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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph, by Henry
+M. (Henry Martyn) Field
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
+
+
+Author: Henry M. (Henry Martyn) Field
+
+
+
+Release Date: December 27, 2010  [eBook #34765]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC
+TELEGRAPH***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Stephen H. Sentoff, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 34765-h.htm or 34765-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34765/34765-h/34765-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34765/34765-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/storyofatlantict00fielrich
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH
+
+by
+
+HENRY M. FIELD
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DR. FIELD'S BOOKS OF TRAVEL.
+
+
+     FROM THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY TO THE GOLDEN HORN. Crown 8vo,
+     $2.00.
+
+     FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN. Crown 8vo, $2.00.
+
+     ON THE DESERT. Crown 8vo, $2.00.
+
+     AMONG THE HOLY HILLS. With a map. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
+
+     THE GREEK ISLANDS, and Turkey after the War. With illustrations
+     and maps. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
+
+     OLD SPAIN AND NEW SPAIN. With map. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
+
+     BRIGHT SKIES AND DARK SHADOWS. With maps. Crown 8vo, $1.50
+
+          _The set, 7 vols., in a box, $12.00._
+
+     OUR WESTERN ARCHIPELAGO. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, $2.00.
+
+     THE BARBARY COAST. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, $2.00.
+
+     GIBRALTAR. Illustrated. Small 4to, $2.00.
+
+
+     THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. Illustrated. 12mo, $1.50.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cyrus W. Field.]
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH
+
+by
+
+HENRY M. FIELD
+
+
+"Since the discovery of Columbus, nothing has been done in any degree
+comparable to the vast enlargement which has thus been given to the
+sphere of human activity."
+
+                              --THE TIMES, August 6th, 1858.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+Charles Scribner's Sons
+1898
+
+Copyright, 1892, by
+Henry M. Field.
+
+Press of J. J. Little & Co.
+Astor Place, New York
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The recent death of Mr. Cyrus W. Field recalls attention to the great
+enterprise with which his name will be forever associated. "The Atlantic
+Telegraph," said the late Chief Justice Chase, "is the most wonderful
+achievement of civilization, and entitles its author to a distinguished
+rank among public benefactors. High upon that illustrious roll will his
+name be placed, and there will it remain while oceans divide, and
+telegraphs unite, mankind." The memory of such an achievement the world
+should not let die. The story of its varied fortunes reads like a tale
+of adventure. From the beginning it was a series of battles, fighting
+against the elements and against the unbelief of men. This long struggle
+the new generation may forget, profiting by the result, but thinking
+little of the means by which it was attained. What toil of hand and
+brain had gone before; what days and nights of watching and weariness;
+how often hope deferred had made the heart sick: how year after year had
+dragged on, and seen the end still afar off--all that is dimly
+remembered, even by those who reap the fruits of victory. And yet in the
+history of human achievements, it is necessary to trace these
+beginnings step by step, if we would learn the lesson they teach, that
+it is only out of heroic patience and perseverance that anything truly
+great is born.
+
+Twelve years of unceasing toil was the price the Atlantic Telegraph cost
+its projector; and not years lighted up by the assurance of success, but
+that were often darkened with despair: years in which he was restlessly
+crossing and recrossing the ocean, only to find on either side, worse
+than storms and tempests, an incredulity which sneered at every failure,
+and derided the attempt as a delusion and a dream. Against such
+discouragements nothing could prevail but that faith, or fanaticism,
+which, believing the incredible, achieves the impossible. Such a tale,
+apart from the results, is in itself a lesson and an inspiration.
+
+In attempting to chronicle all this, the relation of the writer to the
+prime mover has given him facilities for obtaining the materials of an
+authentic history; but he trusts that it will not lead him to overstep
+the limits of modesty. Standing by a new-made grave, he has no wish to
+indulge in undue praise even of the beloved dead. Enough for him is it
+to unroll the canvas on which the chief actor stands forth as the
+conspicuous figure. But in a work of such magnitude there are many
+actors, and there is glory enough for all; and it is a sacred duty to
+the dead to recognize, as he did, what was due to the brave companions
+in arms, who stood by him in disaster and defeat; who believed in him
+even when his own countrymen doubted and despaired; and furnished anew
+men and money and ships for the final conquest of the sea. If history
+records that the enterprise of the Atlantic Telegraph owed its inception
+to the faith and daring of an American, it will also record that all his
+ardor and activity would have been of no avail but for the science and
+seamanship, the capital and the undaunted courage, of England. But when
+all these conditions were supplied, it is the testimony of Englishmen
+themselves that his was the spirit within the wheels that made them
+revolve; that it was his intense vitality that infused itself into a
+great organization, and made the dream of science the reality of the
+world. This is not to his honor alone: it is a matter of national pride;
+and Americans may be pardoned if, in the year in which they celebrate
+the discovery of the continent, they recall that it was one of their
+countrymen whom the Great Commoner of England, John Bright, pronounced
+"the Columbus of our time, who, after no less than forty voyages across
+the Atlantic in pursuit of the great aim of his life, had at length by
+his cable moored the New World close alongside the Old." How the miracle
+was wrought, it is the design of these pages to tell.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I.                                                        Page 1
+
+     Discovery of the New World by Columbus. Relative Position
+     of the Two Hemispheres. Nearest Points--The Outlying
+     Islands, Ireland and Newfoundland. Shorter Route to Europe
+     suggested by Bishop Mullock. The Electric Telegraph Company
+     of Newfoundland. Project of Mr. F. N. Gisborne. Failure of
+     the Company
+
+CHAPTER II.                                                      Page 15
+
+     Mr. Gisborne comes to New York. Is introduced to Cyrus W.
+     Field, who conceives the Idea of a Telegraph across the
+     Atlantic Ocean. Is it Practicable? Two Elements to be
+     mastered, the Sea and the Electric Current. Letters of
+     Lieutenant Maury and Professor Morse
+
+CHAPTER III.                                                     Page 24
+
+     Mr. Field enlists Capitalists in the Enterprise. Commission
+     to Newfoundland to obtain a Charter. The New York,
+     Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company
+
+CHAPTER IV.                                                      Page 38
+
+     The Land-Line in Newfoundland. Four Hundred Miles of Road
+     to be built, a Work of Two Years. Attempt to lay a Cable
+     across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in 1855, fails. A Second
+     Attempt, in 1856, is successful
+
+CHAPTER V.                                                       Page 51
+
+     Deep-Sea Soundings by Lieutenant Berryman in the Dolphin in
+     1853, and the Arctic in 1856, and by Commander Dayman, of
+     the British Navy, in the Cyclops, in 1857. The Bed of the
+     Atlantic. The Telegraphic Plateau
+
+CHAPTER VI.                                                      Page 69
+
+     Mr. Field in London. The English Engineers and
+     Electricians. Result of Experiments. The Atlantic Telegraph
+     Company organized. Applies to the Government for Aid.
+     Contract for a Cable
+
+CHAPTER VII.                                                     Page 91
+
+     Mr. Field returns to America. Seeks Aid from the
+     Government. Opposition in Congress. Bill passed
+
+CHAPTER VIII.                                                   Page 112
+
+     Return to England. The Niagara--Captain Hudson. The
+     Agamemnon. Expedition of 1857 sails from Ireland. Speech of
+     the Earl of Carlisle. The Cable broken
+
+CHAPTER IX.                                                     Page 142
+
+     Preparations for an Expedition in 1858. Mr. Field is made
+     the General Manager of the Company. The Squadron assemble
+     at Plymouth, and put to Sea, June 10. New Method of laying
+     Cable, beginning in Mid-Ocean. The Agamemnon in Danger of
+     being Foundered. The Cable lost Three Times. The Ships
+     return to England. Meeting of the Directors. Shall they
+     abandon the Project? One Last Effort
+
+CHAPTER X.                                                      Page 165
+
+     Second Expedition Successful. Cable landed in Ireland and
+     Newfoundland
+
+CHAPTER XI.                                                     Page 188
+
+     Great Excitement in America. Celebration in New York and
+     other Cities
+
+CHAPTER XII.                                                    Page 213
+
+     Sudden Stoppage of the Cable. Reaction of Public Feeling.
+     Suspicions of Bad Faith. Did the Cable ever work?
+
+CHAPTER XIII.                                                   Page 229
+
+     Attempts to revive the Company. The Government asked for
+     Aid, but declines to give an Unconditional Guarantee.
+     Failure of the Red Sea Telegraph. Scientific Experiments.
+     Cables laid in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf.
+     Brief History of the next Five Years
+
+CHAPTER XIV.                                                    Page 241
+
+     The Enterprise renewed. Improvement on the Old Cable. The
+     Great Eastern and Captain Anderson. Expedition of 1865.
+     Twelve Hundred Miles laid safely, when the Cable is broken
+
+CHAPTER XV.                                                     Page 293
+
+     Formation of a New Company, the Anglo-American. New Cable
+     made and shipped on Board the Great Eastern
+
+CHAPTER XVI.                                                    Page 306
+
+     The Expedition of 1866. Immense Preparations. Religious
+     Service at Valentia. Sailing of the Fleet. Diary of the
+     Voyage. Cable landed at Heart's Content
+
+CHAPTER XVII.                                                   Page 347
+
+     Return to Mid-Ocean to search for the Cable lost the Year
+     before. Dragging in the Deep Sea. Repeated Failures. Cable
+     finally recovered and completed to Newfoundland
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.                                                  Page 376
+
+     The Afterglow. Honors conferred in England and America.
+     Commercial Revolution wrought by the Cable. Mr. Field and
+     the Elevated Railroads in New York City. Tour round the
+     World. Last Years. Death in 1892
+
+
+
+
+STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BARRIER OF THE SEA.
+
+
+When Columbus sailed from the shores of Spain, it was not in search of a
+New World, but only to find a nearer path to the East. He sought a
+western passage to India. He had adopted a traditionary belief that the
+earth was round; but he did not once dream of another continent than the
+three which had been the ancient abodes of the human race--Europe, Asia,
+and Africa. All the rest was the great deep. The Florentine sage
+Toscanelli, from his knowledge of the world so far as then discovered,
+had made a chart, on which the eastern coast of Asia was represented as
+lying opposite to the western coast of both Europe and Africa. Accepting
+this theory, Columbus reasoned that he could sail direct from Spain to
+India. No intervening continent existed even in his imagination. Even
+after he had crossed the Atlantic, and descried the green woods of San
+Salvador rising out of the western seas, he thought he saw before him
+one of the islands of the Asiatic coast. Cuba he believed was a part of
+the mainland of India; Hayti was the Ophir of King Solomon; and when,
+on a later voyage, he came to the broad mouth of the Orinoco, and saw it
+pouring its mighty flood into the Atlantic, he rejoiced that he had
+found the great river Gihon, which had its rise in the garden of Eden!
+Even to the hour of his death, he remained ignorant of the real extent
+of his magnificent discovery. It was reserved to later times to lift the
+curtain fully from the world of waters; to reveal the true magnitude of
+the globe; and to unite the distant hemispheres by ties such as the
+great discoverer never knew.
+
+It is hard to imagine the darkness and the terror which then hung over
+the face of the deep. The ocean to the west was a Mare Tenebrosum--a Sea
+of Darkness, into which only the boldest voyagers dared to venture.
+Columbus was the most successful navigator of his time. He had made
+voyages to the Western Islands, to Madeira and the Canaries, to Iceland
+on the north, and to the Portuguese settlements in Africa. But when he
+came to cross the sea, he had to grope his way almost blindly. But a few
+rays of knowledge glimmered, like stars, on the pathless waters. When he
+sailed on his voyage of discovery, he directed his course, first to the
+Canaries, which was a sort of outstation for the navigators of those
+times, as the last place at which they could take in supplies; and
+beyond which they were venturing into unknown seas. Here he turned to
+the west, though inclining southward toward the tropics (for even the
+great discoverers of that day, in their search for new realms to
+conquer, were not above the consideration of riches as well as honor,
+and somehow associated gems and gold with torrid climes), and bore away
+for India!
+
+From this route taken by the great navigator, he crossed the ocean in
+its widest part. Had he, instead, followed the track of the Northmen,
+who crept around from Iceland to Greenland and Labrador; or had he
+sailed straight to the Azores, and then borne away to the north-west, he
+would much sooner have descried land from the mast-head. But steering in
+darkness, he crossed the Atlantic where it is broadest _and deepest_;
+where, as submarine explorers have since shown, it rolls over mountains,
+lofty as the Alps and the Himalayas, which lie buried beneath the
+surface of the deep. But farther north the two continents, so widely
+sundered, incline toward each other, as if inviting that closer relation
+and freer intercourse which the fulness of time was to bring.
+
+As the island of Newfoundland is to stand in the foreground of our
+story, we observe on the map its salient geographical position. It holds
+the same relation to America that Ireland does to Europe. Stretching far
+out into the Atlantic, it is the vanguard of the western continent, or
+rather the signal-tower from which the New World may speak to the Old.
+
+And yet, though large as England, and so near our coast, few Americans
+ever see it, as it lies out of the track of European commerce. Our
+ships, though they skirt the Banks of Newfoundland, pass to the south,
+and get but occasional glimpses of the headlands. Even what is seen
+gives the country rather an ill reputation. It has a rockbound coast,
+around which hang perpetual fogs and mists, through which great icebergs
+drift slowly down, like huge phantoms of the deep, gliding away to be
+dissolved by the warm breath of the Gulf Stream: dangers that warn the
+voyager away from such a sea and shore.
+
+Sailing west from Cape Race, and making the circuit of the island as far
+as the Straits of Belle Isle, one is often reminded of the most northern
+peninsula of Europe. The rocky shores are indented with numerous bays,
+reaching far up into the land, like the fiords along the coast of
+Norway; while the large herds of Caribou deer, that are seen feeding on
+the hills, might easily be mistaken for the flocks of reindeer that
+browse on the pastures and drink of the mountain torrents of ancient
+Scandinavia.
+
+The interior of the island is little known. Not only is it uninhabited,
+it is almost unexplored, a boundless waste of rock and moor, where vast
+forests stretch out their unbroken solitudes, and the wild bird utters
+its lonely cry. Bears and wolves roam on the mountains. Especially
+common is the large and fierce black wolf; while of the smaller animals,
+whose skins furnish material for the fur-trade, such as martins and
+foxes, there is the greatest abundance. But from all pests of the
+serpent tribe, Newfoundland is as free as Ireland, which was delivered
+by the prayers of St. Patrick. There is not a snake or a frog or a toad
+in the island!
+
+Yet, even in this ruggedness of nature, there is a wild beauty, which
+only needs to be "clothed upon" by the hand of man. Newfoundland, in
+many of its features, is not unlike Scotland, even in its most desolate
+portions, where the rocky surface of the country, covered with thick
+moss, reminds the emigrant Scot of the heather on his native moors. In
+the interior are lakes as long as Loch Lomond, and mountains as lofty as
+Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis. There are passes as wild as the Vale of
+Glencoe, where one might feel that he is in the heart of the Highlands,
+while the roar of the torrents yet more vividly recalls the
+
+     Land of the brown heath and shaggy wood,
+     Land of the mountain and the flood.
+
+Yet in all this there is nothing to repel human habitation. By the hand
+of industry, these wild moors might be transformed into fruitful fields.
+We think it a very cold country, where winter reigns over half the year,
+as in Greenland; yet it is not so far north as Scotland, nor is its
+climate more inhospitable. It only needs the same population, the same
+hardy toil: and the same verdure would creep up its hill-sides, which
+now makes green and beautiful the loneliest of Scottish glens.
+
+But at present the country is a _terra incognita_. In the interior there
+are no towns and no roads. As yet almost the whole wealth of the island
+is drawn from the sea. Its chief trade is its fisheries, and the only
+places of importance are a few small towns, chiefly on the eastern side,
+which have grown up around the trading posts. Besides these, the only
+settlements are the fishermen's huts scattered along the coast. Hence
+the bishop of the island, when he would make his annual visit to his
+scattered flock, is obliged to sail around his diocese in his yacht,
+since even on horseback it would not be possible to make his way through
+the dense forests to the remote parts of the island. This first
+suggested the idea of cutting across the island a nearer way, not only
+for internal intercourse, but for those who were passing to and fro on
+the sea.
+
+It was in one of these excursions around the coast that the good Bishop
+Mullock, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland, when
+visiting the western portion of his diocese, lying one day becalmed in
+his yacht, in sight of Cape North, the extreme point of the province of
+Cape Breton, bethought himself how his poor neglected island might be
+benefited by being taken into the track of communication between Europe
+and America. He saw how nature had provided an easy approach to the
+mainland on the west. About sixty miles from Cape Ray stretched the long
+island of Cape Breton, while, as a stepping-stone, the little island of
+St. Paul's lay between. So much did it weigh upon his mind that, as soon
+as he got back to St. John's, he wrote a letter to one of the papers on
+the subject. As this was the first suggestion of a telegraph across
+Newfoundland, his letter is here given in full:
+
+     _To the Editor of the Courier_:
+
+     Sir: I regret to find that, in every plan for transatlantic
+     communication, Halifax is always mentioned, and the natural
+     capabilities of Newfoundland entirely overlooked. This has been
+     deeply impressed on my mind by the communication I read in your
+     paper of Saturday last, regarding telegraphic communication
+     between England and Ireland, in which it is said that the
+     nearest telegraphic station on the American side is Halifax,
+     twenty-one hundred and fifty-five miles from the west of
+     Ireland. Now would it not be well to call the attention of
+     England and America to the extraordinary capabilities of St.
+     John's, as the nearest telegraphic point? It is an Atlantic
+     port, lying, I may say, in the track of the ocean steamers, and
+     by establishing it as the American telegraphic station, news
+     could be communicated to the whole American continent
+     forty-eight hours, _at least_, sooner than by any other route.
+     But how will this be accomplished? Just look at the map of
+     Newfoundland and Cape Breton. From St. John's to Cape Ray there
+     is no difficulty in establishing a line passing near Holy-Rood
+     along the neck of land connecting Trinity and Placentia Bays,
+     and thence in a direction due west to the Cape. You have then
+     about forty-one to forty-five miles of sea to St. Paul's
+     Island, with deep soundings of one hundred fathoms, so that the
+     electric cable will be perfectly safe from icebergs. Thence to
+     Cape North, in Cape Breton, is little more than twelve miles.
+     Thus it is not only practicable to bring America two days
+     nearer to Europe by this route, but should the telegraphic
+     communication between England and Ireland, sixty-two miles, be
+     realized, it presents not the least difficulty. Of course, we
+     in Newfoundland will have nothing to do with the erection,
+     working, and maintenance of the telegraph; but I suppose our
+     Government will give every facility to the company, either
+     English or American, who will undertake it, as it will be an
+     incalculable advantage to this country. I hope the day is not
+     far distant when St. John's will be the first link in the
+     electric chain which will unite the Old World and the New.
+
+                              J. T. M.
+
+     St. John's, November 8, 1850.
+
+This suggestion came at the right moment, since it quickened, if it did
+not originate, the first attempt to link the island of Newfoundland with
+the mainland of America. For about the same time, the attention of Mr.
+Frederick N. Gisborne, a telegraph operator, was attracted to a similar
+project. Being a man of great quickness of mind, he instantly saw the
+importance of such a work, and took hold of it with enthusiasm. It might
+easily occur to him without suggestion from any source. He had had much
+experience in telegraphs, and was then engaged in constructing a
+telegraph line in Nova Scotia. Whether, therefore, the idea was first
+with him or with the bishop, is of little consequence. It might occur
+at the same time to two intelligent minds, and show the sagacity of
+both.
+
+But having taken hold of this idea, Mr. Gisborne pursued it with
+indomitable resolution. As the labors of this gentleman were most
+important in the beginning of this work, it is a pleasure to recognize
+his untiring zeal and energy. In assurance of this we could have no
+higher authority than the following from the late Mr. E. M. Archibald,
+who was at the time Attorney-General of Newfoundland, and afterwards for
+many years British Consul at New York:
+
+     "It was during the winter of 1849-50, that Mr. Gisborne, who
+     had been, as an engineer, engaged in extending the electric
+     telegraph through Lower Canada and New Brunswick to Halifax,
+     Nova Scotia, conceived the project of a telegraph to connect
+     St. John's, the most easterly port of America, with the main
+     continent. The importance of the geographical position of
+     Newfoundland, in the event of a telegraph ever being carried
+     across the Atlantic, was about the same time promulgated by Dr.
+     Mullock, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Newfoundland, in a St.
+     John's newspaper.
+
+     "In the spring of the following year (1851), Mr. Gisborne
+     visited Newfoundland, appeared before the Legislature, then in
+     session, and explained the details of his plan, which was an
+     overland line from St. John's to Cape Ray, nearly four hundred
+     miles in length, and (the submarine cable between Dover and
+     Calais not having then been laid) a communication between Cape
+     Ray and Cape Breton by steamer and carrier-pigeons,
+     eventually, it was hoped, by a submarine cable across the Gulf
+     of St. Lawrence. The Legislature encouraged the project,
+     granted £500 sterling to enable Mr. Gisborne to make an
+     exploratory survey of the proposed line to Cape Ray, and passed
+     an act authorizing its construction, with certain privileges,
+     and the appointment of commissioners for the purpose of
+     carrying it out. Upon this, Mr. Gisborne, who was then the
+     chief officer of the Nova Scotia Telegraph Company, returned to
+     that province, resigned his situation, and devoted himself to
+     the project of the Newfoundland telegraph. Having organized a
+     local company for the purpose of constructing the first
+     telegraph line in the island, from St. John's to Carbonear, a
+     distance of sixty miles, he, on the fourth of September, set
+     out upon the arduous expedition of a survey of the proposed
+     line to Cape Ray, which occupied upward of three months, during
+     which time himself and his party suffered severe privations,
+     and narrowly escaped starvation, having to traverse the most
+     rugged and hitherto unexplored part of the island.[A] On his
+     return, having reported to the Legislature favorably of the
+     project, and furnished estimates of the cost, he determined to
+     proceed to New York, to obtain assistance to carry it out....
+     Mr. Gisborne returned to St. John's in the spring of 1852,
+     when, at his instance, an act, incorporating himself (his being
+     the only name mentioned in it) and such others as might become
+     shareholders in a company, to be called the Newfoundland
+     Electric Telegraph Company, was passed, granting an exclusive
+     right to erect telegraphs in Newfoundland for thirty years,
+     with certain concessions of land, by way of encouragement, to
+     be granted upon the completion of the telegraph from St. John's
+     to Cape Ray. Mr. Gisborne then returned to New York, where he
+     organized, under this charter, a company, of which Mr. Tebbets
+     and Mr. Holbrook[B] were prominent members, made his financial
+     arrangements with them, and proceeded to England to contract
+     for the cable from Cape Ray to Prince Edward Island, and from
+     thence to the mainland. Returning in the autumn, he proceeded
+     in a small steamer, in November of that year, 1852, to stretch
+     the first submarine cable, of any length, in America, across
+     the Northumberland Strait from Prince Edward Island to New
+     Brunswick, which cable, however, was shortly afterward broken,
+     and a new one was subsequently laid down by the New York,
+     Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company. In the spring of
+     the following year, 1853, Mr. Gisborne set vigorously to work
+     to complete his favorite project of the line (which he intended
+     should be chiefly underground) from St. John's to Cape Ray. He
+     had constructed some thirty or forty miles of road, and was
+     proceeding with every prospect of success, when, most
+     unexpectedly, those of the company who were to furnish the
+     needful funds dishonored his bills, and brought his operations
+     to a sudden termination. He and the creditors of the company
+     were for several months buoyed up with promises of forthcoming
+     means from his New York allies, which promises were finally
+     entirely unfulfilled; and Gisborne, being the only ostensible
+     party, was sued and prosecuted on all sides, stripped of his
+     whole property, and himself arrested to answer the claims of
+     the creditors of the company. He cheerfully and honorably gave
+     up every thing he possessed, and did his utmost to relieve the
+     severe distress in which the poor laborers on the line had been
+     involved."
+
+This is a testimony most honorable to the engineer who first led the way
+through a pathless wilderness. But this Newfoundland scheme is not to be
+confounded with that of the Atlantic Telegraph, which did not come into
+existence until a year or two later. The latter was not at all included
+in the former. Indeed, Mr. Gisborne himself says, in a letter referring
+to his original project: "My plans were to run a subterranean line from
+Cape Race to Cape Ray, fly carrier-pigeons and run boats across the
+Straits of Northumberland to Cape Breton, and thence by overland lines
+convey the news to New York." He adds however: "Meanwhile Mr. Brett's
+experimental cable between Dover and Calais having proved successful, I
+set forth in my report, [which appeared a year after his first
+proposal], that 'carrier-pigeons and boats would be required only until
+such time as the experiments then making in England with submarine
+cables should warrant a similar attempt between Cape Ray and Cape
+Breton.'" But nowhere in his report does he allude to the possibility of
+ever spanning the mighty gulf of the Atlantic.
+
+But several years after, when the temporary success of the Atlantic
+Telegraph gave a name to everybody connected with it, he or his friends
+seemed not unwilling to have it supposed that this was embraced in the
+original scheme. When asked why he did not publish his large design to
+the world, he answered: "Because I was looked upon as a wild visionary
+by my friends, and pronounced a fool by my relatives for resigning a
+lucrative government appointment in favor of such a laborious
+speculation as the Newfoundland connection. Now had I coupled it at that
+time with an Atlantic line, all confidence in the prior undertaking
+would have been destroyed, and my object defeated." This may have been a
+reason for not announcing such a project to the public, but not for
+withholding it from his friends. A man can hardly lay claim to that
+which he holds in such absolute reserve.
+
+However, whether he ever entertained the _idea_ of such a project, is
+not a matter of the slightest consequence to the public, nor even to his
+own reputation. Ten years before Professor Morse had expressed, not a
+dreamer's fancy, but a deliberate conviction, founded on scientific
+experiments, that "a telegraphic communication might with certainty be
+established across the Atlantic Ocean;" so that the idea was not
+original with Mr. Gisborne, any more than with others who were eager to
+appropriate it.
+
+It is a part of the history of great enterprises, that the moment one
+succeeds, a host spring up to claim the honor. Thus when, in 1858, the
+Atlantic Telegraph seemed to be a success, the public, knowing well who
+had borne the brunt and burden of the undertaking, awarded him the
+praise which he so well deserved; but instantly there were other
+Richmonds in the field. Those who had had no part in the labor, at least
+claimed to have originated the idea! Of course, these many claims
+destroy each other. But after all, to raise such a point at all is the
+merest trifling. The question is not who first had the "idea," but who
+took hold of the enterprise as a practical thing; who grappled with the
+gigantic difficulties of the undertaking, and fought the battle through
+to victory.
+
+As to Mr. Gisborne, his activity in the beginning of the Newfoundland
+telegraph is a matter of history. In that preliminary work, he bore an
+honorable part, and acquired a title to respect, of which he cannot be
+deprived. All honor to him for his enterprise, his courage, and his
+perseverance!
+
+But for the company of which he was the father, which he had got up with
+so much toil, it lived but a few months, when it became involved in debt
+some fifty thousand dollars, chiefly to laborers on the line, and ended
+its existence by an ignominious failure. The concern was bankrupt, and
+it was plain that, if the work was not to be finally abandoned, it must
+be taken up by stronger hands.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] "On the fourth day of December, I accomplished the survey through
+three hundred and fifty miles of wood and wilderness. It was an arduous
+undertaking. My original party, consisting of six white men, were
+exchanged for four Indians; of the latter party, two deserted, one died
+a few days after my return, and the other, 'Joe Paul,' has ever since
+proclaimed himself an ailing man."--_Letter of Mr. Gisborne._
+
+[B] Horace B. Tebbets and Darius B. Holbrook.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CAN THE OCEAN BE SPANNED?
+
+
+Mr. Gisborne left Halifax and came to New York in January, 1854. Here he
+took counsel with his friend Tebbets and others; but they could give him
+no relief. It was while in this state of suspense that he met, at the
+Astor House, Mr. Matthew D. Field, an engineer who had been engaged in
+building railroads and suspension bridges at the South and West. Mr.
+Field listened to his story with interest, and engaged to speak of it to
+his brother, Cyrus W. Field,[A] a merchant of New York, who had retired
+from business the year before, and had spent six months in travelling
+over the mountains of South America, from which he had lately returned.
+Accordingly, he introduced the subject, but found his brother
+disinclined to embark in any new undertaking. Though still a young man,
+his life had been for many years one of incessant devotion to business.
+He had accumulated an ample fortune, and was not disposed to renew the
+cares, the anxieties, and the fatigues of his former life. But listening
+to the details of a scheme which had in it much to excite interest, and
+which by its very difficulty stimulated the spirit of enterprise, he at
+length consented to see Mr. Gisborne, and invited him to his house.
+Accordingly he came, and spent an evening describing the route of his
+proposed telegraph, and the points it was to connect. After he left, Mr.
+Field took the globe which was standing in the library, and began to
+turn it over. _It was while thus studying the globe that the idea first
+occurred to him, that the telegraph might be carried further still, and
+be made to span the Atlantic Ocean._ The idea was not original with him,
+though he was to carry it out. It was indeed new _to him_; but it had
+long been a matter of speculation with scientific minds, though their
+theories had never attracted his attention. But once he had grasped the
+idea, it took strong hold of his imagination. Had the Newfoundland
+scheme stood alone, he would never have undertaken it. He cared little
+about shortening communication with Europe by a day or two, by relays of
+boats and carrier-pigeons. But it was the hope of further and grander
+results that inspired him to enter on a work of which no man could
+foresee the end.
+
+An enterprise of such proportions, that would task to the utmost the
+science and the engineering skill of the world, was not to be rashly
+undertaken; and before giving a definite reply to Gisborne, Mr. Field
+determined to apply to the highest authorities in his own country.
+
+The project of an Atlantic telegraph involved two problems: Could a
+cable be stretched across the ocean? and if it were, would it be good
+for anything to convey messages? The first was a question of mechanical
+difficulties, requiring a careful survey of the ocean itself, fathoming
+its depth, finding out the character of its bottom, whether level, or
+rough and volcanic; and all the obstacles that might be found in the
+winds that agitate the surface above, or the mighty currents that sweep
+through the waters below. The second problem was purely scientific,
+involving questions as to the laws of electricity, not then fully
+understood, and on which the boldest might feel that he was venturing on
+uncertain ground.
+
+Such were the two elements or forces of nature to be encountered--the
+ocean and the electric current. Could they be controlled by any power of
+man? The very proposal was enough to stagger the faith even of an
+enthusiast. Who could lay a bridle on the neck of the sea? The attempt
+seemed as idle as that of Xerxes to bind it with chains. Was it possible
+to combat the fierceness of the winds and waves, and to stretch one long
+line from continent to continent? And then, after the work was achieved,
+would the lightning run along the ocean-bed from shore to shore? Such
+were the questions which had puzzled many an anxious brain, and which
+now troubled the one who was to undertake the work.
+
+To get some light in his perplexity, Mr. Field, the very next morning
+after his interview with Gisborne, wrote two letters, one to Lieutenant
+Maury, then at the head of the National Observatory at Washington, on
+the nautical difficulties of the undertaking, asking if the sea were
+itself a barrier too great to be overcome; and the other to Professor
+Morse, inquiring if it would be possible to telegraph over a distance so
+great as that from Europe to America?
+
+The mail soon brought an answer from Lieutenant Maury, which began:
+"Singularly enough, just as I received your letter, I was closing one to
+the Secretary of the Navy on the same subject." A copy of this he
+inclosed to Mr. Field, and it is given here. It shows the conclusions at
+which, even at that early day, scientific men were beginning to arrive:
+
+                              "National Observatory,
+                              Washington, February 22, 1854.
+
+     "Sir: The United States brig Dolphin, Lieutenant Commanding O.
+     H. Berryman, was employed last summer upon especial service
+     connected with the researches that are carried on at this
+     office concerning the winds and currents of the sea. Her
+     observations were confined principally to that part of the
+     ocean which the merchantmen, as they pass to and fro upon the
+     business of trade between Europe and the United States, use as
+     their great thoroughfare. Lieutenant Berryman availed himself
+     of this opportunity to carry along also a line of deep-sea
+     soundings, from the shores of Newfoundland to those of Ireland.
+     The result is highly interesting, in so far as the bottom of
+     the sea is concerned, upon the question of a submarine
+     telegraph across the Atlantic; and I therefore beg leave to
+     make it the subject of a special report.
+
+     "This line of deep-sea soundings seems to be decisive of the
+     question of the practicability of a submarine telegraph between
+     the two continents, _in so far as the bottom of the deep sea is
+     concerned_. From Newfoundland to Ireland, the distance between
+     the nearest points is about sixteen hundred miles;[B] and the
+     bottom of the sea between the two places is a plateau, which
+     seems to have been placed there especially for the purpose of
+     holding the wires of a submarine telegraph, and of keeping them
+     out of harm's way. It is neither too deep nor too shallow; yet
+     it is so deep that the wires but once landed, will remain for
+     ever beyond the reach of vessels' anchors, icebergs, and drifts
+     of any kind, and so shallow, that the wires may be readily
+     lodged upon the bottom. The depth of this plateau is quite
+     regular, gradually increasing from the shores of Newfoundland
+     to the depth of from fifteen hundred to two thousand fathoms,
+     as you approach the other side. The distance between Ireland
+     and Cape St. Charles, or Cape St. Lewis, in Labrador, is
+     somewhat less than the distance from any point of Ireland to
+     the nearest point of Newfoundland. But whether it would be
+     better to lead the wires from Newfoundland or Labrador is not
+     now the question; nor do I pretend to consider the question as
+     to the possibility of finding _a time calm enough, the sea
+     smooth enough, a wire long enough, a ship big enough_, to lay a
+     coil of wire sixteen hundred miles in length: though I have no
+     fear but that the enterprise and ingenuity of the age, whenever
+     called on with these problems, will be ready with a
+     satisfactory and practical solution of them.
+
+     "I simply address myself at this time to the question in so far
+     as _the bottom of the sea_ is concerned, and as far as that,
+     the greatest practical difficulties will, I apprehend, be found
+     after reaching soundings at either end of the line, and not in
+     the deep sea....
+
+     "A wire laid across from either of the above-named places on
+     this side will pass to the north of the Grand Banks, and rest
+     on that beautiful plateau to which I have alluded, where the
+     waters of the sea appear to be as quiet and as completely at
+     rest as at the bottom of a mill-pond. It is proper that the
+     reasons should be stated for the inference that there are no
+     perceptible currents, and no abrading agents at work at the
+     bottom of the sea upon this telegraphic plateau. I derive this
+     inference from a study of a physical fact, which I little
+     deemed, when I sought it, had any such bearings.
+
+     "Lieutenant Berryman brought up with Brooke's deep-sea sounding
+     apparatus specimens of the bottom from this plateau. I sent
+     them to Professor Bailey, of West Point, for examination under
+     his microscope. This he kindly gave, and that eminent
+     microscopist was quite as much surprised to find, as I was to
+     learn, that all those specimens of deep-sea soundings are
+     filled with microscopic shells; to use his own words, _not a
+     particle of sand or gravel exists in them_. These little
+     shells, therefore, suggest the fact that there are no currents
+     at the bottom of the sea whence they came; that Brooke's lead
+     found them where they were deposited in their burial-place
+     after having lived and died on the surface, and by gradually
+     sinking were lodged on the bottom. Had there been currents at
+     the bottom, these would have swept and abraded and mingled up
+     with these microscopic remains the _débris_ of the bottom of
+     the sea, such as ooze, sand, gravel, and other matter; but not
+     a particle of sand or gravel was found among them. Hence the
+     inference that these depths of the sea are not disturbed either
+     by waves or currents. Consequently, a telegraphic wire once
+     laid there, there it would remain, as completely beyond the
+     reach of accident as it would be if buried in air-tight cases.
+     Therefore, so far as the bottom of the deep sea between
+     Newfoundland, or the North Cape, at the mouth of the St.
+     Lawrence, and Ireland, is concerned, the practicability of a
+     submarine telegraph across the Atlantic is proved....
+
+     "In this view of the subject, and for the purpose of hastening
+     the completion of such a line, I take the liberty of suggesting
+     for your consideration the propriety of an offer from the
+     proper source, of a prize to the company through whose
+     telegraphic wire the first message shall be passed across the
+     Atlantic.
+
+     "I have the honor to be respectfully yours.
+
+                              "M. F. Maury,
+                              "Lieutenant United States Navy.
+
+     "Hon. J. C. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy."
+
+The reply of Professor Morse showed equal interest in the subject, in
+proof of which he wrote that he would come down to New York to see Mr.
+Field about it. A few days after he came, and saw Mr. Field at his
+house. This was the beginning of an acquaintance which soon ripened into
+friendship, and which henceforth united these gentlemen together in this
+great achievement. Professor Morse, in conversation, entered at length
+into the laws of electricity as applied to the business of telegraphing,
+and concluded by declaring his entire faith in the undertaking as
+practical; as one that might, could, and would, be achieved. Indeed,
+this faith he had avowed years before. In a letter written as early as
+August tenth, 1843, to John C. Spencer, then Secretary of the Treasury,
+Professor Morse had detailed the results of certain experiments made in
+the harbor of New York to show the power of electricity to communicate
+at great distances, at the close of which he says--in words that now
+seem prophetic:
+
+     "The practical inference from this law is, that a telegraphic
+     communication on the electro-magnetic plan may with certainty
+     be established across the Atlantic Ocean! Startling as this may
+     now seem, I am confident the time will come when this project
+     will be realized."
+
+It was the good fortune of Mr. Field--at that time and ever since--to
+have at hand an adviser in whose judgment he had implicit confidence.
+This was his eldest brother, David Dudley Field. They lived side by side
+on Gramercy Park, and were in daily communication. To the prudent
+counsels, wise judgment and unfaltering courage of the elder brother,
+the Atlantic Telegraph is more indebted than the world will ever know,
+for its first impulse and for the spirit which sustained it through long
+years of discouragement and disaster, when its friends were few. To
+this, his nearest and best counsellor, Mr. Field opened the project
+which had taken possession of his mind; and being strengthened by that
+maturer judgment, he finally resolved that, if he could get a sufficient
+number of capitalists to join him, he would embark in an enterprise
+which, beginning with the line to Newfoundland, involved in the end
+nothing less than an attempt to link this New World which Columbus had
+discovered, to that Old World which had been for ages the home of empire
+and of civilization. How the scheme advanced through the next twelve
+years, it will be our province to relate.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Born November 30, 1819, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the son of a
+Congregational minister, of whom three sons are still living: Mr. David
+Dudley Field, of New York; Mr. Justice Stephen J. Field, of the Supreme
+Court of the United States; and the writer of the present volume.
+
+[B] From Cape Freels, Newfoundland, to Erris Head, Ireland, the distance
+is sixteen hundred and eleven miles; from Cape Charles, or Cape St.
+Lewis, Labrador, to the same point, the distance is sixteen hundred and
+one miles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE COMPANY ORGANIZED.
+
+
+And so the young New York merchant set out to carry a telegraph across
+the Atlantic Ocean! The design had in it at least the merit of audacity.
+But whether the end was to be sublime or ridiculous time alone could
+tell. Certain it is that when his sanguine temper and youthful blood
+stirred him up to take hold of such an enterprise, he little dreamed of
+what it would involve. He thought lightly of a few thousands risked in
+an uncertain venture; but never imagined that he might yet be drawn on
+to stake upon its success the whole fortune he had accumulated; that he
+was to sacrifice all the peace and quiet he had hoped to enjoy; and that
+for twelve years he was to be almost without a home, crossing and
+re-crossing the sea, urging his enterprise in Europe and America. But so
+it is, that the Being who designs great things for human welfare, and
+would accomplish them by human instruments, does not lift at once the
+curtain from the stern realities they are to meet, nor reveal the
+rugged ascents they are to climb; so that it is only when at last the
+heights are attained, and they look backward, that they realize through
+what they have passed.
+
+But could he find anybody to join him in his bold undertaking? Starving
+adventurers there always are, ready to embark in any Quixotic attempt,
+since they have nothing to lose. But would men of sense and of
+character; men who had fortunes to keep, and the habit which business
+gives of looking calmly and suspiciously at probabilities; be found to
+put capital in an enterprise where, if it failed, they would find their
+money literally at the bottom of the sea? It seemed doubtful, but he
+would try. His plan was, if possible, to enlist ten capitalists, all
+gentlemen of wealth, who together could lift a pretty heavy load; who,
+if need were, could easily raise a million of dollars, to carry out any
+undertaking.
+
+The first man whom he addressed was his next-door neighbor, Mr. Peter
+Cooper, in whom he found the indisposition which a man of large
+fortune--now well advanced in life--would naturally feel to embark in
+new enterprises. The reluctance in this case was not so much to the
+risking of capital, as to having his mind occupied with the care which
+it would impose. These objections slowly yielded to other
+considerations. As they talked it over, the large heart of Mr. Cooper
+began to see that, if it were possible to accomplish such a work, it
+would be a great public benefit. This consideration prevailed, and what
+would not have been undertaken as a private speculation, was yielded to
+public interest. The conference ended by a conditional agreement to
+engage in it, if several others did, and, as we shall see, when the
+Company was organized, he became its President.
+
+The early accession of this gentleman gave strength to the new
+enterprise. In all the million inhabitants of the city of New York there
+was not a name which was better known, or more justly held in honor,
+than that of Peter Cooper. A native of the city, where he had passed his
+whole life, he had seen its growth, from the small town it was after the
+War of the Revolution, and had himself grown with it. Beginning with
+very small means and limited opportunities, he had become one of its
+great capitalists. Many who thus rise to wealth, in the process of
+accumulation, form penurious habits which cling to them, and to the end
+of their days it is the chief object of life to hoard and to keep. But
+Mr. Cooper, while acquiring the fortune, had also the heart of a prince;
+and used his wealth with a noble generosity. In the centre of New York
+stands to-day a massive building, erected at a cost of nearly a million
+of dollars, and consecrated "To Science and Art." This was Mr. Cooper's
+gift to his native city. Remembering his own limited advantages of
+education, he desired that the young men of New York, the apprentices
+and mechanics, should have better opportunities than he had enjoyed. For
+this he endowed courses of lectures on the natural sciences; he opened
+the largest reading-room in America, which furnishes a pleasant resort
+to thousands of readers daily; while to help the other sex, he added a
+School of Design for Women, which trains hundreds to be teachers, and
+some of them artists; who go forth into the world to earn an honest
+living, and to bless the memory of their generous benefactor. This noble
+institution, standing in the heart of the city, is his enduring
+monument.
+
+Yet while doing so much for the public, those who saw Peter Cooper in
+his family knew how he retained the simple habits of early life--how,
+while giving hundreds of thousands to others, he cared to spend little
+on himself; how he remained the same modest, kindly old man; the pure,
+the generous, and the good. His was
+
+     "The good gray head that all men knew,"
+
+and that was sadly missed when, nearly thirty years after, in 1883, at
+the age of ninety-two, he was borne to his grave. It is a pleasant
+remembrance that the beginning of this enterprise was connected with
+that honored name.
+
+Mr. Field next addressed himself to Mr. Moses Taylor, a well-known
+capitalist of New York, engaged in extensive business reaching to
+different parts of the world, and whose daily observation of all sorts
+of enterprises, both sound and visionary, made him perhaps a severer
+judge of any new scheme. With this gentleman he had then no personal
+acquaintance, but sent a note of introduction from his brother, David
+Dudley Field, with a line requesting an interview, to which Mr. Taylor
+replied by an invitation to his house on an evening when he should be
+disengaged. As these two gentlemen afterwards became very intimately
+associated, they often recurred to their first interview. Said Mr.
+Field: "I shall never forget how Mr. Taylor received me. He fixed on me
+his keen eye, as if he would look through me: and then, sitting down, he
+listened to me for nearly an hour without saying a word." This was
+rather an ominous beginning. However, his quick mind soon saw the
+possibilities of the enterprise, and the evening ended by an
+agreement--conditional, like Mr. Cooper's--to enter into it.
+
+Mr. Taylor, being thus enlisted, brought in his friend, Mr. Marshall O.
+Roberts--a man whose career has been too remarkable to be passed without
+notice. A native of the City of New York, (though his father was a
+physician from Wales, who came to this country early in this century,)
+he found himself, when a boy of eight years, an orphan, without a friend
+in the world. From that time he made his way purely by his own industry
+and indomitable will. At the age of twenty he was embarked in business
+for himself, and his history soon became a succession of great
+enterprises. If we were to relate some of the incidents connected with
+his rise of fortune, they would sound more like romance than reality. He
+was the first to project those floating palaces which now ply the waters
+of the Hudson and the great lakes. He was one of the early promoters of
+the Erie Railroad. When the discovery of gold in California turned the
+tide of emigration to that coast, he started the line of steamers to the
+Isthmus of Panama, and controlled largely the commerce with the Pacific.
+Thus his hand was felt, giving impulse to many different enterprises on
+land and sea. His whole course was marked by a spirit of commercial
+daring, which men called rashness, until they saw its success, and then
+applauded as marvellous sagacity.
+
+Mr. Field next wrote to Mr. Chandler White, a personal friend of many
+years' standing, who had retired from business, and was living a few
+miles below the city, near Fort Hamilton, at one of those beautiful
+points of view which command the whole harbor of New York. He too was
+very slow to yield to argument or persuasion. Why should he--when he had
+cast anchor in this peaceful spot--again embark in the cares of
+business, and, worst of all, in an enterprise the scene of which was far
+distant, and the results very uncertain? But enthusiasm is always
+magnetic, and the glowing descriptions of his persuader at length
+prevailed.[A]
+
+There were now five gentlemen enlisted; and Mr. Field was about to apply
+to others, to make up his proposed number, when Mr. Cooper came to ask
+why _five_ would not do as well as _ten_? The question was no sooner
+asked than answered. To this all agreed, and at once fixed an evening
+when they should meet at Mr. Field's house to hear his statements and to
+examine the charter of the old company, find out what it had done, and
+what it proposed to do, what property it had and what debts it owed; and
+decide whether the enterprise offered sufficient inducements to embark
+in it. Accordingly they met, and for four nights in succession discussed
+the subject. It was in the dining-room of Mr. Field's house, and the
+large table was spread with maps of the route to be traversed by the
+line of telegraph, and with plans and estimates of the work to be done,
+the cost of doing it, and the return which they might hope in the end to
+realize for their labor and their capital. The result was an agreement
+on the part of all to enter on the undertaking, if the Government of
+Newfoundland would grant a new charter conceding more favorable terms.
