, and apparently an extensive trade. Here the two great

water-carriage systems met, connecting the Baltic with the Black Sea, and

also with the Caspian. The canals were crowded with vessels laden with

the products of the East and West; natives from the East clad in their

flowing garments, Tartars, with their bows and arrows, Cossacks from the

Don, Armenian, Greek, and Turkish merchants, and the never-failing Jew,

English, French, and Germans, all mixed together, and carrying on their

particular business, formed a very amusing and busy scene. I contrived to

get a tolerable dinner there, the only one deserving of the name since

I left Petersburg; I devoted two or three hours to looking over the

canal-works, which, for that time, were not badly executed, but the town

contained nothing remarkable.

 

On reaching Moscow, what struck me most was the Eastern appearance of the

inhabitants, particularly when compared with the extremely modern look of

the town itself. The Kremlin, of course, I need not describe. I visited

the celebrated Riding House, which is 1200 feet long, covered by a wooden

roof, of the single span of 240 feet; it is without doubt the finest and

largest shed in the world, and a splendid piece of carpentry, well worth

going some distance to see. It is frequently used for reviewing troops in

unfavourable weather, and it is said that ten thousand men can go through

their exercises under its shelter.

 

On my way from Moscow to Warsaw I had no idea that this great road--one

of the principal in Russia, and, upon the whole, not through an

unproductive country--I should find so totally unprovided with anything

for the accommodation of travellers. In those days I certainly did not

expect much, and having travelled in more barbarous countries, I could

submit cheerfully to a good deal; but I certainly did not expect that it

would be so bad as I found it, and therefore I carried little with me,

contrary to my usual practice. This I certainly repented of, for our fare

was most miserable; if we got eggs, butter, cheese, and bread, we thought

ourselves lucky, though sometimes we got better provisions; however,

perhaps it was well, for although ill when I started, I began to get

better, and slept soundly. My man Weiss consoled himself with plenty of

vodki, and considering the rough fare we got I could not altogether blame

him. We passed Smolenski, and a very poor place it was; there was nothing

like an hotel, nor any accommodation for travellers. Although seventeen

years had elapsed since the invasion of the French in 1812, the remains

of the fire and battle which took place when the French captured it were

still very visible. When we entered Poland cultivation appeared to be

carried on more extensively and with greater skill, and the people seemed

more intelligent; we passed several large proprietors’ houses.

 

At Warsaw I attended a review of the garrison, in the Great Square,

in honour of the recent victories of the Russians over the Turks. It

consisted of about twelve thousand men of all arms, commanded by the

Grand Duke Constantine, the Viceroy. I never saw finer troops in my life,

nor any that manœuvred better. Before the review mass was said in their

midst, and when _Te Deum_ was sung by the whole of the men--and they sang

it with great skill--the effect was very fine, and was rendered still

more so by a salvo of one hundred and one guns, fired from the forts.

 

I returned rapidly through Germany, and reached home after an absence of

sixty-five days, during which period I had travelled nearly thirty nights.

 

I immediately visited London Bridge, and found everything going on well.

In fact, during my absence my brother George had diligently looked after

my business as well as his own.

 

My brother George married the only daughter of Sir John Jackson, Bart.,

in June 1828. I had then taken a house for myself, No. 15, Whitehall

Place, where my two younger brothers, Matthew and James, lived with me

for about a couple of years.

 

At this time, as a bachelor, I saw a good deal of society, and made

acquaintance with most of the celebrated scientific men of the day,

also the leading literati, artists, painters, and sculptors. In fact,

when I could tear myself away from my business I passed my time most

agreeably and profitably in that distinguished society. I numbered

amongst my acquaintance Sir H. Davy, Dr. Young, Wollaston, Dawes,

Gilbert, Sir A. Cooper, Sir D. Home, Laurence, Greene, Playfair, Leslie,

Whewell, Peacock, Hopkins, Liston, Barlow, Irving, Bailey, Colby,

Parley, Sedgwick, Greenough, Delabeche, Meecham, Lyell, Brande, Faraday,

Christie, Allen, Pepys, Sir James M’Intosh, W. W. Scott, J. W. Croker,

J. Barrow, Sir S. Raffles, Marsden, Sir F. Chantrey, Sir T. Lawrence,

Turner, Calcott, Stansfield, Behnes, Chalon, Sir A. M. Shee, Eastlake,

Varley, Martin, Philips, Theodore Hook, Samuel Rogers, Southey, Robert

Brown, Hallam, Sir A. Alison, Sir J. Parry, Sir J. Franklin, Sir John

Ross, the late Sir J. Lubbock, the late Admiral Fitzroy, Professor

Owen, and many others, and last, not least, Mrs. Somerville. Amongst

foreigners--Humboldt, Laplace, Cuvier, Arago, Pring, Gerard, Cardinal

Mezzofauité, Mailenette, Wree-Viking, and Von Breek.

 

In 1833, having now completed London, Hyde Park, Staines, and Crammond

bridges, the great naval works at Sheerness, Woolwich, and Chatham, the

Victualling Department, or Royal William Yard, and a large portion of

the breakwater at Plymouth, Sunderland, Port Patrick, Donaghadee, Port

Rush, and a large portion of Kingstown Harbours, the Eau Brink Cut, the

Nene Outfall, the Witham Outfall, the Ancholme Drainage, and several

other minor works, I was almost knocked up, and was recommended to take

another continental journey for recreation. As I had never seen Spain I