George Turnbull (1809-1889): Autobiography: Chapter 9

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Chapter 09. 1856. (pages 154-159). East Indian Railway.

1856.—January 1st. There was a holiday in all the offices in Calcutta. Mr. Leahy came to Tiffin. Fanny and I dined at Mrs. Stephenson’s ; Col. Goodwyn, Mr. Vincent, Lieut, de Bourbel, Mrs. Vincent, Cecil Stephenson. A letter came from Mr. Jonas Hall Pope on the 3rd, announcing the death of Richard Thomas—my wife’s brother—poor fellow, on 23rd November last. I lamented his death; we were good friends, and I had looked forward to years to come when I might make my house his home, but it was not to be. Fanny felt his loss severely. R. T. was twenty-three years of age.

On the 4th we all went out to see a house lighted with gas in the Circular Road. A great success for a first attempt. The natives cried out, “Burra buttee,” i.e., big light.

From the 24th of January to 21st February I was travelling along the works, and settling many important matters in regard to the contracts ; very absorbing in interest at the time, but not now.

February. On the 22nd Fanny and I gave our first dinner party, which was a small one: Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson, Col. Goodwyn, Col. Thompson and Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Vincent, Mr. and Mrs. Judge, Mr. and Mrs. Watts, Mr. and Mrs. Peterson, and Cecil Stephenson.

March 3rd. A farewell ball to Lord Dalhousie, and in honour of Lady Canning.

5th. Went with a deputation of condolence, from the inhabitants of Calcutta to Lord Dalhousie, on the state of his health, and regret on his leaving India.

There were a number of friends in Calcutta that we lost sight of afterwards, such as Col. and Mrs. Remington (my cousin, nee Ramsbotham; Col. R. died 1861), Col. Michel, Mrs. Plumb (Bank of Bengal), Mrs. Taylor, of spiritual-influence notoriety. Mr. Moule was then a chaplain at the Cathedral; not a bad sort of man, but not influential any way. Mr. Fisher also officiated at the Cathedral. Not very much in him.

It appeared that about this time Col. Yule came into official notice as consulting engineer, for I find I conferred with Col. Bakerand Capt. Yule about Soane Bridge plans on the 20th March. Yule was by far the best of all the men I met with as consulting engineers in India.

The Bengal Government appointed me a Commissioner about the drainage and sewerage of Calcutta this month.

I was excessively anxious at this time that round well foundations should be adopted, in place of the square block foundations, with cellular openings, as carried out by Col. Cautley on the Ganges Canal. The square block foundations were wrong in principle, but by admirable management on the part of Col. Cautley and his officers, they were quite successful on the Ganges Canal works. The reason is obvious enough, and it is a wonder that Col. Cautley and Major Baker and Yule did not see it at once. Square, or rectangular blocks were at first used on the Beerbhoom District in Mr. Sibley’s time, but they were found objectionable, and were not repeated on any other part of the line.

The difficulty we found with the square block foundations was, that in sinking through sand the pit, or hole assumes a circular shape both at top and bottom ; consequently a rectangular block does not fit the shape of the sand hole, and the block is apt to hang at the four corners ; and not only is it difficult to make it settle down equally on all sides, but it is apt to fracture in the middle of the block, or at the parts that are unsupported.

It is quite evident that the block will hang at several points, and unless the wooden framework is very strong, fracture or cracking will occur in the sides.

This arrangement seems to act very well where there are rows of blocks, such as in the long wing walls and the long piers of the Solani Acqueduct on the Ganges Canal, but where there is only a single, or isolated block, or two blocks, forming the pier of a bridge, a circular brick well is far better, as it is evident that the circular form accommodates itself to the shape of the sand-hole, and is equally supported all round. A long discussion about this took place between Col. Baker, Col. Yule and me. In the end it was settled that I should have my way, and that large well foundations should be used or adopted at the Soane Bridge, the Hullohur, and other large bridges. Various experiments were made at this time in well-sinking through sand. Mr. R. V. Boyle reported the successful sinking of the trial-well into the red clay in the bed of the River Soane, through thirty feet of sand.

April. On the 5th, nine new engineers arrived from England, and three inspectors. Allen, Browning, Baillie, Carter, Kelly, Ronayne, Cummins, Chambers; the junior engineers at a salary of £250.

On the 10th, excursion on the Saltwater Lake in furtherance of Calcutta drainage investigation with Peterson, Capt. Young, De Bourbel and Gayliffe. Several tours were afterwards made all round Calcutta ; Mr. Roe was very useful, and we examined all the outlets into the circular canal.

On the 24th, the Commission met and examined Mr. W. Clark, and went fully into his schemes which were generally very good. Clark was at that time engineer to the Muncipal Corporation of Calcutta.

May. There was a great contention at this time between Mr. James Hunt the contractor, and the Railway Company, about the Allahabad contract, and E. Purser came down about the 1st. Sandes and Watts were the company’s solicitors.

This was an unhealthy year, many of the engineers fell ill, and it was difficult to make immediate arrangements about carrying on the works. Mr. Goldsmid, the resident engineer at Bandel, fell ill and was in a dangerous state.

On the 14th, there was a violent storm of wind and rain, a cyclone it proved to be: Fanny and I and Miss Victor and Mantell, were out in the carriage on the Mydan, and were caught in the storm. A large branch of a tree was broken off and thrown across the drive, the horses took fright and leaped over the low paling on the course, and the carriage stuck fast. After a hard fight with the weather all got home safely, only all thoroughly soaked. We had a small dinner party the same day, of Dr. Webb, Purser, Mantell, Miss Victor, &c.

