Cove | March 6th. 1843
My dear Tyndall
Many thanks for the very beautiful specimen you sent me1 It is exactly the sort of thing I wanted – I do not in the least wonder at your not being able to send it to me before Indeed I should think from your account of your time that you have not one spare hour of daylight in the week I am at present staying at Cove2 so that I did not receive your packet3 as soon as I should had you directed it to Cove, as it lay in Cork till I went up there – I have very little time to give up to doing the plans as my examinations in college are so near that I must devote most of my time to reading for them however I have it all nearly done except the writing – There was a large ship of war in Cove harbour which I went to see with a party – the ladies of our party were hoisted up on deck in an arm chair – She was the first man of war I ever saw and certainly was one of the most wonderful sights. She came to carry out the first battalion of the 45 Regiment4 there were 420 rank and file add to that 650 men belonging to the vessel herself besides the officers of both the Regiment and the vessel and think of how much provision she must carry to feed such a multitude for a voyage of 9 weeks or perhaps three months.5 Her name was the ‘Thunderer’6 and she was bound for the Cape of Good Hope.7 Her midship men8 were the most gentlemenlike and nicest young lads I ever saw nothing could equal their kindness and attention while showing the vessel.
There also put in here a Frigate the ‘Calliope’9 26 guns from China she put in here for water of which she had run short but I did not go to see her she sailed leaving two of her officers behind who were obliged to follow her or rather to get to their destination before her which was Portsmouth in the Bristol Steamer10 and take the railroad from that, they expected to be there before her Of course you have heard of Major Waters (or as he was called in the office ‘the Major’ very emphatically) being sent to Barbadoes.11 I was very sorry at his being sent abroad but he was very fortunate in getting so favourable a station as Barbadoes which is a very good climate. However he expects soon to be promoted and then he will return home again. The first time you are writing to Mr Eivers will you tell him that I would have answered his kind letter but that I am quite ignorant of his direction as he told me that he was about to move in a very short time after he wrote to me
I shall now bid you for the present good bye | and believe me | very sincerely and truly yours | J. B. Edgeworth
J. Tyndall Esq.
RI MS JT 1/11/3561
LT Transcript Only
the very beautiful specimen you sent me: presumably the drawing of ‘a block of houses with yards walls and a street and a shed all coloured as the Cork City streets’ that Edgeworth requested in letter 0179.
Cove: see letter 0068, n. 3.
your packet: letter missing.
the first battalion of the 45 Regiment: the Headquarters Battalion of the 45th Regiment of Foot.
a voyage of 9 weeks or perhaps three months: The voyage to the Cape of Good Hope lasted until 3 May 1843, so was in fact less than 8 weeks.
‘Thunderer’: HMS Thunderer was a two-deck 84-gun second rate ship of the line, launched in 1831.
Cape of Good Hope: The 45th Regiment was sent to the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to assist in establishing the Queen’s Authority in Natal, which George Napier, the Governor of Cape Colony, proclaimed a British Colony on 12 May 1843, nine days after the Thunderer arrived.
midship men: naval officers serving a three-year apprenticeship before being eligible for promotion to Lieutenant.
‘Calliope’: HMS Calliope was a 28-gun sixth rate ship of the line, launched in 1837. Between 1841 and 1842 she served at Canton during the First Anglo-Chinese War.
the Bristol Steamer: passenger and freight steamship service between Cork and Bristol run by the Bristol General Steam Navigation Company.
Major Waters … being sent to Barbadoes: see letter 0179, n. 3.
Please cite as “Tyndall0192,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0192