The life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Civil Engineer Part 4

I was looking about how to get down, when I saw Brunel descending by a rope to his a.s.sistance. I got hold of one of the iron ties, and slid down into the water hand over hand with a small rope, and tried to make it fast round his middle, whilst Brunel was doing the same. Having done it he called out, 'Haul up.' The man was hauled up. I swam about to see where to land. The shaft was full of casks.

Brunel had been swimming too.

The first alarm, as I heard it, was as follows: Goodwin, in No. 11, said to Roger, in the next box, 'Roger, come, help me.' Roger said, 'I can't, I have my second poling down, and my face will run in.'

In a little time Goodwin said, 'You must come,' which Mr. Beamish directed him to do. Roger turned round and saw Goodwin through a sheet of water. Corps, a bricklayer, went to help Goodwin: he was knocked down. Roger made his way alone, calling to Mr. Beamish, 'Come away, sir, 'tis no use to stay.' Roger saw Corps fairly washed out of his box like a lump of clay.

Sir Isambard's journal continues:--

_May 19._--Relieved as I have found myself, though by a terrible catastrophe, of the worst state of anxiety, that which I have been in for several weeks past, I had a most comfortable night. Isambard and Gravatt descended with the diving-bell, and stood upon the tails of Nos. 10, 11, and 12.

_May 20._--Having descended into the hole and probed the ground, I felt that the staves were in their places, and that the brickwork was quite sound. It is evident that the great hole has been a dredging spot. A large ma.s.s of bags full of clay, and united together with ropes, was let down. The Rotherhithe curate, in his sermon to-day, adverting to the accident, said it was a fatal accident, that it was but a just judgment upon the presumptuous aspirations of mortal men, &c.! The poor man!

_May 23._--Went with the diving-bell to examine the ground and the bags, which do apparently well, but it is working rather in the dark. It cannot, however, fail of making a much better stratum than that we had before. The plan is therefore good.

On the 30th a raft was sunk over the shield, and the water in the shaft was brought so low that the last flight of steps was visible. However, on the next day the river broke in again; and as it was found that the raft was open at the west side, it was raised and towed on sh.o.r.e.

_June 5._--There is much danger in getting out of the diving-bell, the bags are so loose in some places. One might sink and be swallowed, which had very nearly happened to-day. Isambard and Pinckney being down, the latter lost his hold. The footboard being accidentally carried away, he could not have recovered himself had not Isambard stretched out his leg to his a.s.sistance.

_June 17._--Visited by Charles Bonaparte. Isambard took him into the arch with the yawl. Isambard fell overboard.[20]

On June 19, a general meeting of the proprietors was held, to consider the position of the company. Sir Isambard addressed the meeting, and also presented a long report, in which he entered very fully into the circ.u.mstances of the recent accident and the causes which led to it. He then described the means he had taken to restore the works by sinking bags of clay and gravel. He adds: 'I have already succeeded in closing the hole through which the water first penetrated, and feel confident that the second opening which afterwards appeared is also stopped, but a short time is necessary to elapse for the new ground over the shield to settle and consolidate. It has already supported a head of water of thirty-five feet.'

_June 25._--At 7 P.M. made preparations to re-enter the shield.

Isambard, mustering the men who had been the last to quit the frames, told them they would be the first to take possession of them again--a precedence due, as he said, to them. Rogers, Ball, Goodwin, Corps, and Compton, were accordingly ordered to trim themselves for the expedition, provided with a phosphorus box, and dressed in light clothes, to be fit for a swim.

At about ten o'clock, Isambard and Mr. Beamish, accompanied by Ball and Woodward (miners), went down with the punt, and got to the large stage, the head of the crane just emerging. It was found impossible to get into the frames, as a mound of clay and silt closed the entrance. The centering was in place and quite sound, and of course the brickwork. Finding that they could not get nearer, they gave three cheers, which were rapturously answered by the men at the mouth of the Tunnel. Having placed candles upon the ground that closed the entrance, and upon the head of the crane, they returned. Isambard, having promised that the men who had left the frames last should be the first to re-enter, returned with them. This is a great day for our history!

