The best native pilots had been
procured. Colonel Hunter and the naval officers under Commander Colville
directed the work. The boat had been carefully prepared for the ordeal.
To reduce, by raising the free-board, the risk of swamping, the bows were
heightened and strengthened, and stout wooden bulwarks were built running
from bow to stern. Guns and ammunition were then removed, and the vessel
lightened by every possible means. A strop of wire rope was passed
completely round the hull, and to this strong belt the five cables were
fastened--two on each side and one at the bow. So steep was the slope of
the water that it was found necessary to draw all the fires, and the
steamer was thus dependent entirely upon external force. It was luckily
possible to obtain a direct pull, for a crag of black rock rose above the
surface of the pool opposite the 'Gate.' On this a steel block was fixed,
and the hawser was led away at right angles until it reached the east bank,
where a smooth stretch of sand afforded a convenient place for the hauling
parties. Two thousand men were then set to pull at the cables, yet such was
the extraordinary force of the current that, although the actual distance
in which these great efforts were necessary was scarcely one hundred yards,
the passage of each steamer occupied an hour and a half, and required the
most strenuous exertions of the soldiers.
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