+To secure this it was important to send at once a commission to
+Newfoundland. Neither Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, nor Mr. Roberts could go;
+and it devolved on Mr. Field to make the first voyage on this business,
+as it did to make many voyages afterwards to Newfoundland, and still
+more across the Atlantic. But not wishing to take the whole
+responsibility, he was accompanied at his earnest request by Mr. White,
+and by Mr. D. D. Field, whose counsel, as he was to be the legal adviser
+of the Company, was all-important in the framing of the new charter that
+was to secure its rights. The latter thus describes this first
+expedition:
+
+     "The agreement with the Electric Telegraph Company, and the
+     formal surrender of its charter, were signed on the tenth of
+     March, [1854,] and on the fourteenth we left New York,
+     accompanied by Mr. Gisborne. The next morning we took the
+     steamer at Boston for Halifax, and thence, on the night of the
+     eighteenth, departed in the little steamer Merlin for St.
+     John's, Newfoundland. Three more disagreeable days, voyagers
+     scarcely ever passed, than we spent in that smallest of
+     steamers. It seemed as if all the storms of winter had been
+     reserved for the first month of spring. A frost-bound coast, an
+     icy sea, rain, hail, snow and tempest, were the greetings of
+     the telegraph adventurers in their first movement toward
+     Europe. In the darkest night, through which no man could see
+     the ship's length, with snow filling the air and flying into
+     the eyes of the sailors, with ice in the water, and a heavy sea
+     rolling and moaning about us, the captain felt his way around
+     Cape Race with his lead, as the blind man feels his way with
+     his staff, but as confidently and as safely as if the sky had
+     been clear and the sea calm; and the light of morning dawned
+     upon deck and mast and spar, coated with glittering ice, but
+     floating securely between the mountains which form the gates of
+     the harbor of St. John's. In that busy and hospitable town, the
+     first person to whom we were introduced was Mr. Edward M.
+     Archibald, then Attorney-General of the Colony, and now British
+     Consul in New York. He entered warmly into our views, and from
+     that day to this, has been an efficient and consistent
+     supporter of the undertaking. By him we were introduced to the
+     Governor, (Kerr Bailey Hamilton,) who also took an earnest
+     interest in our plans. He convoked the Council to receive us,
+     and hear an explanation of our views and wishes. In a few hours
+     after the conference, the answer of the Governor and Council
+     was received, consenting to recommend to the Assembly a
+     guarantee of the interest of £50,000 of bonds, an immediate
+     grant of fifty square miles of land, a further grant to the
+     same extent on the completion of the telegraph across the
+     ocean, and a payment of £5,000 toward the construction of a
+     bridle-path across the island, along the line of the land
+     telegraph."
+
+This was a hopeful beginning; and, though the charter was not yet
+obtained, feeling assured by this official encouragement, and the public
+interest in the project, that it would be granted by the colony, Mr.
+Field remained in St. John's but three days, when he took the Merlin
+back to Halifax on his way to New York, there to purchase and send down
+a steamer for the service of the Company, leaving his associates to
+secure the charter and to carry out the arrangements with the former
+company. To settle all these details was necessarily a work of time.
+First, the charter of the old Electric Telegraph Company had to be
+repealed, to clear the way for a new charter to the Company, which was
+to bear the more comprehensive title of "New York, Newfoundland, _and
+London_." This charter--which had been drawn with the greatest care by
+the counsel of the Company, while on the voyage to Newfoundland--bore on
+its very front the declaration that the plans of the new Company were
+much broader than those of the old. In the former charter, the design
+was thus set forth:
+
+     "The telegraph line of this company is designed to be strictly
+     an 'Inter-Continental Telegraph.' Its termini will be New York,
+     in the United States, and London, in the kingdom of Great
+     Britain; these points are to be connected by a line of electric
+     telegraph from New York to St. John's, Newfoundland, partly on
+     poles, partly laid in the ground, and partly through the water,
+     _and a line of the swiftest steamships ever built from that
+     point to Ireland_. The trips of these steamships, it is
+     expected, will not exceed five days, and as very little time
+     will be occupied in transmitting messages between St. John's
+     and New York, the communication between the latter city and
+     London or Liverpool, will be effected _in six days_, or less.
+     The company will have likewise stationed at St. John's a steam
+     yacht, for the purpose of intercepting the European and
+     American steamships, so that no opportunity may be lost in
+     forwarding intelligence in advance of the ordinary channels of
+     communication."
+
+But the charter of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph
+Company, which was now to be obtained, began by declaring, in its very
+first sentence: "Whereas it is deemed advisable to establish a line of
+telegraphic communication between America and Europe by way of
+Newfoundland." Not a word is said of fast ships, of communications in
+less than six days, but every thing points to a line across the ocean.
+Thus one section gives authority to establish a submarine telegraph
+across the ocean, from Newfoundland to Ireland; another section
+prohibits any other company or person from touching the coast of
+Newfoundland or its dependencies [which includes Labrador] with a
+telegraphic cable or wire, from any point whatever, for fifty years; and
+a third section grants the Company fifty square miles of land upon the
+completion of the submarine line across the Atlantic.
+
+In other respects the charter was equally liberal. It incorporated the
+associates for fifty years, established perfect equality, in respect to
+corporators and officers, between citizens of the United States and
+British subjects, and allowed the meetings of the stockholders and
+directors to be held in New York, in Newfoundland, or in London.
+
+To obtain such concessions was a work of some difficulty and delay. The
+Legislature of the province were naturally anxious to scan carefully
+conditions that were to bind them and their children for half a century.
+I have now before me the papers of St. John's of that day, containing
+the discussions in the Legislature; and while all testify to the deep
+public interest in the project, they show a due care for the interests
+of their own colony, which they were bound to protect. At length all
+difficulties were removed, and the charter was passed unanimously by the
+Assembly, and confirmed by the Council.
+
+This happy result was duly celebrated, in the manner which all
+Englishmen approve, by a grand dinner given by the commissioners of the
+new Company, to the members of the Assembly and other dignitaries of the
+colony, at which there were eloquent prophecies of the good time coming,
+showing how heartily the enterprise was welcomed by all classes; and how
+fond were the anticipations of the increased intercourse it would bring,
+and the manifold benefits it would confer on their long-neglected
+island.
+
+No sooner were the papers signed, than the wheels, so long blocked, were
+unloosed, and the machinery began to move. Mr. White at once drew on New
+York for fifty thousand dollars, and paid off all the debts of the old
+company. A St. John's newspaper of April 8th, 1854, amid a great deal on
+the subject, contains this paragraph, which is very significant of the
+dead state of the old company, and of the life of the new:
+
+     "The office of the new Electric Telegraph Company has been
+     surrounded the last two or three days by the men who had been
+     engaged the last year on the line, and who are being paid all
+     debts, dues, and demands against the old association. We look
+     upon the readiness with which these claims are liquidated as a
+     substantial indication on the part of the new Company that they
+     will complete to the letter all that they have declared to
+     accomplish in this important undertaking."
+
+In the early part of May, the two gentlemen who had remained behind in
+Newfoundland rejoined their associates in New York, and there the
+charter was formally accepted and the Company organized. As all the
+associates had not arrived till Saturday evening, the 6th of May, and as
+one of them was to leave town on Monday morning, it was agreed that they
+should meet for organization at six o'clock of that day. At that hour
+they came to the house of Mr. Field's brother Dudley, and as the first
+rays of the morning sun streamed into the windows, the formal
+organization took place. The charter was accepted, the stock subscribed,
+and the officers chosen. Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Field, Mr. Roberts,
+and Mr. White were the first directors. Mr. Cooper was chosen President,
+Mr. White, Vice-President, and Mr. Taylor, Treasurer.
+
+This is a short story, and soon told. It seemed a light affair, for
+half a dozen men to meet in the early morning and toss off such a
+business before breakfast. But what a work was that to which they thus
+put their hands! A capital of a million and a half of dollars was
+subscribed in those few minutes, and a company put in operation that was
+to carry a line of telegraph to St. John's, more than a thousand miles
+from New York, and then to span the wild sea. Well was it that they who
+undertook the work did not then fully realize its magnitude, or they
+would have shrunk from the attempt. Well was it for them that the veil
+was not lifted, which shut from their eyes the long delay, the immense
+toil, and the heavy burdens of many wearisome years. Such a prospect
+might have chilled the most sanguine spirit. But a kind Providence gives
+men strength for their day, imposes burdens as they are able to bear
+them, and thus leads them on to greater achievements than they knew.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Although it is anticipating a year in time, I cannot resist the
+pleasure of adding here the name of another eminent merchant, who
+afterward joined this little Company, Mr. Wilson G. Hunt. Mr. Hunt is
+one of the old merchants of New York who, through his whole career, has
+maintained the highest reputation for commercial integrity, and whose
+fortune is the reward of a long life of honorable industry. He joined
+the Company in 1855, and was a strong and steady friend through all its
+troubles till the final success.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CROSSING NEWFOUNDLAND.
+
+
+There is nothing in the world easier than to build a line of railroad,
+or of telegraph, _on paper_. You have only to take the map, and mark the
+points to be connected, and then with a single sweep of the pencil to
+draw the line along which the iron track is to run. In this airy flight
+of the imagination, distances are nothing. A thousand leagues vanish at
+a stroke. All obstacles disappear. The valleys are exalted, and the
+hills are made low, soaring arches span the mountain streams, and the
+chasms are leaped in safety by the fire-drawn cars.
+
+Very different is it to construct a line of railroad or of telegraph in
+reality; to come with an army of laborers, with axes on their shoulders
+to cut down the forests, and with spades in their hands to cast up the
+highway. Then poetry sinks to prose, and instead of flying over the
+space on wings, one must traverse it on foot, slowly and with painful
+steps. Nature asserts her power; and, as if resentful of the disdain
+with which man in his pride affected to leap over her, she piles up new
+barriers in his way. The mountains with their rugged sides cannot be
+moved out of their place, the rocks must be cleft in twain, to open a
+passage for the conqueror, before he can begin his triumphal march. The
+woods thicken into an impassable jungle; and the morass sinks deeper,
+threatening to swallow up the horse and his rider; until the rash
+projector is startled at his own audacity. Then it becomes a contest of
+forces between man and nature, in which, if he would be victorious, he
+must fight his way. The barriers of nature cannot be lightly pushed
+aside, but must yield at last only to time and toil, and "man's
+unconquerable will."
+
+Seldom have all these obstacles been combined in a more formidable
+manner to obstruct any public work, than against the attempt to build a
+telegraph line across the island of Newfoundland. The distance, by the
+route to be traversed, was over four hundred miles, and the country was
+a wilderness, an utter desolation. Yet through such a country, over
+mountain and moor, through tangled brake and rocky gorge, over rivers
+and through morasses, they were to build a road--not merely a line of
+telegraph stuck on poles, but "a good and traversable bridle-road, eight
+feet wide, with bridges of the same width," from end to end of the
+island.
+
+But nothing daunted, the new Company undertook the great work with
+spirit and resolution. Gisborne had made a beginning, and got some
+thirty or forty miles out of St. John's. This was the easiest part of
+the whole route, being in the most inhabited region of the island. But
+here he broke down, just where it was necessary to leave civilization
+behind, and to plunge into the wilderness.
+
+Intending to resume the work on a much larger scale, Mr. White, the
+Vice-President, was sent down to St. John's to be the General Agent of
+the Company; while Mr. Matthew D. Field, as a practical engineer, was to
+have charge of the construction of the line. The latter soon organized a
+force of six hundred men, which he pushed forward in detachments to the
+scene of operations.
+
+And now began to appear still more the difficulties of the way. To
+provide subsistence for man and beast, it was necessary to keep near the
+coast, for all supplies had to be sent round by sea. Yet in following
+the coast line, they had to wind around bays, or to climb over
+headlands. If they struck into the interior, they had to cut their way
+through the dense and tangled wood. There was not a path to guide them,
+not even an Indian trail. When lost in the forest, they had to follow
+the compass, as much as the mariner at sea.
+
+To keep such a force in the field, that, like an army, produced nothing,
+but consumed fearfully, required constant attention to the commissary
+department. The little steamer Victoria, which belonged to the Company,
+was kept plying along the coast, carrying barrels of pork and potatoes,
+kegs of powder, pickaxes and spades and shovels, and all the implements
+of labor. These were taken up to the heads of the bays, and thence
+carried, chiefly on men's backs, over the hills to the line of the road.
+
+In many respects, it had the features of a military expedition. It moved
+forward in a great camp. The men were sheltered in tents, when sheltered
+at all, or in small huts which they built along the road. But more often
+they slept on the ground. It was a wild and picturesque sight to come
+upon their camp in the woods, to see their fires blazing at night while
+hundreds of stalwart sleepers lay stretched on the ground. Sometimes,
+when encamped on the hills, they could be seen afar off at sea. It made
+a pretty picture then. But the hardy pioneers thought little of the
+figure they were making, when they were exposed to the fury of the
+elements. Often the rain fell in torrents, and the men, crouching under
+their slight shelter, listened sadly to the sighing of the wind among
+the trees, answered by the desolate moaning of the sea.
+
+Yet in spite of all obstacles, the work went on. All through the long
+days of summer, and through the months of autumn, every cove and creek
+along that southern coast heard the plashing of their oars, and the
+steady stroke of their axes resounded through the forest.
+
+But as the season advanced, all these difficulties increased. For
+nearly half the year, the island is buried in snow. Blinding drifts
+sweep over the moors, and choke up the paths of the forest. How at such
+times the expedition lay floundering in the woods, still struggling to
+force its way onward; what hardships and sufferings the men endured--all
+this is a chapter in the History of the Telegraph which has not been
+written, and which can never be fully told. The
+
+     Gentlemen of England,
+     Who dwell at home at ease,
+
+and who are justly proud of the extent of their dominions, and the life
+and power which pervade the whole, may here find another example of the
+way in which great works are borne forward in distant parts of their
+empire.
+
+But to carry out such an enterprise, requires head-work as well as
+hand-work. Engineering in the field must be supported by financiering at
+home. It was here the former enterprise broke down, and now it needed
+constant watching to keep the wheels in steady motion. The directors in
+New York found the demand increasing day by day. The minds which had
+grasped the large design must now descend to an infinity of detail. They
+had to keep an army of men at work, at a point a thousand miles away,
+far beyond their immediate oversight. Drafts for money came thick and
+fast. To provide for all these required constant attention. How
+faithfully they gave to this enterprise, not only their money, but their
+time and thought, few will know; but those who have seen can testify. In
+the autumn of that year, 1854, the writer removed to the city of New
+York, and was almost daily at the house of Mr. Field. Yet for months it
+was hardly possible to go there of an evening without finding the
+library occupied by the Company. Indeed, so uniformly was this the case,
+that "The Telegraph" began to be regarded by the family as an unwelcome
+intruder, since it put an interdict on the former social evenings and
+quiet domestic enjoyment. The circumstance shows the ceaseless care on
+the part of the directors which the enterprise involved. As a witness of
+their incessant labor, it is due to them to bear this testimony to their
+patience and their fidelity.
+
+When they began the work, they hoped to carry the line across
+Newfoundland in one year, completing it in the summer of 1855. In
+anticipation of this, Mr. Field was sent by the Company to England at
+the close of 1854, to order a cable to span the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to
+connect Cape Ray with the island of Cape Breton. This was his first
+voyage across the ocean on the business of the Telegraph--to be followed
+by more than forty others. In London he met for the first time Mr. John
+W. Brett, with whom he was to be afterward connected in the larger
+enterprise of the Atlantic Telegraph. Mr. Brett was the father of
+submarine telegraphy in Europe, though in carrying out his first
+projects he was largely indebted to Mr. Crampton, a well-known engineer
+of London, who aided him both with advice and capital. With this
+invaluable assistance, he had stretched two lines across the British
+channel. From his success in passing these waters, he believed a line
+might yet be stretched from continent to continent. The scientific men
+of England were not generally educated up to that point. The bare
+suggestion was received with a smile of incredulity.[A] But Mr. Brett
+had faith, even at that early day, and entered heartily into the schemes
+of Mr. Field. To show his interest, he afterward took a few shares in
+the Newfoundland line--the only Englishman who had any part in this
+preliminary work.
+
+The summer came, and the work in Newfoundland, though not complete, was
+advancing; and the cable in England was finished and shipped on board
+the bark Sarah L. Bryant to cross the sea. Anticipating its arrival, the
+Company chartered a steamer to go down to Newfoundland to assist in its
+submersion across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. As yet they had no
+experience in the business of laying a submarine telegraph, and did not
+doubt that the work could be accomplished with the greatest ease. It was
+therefore to be an excursion of pleasure as well as of business, and
+accordingly they invited a large party to go with them to witness the
+unaccustomed spectacle.
+
+As we chanced to be among the guests, we have the best reason to
+remember it. Seldom has a more pleasant party been gathered for any
+expedition. Representing the Company were Mr. Field, Mr. Peter Cooper,
+Mr. Robert W. Lowber, and Professor Morse; while among the invited
+guests were gentlemen of all professions--clergymen, doctors and
+lawyers, artists and editors. In the groups on the deck were the
+venerable Dr. Gardiner Spring and Rev. J. M. Sherwood; Dr. Lewis A.
+Sayre, Bayard Taylor, the well-known traveller, Mr. Fitz-James O'Brien,
+and Mr. John Mullaly--the three latter gentlemen representing leading
+papers of New York.[B] Besides these, the party included a large number
+of ladies, who gave life and animation to the company.
+
+Well does the writer recall the morning of departure--the seventh day of
+August, 1855. Never did a voyage begin with fairer omens. It was a
+bright summer day. The sky was clear, and the water smooth. We were on
+the deck of the good ship James Adger, long known as one of the fine
+steamers belonging to the Charleston line. She was a swift ship, and cut
+the water like an arrow. Thus we sped down the bay, and turning into the
+ocean, skimmed along the shores of Long Island. The sea was tranquil as
+a lake. The whole party were on deck, scattered in groups here and
+there, watching the sails and the shore. A rude telegraph instrument
+furnished entertainment and instruction, especially as we had Professor
+Morse to explain his marvellous invention, which some who listened then
+for the first time understood.
+
+At Halifax, several of us left the ship, and came across Nova Scotia,
+passing through that lovely region of Acadia which Longfellow has
+invested with such tender interest in his poem of Evangeline. Thence we
+crossed the Bay of Fundy to St. John in New Brunswick, and returned by
+way of Portland.
+
+The James Adger went on to Newfoundland, steering first for Port au
+Basque, near Cape Ray, where they hoped to meet the bark which was to
+come from England with the cable on board. To their disappointment, it
+had not arrived. Mr. Canning, the engineer who was to lay the cable, had
+come out by steamer, and was on hand, but the bark was not to be seen.
+Having to wait several days, and wishing to make the most of their time,
+they sailed for St. John's, where they were received by the Provincial
+Government and the people with unbounded hospitality, after which they
+returned to Port au Basque, and were now rejoiced to discover the little
+bark hidden behind the rocks. It was decided to land the cable in Cape
+Ray Cove. After a day or two's delay in getting the end to the shore,
+they started to cross the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Adger towing the
+bark. The sea was calm, and though they were obliged to move slowly, yet
+all promised well, till they were about half-way across, when a gale
+arose, which pitched the bark so violently, that with its unwieldy bulk
+it was in great danger of sinking. After holding on for hours in the
+vain hope that it would abate, the captain cut the cable to save the
+bark; and thus, after they had paid out forty miles, it was hopelessly
+lost, and the Adger returned to New York.
+
+This loss was owing partly to the severity of the gale, and partly to
+the fact that the bark which had the cable on board was wholly unfitted
+for the purpose. It was a sailing-vessel, and had to be towed by another
+ship. In this way it was impossible to regulate its motion. It was too
+fast or too slow. It was liable to be swayed by the sea, now giving a
+lurch ahead, and now dragging behind. Experience showed that a cable
+should always be laid from a steam vessel which could regulate its own
+motion, running out freely when all went smoothly, and checking its
+speed instantly when it was necessary to ease up the strain, or to pay
+out more slack to fill up the hollows of the sea.
+
+This first loss of a submarine cable was a severe disappointment to the
+Company. It postponed the enterprise for a whole year. To make a new
+cable would require several months, and the season was so far advanced
+that it could not be laid before another summer. Was it strange if some
+of the little band began to ask if they had not lost enough, and to
+reason that it was better to stop where they were, than to go on still
+farther, casting their treasures into the sea?
+
+But there was in that little company a spirit of hope and determination
+that could not be subdued; that ever cried: "Once more unto the breach,
+good friends!" After some deliberation, it was resolved to renew the
+attempt. Mr. Field again sailed for England to order another cable,
+which was duly made and sent out the following summer. This time, warned
+by experience, the Company invited no party and made no display. The
+cable was placed on board a steamer fitted for the purpose; from which
+it was laid without accident, and remained in perfect working order for
+nine years.
+
+Meanwhile the work on land had been pushed forward without ceasing.
+After incredible labor, the Company had built a road and a telegraph
+from one end of Newfoundland to the other, four hundred miles; and, as
+if that were not enough, had built also another line, one hundred and
+forty miles in length, in the island of Cape Breton. The first part of
+their work was now done. The telegraph had been carried beyond the
+United States through the British Provinces to St. John's in
+Newfoundland, a distance from New York of over one thousand miles.
+
+The cost of the line, thus far, had been about a million of dollars, and
+of this the whole burden, with but trifling exceptions, had fallen upon
+the original projectors--Mr. Field having put in over two hundred
+thousand dollars in money--and Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Roberts
+each a little less. No other contributors beyond the six original
+subscribers had come, except Professor Morse, Mr. Robert W. Lowber, Mr.
+Wilson G. Hunt, and Mr. John W. Brett. The list of directors and
+officers remained as it was at first, except that this year, 1856, Mr.
+White died, and his place as director was filled by Mr. Hunt, and that
+Mr. Field was chosen Vice-President, and Mr. Lowber Secretary. In all
+the operations of the Company thus far, the various negotiations, the
+plan of the work, the oversight of its execution, and the correspondence
+with the officers and others, mainly devolved upon Mr. Field.
+
+And so at length, after two long and weary years, these bold projectors
+had accomplished half their work. They had passed over the land, and
+under the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and having reached the farthest point of
+the American coast, they now stood upon the cliffs of Newfoundland,
+looking off upon the wide sea.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] One or two exceptions there were, not to be forgotten. Professor
+William Thomson, of the University of Glasgow, then a young man, but
+full of the enthusiasm of science, was already prepared to welcome such
+a project, with confidence of success. As early as October and November,
+1854, he wrote to the Secretary of the Royal Society of London,
+declaring his belief in its practicability. The letters are published in
+the Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1855. Such faith was not
+visionary, for it was based on clearer knowledge and more thorough
+investigation, and gave promise of those eminent services which this
+gentleman was afterwards to render to the cause of electrical science.
+Mr. C. F. Varley, also, was one of the first to perceive the possibility
+of an ocean telegraph, as he was to contribute greatly to its final
+success.
+
+[B] The letters of Mr. Taylor, which first appeared in The New York
+Tribune have been since collected in one of his volumes of travel. Mr.
+O'Brien, a very brilliant writer, who afterward fell in our civil war,
+fighting bravely for his adopted country, furnished some spirited
+letters to The Times. But Mr. Mullaly, who appeared for The Herald, was
+the most persevering attendant on the Telegraph, and the most
+indefatigable correspondent. He accompanied not only this expedition,
+but several others. He was on board the Niagara in 1857, and again in
+both the expeditions of 1858; and on the final success of the cable,
+prepared a volume, which was published by the Appletons, giving a
+history of the enterprise. This contains the fullest account of all
+those expeditions which has been given to the public. I have had
+frequent occasion to refer to his book, and can bear witness to the
+interest of the narrative. It is written with spirit, and doubtless
+would have had a longer life, if the cable itself had not come to an
+untimely end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS.
+
+
+When a landsman, born far away among the mountains, comes down to the
+coast, and stands for the first time on the shore of the sea, it excites
+in him a feeling of awe and wonder, not unmingled with terror. There it
+lies, a level surface, with nothing that lifts up its head like a peak
+of his native hills. And yet it is so vast, stretching away to the
+horizon, and all over the sides of the round world; with its tides and
+currents that sweep from the equator to the pole; with its unknown
+depths and its ceaseless motion; that it is to him the highest emblem of
+majesty and of power--a not unworthy symbol of God himself.
+
+In proportion to its mystery is the terror which hangs over it. A vague
+dread always surrounds the unknown. And what so unknown as the deep,
+unfathomable sea? For thousands of years the sails of ships, like winged
+birds, have skimmed over it, yet it has remained the one thing in nature
+beyond alike man's knowledge and his power:
+
+     Man marks the earth with ruin,
+     His control stops with the shore.
+
+And the little that has been known of the ocean has been chiefly of its
+surface, of the winds that blow over it, and the waves that are lifted
+up on high. We knew somewhat of its tides and currents as observed in
+different parts of the earth. We saw off our coast the great Gulf
+Stream--that steady flow of waters, so mighty and mysterious, which,
+issuing out of the tropical regions, poured its warm current, sixty
+miles broad, right through the cold waters of the North Atlantic; and
+sweeping round, sent the airs of a softer climate over all the countries
+of Western Europe. Old voyagers told us of the trade-winds that blew
+across the Pacific, and of terrible monsoons in China and Indian seas.
+But all that did not reveal what was going on a hundred fathoms below
+the surface. These old sailors had marvellous tales of Indian
+pearl-divers, who, holding their breath, plunged to the depth of a few
+hundred feet; but they came up half-dead, with but little to tell except
+of the frightful monsters of the deep. The diving-bell was let down over
+sunken wrecks, but the divers came up only with tales of riches and
+ruin, of gold and gems and dead men's bones that lay mingled together on
+the deep sea floor. Was the bottom of the sea all like this? Was it a
+vast realm of death, the sepulchre of the world? No man could tell us.
+Poets might sing of the caves of ocean, but no eye of science had yet
+penetrated those awful depths, which the storms never reach.
+
+It is indeed marvellous how little was known, up to a very recent date,
+of the true character of the ocean. Navigators had often tried to find
+out how deep it was. When lying becalmed on a tranquil sea, they had
+amused themselves by letting down a long line, weighted with a
+cannon-ball, to see if they could touch bottom. But the results were
+very uncertain. Sometimes the line ran out for miles and miles, but
+whether it was all the while descending, or was swayed hither and
+thither by mighty under-currents, could not be known.
+
+But this true character of the ocean it was necessary to determine,
+before it could be possible to pass the gulf of the Atlantic. What was
+there on the bottom of the sea, where the cable was to find its resting
+place? Was that ocean-bed a wide level plain, or had it been heaved up
+by volcanic forces into a hundred mountain-peaks, with many a gorge and
+precipice between? Such was the character of a part of the basin of the
+ocean. Here and there, all over the globe, are islands, like the Peak of
+Teneriffe, thrown up in some fierce bursting of the crust of our planet,
+that shoot up in tremendous cliffs from the sea. Who shall say that the
+same cliffs do not shoot down below the waves a thousand fathoms deep?
+And might there not be such islands, which did not show their heads
+above the surface, lying in the track between Europe and America: or
+perchance a succession of mountain ranges, over which the cable would
+have to be stretched, and where hanging from the heights it would swing
+with the tide, till at last it snapped and fell into the abyss below?
+Such at least were possible dangers to be encountered; and it was not
+safe to advance a step till the basin of the North Atlantic was
+explored.
+
+The progress of invention, so rapid on land, at length found a way of
+penetrating the sea, and even of turning up its bottom to the gaze of
+men. To measure the depth with something like mathematical accuracy, an
+instrument was introduced known among nautical men as Massey's
+Indicator, the method of which is very clearly explained in an article
+which appeared in one of the New York papers, (The Times,) on the
+deep-sea soundings made for the Atlantic Telegraph:
+
+     "The old system is with a small line, marked at distances of
+     one hundred fathoms, and with a weight of thirty or fifty
+     pounds, the depth being told by the length of line run out.
+     This is, of course, the most natural apparatus that suggests
+     itself, and has been in use from the earliest ages. Experience
+     has given directions for its use, avoiding some of the grosser
+     causes of error from driftage and other causes. Yet its success
+     in immense ocean depths is problematical, and a problem decided
+     in the negative by many of the first scientific authorities at
+     home and abroad. In the mechanical improvements of the last
+     half-century substitutes for this simple but rather uncertain
+     method began to be devised. It was proposed to ascertain the
+     depth by the amount of pressure, or by explosions under water,
+     with other equally impracticable plans. At last was noticed the
+     perfect regularity of the movements of a spirally-shaped wheel,
+     on being drawn through the water. Experiments proved that this
+     regularity, when unaffected by other causes, could be relied on
+     with perfect accuracy, and that an arrangement of cog-wheels
+     would register its revolutions with mathematical precision.
+     Very soon it came in use as a ship's log. So perfect was their
+     precision, that they were even introduced in scientific
+     surveys. Base lines, where the nicest accuracy is required,
+     were run with them, and we have the highest authority of the
+     Royal Navy for believing that they never failed. At this point
+     it was proposed to apply them in a perpendicular as well as in
+     a horizontal motion through the water. Massey's apparatus
+     promising to solve those problems of submarine geography left
+     unsolved by the old method of obtaining depth with a simple
+     line and sinker, and this more especially as some causes of
+     error, considerable on the surface, disappear in the still
+     water below."
+
+To make our knowledge of the sea complete, one thing more was wanting--a
+method not only of reaching the bottom, but of laying hold of it, and
+bringing it up to the light of day. This was now to be supplied.
+
+[Illustration: BROOKE'S DEEP SEA SOUNDING APPARATUS.
+A shows the instrument ready for sounding. It is very simple, consisting
+only of a cannon-ball, pierced with an iron rod, and held in its place
+by slings. As the ball goes down swiftly, it drives the rod into the
+bottom like the point of a spear, when an opening at the end catches the
+ooze in its iron lips. The same instant (see B) the slings loosen, the
+ball drops off, and the naked rod, C, with its "bite" is drawn up to the
+surface.]
+
+It is to the inventive genius of a lieutenant of the United States navy,
+Mr. J. M. Brooke, that the world owes the means of finding out what is
+at the bottom of the sea. This is by a very simple contrivance, by which
+the heavy weight, used to sink the measuring line, _is detached as soon
+as it strikes bottom_, leaving the line free so that it can be drawn up
+lightly and quickly to the surface without danger of breaking. Below the
+weight, and driven by it into the ooze, is a rod, in which is an open
+valve, that now closes with a spring, by which it catches a cupful of
+the soil, which is thus brought up to the surface, to be placed under
+the microscope, and be subjected to the sharp eye of science. With this
+simple instrument the skilful seaman explores the bottom of the ocean by
+literally feeling over it. With a long line he dives to the very lowest
+depths, while the clasp at the end of it is like the tip of the
+elephant's trunk, serving as a delicate finger with which he picks up
+sand and shells that lie strewn on the floor of the deep. What important
+conclusions are derived from this inspection of the bottom of the sea,
+is well stated by Lieutenant Maury in the letter already quoted.
+
+In happy concurrence with this, as an additional preparation, a partial
+survey of the Atlantic had been made the very year before this
+enterprise was begun, in 1853. Lieutenant Berryman was the first who
+applied this new method of taking deep-sea soundings to that part of the
+Atlantic lying between Newfoundland and Ireland, with results most
+surprising and satisfactory. But to remove all doubt it seemed desirable
+to have a fresh survey. To obtain this, Mr. Field went to Washington and
+applied to the Government in behalf of the Company for a second
+expedition.
+
+The request was granted, and the Arctic, under command of the same
+gallant Lieutenant Berryman, was assigned to this service. He sailed
+from New York on the eighteenth of July, 1856, and the very next day Mr.
+Field left on the Baltic for England, to organize the Atlantic Telegraph
+Company. The Arctic proceeded to St. John's, and thence with a clear eye
+and a steady hand, this true sailor went "sounding on his dim and
+perilous way" across the deep. In about three weeks he made the coast of
+Ireland, having carried his survey along the great circle arc, which the
+telegraph was to follow as the nearest path from the old world to the
+new. The result fully confirmed his belief of the existence of a great
+plateau underneath the ocean, extending all the way from one hemisphere
+to the other.
+
+I cannot take leave of the name of this gallant officer, who rendered
+such services to science and to his country, without a word of tribute
+to his memory. Lieutenant Berryman is in his grave. He died in the navy
+of his country, worn out by his devotion to her service. When the great
+civil war broke out, he was placed in a position most painful to a man
+of large heart, who loved at once his country and the state in which he
+was born. He was a Southerner, a native of Winchester, Va., and was
+assigned to duty in the South. At the first attack on Southern forts and
+arsenals, he was in command of the Wyandotte, in the harbor of
+Pensacola, in Florida. His officers, who were nearly all Southerners,
+were in secret sympathy with the rebellion. All the influences around
+him, both on ship and on shore, were such as might have seduced a weaker
+man from his loyalty. But, to his honor, he never hesitated for a
+moment. He stood firm and loyal to his flag. Not knowing whom to trust,
+he had to keep watch day and night against surprise and treachery. It
+was the testimony of Lieutenant Slemmer, then in command of Fort
+Pickens, that but for the ceaseless exertions of Lieutenant Berryman not
+only the ship but the fort would have been lost. But this service to his
+country cost him his life. His constant exertions brought on a brain
+fever, of which he died. His wife, also a native of Winchester, when the
+war came near her early home, removed to Baltimore, saying that "she
+would not live under any other flag than that under which her husband
+had lived and died."
+
+It was to the honor of the American navy, to have led the way in these
+deep-sea soundings. But after this second voyage of exploration, Mr.
+Field applied to the British Admiralty, "to make what further soundings
+might be necessary between Ireland and Newfoundland, and to verify those
+made by Lieutenant Berryman." It was in response to this application
+that the Government sent out the following year a vessel to make still
+another survey of the same ocean-path. This was the steamer Cyclops,
+which was placed under Lieutenant Commander Joseph Dayman, of the
+British navy, an officer who had been with Captain Sir James Ross when
+he made his deep-sea soundings in the South Atlantic in 1840, where he
+attained a depth of twenty-six hundred and sixty-seven fathoms; and who
+by his intelligence and zeal, was admirably fitted for the work. To
+speak now of this _third_ survey, is anticipating in time. But it will
+serve the purpose of unity and clearness in the narrative, to include
+all these deep-sea soundings in one chapter. He was directed to proceed
+to the harbor of Valentia in Ireland, and thence to follow, as nearly as
+possible, along the arc of a great circle to Newfoundland. "The
+soundings for the first few miles from the coast should be frequent,
+decreasing as you draw off shore."
+
+These orders were thoroughly executed. Every pains was taken to make the
+information obtained precise and exact. Whenever a sounding was to be
+taken, the ship was hove to, and the bow kept as nearly as possible in
+the same spot, so that the line might descend perpendicularly. This was
+repeated every few miles until they had got far out into the Atlantic,
+where the general equality of the depths rendered it necessary to cast
+the line only every twenty or thirty miles. Thus the survey was made
+complete, and the results obtained were of the greatest value in
+determining the physical geography of the sea.
+
+The conclusions of Commander Dayman confirmed in general those of
+Lieutenant Berryman, though in comparing the charts prepared by the two,
+we observe some differences which ought to be noticed. Both agree as to
+the general character of the bottom of the ocean along this
+latitude--that it is a vast plain, like the steppes of Siberia. Yet on
+the chart of Dayman the floor of the sea seems _not such a dead level_
+as on that of Berryman. (This may be partly owing to a difference of
+route, as Dayman passed a little to the north of the track of Berryman.)
+There are more unequal depths, which in the small space of a chart,
+appear like hills and valleys. Yet when we consider the wide distances
+passed over, these inequalities seem not greater than the undulations on
+our Western prairies. "This space," says Dayman, "has been named by
+Maury the telegraphic plateau, and although by multiplying the soundings
+upon it, we have depths ranging from fourteen hundred and fifty to
+twenty-four hundred fathoms, these are comparatively small inequalities
+in its surface, and present no new difficulty to the project of laying
+the cable across the ocean. Their importance vanishes when the extent of
+the space over which they are distributed (thirty degrees of longitude)
+is considered."
+
+[Illustration: BED OF THE ATLANTIC, NORTH AND SOUTH, THROUGH THE CAPE DE
+VERDS, AZORES, AND TELEGRAPH PLATEAU.]
+
+According to Berryman and Dayman both, the ocean in its deepest part on
+this plateau, measured but two thousand and three or four hundred
+fathoms, or about fourteen thousand feet--a depth of but little over
+two and a half miles. This is not great, compared with the enormous
+depths in other parts of the Atlantic;[A] yet that it is _something_ may
+be realized from the fact that if the Peak of Teneriffe were here "cast
+into the sea," it would sink out of sight, island, mountain and all,
+while even the lofty head of Mont Blanc would be lifted but a few
+hundred feet above the waves.
+
+The only exception to this uniform depth, lies about two hundred miles
+off the coast of Ireland, where within a space of about a dozen miles,
+the depth sinks from five hundred and fifty to seventeen hundred and
+fifty fathoms! "In 14° 48' west," says Dayman, "we have five hundred and
+fifty fathoms rock, and in 15° 6' west we have seventeen hundred and
+fifty fathoms ooze. This is the greatest dip in the whole ocean."
+
+"In little more than ten miles of distance a change of depth occurs,
+amounting to seventy-two hundred feet." This is indeed a tremendous
+plunge from the hard rock into the slime of the sea.
+
+The same sharp declivity was noticed by Berryman, and has been observed
+in the several attempts to lay the cable. Thus in the second expedition
+of 1858, as the Agamemnon was approaching the coast of Ireland, we read
+in the report of her voyage: "About five o'clock in the evening, the
+steep submarine mountain which divides the telegraphic plateau from the
+Irish coast, was reached; and the sudden shallowing of the water had a
+very marked effect on the cable, causing the strain on, and the speed of
+it, to lessen every minute. A great deal of slack was paid out to allow
+for inequalities which might exist, though undiscovered by the
+sounding-line."
+
+This submarine mountain was then regarded as the chief point of danger
+in the whole bed of the Atlantic, and as the principal source of anxiety
+in laying a cable across the ocean. Yet, after all, the ascent or
+descent of less than a mile and a half in ten miles, is not an
+impassable grade. More recent soundings reduce this still farther.
+Captain Hoskins, of the Royal Navy, afterwards made a more careful
+survey of this precipitous sea bottom, and with results much more
+favorable. The side of the mountain, it is now said, is not very much
+steeper than Holborn Hill in London, or Murray Hill in New York.[B] But
+the best answer to fears on this point, is the fact that in 1857, 1858,
+and 1865, the cable passed over it without difficulty. In 1857 the
+Niagara was a hundred miles farther to sea, when the cable broke. In
+1865 the strain was not increased more than a hundred pounds. In the
+final expedition, that of 1866, this declivity was passed over without
+difficulty or danger.
+
+Next to the depth of the ocean, it was important to ascertain the nature
+of its bottom. What was it--a vast bed of rock, the iron-bound crust of
+the globe, hardened by internal fires, and which, bending as a vault
+over the still glowing centre of the earth, bore up on its mighty arches
+the weight of all the oceans? or was it mere sand like the sea-shore? or
+ooze as soft as that of a mill-pond? The pressure of a column of water
+two miles high would be equal to that of four hundred atmospheres. Would
+not this weight alone be enough to crush any substance that could reach
+that tremendous depth? These were questions which remained to be
+answered, but on which depended the possibility of laying a cable at the
+bottom of the Atlantic.
+
+By the ingenious contrivance of Lieutenant Brooke, the problem was
+solved, for we got hold of fragments of the under-coating of the sea;
+and to our amazement, instead of finding the ocean bound round with
+thick ribs of granite, its inner lining was found to be soft as a silken
+vest. The soil brought up from the bottom was not even of the hardness
+of sand or gravel. It was mere ooze, like that of our rivers, and was as
+soft as the moss that clings to old, damp stones on the river's brink.
+At first it was thought by Lieutenant Berryman to be common clay, but
+being carefully preserved, and subjected to a powerful microscope, it
+was found to be composed of shells, too small to be discovered by the
+naked eye!
+
+This was a revelation of the myriad forms of animated existence which
+fill the sea: a plenitude of life that is more wonderful by contrast. As
+Maury well puts it: "The ocean teems with life, we know. Of the four
+elements of the old philosophers--fire, earth, air, and water--perhaps
+the sea most of all abounds with living creatures. The space occupied on
+the surface of our planet by the different families of animals and their
+remains are inversely as the size of the individual. The smaller the
+animal, the greater the space occupied by his remains. Take the elephant
+and his remains, or a microscopic animal and his, and compare them. The
+contrast, as to space occupied, is as striking as that of the coral reef
+or island with the dimensions of the whale. The graveyard that would
+hold the corallines is larger than the graveyard that would hold the
+elephants."[C]
+
+These little creatures, whose remains were thus found at the bottom of
+the ocean, probably did not live there, for there all is dark, and
+shells, like flowers, need the light and warmth of the all-reviving sun.
+It was their sepulchre, but not their dwelling-place. Probably they
+lived near the surface of the ocean, and after their short life, sunk to
+the tranquil waters below. What a work of life and death had been going
+on for ages in the depths of the sea! Myriads upon myriads, ever since
+the morning of creation, had been falling like snow-flakes, till their
+remains literally covered the bottom of the deep.
+
+Equally significant was the fact that these shells were _unbroken_. Not
+only were they there, but preserved in a perfect form. Organisms the
+most minute and delicate, fragile as drooping flowers, had yet sunk and
+slept uninjured. The same power which watches over the fall of a sparrow
+had kept these frail and tender things, and after their brief existence,
+had laid them gently on the bosom of the mighty mother for their eternal
+rest.
+
+The bearing of this discovery on the problem of a submarine telegraph
+was obvious. For it too was to lie on the ocean-bed, beside and among
+these relics that had so long been drifting down upon the watery plain.
+And if these tiny shells slept there unharmed, surely an iron chord
+might rest there in safety. There were no swift currents down there; no
+rushing waves agitated that sunless sea. There the waters moved not; and
+there might rest the great nerve that was to pass from continent to
+continent. And so far as injury from the surrounding elements was
+concerned, there it might remain, whispering the thoughts of successive
+generations of men, till the sea should give up its dead.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] "The ocean bed of the North Atlantic is a curious study; in some
+parts furrowed by currents, in others presenting banks, the
+accumulations perhaps of the débris of these ocean rivers during
+countless ages. To the west, the Gulf Stream pours along in a bed from
+one mile to a mile and a half in depth. To the east of this, and south
+of the Great Banks, is a basin, eight or ten degrees square, where the
+bottom attains a greater depression than perhaps the highest peaks of
+the Andes or Himalayas--six miles of line have failed to reach the
+bottom! Taking a profile of the Atlantic basin in our own latitude, we
+find a far greater depression than any mountain elevation on our own
+continent. Four or five Alleghanies would have to be piled on each
+other, and on them added Fremont's Peak, before their point would show
+itself above the surface. Between the Azores and the mouth of the Tagus
+this decreases to about three miles."
+
+[B] The results obtained are thus summed up in the London Times:
+
+"The dangerous part of this course has hitherto been supposed to be the
+sudden dip or bank which occurs off the west coast of Ireland, where the
+water was supposed to deepen in the course of a few miles from about
+three hundred fathoms to nearly two thousand. Such a rapid descent has
+naturally been regarded with alarm by telegraphic engineers, and this
+alarm has led to a most careful sounding survey of the whole supposed
+bank by Captain Dayman, acting under the instructions of the Admiralty.
+The result of this shows that the supposed precipitous bank, or
+submarine cliff, is a gradual slope of nearly sixty miles. Over this
+long slope the difference between its greatest height and greatest depth
+is only eighty-seven hundred and sixty feet; so that the average incline
+is, in round numbers, about one hundred and forty-five feet per mile. A
+good gradient on a railway is now generally considered to be one in one
+hundred feet, or about fifty-three in a mile; so that the incline on
+this supposed bank is only about three times that of an ordinary
+railway. In fact, as far as soundings can demonstrate any thing, there
+are few slopes in the bed of the Atlantic as steep as that of Holborn
+Hill. In no part is the bottom rocky, and with the exception of a few
+miles, which are shingly, only ooze, mud, or sand is to be found."
+
+[C] Physical Geography of the Sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE WORK BEGUN IN ENGLAND.
+
+
+Up to this time the Telegraph, which was destined to pass the sea, had
+been purely an American enterprise. It had been begun, and for over two
+years had been carried on, wholly by American capital. "Our little
+company," said Mr. Field ten years after, "raised and expended over a
+million and a quarter of dollars before an Englishman paid a single
+pound sterling." Mr. Brett was the first one to take a few shares. But
+this was not to the discredit of England, for the American public had
+done no better. Not a dollar had been raised this side the Atlantic,
+outside of the little circle in which the scheme had its origin. No
+stock or bonds were put upon the market; no man was asked for a
+subscription. If they wanted money, they drew their checks for it. At
+one time, indeed, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of bonds were
+issued, but they were at once taken wholly by themselves. But, as the
+time was now come when the long-meditated attempt was to be made to
+carry the Telegraph across the ocean, it was fitting that Great Britain,
+whose shores it was to touch, should join in the work. Accordingly, in
+the summer of 1856, after finishing all that he could do in America, Mr.
+Field sailed with his family for England. The very day before he
+embarked, he had the pleasure to see his friend, Lieutenant Berryman,
+off on his second voyage to make soundings across the Atlantic.
