Rail to the Rescue - Part 2
The men who worked on the railways had fetched up there for many reasons. The significant Irish contingent, fleeing from famine and mortal poverty. Redundant agricultural workers from the shires, victims of the industrial revolution. Free spirits from the industrial centres, refusing to submit to the tyranny of factory work. Traditional rural-based craftsmen, whose skills had been duplicated in faster working machines. And the universal unemployed, desperate to keep them and theirs one step beyond the workhouse gate. But however diverse their backgrounds, as navvies they displayed common characteristics and purpose. Though coarse in speech and manners, there was a definite nobility about their pride in their strength and endurance. They would bear the most uncomfortable and dangerous working conditions without complaint, tunnelling through solid rock partly submerged in freezing water, chopping through avalanche-prone hillsides, following their bizarre self-imposed convention of working in absolute silence.
As the supervisors organised themselves into two interview teams, Beatty outlined the terms of service for the men. Daily pay five to eight shillings depending on their trade level, plus clothing and Army (Commissariat) rations. Free passage to and from the Crimea. The men to supply their own tools. No man to be hired unless known to at least one of the four of them. All those hired to sign the preprinted form acknowledging Beatty's authority over them, including acceptance of discipline and punishment. There was also a standard form for them to make voluntary allotments from their pay to their families in Britain.
And so the interview programme got under way, in a highly boisterous atmosphere - the pub landlords in the area were quick to react to the presence of such serious custom compelled to hang around. Beatty was primarily looking for youth and strength in his navvies, although he included a fair sprinkling of older more experienced men. He was lucky that the war had caused a run down on domestic rail projects and men who had proved their worth regularly in the the past to the Company were in abundance. By the time darkness fell they had taken on nearly 300 men. As they left the office they were mobbed by the queues and only escaped by announcing that they would be back on Monday morning at 7 am.
Before going home, Beatty called in to the office to compare notes with Betts, who had spent an equally busy day, raising orders for their requirements
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