_June 27._--Mr. Beamish was able to get to the frames, which he found firm and undisturbed.

A small tarpaulin was now spread over the frames, and operations commenced for cleaning them. This was a most difficult and dangerous work, especially as the water was still so high that the frames could only be approached by boats. The men, even the best hands, were at first greatly alarmed at the danger they were in; but the example set by Mr.

Brunel and Mr. Beamish produced, as Sir Isambard notes, the best effect, and they soon became reconciled to their situation.

_July 7._--Very uncomfortable in the frames; the candles cannot burn, the ventilation cannot act. Isambard went several times to-day down in the diving-bell. On one occasion the chain slipped through the stoppers, but most providentially it jammed itself tight before being altogether run out. _The consequence might indeed have been fatal._ Can there be a more anxious situation than that which I am constantly in? Not one moment of rest either of mind or body. Mr. Beamish always ready. Poor Isambard always at his post too, alternately below, or in the barges, and in the diving-bell.

On July 11, Sir Isambard thought that matters had so far advanced that a large tarpaulin, which it was proposed to sink over the frames, 'would have its full effect.' It was accordingly sunk on the following day, under the superintendence of Mr. Brunel. Sir Isambard adds to his account of the operation--'This reflects great credit on Isambard, and the apparent facility with which it was effected evinces his presence of mind, for a single _faux pas_ would have spoilt the whole.'[21]

_July 21._--During the early part of the night an alarm was given, by Fitzgerald calling for clay wedges, and exclaiming that the whole of the faces were coming in altogether. Rogers collected a quant.i.ty of wedges to go to the frames, but no boat was to be seen.

He called to the men in the frames, but received no answer. Taking the small boat in the east arch, he reached the frames, but found n.o.body, nor any appearance of derangement in the ground.

Conjecturing they might be drowned, he explored further, and saw the four men stretched on the small stage, not drowned, but sound asleep!

_July 26._--Water nearly out of the arches. For the first time we could walk to the frames--a most gratifying circ.u.mstance indeed!

_Two months and eight days._

_September 30._--How slow our progress must appear to others; but it is not so, if it is considered how much we have had to do in righting the frames and in repairing them; what with timbering, shoring, shipping and refitting--all these operations being in confined situations, the water bursting in occasionally, and the ground running in: in short, it is truly terrific to be in the midst of this scene. If to this we add the actual danger, magnified by the re-echoing of the pumps, and sometimes (still more awful warning!) the report of large pieces of cast iron breaking, it is in no way an exaggeration to say that such has been the state of things. Nevertheless, my confidence in the shield is not only undiminished--it is, on the contrary, tried with its full effect, and it is manifest now that it will soon replace us in good ground, and in a safe situation. No top staves have given way. That is our real protection.

_October 17._--At 2.15 A.M. Kemble, having first called upon Gravatt, came to Isambard in a hurry, and, quite stupefied with fright, told him that the water was in. Says Isambard--'I could not believe him. He said it was up the shaft when he came. This being like positive, I ran without a coat as fast as possible, giving a double knock at Gravatt's door in my way. I saw the men on the top, and heard them calling earnestly to those whom they fancied had not had time to escape. Nay, Miles had already, in his zeal for the aid of others, thrown a long rope, and was swinging it about, calling to the unfortunate sufferers to lay hold of it, encouraging and cheering those who might not find it, to swim to one of the landings. I immediately, I should say instantly, flew down the stairs. The shaft was completely dark. I expected at every step to splash into the water. Before I was aware of the distance I had run, I reached the frames in the east arch, and met there Pamphillon, who told me that nothing was the matter, but a small run in No. 1 top, where I found Huggins and the _corps d'elite_.

They were not even aware that any one had left the frames. The cause of the panic was one of the labourers; hearing the man in No.

1 call for Ball, he ran away, jumping off the stage, crying, "_Run, run, murder, murder; put the lights out._" His fellow-labourers followed like sheep, making the same vociferations.'

_November 10._--Isambard gave his entertainment to nearly forty persons, who sat at table in the Tunnel. Nothing could exceed the effect for brilliancy. About 120 men partook of a dinner in the adjoining arch.