+
+In London he sought at once Mr. Brett, with whom in his two former
+visits to England he had already discussed his project, and found in him
+a hearty coöperator. As we go on with our story, it is a melancholy
+satisfaction to refer to one and another worker in this enterprise, who
+lived not to see its last and greatest triumph. Mr. Brett, like
+Berryman, is dead. But he did not go to his grave till after a life of
+usefulness and honor. He was one of the men of the new era--of the
+school of Stephenson and Brunel--who believed in the marvellous
+achievements yet to be wrought by human invention, turning to the
+service of man the wonders of scientific discovery. He was one of the
+first to see the boundless possibilities of the telegraph, and to
+believe that what had passed over the land might pass under the sea. He
+was the first to lay a cable across the British Channel, and thus to
+bring into instantaneous communication the two great capitals of
+Europe--an achievement which, though small compared with what has since
+been done, was then so marvellous, that the intelligence of its success
+was received with surprise and incredulity. Many could not and would
+not believe it. Even after messages were received in London from Paris,
+there were those who declared that it was an imposition on the public,
+with as much proud scorn as some a few years later scouted the very idea
+that a message had ever passed over the Atlantic Telegraph!
+
+This friendship of Mr. Brett--both to the enterprise and to Mr. Field
+personally--remained to the last. In every voyage to England the latter
+found--however others doubted or despaired--that Mr. Brett was always
+the same--full of hope and confidence. In 1864, when they met in London,
+he was unshaken in faith, and urgent to have the great enterprise
+renewed. The triumph was not far off, but he was not to live to see it.
+But, though he passed away before the final victory, he did his part
+toward bringing it on, and no history of this great enterprise can
+overlook his eminent services.
+
+To Mr. Brett, therefore, Mr. Field went first to consult in regard to
+his project of a telegraph across the ocean. This was a part of the
+design embraced in the original organization of the New York,
+Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company; and when Mr. Field went to
+England, he was empowered to receive subscriptions to that Company, so
+as to enlarge its capital, and thus include in one corporation the whole
+line from New York to London; or to organize a new company, which
+should lay a cable across the Atlantic, and there join the Newfoundland
+line.
+
+But before an enterprise so vast and so new could be commended to the
+commercial public of Great Britain, there were many details to be
+settled. The mechanical and scientific problems already referred to,
+whether a cable could be laid across the ocean; and if so, whether it
+could be worked, were to be considered anew. The opinions of Lieutenant
+Maury and of Professor Morse were published in England, and arrested the
+attention of scientific men. But John Bull is slow of belief, and asked
+for more evidence. The thing was too vast to be undertaken rashly. As
+yet there was no experience to decide the possibility of a telegraph
+across the ocean. The longest line which had been laid was three hundred
+miles. This caution, which is a national trait of Englishmen, will not
+be regarded as a fault by those who consider that in proportion as they
+are slow to embark in any new enterprise, are they resolute and
+determined in carrying it out.
+
+To resolve these difficult problems, Mr. Field sought counsel of the
+highest engineering authorities of Great Britain, and of her most
+eminent scientific men. To their honor, all showed the deepest interest
+in the project, and gave it freely the benefit of their knowledge.
+
+First, as to the possibility of laying a cable in the deep sea, Mr.
+Field had witnessed one attempt of the kind--that in the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence the year before--an attempt which had failed. His experience,
+therefore, was not encouraging. If they found so much difficulty in
+laying a cable seventy miles long, how could they hope to lay one of two
+thousand miles across the stormy Atlantic?
+
+This was a question for the engineers. To solve the problem, required
+experiments almost without number. It was now that the most important
+services were rendered by Glass, Elliot & Co., of London, a firm which
+had begun within a few years the manufacture of sea-cables, and was to
+write its name in all the waters of the world. Aided by the skill of
+their admirable engineer, Mr. Canning, they now manufactured cables
+almost without end, applying to them every possible test. At the same
+time, Mr. Field took counsel of Robert Stephenson and George Parker
+Bidder, both of whom manifested a deep interest in the success of the
+enterprise.
+
+Not less cordial was Mr. Brunel, who made many suggestions in regard to
+the form of the cable, and the manner in which it should be laid. He was
+then building the Great Eastern; and one day he took Mr. Field down to
+Blackwall to see it, and, pointing to the monstrous hull which was
+rising on the banks of the Thames, said: "There is the ship to lay the
+Atlantic cable!" Little did he think that ten years after, that ship
+would be employed in this service; and in this final victory over the
+sea, would redeem all the misfortunes of her earlier career.
+
+Among the difficulties to be encountered, was that of finding a perfect
+insulator. Without insulation, telegraphic communication by electricity
+is impossible. On land, where wires are carried on the tops of poles,
+the air itself is a sufficient insulator. A few glass rings at the
+points where the wire passes through the iron staples by which it is
+supported, and the insulation is complete. But in the sea the
+electricity would be instantly dissipated, unless some material could be
+found which should insulate a conductor sunk in water, as completely as
+if it were raised in air. But what could thus inclose the lightning, and
+keep it fast while flying from one continent to the other?
+
+Here again it seemed as if Divine wisdom had anticipated the coming of
+this great enterprise, and provided in the realm of nature every
+material needed for its success. It was at least a happy coincidence
+that only a few years before there had been found, in the forests of the
+Malayan archipelago, a substance till then unknown to the world, but
+which answered completely this new demand. This was gutta-percha, which
+is impenetrable by water, and at the same time a bad conductor of
+electricity; so that it forms at once a perfect protection and
+insulation to a telegraph passing through the sea. In the experiments
+that were made to test the value of this material in the grander use to
+which it was to be applied, no man rendered greater service than Mr.
+Samuel Statham, of the London Gutta-Percha Works--a name to be
+gratefully remembered in the early history of the Atlantic Telegraph.
+
+The mechanical difficulties removed, and the insulation provided, there
+remained yet the great scientific problem: Could a message be sent two
+thousand miles under the Atlantic? The ingenuity of man might devise
+some method of laying a cable across the sea, but of what use were it,
+if the electric current should shrink from the dark abyss?
+
+It was in prosecuting inquiries to resolve this problem, that Mr. Field
+became acquainted with two gentlemen who were to be soon after
+associated with him in the organization of the Atlantic Telegraph
+Company. These were Mr. Charles T. Bright, afterward knighted for his
+part in laying the Atlantic cable in 1858, and Dr. Edward O. Whitehouse,
+both well known in England, the former as an engineer, and the latter
+for his experiments in electro-magnetism, as applied to the business of
+telegraphing. He had invented an instrument by which to ascertain and
+register the velocity of electric currents through submarine cables.
+Both these gentlemen were full of the ardor of science, and entered on
+this new project with the zeal which the prospect of so great a triumph
+might inspire. With them was now to be associated our distinguished
+countryman, Professor Morse. Fortunately he was at this time in London,
+and gave his invaluable aid to the experiments which were made to
+determine the possibility of telegraphic communication at great
+distances under the sea. The result of his experiments he communicates
+in a letter to Mr. Field:
+
+                              "London, Five o'clock A.M.,
+                              "October 3, 1856.
+
+     "My dear Sir: As the electrician of the New York, Newfoundland,
+     and London Telegraph Company, it is with the highest
+     gratification that I have to apprise you of the result of our
+     experiments of this morning upon a single continuous conductor
+     of more than two thousand miles in extent, a distance you will
+     perceive sufficient to cross the Atlantic Ocean, from
+     Newfoundland to Ireland.
+
+     "The admirable arrangements made at the Magnetic Telegraph
+     Office in Old Broad street, for connecting ten subterranean
+     gutta-percha insulated conductors, of over two hundred miles
+     each, so as to give one continuous length of more than two
+     thousand miles during the hours of the night, when the
+     telegraph is not commercially employed, furnished us the means
+     of conclusively settling, by actual experiment, the question of
+     the practicability as well as the practicality[A] of
+     telegraphing through our proposed Atlantic cable.
+
+     "This result had been thrown into some doubt by the discovery,
+     more than two years since, of certain phenomena upon
+     subterranean and submarine conductors, and had attracted the
+     attention of electricians, particularly of that most eminent
+     philosopher, Professor Faraday, and that clear-sighted
+     investigator of electrical phenomena, Dr. Whitehouse; and one
+     of these phenomena, to wit, the perceptible retardation of the
+     electric current, threatened to perplex our operations, and
+     required careful investigation before we could pronounce with
+     certainty the commercial practicability of the Ocean Telegraph.
+
+     "I am most happy to inform you that, as a crowning result of a
+     long series of experimental investigation and inductive
+     reasoning upon this subject, the experiments under the
+     direction of Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright, which I witnessed
+     this morning--in which the induction coils and receiving
+     magnets, as modified by these gentlemen, were made to actuate
+     one of my recording instruments--have most satisfactorily
+     resolved all doubts of the practicability as well as
+     practicality of operating the telegraph from Newfoundland to
+     Ireland.
+
+     "Although we telegraphed signals at the rate of two hundred and
+     ten, two hundred and forty-one, and, according to the count at
+     one time, even of two hundred and seventy per minute upon my
+     telegraphic register, (which speed, you will perceive, is at a
+     rate commercially advantageous,) these results were
+     accomplished notwithstanding many disadvantages in our
+     arrangements of a temporary and local character--disadvantages
+     which will not occur in the use of our submarine cable.
+
+     "Having passed the whole night with my active and agreeable
+     collaborators, Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright, without sleep,
+     you will excuse the hurried and brief character of this note,
+     which I could not refrain from sending you, since our
+     experiments this morning settle the scientific and commercial
+     points of our enterprise satisfactorily.
+
+     "With respect and esteem, your obedient servant,
+
+                              "Samuel F. B. Morse."
+
+A week later, he wrote again, confirming his former impressions, thus:
+
+                              "London, October 10, 1856.
+
+     "My dear Sir: After having given the deepest consideration to
+     the subject of our successful experiments the other night, when
+     we signalled clearly and rapidly through an unbroken circuit of
+     subterranean conducting wire, over two thousand miles in
+     length, I sit down to give you the result of my reflections and
+     calculations.
+
+     "There can be no question but that, with a cable containing a
+     single conducting wire, of a size not exceeding that through
+     which we worked, and with equal insulation, it would be easy to
+     telegraph from Ireland to Newfoundland at a speed of at least
+     from eight to ten words per minute; nay, more: the varying
+     rates of speed at which we worked, depending as they did upon
+     differences in the arrangement of the apparatus employed, do of
+     themselves prove that even a higher rate than this is
+     attainable. Take it, however, at ten words in the minute, and
+     allowing ten words for name and address, we can safely
+     calculate upon the transmission of a twenty-word message in
+     three minutes;
+
+     "Twenty such messages in the hour;
+
+     "Four hundred and eighty in the twenty-four hours, or fourteen
+     thousand four hundred words per day.
+
+     "Such are the capabilities of a single wire cable fairly and
+     moderately computed.
+
+     "It is, however, evident to me, that by improvements in the
+     arrangement of the signals themselves, aided by the adoption of
+     a code or system constructed upon the principles of the best
+     nautical code, as suggested by Dr. Whitehouse, we may at least
+     double the speed in the transmission of our messages.
+
+     "As to the structure of the cable itself, the last specimen
+     which I examined with you seemed to combine so admirably the
+     necessary qualities of strength, flexibility, and lightness,
+     with perfect insulation, that I can no longer have any
+     misgivings about the ease and safety with which it will be
+     submerged.
+
+     "In one word, the doubts are resolved, the difficulties
+     overcome, success is within our reach, and the great feat of
+     the century must shortly be accomplished.
+
+     "I would urge you, if the manufacture can be completed within
+     the time, (and all things are possible now,) to press forward
+     the good work, and not to lose the chance of laying it during
+     the ensuing summer.
+
+     "Before the close of the present month, I hope to be again
+     landed safely on the other side of the water, and I full well
+     know, that on all hands the inquiries of most interest with
+     which I shall be met, will be about the Ocean Telegraph.
+
+     "Much as I have enjoyed my European trip this year, it would
+     have enhanced the gratification which I have derived from it
+     more than I can describe to you, if on my return to America, I
+     could be the first bearer to my friends of the welcome
+     intelligence that the great work had been begun, by the
+     commencement of the manufacture of the cable to connect Ireland
+     with the line of the New York, Newfoundland, and London
+     Telegraph Company, now so successfully completed to St. John's.
+
+     "Respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+                              "Samuel F. B. Morse."
+
+These experiments and others removed the doubts of scientific men.
+Professor Faraday, in spite of the law of the retardation of electricity
+on long circuits, which it was said he had discovered, and which would
+render it impossible to work a line of such length as from Ireland to
+Newfoundland, now declared his full conviction that it was within the
+bounds of possibility. The passage of electricity might not be
+absolutely instantaneous, or have the swiftness of the solar beam, yet
+it would be rapid enough for all practical purposes. When Mr. Field
+asked him how long it would take for the electricity to pass from London
+to New York, he answered: "Possibly one second!"
+
+Thus fortified by the highest scientific and engineering authorities,
+the projectors of an ocean telegraph were now ready to bring it before
+the British public, and to see what support could be found from the
+English Government and the English people.
+
+Mr. Field first addressed himself to the Government. Without waiting for
+the Company to be fully organized, with true American eagerness and
+impatience, he wrote a letter to the Admiralty asking for a fresh survey
+of the route to be traversed, and for the aid of Government ships to lay
+the cable. He also addressed a letter to Lord Clarendon, stating the
+large design which they had conceived, and asking for it the aid which
+was due to what concerned the honor and interest of England. The reply
+was prompt and courteous, inviting him to an interview for the purpose
+of a fuller explanation. Accordingly, Mr. Field, with Professor Morse,
+called upon him at the Foreign Office, and spent an hour in conversation
+on the proposed undertaking. Lord Clarendon showed great interest, and
+made many inquiries. He was a little startled at the magnitude of the
+scheme, and the confident tone of the projectors, and asked pleasantly:
+"But, suppose you _don't_ succeed? Suppose you make the attempt and
+fail--your cable is lost in the sea--then what will you do?" "Charge it
+to profit and loss, and go to work to lay another," was the quick answer
+of Mr. Field, which amused him as a truly American reply. In conclusion,
+he desired him to put his request in writing, and, without committing
+the Government, encouraged him to hope that Britain would do all that
+might justly be expected in aid of this great international work. How
+nobly this promise was kept, time will show.
+
+While engaged in these negotiations, Mr. Field took his family to Paris,
+and there met with a great loss in the sudden death of a favorite
+sister, who had accompanied them abroad. Full of the sorrow of this
+event, and unfitted for business of any kind, he returned to London to
+find an invitation to go into the country and spend a few days with Mr.
+James Wilson, then Secretary to the Treasury, a man of great influence
+in the Government, at his residence near Bath; there to discuss quietly
+and at length the proposed aid to the Atlantic Telegraph. Though he had
+but little spirit to go among strangers, he felt it his duty not to miss
+an opportunity to advance the cause he had so much at heart. The result
+of this visit was the following letter, received a few days later:
+
+                              "Treasury Chambers. Nov. 20, 1856.
+
+     "Sir: Having laid before the Lords Commissioners of her
+     Majesty's Treasury your letter of the 13th ultimo, addressed to
+     the Earl of Clarendon, requesting, on behalf of the New York,
+     Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, certain privileges
+     and protection in regard to the line of telegraph which it is
+     proposed to establish between Newfoundland and Ireland, I am
+     directed by their lordships to acquaint you that they are
+     prepared to enter into a contract with the said Telegraph
+     Company, based upon the following conditions, namely:
+
+     "1. It is understood that the capital required to lay down the
+     line will be three hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
+
+     "2. Her Majesty's Government engage to furnish the aid of ships
+     to take what soundings may still be considered needful, or to
+     verify those already taken, and favorably to consider any
+     request that may be made to furnish aid by their vessels in
+     laying down the cable.
+
+     "3. The British Government, from the time of the completion of
+     the line, and so long as it shall continue in working order,
+     undertakes to pay at the rate of fourteen thousand pounds a
+     year, being at the rate of four per cent. on the assumed
+     capital, as a fixed remuneration for the work done on behalf of
+     the Government, in the conveyance outward and homeward of their
+     messages. This payment to continue until the net profits of the
+     Company are equal to a dividend of six per cent., when the
+     payment shall be reduced to ten thousand pounds a year, for a
+     period of twenty-five years.
+
+     "It is, however, understood that if the Government messages in
+     any year shall, at the usual tariff-rate charged to the public,
+     amount to a larger sum, such additional payment shall be made
+     as is equivalent thereto.
+
+     "4. That the British Government shall have a priority in the
+     conveyance of their messages over all others, subject to the
+     exception only of the Government of the United States, in the
+     event of their entering into an arrangement with the Telegraph
+     Company similar in principle to that of the British Government,
+     in which case the messages of the two Governments shall have
+     priority in the order in which they arrive at the stations.
+
+     "5. That the tariff of charges shall be fixed with the consent
+     of the Treasury, and shall not be increased, without such
+     consent being obtained, as long as this contract lasts.
+
+     "I am, sir, your obedient servant,
+
+                              "James Wilson.
+
+     "Cyrus W. Field, Esq., 37 Jermyn street."
+
+With this encouragement and promise of aid, the projectors of a
+telegraph across the ocean now went forward to organize a company to
+carry out their design. Mr. Field, on arriving in England, had entered
+into an agreement with Mr. Brett to join their efforts for this
+purpose. With them were afterward united two others--Sir Charles Bright,
+as engineer, and Dr. Whitehouse, as electrician. These four gentlemen
+agreed to form a new company, to be called The Atlantic Telegraph
+Company, the object of which should be "to continue the existing line of
+the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company to Ireland, by
+making or causing to be made a submarine telegraph cable for the
+Atlantic."
+
+As they were now ready to introduce the enterprise to the British
+public, Mr. Field issued a circular in the name of the Newfoundland
+Company, and as its Vice-President, setting forth the great importance
+of telegraphic communication between the two hemispheres.
+
+The next step was to raise the capital. After the most careful
+estimates, it was thought that a cable could be made and laid across the
+Atlantic for £350,000. This was a large sum to ask from a public slow to
+move, and that lends a dull ear to all new schemes. But armed with facts
+and figures, with maps and estimates, with the opinions of engineers and
+scientific men, they went to work, not only in London, but in other
+parts of the kingdom. Mr. Field, in company with Mr. Brett, made a visit
+to Liverpool and Manchester, to address their Chambers of Commerce. I
+have now before me the papers of those cities, with reports of the
+meetings held and the speeches made, which show the vigor with which
+they pushed their enterprise. This energy was rewarded with success. The
+result justified their confidence. In a few weeks the whole capital was
+subscribed. It had been divided into three hundred and fifty shares of a
+thousand pounds each. Of these, a hundred and one were taken in London,
+eighty-six in Liverpool, thirty-seven in Glasgow, twenty-eight in
+Manchester, and a few in other parts of England. The grandeur of the
+design attracted public attention, and some subscribed solely from a
+noble wish to take part in such a work. Among these were Mr. Thackeray
+and Lady Byron. Mr. Field subscribed £100,000, and Mr. Brett £25,000.
+But when the books were closed, it was found that they had more money
+subscribed than they required, so that in the final division of shares,
+there were allotted to Mr. Field eighty-eight, and to Mr. Brett twelve.
+Mr. Field's interest was thus one-fourth of the whole capital of the
+Company.
+
+In taking so large a share, it was not his intention to carry this heavy
+load alone. It was too large a proportion for one man. But he took it
+for his countrymen. He thought one fourth of the stock should be held in
+this country, and did not doubt, from the eagerness with which three
+fourths had been taken in England, that the remainder would be at once
+subscribed in America. Had he been able, on his return, to attend to his
+own interests in the matter, this expectation might have been realized;
+but, as we shall see, hardly did he set foot in New York, before he was
+obliged to hurry off to Newfoundland on the business of the Company, and
+when he returned the interest had subsided, so that it required very
+great exertions, continued through many months, to dispose of
+twenty-seven shares. Thus he was by far the largest stockholder in
+England or America--his interest being over seven times that of Mr.
+Brett, who was the largest next to himself--and being more than double
+the amount held by all the other American shareholders put together.
+This was at least giving substantial proof of his own faith in the
+undertaking.
+
+But some may imagine that after all this burden was not so great as it
+seemed. In many stock companies the custom obtains of assigning to the
+projectors a certain portion of the stock as a bonus for getting up the
+company, which amount appears among the subscriptions to swell the
+capital. It is indeed subscribed, _but not paid_. So some have asked
+whether this large subscription of Mr. Field was not in part at least
+merely nominal? To this we answer, that a consideration _was_ granted to
+Mr. Field and his associates for their services in getting up the
+Company, and for their exclusive rights, but this was a contingent
+interest in the profits of the enterprise, _to be allowed only after the
+cable was laid_. So that the whole amount here subscribed was a
+_bona-fide_ subscription, and paid in solid English gold. We have now
+before us the receipts of the bankers of the Company for the whole
+amount, eighty-eight thousand pounds sterling.
+
+The capital being thus raised, it only remained to complete the
+organization of the Company by the choice of a Board of Directors, and
+to make a contract for the cable. The Company was organized in December,
+1856, by the choice of Directors chiefly from the leading bankers and
+merchants of London and Liverpool. The list included such honored names
+as Samuel Gurney, T. H. Brooking, John W. Brett, and T. A. Hankey, of
+London; Sir William Brown, Henry Harrison, Edward Johnston, Robert
+Crosbie, George Maxwell, and C. W. H. Pickering, of Liverpool; John
+Pender and James Dugdale, of Manchester; and Professor William Thomson,
+LL.D., of Glasgow. With these English Directors were two of our
+countrymen, Mr. George Peabody and Mr. C. M. Lampson, who, residing
+abroad for more than a third of a century, did much in the commercial
+capital of the world to support the honor of the American name. Mr.
+Peabody's firm subscribed £10,000, and Mr. Lampson £2,000. The latter
+gave more time than any other Director in London, except Mr. Brooking,
+the second Vice-Chairman, who, however, retired from the Company after
+the first failure in 1858, when Mr. Lampson was chosen to fill his
+place. The whole Board was full of zeal and energy. All gave their
+services without compensation.
+
+It was the good fortune of the Company to have, from the beginning, in
+the important position of Secretary, a gentleman admirably qualified for
+the post. This was Mr. George Saward--a name familiar to all who have
+followed the fortunes of the telegraph, in England or America, since he
+has been the organ of communication with the press and the public; and
+with whom none ever had occasion to transact business without
+recognizing his intelligence and courtesy.
+
+The Company being thus in working order, proceeded to make a contract
+for the manufacture of a cable to be laid across the Atlantic. For many
+months the proper form and size of the cable had been the subject of
+constant experiments. The conditions were: to combine the greatest
+degree of strength with lightness and flexibility. It must be strong, or
+it would snap in the process of laying. Yet it would not do to have it
+too large, for it would be unmanageable. Mr. Brett had already lost a
+cable in the Mediterranean chiefly from its bulk. Its size and stiffness
+made it hard to unwind it, while its enormous weight, when once it broke
+loose, caused it to run out with fearful velocity, till it was soon lost
+in the sea. It was only the year before, in September, 1855, that this
+accident had occurred in laying the cable from Sardinia to Algeria. All
+was going on well, until suddenly, "about two miles, weighing sixteen
+tons, flew out with the greatest violence in four or five minutes,
+flying round even when the drums were brought to a dead stop, creating
+the greatest alarm for the safety of the men in the hold and for the
+vessel." This was partly owing to the character of the submarine surface
+over which they were passing. The bottom of the Mediterranean is
+volcanic, and is broken up into mountains and valleys. The cable,
+doubtless, had just passed over some Alpine height, and was descending
+into some fearful depth below; but chiefly it was owing to the great
+size and bulk of the cable. This was a warning to the Atlantic Company.
+The point to be aimed at was to combine the flexibility of a common
+ship's rope with the tenacity of iron. These conditions were thought to
+be united in the form that was adopted.[B] A contract was at once made
+for the manufacture of the cable, one half being given to Messrs. Glass,
+Elliot & Co., of London, and the other to Messrs. R. S. Newall & Co., of
+Liverpool. The whole was to be completed by the first of June, ready to
+be submerged in the sea. The company was organized on the ninth of
+December, and the very next day Mr. Field sailed for America, reaching
+New York on the twenty-fifth of December, after an absence of more than
+five months.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Professor Morse was fond of the distinction between the words
+practical and practicable. A thing might be practicable, that is,
+possible of accomplishment, when it was not a practical enterprise, that
+is, one which could be worked to advantage. He here argues that the
+Atlantic Telegraph is both practicable, (or possible,) and at the same
+time a wise, practical undertaking.
+
+[B] On his return to America, many inquiries were addressed to Mr. Field
+in regard to the form and structure of the cable, in answer to which he
+wrote a letter of explanation in which he said:
+
+"No particular connected with this great project has been the subject of
+so much comment through the press as the form and structure of the
+telegraph cable. It may be well believed that the Directors have not
+decided upon a matter so all-important to success, without availing
+themselves of the most eminent talent and experience which could be
+commanded. The practical history of submarine telegraphs dates from the
+successful submersion of the cable between Dover and Calais in 1851, and
+advantage has been taken of whatever instruction this history could
+furnish or suggest. Of the submarine cables heretofore laid down,
+without enumerating others, the one between Dover and Calais weighs six
+tons to the mile; that between Spezzia and Corsica, eight tons to the
+mile; that laid from Varna to Balaklava, and used during the war in the
+Crimea, less than three hundred pounds to the mile; while the weight of
+the cable for the Atlantic Telegraph is between nineteen hundred pounds
+and one ton to the mile. This cable, to use the words of Dr. Whitehouse,
+'is the result of many months thought, experiment, and trial. Hundreds
+of specimens have been made, comprising every variety of form, size, and
+structure, and most severely tested as to their powers and capabilities;
+and the result has been the adoption of this, which we know to possess
+all the properties required, and in a far higher degree than any cable
+that has yet been laid. Its flexibility is such as to make it as
+manageable as a small line, and its strength such that it will bear, in
+water, over six miles of its own weight suspended vertically.' The
+conducting medium consists not of one single straight copper-wire, but
+of seven wires of copper of the best quality, twisted round each other
+spirally, and capable of undergoing great tension without injury. This
+conductor is then enveloped in three separate coverings of gutta-percha,
+of the best quality, forming the core of the cable, round which tarred
+hemp is wrapped, and over this, the outside covering, consisting of
+eighteen strands of the best quality of iron-wire; each strand composed
+of seven distinct wires, twisted spirally, in the most approved manner,
+by machinery specially adapted to the purpose. The attempt to insulate
+more than one conducting-wire or medium would not only have increased
+the chances of failure of all of them, but would have necessitated the
+adoption of a proportionably heavier and more cumbrous cable. The
+tensile power of the outer or wire covering of the cable, being very
+much less than that of the conductor within it, the latter is protected
+from any such strain as can possibly rupture it or endanger its
+insulation without an entire fracture of the cable."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SEEKING AID FROM CONGRESS.
+
+
+When Mr. Field reached home from abroad, he hoped for a brief respite.
+He had had a pretty hard campaign during the summer and autumn in
+England, and needed at least a few weeks of rest; but that was denied
+him. He landed in New York on Christmas Day, and was not allowed even to
+spend the New Year with his family. There were interests of the Company
+in Newfoundland which required immediate attention, and it was important
+that one of the Directors should go there without delay. As usual, it
+devolved upon him. He left at once for Boston, where he took the steamer
+to Halifax, and thence to St. John's. Such a voyage may be very
+agreeable in summer, but in mid-winter it is not a pleasant thing to
+face the storms of those northern latitudes. The passage was unusually
+tempestuous. At St. John's he broke down, and was put under the care of
+a physician. But he did not stop to think of himself. The work for which
+he came was done; and though the physician warned him that it was a
+great risk to leave his bed, he took the steamer on her return, and was
+again in New York after a month's absence--a month of hardship, of
+exposure, and of suffering, such as he had long occasion to remember.
+
+The mention of this voyage came up a year afterward at a meeting of the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company in London, when a resolution was offered,
+tendering Mr. Field a vote of thanks for "the great services he had
+rendered to the Company by his untiring zeal, energy, and devotion." Mr.
+Brooking, the Vice-Chairman, had spent a large part of his life in
+Newfoundland, and knew the dangers of that inhospitable coast, and in
+seconding the resolution he said:
+
+     "It is now about a year and a half ago since I had the pleasure
+     of making the acquaintance of my friend Mr. Field. It was he
+     who initiated me into this Company, and induced me to take an
+     interest in it from its earliest stage. From that period to the
+     present I have observed in Mr. Field the most determined
+     perseverance, and the exercise of great talent, extraordinary
+     assiduity and diligence, coupled with an amount of fortitude
+     which has seldom been equalled. I have known him cross the
+     Atlantic in the depth of winter, and, within twenty-four hours
+     after his arrival in New York, having ascertained that his
+     presence was necessary in a distant British colony, he has not
+     hesitated at once to direct his course thitherward. That colony
+     is one with which I am intimately acquainted, having resided in
+     it for upward of twenty years, and am enabled to speak of the
+     hazards and danger which attend a voyage to it in winter. Mr.
+     Field no sooner arrived at New York, in the latter part of
+     December, than he got aboard a steamer for Halifax, and
+     proceeded to St. John's, Newfoundland. In three weeks he
+     accomplished there a very great object for this Company. He
+     procured the passage of an Act of the Legislature which has
+     given to our Company the right of establishing a footing on
+     those shores. [The rights before conferred, it would seem,
+     applied only to the Newfoundland Company.] That is only one of
+     the acts which he has performed with a desire to promote the
+     interests of this great enterprise."
+
+The very next day after his return from Newfoundland, Mr. Field was
+called to Washington, to seek the aid of his own Government to the
+Atlantic Telegraph. The English Government had proffered the most
+generous aid, both in ships to lay the cable, and in an annual subsidy
+of £14,000. It was on every account desirable that this should be met by
+corresponding liberality on the part of the American Government. Before
+he left England, he had sent home the letter received from the Lords
+Commissioners of the Treasury; and thereupon the Directors of the New
+York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company had inclosed a copy to
+the President, with a letter asking for the same aid in ships, and in an
+annual sum of $70,000, [equivalent to £14,000,] to be paid for the
+government messages, the latter to be conditioned on the success of the
+telegraph, and to be continued only so long as it was in full operation.
+They urged with reason that the English Government had acted with great
+liberality--not only toward the enterprise, but toward our own
+Government. Although both ends of the line were in the British
+possessions, it had claimed no exclusive privileges, but had stipulated
+for perfect equality between the United States and Great Britain. The
+agreement expressly provided "that the British Government shall have a
+priority in the conveyance of their messages over all others, _subject
+to the exception only of the Government of the United States_, in the
+event of their entering into an arrangement with the Telegraph Company
+similar in principle to that of the British Government, in which case
+the messages of the two governments shall have priority in the order in
+which they arrive at the stations."
+
+The letter to the President called attention to this generous offer--an
+offer which it was manifestly to the advantage of our Government to
+accept--and added: "The Company will enter into a contract with the
+Government of the United States on the same terms and conditions as it
+has made with the British Government." They asked only for the same
+recognition and aid which they had received in England. This surely was
+not a very bold request. It was natural that American citizens should
+think that in a work begun by Americans, and of which, if successful,
+their country would reap largely the honor and the advantage, they might
+expect the aid from their own Government which they had already received
+from a foreign power. It was, therefore, not without a mixture of
+surprise and mortification that they learned that the proposal in
+Congress had provoked a violent opposition, and that the bill was likely
+to be defeated. Such was the attitude of affairs when Mr. Field returned
+from Newfoundland, and which led him to hasten to Washington.
+
+He now found that it was much easier to deal with the English than with
+the American Government. Whatever may be said of the respective methods
+of administration, it must be confessed that the forms of English
+procedure furnish greater facility in the despatch of business. A
+contract can be made by the Lords of the Treasury without waiting the
+action of Parliament. The proposal is referred to two or three
+intelligent officers of the Government--perhaps even to a single
+individual--on whose report it takes action without further delay. Thus
+it is probable that the action of the British Government was decided
+wholly by the recommendation of Mr. Wilson, formed after the visit of
+Mr. Field.
+
+But in our country we do things differently. Here it would be considered
+a stretch of power for any administration to enter into a contract with
+a private company--a contract binding the Government for a period of
+twenty-five years, and involving an annual appropriation of
+money--without the action of Congress. This is a safeguard against
+reckless and extravagant expenditure, but, as one of the penalties we
+pay for our more popular form of government, in which every thing has
+to be referred to the people, it involves delay, and sometimes the
+defeat of wise and important public measures.
+
+Besides--shall we confess it to our shame--another secret influence
+often appears in American legislation, which has defeated many an act
+demanded by the public good--the influence of the Lobby! This now began
+to show itself in opposition. It had been whispered in Washington that
+the gentlemen in New York who were at the head of this enterprise were
+very rich; and a measure coming from such a source surely ought to be
+made to pay tribute before it was allowed to pass. This was a new
+experience. Those few weeks in Washington were worse than being among
+the icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland. The Atlantic Cable has had
+many a kink since, but never did it seem to be entangled in such a
+hopeless twist as when it got among the politicians.
+
+But it would be very unjust to suppose that there were no better
+influences in our Halls of Congress. There were then--as there have
+always been in our history--some men of large wisdom and of a noble
+patriotic pride, who in such a measure thought only of the good of their
+country and of the triumph of science and of civilization.
+
+Two years after--in August, 1858--when the Atlantic Telegraph proved at
+last a reality, and the New World was full of its fame, Mr. Seward, in
+a speech at Auburn, thus referred to the ordeal it had to pass through
+in Congress:
+
+     "The two great countries of which I have spoken, [England and
+     America,] are now ringing with the praises of Cyrus W. Field,
+     who chiefly has brought this great enterprise to its glorious
+     and beneficent consummation. You have never heard his story;
+     let me give you a few points in it, as a lesson that there is
+     no condition of life in which a man, endowed with native
+     genius, a benevolent spirit, and a courageous patience, may not
+     become a benefactor of nations and of mankind."
+
+After speaking of the efforts by which this New York merchant "brought
+into being an association of Americans and Englishmen, which contributed
+from surplus wealth the capital necessary as a basis for the
+enterprise"; he adds:
+
+     "It remained to engage the consent and the activity of the
+     Governments of Great Britain and the United States. That was
+     all that remained. Such consent and activity on the part of
+     some one great nation of Europe was all that remained needful
+     for Columbus when he stood ready to bring a new continent
+     forward as a theatre of the world's civilization. But in each
+     case that effort was the most difficult of all. Cyrus W. Field,
+     by assiduity and patience, first secured consent and
+     conditional engagement on the part of Great Britain, and then,
+     less than two years ago, he repaired to Washington. The
+     President and Secretary of State individually favored his
+     proposition; but the jealousies of parties and sections in
+     Congress forbade them to lend it their official sanction and
+     patronage. He appealed to me. I drew the necessary bill. With
+     the generous aid of others, Northern Representatives, and the
+     indispensable aid of the late Thomas J. Rusk, a Senator from
+     Texas, that bill, after a severe contest and long delay, was
+     carried through the Senate of the United States by the
+     majority, if I remember rightly, of one vote, and escaped
+     defeat in the House of Representatives with equal difficulty. I
+     have said the aid of Mr. Rusk was indispensable. If any one has
+     wondered why I, an extreme Northern man, loved and lamented
+     Thomas J. Rusk, an equally extreme Southern man, he has here an
+     explanation. There was no good thing which, as it seemed to me,
+     I could not do in Congress with his aid. When he died, it
+     seemed to me that no good thing could be done by any one. Such
+     was the position of Cyrus W. Field at that stage of the great
+     enterprise. But, thus at last fortified with capital derived
+     from New York and London, and with the navies of Great Britain
+     and the United States at his command, he has, after trials that
+     would have discouraged any other than a true discoverer,
+     brought the great work to a felicitous consummation. And now
+     the Queen of Great Britain and the President of the United
+     States stand waiting his permission to speak, and ready to
+     speak at his bidding; and the people of these two great
+     countries await only the signal from him to rush into a
+     fraternal embrace which will prove the oblivion of ages of
+     suspicion, of jealousies and of anger."
+
+Mr. Seward might well refer with pride to the part he took in sustaining
+this enterprise. He was from the beginning its firmest supporter. The
+bill was introduced into the Senate by him, and was carried through
+mainly by his influence, seconded by Mr. Rusk, Mr. Douglas, and one or
+two others. It was introduced on the ninth of January, and came up for
+consideration on the twenty-first. Its friends had hoped that it might
+pass with entire unanimity. But such was the opposition, that the
+discussion lasted two days. The report shows that it was a subject of
+animated and almost angry debate, which brought out the secret of the
+opposition to aid being given by the Government.
+
+Probably no measure was ever introduced in Congress for the help of any
+commercial enterprise, that some member, imagining that it was to
+benefit a particular section, did not object that it was
+"unconstitutional"! This objection was well answered in this case by Mr.
+Benjamin, of Louisiana, who asked:
+
+     "If we have a right to hire a warehouse at Port Mahon, in the
+     Mediterranean, for storing naval stores, have we not a right to
+     hire a company to carry our messages? I should as soon think of
+     questioning the constitutional power of the Government to pay
+     freight to a vessel for carrying its mail-bags across the
+     ocean, as to pay a telegraph company a certain sum per annum
+     for conveying its messages by the use of the electric
+     telegraph."
+
+This touched the precise ground on which the appropriation was asked. In
+their memorial to the President, the Company had said: "Such a contract
+will, we suppose, fall within the provisions of the Constitution in
+regard to postal arrangements, of which this is only a new and improved
+form."
+
+Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, explained in the same terms the nature of the
+proposed agreement:
+
+     "It is a mail operation. It is a Post-Office arrangement. It is
+     for the transmission of intelligence, and that is what I
+     understood to be the function of the Post-Office Department. I
+     hold it, therefore, to be as legitimately within the proper
+     powers of the Government, as the employing of a stage-coach, or
+     a steam-car, or a ship, to transport the mails, either to
+     foreign countries, or to different portions of our own
+     country."
+
+Of course, as in all appropriations of money, the question of expense
+had to be considered, and here there were not wanting some to cry out
+against the extravagance of paying seventy thousand dollars a year! We
+had not then got used to the colossal expenditures of war, when we grew
+familiar with paying three millions a day! Seventy thousand dollars
+seemed a great sum; but Mr. Bayard in reply reminded them that England
+then paid nine hundred thousand dollars a year for the transportation of
+the mails between the United States and England; and argued that it was
+a very small amount for the great service rendered. He said:
+
+     "We have sent out ships to make explorations and observations
+     in the Red Sea and in South America; we sent one or two
+     expensive expeditions to Japan, and published at great cost
+     some elegant books narrating their exploits. The expense even
+     in ships alone, in that instance, was at the rate of twenty to
+     one here, but no cry of economy was then raised." "I look upon
+     this proposition solely as a business measure; in that point of
+     view I believe the Government will obtain more service for the
+     amount of money, than by any other contract that we have ever
+     made, or now can make, for the transmission of intelligence."
+
+As to the expense of furnishing a ship of war to assist in laying the
+cable, Mr. Douglas asked:
+
+     "Will it cost anything to furnish the use of one of our
+     steamships? They are idle. We have no practical use for them at
+     present. They are in commission. They have their coal on board,
+     and their full armament. They will be rendering no service to
+     us if they are not engaged in this work. If there was nothing
+     more than a question of national pride involved, I would gladly
+     furnish the use of an American ship for that purpose. England
+     tenders one of her national vessels, and why should we not
+     tender one also? It costs England nothing, and it costs us
+     nothing."
+
+Mr. Rusk made the same point, in arguing that ships might be sent to
+assist in laying the cable, giving this homely but sufficient reason: "I
+think that is better than to keep them rotting at the navy-yards, with
+the officers frollicking on shore."
+
+Mr. Douglas urged still further:
+
+     "American citizens have commenced this enterprise. The honor
+     and the glory of the achievement, if successful, will be due
+     to American genius and American daring. Why should the American
+     Government be so penurious--I do not know that that is the
+     proper word, for it costs nothing--why should we be actuated by
+     so illiberal a spirit as to refuse the use of one of our
+     steamships to convey the wire when it does not cost one
+     farthing to the Treasury of the United States?"
+
+But behind all these objections of expense and of want of constitutional
+power, was one greater than all, and that was England! The real animus
+of the opposition was a fear of giving some advantage to Great Britain.
+This has always been sufficient to excite the hostility of a certain
+class of politicians. No matter what the subject of the proposed
+coöperation, if it were purely a scientific expedition, they were sure
+England was going to profit by it to our injury. So now there were those
+who felt that in this submarine cable England was literally crawling
+under the sea to get some advantage of the United States!
+
+This jealousy and hostility spoke loudest from the mouths of
+Southerners. It is noteworthy that men who, in less than five years
+after, were figuring abroad, courting foreign influence against their
+own country, were then fiercest in denunciation of England. Mason and
+Slidell voted together against the bill. Butler, of South Carolina, was
+very bitter in his opposition--saying, with a sneer, that "this was
+simply a mail service under the surveillance of Great Britain"--and so
+was Hunter, of Virginia; while Jones, of Tennessee, bursting with
+patriotism, found a sufficient reason for his opposition, in that "he
+did not want anything to do with England or Englishmen!"
+
+But it should be said in justice, that to this general hostility of the
+South there were some exceptions. Benjamin, of Louisiana, gave the bill
+an earnest support; so did Mallory, of Florida, Chairman of the Naval
+Committee; and especially that noble Southerner, Rusk, of Texas, "with
+whose aid," as Mr. Seward said, "it seemed that there was no good thing
+which he could not do in Congress." Mr. Rusk declared that he regarded
+it as "the great enterprise of the age," and expressed his surprise at
+the very moderate subsidy asked for, only seventy thousand dollars a
+year, saying that, "with a reasonable prospect of success in an
+enterprise, calculated to produce such beneficial results, he should be
+willing to vote two hundred thousand dollars."
+
+But with the majority of Southern Senators, there was a repugnance to
+acting in concert with England, which could not be overcome. They argued
+that this was not truly a line between England and the United States,
+but between England and her own colonies--a line of which she alone was
+to reap the benefit. _Both its termini were in the British possessions._
+In the event of war this would give a tremendous advantage to the power
+holding both ends of the line. All the speakers harped on this string;
+and it may be worth a page or two to see how this was met and answered.
+When Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, asked, "What security are we to have that
+in time of war we shall have the use of the telegraph as well as the
+British Government?" Mr. Seward answered:
+
+     "It appears not to have been contemplated by the British
+     Government that there would ever be any interruption of the
+     amicable relations between the two countries. Therefore nothing
+     was proposed in their contract for the contingency of war.
+
+     "That the two termini are both in the British dominions is
+     true; but it is equally true that there is no other terminus on
+     this continent where it is practicable to make that
+     communication except in the British dominions. We have no
+     dominions on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. There is no
+     other route known on which the telegraphic wire could be drawn
+     through the ocean so as to find a proper resting-place or
+     anchorage except this. The distance on this route is seventeen
+     hundred miles. It is not even known that the telegraphic wire
+     will carry the fluid with sufficient strength to communicate
+     across those seventeen hundred miles. That is yet a scientific
+     experiment, and the Company are prepared to make it.
+
+     "In regard to war, all the danger is this: There is a hazard of
+     war at some future time, and whatever arrangements we might
+     make, war would break them up. No treaty would save us. My own
+     hope is, that after the telegraphic wire is once laid, there
+     will be no more war between the United States and Great
+     Britain. I believe that whenever such a connection as this
+     shall be made, we diminish the chances of war, and diminish
+     them in such a degree, that it is not necessary to take them
+     into consideration at the present moment.
+
+     "Let us see where we are. What shall we gain by refusing to
+     enter into this agreement? If we do not make it, the British
+     Government has only to add ten thousand pounds sterling more
+     annually, and they have the whole monopoly of this wire,
+     without any stipulation whatever--not only in war but in peace.
+     If we make this contract with the Company, we at least secure
+     the benefit of it in time of peace, and we postpone and delay
+     the dangers of war. If there shall ever be war, it would
+     abrogate all treaties that can be made in regard to this
+     subject, unless it be true, as the honorable Senator from
+     Virginia thinks, that treaties can be made which will be
+     regarded as obligatory by nations in time of war. If so, we
+     have all the advantages in time of peace, for the purpose of
+     making such treaties hereafter, without the least reason to
+     infer that there would be any reluctance on the part of the
+     British Government to enter into that negotiation with us, if
+     we should desire to do so. The British Government, if it had
+     such a disposition as the honorable Senator supposes, would
+     certainly have proposed to monopolize all this telegraphic
+     line, instead of proposing to divide it."[A]
+
+Mr. Hale spoke in the same strain:
+
+     "It seems to me that the war spirit and the contingencies of
+     war are brought in a little too often upon matters of
+     legislation which have no necessary connection with them. If we
+     are to be governed by considerations of that sort, they would
+     paralyze all improvements; they would stop the great
+     appropriations for commerce; they would at once neutralize that
+     policy which sets our ocean steamers afloat. Nobody pretends
+     that the intercourse which is kept up between Great Britain and
+     this country by our ocean steamers would be continued in time
+     of war; nor the communication with France or other nations.
+
+     "If we are deterred for that reason, we shall be pursuing a
+     policy that will paralyze improvements on those parts of the
+     coast which lie contiguous to the lakes. The city of Detroit
+     will have to be abandoned, beautiful and progressive as it is,
+     because in time of war the mansions of her citizens there lie
+     within the range of British guns.
+
+     "What will the suspension bridge at Niagara be good for in a
+     time of war? If the British cut off their end of it, our end
+     will not be worth much. I believe that among the things which
+     will bind us together in peace, this telegraphic wire will be
+     one of the most potent. It will bind the two countries together
+     literally with cords of iron that will hold us in the bonds of
+     peace. I repudiate entirely the policy which refuses to adopt
+     it, because in time of war it may be interrupted. Such a policy
+     as that would drive us back to a state of barbarism. It would
+     destroy the spirit of progress; it would retard improvement; it
+     would paralyze all the advances which are making us a more
+     civilized, and a more informed and a better people than the one
+     which preceded us."
