Cork, | Monday
My dear Father
Our doom having been sealed and our sailing warrant signed I hasten to say that we start from this on Friday next at 3 o’clock.
We were to sail on Friday last,1 but owing to the unfinished state of the work we were detained a week. We expect a pleasant trip, as the weather is likely to continue fine, some of our fellows are sick in anticipation. For my part, I dont think my stomach will get a single turn. Its too well toned. As I have a good deal of business on hand I must cut this short. The next time my mother sees me she may expect a little of the English twang on my tongue. Give my love to her and Emma. I suppose she thinks a trip to England a great thing. For my part I care no more about it than a trip to Carlow.
I cant say where we’ll be stationed, as we have been applied for by every officer in England. A Capt in Skipton2 applied for four of us. I was among the number. They imagine I suppose that they may expect to find passable draftsmen among us.
Pardon this hurried scrawl
I remain | Your affectionate son | John
I’ll write to you when I get settled in England. You need not write until you hear from me again.
RI MS JT 1/10/3276
LT Transcript Only
We were to sail on Friday last: 29 July 1842; see letter 0154.
A Capt in Skipton: Tyndall possibly means Lieutenant Henry James (see letter 0097, n. 16), although he was not made a Captain in the Royal Engineers until 1846. Many surveyors from the C District of the Irish Ordnance Survey, including Thomas Charles Higginson, had already been sent to Skipton, a market town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in September 1841; see letter 0096.
Please cite as “Tyndall0156,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on