As the year drew to a close, the difficulty of working the silt increased, and with this difficulty increased also the expense of maintaining the staff of men required. On December 18, Mr. Brunel, writing for his father, who was absent from town for a few days, thus describes the nature of the soil through which they were then pa.s.sing.

The state of the ground over Nos. 1, 2, and 3 top has caused considerable delay, particularly this week, although not such as to give any cause of anxiety as to our future rate of progress, or to have any serious effect except the increased expense incidental to this delay. My father desired me to describe to the Board the causes of these difficulties. There is a considerable spring at this point, and a corresponding soft part in the bed of the river, which seems to indicate the rising of the spring. The ground in the neighbourhood is affected by this spring in rather a peculiar manner: at the half-flood tide the pressure is greatest: dry hard clay oozes with great force through openings hardly observable, the silt and water running by starts. At high-water the pressure and quant.i.ty of water begin to diminish and on the ebb-tide the ground is hard and dry, and can be worked with ease. On the flood-tide there are as many as twelve and fifteen of the best hands, besides myself (or one of my a.s.sistants) and the foreman, engaged entirely at one face.

On January 1, 1828, Sir Isambard returned to London; and on the 12th, when about 600 feet of the Tunnel had been completed, a second irruption occurred, which put a stop to the works for seven years.

The particulars of this accident are thus described by Mr. Brunel, in a letter to the Directors of the Company:--

I had been in the frames (shield) with the workmen throughout the whole night, having taken my station there at ten o'clock. During the workings through the night, no symptoms of insecurity appeared.

At six o'clock this morning (the visual time for shifting the men) a fresh set or shift of the men came on to work. We began to work the ground at the west top corner of the frame: the tide had just then begun to flow; and finding the ground tolerably quiet, we proceeded by beginning at the top, and had worked about a foot downwards, when on exposing the next six inches, the ground swelled suddenly, and a large quant.i.ty burst through the opening thus made.

This was followed instantly by a large body of water. The rush was so violent as to force the man on the spot, where the burst took place, out of the frame (or cell) on to the timber stage behind the frames. I was in the frame with the man, but upon the rush of the water I went into the next box (or cell), in order to command a better view of the irruption, and seeing that there was no possibility of then opposing the water, I ordered all the men in the frames to retire. All were retiring, except the three men who were with me, and they retreated with me. I did not leave the stage until those three were down the ladder of the frames, when they and I proceeded about twenty feet along the west arch of the Tunnel. At this moment the agitation of the air, by the rush of water, was such as to extinguish all the lights, and the water had gained the height of our waists. I was at that moment giving directions to the three men, in what manner they ought to proceed in the dark to effect their escape, when they and I were knocked down, and covered with a part of the timber stage. I struggled under water for some time, and at length extricated myself from the stage, and by swimming and being forced by the water, I gained the eastern arch where I got a better footing, and was enabled by laying hold of the railway rope, to pause a little, in the hope of encouraging the men who had been knocked down at the same time with myself. This I endeavoured to do by calling to them. Before I reached the shaft the water had risen so rapidly that I was out of my depth, and therefore swam to the visitors' stairs, the stairs for the workmen being occupied by those who had so far escaped. My knee was so injured by the timber stage that I could scarcely swim, or get up the stairs, but the rush of the water carried me up the shaft. The three men who had been knocked down with me were unable to extricate themselves, and I am grieved to say, they are lost; and I believe also two old men, and one young man, in other parts of the work.

This statement Sir Isambard embodied in a report to the Directors of January 28, which was circulated among the proprietors.

As soon as the first excitement caused by the irruption had ceased, Mr.

Brunel directed the diving-bell to be prepared in order to ascertain the state of the shield and the extent of the disturbance of the bed of the river caused by the rush of water into the Tunnel.

He was, however, so seriously injured that he could not actively superintend the preparations, but his orders were given with his usual clearness, calmness, and decision; and as soon as the barge containing the diving-bell was properly moored over the Tunnel, he was carried out and laid upon a mattress on the deck of the barge, that he might direct what was to be done.