+
+Mr. Douglas cut the matter short by saying:
+
+     "I am willing to vote for this bill as a peace measure, as a
+     commercial measure--but not as a war measure; and when war
+     comes, let us rely on our power and ability to take this end of
+     the wire, and keep it."
+
+Mr. Benjamin said:
+
+     "The sum of money that this Government proposes to give for the
+     use of this telegraph will amount, in the twenty-five years, to
+     something between £300,000 and £400,000. Now, if this be a
+     matter of such immense importance to Great Britain--if this be
+     the golden opportunity--and if, indeed, her control of this
+     line be such a powerful engine, whether in war or in peace, is
+     it not most extraordinary that she proposes to us a full share
+     in its benefits and in its control, and allows to our
+     Government equal rights with herself in the transmission of
+     communications for the sum of about £300,000, to be paid in
+     annual instalments through twenty-five years? If this be,
+     indeed, a very important instrumentality in behalf of Great
+     Britain for the conduct of her commerce, the government of her
+     possessions, or the efficient action of her troops in time of
+     war, the £300,000 expended upon it are but as a drop in the
+     bucket when compared with the immense resources of that empire.
+     I think, therefore, we may as well discard from our
+     consideration of this subject all these visions about the
+     immense importance of the governmental aid in this matter, to
+     be rendered under the provisions of this bill.
+
+     "Mr. President, let us not always be thinking of war; let us be
+     using means to preserve peace. The amount that would be
+     expended by this Government in six months' war with Great
+     Britain, would far exceed every thing that we shall have to pay
+     for the use of this telegraphic line for the entire twenty-five
+     years of the contract; and do you not believe that this
+     instrumentality will be sufficiently efficient to bind together
+     the peace, the commerce, and the interests of the two
+     countries, so as even to defer a war for six months or twelve
+     months, if one should ever become inevitable, beyond the period
+     at which it would otherwise occur? If it does that, it will in
+     six or eight or nine months repay the expenditures of
+     twenty-five years.
+
+     "Again, Sir, I say, if Great Britain wants it for war, she will
+     put it there at her own expense. It is not three hundred
+     thousand pounds, or four hundred thousand pounds, that will
+     arrest her. If, on the contrary, this be useful to
+     commerce--useful in an eminent degree--useful for the
+     preservation of peace, then I confess I feel some pride that my
+     country should aid in establishing it. I confess I feel a glow
+     of something like pride that I belong to the great human family
+     when I see these triumphs of science, by which mind is brought
+     into instant communication with mind across the intervening
+     oceans, which, to our unenlightened forefathers, seemed placed
+     there by Providence as an eternal barrier to communication
+     between man and man. Now, Sir, we speak from minute to minute.
+     Scarcely can a gun be fired in war on the European shore ere
+     its echoes will reverberate among our own mountains, and be
+     heard by every citizen in the land. All this is a triumph of
+     science--of American genius, and I for one feel proud of it,
+     and feel desirous of sustaining and promoting it."
+
+Mr. Douglas said:
+
+     "Our policy is essentially a policy of peace. We want peace
+     with the whole world, above all other considerations. There
+     never has been a time in the history of this Republic, when
+     peace was more essential to our prosperity, to our advancement,
+     and to our progress, than it is now. We have made great
+     progress in time of peace--an almost inconceivable progress
+     since the last war with Great Britain. Twenty-five years more
+     of peace will put us far in advance of any other nation on
+     earth."
+
+It was fit that Mr. Seward, who introduced the bill, and opened the
+debate, should close in words that now seem prophetic, and show the
+large wisdom, looking before and after, of this eminent statesman:
+
+     "There was an American citizen who, in the year 1770, or
+     thereabout, indicated to this country, to Great Britain, and to
+     the world, the use of the lightning for the purposes of
+     communication of intelligence, and that was Dr. Franklin. I am
+     sure that there is not only no member of the Senate, but no
+     American citizen, however humble, who would be willing to have
+     struck out from the achievements of American invention this
+     great discovery of the lightning as an agent for the uses of
+     human society.
+
+     "The suggestion made by that distinguished and illustrious
+     American was followed up some fifty years afterward by another
+     suggestion and another indication from another American, and
+     that was Mr. Samuel F. B. Morse, who indicated to the American
+     Government the means by which the lightning could be made to
+     write, and by which the telegraphic wires could be made to
+     supply the place of wind and steam for carrying intelligence.
+
+     "We have followed out the suggestions of these eminent
+     Americans hitherto, and I am sure at a very small cost. The
+     Government of the United States appropriated $40,000 to test
+     the practicability of Morse's suggestion; the $40,000 thus
+     expended established its practicability and its use. Now, there
+     is no person on the face of the globe who can measure the price
+     at which, if a reasonable man, he would be willing to strike
+     from the world the use of the magnetic telegraph as a means of
+     communication between different portions of the same country.
+     This great invention is now to be brought into its further,
+     wider, and broader use--the use by the general society of
+     nations, international use, the use of the society of mankind.
+     Its benefits are large--just in proportion to the extent and
+     scope of its operation. They are not merely benefits to the
+     Government, but they are benefits to the citizens and subjects
+     of all nations and of all States.
+
+     "I might enlarge further on this subject, but I forbear to do
+     so, because I know that at some future time I shall come across
+     the record of what I have said to-day. I know that then what I
+     have said to-day, by way of anticipation, will fall so far
+     short of the reality of benefits which individuals, States, and
+     nations will have derived from this great enterprise, that I
+     shall not reflect upon it without disappointment and
+     mortification."
+
+After such arguments, it should seem that there could be but one
+opinion, and yet the bill passed the Senate by only _one_ majority! It
+also had to run the gauntlet of the House of Representatives, where it
+encountered the same hostility. But at length it got through, and was
+signed by President Pierce on the third of March, the day before he went
+out of office. Thus it became a law.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] It is worthy of notice, that when the Bill granting a charter to the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company was offered in the British Parliament, at
+least one nobleman found fault with it on this very ground, that it gave
+away important advantages which properly belonged to England, and which
+she ought to reserve to herself:
+
+"In the House of Lords, on the twentieth of July, 1857, on the motion
+for the third reading of the Telegraph Company's bill,
+
+"Lord Redesdale called attention to the fact that, although the termini
+of the proposed telegraph were both in her Majesty's dominions, namely,
+in Ireland and Newfoundland, the American Government were to enjoy the
+same priority as the British Government with regard to the transmission
+of messages. It was said that this equal right was owing to the fact
+that a joint guarantee had been given by the two Governments. _He
+thought, however, it would have been far better policy on the part of
+her Majesty's Government if they had either undertaken the whole
+guarantee themselves, and thus had obtained free and sole control over
+the connecting line of telegraph, or had invited our own colonies to
+participate in that guarantee, rather than have allowed a foreign
+government to join in making it._ At the same time, if the clause in
+question had the sanction of her Majesty's ministry, it was not his
+intention to object to it.
+
+"Earl Granville said this telegraph was intended to connect two great
+countries, and, as the two Governments had gone hand in hand with regard
+to the guarantee, it seemed only reasonable that both should have the
+same rights as to transmitting messages.
+
+"The bill was then read a third time and passed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE EXPEDITION OF 1857.
+
+
+Scarcely was the business with the American Government completed, before
+Mr. Field was recalled to England. Once more upon the waves, he forgot
+the long delay and the vexatious opposition which he left behind--the
+fogs of Newfoundland, and the denser fogs of Washington. He was bound
+for England, and there at least the work did not stand still. All winter
+long the wheels of the machinery had kept in motion. The cable was
+uncoiling its mighty folds to a length sufficient to span the Atlantic,
+and at last there was hope of victory.
+
+Although the United States Government had seemed a little ungracious in
+its delay, it yet rendered, this year and the next, most important
+service. Already it had prepared the way, by the deep-sea soundings,
+which it was the first to take across the Atlantic. It now rendered
+additional and substantial aid in lending to this enterprise the two
+finest ships in the American navy--the Niagara and the Susquehanna. The
+former was built some dozen years before by George Steers--a name
+celebrated among our marine architects as the constructor of the famous
+yacht America, that "racehorse of the sea," which had crossed the
+Atlantic, and carried off the prize in the British Channel from the
+yachts of England--and was designed to be a model of naval architecture.
+She was the largest steam-frigate in the world, exceeding in tonnage the
+heaviest line-of-battle ship in the English navy, and yet so finely
+modelled that, propelled only by a screw, she could make ten or twelve
+miles an hour. Notwithstanding her bulk, she was intended to carry but
+twelve guns--being one of the first ships in our navy to substitute a
+few heavy Dahlgrens for half a dozen times as many fifty-six-pounders.
+This was the beginning of that revolution in naval warfare, which was
+carried to such extent in the Monitors and other ironclads introduced in
+our civil war. Each gun weighed fourteen tons--requiring a crew of
+twenty-five men to wield it--and threw a shell of one hundred and thirty
+pounds a distance of three miles. One or two broadsides from such a deck
+would sink an old-fashioned seventy-four, or even a ninety or
+hundred-gun ship.
+
+But as the Niagara was now to go on an errand of peace, this formidable
+armament was not taken on board. She was built with what is known as a
+flush deck, clear from stem to stern, and being without her guns, was
+left free for the more peaceful burden that she was to bear. When the
+orders were received from Washington, she was lying at the Brooklyn
+Navy-Yard, but began immediately to prepare for her expedition.
+Bulkheads were knocked down, above and below, to make room for the huge
+monster of the deep that was to be coiled within her sides. These
+preparations occupied four or five weeks. On the twenty-second of April,
+she made a trial trip down the bay, and two days after sailed for
+England, in command of Captain William L. Hudson, one of the oldest and
+best officers in our navy, who, to his past services to his country, was
+now to add another in the expeditions of this and the following year. He
+had with him as Chief Engineer Mr. William E. Everett, whose mechanical
+genius proved so important in constructing the paying-out machinery.
+
+Besides the regular ship's crew, no one was received on board except Mr.
+Field and Professor Morse, who went as the electrician of the
+Newfoundland Company; and two officers of the Russian navy--Captain
+Schwartz and Lieutenant Kolobnin--who were permitted by our Government,
+as an act of national courtesy, to go out to witness the great
+experiment. The regulations of the navy did not admit correspondents of
+the press; but Professor Morse was permitted to take a secretary, and
+chose Mr. Mullaly, who reported for the New York Herald, and who had
+thus an opportunity to witness all the preparations on land and sea, and
+to furnish those minute and detailed accounts of the several
+expeditions, which contribute some important chapters in the history of
+this enterprise.
+
+The Niagara arrived out on the fourteenth of May, and cast anchor off
+Gravesend, about twenty-five miles below London. As it was the first
+time--at least for many years--that an American ship of war had appeared
+in the Thames, this fact, with her fine proportions and the object for
+which she came, attracted a crowd of visitors. Every day, from morning
+to night, a fleet of boats was around her, and men and women thronged
+over her sides. Everybody was welcome. All were received with the utmost
+courtesy, and allowed access to all parts of the ship. Among these were
+many visitors of distinction. Here came Lady Franklin to thank the
+generous nation that had sent two expeditions to recover her husband
+lost amid Polar seas. She was, of course, the object of general
+attention and respectful sympathy.
+
+While lying in the Thames, the Agamemnon, that was to take the other
+half of the cable, passed up the river. This was a historical ship,
+having borne the flag of the British admiral at the bombardment of
+Sebastopol, and distinguished herself by steaming up within a few
+hundred yards of the guns of the fortress. After passing through the
+fires of that terrible day, she was justly an object of pride to
+Britons, whose hearts swelled as they saw this oak-ribbed leviathan,
+that had come "out of the gates of death, out of the jaws of hell," now
+preparing to take part in achievements of peace, not less glorious than
+those of war. She was under command of Captain Noddal, of the Royal
+Navy.
+
+As the Agamemnon came up the river in grand style, she recognized the
+Niagara lying off Gravesend, and manning her yards, gave her a
+succession of those English hurras so stirring to the blood, when heard
+on land or sea, to which our tars replied with lusty American cheers. It
+was pleasant to observe, from this time, the hearty good-will that
+existed between the officers and crews of the two ships, who in their
+exertions for the common object, were animated only by a generous
+rivalry.
+
+A few days after, the Niagara was joined by the Susquehanna, Captain
+Sands, which had been ordered from the Mediterranean to take part also
+in the expedition. She was a fit companion ship, being the largest
+side-wheel steamer in our navy, as the other was the largest propeller.
+Both together, they were worthy representatives of the American navy.
+
+When the Niagara arrived in the Thames, it was supposed she would take
+on board her half of the cable from the manufactory of Glass, Elliot &
+Co., at Greenwich; but on account of her great length, it was difficult
+to bring her up alongside the wharf in front of the works. This was
+therefore left to the Agamemnon, while the Niagara was ordered around
+to Liverpool, to take the other half from the works of Newall & Co., at
+Birkenhead, opposite that city. Accordingly she left Gravesend on the
+fifth of June, and reached Portsmouth the next day, where she remained a
+fortnight, to have some further alterations to fit her to receive the
+cable. Although she had been already pretty well "scooped out," fore and
+aft, the cry was still for room. Officers had to shift for themselves,
+as their quarters were swept away to make a wider berth for their iron
+guest. But all submitted with excellent grace. Like true sailors, they
+took it gayly as if they were only clearing the decks for battle. Among
+other alterations for safety, was a framework or cage of iron, which was
+put over the stern of the ship, to keep the cable from getting entangled
+in the screw. As soon as these were completed, the Niagara left for
+Liverpool, and on the twenty-second of June cast anchor in the Mersey.
+Here she attracted as much attention as in the Thames, being crowded
+with visitors during the week; and on Sundays, when none were received
+on board, the river-boats sought to gratify public curiosity by sailing
+round her. The officers of the ship were objects of constant
+hospitality, both from private citizens and from the public authorities.
+The Mayor of Liverpool gave them a dinner, the Chamber of Commerce
+another, while the Americans in Liverpool entertained them on the fourth
+of July--the first public celebration of our national anniversary ever
+had in that city.
+
+But while these festivities were kept up on shore, hard work was done on
+board the ship. To coil thirteen hundred miles of cable was an immense
+undertaking. Yet it was all done by the sailors themselves. No
+compulsion was used, and none was needed. No sooner was there a call for
+volunteers, than men stepped forward in greater numbers than could be
+employed. Out of these were chosen one hundred and twenty stalwart
+fellows, who were divided into two gangs of sixty men, and each gang
+into watches of thirty, which relieved each other, and all went to work
+with such enthusiasm, that in three weeks the herculean task was
+completed. The event was celebrated by a final dinner given by the
+shareholders of the Atlantic Telegraph Company in Liverpool to Captain
+Hudson and Captain Sands of the Susquehanna, whose arrival in the Mersey
+enabled them to extend their hospitalities to the officers of both
+ships.
+
+While the Niagara was thus doing her part, the same scene was repeated
+on board the Agamemnon, which was still lying in the Thames. There the
+work was completed about the same day, and the occasion duly honored by
+a scene as unique as it was beautiful. Says the London Times of July
+twenty-fourth:
+
+     "All the details connected with the manufacture and stowage of
+     the cable are now completed, and the conclusion of the arduous
+     labor was celebrated yesterday with high festivity and
+     rejoicing. All the artisans who have been engaged upon the
+     great work, with their wives and families, a large party of the
+     officers, with the sailors from the Agamemnon, and a number of
+     distinguished scientific visitors, were entertained upon this
+     occasion at a kind of _fête champêtre_ at Belvidere House, the
+     seat of Sir Culling Eardley, near Erith. The festival was held
+     in the beautiful park which had been obligingly opened by Sir
+     Culling Eardley for the purpose. Although in no way personally
+     interested in the project, the honorable baronet has all along
+     evinced the liveliest sympathy with the undertaking, and
+     himself proposed to have the completion of the work celebrated
+     in his picturesque grounds. The manufacturers, fired with
+     generous emulation, erected spacious tents on the lawn, and
+     provided a magnificent banquet for the guests, and a
+     substantial one for the sailors of the Agamemnon and the
+     artificers who had been employed in the construction of the
+     cable. By an admirable arrangement, the guests were
+     accommodated at a vast semi-circular table, which ran round the
+     whole pavilion, while the sailors and workmen sat at a number
+     of long tables arranged at right angles with the chord, so that
+     the general effect was that all dined together, while at the
+     same time sufficient distinction was preserved to satisfy the
+     most fastidious. The three centre tables were occupied by the
+     crew of the Agamemnon, a fine, active body of young men, who
+     paid the greatest attention to the speeches, and drank all the
+     toasts with an admirable punctuality, at least so long as their
+     three pints of beer per man lasted; but we regret to add that,
+     what with the heat of the day and the enthusiasm of Jack in the
+     cause of science, the mugs were all empty long before the
+     chairman's list of toasts had been gone through. Next in
+     interest to the sailors were the workmen and their wives and
+     babies, all being permitted to assist at the great occasion.
+     The latter, it is true, sometimes squalled at an affecting
+     peroration, but that rather improved the effect than otherwise,
+     and the presence of these little ones only marked the genuine
+     good feeling of the employers, who had thus invited not only
+     their workmen, but their workmen's families to the feast. It
+     was a momentary return to the old patriarchal times, and every
+     one present seemed delighted with the experiment."
+
+Speeches were made by Sir Culling Eardley, by Mr. Cardwell, of the House
+of Commons, Mr. Brooking, one of the Directors, by Professor Morse, and
+others. Mr. Field read a letter from President Buchanan, saying that he
+should feel honored if the first message should be one from Queen
+Victoria to himself, and that he "would endeavor to answer it in a
+spirit and manner becoming a great occasion."
+
+Thus, labor and feasting being ended, the Niagara and the Susquehanna
+left Liverpool the latter part of July and steamed down St. George's
+Channel to Queenstown, which was to be the rendezvous of the telegraphic
+squadron, where they were joined by the Agamemnon and the Leopard, which
+was to be her consort. The former, as she entered the harbor, came to
+anchor about a third of a mile from the Niagara. The presence of the two
+ships which had the cable on board, gave an opportunity which the
+electricians had desired to test its integrity. Accordingly one end of
+each cable was carried to the opposite ship, and so joined as to form a
+continuous length of twenty-five hundred miles, both ends of which were
+on board the Agamemnon. One end was then connected with the apparatus
+for transmitting the electric current, and on a sensitive galvanometer
+being attached to the other end, the whole cable was tested from end to
+end, and found to be perfect. These experiments were continued for two
+days with the same result. This inspired fresh hopes for the success of
+the expedition, and in high spirits they bore away for the harbor of
+Valentia.
+
+It had been for some time a matter of discussion, where they should
+begin to lay the cable, whether from the coast of Ireland, or in
+mid-ocean, the two ships making the junction there, and dropping it to
+the bottom of the sea, and then parting, one to the east and the other
+to the west, till they landed their ends on the opposite shores of the
+Atlantic. This was the plan adopted the following year, and which
+finally proved successful. It was the one preferred by the engineers
+now, but the electricians favored the other course, and their counsel
+prevailed. It was therefore decided to submerge the whole cable in a
+continuous line from Valentia Bay to Newfoundland. The Niagara was to
+lay the first half from Ireland to the middle of the Atlantic; the end
+would then be joined to the other half on board the Agamemnon, which
+would take it on to the coast of Newfoundland. During the whole process
+the four vessels were to remain together and give whatever assistance
+was required. While it was being laid down, messages were to be sent
+back to Valentia, reporting each day of progress.
+
+As might be supposed, the mustering of such a fleet of ships, and the
+busy note of preparation which had been heard for weeks, produced a
+great sensation in this remote part of Ireland. The people from far and
+near, gathered on the hills and looked on in silent wonder.
+
+To add to the dignity of the occasion, the Lord Lieutenant came down
+from Dublin to witness the departure of the expedition. No one could
+have been better fitted to represent his own country, and to command
+audience from ours. The Earl of Carlisle--better known among us as Lord
+Morpeth--had travelled in the United States a few years before, and
+shown himself one of the most intelligent and liberal foreigners that
+have visited America. No representative of England could on that day
+have stood upon the shores of Ireland, and stretched out his hand to his
+kindred beyond the sea with more assurance that his greeting would be
+warmly responded to. And never did one speak more aptly words of wisdom
+and of peace. We read them still with admiration for their beauty and
+their eloquence, and with an interest more tender but more sad, that
+this great and good man--the true friend of his own country and of
+ours--has gone to his grave. To quote his own words is the best tribute
+to his memory, and will do more than any eulogy to keep it fresh and
+green in the hearts of Americans. On his arrival at Valentia, he was
+entertained by the Knight of Kerry at one of those public breakfasts so
+much in fashion in England, at which in response to a toast in his
+honor, after making his personal acknowledgments, he said:
+
+     "I believe, as your worthy chairman has already hinted, that I
+     am probably the first Lieutenant of Ireland who ever appeared
+     upon this lovely strand. At all events, no Lord Lieutenant
+     could have come amongst you on an occasion like the present.
+     Amidst all the pride and the stirring hopes which cluster
+     around the work of this week, we ought still to remember that
+     we must speak with the modesty of those who begin and not of
+     those who close an experiment, and it behooves us to remember
+     that the pathway to great achievements has frequently to be
+     hewn out amidst risks and difficulties, and that preliminary
+     failure is even the law and condition of the ultimate success.
+     Therefore, whatever disappointments may possibly be in store, I
+     must yet insinuate to you that in a cause like this it would be
+     criminal to feel discouragement. In the very design and
+     endeavor to establish the Atlantic Telegraph there is almost
+     enough of glory. It is true if it be only an attempt there
+     would not be quite enough of profit. I hope that will come,
+     too; but there is enough of public spirit, of love for science,
+     for our country, for the human race, almost to suffice in
+     themselves. However, upon this rocky frontlet of Ireland, at
+     all events, to-day we will presume upon success. We are about,
+     either by this sundown or by to-morrow's dawn, to establish a
+     new material link between the Old World and the New. Moral
+     links there have been--links of race, links of commerce, links
+     of friendship, links of literature, links of glory; but this,
+     our new link, instead of superseding and supplanting the old
+     ones, is to give a life and an intensity which they never had
+     before. Highly as I value the reputations of those who have
+     conceived, and those who have contributed to carry out this
+     bright design--and I wish that so many of them had not been
+     unavoidably prevented from being amongst us at this
+     moment[A]--highly as I estimate their reputation, yet I do not
+     compliment them with the idea that they are to efface or dim
+     the glory of that Columbus, who, when the large vessels in the
+     harbor of Cork yesterday weighed their anchors, did so on that
+     very day three hundred and sixty-five years ago--it would have
+     been called in Hebrew writ a year of years--and set sail upon
+     his glorious enterprise of discovery. They, I say, will not dim
+     or efface his glory, but they are now giving the last finish
+     and consummation to his work. Hitherto the inhabitants of the
+     two worlds have associated perhaps in the chilling atmosphere
+     of distance with each other--a sort of bowing distance; but now
+     we can be hand to hand, grasp to grasp, pulse to pulse. The
+     link, which is now to connect us, like the insect in the
+     immortal couplet of our poet:
+
+                                While exquisitely fine,
+          Feels at each thread and lives along the line.
+
+     And we may feel, gentlemen of Ireland, of England, and of
+     America, that we may take our stand here upon the extreme
+     rocky edge of our beloved Ireland; we may, as it were, leave
+     in our rear behind us the wars, the strifes, and the bloodshed
+     of the elder Europe, and of the elder Asia; and we may pledge
+     ourselves, weak as our agency may be, imperfect as our powers
+     may be, inadequate in strict diplomatic form as our credentials
+     may be, yet, in the face of the unparalleled circumstances, of
+     the place and the hour, in the immediate neighborhood of the
+     mighty vessels whose appearance may be beautiful upon the
+     waters, even as are the feet upon the mountains of those who
+     preach the Gospel of peace--as an homage due to that serene
+     science which often affords higher and holier lessons of
+     harmony and good will than the wayward passions of man are
+     always apt to learn--in the face and in the strength of such
+     circumstances, let us pledge ourselves to eternal peace between
+     the Old World and the New."
+
+While these greetings were exchanged on shore, only the smaller vessels
+of the squadron had arrived. But in a few hours the great hulls of the
+Niagara and the Agamemnon, followed by the Leopard and the Susquehanna,
+were seen in the horizon, and soon they all cast anchor in the bay. As
+the sun went down in the west, shining still on the other hemisphere
+which they were going to seek, its last rays fell on an expedition more
+suggestive and hopeful than any since that of Columbus from the shores
+of Spain, and upon navigators not unworthy to be his followers.
+
+The whole squadron was now assembled, and made gallant array. There were
+present in the little harbor of Valentia seven ships--the stately
+Niagara, which was to lay the half of the cable from Ireland, and her
+consort, the Susquehanna, riding by her side; while floating the flag of
+England, were the Agamemnon, which was appointed to lay the cable on the
+American side, and her consort, the Leopard. Beside these high-decked
+ships of war, the steamer Advice had come round to give, not merely
+advice but lusty help in landing the cable at Valentia; and the little
+steamer Willing Mind, with a zeal worthy of her name, was flying back
+and forth between ship and shore, lending a hand wherever there was work
+to be done; and the Cyclops, under the experienced command of Captain
+Dayman, who had made the deep-sea soundings across the Atlantic only the
+month before, here joined the squadron to lead the way across the deep.
+This made five English ships, with but two American; but to keep up our
+part, there were two more steamers on the other side of the sea, the
+Arctic, under Lieutenant Berryman, and the Company's steamer Victoria,
+to watch for the coming of the fleet off the coast of Newfoundland, and
+help in landing the cable on the shores of the New World.
+
+It was now Tuesday evening, the fourth of August, too late to undertake
+the landing that night, but preparations were at once begun for it the
+next morning. Said the correspondent of the Liverpool Post:
+
+     "The ships were visited in the course of the evening by the
+     Directors and others interested in the great undertaking, and
+     arrangements were immediately commenced on board the Niagara
+     for paying out the shore rope for conveyance to the mainland.
+     These arrangements were fully perfected by Wednesday morning;
+     but for some hours the state of the weather rendered it
+     doubtful whether operations could be safely proceeded with.
+     Toward the afternoon the breeze calmed down, and at two o'clock
+     it was decided that an effort should be made to land the cable
+     at once. The process of uncoiling into the small boats
+     commenced at half-past two, and the scene at this period was
+     grand and exciting in the highest degree.
+
+     "Valentia Bay was studded with innumerable small craft, decked
+     with the gayest bunting--small boats flitted hither and
+     thither, their occupants cheering enthusiastically as the work
+     successfully progressed. The cable-boats were managed by the
+     sailors of the Niagara and Susquehanna, and it was a
+     well-designed compliment, and indicative of the future
+     fraternization of the nations, that the shore rope was arranged
+     to be presented at this side the Atlantic to the representative
+     of the Queen, by the officers and men of the United States
+     navy, and that at the other side the British officers and
+     sailors should make a similar presentation to the President of
+     the Great Republic.
+
+     "From the main land the operations were watched with intense
+     interest. For several hours the Lord Lieutenant stood on the
+     beach, surrounded by his staff and the directors of the railway
+     and telegraph companies, waiting the arrival of the cable, and
+     when at length the American sailors jumped through the surge
+     with the hawser to which it was attached, his Excellency was
+     among the first to lay hold of it and pull it lustily to the
+     shore. Indeed every one present seemed desirous of having a
+     hand in the great work; and never before perhaps were there so
+     many willing assistants, at 'the long pull, the strong pull,
+     and the pull all together.'
+
+     "At half-past seven o'clock the cable was hauled on shore, and
+     formal presentation was made of it to the Lord Lieutenant by
+     Captain Pennock, of the Niagara; his Excellency expressing a
+     hope that the work so well begun would be carried to a
+     satisfactory completion."
+
+The wire having been secured to a house on the beach, the Reverend Mr.
+Day, of Kenmore, advanced and offered the following prayer:
+
+     "O Eternal Lord God, who alone spreadest out the heavens, and
+     rulest the raging of the sea; who hast compassed the water with
+     bounds, till day and night come to an end; and whom the winds
+     and the sea obey; look down in mercy, we beseech thee, upon us
+     thy servants, who now approach the throne of grace; and let our
+     prayer ascend before thee with acceptance. Thou hast commanded
+     and encouraged us, in all our ways, to acknowledge thee, and to
+     commit our works to thee; and thou hast graciously promised to
+     direct our paths, and to prosper our handiwork. We desire now
+     to look up to thee; and believing that without thy help and
+     blessing, nothing can prosper or succeed, we humbly commit this
+     work, and all who are engaged in it, to thy care and guidance.
+     Let it please thee to grant to us thy servants wisdom and
+     power, to complete what we have been led by thy Providence to
+     undertake; that being begun and carried on in the spirit of
+     prayer, and in dependence upon thee, it may tend to thy glory:
+     and to the good of all nations, by promoting the increase of
+     unity, peace, and concord.
+
+     "Overrule, we pray thee, every obstacle, and remove every
+     difficulty which would prevent us from succeeding in this
+     important undertaking. Control the winds and the sea by thy
+     Almighty power, and grant us such favorable weather that we may
+     be enabled to lay the Cable safely and effectually. And may thy
+     hand of power and mercy be so acknowledged by all, that the
+     language of every heart may be, 'Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
+     us, but unto thy name give glory,' that so thy name may be
+     hallowed and magnified in us and by us.
+
+     "Finally, we beseech thee to implant within us a spirit of
+     humility and childlike dependence upon thee; and teach us to
+     feel as well as to say, 'If the Lord will, we shall do this or
+     that.'
+
+     "Hear us, O Lord, and answer us in these our petitions,
+     according to thy precious promise, for Jesus Christ's sake.
+     Amen."
+
+The Lord Lieutenant then spoke once more--words that amid such a scene
+and at such an hour, sank into all hearts:
+
+     "My American, English, and Irish friends, I feel at such a
+     moment as this that no language of mine can be becoming except
+     that of prayer and praise. However, it is allowable to any
+     human lips, though they have not been specially qualified for
+     the office, to raise the ascription of 'Glory to God in the
+     highest; on earth peace, good-will to men.' That, I believe, is
+     the spirit in which this great work has been undertaken; and it
+     is this reflection that encourages me to feel confident hopes
+     in its final success. I believe that the great work now so
+     happily begun will accomplish many great and noble purposes of
+     trade, of national policy, and of empire. But there is only
+     one view in which I will present it to those whom I have the
+     pleasure to address. You are aware--you must know, some of you,
+     from your own experience--that many of your dear friends and
+     near relatives have left their native land to receive
+     hospitable shelter in America. Well, then, I do not expect that
+     all of you can understand the wondrous mechanism by which this
+     great undertaking is to be carried on. But this, I think, you
+     all of you understand. If you wished to communicate some piece
+     of intelligence straightway to your relatives across the wide
+     world of waters--if you wished to tell those whom you know it
+     would interest in their heart of hearts, of a birth, or a
+     marriage, or, alas, a death, among you, the little cord, which
+     we have now hauled up to the shore, will impart that tidings
+     quicker than the flash of the lightning. Let us indeed hope,
+     let us pray that the hopes of those who have set on foot this
+     great design, may be rewarded by its entire success; and let us
+     hope, further, that this Atlantic Cable will, in all future
+     time, serve as an emblem of that strong cord of love which I
+     trust will always unite the British islands to the great
+     continent of America. And you will join me in my fervent wish
+     that the Giver of all good, who has enabled some of his
+     servants to discern so much of the working of the mighty laws
+     by which he fills the universe, will further so bless this
+     wonderful work, as to make it even more to serve the high
+     purpose of the good of man, and tend to his great glory. And
+     now, all my friends, as there can be no project or undertaking
+     which ought not to receive the approbation and applause of the
+     people, will you join with me in giving three hearty cheers for
+     it? [Loud cheering.] Three cheers are not enough for me--they
+     are what we give on common occasions--and as it is for the
+     success of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable, I must have at least
+     one dozen cheers. [Loud and protracted cheering.]"
+
+Mr. Brooking, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Atlantic
+Telegraph Company, then expressed the thanks which all felt to the Lord
+Lieutenant for his presence on that occasion.
+
+Then there were loud calls for Mr. Field. He could only answer:
+
+     "I have no words to express the feelings which fill my heart
+     to-night--it beats with love and affection for every man, woman
+     and child who hears me. I may say, however, that, if ever at
+     the other side of the waters now before us, any one of you
+     shall present himself at my door and say that he took hand or
+     part, even by an approving smile, in our work here to-day, he
+     shall have a true American welcome. I cannot bind myself to
+     more, and shall merely say: 'What God has joined together, let
+     not man put asunder.'"
+
+Thus closed this most interesting scene. The Lord Lieutenant was obliged
+to return at once to the capital. He therefore left, and posted that
+night to Killarney, and the next day returned by special train to
+Dublin, leaving the ships to complete the work so happily begun.
+
+The landing of the cable took place on Wednesday, the fifth of August,
+near the hour of sunset. As it was too late to proceed that evening, the
+ships remained at anchor till the morning. They got under weigh at an
+early hour, but were soon checked by an accident which detained them
+another day. Before they had gone five miles, the heavy shore end of the
+cable caught in the machinery and parted. The Niagara put back, and the
+cable was "underrun" the whole distance. At length the end was lifted
+out of the water and spliced to the gigantic coil, and as it dropped
+safely to the bottom of the sea, the mighty ship began to stir. At first
+she moved very slowly, not more than two miles an hour, to avoid the
+danger of accident; but the feeling that they were at last away was
+itself a relief. The ships were all in sight, and so near that they
+could hear each other's bells. The Niagara, as if knowing that she was
+bound for the land out of whose forests she came, bowed her head to the
+waves, as her prow was turned toward her native shores.
+
+Slowly passed the hours of that day. But all went well, and the ships
+were moving out into the broad Atlantic. At length the sun went down in
+the west, and stars came out on the face of the deep. But no man slept.
+A thousand eyes were watching a great experiment as those who have a
+personal interest in the issue. All through that night, and through the
+anxious days and nights that followed, there was a feeling in every soul
+on board, as if some dear friend were at the turning-point of life or
+death, and they were watching beside him. There was a strange, unnatural
+silence in the ship. Men paced the deck with soft and muffled tread,
+speaking only in whispers, as if a loud voice or a heavy footfall might
+snap the vital cord. So much had they grown to feel for the enterprise,
+that the cable seemed to them like a human creature, on whose fate they
+hung, as if it were to decide their own destiny.
+
+There are some who will never forget that first night at sea. Perhaps
+the reaction from the excitement on shore made the impression the
+deeper. There are moments in life when every thing comes back upon us.
+What memories came up in those long night hours! How many on board that
+ship, as they stood on the deck and watched that mysterious cord
+disappearing in the darkness, thought of homes beyond the sea, of absent
+ones, of the distant and the dead!
+
+But no musings turn them from the work in hand. There are vigilant eyes
+on deck. Mr. Bright, the engineer of the Company, is there, and Mr.
+Everett, Mr. De Sauty, the electrician, and Professor Morse. The
+paying-out machinery does its work, and though it makes a constant
+rumble in the ship, that dull, heavy sound is music to their ears, as it
+tells them that all is well. If one should drop to sleep, and wake up at
+night, he has only to hear the sound of "the old coffee-mill," and his
+fears are relieved, and he goes to sleep again.
+
+Saturday was a day of beautiful weather. The ships were getting farther
+away from land, and began to steam ahead at the rate of four and five
+miles an hour. The cable was paid out at a speed a little faster than
+that of the ship, to allow for any inequalities of surface on the bottom
+of the sea. While it was thus going overboard, communication was kept up
+constantly with the land. Every moment the current was passing between
+ship and shore. The communication was as perfect as between Liverpool
+and London, or Boston and New York. Not only did the electricians
+telegraph back to Valentia the progress they were making, but the
+officers on board sent messages to their friends in America, to go out
+by the steamers from Liverpool. The heavens seemed to smile on them that
+day. The coils came up from below the deck without a kink, and unwinding
+themselves easily, passed over the stern into the sea. Once or twice an
+alarm was created by the cable being thrown off the wheels. This was
+owing to the sheaves not being wide enough and deep enough, and being
+filled with tar, which hardened in the air. This was a great defect of
+the machinery which was remedied in the later expeditions. Still it
+worked well, and so long as those terrible brakes kept off their iron
+gripe, it might work through to the end.
+
+All day Sunday the same favoring fortune continued; and when the
+officers, who could be spared from the deck, met in the cabin, and
+Captain Hudson read the service, it was with subdued voices and grateful
+hearts they responded to the prayers to Him who spreadeth out the
+heavens, and ruleth the raging of the sea.
+
+On Monday they were over two hundred miles at sea. They had got far
+beyond the shallow waters off the coast. They had passed over the
+submarine mountain which figures on the charts of Dayman and Berryman,
+and where Mr. Bright's log gives a descent from five hundred and fifty
+to seventeen hundred and fifty fathoms within eight miles! Then they
+came to the deeper waters of the Atlantic, where the cable sank to the
+awful depth of two thousand fathoms. Still the iron cord buried itself
+in the waves, and every instant the flash of light in the darkened
+telegraph room told of the passage of the electric current.
+
+But Monday evening, about nine o'clock, occurred a mysterious
+interruption, which staggered all on board. Suddenly the electrical
+continuity was lost. The cable was not broken, but it ceased to work.
+Here was a mystery. De Sauty tried it, and Professor Morse tried it. But
+neither could make it work. It seemed that all was over. The
+electricians gave it up, and the engineers were preparing to cut the
+cable, and to endeavor to wind it in, when suddenly _the electricity
+came back again_. This made the mystery greater than ever. It had been
+interrupted for two hours and a half. This was a phenomenon which has
+never been explained. Professor Morse was of opinion that the cable, in
+getting off the wheels, had been strained so as to open the
+gutta-percha, and thus destroy the insulation. If this be the true
+explanation, it would seem that on reaching the bottom the seam had
+closed, and thus the continuity had been restored. But it was certainly
+an untoward incident, which "cast ominous conjecture on the whole
+success," as it seemed to indicate that there were at the bottom of the
+sea causes which were wholly unknown and against which it was impossible
+to provide.
+
+The return of the current was like life from the dead. Says Mullaly:
+
+     "The glad news was soon circulated throughout the ship, and all
+     felt as if they had a new life. A rough, weather-beaten old
+     sailor, who had assisted in coiling many a long mile of it on
+     board the Niagara, and who was among the first to run to the
+     telegraph office to have the news confirmed, said he would have
+     given fifty dollars out of his pay to have saved that cable. 'I
+     have watched nearly every mile of it,' he added, 'as it came
+     over the side, and I would have given fifty dollars, poor as I
+     am, to have saved it, although I don't expect to make any thing
+     by it when it is laid down.' In his own simple way he expressed
+     the feelings of every one on board, for all are as much
+     interested in the success of the enterprise as the largest
+     shareholder in the Company. They talked of the cable as they
+     would of a pet child, and never was child treated with deeper
+     solicitude than that with which the cable is watched by them.
+     You could see the tears standing in the eyes of some as they
+     almost cried for joy, and told their messmates that it was all
+     right."
+
+It was indeed a great relief; and though still anxious, after watching
+till past midnight, a few crept to their couches, to snatch an hour or
+two of broken sleep. But before the morning broke, the hopes thus
+revived were again and finally destroyed.
+
+The cable was running out freely at the rate of six miles an hour, while
+the ship was advancing but about four. This was supposed to be owing to
+a powerful under-current. To check this waste, the engineer applied the
+brakes firmly, which at once stopped the machine. The effect was to
+bring a heavy strain on the cable that was in the water. The stern of
+the ship was down in the trough of the sea, and as it rose upward on the
+swell, the tension was too great, and the cable parted.
+
+Instantly ran through the ship a cry of grief and dismay. She was
+stopped in her onward path, and in a few minutes all gathered on deck
+with feelings which may be imagined. One who was present wrote: "The
+unbidden tear started to many a manly eye. The interest taken in the
+enterprise by all, every one, officers and men, exceeded any thing I
+ever saw, and there is no wonder that there should have been so much
+emotion at our failure." Captain Hudson says: "It made all hands of us
+through the day like a household or family which had lost their dearest
+friend, for officers and men had been deeply interested in the success
+of the enterprise."
+
+There was nothing left but to return to England. The position is very
+clearly stated by Mr. Field in a letter to one of his family, which
+shows how his own courage survived the great disaster:--
+
+                              "H. M. Steamer Leopard,
+                              Thursday, August 13, 1857.
+
+     "The successful laying down of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable is
+     put off for a short time, but its final triumph has been fully
+     proved, by the experience that we have had since we left
+     Valentia. My confidence was never so strong as at the present
+     time, and I feel sure, that with God's blessing, we shall
+     connect Europe and America with the electric cord.
+
+     "After having successfully laid--and part of the time while a
+     heavy sea was running--three hundred and thirty-five miles of
+     the cable, and over one hundred miles of it in water more than
+     two miles in depth, the brakes were applied more firmly, by
+     order of Mr. Bright, the engineer, to prevent the cable from
+     going out so fast, and it parted.
+
+     "I retired to my state-room at a little after midnight Monday,
+     all going on well, and at a quarter before four o'clock on
+     Tuesday morning, the eleventh instant, I was awoke from my
+     sleep by the cry of 'Stop her, back her!' and in a moment Mr.
+     Bright was in my room, with the sad intelligence that the cable
+     was broken. In as short a time as possible I was dressed, and
+     on deck; and Captain Hudson at once signaled the other steamers
+     that the cable had parted, and in a few moments Captain
+     Wainwright, of the Leopard, and Captain Sands, of the
+     Susquehanna, were on board of the Niagara.
+
+     "I requested Captain Wainwright, the commander of the English
+     Telegraph Fleet, to order the Agamemnon to remain with the
+     Niagara and Susquehanna, in this deep part of the Atlantic for
+     a few days, to try certain experiments which will be of great
+     value to us, and then sail with them back to England, and all
+     wait at Plymouth until further orders. I further requested
+     Captain Wainwright to order the Cyclops to sound here where the
+     cable parted, and then steam back to Valentia, with letters
+     from me to Dr. Whitehouse, and Mr. Saward, the secretary of the
+     Atlantic Telegraph Company; and that he should take me in the
+     Leopard as soon as possible to Portsmouth.
+
+     "All of my requests were cheerfully complied with, and in a few
+     hours the Cyclops had sounded, and found the bottom at two
+     thousand fathoms, and was on her way back to Valentia with
+     letters from me; the Niagara and the Agamemnon were connected
+     together by the cable, and engaged in trying experiments; the
+     Susquehanna in attendance, and the Leopard, with your
+     affectionate ---- on board, on her way back to England.
+
+     "In my letter to Dr. Whitehouse I requested him to telegraph to
+     London, and have a special meeting of the Directors called for
+     twelve o'clock on Saturday, to decide whether we should have
+     more cable made at once, and try again this season, or wait
+     until next year.
+
+     "I shall close this letter on board, so as to have it ready to
+     mail the moment we arrive at Portsmouth, as I wish to leave by
+     the very next train for London, so as to be there in time to
+     meet the Directors Saturday noon, and read them my report,
+     which I am busy making up.
+
+     "Do not think that I feel discouraged, or am in low spirits,
+     for I am not; and I think I can see how this accident will be
+     of great advantage to the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
+
+     "All the officers and men on board of the Telegraph Fleet, seem
+     to take the greatest interest in our enterprise, and are very
+     desirous to go out in the ships the next time.
+
+     "Since my arrival, I have received the greatest kindness and
+     attention from all whom I have met, from the Lord Lieutenant of
+     Ireland, down to the cabin-boys and sailors. The inclosed
+     letter from the Knight of Kerry, I received with a basket of
+     hothouse fruit, just as we were getting ready to leave Valentia
+     harbor.
+
+                              Your ----
+                              "Cyrus W. Field."
+
+The day that this was written, Mr. Field landed at Portsmouth, and at
+once hastened to London to meet the Directors. At first it was a
+question if they should renew the expedition this year. But their brief
+experience had shown the need of more ample preparations for their next
+attempt. They required six hundred miles more of cable to make up for
+over three hundred lost in the sea, and to provide a surplus so as to
+run no risk of falling short from other accidents; and most of all they
+needed better machinery to pay out the cable into the ocean. These
+preparations required time, and before they could be made, it would be
+late in the autumn. Hence they reluctantly decided to defer the
+expedition till another year. The Niagara and the Agamemnon therefore
+discharged their cable at Plymouth, whence the Niagara returned home;
+and Mr. Field, after remaining a few weeks in London to complete the
+preparations for the next year, sailed for America.
+
+He returned to find that a commercial hurricane had swept over the
+country, in which a thousand stately fortunes had gone down, and in
+which the wealth he had accumulated by years of toil had nearly suffered
+shipwreck. Such were the tidings that met him on landing. It had been a
+year of disappointments in England and America--of disasters on land and
+sea--and all his high hopes were
+
+     In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Mr. Field was detained by illness at Valentia, and several of the
+ships had not arrived.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE FIRST EXPEDITION OF 1858.
+
+
+The expedition of 1857 was little more than an experiment on a grand
+scale. As such it had its use; but its abrupt ending within three
+hundred miles of the Irish coast was a severe shock to public
+confidence. Up to that time the enterprise had been accepted by the
+people of England and of America, almost without considering its
+magnitude and difficulty. They had taken it for granted as a thing which
+must some day be accomplished by human skill and perseverance. But now
+it had been tried and failed. This first expedition opened their eyes to
+the vastness of the undertaking, and led many to doubt who did not doubt
+before. Some even began to look upon it as a romantic adventure of the
+sea, rather than a serious undertaking. This decline of popular faith
+was felt as soon as there was a call for more money. Men reasoned that
+if the former attempt was but an experiment, it was rather a costly one.
