Progress of the work—1886. the anxieties of the work, I had determined to live as near to it as possible, and to keep the principal charge of it in my own hands.
My first lieutenant was Mr. F. R. Kenway. At the time the tunnel works were commenced by me, Mr. Kenway had been with me seven years on several railway contracts, the last of which were the East London and the Dover and Deal railways.
The post of first lieutenant at the Severn Tunnel was something like the post of first lieutenant on board a line-of-battle ship, with a good deal of responsibility, and a vast amount of detail to attend to; but as the other heads of departments, engineering machinery and works were men thoroughly competent to carry out their own parts, this labour was considerably lightened to him.
Mr. A. O. Schenk was chief of my engineering staff, and was responsible for all the setting out, a work which he performed in a manner most highly creditable to him. Giving the lines in a tunnel is always a difficult operation, and requires great care. In the Severn Tunnel the difficulties were much greater than in an ordinary tunnel.
Mr. Schenk had been a pupil of Sir William Armstrong’s, and was therefore a thoroughly mechanical, as well as civil engineer. His assistance in the mechanical department was often of the greatest value, and his application of compressed air to the pumps for lowering the heading proved a perfect success; and some of the setting out was really extraordinary.