As evening came on he became so much worse that he was taken into the cabin; but everything which took place was reported to him.

At length, the bell being ready, it was lowered early on the Sunday morning, but the chain not being long enough, proceedings were delayed until a longer chain could be obtained.

As, however, a chain of the right size and length could not be obtained, the strongest cable which could be procured in the neighbourhood was subst.i.tuted for the chain. A controversy then arose between the a.s.sistant engineers and the foremen as to the sufficiency of the strength of the cable; and it was agreed to consult and to abide by the opinion of Mr. Brunel, who was then lying in great pain in the cabin.

No answer could be obtained from him for some minutes, and then he only said, 'Don't go down.' This not being satisfactory to the advocates of the sufficiency of the cable, it was agreed to lower the bell empty, which was done, and it was brought up safely; but just as it was swung over the barge, the rope broke and the bell fell on to the stage.

The next day Mr. Brunel was taken home, when it was found that, besides the injury to his knee which he received while endeavouring to save the lives of the three men who were with him,[22] he had received serious internal injuries, which kept him under medical treatment for several months.

When he was able to return to Rotherhithe all hope of continuing the works was for the time abandoned. When they were resumed, in 1835, he was entirely engrossed in the independent pursuit of his profession; and, with the exception of a few occasions when he acted for his father, he had no further connection with the Tunnel.

It is not, therefore, necessary to continue the narrative in detail; but a brief summary of the subsequent history of the enterprise may be interesting to those who are unacquainted with it.

The Tunnel was cleared of water, and efforts were made, unfortunately without success, to raise funds for the completion of the undertaking.

Great enthusiasm was exhibited by the general public and by many eminent persons, including the Duke of Wellington; but the money was not forthcoming, and nothing was left but to brick in the shield, and wait for more favourable times.

It was not till the beginning of 1835 that the Company was able, by the aid of a loan from Government, to recommence the works. The old shield was removed and a new one subst.i.tuted, in which considerable improvements were introduced. Slings connecting the frames were added, which enabled each frame to support its neighbours when necessary, and important alterations were also made in the arrangements for keeping the frames at the right distance from one another, and for giving greater facility of adjustment to the various parts.

Before the Wapping side was reached there were three more irruptions of the river, namely, August 23, November 3, 1837, and March 21, 1838; but in October 1840 the shaft on the Wapping sh.o.r.e was commenced. It differed from the Rotherhithe shaft, in being sunk the whole depth without underpinning, and was made of a slightly conical form, to reduce the friction in sinking, and had a larger quant.i.ty of iron hoops introduced into the brickwork, in order to increase its strength. When this structure had been sunk to the required depth (70 feet), the excavation of the Tunnel was resumed, and at last the shield was brought up to the brickwork of the shaft. The operation of making the junction between the Tunnel and the shaft was one of much difficulty, but it was at length satisfactorily accomplished, and the Tunnel was opened to the public on March 25, 1843--eighteen years and twenty-three days after the commencement of the work.[23]

Sir Isambard Brunel, whose health had for some time been failing, now retired altogether from his professional labours. After pa.s.sing a few years in peaceful and happy seclusion, surrounded by those he loved, and watched over by their affectionate care, he died on December 12, 1849, in his 81st year, having been spared to carry to completion his greatest work, and to see his son following in his footsteps with a success which must have exceeded his most sanguine expectations.

The education Mr. Brunel received from his father was well calculated to form the foundation of his future career. During the later and more arduous part of the contest, which was ended by the irruption of January 1828, he held both the nominal and actual post of Resident Engineer of the Thames Tunnel; but from the commencement of the works, when he was only nineteen years old, he had been, as stated by Sir Isambard, 'a most valuable coadjutor in the undertaking.' While placed in this responsible position he acquired habits of endurance and of self-reliance, and learnt to act with prompt.i.tude and decision in the application of those measures which experience had shown to be effective in each particular cla.s.s of emergency. But beyond all other advantages, he had before him the example of his father's character, in which a rare degree of gentleness and modesty of disposition was joined to unflinching energy, and a determination to overcome all difficulties.