+The loss of three hundred and thirty-five miles of cable, with the
+postponement of the expedition to another year, was equivalent to a loss
+of a hundred thousand pounds. To make this good, the Directors had to
+enlarge the capital of the Company. This new capital was not so readily
+obtained. Those who had subscribed before, thought they had lost enough;
+and the public stood aloof till they could see the result of the next
+experiment. The projectors found that it was easy to go with the current
+of popular enthusiasm, but very hard to stem a growing popular distrust.
+They found how great an element of success in all public enterprises is
+public confidence.
+
+But against this very revulsion of feeling they had been already warned.
+The Earl of Carlisle the year before had cautioned them against being
+too sanguine of immediate results, and reminded them that "preliminary
+failure was even the law and condition of ultimate success." There were
+many who now remembered his words, and on whom the lesson was not lost.
+
+But whatever the depression at the failure of the first attempt to lay a
+telegraph across the ocean, and at the thick-coming disasters on land
+and sea, it did not interfere with renewed and vigorous efforts to
+prepare for a second expedition. The Directors gave orders for the
+manufacture of seven hundred miles of new cable, to make up for the loss
+of the previous year, and to provide a surplus against all
+contingencies. And the Government promised again its powerful aid.
+
+In America, Mr. Field went to Washington to ask a second time the use of
+the ships, which had already represented the country so well. He made
+also a special request for the services of Mr. William E. Everett. This
+gentleman had been the chief-engineer of the Niagara the year before. He
+had watched closely the paying-out machine, as it was put together on
+the deck, and as it worked on the voyage, and with the eye of a
+practised mechanic, he saw that it required great alterations. It was
+too cumbrous, had too many wheels, and especially its brakes shut down
+with a gripe that would snap the strongest chain cable.[A] Mr. Field saw
+that this was the man to remedy the defects of the old machine, and to
+make one that would work more smoothly. He therefore applied especially
+for his services. To the credit of the administration, it granted both
+requests in the most handsome manner. "There," said the Secretary of the
+Navy, handing Mr. Field the official letter, "I have given you all you
+asked."
+
+After such an answer he did not wait long. The letter is dated the
+thirtieth of December, and in just one week, on the sixth of January, he
+sailed in the Persia for England with Mr. Everett. Scarcely had he
+arrived in London before he was made the General Manager of the Company,
+with control of the entire staff, including electricians and engineers.
+The following extract from the minutes of the Board of Directors, dated
+January 27, 1858, explains the new position to which he was invited:
+
+     "The Directors having for several months felt that it would
+     greatly advance the interests of this enterprise, if Mr. Cyrus
+     W. Field, of New York, could be induced to come over to
+     England, for the purpose of undertaking the general management
+     and supervision of all the various arrangements that would be
+     required to be carried out before the sailing of the next
+     expedition; application was made to Mr. Field, with the view of
+     securing his consent to the proposal, and he arrived in this
+     country on the sixteenth instant, when it was ascertained that
+     he would be willing, if unanimously desired by the Directors,
+     to act in behalf of the Company as proposed; and Mr. Field
+     having retired, it was unanimously resolved to tender him, in
+     respect to such services, the sum of £1000 over and above his
+     travelling and other expenses, as remuneration."
+
+This resolution was at once communicated to Mr. Field, who replied that
+he would undertake the duties of General Manager, but declined the offer
+of £1000, preferring to give his services to the Company without
+compensation. Whereupon the Directors immediately passed another
+resolution:
+
+     "That Mr. Field's kind and generous offer be accepted by this
+     Board; and that their best thanks are hereby tendered to him
+     for his devotion to the interests of the undertaking."
+
+The following, passed a few weeks later, March 26, was designed to
+emphasize the authority given over all the employés of the Company:
+
+     "_Resolved_, That Mr. Cyrus W. Field, General Manager of the
+     Company, is hereby authorized and empowered to give such
+     directions and orders to the officers composing the staff of
+     the Company, as he may from time to time deem necessary and
+     expedient with regard to all matters connected with the
+     business proceedings of the Company, subject to the control of
+     the Directors.
+
+     "_Resolved_, That the staff of the Company be notified hereof,
+     and required to observe and follow such directions as may be
+     issued by the General Manager."
+
+As Mr. Field was thus invested with the entire charge of the
+preparations for the next expedition, he was made responsible for it,
+and felt it due alike to himself and to the Company to omit no means to
+insure success. It was therefore his duty to examine into every detail.
+The manufacture of the new cable was already under way, and there was no
+opportunity to make any change in its construction, even if any had been
+desired. But there was another matter which was quite as important to
+success--the construction of the paying-out machines. This had been the
+great defect of the previous year, and, while it continued, would render
+success almost impossible. No matter how many hundreds or thousands of
+miles of cable might be made, if the machinery was not fitted to pay it
+out into the sea, it would be constantly broken. To remedy these defects
+was an object of anxious solicitude, and to this the new manager gave
+his first attention. Hardly was he in London before Mr. Everett was
+installed at the large machine works of Easton and Amos, in Southwark,
+where, surrounded by plans and models, he devoted himself for three
+months to studying out a better invention for this most important work.
+At the end of that time he had a model complete, and invited a number of
+the most eminent engineers of London to witness its operation. Among
+these were Mr. Brunel, and Messrs. Lloyd, Penn, and Field, who had given
+the enterprise the benefit of their counsel for months, refusing all
+compensation; Mr. Charles T. Bright, the engineer of the Company, and
+his two assistants, Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford, and Mr. Follansbee,
+the chief-engineer of the Niagara, in the place Mr. Everett had occupied
+the year before. The machine was set in motion, and all saw its
+operation, while Mr. Everett explained its parts, and the difficulties
+which he had tried to overcome. It was obvious at a glance that it was a
+great improvement on that of the former year. It was much smaller and
+lighter. It would take up only about one-third of the room on the deck,
+and had only one-fourth the weight of the old machine. Its construction
+was much more simple. Instead of four heavy wheels, it had but two, and
+these were made to revolve with ease, and without danger of sudden
+check, by the application of what were known as self-releasing brakes.
+These were the invention of Mr. Appold, of London, a gentleman of
+fortune, but with a strong taste for mechanics, which led him to spend
+his time and wealth in exercising his mechanical ingenuity. These brakes
+were so adjusted as to bear only a certain strain, when they released
+themselves. This ingenious contrivance was applied by Mr. Everett to the
+paying-out machinery. The strength of the cable was such that it would
+not break except under a tension of a little over three tons. The
+machinery was so adjusted that not more than half that strain could
+possibly come upon the cable, when the brakes would relax their grasp,
+the wheels revolve easily, and the cable run out into the sea without a
+jar. The paying-out machine, therefore, we are far from claiming as
+wholly an American invention. This part of the mechanism was English.
+The merit of Mr. Everett lay in the skill with which he adapted it to
+the laying of the Atlantic cable, and in his improvements of other parts
+of the machinery. The whole construction, as it afterwards stood upon
+the decks of the Niagara and the Agamemnon, was the product of English
+and American invention combined. The engineers, who now saw it for the
+first time, were delighted. It seemed to have the intelligence of a
+human being, to know when to hold on, and when to let go. All felt that
+the great difficulty in laying the cable was removed, and that under
+this gentle manipulation it would glide easily and smoothly from the
+ship into the sea.
+
+While these preparations were going on in London, the Niagara, which did
+not leave New York till the ninth of March, arrived at Plymouth, under
+command of Captain Hudson, to take on board her share of the cable. Both
+ships had discharged their burden at Keyham Docks, where the precious
+freight was passed through a composition of tar and pitch and
+linseed-oil and beeswax, to preserve it from injury, and had been coiled
+under cover to be kept safely through the winter. The Agamemnon was
+already at Plymouth, having been designated by the Admiralty again to
+take part in the work, though under a new commander, Captain George W.
+Preedy, an excellent officer. The place of the Leopard was taken by the
+Gorgon, under command of Captain Dayman, who had made the deep-sea
+soundings in the Cyclops the year before.
+
+While the English Government was thus prompt in furnishing its ships,
+news arrived from America that the Company could not have again the
+assistance of the Susquehanna, which had accompanied the Niagara on the
+preceding expedition. She was in the West-Indies, and the yellow fever
+had broken out on board. What should be done? It was late to apply again
+to the American Government, and it was doubtful what would be the
+result of the application. This threatened some embarrassment. Mr. Field
+resolved the difficulty in a way which showed his confidence in the
+great and generous Government on the other side of the water, with which
+he had occasion so often to deal. Without waiting for the action of the
+Company, he called a cab, and drove straight to the Admiralty, and sent
+in his card to Sir John Pakington, then First Lord of the Admiralty.
+This gentleman, like his predecessor, Sir Charles Wood, had shown the
+most friendly interest in the Atlantic Telegraph, and given it his
+warmest support. Mr. Field was received at once, and began with true
+American eagerness: "I am ashamed to come to you, after what the English
+Government has done for us. But here is our case. We are disappointed in
+the Susquehanna. She is in the West-Indies, with the yellow fever on
+board. She cannot come to England to take part in the expedition. Can
+you do anything for us?" Sir John replied that the Government had not
+ships enough for its own use; that it was at that very moment chartering
+vessels to take troops to Malta--"but he would see what he could do." In
+an hour or two he sent word to the office of the Company, that Her
+Majesty's ship Valorous--commanded by Captain W. C. Aldham, an officer
+of great experience--had been ordered to take the place of the
+Susquehanna in the next expedition. We mention this little incident,
+not so much to illustrate Mr. Field's prompt and quick manner of
+deciding and acting, as to show the noble and generous spirit in which
+the English Government responded to every appeal.
+
+The reshipping of the cable at Plymouth occupied the whole month of
+April and part of May. Some changes were made in the mode adopted, it
+being coiled around large cones. The work was done as before, by a
+hundred and sixty men detailed for the purpose, of whom one fourth were
+the workmen of the Company, and the rest sailors who had volunteered for
+the duty. These were divided into gangs of forty, that relieved each
+other, by which the work went on day and night. In this way they coiled
+about thirty miles in the twenty-four hours. Owing to the increased
+length of cable, and the greater care in coiling, it took a longer time
+than the year before. The whole was completed about the middle of May.
+There was then in all, on board the two ships, a little over three
+thousand statute miles. This included, besides seven hundred miles of
+new cable, thirty-nine miles of that lost the year before, which had
+been recovered by the Company, and a few miles of condemned cable from
+Greenwich, which was put on board for experiments. The shipment being
+thus complete, and the paying-out machines in position, the ships were
+ready to make a trial trip, preparatory to their final departure.
+
+For this purpose the telegraphic squadron sailed from Plymouth on
+Saturday, the twenty-ninth of May, and bore southward two or three
+hundred miles, till the green color of the sea changing to a deep blue,
+showed that they had reached the great depths of the ocean. They were
+now in the waters of the Bay of Biscay, where the soundings were over
+twenty-five hundred fathoms. Here the Niagara and the Agamemnon were
+connected by a hawser, being about a quarter of a mile apart. The cable
+was then passed from one to the other, and a series of experiments
+begun, designed to test both the strength of the cable and the working
+of the machinery. Two miles of the cable were paid out, when it parted.
+This would have seemed a bad sign, had it been any other part of the
+cable than that which was known to be imperfect and had long since been
+condemned. The next day three miles were paid out. This, too, was
+broken, but only when they tried to haul it in, and under a pressure of
+several tons.
+
+Other experiments were tried, such as splicing the cable, and lowering
+it to the bottom of the sea--an operation which it was thought might be
+critical in mid-ocean, but which was performed without difficulty--and
+running out the cable at a rapid rate, when the speed of the ship was
+increased to seven knots, without causing the cable to break, or even to
+kink. On the whole, the result of the trip was satisfactory. The
+paying-out machine of Mr. Everett worked well, and the electric
+continuity through the whole cable was perfect. It was on this
+expedition that was used for the first time the marine mirror
+galvanometer of Professor Thomson, by whom it had been invented for
+marine testing within the previous four weeks, and which afterwards
+proved an instrument so important to the success of ocean telegraphy.
+After these experiments the squadron returned to Plymouth.
+
+As it happened, the present writer had just arrived in England, and
+landing at Falmouth, hastened to Plymouth, where the ships were lying in
+the Sound. It was Saturday, the fifth of June, and the next day, by
+invitation of Captain Hudson, he conducted Divine service on the
+Niagara, where an awning was spread over the quarter-deck, round which
+were grouped the officers of the ship, behind whom were crowded four or
+five hundred seamen. If it was a pleasure in such circumstances to speak
+to one's countrymen, it was not less to be received with equal kindness
+on board the Agamemnon. To see these two mighty ships of war, with their
+consorts, lying side by side, not with guns run out, but engaged in a
+mission of peace, seemed indeed an omen of the good time coming, when
+nations shall learn war no more.
+
+Among the matters of personal solicitude and anxiety at this time--next
+to the success of the expedition--was Mr. Field himself. He was working
+with an activity which was unnatural--which could only be kept up by
+great excitement, and which involved the most serious danger. The strain
+on the man was more than the strain on the cable, and we were in fear
+that both would break together. Often he had no sleep, except such as he
+caught flying on the railway. Indeed, when we remonstrated, he said he
+could rest better there than anywhere else, for then he was not
+tormented with the thought of any thing undone. For the time being he
+could do no more; and putting his head in the cushioned corner of the
+carriage, he got an hour or two of broken sleep.
+
+Of this activity we had an instance while in Plymouth. The ships were
+then lying in the Sound, only waiting orders from the Admiralty to go to
+sea; but some business required one of the Directors to go to Paris, and
+as usual, it fell upon Mr. Field. He left on Sunday night and went to
+Bristol, and thence, by the first morning train, to London. Monday he
+was busy all day, and that night went to Paris. Tuesday, another busy
+day, and that night back to London. Wednesday, occupied every minute
+till the departure of the Great Western train. That night back to
+Plymouth. Thursday morning on board the Niagara, and immediately the
+squadron sailed.
+
+It was the tenth day of June that the expedition left England, with fair
+skies and bright prospects. In truth, it was a gallant sight, as these
+four ships stood out to sea together--those old companions, the Niagara
+and the Agamemnon, leading the way, followed by their new attendants,
+the Valorous and the Gorgon. Never did a voyage begin with better omens.
+The day was one of the mildest of June, and the sea so still, that one
+could scarcely perceive, by the motion of the ship, when they passed
+beyond the breakwater off Plymouth harbor into the Channel, or into the
+open sea. At night, it was almost a dead calm. The second day was like
+the first. There was scarcely wind enough to swell the sails. The ships
+were all in sight, and as they kept under easy steam, they seemed bound
+on a voyage of pleasure, gliding over a summer sea to certain success.
+
+It had been supposed that the expedition of this year would have a great
+advantage over the last, from sailing two months earlier, at what was
+considered a more favorable season. So said all the wise men of the sea.
+They had given their opinion that June was the best month for crossing
+the Atlantic. Then they were almost sure of fair weather. The first
+three days of the voyage confirmed these predictions, and they who had
+made them, being found true prophets, shook their heads with great
+satisfaction.
+
+But alas! for the vanity of human expectations, or for those who put
+trust in the treacherous sea. On Sunday it began to blow. The barometer
+fell, and all signs indicated to the eye of a seaman rough weather. From
+this time they had a succession of gales for more than a week. From day
+to day it blew fiercer than before, till Sunday, the twentieth, when the
+gale was at its height, and the spirit of the storm was out on the
+Atlantic. Up to this time the Niagara and the Agamemnon (though they had
+long since parted from the Valorous and the Gorgon) had managed to keep
+in sight of each other; and now from the deck of the former the latter
+was seen a mile and a half distant, rolling heavily in the sea. The
+signals which she made showed that she was struggling with the fury of
+the gale. She was really in great danger of foundering. But this was
+owing, not merely to the severity of the gale, but to the enormous
+weight she carried, and to the way this huge bulk was stowed in the
+ship. Only a few days before we had been on board of her, and Captain
+Preedy showed us, in one coil, thirteen hundred miles of cable! This
+made a dead weight of as many hundred tons, which rendered her in rough
+weather almost unmanageable. To make the matter worse, she had another
+coil of about two hundred and fifty tons on the forward deck, where it
+made the head of the ship heavy. In her tremendous rolls, this coil
+broke loose, and threatened at a time to dash like an avalanche through
+the side of the ship. But at the most fearful moments the gallant seaman
+in command never lost his presence of mind. He was always on deck,
+watching with a vigilant eye the raging of the tempest, and issuing his
+orders with coolness and prompt decision. To this admirable skill was
+due the safety of the ship, and of all on board.[B]
+
+But all things have an end; and this long gale at last blew itself out,
+and the weary ocean rocked itself to rest. Toward the last of the week
+the squadron got together at the appointed rendezvous in mid-ocean. As
+the ships came in sight, the angry sea went down; and on Friday, June
+twenty-fifth, just fifteen days from Plymouth, they were all together,
+as tranquil in the middle of the Atlantic as if in Plymouth Sound. "This
+evening the four vessels lay together, side by side, and there was such
+a stillness in the sea and air, as would have seemed remarkable in an
+inland lake; on the Atlantic, and after what we had all so lately
+witnessed, it seemed almost unnatural." The boats were out, and the
+officers were passing from ship to ship, telling their experiences of
+the voyage, and forming their plans for the morrow. Captains Aldham and
+Dayman said it was the worst weather they had ever experienced in the
+North-Atlantic. But it was the Agamemnon that suffered most. The rough
+sea had shaken not only the ship, but the cable in her. The upper part
+of the main coil had shifted, and become so twisted and tangled, that a
+hundred miles had to be got out and coiled in another part of the ship,
+so that it was not till the afternoon of Saturday, the twenty-sixth,
+that the splice was finally made, and the cable lowered to the bottom of
+the sea. The ships were then got under way, but had not gone three
+miles, before the cable broke, being caught in the machinery on board
+the Niagara. It was fortunate they had gone no farther. Both ships at
+once turned about and spliced again the same afternoon, and made a fresh
+start. Now all went well. The paying-out machines worked smoothly, and
+the cable ran off easily into the sea. Thus each ship had paid out about
+forty miles when suddenly the current ceased!
+
+Says the writer on the Agamemnon: "At half-past three o'clock [Sunday
+morning] forty miles had gone, and nothing could be more perfect and
+regular than the working of every thing, when suddenly Professor Thomson
+came on deck, and reported a total break of continuity; that the cable
+in fact had parted, and, as was believed at the time, from the Niagara.
+In another instant a gun and a blue-light warned the Valorous of what
+had happened, and roused all on board the Agamemnon to a knowledge that
+the machinery was silent, and that the first part of the Atlantic Cable
+had been laid and lost effectually."
+
+This was disheartening, but not so much from the fact of a fresh
+breaking of the cable, as from the mystery as to its cause. The fact, of
+course, was known instantly on both ships, but the cause was unknown.
+Those on each ship supposed it had occurred on the other. With this
+impression they turned about to beat up again toward the rendezvous. It
+was noon of Monday, the twenty-eighth, before the Agamemnon rejoined the
+Niagara; and then, says the writer:
+
+     "While all were waiting with impatience for her explanation of
+     how they broke the cable, she electrified every one by running
+     up the interrogatory: 'How did the cable part?' This was
+     astounding. As soon as the boats could be lowered, Mr. Cyrus
+     Field, with the electricians from the Niagara, came on board,
+     and a comparison of logs showed the painful and mysterious fact
+     that, _at the same second of time_, each vessel discovered that
+     a total fracture had taken place at a distance of certainly not
+     less than ten miles from each ship; in fact, as well as can be
+     judged, at the bottom of the ocean. That of all the many
+     mishaps connected with the Atlantic Telegraph, this is the
+     worst and most disheartening is certain, since it proves that,
+     after all that human skill and science can effect to lay the
+     wire down with safety has been accomplished, there may be some
+     fatal obstacles to success at the bottom of the ocean, which
+     can never be guarded against; for even the nature of the peril
+     must always remain as secret and unknown as the depths in which
+     it is to be encountered."
+
+But it was no time for useless regrets. Once more the cable was joined
+in mid-ocean, and dropped to its silent bed, and the Niagara and the
+Agamemnon began to steam away toward opposite shores of the Atlantic.
+This time the experiment succeeded better than before. The progress of
+the English ship is thus reported:
+
+     "At first, the ship's speed was only two knots, the cable going
+     three and three and a half, with a strain of fifteen hundred
+     pounds. By and by, however, the speed was increased to four
+     knots, the cable going five, at a strain of two thousand
+     pounds. At this rate it was kept, with trifling variations,
+     throughout almost the whole of Monday night, and neither Mr.
+     Bright, Mr. Canning, nor Mr. Clifford ever quitted the machines
+     for an instant. Toward the middle of the night, while the rate
+     of the ship continued the same, the speed at which the cable
+     paid out slackened nearly a knot an hour, while the dynamometer
+     indicated as low as thirteen hundred pounds. This change could
+     only be accounted for on the supposition that the water had
+     shallowed to a considerable extent, and that the vessel was, in
+     fact, passing over some submarine Ben Nevis or Skiddaw. After
+     an interval of about an hour, the strain and rate of progress
+     of the cable again increased, while the increase of the
+     vertical angle seemed to indicate that the wire was sinking
+     down the side of a declivity. Beyond this, there was no
+     variation throughout Monday night, or, indeed, through
+     Tuesday."
+
+On board the Niagara was the same scene of anxious watching every hour
+of the day and night. Engineers and electricians were constantly on
+duty:
+
+     "The scene at night was beautiful. Scarcely a word was spoken;
+     silence was commanded, and no conversation allowed. Nothing
+     was heard but the strange rattling of the machine as the cable
+     was running out. The lights about deck and in the quarter-deck
+     circle added to the singularity of the spectacle; and those who
+     were on board the ship describe the state of anxious suspense
+     in which all were held as exceedingly impressive."
+
+Warned by repeated failures, they hardly dared to hope for success in
+this last experiment. And yet the spirits of all rose, as the distance
+widened between the ships. A hundred miles were laid safely--a hundred
+and fifty--two hundred! Why might they not lay two thousand? So reasoned
+the sanguine and hopeful when, Tuesday night, came the fatal
+announcement that the electric current had ceased to flow. It afterward
+appeared that the cable had broken about twenty feet from the stern of
+the Agamemnon.
+
+As the cable was now useless, it only remained to cut it from the stern
+of the Niagara. Before doing this, it was thought a good opportunity to
+test its strength. For this purpose the brakes were shut down, so that
+the paying-out machine could not move. But still the cable did not
+break, although the whole weight of the Niagara hung upon that slender
+cord, and though several men got upon the brakes. Says Captain Hudson:
+"Although the wind was quite fresh, the cable held the ship for one hour
+and forty minutes before breaking, and notwithstanding a strain of four
+tons."
+
+Though not unexpected, this last breaking of the cable was a sad blow
+to all on board. It was the end of their hopes, at least for the present
+expedition. Before separating, it had been agreed, that if the cable
+should part again before either ship had run a hundred miles, they
+should return and renew the attempt. If they had passed that limit, they
+were all to sail for Ireland. But the Niagara had run out a hundred and
+eleven miles, and knowing that the Agamemnon had done about the same,
+she expected the latter would keep on her course eastward, not stopping
+till she reached Queenstown. The Niagara, therefore, reluctantly bore
+away for the same port.
+
+Of course, the return voyage was "any thing but gay." When soldiers come
+home from the war, they march with a proud step, if they have had a
+victorious campaign. But it is otherwise when they come with a sad tale
+of disaster and defeat. Seldom had an expedition begun with higher
+hopes, or ended in more complete failure. Who could help feeling keenly
+this fresh disappointment? Even with all the courage "that may become a
+man," heightened by a natural buoyancy of spirits, how was it possible
+to resist the impression of the facts they had just witnessed? If--as
+Lord Carlisle had told them the year before--"there was almost enough of
+glory in the very design of an Atlantic telegraph," that glory might
+still be theirs. But apparently they could hope for nothing more. They
+had done all that men could do. But fate seemed against them; and who
+can fight against destiny? No one can blame them if they sometimes had
+sore misgivings, and looked out sadly upon the sea that had baffled
+their utmost skill, and now laughed their efforts to scorn.
+
+In this mood they entered once more the harbor of Queenstown. The
+Niagara was the first to arrive and to bring tidings of the great
+disaster. The Agamemnon came in a few days after. Knowing the fatal
+impression their report was likely to produce, Mr. Field hastened to
+London to meet the Directors. It was high time. The news had reached
+there before him, and had already produced its effect. Under its
+impression the Board was called together. It met in the same room where,
+six weeks before, it had discussed the prospects of the expedition with
+full confidence of success. Now it met, as a council of war is summoned
+after a terrible defeat, to decide whether to surrender or to try once
+more the chances of battle. When the Directors came together, the
+feeling--to call it by the mildest name--was one of extreme
+discouragement. They looked blankly in each other's faces. With some,
+the feeling was one almost of despair. Sir William Brown, of Liverpool,
+the first Chairman, wrote, advising them to sell the cable. Mr.
+Brooking, the Vice-Chairman, who had given more time to it than any
+other Director, when he saw that his colleagues were disposed to make
+still another trial, left the room, and the next day sent in his
+resignation, determined to take no further part in an undertaking which
+had been proved hopeless, and to persist in which seemed mere rashness
+and folly.
+
+But others thought there was still a chance. Like Robert Bruce, who,
+after twelve battles and twelve defeats, yet believed that a thirteenth
+_might_ bring victory, they clung to this bare possibility. Mr. Field
+and Professor Thomson gave the results of their experience, from which
+it appeared that there was no obstacle in the nature of the case which
+might not be overcome. Mr. Bright and Mr. Woodhouse joined with them in
+advising strongly that they should renew the attempt. To be sure, it was
+a forlorn hope. But the ships were there. Though they had lost three
+hundred miles of cable, they had still enough on board to cross the sea.
+These arguments prevailed, and it was voted to make one more trial
+before the project was finally abandoned. Even though the chances were a
+hundred to one against them, that one might bring them success. And so
+it proved. But was it their own wisdom or courage that got them the
+victory, or were they led by that Being whose way is in the sea, and
+whose path is in the great waters?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] It should be said, however, in justice to Mr. Bright, that most of
+these defects he had himself perceived on seeing it in operation. On his
+return from the expedition of 1857, he sent in a report, pointing out
+the defects of the machinery, and how to remedy them. These suggestions
+were approved by the Scientific Committee, and carried out by Mr.
+Everett. The recognition of this fact, while it takes nothing from the
+practical skill shown by the American engineer, is but just to his
+predecessor, who, as the pioneer in this work, might easily fall into
+mistakes, which it needed only time and experience to correct.
+
+[B] As there is no trouble without a compensation, it is something that
+this voyage, fearful as it was, furnished a subject for a description of
+marvellous power. The letter to the London Times, written by Mr. Woods,
+its correspondent on board the Agamemnon, is one of the finest
+descriptions of a storm at sea we know of in the language. It is a
+wonderful specimen of "word-painting," and brings the scene before us
+with a vividness like that of the marine paintings of Stanfield or
+Turner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE SECOND EXPEDITION SUCCESSFUL.
+
+
+A bold decision needs to be followed by prompt action, lest the spirit
+that inspired it be weakened by delay. When once it had been fixed that
+there was to be another attempt to lay the Atlantic cable, no time was
+lost in carrying the resolve into execution. The telegraphic fleet was
+lying at Queenstown. The Niagara had arrived on the fifth of July, but
+the Agamemnon, which, through some misunderstanding, had returned to the
+rendezvous in mid-ocean, thus crossing the Niagara on her track, did not
+get in till a week later. However, all were now there, safe and sound,
+and Mr. Field and Mr. Samuel Gurney went to the Admiralty, and got an
+order which they telegraphed to the ships to get ready immediately to go
+to sea. Not an hour was lost. They had barely time to take in coal and
+other supplies for the voyage. Mr. Field hastened from England, and
+Prof. Thomson from his home in Scotland, and in five days the squadron
+was under way, bound once more for the middle of the Atlantic.
+
+It was Saturday, the seventeenth of July, that the ships left on their
+second expedition. As they sailed out of the Cove of Cork, it was with
+none of the enthusiasm which attended their departure from Valentia the
+year before, or even from Plymouth on the tenth of June. Nobody cheered;
+nobody bade them God-speed. "As the ships left the harbor, there was
+apparently no notice taken of their departure by those on shore, or in
+the vessels anchored around them; every one seemed impressed with the
+conviction that they were engaged in a hopeless enterprise, and the
+squadron seemed rather to have slunk away on some discreditable mission,
+than to have sailed for the accomplishment of a grand national scheme."
+Many even of those on board felt that they were going on a fool's
+errand; that the Company was possessed by a kind of insanity, of which
+they would soon be cured by another bitter experience.
+
+On leaving this second time, it was agreed that the squadron should not
+try to keep together, but each ship make its way to the given latitude
+and longitude which was the appointed rendezvous in mid-ocean. The
+Niagara, being the largest, and able to carry the most coal, kept under
+steam the whole way, and arrived first, and waited several days for the
+other ships to appear. The Valorous came next, and then the Gorgon, and,
+last of all, the Agamemnon, which had been saving her coal for the
+return voyage, and had been delayed for want of a little of that wind
+which, in the former expedition, she had had in too great abundance.
+Says the English correspondent on board:
+
+     "For several days in succession there was an uninterrupted
+     calm. The moon was just at the full, and for several nights it
+     shone with a brilliancy which turned the sea into one silvery
+     sheet, which brought out the dark hull and white sails of the
+     ship in strong contrast to the sea and sky, as the vessel lay
+     all but motionless on the water, the very impersonation of
+     solitude and repose. Indeed, until the rendezvous was gained,
+     we had such a succession of beautiful sunrises, gorgeous
+     sunsets, and tranquil moonlight nights, as would have excited
+     the most enthusiastic admiration of any one but persons
+     situated as we were. But by us such scenes were regarded only
+     as the annoying indications of the calm, which delayed our
+     progress and wasted our coal. By dint, however, of a judicious
+     expenditure of fuel, and a liberal use of the cheaper motive
+     power of sail, the rendezvous was reached on Wednesday, the
+     twenty-eighth of July, just eleven days after our departure
+     from Queenstown. The rest of the squadron came in sight at
+     nightfall, but at such a distance that it was past ten o'clock
+     on the morning of Thursday, the twenty-ninth, before the
+     Agamemnon joined them.
+
+     "The day was beautifully calm, so no time was to be lost before
+     making the splice; boats were soon lowered from the attendant
+     ships, the two vessels made fast by a hawser, and the Niagara's
+     end of the cable conveyed on board the Agamemnon. About
+     half-past twelve o'clock the splice was effectually made. In
+     hoisting it out from the side of the ship the leaden sinker
+     broke short off and fell overboard; and there being no more
+     convenient weight at hand, a thirty-two pound shot was
+     fastened to the splice instead, and the whole apparatus was
+     quickly dropped into the sea without any formality, and indeed
+     almost without a spectator, for those on board the ship had
+     witnessed so many beginnings to the telegraphic line, that it
+     was evident they despaired of there ever being an end to it.
+     The stipulated two hundred and ten fathoms having been paid
+     out, the signal to start was hoisted, the hawser cast loose,
+     and the Niagara and Agamemnon started for the last time for
+     their opposite destinations."
+
+At this moment the ships were nearly in mid-ocean, but not exactly. Mr.
+Field, who never indulged in poetical descriptions, but always gave the
+figures, stating the precise latitude and longitude, and from what
+quarter the wind blew, and how many fathoms deep the ocean was, and how
+many miles of cable were on board, made the following entry in his
+journal:
+
+     "Thursday, July twenty-ninth, latitude fifty-two degrees nine
+     minutes north, longitude thirty-two degrees twenty-seven
+     minutes west. Telegraph Fleet all in sight; sea smooth; light
+     wind from S.E. to S.S.E.; cloudy. Splice made at one P.M.
+     Signals through the whole length of the cable on board both
+     ships perfect. Depth of water fifteen hundred fathoms; distance
+     to the entrance of Valentia harbor eight hundred and thirteen
+     nautical miles, and from there to the telegraph-house the shore
+     end of the cable is laid. Distance to the entrance of Trinity
+     Bay, Newfoundland, eight hundred and twenty-two nautical miles,
+     and from there to the telegraph-house at the head of the bay of
+     Bull's Arm, sixty miles, making in all eight hundred and
+     eighty-two nautical miles. The Niagara has sixty-nine miles
+     further to run than the Agamemnon. The Niagara and Agamemnon
+     have each eleven hundred nautical miles of cable on board,
+     about the same quantity as last year."
+
+And now, as the ships are fairly apart, and will soon lose sight of each
+other, we will leave the Agamemnon for the present to pursue her course
+toward Ireland, while we follow our own Niagara to the shores of the New
+World. At first of course, while all hoped for success, no one dared to
+expect it. They said afterwards that "Mr. Field was the only man on
+board who kept up his courage through it all." But the chances seemed
+many to one against them; and the warnings were frequent to excite their
+fears. That very evening, about sunset, all again seemed lost. We quote
+from Mr. Field's journal: "At forty-five minutes past seven P.M., ship's
+time, signals from the Agamemnon ceased, and the tests applied by the
+electricians showed that there was a want of continuity in the cable,
+but the insulation was perfect. Kept on paying out from the Niagara very
+slowly, and constantly applying all kinds of electrical tests until ten
+minutes past nine, ship's time, when again commenced receiving perfect
+signals from the Agamemnon." At the same moment the English ship had the
+same relief from anxiety.
+
+The next day there was a fresh cause of alarm. It was found that the
+Niagara had run some miles out of her course. Comparing the distance run
+by observation and by patent log, there was a difference of sixteen
+miles and a third. With such a percentage of loss, the cable would not
+hold out to reach Newfoundland. This was alarming, but it was soon
+explained. The mass of iron in the ship had affected the compass, so
+that it no longer pointed to the right quarter of the heavens. Had the
+Niagara been alone on the ocean, this might have caused serious trouble.
+But now appeared the great advantage of an attendant ship. It was at
+once arranged that the Gorgon should go ahead and lead the way. As she
+had no cable on board, her compasses were subject to no deviation.
+Accordingly she took her position in the advance, keeping the line along
+the great circle arc, which was the prescribed route. From that moment
+there was no variation, or but a very slight one. The two methods of
+computing the distance--by log and by observation--nearly coincided, and
+the ship varied scarcely a mile from her course till she entered Trinity
+Bay.
+
+It is not necessary to follow the whole voyage, for the record is the
+same from day to day. It is the same sleepless watching of the cable as
+it runs out day and night, and the same anxious estimate of the distance
+that still separates them from land. Communication is kept up constantly
+between the ships. Mr. Field's journal contains entries like these:
+
+     "Saturday, July thirty-first. By eleven o'clock had paid out
+     from the Niagara three hundred miles of cable; at forty-five
+     minutes past two received signals from the Agamemnon that they
+     had paid out from her three hundred miles of cable; at
+     thirty-seven minutes past five finished coil on the berth-deck,
+     and commenced paying out from the lower deck."
+
+     "Monday, August second. The Niagara getting light, and rolling
+     very much; it was not considered safe to carry sail to steady
+     ship, for in case of accident it might be necessary to stop the
+     vessel as soon as possible. Passed and signalled the Cunard
+     steamer from Boston to Liverpool." Same day about noon,
+     "imperfect insulation of cable detected in sending and
+     receiving signals from the Agamemnon, which continued until
+     forty minutes past five, when all was right again. The fault
+     was found to be in the ward-room, about sixty miles from the
+     lower end, which was immediately cut out, and taken out of the
+     circuit."
+
+     "Tuesday, August third. At a quarter-past eleven, ship's time,
+     received signals from on board the Agamemnon, that they had
+     paid out from her seven hundred and eighty miles of cable. In
+     the afternoon and evening passed several icebergs. At ten
+     minutes past nine P.M., ship's time, received signal from the
+     Agamemnon that she was in water of two hundred fathoms. At
+     twenty minutes past ten P.M., ship's time, Niagara in water of
+     two hundred fathoms, and informed the Agamemnon of the same.
+
+     "Wednesday, August fourth. Depth of water less than two hundred
+     fathoms. Weather beautiful, perfectly calm. Gorgon in sight.
+     Sixty-four miles from the telegraph-house. Received signal from
+     Agamemnon at noon that they had paid out from her nine hundred
+     and forty miles of cable. Passed this morning several
+     icebergs. Made the land off entrance to Trinity Bay at eight
+     A.M. Entered Trinity Bay at half-past twelve. At half-past two,
+     we stopped sending signals to Agamemnon for fourteen minutes,
+     for the purpose of making splice. At five P.M. saw Her
+     Majesty's steamer Porcupine [which had been sent by the British
+     Government to Newfoundland, to watch for the telegraph ships]
+     coming to us. At half-past seven, Captain Otter, of the
+     Porcupine, came on board of the Niagara to pilot us to the
+     anchorage, near the telegraph-house.[A]
+
+     "Thursday, August fifth. At forty-five minutes past one A.M.,
+     Niagara anchored. Total amount of cable paid out since splice
+     was made, ten hundred and sixteen miles, six hundred fathoms.
+     Total amount of distance, eight hundred and eighty-two miles.
+     Amount of cable paid out over distance run, one hundred and
+     thirty-four miles, six hundred fathoms, being a surplus of
+     about fifteen per cent. At two A.M., I went ashore in a small
+     boat, and awoke persons in charge of the telegraph-house, half
+     a mile from landing, and informed them that the Telegraph Fleet
+     had arrived, and were ready to land the end of the cable. At
+     forty-five minutes past two, received signal from the Agamemnon
+     that she had paid out ten hundred and ten miles of cable. At
+     four A.M., delivered telegraphic despatch for the Associated
+     Press, to be forwarded to New York as early in the morning as
+     the offices of the line were open.
+
+     "At a quarter-past five A.M., telegraph cable landed. At six,
+     end of cable carried into telegraph-house, and received very
+     strong currents of electricity through the whole cable from the
+     other side of the Atlantic. Captain Hudson, of the Niagara,
+     then read prayers, and made some remarks.
+
+     "At one P.M., Her Majesty's steamer Gorgon fired a royal salute
+     of twenty-one guns."
+
+Thus simply was the story told, that in a few hours was to send a thrill
+throughout the continent.
+
+To complete the narrative of the expedition, it is necessary to include
+the voyage of the Agamemnon, the best account of which is given in the
+letter of the correspondent of the London Times. We quote from the time
+of junction in mid-ocean, just as the ships went sailing eastward and
+westward:
+
+     "For the first three hours the ships proceeded very slowly,
+     paying out a great quantity of slack, but after the expiration
+     of this time, the speed of the Agamemnon was increased to about
+     five knots per hour, the cable going at about six, without
+     indicating more than a few hundred pounds of strain upon the
+     dynamometer. Shortly after six o'clock a very large whale was
+     seen approaching the starboard bow at a great speed, rolling
+     and tossing the sea into foam all around and for the first time
+     we felt the possibility of the supposition that our second
+     mysterious breakage of the cable might have been caused after
+     all by one of these animals getting foul of it under water. It
+     appeared as if it were making direct for the cable, and great
+     was the relief of all when the ponderous living mass was seen
+     slowly to pass astern, just grazing the cable where it entered
+     the water, but fortunately without doing any mischief.
+
+     "All seemed to go well up to about eight o'clock; the cable
+     paid out from the hold with an evenness and regularity which
+     showed how carefully and perfectly it had been coiled away; and
+     to guard against accidents which might arise in consequence of
+     the cable having suffered injury during the storm, the
+     indicated strain upon the dynamometer was never allowed to go
+     beyond seventeen hundred pounds, or less than one quarter what
+     the cable is estimated to bear, and thus far every thing looked
+     promising of success. But, in such a hazardous work, no one
+     knows what a few minutes may bring forth, for soon after eight,
+     an injured portion of the cable was discovered about a mile or
+     two from the portion paying out. Not a moment was lost by Mr.
+     Canning, the engineer on duty, in setting men to work to cobble
+     up the injury as well as time would permit, for the cable was
+     going out at such a rate that the damaged portion would be paid
+     overboard in less than twenty minutes, and former experience
+     had shown us that to check either the speed of the ship, or the
+     cable, would, in all probability, be attended by the most fatal
+     results.
+
+     "Just before the lapping was finished, Professor Thomson
+     reported that the electrical continuity of the wire had ceased,
+     but that the insulation was still perfect; attention was
+     naturally directed to the injured piece as the probable source
+     of the stoppage, and not a moment was lost in cutting the cable
+     at that point, with the intention of making a perfect splice.
+     To the consternation of all, the electrical tests applied
+     showed the fault to be overboard, and in all probability some
+     fifty miles from the ship. Not a second was to be lost, for it
+     was evident that the cut portion must be paid overboard in a
+     few minutes, and in the mean time, the tedious and difficult
+     operation of making a splice had to be performed. The ship was
+     immediately stopped, and no more cable paid out than was
+     absolutely necessary to prevent it breaking.
+
+     "As the stern of the ship was lifted by the waves, a scene of
+     the most intense excitement followed. It seemed impossible,
+     even by using the greatest possible speed, and paying out the
+     least possible amount of cable, that the junction could be
+     finished before the part was taken out of the hands of the
+     workmen. The main hold presented an extraordinary scene; nearly
+     all the officers of the ship and of those connected with the
+     expedition, stood in groups about the coil, watching with
+     intense anxiety the cable, as it slowly unwound itself nearer
+     and nearer the joint, while the workmen, directed by Mr.
+     Canning, under whose superintendence the cable was originally
+     manufactured, worked at the splice as only men could work who
+     felt that the life and death of the expedition depended upon
+     their rapidity. But all their speed was to no purpose, as the
+     cable was unwinding within a hundred fathoms, and, as a last
+     and desperate resource, the cable was stopped altogether, and,
+     for a few minutes, the ship hung on by the end. Fortunately,
+     however, it was only for a few minutes, as the strain was
+     continually rising above two tons, and it would not hold on
+     much longer; when the splice was finished, the signal was made
+     to loose the stopper, and it passed overboard safely enough.
+
+     "When the excitement consequent upon having so narrowly saved
+     the cable had passed away, we awoke to the consciousness that
+     the case was still as hopeless as ever, for the electrical
+     continuity was still entirely wanting. Preparations were
+     consequently made to pay out as little rope as possible, and to
+     hold on for six hours, in the hopes that the fault, whatever it
+     might be, might mend itself before cutting the cable and
+     returning to the rendezvous to make another splice. The
+     magnetic needles on the receiving instruments were watched
+     closely for the returning signals; when, in a few minutes, the
+     last hope was extinguished by their suddenly indicating dead
+     earth, which tended to show that the cable had broken from the
+     Niagara, or that the insulation had been completely destroyed.
+
+     "In three minutes, however, every one was agreeably surprised
+     by the intelligence that the stoppage had disappeared, and that
+     the signals had again appeared at their regular intervals from
+     the Niagara. It is needless to say what a load of anxiety this
+     news removed from the minds of every one; but the general
+     confidence in the ultimate success of the operations was much
+     shaken by the occurrence, for all felt that every minute a
+     similar accident might occur. For some time the paying-out
+     continued as usual, but toward the morning another damaged
+     place was discovered in the cable; there was fortunately,
+     however, time to repair it in the hold without in any way
+     interfering with the operations beyond for a time slightly
+     reducing the speed of the ship.
+
+     "During the morning of Friday, the thirtieth, every thing went
+     well; the ship had been kept at the speed of about five knots,
+     the cable paid out at about six, the average angle with the
+     horizon at which it left the ship being about fifteen degrees,
+     while the indicated strain upon the dynamometer seldom showed
+     more than sixteen hundred pounds to seventeen hundred pounds.
+     Observations made at noon showed that we had made good ninety
+     miles from the starting-point since the previous day, with an
+     expenditure, including the loss in lowering the splice and
+     during the subsequent stoppages, of one hundred and thirty-five
+     miles of the cable. During the latter portion of the day the
+     barometer fell considerably, and toward the evening it blew
+     almost a gale of wind from the eastward, dead ahead of course.
+     As the breeze freshened, the speed of the engines was gradually
+     increased, but the wind more than increased in proportion, so
+     that, before the sun went down, the Agamemnon was going full
+     steam against the wind, only making a speed of about four knots
+     an hour. During the evening topmasts were lowered, and spars,
+     yards, sails, and indeed every thing aloft that could offer
+     resistance to the wind, was sent down on deck; but still the
+     ship made but little way, chiefly in consequence of the heavy
+     sea, though the enormous quantity of fuel consumed showed us
+     that, if the wind lasted, we should be reduced to burning the
+     masts, spars, and even the decks, to bring the ship into
+     Valentia.
+
+     "It seemed to be our particular ill-fortune to meet with
+     head-winds whichever way the ship's head was turned. On our
+     journey out we had been delayed, and obliged to consume an
+     undue proportion of coal, for want of an easterly wind, and now
+     all our fuel was wanted because of one. However, during the
+     next day the wind gradually went around to the south-west,
+     which, though it raised a very heavy sea, allowed us to husband
+     our small remaining store of fuel.
+
+     "At noon on Saturday, the thirty-first of July, observations
+     showed us to have made good one hundred and twenty miles of
+     distance since noon of the previous day, with a loss of about
+     twenty-seven per cent of cable. The Niagara, as far as could
+     be judged from the amount of cable she paid out, which, by a
+     previous arrangement, was signalled at every ten miles, kept
+     pace with us, within one or two miles, the whole distance
+     across. During the afternoon of Saturday, the wind again
+     freshened up, and before nightfall it again blew nearly a gale
+     of wind, and a tremendous sea ran before it from the
+     south-west, which made the Agamemnon pitch to such an extent
+     that it was thought impossible the cable could hold on through
+     the night; indeed, had it not been for the constant care and
+     watchfulness exercised by Mr. Bright, and the two energetic
+     engineers, Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford, who acted with him, it
+     could not have been done at all. Men were kept at the wheels of
+     the machine to prevent their stopping as the stern of the ship
+     rose and fell with the sea, for, had they done so, the cable
+     must undoubtedly have parted.
+
+     "During Sunday the sea and wind increased, and before the
+     evening it blew a smart gale. Now, indeed, were the energy and
+     activity of all engaged in the operation tasked to the utmost.