On the i6th, Fanny was unwell, Dr. Webb said it was influenza, most likely brought on by the storm and shock, and getting wet.

Goldsmid died. On the 17th poor Goldsmid died at Spencer’s Hotel, early in the morning, and was buried the same day at 6 o’clock p.m. Leahy, Whitcombe, Burrows, and I attended the funeral. He was nephew to Baron Goldsmid.

June. Walter King, district engineer, died at Luckeserai on the 8th June. He was a very fine young man, of great promise, much esteemed by all who knew him, and a most able energetic man. He left a wife, but no children.

Through Messrs. Sandes and Watt’s advice it was agreed to refer Hunt and Emsley’s case to arbitration.

July. Nelly born. On the 14th of this month, Nelly was born at 20 minutes before 5 p.m. Dr. Webb attended, also Mrs. Murray the nurse.

Fanny was very feverish for sometime at first, the weather being very hot, but on the 24th she was so much better that I left Calcutta to inspect the works, but returned next day.

August. On the 1st, went out with Fanny for a drive, the first time since the birth of the baby.

On the 9th, went with her to the cathedral, and Mr. Fisher read the service as to churching of women, at 7 a.m. Next day being Sunday, both of us went to the cathedral. Same night I had an attack of fever, but it did not last long. Dr. Webb was very attentive and kind, as he always was. On the 18th, I was weighed at Cuthberton’s shop, result i o stone 3 lbs., I was then well, only weak.

On the 20th, the following words were written in my diary:— “My dear little Mary Ellen was baptized to-day in the cathedral, Calcutta, by Mr. Fisher. Mr. Thomas Leahy stood as godfather, Mrs. Key, godmother by proxy for Mrs. Joseph Cubitt, and my dear Fanny proxy for Mary Cleverly. Present, Cecil Stephenson, Miss Victor, Mrs. Murray and Mrs. Maloney.”

27th. Meredith Townsend, editor of “The Friend of India” (he is now editor of the London “ Spectator”), was nominated as Hunt’s arbitrator in the railway contract dispute. Conferred with him about it in a very careful way, as I knew I would be a witness under examination by-and-bye.

September. There was an unusally high flood at this time, so off by steam boat on the 5th, with Hellyer, Capt. Crommelin, Nelson, Capt. Layard and others. Progress must have been slow against the current, as we anchored at Chandernagore ; on the Sth at Berharnpore ; Rajmahal on the nth. Vaux was at Rajmahal. Reached Monghyr on the 14th, and so on, examining flooded lands to see how much flood openings would be required. A very difficult task as the data were so few. In the Hullohur flooded flat for example, Capt. Crommelin and I found the current flowing inland from the Ganges, instead of the natural way draining into the Ganges ; it was sliding along at 2J miles an hour. I had one of Massey’s patent logs and a Hydrometrical Fly for measuring current velocities, which Crommelin had not seen before.

The explanation of the difficulty is not far to seek, but it did not occur to us at the time; it is this merely, that when the rainfall on the north side of the Ganges is greater than that on the south side, and at the same time heavy, the rivers on the north side, some of them very large, fill up the great river, and the water flows up the beds of the rivers on the south side of the Ganges ; hence the anomaly of the current running up the wrong way, so to speak.

October. We saw a good deal of Dr. Chevers at this time. Dr. Bedford very ill.

Dinner party on the 9th; Mantell, Slessor, Anley, Le Mesurier, Hellyer, Campbell and some others. On the 17th, dinner party; Col. Goodwyn, Mrs. Key, Capt. Crommelin, T. Leahy, Mr. and Mrs. Clark; so we seemed to have been doing the hospitalities in a quiet way in those days.

On the 18th, we heard that Dr. Bedford had died on board the “ Alma,” on his way to Madras.

On the 26th, a memo, that we went to the cathedral with Harry Ramsbotham. Poor fellow! He died 1862.

November. There was much trouble at this time about various contracts. Ward & Co’s, contract in which Mr. Peterson had the leading share, went wrong through the mismanagement of Joshua Jenkinson, to call it by no worse a name, and it was agreed to take it off their hands. Similarly, Nelson & Co’s., Rajmahal contract went all wrong; they had taken it too cheap. George Freer Smith was a partner, and he sadly neglected his work; Atkinson was another partner, and he was quite incompetent, so the works came almost to a standstill.

On the 4th, the last meeting of the Calcutta Drainage Committee was held at Peterson’s, and the draft report was read and considered. Members of committee present were David Cowie, Peterson, Capt. De Bourbel, Capt. Young and myself. The scheme recommended, was the construction of new sewers converging to a main outlet into the Saltwater Lake to the east of Calcutta. This was ultimately carried into effect under the management of William Clark, and was very successful, and a great boon to the inhabitants. A rival project was discussed for a long time, which proposed letting all the sewage into the River Hooghly opposite the town, but fortunately it was abandoned.

On the 6th, judgment was given by Sir James Colville, in Burn & Co’s, case ; they claimed from the Railway Company for various “ extras ” to their contract the sum of Rs. 145,303

Sir James awarded them 9,789

Difference 135,514

December. Messrs. Hunt & Co’s. arbitration case was almost decided. Mr. Wylie, the barrister, was referee. He awarded them nothing, not only that, but he assessed them in damages to a considerable amount to be paid to the Railway Company. I find no note of the amount in my diary.

On the 6th, Fanny and I left Howrah by train at 9.20, and on to Burd wan and got into our tents there, taking Nelly with us, then not quite five months old. We went leisurely along the line inspecting the works. On Sunday the 14th, we were at Rampore Hant, Perryshingslow. On Sunday the 21st, we were at Rajmahal; on the 28th, at Colgong.

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