+     Mr. Hoar and Mr. Moore, the two engineers who had the charge of
+     the relieving-wheels of the dynamometer, had to keep watch and
+     watch alternately every four hours, and while on duty durst not
+     let their attention be removed from their occupation for one
+     moment, for on their releasing the brakes every time the stern
+     of the ship fell into the trough of the sea entirely depended
+     the safety of the cable, and the result shows how ably they
+     discharged their duty. Throughout the night, there were few who
+     had the least expectation of the cable holding on till morning,
+     and many remained awake listening for the sound that all most
+     dreaded to hear--namely, the gun which should announce the
+     failure of all our hopes. But still the cable, which, in
+     comparison with the ship from which it was paid out, and the
+     gigantic waves among which it was delivered, was but a mere
+     thread, continued to hold on, only leaving a silvery
+     phosphorous line upon the stupendous seas as they rolled on
+     toward the ship.
+
+     "With Sunday morning came no improvement in the weather; still
+     the sky remained black and stormy to windward, and the constant
+     violent squalls of wind and rain which prevailed during the
+     whole day served to keep up, if not to augment, the height of
+     the waves. But the cable had gone through so much during the
+     night, that our confidence in its continuing to hold was much
+     restored.
+
+     "At noon, observations showed us to have made good one hundred
+     and thirty miles from noon of the previous day, and about three
+     hundred and sixty from our starting-point in mid-ocean. We had
+     passed by the deepest sounding of twenty-four hundred fathoms,
+     and over more than half of the deep water generally, while the
+     amount of cable still remaining in the ship was more than
+     sufficient to carry us to the Irish coast, even supposing the
+     continuance of the bad weather should oblige us to pay out the
+     same amount of slack cable we had been hitherto wasting. Thus
+     far things looked very promising for our ultimate success. But
+     former experience showed us only too plainly that we could
+     never suppose that some accident might not arise until the ends
+     had been fairly landed on the opposite shores.
+
+     "During Sunday night and Monday morning the weather continued
+     as boisterous as ever, and it was only by the most
+     indefatigable exertions of the engineer upon duty that the
+     wheels could be prevented from stopping altogether, as the
+     vessel rose and fell with the sea, and once or twice they did
+     come completely to a standstill, in spite of all that could be
+     done to keep them moving; but fortunately they were again set
+     in motion before the stern of the ship was thrown up by the
+     succeeding wave. No strain could be placed upon the cable, of
+     course; and though the dynamometer occasionally registered
+     seventeen hundred pounds as the ship lifted, it was oftener
+     below one thousand, and was frequently nothing, the cable
+     running out as fast as its own weight and the speed of the ship
+     could draw it. But even with all these forces acting
+     unresistedly upon it, the cable never paid itself out at a
+     greater speed than eight knots an hour at the time the ship was
+     going at the rate of six knots and a half. Subsequently,
+     however, when the speed of the ship even exceeded six knots and
+     a half, the cable never ran out so quick. The average speed
+     maintained by the ship up to this time, and, indeed, for the
+     whole voyage, was about five knots and a half, the cable, with
+     occasional exceptions, running about thirty per cent faster.
+
+     "At noon on Monday, August second, had made good one hundred
+     and twenty-seven and a half miles since noon of the previous
+     day, and completed more than the half way to our ultimate
+     destination.
+
+     "During the afternoon an American three-masted schooner, which
+     afterward proved to be the Chieftain, was seen standing from
+     the eastward toward us. No notice was taken of her at first,
+     but when she was within about half a mile of the Agamemnon she
+     altered her course, and bore right down across our bows. A
+     collision, which might prove fatal to the cable, now seemed
+     inevitable, or could only be avoided by the equally hazardous
+     expedient of altering the Agamemnon's course. The Valorous
+     steamed ahead, and fired a gun for her to heave to, which, as
+     she did not appear to take much notice of, was quickly followed
+     by another from the bows of the Agamemnon, and a second and
+     third from the Valorous, but still the vessel held on her
+     course; and as the only resource left to avoid a collision, the
+     course of the Agamemnon was altered just in time to pass within
+     a few yards of her. It was evident that our proceedings were a
+     source of the greatest possible astonishment to them, for all
+     her crew crowded upon her deck and rigging. At length they
+     evidently discovered who we were, and what we were doing, for
+     the crew manned the rigging, and dipping the ensign several
+     times they gave us three hearty cheers. Though the Agamemnon
+     was obliged to acknowledge these congratulations in due form,
+     the feelings of annoyance with which we regarded the vessel
+     which, either by the stupidity or carelessness of those on
+     board, was so near adding a fatal and unexpected mishap to the
+     long chapter of accidents which had already been encountered,
+     may easily be imagined. To those below, who of course did not
+     see the ship approaching, the sound of the first gun came like
+     a thunderbolt, for all took it as the signal of the breaking of
+     the cable. The dinner-tables were deserted in a moment, and a
+     general rush made up the hatches to the deck; but before
+     reaching it, their fears were quickly banished by the report of
+     the succeeding gun, which all knew well could only be caused by
+     a ship in our way or a man overboard.
+
+     "Throughout the greater portion of Monday morning the
+     electrical signals from the Niagara had been getting gradually
+     weaker, until they ceased altogether for nearly three-quarters
+     of an hour. Our uneasiness, however, was in some degree
+     lessened by the fact that the stoppage appeared to be a want of
+     continuity,[B] and not any defect in insulation, and there was
+     consequently every reason to suppose that it might arise from
+     faulty connection on board the Niagara. Accordingly Professor
+     Thomson sent a message to the effect that the signals were too
+     weak to be read, and, as if they had been awaiting such a
+     signal to increase their battery power, the deflections
+     immediately returned even stronger than they had ever been
+     before. Toward the evening, however, they again declined in
+     force for a short time. With the exception of these little
+     stoppages, the electrical condition of the submerged wire
+     seemed to be much improved. It was evident that the low
+     temperature of the water at the immense depth improved
+     considerably the insulating properties of the gutta-percha,
+     while the enormous pressure to which it must have been
+     subjected probably tended to consolidate its texture, and to
+     fill up any air-bubbles or slight faults in manufacture which
+     may have existed.
+
+     "The weather during Monday night moderated a little, but still
+     there was a very heavy sea on, which endangered the wire every
+     second minute.
+
+     "About three o'clock on Tuesday morning, all on board were
+     startled from their beds by the loud booming of a gun. Every
+     one, without waiting for the performance of the most particular
+     toilet, rushed on deck to ascertain the cause of the
+     disturbance. Contrary to all expectation, the cable was safe,
+     but just in the gray light could be seen the Valorous rounded
+     to in the most warlike attitude, firing gun after gun in quick
+     succession toward a large American bark, which, quite
+     unconscious of our proceeding, was standing right across our
+     stern. Such loud and repeated remonstrances from a large steam
+     frigate were not to be despised, and, evidently without knowing
+     the why or the wherefore, she quickly threw her sails aback and
+     remained hove to. Whether those on board her considered that we
+     were engaged in some filibustering expedition, or regarded our
+     proceedings as another British outrage upon the American flag,
+     it is impossible to say; but certain it is that, apparently in
+     great trepidation, she remained hove to until we had lost sight
+     of her in the distance.
+
+     "Tuesday was a much finer day than any we had experienced for
+     nearly a week, but still there was a considerable sea running,
+     and our dangers were far from passed; yet the hopes of our
+     ultimate success ran high. We had accomplished nearly the whole
+     of the deep-sea portion of the route in safety, and that, too,
+     under the most unfavorable circumstances possible; therefore
+     there was every reason to believe that unless some unforeseen
+     accident should occur, we should accomplish the remainder.
+
+     "About five o'clock in the evening, the steep submarine
+     mountain which divides the telegraphic plateau from the Irish
+     coast was reached, and the sudden shallowing of the water had a
+     very marked effect upon the cable, causing the strain on and
+     the speed of it to lessen every minute. A great deal of slack
+     was paid out to allow for any great inequalities which might
+     exist, though undiscovered by the sounding-line. About ten
+     o'clock the shoal water of two hundred and fifty fathoms was
+     reached; the only remaining anxiety now was the changing from
+     the lower main coil to that upon the upper deck, and this most
+     difficult and dangerous operation was successfully performed
+     between three and four o'clock on Wednesday morning.
+
+     "Wednesday was a beautiful, calm day; indeed, it was the first
+     on which any one would have thought of making a splice since
+     the day we started from the rendezvous. We therefore
+     congratulated ourselves on having saved a week by commencing
+     operations on the Thursday previous. At noon, we were
+     eighty-nine miles distant from the telegraph station at
+     Valentia. The water was shallow, so that there was no
+     difficulty in paying out the wire almost without any loss of
+     slack, and all looked upon the undertaking as virtually
+     accomplished.
+
+     "At about one o'clock in the evening, the second change from
+     the upper-deck coil to that upon the orlop-deck was safely
+     effected, and shortly after the vessels exchanged signals that
+     they were in two hundred fathoms water. As the night advanced
+     the speed of the ship was reduced, as it was known that we were
+     only a short distance from the land, and there would be no
+     advantage in making it before daylight in the morning. About
+     twelve o'clock, however, the Skelligs Light was seen in the
+     distance, and the Valorous steamed on ahead to lead us in to
+     the coast, firing rockets at intervals to direct us, which were
+     answered by us from the Agamemnon, though, according to Mr.
+     Moriarty, the master's wish, the ship, disregarding the
+     Valorous, kept her own course, which proved to be the right one
+     in the end.
+
+     "By daylight on the morning of Thursday, the bold and rocky
+     mountains which entirely surround the wild and picturesque
+     neighborhood of Valentia, rose right before us at a few miles'
+     distance. Never, probably, was the sight of land more welcome,
+     as it brought to a successful termination one of the greatest,
+     but, at the same time, most difficult schemes which was ever
+     undertaken. Had it been the dullest and most melancholy swamp
+     on the face of the earth that lay before us, we should have
+     found it a pleasant prospect; but, as the sun rose from the
+     estuary of Dingle Bay, tinging with a deep, soft purple the
+     lofty summits of the steep mountains which surround its shores,
+     and illuminating the masses of morning vapor which hung upon
+     them, it was a scene which might vie in beauty with any thing
+     that could be produced by the most florid imagination of an
+     artist.
+
+     "No one on shore was apparently conscious of our approach, so
+     the Valorous steamed ahead to the mouth of the harbor and fired
+     a gun. Both ships made straight for Doulus Bay, and about six
+     o'clock came to anchor at the side of Beginish Island, opposite
+     to Valentia. As soon as the inhabitants became aware of our
+     approach, there was a general desertion of the place, and
+     hundreds of boats crowded around us, their passengers in the
+     greatest state of excitement to hear all about our voyage. The
+     Knight of Kerry was absent in Dingle, but a messenger was
+     immediately dispatched for him, and he soon arrived in Her
+     Majesty's gunboat Shamrock. Soon after our arrival, a signal
+     was received from the Niagara that they were preparing to land,
+     having paid out one thousand and thirty nautical miles of
+     cable, while the Agamemnon had accomplished her portion of the
+     distance with an expenditure of one thousand and twenty
+     miles,[C] making the total length of the wire submerged two
+     thousand and fifty geographical miles. Immediately after the
+     ships cast anchor, the paddle-box boats of the Valorous were
+     got ready, and two miles of cable coiled away in them, for the
+     purpose of landing the end; but it was late in the afternoon
+     before the procession of boats left the ship, under a salute of
+     three rounds of small-arms from the detachment of marines on
+     board the Agamemnon, under the command of Lieutenant Morris.
+
+     "The progress of the end to the shore was very slow, in
+     consequence of the very stiff wind which blew at the time, but
+     at about three o'clock the end was safely brought on shore at
+     Knightstown, Valentia, by Mr. Bright and Mr. Canning, the chief
+     and second engineers, to whose exertions the success of the
+     undertaking is attributable, and the Knight of Kerry.[D] The
+     end was immediately laid in the trench which had been dug to
+     receive it, while a royal salute, making the neighboring rocks
+     and mountains reverberate, announced that the communication
+     between the Old and the New World had been completed."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] The spot chosen as the terminus of the Atlantic cable, with the
+views around it--both on the water and on land--is thus described by a
+correspondent:
+
+"All who have visited Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, with one consent allow
+it to be one of the most beautiful sheets of water they ever set eyes
+upon. Its color is very peculiar--an inexpressible mingling of the pure
+blue ocean with the deep evergreen woodlands and the serene blue sky.
+Its extreme length is about eighty miles, its breadth about thirty
+miles, opening boldly into the Atlantic on the northern side of the
+island. At its south-western shore it branches into the Bay of Bull's
+Arm, which is a quiet, safe, and beautiful harbor, about two miles in
+breadth, and nine or ten in length, running in a direction north-west.
+
+"The depth of water is sufficient for the largest vessels. The tide
+rises seven or eight feet, and the bay terminates in a beautiful
+sand-beach. The shore is clothed with dark green fir-trees, which, mixed
+with birch and mountain-ash, present a pleasing contrast. The land rises
+gradually from the water all around, so as to afford one of the most
+agreeable town sites in the island. You ascend only about a quarter of a
+mile from the water, and there are no longer trees, but wild grass like
+an open prairie. Here are found at this season myriads of the upland
+cranberries, upon which unnumbered ptarmigan, or the northern partridge,
+feed.
+
+"The raspberry, bake-apple berry, and the whortleberry are also common.
+Numerous little lakes may be seen in the open, elevated ground, from
+which flow rivulets, affording abundance of fine trout. After ascending
+for about a mile and a half, you are then probably three hundred or four
+hundred feet above the tide, and nothing can exceed the beauty of the
+scene when, at one view, you behold the placid waters of both Trinity
+and Placentia Bays--the latter sprinkled with clusters of verdant
+islands.
+
+"You can now descend westward as gradually as you came up from the
+Telegraph landing, to the shores of Placentia Bay, where there is an
+excellent harbor and admirable fisheries, skirting the shore, and the
+accompanying road of the land Telegraph line leading from St. John's
+westward through the island, to Cape Ray. At this season of the year
+game is very abundant. Reindeer in great numbers, bears, wolves--others
+very numerous, the large northern hare, foxes, wild geese, ducks, etc.
+
+"About four miles southward of the entrance of the bay of Bull's Arm, on
+the shore of Placentia Bay, is situated the extraordinary La Manche lead
+mine, the property of the Telegraph Company, already yielding a rich
+supply of remarkably pure galena. The place where the cable is landed is
+memorable in the history of the island as the naval battle-ground
+between the French and English in their early struggle for the exclusive
+occupancy of the valuable fisheries along the coast."
+
+[B] This is an error, as we learn on the high authority of Professor
+Thomson himself. It was defective insulation, not any "want of
+continuity," that caused the weak signals. Want of continuity would
+have stopped the signals altogether, and given quite different
+indications on the testing instruments from those he observed.
+
+[C] The Niagara had sixty miles farther to run than the Agamemnon, to
+land the cable at the head of Trinity Bay.
+
+[D] A name that occurs several times in this history, and one never to
+be mentioned but with honor. The Knight of Kerry was Lord of the Isles
+on that part of the Irish coast; and from the beginning showed the
+deepest interest in this enterprise; and by his generous hospitality to
+all connected with it made many friends by whom he was gratefully
+remembered on both sides of the Atlantic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+EXCITEMENT IN AMERICA.
+
+
+Whoever shall write the history of popular enthusiasms, must give a
+large space to the Atlantic Telegraph. Never did the tidings of any
+great achievement--whether in peace or war--more truly electrify a
+nation. No doubt, the impression was the greater because it took the
+country by surprise. Had the attempt succeeded in June, it would have
+found a people prepared for it. But the failure of the first expedition,
+added to that of the previous year, settled the fate of the enterprise
+in the minds of the public. It was a hopeless undertaking; and its
+projectors shared the usual lot of those who conceive vast designs, and
+venture on great enterprises, which are not successful, to be regarded
+with a mixture of derision and pity.
+
+Such was the temper of the public mind, when at noon of Thursday, the
+fifth of August, the following despatch was received:
+
+                              "United States Frigate Niagara,
+                              Trinity Bay, Newfoundland,
+                              August 5, 1858.
+
+     "_To the Associated Press, New York_:
+
+     "The Atlantic Telegraph fleet sailed from Queenstown, Ireland,
+     Saturday, July seventeenth, and met in mid-ocean Wednesday,
+     July twenty-eighth. Made the splice at one P.M., Thursday, the
+     twenty-ninth, and separated--the Agamemnon and Valorous, bound
+     to Valentia, Ireland; the Niagara and Gorgon, for this place,
+     where they arrived yesterday, and this morning the end of the
+     cable will be landed.
+
+     "It is one thousand six hundred and ninety-six nautical, or one
+     thousand nine hundred and fifty statute, miles from the
+     Telegraph House at the head of Valentia harbor to the Telegraph
+     House at the Bay of Bulls, Trinity Bay, and for more than two
+     thirds of this distance the water is over two miles in depth.
+     The cable has been paid out from the Agamemnon at about the
+     same speed as from the Niagara. The electric signals sent and
+     received through the whole cable are perfect.
+
+     "The machinery for paying out the cable worked in the most
+     satisfactory manner, and was not stopped for a single moment
+     from the time the splice was made until we arrived here.
+
+     "Captain Hudson, Messrs. Everett and Woodhouse, the engineers,
+     the electricians, the officers of the ship, and in fact, every
+     man on board the telegraph fleet, has exerted himself to the
+     utmost to make the expedition successful, and by the blessing
+     of Divine Providence it has succeeded.
+
+     "After the end of the cable is landed and connected with the
+     land line of telegraph, and the Niagara has discharged some
+     cargo belonging to the Telegraph Company, she will go to St.
+     John's for coal, and then proceed at once to New York.
+
+                              "Cyrus W. Field."
+
+The impression of this simple announcement it is impossible to conceive.
+It was immediately telegraphed to all parts of the United States, and
+everywhere produced the greatest excitement. In some places all business
+was suspended; men rushed into the streets, and flocked to the offices
+where the news was received. At Andover, Massachusetts, the news arrived
+while the Alumni of the Theological Seminary were celebrating their
+semi-centennial anniversary by a dinner. One thousand persons were
+present, all of whom rose to their feet, and gave vent to their excited
+feelings by continued and enthusiastic cheers. When quiet was restored,
+Rev. Dr. Adams, of New York, said his heart was too full for a speech,
+and suggested, as the more fitting utterance of what all felt, that they
+should join in thanksgiving to Almighty God, and the venerable Dr.
+Hawes, of Hartford, led them in fervent prayer, acknowledging the great
+event as from the hand of God, and as calculated to hasten the triumphs
+of civilization and Christianity. Then all standing up together, sang,
+to the tune of Old Hundred, the majestic doxology:
+
+     "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,
+     Praise Him all creatures here below;
+     Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,
+     Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!"
+
+Thus--said Dr. Hawes--"we have now consecrated this new power, so far as
+our agency is concerned, to the building up of the truth."
+
+In New York the news was received at first with some incredulity. But
+as it was confirmed by subsequent despatches, the city broke out into
+tumultuous rejoicing. Never was there such an outburst of popular
+feeling. In Boston a hundred guns were fired on the Common, and the
+bells of the city were rung for an hour to give utterance to the general
+joy. Similar scenes were witnessed in all parts of the United States. I
+have now before me the New York papers of August, 1858, and from the
+memorable fifth, when the landing took place, to the end of the month,
+they contain hardly any thing else than popular demonstrations in honor
+of the Atlantic Telegraph. It was indeed a national jubilee.
+
+It was natural that this overflow of public feeling should express
+itself towards one who was recognized as the author of the great work,
+which inspired such universal joy. Mr. Field, much to his own surprise,
+"awoke and found himself famous." In twenty-four hours his name was on
+millions of tongues. Congratulations poured in from all quarters, from
+mayors of cities and governors of States; from all parts of the Union
+and the British Provinces; from the President of the United States and
+the Governor-General of Canada. Mr. Buchanan telegraphed to Mr. Field,
+at Trinity Bay:
+
+     "My Dear Sir: I congratulate you with all my heart on the
+     success of the great enterprise with which your name is so
+     honorably connected. Under the blessing of Divine Providence I
+     trust it may prove instrumental in promoting perpetual peace
+     and friendship between the kindred nations."
+
+The popular estimate of the achievement and its author went still
+farther. With the natural exaggeration common to masses of men, when
+carried away by a sudden enthusiasm, the Atlantic Telegraph was hailed
+as an immense stride in the onward progress of the race, an event in the
+history of the world hardly inferior to the discovery of America, or to
+the invention of the art of printing; and the name of its projector was
+coupled with those of Franklin and Columbus. He who but yesterday was
+regarded as a visionary, to-day was exalted as a benefactor of his
+country and of mankind.
+
+This avalanche of praise was quite overwhelming. It is always
+embarrassing to be forced into sudden conspicuity, and to find one's
+self the object of general attention and applause. While feeling this
+embarrassment, Mr. Field could not but be gratified to witness the
+public joy at the success of the enterprise, and he was deeply touched
+and grateful for the appreciation of his own services. But probably all
+these public demonstrations did not go to his heart so much as private
+letters received from the other side of the Atlantic, from those who had
+shared the labors of the enterprise--old companions in arms who had
+borne with him the heavy burden, and now were fully entitled to a share
+in the honor which was the reward of their common toil.
+
+As a specimen of the congratulations which came from beyond the sea, we
+quote a single passage from a letter of Mr. George Saward, the Secretary
+of the Company in London, written immediately on receiving the news of
+the success of the enterprise. Under the impression of that event, he
+writes to Mr. Field:
+
+     "At last the great work is successful. I rejoice at it for the
+     sake of humanity at large. I rejoice at it for the sake of our
+     common nationalities, and last but not least, for your personal
+     sake. I most heartily and sincerely rejoice with you, and
+     congratulate you, upon this happy termination to the trouble
+     and anxiety, the continuous and persevering labor, and
+     never-ceasing and sleepless energy, which the successful
+     accomplishment of this vast and noble enterprise has cost you.
+     Never was man more devoted--never did man's energy better
+     deserve success than yours has done. May you in the bosom of
+     your family reap those rewards of repose and affection, which
+     will be doubly sweet from the reflection, that you return to
+     them after having been under Providence the main and leading
+     principal in conferring a vast and enduring benefit on mankind.
+     If the contemplation of fame has a charm for you, you may well
+     indulge in the reflection; for the name of Cyrus W. Field will
+     now go onward to immortality, as long as that of the Atlantic
+     Telegraph shall be known to mankind."
+
+The Directors, whose faith and courage had been so severely tried, now
+felt double joy, for their friend and for themselves, at this glorious
+result of their united labors. Mr. Peabody wrote to Mr. Field that "his
+reflections must be like those of Columbus, after the discovery of
+America." Sir Charles Wood and Sir John Pakington, who, as successive
+First Lords of the Admiralty, had supported the enterprise with the
+constant aid of the British Government, wrote letters of congratulation
+on the great work which had been carried through mainly by his energy
+and unconquerable will. They were above any petty national jealousy, and
+never imagined that it would detract aught from the just honor of
+England, to award full praise to the courage and enterprise of an
+American.
+
+On his part, Mr. Field was equally anxious to acknowledge the invaluable
+aid given by others--aid, without which the efforts of no single
+individual could command success. On his arrival at St. John's, he was
+welcomed with enthusiasm by the whole population. An address was
+presented to him by the Executive Council of Newfoundland, in which they
+offered their hearty congratulations on the success of the undertaking,
+which they recognized as chiefly due to him. "Intimately acquainted as
+we have been"--these are their words--"with the energy and enterprise
+which have distinguished you from the commencement of the great work of
+telegraph connection between the Old and the New Worlds; and feeling
+that under Providence this triumph of science is mainly due to your
+well-directed and indomitable exertions, we desire to express to you our
+high appreciation of your success in the cause of the world's progress,"
+etc.; to which Mr. Field replied, recognizing in turn the cordial
+support which he had always received from the Government of
+Newfoundland. The Chamber of Commerce of St. John's also presented an
+address in similar terms, to which he replied--after acknowledging their
+kind mention of his own labors and sacrifices:
+
+     "But it would not only be ungenerous, but unjust, that I should
+     for a moment forget the services of those who were my
+     co-workers in this enterprise, and without whom any labors of
+     mine would have been unavailing. It would be difficult to
+     enumerate the many gentlemen whose scientific acquirements and
+     skill and energy have been devoted to the advancement of this
+     work, and who have so mainly produced the issue which has
+     called forth this expression of your good wishes on my behalf.
+     But I could not do justice to my own feelings did I fail to
+     acknowledge how much is owing to Captain Hudson and the
+     officers of the Niagara, whose hearts were in the work, and
+     whose toil was unceasing; to Captain Dayman of her Majesty's
+     ship Gorgon, for the soundings so accurately made by him last
+     year, and for the perfect manner in which he led the Niagara
+     over the great-circle arc while laying the cable; to Captain
+     Otter, of the Porcupine, for the careful survey made by him in
+     Trinity Bay, and for the admirable manner in which he piloted
+     the Niagara at night to her anchorage; to Mr. Everett, who has
+     for months devoted his whole time to designing and perfecting
+     the beautiful machinery that has so successfully paid out the
+     cable from the ships--machinery so perfect in every respect,
+     that it was not for one moment stopped on board the Niagara
+     until she reached her destination in Trinity Bay; to Mr.
+     Woodhouse, who superintended the coiling of the cable, and
+     zealously and ably coöperated with his brother engineer during
+     the progress of paying-out; to the electricians for their
+     constant watchfulness; to the men for their almost ceaseless
+     labor (and I feel confident that you will have a good report
+     from the commanders, engineers, electricians, on board the
+     Agamemnon and Valorous, the Irish portion of the fleet); to the
+     Directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company for the time they
+     have devoted to the undertaking without receiving any
+     compensation for their services (and it must be a pleasure to
+     many of you to know that the director, who has devoted more
+     time than any other, was for many years a resident of this
+     place, and well known to all of you--I allude to Mr. Brooking,
+     of London); to Mr. C. M. Lampson, a native of New England, but
+     who has for the last twenty-seven years resided in London, who
+     appreciated the great importance of this enterprise to both
+     countries, and gave it most valuable aid, bringing his sound
+     judgment and great business talent to the service of the
+     Company; to that distinguished American, Mr. George Peabody,
+     and his worthy partner, Mr. Morgan, who not only assisted it
+     most liberally with their means, but to whom I could always go
+     with confidence for advice."
+
+Such acknowledgments, constantly repeated, showed a mind incapable of
+envy or jealousy; that was chiefly anxious to recognize the services of
+others, and that they should receive from the public, both of England
+and America, the honors which they had so nobly earned.
+
+After two or three days' delay at St. John's, which the Niagara was
+obliged to make for coal, but which the people spent in festivity and
+rejoicing, she left for New York, where she arrived on the
+eighteenth--two weeks from the landing of the cable in Trinity Bay.
+These had been weeks of great excitement, yet not unmingled with
+suspense and anxiety. The public, eager for news, devoured every thing
+that concerned the telegraph with impatience, but all was not
+satisfactory. Despatches from Trinity Bay said that signals were
+continually passing over the cable, yet no news reached the public from
+the other side of the Atlantic. This was partially explained by a
+message from Mr. Field, sent from Trinity Bay to the Associated Press as
+early as the seventh:
+
+     "We landed here in the woods, and until the telegraph
+     instruments are perfectly adjusted, no communications can pass
+     between the two continents; but the electric currents are
+     received freely.
+
+     "You shall have the earliest intimation when all is ready, but
+     it may be some days before every thing is perfected. The first
+     through message between Europe and America will be from the
+     Queen of Great Britain to the President of the United States,
+     and the second his reply."
+
+But as the public grew impatient, and friends sent anxious inquiring
+messages, he telegraphed again from St. John's on the eleventh:
+
+     "Before I left London, the Directors of the Atlantic Telegraph
+     Company decided unanimously that, after the cable was laid, and
+     the Queen's and President's messages transmitted, the line
+     should be kept for several weeks for the sole use of Dr.
+     Whitehouse, Professor Thomson, and other electricians, to
+     enable them to test thoroughly their several modes of
+     telegraphing, so that the Directors might decide which was the
+     best and most rapid method for future use: for it was
+     considered that after the line should be once thrown open for
+     business, it would be very difficult to obtain it for
+     experimental purposes, even for a short time.
+
+     "Due notice will be given when the line will be ready for
+     business, and the tariff of prices."
+
+Still the public were not satisfied, and many were beginning to doubt,
+when, on the sixteenth, it was suddenly announced that the Queen's
+message was received. It was as follows:--
+
+     "_To the President of the United States, Washington_:
+
+     "The Queen desires to congratulate the President upon the
+     successful completion of this great international work, in
+     which the Queen has taken the deepest interest.
+
+     "The Queen is convinced that the President will join with her
+     in fervently hoping that the electric cable which now connects
+     Great Britain with the United States will prove an additional
+     link between the nations, whose friendship is founded upon
+     their common interest and reciprocal esteem.
+
+     "The Queen has much pleasure in thus communicating with the
+     President, and renewing to him her wishes for the prosperity of
+     the United States."
+
+To this the President replied:
+
+                              "Washington City, August 16, 1858.
+
+     "_To Her Majesty Victoria, the Queen of Great Britain_:
+
+     "The President cordially reciprocates the congratulations of
+     her Majesty the Queen, on the success of the great
+     international enterprise accomplished by the science, skill,
+     and indomitable energy of the two countries.
+
+     "It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to
+     mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle.
+
+     "May the Atlantic Telegraph, under the blessing of Heaven,
+     prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between
+     the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine
+     Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty, and law
+     throughout the world.
+
+     "In this view, will not all nations of Christendom
+     spontaneously unite in the declaration that it shall be for
+     ever neutral, and that its communications shall be held sacred
+     in passing to their places of destination, even in the midst of
+     hostilities?
+
+                              "James Buchanan."
+
+The arrival of the Queen's message was the signal for a fresh outbreak
+of popular enthusiasm. The next morning, August seventeenth, the city of
+New York was awakened by the thunder of artillery. A hundred guns were
+fired in the City Hall Park at daybreak, and the salute was repeated at
+noon. At this hour, flags were flying from all the public buildings, and
+the bells of the principal churches began to ring, as Christmas bells
+signal the birth of one who came to bring peace and good-will to
+men--chimes that, it was fondly hoped, might usher in a new era, as
+they should
+
+     Ring out the old, ring in the new,
+     Ring out the false, ring in the true.
+
+That night the city was illuminated. Never had it seen so brilliant a
+spectacle. Such was the blaze of light around the City Hall, that the
+cupola caught fire, and was consumed, and the Hall itself narrowly
+escaped destruction. Similar demonstrations took place in other parts of
+the United States. From the Atlantic to the Valley of the Mississippi,
+and to the Gulf of Mexico, in every city was heard the firing of guns
+and the ringing of bells. Nothing seemed too extravagant to give
+expression to the popular rejoicing.
+
+The next morning after this illumination, the Niagara entered the harbor
+of New York, and Mr. Field hastened to his home. The night before
+leaving the ship, he had written to the Directors in London, giving a
+full report of the laying of the cable, which he closed by resigning the
+position which he had held for the last seven months. He wrote:
+
+     "At your unanimous request, but at a very great personal
+     sacrifice to myself, I accepted the office of General Manager
+     of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, for the sole purpose of
+     doing all in my power to aid you to make the enterprise
+     successful; and as that object has been attained, you will
+     please accept my resignation. It will always afford me pleasure
+     to do any thing in my power, consistent with my duties to my
+     family and my own private affairs, to promote the interests of
+     the Atlantic Telegraph Company."
+
+Once more with his family, Mr. Field hoped for a brief interval of rest
+and quiet. But this was impossible. The great event with which his name
+was connected was too fresh in the public mind. He could not escape
+public observation. He was at once thronged with visitors, offering
+their congratulations, and his house surrounded with crowds eager to see
+and hear him. While making all allowance for popular excitement, yet
+none could deny that a service so great demanded some public
+recognition. Even in England, where the enthusiasm did not approach that
+in this country, still the wondrous character of the achievement was
+fully acknowledged. Said the London Times on the morning of the sixth of
+August: "Since the discovery of Columbus, nothing has been done in any
+degree comparable to the vast enlargement which has thus been given to
+the sphere of human activity." "More was done yesterday for the
+consolidation of our empire, than the wisdom of our statesmen, the
+liberality of our Legislature, or the loyalty of our colonists, could
+ever have effected." To mark the public benefit which had been
+conferred, the Chief Engineer of the Expedition, Mr. Charles T. Bright,
+was knighted, and Captains Preedy and Aldham were both made Companions
+of the Bath, and other officers were promoted. Thus England showed her
+appreciation of their services.
+
+But in this country titles and honors come not from the Government, but
+from the people. Popular enthusiasm exhausted itself in eulogies of the
+man who had linked the Old World to the New. It seems strange now to sit
+down in cold blood and read what was published in the papers of that
+day. A collection of American journals issued during that eventful
+month, August, 1858, would be a literary curiosity.[A]
+
+Nor was it merely in such outward demonstrations that the public
+enthusiasm showed itself. The feeling struck deeper, and reached all
+minds. While the people shouted and cannon roared, sober and thoughtful
+men pondered on the change that was being wrought in the earth. Business
+men reasoned how it would affect the commerce of the world, while the
+philanthropic regarded it as the forerunner of an age of universal
+peace. The first message flashed across the sea--even before that of the
+Queen--had been one of religious exultation. It was from the Directors
+in Great Britain to those on this side the Atlantic, and, simply
+reciting the fact that Europe and America were united by telegraph, at
+once broke into a strain of religious rapture, echoing the song of the
+angels over a Saviour's birth: "Glory to God in the highest; on earth,
+peace, good-will toward men." Poetry at once caught up the strain. The
+event became the theme of innumerable odes and hymns, of which it must
+be said that, whatever their merit as poetry, their spirit at least was
+noble, celebrating the event chiefly as promoting the brotherhood of the
+human family. The key-note was struck in such lines as these:
+
+    'Tis done! the angry sea consents,
+      The nations stand no more apart,
+    With claspèd hands the continents
+      Feel throbbings of each other's heart.
+
+    Speed, speed the cable; let it run
+      A loving girdle round the earth,
+    Till all the nations 'neath the sun
+      Shall be as brothers of one hearth;
+
+    As brothers pledging, hand in hand,
+      One freedom for the world abroad,
+    One commerce over every land,
+      One language and one God.
+
+The sermons preached on this occasion were literally without number.
+Enough found their way into print to make a large volume. Never had an
+event touched more deeply the spirit of religious enthusiasm. Devout men
+held it as an advance toward that millennial era which was at once the
+object of their faith and hope. Was not this the predicted time when,
+"many should run to and fro, and knowledge should be increased?" So said
+the preachers, taking for their favorite text the vision of the
+Psalmist, "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words
+to the end of the world;" or the question of Job: "Canst thou send forth
+the lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are?" Was
+not this the dawn of that happy age, when all men should be bound
+together in peaceful intercourse, and nations should learn war no more?
+Such was the burden of the discourses that were preached in a thousand
+pulpits from one end of the country to the other. Even the Roman
+Catholic Church, so lofty and inflexible in its claims, soaring into
+the past centuries, and almost disdaining the material progress of the
+present day as compared with the spiritual glories of the Ages of Faith,
+did not ignore the great event; and in laying the foundation of the new
+Cathedral of St. Patrick, the largest temple of religion on the
+continent, Archbishop Hughes placed under the corner-stone an
+inscription, wherein, along with the enduring record of the Christian
+faith and the names of martyrs and confessors, he did not disdain to
+include a brief memorial of this last achievement of science, and the
+name of him who had conferred so great a benefit on mankind.
+
+These public demonstrations culminated on the first of September, when
+the city authorities gave a public ovation to Mr. Field and the officers
+of the expedition. In accepting these honors, Mr. Field had taken good
+care that the British officers should be included with the American. At
+St. John's he had been notified of the intended celebration, and at once
+telegraphed to the British Admiral at Halifax:
+
+"I should consider it a very great personal favor if you would permit
+the Gorgon, Captain Dayman, to accompany the Niagara, Captain Hudson, to
+New York. English officers and English sailors have labored with
+American officers and American sailors to lay the Atlantic cable. They
+were with us in our days of trial, and pray let them, if you can, share
+with us our triumph."
+
+The request was granted so far as this, that the officers were allowed
+leave of absence, and came on to New York to take part in the
+celebration, and in all the honors which followed, the officers of the
+Gorgon were associated with those of the Niagara.
+
+The day arrived, and the celebration surpassed any thing which the city
+had ever witnessed before. It was a mild autumn day--warm, yet with a
+sky softly veiled with clouds, that seemed to invite a whole population
+into the streets. The day commenced with a solemn service at Trinity
+Church, which was attended by the city authorities, the representatives
+of foreign powers, and an immense concourse of people. The vast edifice
+was decorated with evergreens; in the centre hung a cross, with the
+inscription: "Glory to God on high; and on earth, peace, good-will
+towards men." When the audience were assembled, there entered a
+procession of two hundred clergy, headed by Bishop Doane of New Jersey,
+who was to deliver the address. Prayers were offered and Scriptures were
+read, and at intervals the choir gave voice to the general joy in the
+anthems in which for ages the Church has been wont to pour forth its
+exultation: "O come, let us sing unto the Lord," the Gloria in Excelsis,
+and the Te Deum Laudamus.
+
+At noon, Mr. Field and the officers of the ships landed at Castle Garden
+and were received with a national salute. A procession was formed which
+extended for miles from the Battery to the Crystal Palace, which stood
+on the plot of ground now known as Bryant Park, between Fortieth and
+Forty-second streets. In the procession were Lord Napier, the British
+Minister, and officers of the army and navy. For the whole distance the
+streets were crowded. The windows and even the tops of the houses were
+filled with people. Everywhere flags and banners, with every device,
+floated in the air. So dense was the crowd that it was five or six hours
+before the procession could reach the Crystal Palace.
+
+Here its coming was awaited by an assembly that filled all the aisles
+and galleries. An address was delivered, giving the history of the
+Atlantic Telegraph. The Mayor then rose, and presenting Mr. Field to the
+audience, spoke as follows:
+
+     "Sir: History records but few enterprises of such 'pith and
+     moment' as to command the attention and at the same time enlist
+     the sympathies of all mankind. In all ages warlike expeditions
+     have been undertaken on a scale of grandeur sufficient to
+     astonish the world; but the evils which are inseparable from
+     their prosecution have always sent a thrill of horror through
+     the anxious nations. The discovery of the Western continent
+     even, the grandest event of modern times, was made by an
+     insignificant fleet which left the shores of Spain without
+     attracting the notice of the civilized world. Far different has
+     been the history of the daring and difficult enterprise of
+     uniting the Old World and the New by means of the electric
+     telegraph. From the very outset the good, the great and the
+     wise of all lands beneath the sun, have watched with intense
+     anxiety, and even when doubt existed, with warm interest, every
+     step taken toward the accomplishment of what was universally
+     acknowledged to be the most momentous undertaking of an age
+     made marvellous by wonderful scientific and mechanical
+     achievements. The two greatest and freest nations of the globe,
+     by independent constitutional legislation, and by the aid of
+     their finest ships and their ablest officers and engineers,
+     combined together to insure success. Capital was liberally
+     subscribed by private citizens in a spirit which put greed to
+     the blush. The press on both sides of the Atlantic recorded the
+     details of the progress of the undertaking with cordial
+     interest, and secured the generous sympathies of men of all
+     kindreds and tongues and nations in its behalf. You were thus
+     fortunate, sir, in being identified with a project of such
+     magnificent proportions and universal concern. But the
+     enterprise itself was no less fortunate in being projected and
+     carried into execution by a man whom no obstacles could daunt,
+     no disasters discourage, no doubts paralyze, no opposition
+     dishearten. If you, to whom the conduct of this great
+     enterprise was assigned by the will of Providence and the
+     judgment of your fellow-men, had been found wanting in courage,
+     in energy, in determination, and in a faith that was truly
+     sublime, the very grandeur of the undertaking would only have
+     rendered its failure the more conspicuous. But, sir, the
+     incidents of the expedition, and the final result--too familiar
+     to all the world to need repetition here--have demonstrated
+     that you possessed all the qualities essential to achieve a
+     successful issue. It is for this reason that you now stand out
+     from among your fellow-men a mark for their cordial admiration
+     and grateful applause. The city of your home delights to honor
+     you; your fellow-citizens, conscious that the glory of your
+     success is reflected back upon them, are proud that your lot
+     has been cast among them. They have already testified their
+     appreciation of your great services and heroic perseverance by
+     illuminations, processions, serenades, and addresses. And now,
+     sir, the municipal government of this, the first city on the
+     Western continent, instruct me, who have never felt the honor
+     of being its chief magistrate so sensibly as in the presence of
+     this vast assemblage of its fair women and substantial
+     citizens, to present to you a gold box, with the arms of the
+     city engraved thereon, in testimony of the fact that to you
+     mainly, under Divine Providence, the world is indebted for the
+     successful execution of the grandest enterprise of our day and
+     generation; and in behalf of the Mayor, Aldermen, and
+     Commonalty of the City of New York, I now request your
+     acceptance of this token of their approbation. In conclusion,
+     sir, of this, the most agreeable duty of my public life, I
+     sincerely trust that your days may be long in the land, and as
+     prosperous and honorable as your achievement in uniting the two
+     hemispheres by a cord of electric communication has been
+     successful and glorious."
+
+To this flattering address, Mr. Field replied:
+
+     "Sir: This will be a memorable day in my life; not only because
+     it celebrates the success of an achievement with which my name
+     is connected, but because the honor comes from the city of my
+     home--the metropolitan city of the new world. I see here not
+     only the civic authorities and citizens at large, but my own
+     personal friends--men with whom I have been connected in
+     business and friendly intercourse for the greater part of my
+     life. Five weeks ago, this day and hour, I was standing on the
+     deck of the Niagara in mid-ocean, with the Gorgon and Valorous
+     in sight, waiting for the Agamemnon. The day was cold and
+     cheerless, the air was misty, and the wind roughened the sea;
+     and when I thought of all that we had passed through--of the
+     hopes thus far disappointed, of the friends saddened by our
+     reverses, of the few that remained to sustain us--I felt a load
+     at my heart almost too heavy to bear, though my confidence was
+     firm, and my determination fixed. How different is the scene
+     now before me--this vast crowd testifying their sympathy and
+     approval, praises without stint, and friends without number!
+     This occasion, sir, gives me the opportunity to express my
+     thanks for the enthusiastic reception which I have received,
+     and I here make my acknowledgments before this vast concourse
+     of my fellow-citizens. To the ladies I may, perhaps, add, that
+     they have had their appropriate place, for when the cable was
+     laid, the first public message that passed over it came from
+     one of their own sex. This box, sir, which I have the honor to
+     receive from your hand, shall testify to me and to my children
+     what my own city thinks of my acts. For your kindness, sir,
+     expressed in such flattering, too flattering terms, and for the
+     kindness of my fellow-citizens, I repeat my most heartfelt
+     thanks."
+
+The enthusiasm with which this address was received reached its height,
+when at the close, Mr. Field advanced to the edge of the platform, and
+unrolling a despatch, held it up, saying: "Gentlemen, I have just
+received a telegraphic message from a little village, now a suburb of
+New York, which I will read to you:
+
+                              "London, September 1, 1858.
+
+     "To Cyrus W. Field, New York:
+
+     "The directors are on their way to Valentia, to make
+     arrangements for opening the line to the public. They convey,
+     through the cable, to you and your fellow-citizens, their
+     hearty congratulations and good wishes, and cordially
+     sympathize in your joyous celebration of the great
+     international work."[B]
+
+A gold medal was presented to Captain Hudson, with an address, to which
+he made a fitting reply. Similar testimonials were presented to all the
+English captains through Mr. Archibald, the British Consul, who replied
+for his absent countrymen, after which the whole audience rose to their
+feet, as the band played "God save the Queen."
+
+It was long after dark when the exercises closed, and the vast multitude
+dispersed.
+
+The night witnessed one of those displays for which New York surpasses
+all the cities of the world--a firemen's torchlight procession--a
+display such as was afterward given to the Prince of Wales, but which we
+shall probably witness no more, since the Volunteer Fire Department is
+disbanded.
+
+But one day did not exhaust the public enthusiasm. The next evening, a
+grand banquet was given by the city authorities, at which were present a
+great number of distinguished guests. Lord Napier spoke, in language as
+happy as it was eloquent, of the new tie that was formed between kindred
+dwelling on opposite sides of the sea, and awarded the highest praise to
+the one whom he recognized as the author of this great achievement.
+
+While these demonstrations continued, every opposing voice was hushed in
+the chorus of national rejoicing; yet some there were, no doubt, who
+looked on with silent envy or whispered detraction. But who could grudge
+these honors to the hero of the hour--honors so hardly won, and which,
+as it proved, were soon to give place to harsh censures and unjust
+imputations?
+
+Alas for all human glory! Its paths lead but to the grave. Death is the
+end of human ambition. The very day that a whole city rose up to do
+honor to the Atlantic Telegraph and its author, it gave its last throb,
+and that first cable was thenceforth to sleep for ever silent in its
+ocean grave.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Such a curiosity exists, prepared by the industry of a gentleman who
+was one of the most careful collectors of the events of his time--by
+which he gathered up the materials of future history--Mr. John R.
+Bartlett, formerly Secretary of State of Rhode Island. This gentleman
+kept files of all the papers referring to the Atlantic Telegraph, from
+which he compiled a very unique volume. It is in the form of a
+scrap-book, but on a gigantic scale, being of a size equal to Webster's
+large Dictionary. It is made up entirely of newspaper cuttings,
+classified under different heads, and neatly arranged in double columns
+on nearly four hundred folio pages. The matter thus compressed would
+make between three and four octavo volumes of the size of Prescott's
+Histories, if printed in the style of those works. Every thing is
+included that could be gathered from European as well as American
+papers, touching the claims of the inventors and projectors of the
+electric telegraph in general, and of the Atlantic Telegraph in
+particular. The historical sketches are set off by illustrations taken
+from the pictorial papers. Altogether it embraces more of the materials
+of a history of this subject than any other volume with which we are
+acquainted, and well deserves the title prefixed to it by the laborious
+compiler:
+
+"THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.--Its Origin and History, with an Account of the
+Voyages of the Steamers Niagara and Agamemnon, in Laying the Cable, and
+of the Celebration of the Great Event in New York, Philadelphia,
+Brooklyn, Montreal, Dublin, Paris, etc.; together with the Discussions,
+Sermons, Poetry, and Anecdotes relating thereto; also, a History of the
+Invention of the Electric Telegraph. Illustrated with Maps, Plans,
+Views, and Portraits, collected from the Newspapers of the Day, and
+arranged by John Russell Bartlett. 1858."
+
+[B] The history of this despatch is curious. Though dated at London, it
+was sent from a small town in Ireland. The directors were on their way
+from Dublin to Valentia, on the morning of the first of September, when
+Mr. Saward remarked: "This is the day of the celebration in New York--we
+ought to send a despatch to Mr. Field." Accordingly, at the first
+stopping-place (Mallow Station) the message was written, and forwarded
+to Valentia, and thence sent across the Atlantic. It was put into Mr.
+Field's hand as he was getting into his carriage on the Battery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+DID THE FIRST CABLE EVER WORK?
+
+
+The Atlantic cable was dead! That word fell heavy as a stone on the
+hearts of those who had staked so much upon it. What a bitter
+disappointment to their hopes! In all the experience of life there are
+no sadder moments than those in which, after years of anxious toil,
+striving for a great object, and after one glorious hour of triumph, the
+achievement that seemed complete becomes a total wreck. Vain is all
+human toil and endeavor. The years thus spent are fled away; the labor
+that was to have brought such a reward of "riches and honor," is lost;
+and the prolonged tension of the mind by the excitement of hope and
+ambition, and the temporary success, reacts to plunge it into a deeper
+depression. So was it here. Years of labor and millions of capital were
+swept away in an hour into the bosom of the pitiless sea.
+
+Of course the reaction of the public mind was very great. As its elation
+had been so extravagant before, it was now silent and almost sullen.
+People were ashamed of their late enthusiasm, and disposed to revenge
+themselves on those who had been the objects of their idolatry. It is
+instructive to read the papers of the day. As soon as it was evident
+that the Atlantic cable was a dead lion, many hastened to give it a
+parting kick. There was no longer any dispute as to who was the author
+of the great achievement. Rival claimants quietly withdrew from the
+field, content to leave him alone in his glory.
+
+Many explanations were offered of this sudden suspension of life. One
+writer argued that the Telegraphic Plateau was only a myth; that the
+bottom of the ocean was jagged and precipitous; that the cable passed
+over lofty mountain chains, and hung suspended from the peaks of
+submarine Alps, till it broke and fell into the tremendous depths below.
+
+But others found a readier explanation. With the natural tendency of a
+popular excitement to rush from one extreme to the other, many now
+believed that the whole thing was an imposition on public credulity, a
+sort of "Moon hoax." An elaborate article appeared in a Boston paper,
+headed with the alarming question, "Was the Atlantic cable a humbug?"
+wherein the writer argued through several columns that it was a huge
+deception. A writer in an English paper also made merry of the
+celebration in Dublin, where a banquet was given to Sir Charles Bright,
+in an article bearing the ominous title: "Very like a whale!" This
+writer proved not only that the Atlantic cable was never laid, but that
+such a thing was mathematically impossible. But since he turned out to
+be a crazy fellow, whom the police had to take into custody, his
+"demonstrations" did not make much impression on the public. The
+difficulty of finding a motive for the perpetration of such a stupendous
+fraud, did not at all embarrass these ingenious writers. Was it not
+enough to make the world stare? to furnish something to the gaping
+crowd, even though it were but a nine days' wonder? Those who thus
+reasoned seemed not to reflect that such deceptions are always sure to
+be found out; that one who goes up like a rocket comes down like a
+stick; and that if by false means he has made himself an object of
+popular idolatry, he is likely to become the object of popular
+indignation.
+
+But others there were--sharp, shrewd men--who thought they could see
+through a mill-stone farther than their neighbors, who shook their heads
+with a knowing air, and said: "It was all a stock speculation." One
+writer stepped before the public with this solemn inquiry: "Now that the
+great cable glorification is over, we should like to ask one question:
+How many shares of his stock did Mr. Field sell during the month of
+August?" This he evidently thought was a question which could not be
+answered, except by acknowledging a great imposition on the public. If
+this brilliant inquirer after truth really desired to be informed, we
+could have referred him to Messrs. George Peabody & Co., of London, with
+whom was deposited all of Mr. Field's stock at the time, and who,
+during that memorable month of August, sold _just one share_, and that
+at a price below the par value, which had been paid by Mr. Field
+himself. Whether this was an object sufficiently great to set two
+hemispheres in a blaze, we leave him to judge.
+
+To those who have followed this narrative, all these conjectures and
+suspicions will appear very absurd. The personal reflections of course
+deserved and received only the contempt with which a man of character
+always scorns an imputation on his personal honor. But while these
+anonymous scribblers might be despised, many honest people not disposed
+to think evil were sorely perplexed. That the cable should continue to
+work for three or four weeks, _and then stop the very day of the
+celebration_, was certainly a singular, if not a suspicious
+circumstance; and it was not to be wondered at that it should excite a
+painful feeling of doubt. The distrust is quite natural, and ought not
+to be matter either of offence or surprise. On the contrary, those who
+are fully satisfied of the facts, ought rather to be glad of the
+opportunity which such questions afford, to present the amplest
+vindication.
+
+To relieve all doubts, it is only necessary to give a very brief history
+of the working of the Atlantic cable. It was landed on both sides of the
+ocean on the fifth of August. The last recorded message passed over it
+on the first of September, one day short of four weeks. Within that
+time there were sent exactly four hundred messages, of which two hundred
+and seventy-one were from Newfoundland to Ireland, and one hundred and
+twenty-nine from Ireland to Newfoundland. Of these, the greater part
+were merely between the operators themselves, respecting the adjustment
+of instruments, and working the telegraph, which, while they furnished
+decisive evidence _to them_, were of no force to the public. Of course
+an operator, working with a battery on the shore at Valentia, or at
+Trinity Bay, watching his instrument, and seeing the little tongue of
+light reflected from the moving mirror of the galvanometer, needed no
+other evidence of an electric current that had passed through the cable.
+He _saw_ it, and knew, as if he saw the flash of a gun on the coast of
+Ireland, that it was a light which had come from beyond the sea. But
+these private assurances were nothing to the outside world. What they
+needed was _public_ messages, conveying news from one hemisphere to the
+other. Of these, there were not a great number, for obvious reasons. The
+cable, during the four weeks of its existence, never worked
+_perfectly_--that is, as a land line works, transmitting messages freely
+and rapidly, and with perfect accuracy. It was subject to frequent
+interruptions for reasons which may satisfy any one that the wonder is,
+not that it did so little, but that it did so much.
+
+1st. To begin with, the cable was not constructed in the most perfect
+manner. Its makers, though the best then in the world, had had but
+little experience in making deep-sea cables. No line over three hundred
+miles long had ever been laid. 2d. It had been made more than a year
+before. After it was finished, part of it had been coiled out of doors,
+where it was exposed to a burning sun, by which, as was afterward found,
+the gutta-percha had been melted in many places till the insulation was
+nearly destroyed. 3d. It had been put on board the ships in 1857, and
+after the first failure, had been taken out and coiled on the dock at
+Plymouth, and then re-shipped in 1858. Thus it had been twisted and
+untwisted, some portions of it as many as ten times. Then the Agamemnon
+was so shaken in the terrible gale of June, that the cable on board of
+her was seriously injured, and some portions were cut out and condemned.
+Taking all these things together, the wonder is, not that the cable
+failed after a month, but that it ever worked at all!
+
+Owing to this impaired state of the cable, it did _not_ work perfectly.
+Probably it would not have worked at all with ordinary instruments. But
+the galvanometer of Professor Thomson, that instrument of marvellous
+delicacy, drew faint whispers from its muttering lips. Signals came and
+went, which showed that the electric current passed from shore to shore,
+and gave promise that with delicate handling it could be taught to speak
+plainly. But for the present it spoke slowly and with difficulty. It
+often took hours to get through a single despatch of any length. Witness
+the delay in transmitting the Queen's message! These frequent
+interruptions were ascribed to various causes. Sometimes it was
+earth-currents; at others, a thunderstorm was raging. Thus, on the
+morning of Thursday, the twenty-sixth of August, there was a violent
+storm in Newfoundland, heavy rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning.
+At three o'clock, the lightning was so intense that for an hour and a
+half the end of the cable had to be put to the earth for protection.
+After that the storm cleared away, and at seven o'clock the weather was
+reported as very fine. But aside from these local and temporary causes,
+the real difficulty was in the cable itself, whose insulation had been
+fatally impaired, and which was now wearing out its life on the rocks of
+the sea. These causes made its speech difficult and broken. Yet
+sometimes it flashed up with sudden power. In one case, a message was
+sent from the office at Trinity Bay to Ireland and an answer received
+back in two minutes! Such incidents excited the liveliest hopes that all
+difficulties would be speedily overcome, and justified the messages
+which were sent to the New York papers from day to day, that the
+instruments were being adjusted, by which it was expected that the line
+would soon be put in perfect working order, and be thrown open to the
+public. But these flashes of light proved to be only the flickering of
+the flame, that was soon to be extinguished in the eternal darkness of
+the waters.
+
+But the question which perplexed not only skeptics, but the truest
+friends, was not whether the cable worked fast or slow, _but whether it
+ever worked at all_. Happily, this is a question which can easily be
+settled, since it is one simply of facts and dates, which can be
+ascertained by referring to the files of the English and American
+papers. Of course the only proof must be in messages containing _news_.
+Mere congratulations between the Queen and the President, or the Mayor
+of New York and the Mayor of London, prove nothing, for these might have
+been prepared beforehand, if we suppose a design to impose on the
+credulity of the public. But the decisive test is this: Was there at any
+time within that month published in the English or American journals
+_news_ which could not be matter of guess or conjecture, and within a
+time too short for its possible transmission in any other way? If this
+can be proved beyond all doubt, even in a few instances, the question is
+decided, for the argument is just as strong with a dozen cases as with a
+thousand. We give, therefore, a few dates, the accuracy of which can be
+tested by any one who will take the trouble to examine the English and
+American papers:
+
+On Saturday, the fourteenth of August, the steamships Arabia and
+Europa, the former bound for New York and the latter for Liverpool, came
+into collision off Cape Race. The accident was not known in New York
+until Tuesday, the seventeenth, since it could not be telegraphed till
+the Arabia reached Halifax or the Europa St. John's, into which port she
+put for repairs. As soon as the news reached New York, the agent of the
+Company, Mr. Nimmo (Mr. Cunard himself being then in England), at once
+prepared a despatch to be sent to relieve immediate anxiety. This was
+not forwarded to Newfoundland, as peremptory orders had been given not
+to transmit any private business messages to go through the cable until
+the line was fully open to the public. But the next day Mr. Field
+arrived in New York, and Mr. Nimmo applied to him. Seeing the urgency of
+the case, he ordered it to be forwarded. It was accordingly sent, and
+arrived in London on the twentieth, giving the first news that was
+received of the accident. This was repeatedly stated by the late Sir
+Samuel Cunard, of London, and confirmed by his son Mr. Edward Cunard, of
+New York. The message was published in the London papers of the
+twenty-first, as follows:
+
+     "Arabia in collision with Europa, Cape Race, Saturday. Arabia
+     on her way. Head slightly injured. Europa lost bowsprit,
+     cutwater stem sprung. Will remain in St. John's ten days from
+     sixteenth. Persia calls at St. John's for mails and passengers.
+     No loss of life or limb."
+
+This first news message was not only a very decisive one as to the fact
+of telegraphic communication, but one which showed the relief given by
+speedy knowledge in dispelling doubt and fear. Mr. William E. Dodge, of
+New York, says: "I was in Liverpool at the time, and expecting friends
+by the Europa. Any delay in the arrival of the ship would have caused
+great anxiety. But one morning, on going down to the Exchange, we saw
+posted up this despatch received the night before by the Atlantic
+Telegraph. All then said, if the cable never did any thing more, it had
+fully repaid its cost." Well may he add with devout feeling: "It seemed
+as if Divine Providence had permitted the event, to furnish a testimony
+which could not be denied, to the reality and the benefit of this new
+means of communication between the two continents."
+
+Passing over all the messages exchanged between the operators at the
+stations, the congratulations of Queen and President, and of the Mayors
+of New York and London, we come to another news despatch. August
+twenty-fifth, Newfoundland reports to Valentia:
+
+     "Persia takes Europa's passengers and mails. Great rejoicing
+     everywhere at success of cable. Bonfires, fireworks, _feux de
+     joie_, speeches, balls, etc. _Mr. Eddy, the first and best
+     telegrapher in the States, died to-day._ Pray give some news
+     for New York; they are mad for news."
+
+This despatch the writer, who was then in Europe, read first in the
+London Times. The item which arrested his attention was the death of
+Mr. Eddy, as he had some acquaintance with that gentleman.
+
+That the news must have come by cable, is clearly shown by an
+examination of dates. He died suddenly, at Burlington, Vermont, Monday,
+August twenty-third, 1858, at ten o'clock fifteen minutes A.M. The exact
+day and hour we learned from his widow, who after his death lived in
+Brooklyn. The news was telegraphed to New York, and from there sent to
+Trinity Bay, which it reached the following day, and from which it was
+forwarded to Valentia, and appeared in the London Times Wednesday
+morning. Thus not forty-eight hours elapsed after he breathed his last,
+before it was published in England. If any one wishes to see the
+despatch, he will find a file of The Times in the Astor Library.
+
+But here appears a slight discrepancy, that, however, when examined,
+furnishes double proof. The despatch is dated August twenty-fifth, and
+says Mr. Eddy died _to-day_, and yet it is published in the London Times
+of the same date! How is this? It was sent between nine and ten o'clock
+at night of the twenty-fourth, when the operator at Heart's Content
+would say _this day_ of a piece of news just received, but in affixing
+the date, he was governed _by Greenwich time_, which made it more than
+three hours later. Accordingly it was published in The Times, dated
+August twenty-fifth, fifty-three minutes past twelve A.M.!
+
+Those who argued for the theory of collusion and deception, must have
+been embarrassed by this unexpected intelligence appearing in London,
+which could only be explained as a false report, unless (more wonderful
+still!) Mr. Eddy had entered into the plot, and sent the message
+beforehand, and then offered himself as a sacrifice, to prove it
+correct!
+
+To the demand for news in the above despatch, a reply was at once
+returned: "Sent to London for news." And later the same day came the
+following:
+
+     "North American with Canadian, and the Asia with direct Boston
+     mails, leave Liverpool, and Fulton, Southampton, Saturday next.
+     To-day's morning papers have long, interesting reports by
+     Bright. Indian news. Virago arrived at Liverpool to-day; Bombay
+     dates nineteenth July. Mutiny being rapidly quelled."
+
+A despatch of the same date, August twenty-fifth, also announces peace
+with China. The whole was received at Trinity Bay about nine o'clock
+P.M., and would have been sent on at once to New York, but that the land
+lines in Nova Scotia were closed at that hour. It was sent the next
+morning, and appeared in the evening papers of the twenty-sixth.
+
+By referring again to the London Times, the reader will see that the
+news from China was published in London on the twenty-third of August.
+It was there given as _unexpected news_, so that it could not have been
+a shrewd guess on the part of anybody either in England or America. It
+took the public by surprise, both for the news itself and _for the way
+in which it came_--which was not by India and the Red Sea, but by St.
+Petersburg, where it arrived on the twenty-first, having been brought
+overland by a courier to Prince Gortchakoff. From there it was
+telegraphed to the Government at Paris, and thence to London. The Times
+comments on this roundabout way in which intelligence so important
+reached England. Yet this news, so unlooked for, announced in London
+only on the morning of the twenty-third of August, was published in New
+York on the twenty-sixth.
+
+August twenty-seventh, comes a still longer despatch, which we give in
+full:
+
+     "George Saward, Secretary Atlantic Telegraph Company, to
+     Associated Press, New York. News for America by Atlantic cable.
+     Emperor of France returned to Paris, Saturday. King of Prussia
+     too ill to visit Queen Victoria. Her Majesty returns to England
+     thirtieth of August.--St. Petersburg, twenty-first of August.
+     Settlement of Chinese question. Chinese empire opened to trade;
+     Christian religion allowed; foreign diplomatic agents admitted;
+     indemnity to England and France.--Alexandria, August ninth. The
+     Madras arrived at Suez seventh inst. Dates Bombay to the
+     nineteenth; Aden, thirty-first. Gwalior insurgent army broken
+     up. All India becoming tranquil."
+
+This despatch embodies about a dozen distinct items of news, not one of
+which could be known without a telegraphic communication. The whole was
+received in New York, and published in the evening papers _the same
+day_.
+
+Not to be outdone in giving news, the next day, Saturday, August
+twenty-eighth, Newfoundland thus replies to Valentia:
+
+     "To the Directors: Take news first, Saward. Sir William
+     Williams, of Kars, arrived Halifax Tuesday. Enthusiastically
+     received. Immense procession--welcome address--feeling reply.
+     Held levee--large number presented. Niagara sailed for
+     Liverpool at one this morning. The Gorgon arrived at Halifax
+     last night. Yellow fever in New Orleans, sixty to seventy
+     deaths per day. Also declared epidemic, Charleston. Great
+     preparations in New York and other places for celebration, to
+     be held the first and second of September. New Yorkers will
+     make it the greatest gala-day ever known in this country.
+     Hermann sailed for Fraser's River; six hundred passengers.
+     Prince Albert sailed yesterday for Galway. Arabia and Ariel
+     arrived New York; Anglo Saxon, Quebec; Canada, Boston. Europa
+     left St. John's this morning. Splendid aurora Bay of Bulls
+     to-night, extending over eighty-five degrees of the horizon."
+
+Let any one read this despatch, sentence by sentence, noting the
+minuteness of the details--which could not be known or conjectured--such
+as the appearance of yellow fever at New Orleans, with the number of
+deaths a day; the sailing or arrival of seven steamers; the number of
+passengers for Fraser's River, etc.--and then examine the London Times,
+in which all these items appeared Monday morning, August thirtieth, and
+if he does not admit that collusion or deception is out of the question,
+no amount of evidence could convince him.
+
+We will give but one proof more. On the last day of August, the day
+before the cable ceased to work, Valentia sent to Newfoundland two
+messages for the British Government, both signed by "the Military
+Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief, Horse Guards, London," and
+addressed--the first to General Trollope, Halifax, which said, "The
+Sixty-second regiment is not to return to England;" and the other to the
+General Officer commanding at Montreal, saying: "The Thirty-ninth
+regiment is not to return to England." The year before (1857) had
+witnessed the Sepoy Mutiny, which threatened the overthrow of the
+British Empire in India. The fighting was over, but the country was
+still agitated, and the Home Government in fear that the rebellion might
+be renewed, so that it continued to send forward fresh troops. It had
+sent out orders by mail for these two regiments to embark immediately
+for home, to be sent to India. But the mutiny being nearly suppressed,
+this was found not to be necessary, and the prompt countermanding of the
+order by telegraph saved the British Government, in the cost of
+transportation of troops, not less than fifty thousand pounds. The
+despatch to Halifax was received the same day that it was sent from
+London. The sending of this despatch, and its almost immediate
+reception, is attested by an official letter from the War Office in
+London.
+
+This array of proofs of what took place a quarter of a century ago, may
+seem superfluous now that experience has made despatches from the other
+side of the ocean one of the familiar things of our daily life. And yet
+at that date the achievement was so stupendous, and, as some thought, in
+its very nature so incredible, that men of the greatest intelligence
+could not be convinced. The late Mr. Charles O'Conor continued for years
+to quote the fact that some men believed that a message had actually
+passed across the Atlantic as the most amazing illustration of human
+credulity! Happily he lived to see and to appreciate to its full value
+this latest miracle of scientific discovery, applied by human genius and
+skill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+CAST DOWN, BUT NOT IN DESPAIR.
+
+
+It takes a long time to recover from a great disaster. When at last the
+friends of the Atlantic Telegraph were obliged to confess that the cable
+had ceased to work; when all the efforts of the electricians failed to
+draw more than a few faint whispers, a dying gasp, from the depths of
+the sea, there ensued in the public mind a feeling of profound
+discouragement. For a time this paralyzed all effort to revive the
+Company and to renew the enterprise. And yet the feeling, though
+natural, was extreme. If they had not done all they attempted, they had
+accomplished much. They had at least demonstrated the possibility of
+laying a cable across the Atlantic Ocean, and of sending messages
+through it. This alone was no small triumph. So men reasoned when sober
+reflection returned, and at length the tide of public confidence, which
+had ebbed so strongly, began to reflow, and once more to creep up the
+shores of England.
+
+But when a great enterprise has been overthrown, and lies prostrate on
+the earth, the first impulse of its friends is to call on Cæsar for
+help. So the first appeal of the Atlantic Telegraph Company was to the
+British Government. It was claimed, and with reason, that the work was
+too great to be undertaken by private capital alone. It was a matter,
+not of private speculation, but of public and national concern. It was,
+therefore, an object which might justly be undertaken by a powerful
+government, in the interest of science and of civilization.
+
+To raise capital for a new cable, it was necessary to have some better
+security than the hazards of a vast and doubtful undertaking. Hence the
+Company asked the Government to guarantee the interest on a certain
+amount of stock, even if the second attempt should not prove a success.
+With such a guarantee, the capital could be raised in London in a day.
+
+In this application they might have been successful, but for an untoward
+event, which dampened the confidence of the public in all submarine
+enterprises--the failure of the Red Sea Telegraph. The British
+Government, anxious to forward communication with India, had given that
+Company an unconditional guarantee, on the strength of which the capital
+was raised, and the cable manufactured and laid. But in a short time it
+ceased to work, a loss which the treasury of Great Britain had to make
+good. To the public, which did not understand the cause of the failure
+to be the imperfect construction of the cable, the effect was to impair
+confidence in all long submarine telegraphs. Of course, after such an
+experience, the Government was not disposed to bind itself by such
+pledges again. It was, however, ready to aid the enterprise by any safe
+means. It therefore increased its subsidy from fourteen thousand pounds
+to twenty thousand pounds; and guaranteed eight per cent on six hundred
+thousand pounds of new capital for twenty-five years, with only one
+condition--_that the cable should work_. This was a liberal grant, and
+under the circumstances, was all that could be expected.
+
+Still further to encourage the undertaking, it ordered new soundings to
+be taken off the coast of Ireland. These were made by Captain Hoskins,
+of the Royal Navy, and dispelled the fears which had been entertained of
+a submarine mountain, which would prove an impassable barrier in the
+path of an ocean telegraph.
+
+But the greatest service which the British Government rendered, was in
+the long course of experiments which it now ordered, to determine all
+the difficult problems of submarine telegraphy. In 1859, the year after
+the failure of the first Atlantic cable, the Board of Trade appointed a
+committee of the most eminent scientific and engineering authorities in
+Great Britain to investigate the whole subject. This was composed of
+Captain Douglas Galton, of the Royal Engineers, then of the War Office,
+who represented the Government; Professor Wheatstone, the celebrated
+electrician; William Fairbairn, President of the British Association
+for the Advancement of Science; George Parker Bidder, whose name ranks
+with those of Stephenson and Brunel; C. F. Varley, who, in the practical
+working of telegraphs, had no superior in England; Latimer Clark and
+Edwin Clark, both engineers, who had had great experience in the
+business of telegraphing; and George Saward, the Secretary of the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company.
+
+This Committee sat for nearly two years, at the end of which it made a
+report to the Government, which fills a very large volume, in which are
+detailed an immense number of experiments, touching the form and size of
+cables, their relative strength and flexibility, the power of
+telegraphing at long distances, the speed at which messages could be
+sent; and in fine, every possible question, either as to the electrical
+or engineering difficulties to be overcome. The result of these manifold
+and laborious experiments is summed up in the following certificate,
+signed by all who had taken part in this memorable investigation:
+
+                              "London, 13th July, 1863.
+
+     "We, the undersigned, members of the Committee, who were
+     appointed by the Board of Trade, in 1859, to investigate the
+     question of submarine telegraphy, and whose investigation
+     continued from that time to April, 1861, do hereby state, as
+     the result of our deliberations, that a well-insulated cable,
+     properly protected, of suitable specific gravity, made with
+     care, and tested under water throughout its progress with the
+     best known apparatus, and paid into the ocean with the most
+     improved machinery, possesses every prospect of not only being
+     successfully laid in the first instance, but may reasonably be
+     relied upon to continue for many years in an efficient state
+     for the transmission of signals.
+
+                              Douglas Galton,
+                              C. Wheatstone,
+                              Wm. Fairbairn,
+                              Geo. P. Bidder,
+                              Cromwell F. Varley,
+                              Latimer Clark,
+                              Edwin Clark,
+                              Geo. Saward."
+
+Thus the years which followed the failure of 1858--though they saw no
+attempt to lay another ocean cable--were not years of idleness. They
+were rather years of experiment and of preparation, clearing the way for
+new efforts and final victory. The Atlantic Telegraph itself had been a
+grand experiment. It had taught many important truths which could be
+learned in no other way. Not only had it demonstrated the possibility of
+telegraphing from continent to continent, but it had been useful even in
+exposing its own defects, as it taught how to avoid them in the future.
+
+For example, in working the first cable, the electricians had thought it
+necessary to use a very strong battery. They did not suppose they could
+reach across the whole breadth of the Atlantic, and touch the Western
+hemisphere, unless they sent an electric current that was almost like a
+stroke of lightning; and that, in fact, endangered the safety of the
+conducting wire. But they soon found that this was unnecessary. God was
+not in the whirlwind, but in the still, small voice. A soft touch could
+send a thrill along that iron nerve. It seemed as if the deep were a
+vast whispering gallery, and that a gentle voice murmured in the ocean
+caves, like a whisper in a sea-shell, might be caught, so wonderful are
+the harmonies of nature, by listening ears on remote continents; a
+miracle of science, that could give a literal meaning to Milton's
+
+     "Airy tongues, that syllable men's names
+     On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses."
+
+These were also years of great progress, not only in the science of
+submarine telegraphy, but in the construction of deep-sea cables. In
+spite of the failure of that in the Red Sea, one was laid down in the
+Mediterranean, 1,535 miles long, from Malta to Alexandria, and another
+in the Persian Gulf, 1,400 miles long, by which telegraphic
+communication was finally opened from England to India. Others were laid
+in different seas and oceans in distant parts of the world. These great
+triumphs, following the scientific experiments which had been made,
+revived public confidence, and prepared the way for a fresh attempt to
+pass the Atlantic.
+
+Yet not much was done to renew the enterprise until 1862. Mr. Field had
+been indefatigable in his efforts to reanimate the Company. He was
+continually going back and forth to the British Provinces and to
+England, urging it wherever his voice could be heard. Yet times were
+adverse. The United States had been suddenly involved in a tremendous
+war, which called into the field hundreds of thousands of men, and
+entailed a burden of many hundreds of millions. While engaged in this
+life-and-death struggle, and rolling up a mountain of debt, our people
+had little thought to bestow on great enterprises by land or sea.
+
+And yet one incident of the war forcibly recalled public attention to
+the necessity of some speedier communication with Europe than by steam.
+The unhappy Trent affair aroused an angry feeling in Great Britain which
+nearly resulted in hostilities, all of which might have been prevented
+by a single word of explanation. As The Times said truly: "We nearly
+went to war with America because we had not a telegraph across the
+Atlantic." After such a warning, it was natural that both countries
+should begin to think seriously of the means of preventing future
+misunderstanding. Mr. Field went to Washington, and found great
+readiness on the part of the President and his Cabinet to encourage the
+enterprise. Mr. Seward wrote to our Minister in London that the American
+Government would be happy to join with that of Great Britain in
+promoting this international work. With this encouragement, Mr. Field
+went to England to urge the Company to renew the undertaking. While in
+London, he endeavored to obtain from some responsible parties an offer
+to construct and lay down a cable. Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co., replied,
+declaring their willingness to undertake the work, without at first
+naming the precise terms. They wrote to him under date of February
+seventeenth:
+
+     "Sir: In reply to your inquiries, we beg to state that we
+     should not be willing to manufacture and lay a Submarine
+     Telegraph Cable across the Atlantic, from Ireland to
+     Newfoundland, assuming the entire risk, as we consider that
+     would be too great a responsibility for any single firm to
+     undertake; but we are so confident that these points can be
+     connected by a good and durable cable, that we are willing to
+     contract to do the work, and stake a large sum upon its
+     successful laying and working.
+
+     "We shall be prepared in a few days, as soon as we can get the
+     necessary information in regard to what price we can charter
+     suitable ships for the service, to make you a definite offer."
+
+Although it is anticipating a few months in time, we may give here the
+"definite offer," which was obtained by Mr. Field, on his return to
+England in the autumn:
+
+                              "London, October 20, 1862.
+
+     "_Cyrus W. Field, Esq., Atlantic Telegraph Company_:
+
+     "Dear Sir: In reply to your inquiries, we beg to state, that we
+     are perfectly confident that a good and durable Submarine Cable
+     can be laid from Ireland to Newfoundland, and are willing to
+     undertake the contract upon the following conditions:
+
+     "First. That we shall be paid each week our actual
+     disbursements for labor and material.
+
+     "Second. That when the cable is laid and in working order, we
+     shall receive for our time, services, and profit twenty per
+     cent on the actual cost of the line, in shares of the Company,
+     deliverable to us, in twelve equal monthly instalments, at the
+     end of each successive month whereat the cable shall be found
+     in working order.
+
+     "We are so confident that this enterprise can be successfully
+     carried out, that we will make a cash subscription for a sum of
+     twenty-five thousand pounds sterling in the ordinary capital of
+     the Company, and pay the calls on the same when made by the
+     Company.
+
+     "Annexed we beg to hand you, for your guidance, a list of all
+     the submarine telegraph cables manufactured and laid by our
+     firm since we commenced this branch of our business, the whole
+     mileage of which, with the exception of the short one between
+     Liverpool and Holyhead, which has been taken up, is at this
+     time in perfect and successful working order. The cable that we
+     had the honor to contract for and lay down for the French
+     Government, connecting France with Algeria, is submerged in
+     water of nearly equal depths to any we should have to encounter
+     between Ireland and Newfoundland.
+
+     "You will permit us to suggest that the shore ends of the
+     Atlantic Cable should be composed of very heavy wires, as from
+     our experience the only accidents that have arisen to any of
+     the cables that we have laid have been caused by ships'
+     anchors, and none of those laid out of anchorage ground have
+     ever cost one shilling for repairs.
+
+     "The cable that we would suggest for the Atlantic will be an
+     improvement on all those yet manufactured, and we firmly
+     believe will be imperishable when once laid.
+
+     "We remain, sir, yours faithfully,
+
+                              "Glass, Elliot & Co."
+
+The summer of this year Mr. Field spent in America, where he applied
+himself vigorously to raise capital for the new enterprise. To this end
+he visited Boston, Providence, Philadelphia, Albany, and Buffalo--to
+address meetings of merchants and others. He used to amuse us with the
+account of his visit to the first city, where he was honored with the
+attendance of a large array of "the solid men of Boston," who listened
+with an attention that was most flattering to the pride of the speaker,
+addressing such an assemblage in the capital of his native State. There
+was no mistaking the interest they felt in the subject. They went still
+farther, they passed a series of resolutions, in which they applauded
+the projected telegraph across the ocean as one of the grandest
+enterprises ever undertaken by man, which they proudly commended to the
+confidence and support of the American public, after which they went
+home, feeling that they had done the generous thing in bestowing upon it
+such a mark of their approbation. _But not a man subscribed a dollar!_
+Yet it is not necessary to charge them with meanness or hypocrisy. No
+doubt they felt just what they said. They could not but admire the
+courage of their countryman. It was inspiring to hear him talk. Yet
+these solid men were never lifted off their feet so far as to forget the
+main chance. What were to be the returns for this magnificent adventure?
+Peering into the future, the prospect of dividends was very remote. In
+fact they looked upon the Atlantic Telegraph as a sort of South Sea
+Bubble, an airy fancy, which would go up like a balloon, never to return
+to earth again. So, like the high priest and the Levite, they passed by
+on the other side.
+
+Other cities were equally gracious, equally complimentary, but equally
+prudent. In New York he succeeded better, but only by indefatigable
+exertions. He addressed the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Brokers,
+and the Corn Exchange, and then he went almost literally from door to
+door, calling on merchants and bankers to enlist their aid. The result
+was, subscriptions amounting to about seventy thousand pounds, the whole
+of which was due to persevering personal solicitation. Even of those who
+subscribed, a large part did so more from sympathy and admiration of his
+indomitable spirit than from confidence in the success of the
+enterprise.
+
+In England, however, the subject was better understood. For obvious
+reasons, the science of submarine telegraphy had made greater advances
+in that country than in ours. As England is an island, she is obliged to
+hold all her telegraphic communication with the continent by cables
+under the sea. She has colonial possessions in all parts of the world. A
+power that rules so large a part of the earth cannot be shut up in her
+island home. No one has depicted the extent of her dominion in nobler
+phrase than our own Webster when he speaks of the imperial sway which
+"has dotted the face of the whole globe with its possessions and
+military posts, whose morning drumbeat, following the sun and keeping
+company with the hours, encircles the whole earth with one continuous
+and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." Was it strange that
+this mother of nations should reach out her long arms to embrace her
+distant children?
+
+Hence it was that the subject of submarine telegraphs was so much better
+understood in England than in America, not only by scientific men, but
+by capitalists. The appeal could be made to them with more assurance of
+intelligent sympathy. And yet so vast was the undertaking, that it
+required ceaseless effort to roll the stone to the top of the mountain,
+and the result was not completely achieved till the beginning of the
+year 1864.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE EXPEDITION OF 1865.
+
+
+It is a long night which has no morning. At last the day is breaking.
+While weary eyes are watching the East, daylight comes over the sea.
+Five years have passed away, and though the time seemed long as an
+Arctic winter, that only made more bright the rising of the sun. Those
+years of patient experiment, when scientific men were applying tests
+without number, and submarine lines were feeling their way along the
+deep-sea floor in all the waters of the world, at last brought forth
+their fruit in that renewed confidence which is the forerunner of
+victory.
+
+So strong was this feeling, that as early as August, 1863, although the
+capital was not raised, the Board advertised for proposals for a cable
+suitable to be laid across the Atlantic Ocean; and in order to leave
+invention entirely unfettered, abstained from any dictation as to the
+form or materials to be adopted, merely stipulating for a working speed
+of eight words a minute.
+
+To this request they received, in the course of a few weeks, seventeen
+different proposals from as many companies, many of them firms of large
+wealth and experience. These different tenders, with the numerous
+specimens of cable and materials, were at once submitted to a Consulting
+Committee composed in part of members of the Committee which had already
+rendered such service by its advice. It consisted of Captain Douglas
+Galton, William Fairbairn, Professor C. Wheatstone, William Whitworth
+and Professor William Thomson. There were no more distinguished
+engineers and electricians in the world. They examined all the
+proposals, and then, taking up one by one the different samples of
+cable, caused them in turn to be subjected to the severest tests. This
+took a long time, as it required a great number of experiments; but the
+result was highly satisfactory. The Committee were all of one mind, and
+recommended unanimously that the Board should accept the tender of
+Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co., and the general principle of their proposed
+cable; but advised that before settling the final specification, every
+portion of the material to be employed should be tested with the
+greatest care, both separately and in combination, so as to ascertain
+what further improvements could be made. To this the manufacturers
+readily consented, feeling a noble ambition to justify the confidence of
+the Committee and the public. They provided abundant materials for fresh
+experiments. New cables were made and tested in different lengths; and
+experiments were also tried upon different qualities of wire and hemp,
+that were to compose its external protection. The result of all these
+investigations was the selection of a model which seemed to combine
+every excellence, and to approach absolute perfection.
+
+Such was the cable which this eminent firm offered to manufacture, and
+to lay across the Atlantic, and that on terms so favorable, that it
+seemed as if it could not be difficult to raise the capital and proceed
+with the work. Indeed, a contract was partially made to that effect. So
+confident was Mr. Field, who was then in London, that an expedition
+would sail the following summer, that he insured his stock, part of it
+only against ordinary sea-risks, but part also to be laid and to work!
+But hardly had he left England before there was some unforeseen hitch in
+the arrangements, the money was not forthcoming, or some of the
+conditions were not complied with, and he had the mortification to
+receive letters, saying that the whole enterprise was postponed for
+another year!
+
+This was indeed discouraging. Yet this sudden dropping of the scheme did
+not imply a loss of interest or of faith on the part of those embarked
+in it. They believed in it as much as ever. But the general public did
+not respond to the call for more capital. Alas that the noblest
+enterprises should so often be delayed or defeated by the want of money!
+Capital is always cautious and timid, and follows slowly in the path of
+great discoveries. If Columbus, instead of the patronage of a Queen full
+of womanly enthusiasm, had depended on a stock company for the means for
+his expedition, he might never have sailed from the shores of Spain.
+Happy was it for mankind that his faith and patience did not wear out,
+while going from court to court, and kingdom to kingdom, and almost
+begging his way from door to door!
+
+But it is not in human nature--least of all in American nature--to
+despond long. Though ten years of constant defeat would seem to have
+wrought a lasting discouragement, yet again and again did the baffled
+spirit of enterprise return to the attempt. In January, 1864, Mr. Field
+was once more on his way to England. He found the Directors, as before,
+deeply interested in the enterprise, and wishing it success. With a
+grateful heart he bore witness to their unfaltering courage. But mere
+courage and good wishes would not lay the Atlantic Telegraph. Yet what
+could they do? They could not be expected to advance all the capital
+themselves. They had already subscribed liberally, and he could not ask
+them to do more. But with all the efforts that had been made in England
+and America, not half the capital was yet raised. The machinery was in a
+dead lock, with little prospect of being able to move. It was the
+misfortune of the enterprise that there was no one man who made it his
+sole and exclusive charge. The Board of Directors contained some of the
+best men in London. But they were, almost without exception, engaged in
+very large affairs of their own, with no leisure to make a public
+enterprise their special care. To insure success, it needed a trial of
+the one-man power--one brain, planning night and day; one agency
+incessantly at work, stirring up directors, contractors, and engineers;
+and one will pushing it forward by main strength. This was the force now
+to be applied.
+
+The first element needed to put life into the old system was an infusion
+of new blood--new capital and new men. While the enterprise was in this
+state of collapse, Mr. Field addressed himself to a gentleman with whom,
+until then, he had no personal acquaintance, but who was well known in
+London as one of the largest capitalists of Great Britain--Mr. Thomas
+Brassey. Their first interview was somewhat remarkable. Referring to it
+a few months after, Mr. Field said:
+
+     "When I arrived in this country, in January last, the Atlantic
+     Telegraph Company trembled in the balance. We were in want of
+     funds, and were in negotiations with the government, and making
+     great exertions to raise the money. At this juncture I was
+     introduced to a gentleman of great integrity and enterprise,
+     who is well known, not only for his wealth, but for his
+     foresight, and in attempting to enlist him in our cause he put
+     me through such a cross-examination as I had never before
+     experienced. I thought I was in the witness-box. He inquired
+     of me the practicability of the scheme--what it would pay, and
+     every thing else connected with it; but before I left him, I
+     had the pleasure of hearing him say that it was a great
+     national enterprise that ought to be carried out, and, he
+     added, I will be one of ten to find the money required for it.
+     From that day to this he has never hesitated about it, and when
+     I mention his name, you will know him as a man whose word is as
+     good as his bond, and as for his bond, there is no better in
+     England."
+
+Having thus secured one powerful ally, Mr. Field took courage in the
+hope to find another. He says:
+
+     "The words spoken by Mr. Brassey in the latter part of January,
+     'Let the Electric Telegraph be laid between England and
+     America,' encouraged us all, and made us believe we should
+     succeed in raising the necessary capital, and I then went to
+     work to find nine other Thomas Brasseys (I did not know whether
+     he was an Englishman, a Scotchman, or an Irishman; but I made
+     up my mind that he combined all the good qualities of every one
+     of them), and after considerable search I met with a rich
+     friend from Manchester, Mr. [now Sir] John Pender, and I asked
+     him if he would second Mr. Brassey, and walked with him from 28
+     Pall Mall to the House of Commons, of which he is a member.
+     Before we reached the House, he expressed his willingness to do
+     so to an equal amount."
+
+This was putting strong arms to the wheel. A few days after, a
+combination was formed to carry on the whole business of making
+Submarine Telegraphs, by a union of the Gutta-Percha Company with the
+firm of Glass, Elliot & Co., the principal manufacturers of sea cables,
+making one grand concern, to be called The Telegraph Construction and
+Maintenance Company. These two great capitalists entered into the new
+organization, of which Mr. Pender was made Chairman. The Gutta-Percha
+Company brought in still further strength to the joint enterprise, in
+the person of Mr. Willoughby Smith, their electrician, and of Mr. John
+Chatterton, the inventor of the insulating material known as
+Chatterton's Compound. The union of all these men made a combination of
+practical skill and financial ability, such as could be found in few
+companies in England or in the world. Mr. R. A. Glass was chosen
+Managing Director--a gentleman who seemed born to be a manager, such
+power had he of gathering about him talent in every department and
+combining all into one organization. Reënforced by such powerful aid,
+the new Company now came forward, and offered at one stroke to take all
+the remaining stock of the Company. This was more than half the whole
+capital. As yet, of the £600,000 required, but £285,000 had been
+subscribed. Now this princely Company offered to take the balance
+themselves--£315,000. They did more, they took £100,000 of bonds; and so
+by one dead lift these stalwart Englishmen took the whole enterprise on
+their broad shoulders. From that hour the problem was solved. Thus after
+a dead lock of six months the wheels were unloosed, and the gigantic
+machinery began to revolve.
+
+This was a triumph worthy to be honored in the way that Englishmen love,
+by a little festivity; and as it chanced to be now ten years since Mr.
+Field had embarked in the enterprise, the pleasant thought occurred to
+him of getting his friends together to celebrate the anniversary.
+Accordingly, on the fifteenth of March, he invited them to dine together
+at the Buckingham Palace Hotel. It was a joyous occasion, and called
+forth the usual amount of toasts and speeches. Of the latter, those of
+Mr. Adams, the American Minister, and of John Bright, were widely copied
+in the United States. The next day was the annual meeting of the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company, when the Chairman, the Right Hon. James
+Stuart Wortley, thus referred to the gathering of the night before:
+
+     "Without saying any thing to detract from my deep gratitude to
+     the other Directors, I cannot help especially alluding to Mr.
+     Cyrus Field, who is present to-day, and who has crossed the
+     Atlantic thirty-one times in the service of this Company,
+     having celebrated at his table yesterday the anniversary of the
+     tenth year of the day when he first left Boston in the service
+     of the Company. Collected round his table last night was a
+     company of distinguished men--members of Parliament, great
+     capitalists, distinguished merchants and manufacturers,
+     engineers and men of science, such as is rarely found together
+     even in the highest house in this great metropolis. It was very
+     agreeable to see an American citizen so surrounded. It was
+     still more gratifying, inasmuch as we were there to celebrate
+     the approaching accomplishment of the Atlantic Telegraph."
+
+This was a congratulation on an escape from death, for their cherished
+scheme had just passed through a critical period of its history. The
+enterprise had been in great danger of abandonment--at least for years,
+a peril from which it had been rescued only by the most prompt and
+vigorous effort.
+
+Thus after infinite toil, the wreck of old disasters was cleared away,
+and the mighty task begun anew. The works of the Telegraph Construction
+and Maintenance Company were the largest in the world, and all their
+resources were now put in requisition. Never did greater care preside
+over a public enterprise. It was a case in which the motive of interest
+was seconded or overborne by pride and ambition. A cable was to be made
+to span the Atlantic Ocean, and to join the hemispheres; and they were
+determined to produce a work that should be as nearly perfect as human
+skill could make it. The Scientific Committee, that had so long
+investigated the subject, had approved a particular form of cable, as
+"the one most calculated to insure success in the present state of our
+experimental knowledge respecting deep-sea cables," but at the same time
+recommended the utmost vigilance at every stage of the manufacture.
+These precautions deserve to be noted, as showing with what jealous care
+science watches over the birth of a great enterprise, and prescribes
+the conditions of success. They recommended:
+
+     That the conductivity of the wire should be fixed at a high
+     standard, certainly not less than eighty-five per cent; that
+     the cable should be at least equal to the best ever made; that
+     the core should be electrically perfect; that it should be
+     tested under hydraulic pressure, and at the highest pressure
+     attainable in the tanks at the Company's works; that after this
+     pressure, the core should be examined again, and before
+     receiving its outer covering, be required to pass the full
+     electrical test under water; that careful and frequent
+     mechanical tests be made upon the iron wire and hemp as to
+     their strength; that special care be given to the joints, where
+     different lengths of cable were spliced together; and that when
+     completed, the whole be tested under water for some length of
+     time, at a temperature of seventy-five degrees.
+
+This was higher by forty degrees than the temperature of the Atlantic.
+The insulation is improved by cold; so that, if it remained perfect in
+this warm water, it could not fail in the icy depths of the ocean.
+
+[Illustration: OLD ATLANTIC CABLE, 1858.]
+
+[Illustration: NEW ATLANTIC CABLE, 1865.]
+
+After passing through such elaborate tests, all will be glad to see the
+final product of so much care and skill. As the long line begins to reel
+off from the great wheels and drums, we may examine it in its completed
+and more perfect form. It is only necessary to compare it with the cable
+laid in 1858, to show its immense superiority. A glance at the two as
+they appear on the preceding page will show that the cable had _grown_
+since first it was planted in the ocean, as if it were a living product
+of the sea. This growth had been in every part, from core to
+circumference.
+
+First, the central copper wire, which was the spinal cord, the nerve
+along which the centre current was to run, was nearly three times as
+large as before. Prof. Thomson had long seen that this was a condition
+of success. While joining heartily in the attempts of 1857-58, he felt
+that an error was committed in the smallness of the cable; that the
+copper conductors and the gutta-percha covering should both be much
+larger. The old conductor was a strand consisting of seven fine wires,
+six laid round one, and weighed only one hundred and seven pounds to the
+mile. The new was composed of the same number of wires, but weighed
+three hundred pounds to the mile. As it was made of the finest copper
+that could be obtained in the world, it was a perfect conductor. Next,
+to secure insulation, it was first imbedded for solidity in Chatterton's
+compound, a preparation impervious to water, and then covered with four
+layers of gutta-percha, which were laid on alternately with four thin
+layers of Chatterton's compound. The old cable had but three coatings of
+gutta-percha, with nothing between. Its entire insulation weighed but
+two hundred and sixty-one pounds to the mile, while that of the new
+weighed four hundred pounds.
+
+But a conductor ever so perfect, with insulation complete, was useless
+without proper external protection, to guard it against the dangers
+which must attend the long and difficult process of laying it across the
+ocean. The old cable had broken a number of times. The new must be made
+stronger. To this end it was incased with ten solid wires of the best
+iron, or rather, of a soft steel, like that used in the making of
+Whitworth's cannon. This made the cable much heavier than before. The
+old cable weighed but twenty cwt. to the mile, while the new one reached
+thirty-five cwt. and three quarters. But mere size and weight were
+nothing, except as they indicated increased strength. This was secured,
+not only by the larger iron wires, but by a further coating of rope.
+Each wire was surrounded separately with five strands of Manilla yarn,
+saturated with a preservative compound, and the whole laid spirally
+round the core, which latter was padded with ordinary hemp, saturated
+with the same preservative mixture. This rope covering was important in
+several respects. It kept the wires from coming in contact with the salt
+water, by which they might be corroded; and while it added greatly to
+the strength of the cable, it gave it also its own flexibility--so that
+while it had the strength of an iron chain, it had also the lightness
+and flexibility of a common ship's rope. This union of two qualities was
+all-important. The great problem had been to combine strength with
+flexibility. Mere dead weight was an objection. The new cable, though
+nearly twice as heavy as the old in air, when immersed in water, weighed
+but a trifle more; so that it was really much lighter in proportion to
+its size. This increased lightness was a very important matter in laying
+the cable, as it caused it to sink slowly. The old cable, though
+smaller, was heavy almost as a rod of iron, so that, as it ran out, it
+dropped at an angle which exposed it to great danger in case of a sudden
+lurch of the ship. Thus in 1857 it was broken by the stern of the
+Niagara being thrown up on a wave just as the brakes were shut down. Now
+the cable, being partially buoyed by the rope, would float out to a
+great distance from the ship, and sink down slowly in the deep waters.
+
+By this combination of rope and iron, a cable was secured two and a
+half times as strong as the old--the breaking strain of the former
+having been three tons five cwt., and of the latter seven tons and
+fifteen cwt. Or, to put it in another form, the contract strain of the
+former was less than five times its own weight per mile in water; so
+that if the cable had been laid in some parts of the Atlantic, where the
+ocean is more than five miles deep, it would have broken under the
+enormous strain. But the contract strain of the new cable was equal to
+_eleven_ times its weight per mile in water, which, as the greatest
+depth of water to be passed was but two and a half miles, rendered the
+cable more than four times as strong as was required.
+
+This great chain which was to bind the sea was to be 2,300 nautical
+miles long, or nearly 2,700 statute miles! But where could this enormous
+bulk be stowed? Its weight would sink the Spanish Armada. In 1858, the
+cable loaded down two of the largest ships of war in the world, the
+Niagara and the Agamemnon. Yet now one much larger and bulkier was to be
+taken on board. This might have proved a serious embarrassment, but that
+a few years before there had been built in England a ship of enormous
+proportions. The Great Eastern, whose iron walls had been reared by the
+genius of Brunel, had been for ten years waiting for "a mission." As a
+specimen of marine architecture she was perfect. She walked the waters
+in towering pride, scarce bending her imperial head to the waves that
+broke against her sides, as against the rocks of the shore. But with all
+her noble qualities, she was too great for the ordinary demands of
+commerce. Her very size was against her; and while smaller ships, on
+which she looked down with contempt, were continually flying to and fro
+across the sea, this leviathan,
+
+     Hugest of all God's works
+     That swim the ocean stream,
+
+could find nothing worthy of her greatness. Here then was the vessel to
+receive the Atlantic cable.
+
+Seeing her fitness for the purpose, a few of the gentlemen who were
+active in reviving the Atlantic Telegraph combined to purchase her, as
+she was about to be sold. One of them went down with all speed to
+Liverpool, and the next day telegraphed that the big ship was theirs.
+The new owners at once put her at the service of the Atlantic Company,
+with the express agreement that any compensation for her use should
+depend on the success of the expedition.
+
+Next to the good fortune of finding such a ship ready to their hands,
+was that of finding an officer worthy to command her. Captain James
+Anderson, of the China, one of the Cunard steamers, had long been known
+to the travelling public, both of England and America, and no one ever
+crossed the sea with him without the strongest feeling of respect for
+his manly and seamanly qualities. A thorough master of his profession,
+having followed the sea for a quarter of a century, he was also a man of
+much general intelligence, and of no small scientific attainments. But
+it was something more than this which inspired such confidence. It was
+his ceaseless watchfulness. He always carried with him a feeling of
+religious responsibility for the lives of all on board, and for every
+interest committed to him. A man of few words, modest in manner, he was
+yet clear in judgment and prompt in action. This vigilance was
+especially marked in moments of danger. When a storm was gathering, all
+who saw that tall figure on the wheel-house, watching with a keen eye
+every spar in the ship and every cloud in the horizon, felt a new
+security from being under his care. Such was the man to be put in charge
+of a great expedition. He was recommended by Mr. Field in the strongest
+terms, and was chosen unanimously by the Board. The Cunard Company, with
+great generosity, consented to give up his services, valuable as they
+were, to forward an enterprise of such public interest. Being thus free,
+he accepted the trust, and entered upon it with enthusiasm. How well he
+fulfilled the expectations of all, the sequel will show.[A]
+
+The work now went on with speed. The wheels began to hum, and the great
+drums to reel off that line which, considering the distance it was to
+span, was hardly to be measured by miles, but rather by degrees of the
+earth's surface. Mere figures give but a vague impression of vast
+spaces. But it is a curious fact, ascertained by an exact computation,
+that if all the wires of copper and of iron, with the layers that made
+up the core and the outer covering, and the strands of yarn that were
+twisted into this one knotted sea-cable, were placed end to end, the
+whole length would reach from the earth to the moon!
+
+As it came from the works in its completed state, it was plunged in
+water, to make it familiar with the element which was to be its future
+home. In the yards of the Company stood eight large tanks, which could
+hold each a hundred and forty miles. Here the cable was coiled to
+"hibernate," till it should be wanted for use the coming spring.
+
+Seeing the work thus well under way, with no chance of another
+disastrous check, Mr. Field left England with heart at rest, and
+returned to America for the winter. But the first days of spring saw him
+again on the Atlantic. He reached England on the eighteenth of March.
+His visit was more satisfactory than a year before. The work was now
+well advanced. It was a goodly sight to go down to Morden Wharf at
+Greenwich, and see the huge machinery in motion, spinning off the
+leagues of deep-sea line. The triumph apparently was near at hand. It
+seemed indeed a predestined thing that the cable should finally be laid
+in the year of grace 1865--the end for which he had so faithfully toiled
+since 1858--seven weary years--as long as Jacob served for Rachel! But,
+less fortunate than Jacob, he was doomed to one more disappointment. At
+present, however, all looked well, and he could not but regard the
+prospect with satisfaction.
+
+Having no more drudgery of raising money, he had now a few weeks'
+leisure to take a voyage up the Mediterranean. The canal across the
+Isthmus of Suez, which had been so long in progress, under the
+supervision of French engineers, was at length so far advanced that the
+waters of the Mediterranean were about to mingle with those of the Red
+Sea, and delegates were invited to be present from all parts of the
+world. An invitation had been sent to the Chamber of Commerce in New
+York, and Mr. Field, then starting for Europe, was appointed as its
+representative. The visit was one of extraordinary interest. The
+occasion brought together a number of eminent engineers from every
+country of Europe, in company with whom this stranger from the New World
+visited the most ancient of kingdoms to see the spirit of modern
+enterprise invading the land of the Pyramids.
+
+He returned to England about the first of May to find the work nearly
+completed. The cable was almost done, and a large part of it was already
+coiled on board the ship. This was an operation of much interest, which
+deserves to be described. The manufacture had begun on the first of
+September, and had gone on for eight months without ceasing, the works
+turning out fourteen miles a day even during the short days of winter.
+As the spring advanced, and the days grew longer, the amount was of
+course much increased. But by the last of January they had already
+accumulated about nine hundred miles of completed cable, when began the
+long and tedious work of transferring it to the Great Eastern. It was
+thus slow, because it could not be made directly from the yard to the
+ship. The depth of water at Greenwich was not such as to allow the Great
+Eastern to be brought up alongside the wharf. She was lying at
+Sheerness, thirty miles below, and the cable had to be put on board of
+lighters and taken down to where she lay in the stream. For this purpose
+the Admiralty had furnished to the Company two old hulks, the Iris and
+the Amethyst, which took their loads in turn. When the former had taken
+on board some two hundred and fifty tons of cable, she was towed down to
+the side of the Great Eastern, and the other took her place.
+
+This was an operation which could not be done with speed. With all the
+men who could be employed, they coiled on board only about two miles an
+hour, or twenty miles a day--at which rate it would take some five
+months. The work began on the nineteenth of January, early in the
+morning, and continued till June, before all was safely stowed on board.
+The Great Eastern herself had been fitted up to receive her enormous
+burden. It was an object to stow the cable in as few coils as possible.
+Yet it could not be all piled in one mass. Such a dead weight in the
+centre of the ship would cause her to roll fearfully. If coiled in one
+circle, it was computed that it would nearly fill Astley's theatre from
+the floor of the circus to the roof--making a pile fifty-eight feet wide
+and sixty feet high. To distribute this enormous bulk and weight, it
+was disposed in three tanks--one aft, one amidships, and one forward.
+The latter, from the shape of the ship, was a little smaller than the
+others, and held only six hundred and thirty-three miles of cable, while
+the two former held a little over eight hundred each. All were made of
+thick wrought-iron plates, and water-tight, so that the cable could be
+kept under water till it was immersed in the sea.
+
+Thus with her spacious chambers prepared for the reception of her guest,
+the Great Eastern opened her doors to take in the Atlantic cable; and
+long as it was, and wide and high the space it filled, it found ample
+verge and room within her capacious sides. Indeed, it was the wonder of
+all who beheld it, how, like a monster of the sea, she devoured all that
+other ships could bring. The Iris and the Amethyst came up time after
+time and disgorged their iron contents. Yet this leviathan swallowed
+ship-load after ship-load, as if she could never be satisfied. A writer
+who visited her when the cable was nearly all on board, was at a loss to
+find it. He looked along the deck, from stem to stern, but not a sign of
+it appeared. How he searched, and how the wonder grew, he tells in a
+published letter. After describing his approach to the ship, and
+climbing up her sides and his survey of her deck, he proceeds:
+
+     "But it is time that we should look after what we have mainly
+     come to see, the telegraph cable. To our intense astonishment,
+     we behold it nowhere, although informed that there are nearly
+     two thousand miles of it already on board, and the remaining
+     piece--a piece long enough to stretch from Land's End to John
+     O'Groat's--is in course of shipment. We walk up and down on the
+     deck of the Great Eastern without seeing this gigantic chain
+     which is to bind together the Old and the New World; and it is
+     only on having the place pointed out to us that we find where
+     the cable lies and by what process it is taken on board. On the
+     side opposite to where we landed, deep below the deck of our
+     giant, there is moored a vessel surmounted by a timber
+     structure resembling a house, and from this vessel the
+     wonderful telegraph cable is drawn silently into the immense
+     womb of the Great Eastern. The work is done so quietly and
+     noiselessly, by means of a small steam-engine, that we scarcely
+     notice it. Indeed, were it not pointed out to us, we would
+     never think that that little iron cord, about an inch in
+     diameter, which is sliding over a few rollers and through a
+     wooden table, is a thing of world-wide fame--a thing which may
+     influence the life of whole nations; nay, which may affect the
+     march of civilization. Following the direction in which the
+     iron rope goes, we now come to the most marvellous sight yet
+     seen on board the Great Eastern. We find ourselves in a little
+     wooden cabin, and look down, over a railing at the side, into
+     an immense cavern below. This cavern is one of the three
+     'tanks' in which the two-thousand-mile cable is finding a
+     temporary home. The passive agent of electricity comes creeping
+     in here in a beautiful, silent manner, and is deposited in
+     spiral coils, layer upon layer. It is almost dark at the
+     immense depth below, and we can only dimly discern the human
+     figures through whose hands the coil passes to its bed.
+     Suddenly, however, the men begin singing. They intone a low,
+     plaintive song of the sea; something like Kingsley's
+
+          'Three fishers went sailing away to the West,
+          Away to the West as the sun went down--'
+
+     the sounds of which rise up from the dark, deep cavern with
+     startling effect, and produce an indescribable impression.
+
+     "We proceed on; but the song of the sailors who are taking
+     charge of the Atlantic Telegraph cable is haunting us like a
+     dream. In vain our guide conducts us all over the big ship,
+     through miles of galleries, passages, staircases, and
+     promenades; through gorgeous saloons, full of mirrors, marbles,
+     paintings, and upholstery, made 'regardless of expense;' and
+     through buildings crowded with glittering steam apparatus of
+     gigantic dimensions, where the latent power of coal and water
+     creates the force which propels this monster vessel over the
+     seas. In vain our attention is directed to all these sights; we
+     do not admire them; our imagination is used up. The echo of the
+     sailors' song in the womb of the Great Eastern will not be
+     banished from our mind. It raises visions of the future of the
+     mystic iron coil under our feet--how it will roll forth again
+     from its narrow berth; how it will sink to the bottom of the
+     Atlantic, or hang from mountain to mountain far below the
+     stormy waves; and how two great nations, offsprings of one race
+     and pioneers of civilization, will speak through this wonderful
+     coil, annihilating distance and time. Who can help dreaming
+     here, on the spot where we stand? For it is truly a marvellous
+     romance of civilization, this Great Eastern and this Atlantic
+     Telegraph cable. Even should our age produce nothing else, it
+     alone would be the triumph of our age."
+
+As the work approached completion, public interest revived in the
+stupendous undertaking, and crowds of wonder-seekers came down from
+London to see the preparations for the expedition. Even if not admitted
+on board, they found a satisfaction in sailing round the great ship, in
+whose mighty bosom was coiled this huge sea-serpent. It had also many
+distinguished visitors. Among others, the Prince of Wales came to see
+the ocean girdle which was to link the British islands with his future
+dominions beyond the sea.
+
+At length, on the twenty-ninth of May, almost the last day of Spring,
+the manufacture of the cable was finished. The machines which for eight
+months had been in a constant whirl, made their last round. The tinkling
+of a bell announced that the machinery was empty, and the mighty work
+stood completed. It only remained that it should be got on board, and
+the ship prepared for her voyage. Hundreds of busy hands were at work
+without ceasing, and yet it was six weeks before she was ready to put to
+sea.
+
+It may well be believed that it was no small affair to equip such an
+expedition. Beside the enormous burden of the cable itself, the Great
+Eastern had to take on board seven or eight thousand tons of coal,
+enough for a fleet, to feed her fires. Then she carried about five
+hundred men, for whom she had to make provision during the weeks they
+might be at sea. The stores laid in were enough for a small army.
+Standing on the wheel-house, and looking down, one might fancy himself
+in some large farm-yard of England. There stood the motherly cow that
+was to give them milk; and a dozen oxen, and twenty pigs, and a hundred
+and twenty sheep, while whole flocks of ducks and geese, and fowls of
+every kind, cackled as in a poultry-yard. Beside all this live stock,
+hundreds of barrels of provisions, of meats and fruits, were stored in
+the well-stocked larder below. Thus laden for her voyage, the Great
+Eastern had in her a weight, including her own machinery, of twenty-one
+thousand tons--a burden almost as great as could have been carried by
+the whole fleet with which Nelson fought the battle of Trafalgar.
+
+As the time of departure drew near, public curiosity was excited, and
+there was an extraordinary desire to witness the approaching attempt.
+The Company was besieged by applications from all quarters for
+permission to accompany the expedition. Had these requests been granted,
+on the scale asked, even the large dimensions of the Great Eastern could
+hardly have been sufficient for the crowds on board. The demand was most
+pressing for places for newspaper correspondents. These came not only
+from England, but from France and America. Almost every journal in
+London claimed the privilege of being represented. The result was what
+might have been expected. As it was impossible to satisfy all, and to
+discriminate in favor of some, and exclude others, would seem partial
+and unjust, they were finally obliged to exclude all. Of course this
+gave great offence. There was an outcry in England and in the United
+States at what was denounced as a selfish and suicidal policy. But it is
+doubtful whether any other possible course would have given better
+satisfaction.
+
+Whether the Managers erred in this or not, it should be said that they
+applied the same inexorable rule to themselves--even Directors of the
+Company being excluded, unless they had some special business on board.
+
+It should be borne in mind that the expedition was not under the control
+of the Atlantic Telegraph Company at all, but of the Telegraph
+Construction and Maintenance Company, which had undertaken the work in
+fulfilment of a contract with the former Company to manufacture and lay
+down a cable across the Atlantic, in which it assumed the whole
+responsibility, not only making the cable, but chartering the ship and
+appointing the officers, and sending its own engineers to lay it down.
+Of course it had an enormous stake in the result. Hence it felt, not
+only authorized, but bound, to organize the expedition solely with
+reference to success. It was not a voyage of pleasure, but for business;
+for the accomplishment of a great and most difficult undertaking. Hence
+it was right that the most strict rules should be adopted. Accordingly
+there was not a man on board who had not some business there. As the
+voyage promised to be one of the utmost practical interest to
+electricians and engineers, several young men were received as
+assistants in the testing-room or in the engineers' department; but
+there was no person who was not in some way engaged on the business of
+one or the other company, or connected with the management of the ship.
+Except Mr. Field, not an Atlantic Telegraph Director accompanied the
+expedition; and he represented also the Newfoundland Company. Mr. Gooch,
+M.P., was at once a Director of the Telegraph Construction and
+Maintenance Company, and Chairman of the Board that owned the Great
+Eastern, and so represented both those companies which had so great a
+stake in the result.
+
+Thus the whole business was in the hands of the Telegraph Construction
+and Maintenance Company. It had its own officers to man the
+expedition--the captain and crew to sail the ship--its engineers to lay
+the cable--and its electricians to test it. Even the eminent
+electricians, Professor Thomson and Mr. Varley, who were on board in the
+service of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, were not allowed to
+interfere, _nor even to give advice_ unless it were asked for in
+writing, and then it was to be given in writing. Their office was only
+to test the cable when laid, to pass messages through it from
+Newfoundland to Ireland, and to report it complete.
+
+So rigorous were the rules which governed this memorable voyage. The
+whole enterprise was organized as completely as a naval expedition.
+Every man had his place. As when a ship is going into battle, everybody
+is sent below that has not some business on deck, so it is not strange
+that in such a critical enterprise they did not want a host of
+supernumeraries on board.
+
+Yet the Company was not unmindful of the anxiety of the public for news,
+and since it could not give a place to many correspondents, it engaged
+one, and that the best--W. H. Russell, LL.D., the well-known
+correspondent of the London Times in the Crimea and in India. This
+brilliant writer was engaged to accompany the expedition--not to praise
+without discrimination, but to report events faithfully from day to day.
+He was accompanied by two artists, Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Dudley, to
+illustrate the scenes of the voyage. Thus the Company made every
+provision to furnish information and even entertainment to the public.
+Several of these gentlemen afterward wrote accounts for different
+magazines--Blackwood, Cornhill, and Macmillan's. Their different
+reports, and especially the volume of Dr. Russell, which combines the
+accuracy and minuteness of a diary kept from day to day, with brilliant
+descriptions, set off by illustrations from drawings of Mr. Dudley,
+furnish the public as full and complete an account as if there had been
+a special correspondent for every journal of England and America.
+
+But if the public at large were very properly excluded, the organization
+on board was perfect and complete. At the head was Captain Anderson, of
+whom we have already spoken. As his duties would be manifold and
+increasing, he had requested the aid of an assistant commander, and
+Captain Moriarty, R. N., who had been in the Agamemnon in 1858, was
+permitted by the Admiralty to accompany the ship, and to give the
+invaluable aid of his experience and skill. The government also
+generously granted two ships of war, the Sphinx and the Terrible, to
+attend the Great Eastern. Thus the whole equipment of the expedition was
+English. Of the five hundred men on board the Great Eastern, there was
+but one American, and that was Mr. Field.
+
+The engineering department was under charge of Mr. (now Sir) Samuel
+Canning, who, as the representative of the Telegraph Construction and
+Maintenance Company, was chief in command of all matters relating to
+laying the cable. For this responsible position no better man could have
+been chosen. Before the voyage was ended, he had ample opportunity to
+show his resources. He was ably seconded by Mr. Henry Clifford. Both
+these gentlemen had been on board the Agamemnon in the two expeditions
+of 1858. They had since had large experience in laying submarine cables
+in the Mediterranean and other seas. It was chiefly by their united
+skill that the paying-out machinery had been brought to such perfection,
+that throughout the voyage it worked without a single hitch or jar. They
+had an invaluable helper in Mr. John Temple.
+
+The electrical department was under charge of Mr. De Sauty, who had had
+long experience in submarine telegraphs, and who was aided by an
+efficient corps of assistants. Professor Thomson and Mr. Varley, as we
+have said, were there to examine and report for the Atlantic Company.
+All these gentlemen had been unceasing in their tests of the cable in
+every form, both while in the process of manufacture and after it was
+coiled in the Great Eastern. The result of their repeated tests was to
+demonstrate that the cable was _many times more perfect than the
+contract required_. With such marvellous delicacy did they test the
+current of electricity sent through it, that it was determined that of
+one thousand parts, over nine hundred and ninety-nine came out at the
+other end!
+
+To complete this organization and equipment caused such delays as
+excited the impatience of all on board. But at length, when midsummer
+had fully come--at noon of Saturday, July fifteenth--the song of the
+sailors sounded the _chant du départ_. The Great Eastern was then lying
+at the Nore, and she seemed to cling to the English soil which she had
+griped with a huge Trotman weighing seven tons, held fast by a chain
+whereof every link weighed seventy pounds! To wrench this ponderous
+anchor from its bed required the united strength of near two hundred
+men. At last the bottom lets go its hold, the anchor swings to the bow,
+the gun is fired, and the voyage is begun. A fleet of yachts and boats
+raise their cheers as the mighty hull begins to move. But mark how
+carefully she feels her way, following the lead of yonder little
+steamer, the Porcupine, the same faithful guide that seven years before
+led the Niagara up Trinity Bay one night when the faint light of stars
+twinkled on all the surrounding hills. Slowly they near the sea. Now the
+cliffs of Dover are in sight, and bidding her escort adieu, the Great
+Eastern glides along by the beautiful Isle of Wight, and then quickening
+her speed, with a royal sweep, she moves down the Channel. Off Falmouth
+she picked up the Caroline, a small steamer, which had left several days
+before with the shore end on board. She was laboring heavily with her
+burden, and made little headway in the rough waves. But the Great
+Eastern took her in tow, and she followed like a ship's boat in the wake
+of the monarch of the seas.
+
+Thus they passed round to the coast of Ireland, to that Valentia Bay
+where, eight years before, the Earl of Carlisle gave his benediction on
+the departure of the Niagara and the Agamemnon, and where, a year
+later, the gallant English ship brought her end of the cable safely to
+the shore.
+
+The point of landing had been changed from Valentia harbor five or six
+miles to Foilhommerum Bay, a wild spot where huge cliffs hang over the
+waves that here come rolling in from the Atlantic. On the top, an old
+tower of the time of Cromwell tells of the bloody days of England's
+great civil war. It is now but a mossy ruin. Here the peasants who
+flocked in from the country pitched their booths on the green sward, and
+looked down from the dizzy heights on the boats dancing in the bay
+below. At the foot of the cliff, a soft, sandy beach forms a bed for the
+cable, and here, as it issues from the sea, it is led up a channel which
+had been cut for it in the rocks.
+
+As the shore end was very massive and unwieldy, it could not be laid
+except in good weather; and as the sea was now rough, the Great Eastern
+withdrew to Bantry Bay, to be out of the way of the storms which
+sometimes break with fury on this rock-bound coast.
+
+On Saturday this preliminary work was completed, the heavy shore end was
+carried from the deck of the Caroline across a bridge of boats to the
+beach, and hauled up the cliffs amid the shouts of the people. When once
+it was made fast to the rocks, the little steamer began to move, and the
+huge coil slowly unwound, and like a giant awakened, stretched out its
+long iron arms. By half-past ten o'clock at night the hold was empty,
+the whole twenty-seven miles having been safely laid, and the end buoyed
+in seventy-five fathoms water. A despatch was at once sent across the
+country to Bantry Bay to the Great Eastern to come around with all
+speed, and early the next morning her smoke was seen in the offing.
+Passing the harbor of Valentia, she proceeded to join the Caroline,
+which she reached about noon, and at once commenced splicing the massive
+shore end to her own deep-sea line. This was a work of several hours, so
+that it was toward evening before all was completed.
+
+Thus, so many had been the delays of the past week, that it had come on
+to Sunday before the Great Eastern was ready to begin her voyage.
+This--which some might count a desecration of the holy day--the sailors
+rather accepted as a good omen. Had the shore end been laid forty-eight
+hours sooner, the voyage might have begun on Friday, which sailors, who
+are proverbially superstitious, would have thought an unlucky beginning.
+But Sunday, in their esteem, is a good day. They like, when a ship is
+moving out of sight of land, that the last sound from the shore should
+be the blessed Sabbath bells. If that sacred chime were not heard
+to-day, at least a Sabbath peace rested on sea and sky. It was a calm
+summer's evening. The sun was just sinking in the waves, as the Great
+Eastern, with the two ships of war which waited on either hand, to
+attend her royal progress, turned their faces to the West, and caught
+the sudden glory. Says Russell: "As the sun set, a broad stream of
+golden light was thrown across the smooth billows toward their bows, as
+if to indicate and illumine the path marked out by the hand of Heaven."
+What a sacred omen! Had it been the fleet of Columbus sailing westward,
+every ship's company would have fallen upon their knees on those decks,
+and burst forth in an Ave Maria to the gentle Mistress of the Seas. But
+in that manly crew there was many an eye that took in the full beauty of
+the scene, and many a reverent heart that invoked a benediction.
+
+In other respects the day was well chosen. It was the twenty-third of
+July. From the beginning, Captain Anderson had wished to sail on the
+twenty-third of June, or the twenty-second of July, so as to have the
+full moon on the American coast. He desired also to take advantage of
+the westerly winds which prevail at that season, for in going against
+the wind the Great Eastern was steady as a rock. Every expectation was
+realized. To the big ship the ocean was as an inland lake. The
+paying-out machinery--the product of so much study and skill--worked
+beautifully, and as the ship increased her speed, the cable glided into
+the water with such ease that it seemed but a holiday affair to carry it
+across to yonder continent. Such were the reflections of all that
+evening as the long summer twilight lingered on the sea. At midnight
+they went to sleep, to dream of an easy triumph.
+
+Yet be not too confident. But a few hours had passed before the booming
+of a gun awoke all on board with the heavy tidings of disaster. The
+morning breaks early in those high latitudes, and by four o'clock all
+were on deck, with anxious looks inquiring for the cause of alarm. The
+ship was lying still, as if her voyage had already come to an end, and
+electricians, with troubled countenances, were passing in and out of the
+testing-room, which, as it was always kept darkened, looked like a
+sick-chamber where some royal patient lay trembling between life and
+death.
+
+The method used by the electricians to discover a fault is one of such
+delicacy and beauty as shows the marvellous perfection of the
+instruments which science employs to learn the secrets of nature. The
+galvanometer is an invention of Professor Thomson, by which "a ray of
+light reflected from a tiny mirror suspended to a magnet travels along a
+scale, and indicates the resistance to the passage of the current
+through the cable by the deflection of the magnet, which is marked by
+the course of this speck of light. If the light of the mirror travels
+beyond the index, or out of bounds, an escape of the current is taking
+place, and what is technically called a fault has occurred." Such was
+the discovery on Monday morning. At a quarter past three o'clock the
+electrician on duty saw the light suddenly glide to the end of the scale
+and vanish.
+
+Fortunately it was not a fatal injury. It did not prevent signalling
+through the cable, and a message was at once sent back to the shore,
+giving notice of the check that had been received. But the electric
+current did not flow freely. There was a leak at some point of the line
+which it would not be prudent to pass over. They were now seventy-three
+miles from shore, having run out eighty-four miles of cable. The tests
+of the electricians indicated the fault to be ten or a dozen miles from
+the stern of the ship. The only safe course was to go back and get this
+on board, and cut out the defective portion. It was a most ungrateful
+operation thus to be undoing their own work, but there was no help for
+it.
+
+Such accidents had been anticipated, and before the Great Eastern left
+England, she had been provided with machinery to be used in case of
+necessity for picking up the cable. But this proved rather an unwieldy
+affair. It was at the bow, and as the paying-out machine was at the
+stern, the ship had to be got round, and the cable, which must first be
+cut, had to be transferred from one end to the other. This was not an
+easy matter. The Great Eastern was an eighth of a mile long, and to
+carry the cable along her sides for this distance, and over her high
+wheel-houses, was an operation at once tedious and difficult.
+
+But at length the ship's head was brought round, and the end of the
+cable lifted over the bow, and grasped by the pulling-in machine, and
+the engine began to puff with the labor of raising the cable from the
+depths of the ocean. Fortunately they were only in four or five hundred
+fathoms water, so that the strain was not great. But the engine worked
+poorly, and the operation was very slow. With the best they could do, it
+was impossible to raise more than a mile an hour! But patience and
+courage, though it should take all day and all night![B] The Great
+Eastern did her duty well, steaming slowly back toward Ireland, while
+the engine pulled, and the cable came up, though reluctantly, from the
+sea, till on Tuesday morning at seven o'clock, when they had hauled in a
+little over ten miles, the cause of offence was brought on board. It was
+found to be a small piece of wire, not longer than a needle, that by
+some accident (for they did not then suspect a design) had been driven
+through the outer cover of the cable till it touched the core. There was
+the source of all the mischief. It was this pin's point which pricked
+the vital cord, opening a minute passage through which the electricity,
+like a jet of blood from a pierced artery, went streaming into the sea.
+It was with an almost angry feeling, as if to punish it for its
+intrusion, that this insignificant and contemptible source of trouble
+was snatched from its place, the wounded piece of cable was cut off, and
+a splice made and the work of paying out renewed. But it was four
+o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday before they were ready to resume the
+voyage. A full day and a half had been lost by this miserable piece of
+wire.
+
+But the vexatious delay was over at last, and the stately ship, once
+more turning to the West, moved ahead with a steady composure, as if no
+petty trouble could vex her tranquil mind. Throughout the voyage the
+behavior of the ship was the admiration of all on board. While her
+consorts on either side were pitched about at the mercy of the waves,
+she moved forward with a grave demeanor, as if conscious of her mission,
+or as if eager to unburden her mighty heart, to throw overboard the
+great mystery that was coiled up within her, and to cast her burden on
+the sea.
+
+The electricians, too, were elated, and with reason, at the perfection
+of the cable as demonstrated by every hour's experience. At intervals of
+thirty minutes, day and night, tests were passed from ship to shore,
+and to the delight of all, instead of finding the insulation weakened,
+it steadily improved as the cable was brought into contact with the cold
+depths of the Atlantic.
+
+All now went well till Saturday, the twenty-ninth, when a little after
+noon there was again a cry from the ship, as if once more the cable were
+wounded and in pain. This time the fault was more serious than before.
+The electricians looked very grave, for they had struck "dead earth,"
+that is, the insulation was completely destroyed, and the electric
+current was escaping into the sea.
+
+As the fault had gone overboard, it was necessary to reverse their
+course, and haul in till the defective part was brought up from the
+bottom. This time it was more difficult, for they were in water two
+miles deep. Still the cable yielded slowly to the iron hands that drew
+it upward; and after working all the afternoon, about ten o'clock at
+night they got the fault on board. The wounded limb was at once
+amputated, and joining the parts that were whole, the cable was made new
+and strong again. Thus ended a day of anxiety. The next morning, which
+was the second Sabbath at sea, was welcomed with a grateful feeling
+after the suspense of the last twenty-four hours.
+
+On Monday, the miles of cable that had been hauled up, and which were
+lying in huge piles upon the deck, were subjected to a rigid
+examination, to find out where the fault lay. This was soon apparent.
+Near the end was found a piece of wire thrust through its very heart, as
+if it had been driven into it. All looked black when this was
+discovered, for at once it excited suspicions of design. It was remarked
+that the same gang of workmen were in the tank as at the time of the
+first fault. Mr. Canning sent for the men, and showing them the cable
+pierced through with the wire, asked them how it occurred. Every man
+replied that _it must have been done by design_, even though they
+accused themselves, as this implied that there was a traitor among them.
+It seemed hard to believe that any one could be guilty of such devilish
+malignity. Yet such a thing had been done before in a cable laid in the
+North Sea, where the insulation was destroyed by a nail driven into it.
+The man was afterward arrested, and confessed that he had been hired to
+do it by a rival company. The matter was the subject of a long
+investigation in the English courts. In the present case there were many
+motives which might prompt to such an act. The fall in the stock on the
+London Exchange, caused by a loss of the cable, could hardly be less
+than half a million sterling. Here was a temptation such as betrays
+bold, bad men into crime. However, as it was impossible to fix the deed
+on any one, nothing was proved, and there only remained a painful
+suspicion of treachery. Against this it was their duty to guard.
+Therefore it was agreed that the gentlemen on board should take turns
+in keeping watch in the tank. It was very unpleasant to Mr. Canning thus
+to set a watch on men, many of whom had been with him in his former
+cable-laying expeditions, but the best of them admitted the necessity of
+it, and were as eager as himself to find out the Judas among them.
+
+But accident or villainy, it was defeated this time, and the Great
+Eastern proudly continued her voyage. Not the slightest check
+interrupted their progress for the next three days, during which they
+passed over five hundred miles of ocean. It was now they enjoyed their
+greatest triumph. They were in the middle of the Atlantic, and thus far
+the voyage had been a complete success. The ship seemed as if made by
+Heaven to accomplish this great work of civilization. The paying-out
+apparatus was a piece of mechanism to excite the enthusiasm of an
+engineer, so smoothly did its well-oiled wheels run. The strain never
+exceeded fourteen hundred-weight, even in the greatest depths of the
+Atlantic. And as for the cable itself, it seemed to come as near
+perfection as it was possible to attain. As before, the insulation was
+greatly improved by submergence in the ocean. With every lengthening
+league it grew better and better. It seems almost beyond belief, yet the
+fact is fully attested that, when in the middle of the ocean, the
+communication was so perfect that they could tell at Valentia every time
+the Great Eastern rolled.[C] With such omens of success, who could but
+feel confident? And when on Monday they passed over a deep valley, where
+lay "the bones of three Atlantic cables," it was with a proud assurance
+that they should not add another to the number.
+
+But Wednesday brought a sudden termination of their hopes. They had run
+out about twelve hundred miles of cable, and were now within six hundred
+miles of Newfoundland. Two days more would have made them safe, as it
+would have brought them into the shallow waters of the coast. Thus it
+was when least expected that disaster came. The record of that fatal day
+may be given in few words. In the morning, while Mr. Field was keeping
+watch in the tank, with the same gang of men who had been there when the
+trouble occurred before, a grating sound was heard, as if a piece of
+wire had caught in the machinery, and word was passed up to the deck to
+look out for it; but the caution seems not to have been heard, and it
+passed over the stern of the ship. Soon after a report came from the
+testing-room of "another fault." It was not a bad one, since it did not
+prevent communication with land; and much anxiety might have been saved
+had a message been sent to Ireland that they were about to cut the
+cable, in order to haul it on board. But small as the fault was, it
+could not be left behind. Down on the deep sea-floor was some minute
+defect, a pin's point in a length measured by thousands of miles. Yet
+that was enough. Of this marvellous product of human skill, it might in
+truth be said, that it was like the law of God in demanding absolute
+perfection. To offend in one point was to be guilty of all.
+
+This new fault, though it was annoying, did not create alarm, for they
+had been accustomed to such things, and regarded them only as the
+natural incidents of the voyage. Had the apparatus for pulling in been
+complete, it could not have delayed them more than a few hours. But this
+had been the weak point of the arrangements from the beginning--the
+_bête noire_ of the expedition. The only motive power was a little
+donkey engine, (rightly named,) which puffed and wheezed as if it had
+the asthma. This was now put in requisition, but soon gave out for want
+of more steam. While waiting for this a breeze sprang up, which caused
+the Great Eastern to drift over the cable, by which it was badly chafed,
+so that when it was hauled in, as the injured part was coming over the
+bows and was almost within grasp, suddenly it broke and plunged into the
+sea!
+
+It came without a moment's warning. So unexpected was such a
+catastrophe, that the gentlemen had gone down to lunch, as it was a
+little past the hour of noon. But Mr. Canning and Mr. Field stood
+watching the cable as it was straining upward from the sea, and saw the
+snapping of that cord, which broke so many hopes. The impression may be
+better imagined than described. Says a writer on board: "Suddenly Mr.
+Canning appeared in the saloon, and in a manner which caused every one
+to start in his seat, said, 'It is all over! It is gone!' then hastened
+onward to his cabin. Ere the thrill of surprise and pain occasioned by
+these words had passed away, Mr. Field came from the companion into the
+saloon, and said, with composure admirable under the circumstances,
+though his lip quivered and his cheek was blanched, 'The cable has
+parted and has gone overboard.' All were on deck in a moment, and there,
+indeed, a glance revealed the truth."
+
+At last it had come--the calamity which all had feared, yet that seemed
+so far away only a few hours before. Yet there it was--the ragged end on
+board, torn and bleeding, the other lying far down in its ocean grave.
+
+In America, of course, nothing could be known of the fate of the
+expedition till its arrival on our shores. But in England its progress
+was reported from day to day, and as the success up to this point had
+raised the hopes of all to the highest pitch, the sudden loss of
+communication with the ship was a heavy blow to public expectation, and
+gave rise to all sorts of conjectures. At first a favorite theory was,
+that communication had been interrupted by a magnetic storm. These are
+among the most mysterious phenomena of nature--so subtle and fleeting as
+to be almost beyond the reach of science. No visible sign do they give
+of their presence. No clouds darken the heavens; no thunder peals along
+the sky. Yet strange influences trouble the air. At this very hour,
+Professor Airy, the Astronomer Royal at the Observatory at Greenwich,
+reported a magnetic storm of unusual violence. Said a London paper:
+
+     "Just when the signals from the Great Eastern ceased, a
+     magnetic storm of singular violence had set in. Unperceived by
+     us, not to be seen in the heavens, nor felt in the atmosphere,
+     the earth's electricity underwent a mysterious disturbance. The
+     recording instruments scattered about the kingdom, everywhere
+     testified to the fury of this voiceless tempest, and there is
+     every reason to suppose that the confusion of signals at midday
+     on Wednesday was due to the strange and unusual earth-currents
+     of magnetism, sweeping wildly across the cable as it lay in
+     apparently untroubled waters at the bottom of the Atlantic."
+
+Said the Times:
+
+     "At Valentia, on Wednesday last, the signals, up to nine A.M.,
+     were coming with wonderful distinctness and regularity, but
+     about that time a violent magnetic storm set in. No insulation
+     of a submarine cable is ever so perfect as to withstand the
+     influence of these electrical phenomena, which correspond in
+     some particulars to storms in the ordinary atmosphere, their
+     direction generally being from east to west. Their action is
+     immediately communicated to all conductors of electricity, and
+     a struggle set up between the natural current and that used
+     artificially in sending messages. This magnetic storm affected
+     every telegraphic station in the kingdom. At some the wires
+     were utterly useless; and between Valentia and Killarney the
+     natural current toward the west was so strong along the land
+     lines that it required an addition of five times the ordinary
+     battery power to overcome it. This magnetic storm, which ceased
+     at two A.M. on Friday, was instantly perceptible in the
+     Atlantic cable."
+
+But these explanations, so consoling to anxious friends on land, did not
+comfort those on board the Great Eastern. They knew, alas! that the
+cable was at the bottom of the ocean, and the only question was, if any
+thing could be done to recover it.
+
+Now began a work of which there had been no example in the annals of the
+sea. The intrepid Canning declared his purpose to grapple for the cable!
+The proposal seemed wild, dictated by the frenzy of despair. Yet he had
+fished in deep waters before. He had laid his hand on the bottom of the
+Mediterranean, but that was a shallow lake compared with the depths into
+which the Atlantic cable had descended. The ocean is here two and a half
+miles deep. It was as if an Alpine hunter stood on the summit of Mont
+Blanc and cast a line into the vale of Chamouni. Yet who shall put
+bounds to human courage? The expedition was not to be abandoned without
+a trial of this forlorn hope. There were on board some five miles of
+wire rope, intended to hold the cable in case it became necessary to cut
+it and lash it to the buoys, to save it from being lost in a storm. This
+was brought on deck for another purpose. "And now came forth the
+grapnels, two five-armed anchors, with flukes sharply curved and tapered
+to a tooth-like end--the hooks with which the Giant Despair was going to
+fish from the Great Eastern for a take worth, with all its belongings,
+more than a million." These huge grappling-irons were firmly shackled to
+the end of the rope, and brought to the bows and thrown overboard. One
+splash, and the whole has disappeared in the bosom of the ocean. Down it
+goes--deeper, deeper, deeper still! For two full hours it continued
+sinking before it struck the earth, and like a pearl-diver, began
+searching for its lost treasure on the bottom of the sea. What did it
+find there? The wrecks of ships that had gone down a hundred years ago,
+with dead men's bones whitening in the deep sea caves? It sought for
+something more precious to the interest of civilization than gems and
+gold.
+
+The ship was now a dozen miles or so from the place of accident. The
+cable had broken a little after noon, when the sun was shining clear, so
+that Captains Anderson and Moriarty had just obtained a perfect
+observation, from which they could tell, within half a mile, the very
+spot where it had gone down. To reach it now, with any chance of
+bringing it up, it would be necessary to hook it a few miles from the
+end. It had been paid out in a line from east to west. To strike it
+broadside, the ship stood off in the afternoon a few miles to the south.
+Here the grapnel was thrown over about three o'clock, and struck bottom
+about five, when the ship began slowly drifting back on her course. All
+night long those iron fingers were raking the bottom of the deep but
+grasping nothing, till toward morning the long rope quivered like a
+fisherman's line when something has seized the end, and the head of the
+Great Eastern began to sway from her course, as if it felt some unseen
+attraction. As they began to haul in, the rapidly increasing strain soon
+rendered it certain that they had got hold of _something_. But what
+could it be? How did they know it was their lost cable? This question
+has often been asked. They did not see it. How did they know that it was
+not the skeleton of a whale, or a mast or spar, the fragment of a
+wrecked ship? The question is easily answered. If it had been any loose
+object which was being drawn up from the sea, its weight would have
+diminished as it came nearer the surface. But on the contrary, the
+strain, as shown by the dynamometer, steadily _increased_. This could
+only be from some object lying prone on the bottom. To an engineer the
+proof was like a mathematical demonstration. Another fact observed by
+Captain Anderson was equally decisive:
+
+     "The grapnel had caught something at the exact hour when by
+     calculation the ship was known to be crossing the line of the
+     cable; nor had the grapnel upon this or any other occasion even
+     for an instant caught any impediment from the time of its being
+     lowered to the bottom, until the hour indicated by calculation,
+     when the cable ought to be hooked."
+
+Having thus caught the cable, they had good hopes of getting it again,
+their confidence increasing with every hundred fathoms brought on board.
+For hours the work went on. They had raised it seven hundred fathoms--or
+three quarters of a mile--from the bottom, when an iron swivel gave way,
+and the cable once more fell back into the sea, carrying with it nearly
+two miles of rope.
+
+The first attempt had failed, but the fact that they had unmistakably
+caught the prize gave them courage for a second. Preparations were at
+once begun, but fogs came on and delayed the attempt till Monday, when
+it was repeated. The grapnel caught again. It was late in the afternoon
+when it got its hold, and the work of pulling in was kept up all night.
+But as the sea was calm and the moon shining brightly, all joined in it
+with spirit, feeling elated with the hope of triumph on the morrow.
+
+That was not to be; but each attempt seemed to come nearer and nearer to
+victory. This time the cable was drawn up a full mile from the bottom,
+and hung suspended a mile and a half below the ship. Had the rope been
+strong enough, it might have been brought on board. But again a swivel
+gave way, and the cable, whose sleep had been a second time disturbed,
+sought its ocean bed.
+
+These experiments were fast using up the wire rope, and every expedient
+had to be resorted to, to piece it out and to give it strength. Each
+shackle and swivel was replaced by new bolts, and the capstan was
+increased four feet in diameter, by being belted with enormous plates of
+iron, to wind the rope around it, if the picking-up machinery should
+fail. This gave full work to all the mechanics on board. The ship was
+turned into a very cave of Vulcan, presenting at night a scene which
+might well take the eye of an artist, and which Russell thus describes:
+
+     "The forge fires glared on her decks, and there, out in the
+     midst of the Atlantic, anvils rang and sparks flew; and the
+     spectator thought of some village far away, where the
+     blacksmith worked, unvexed by cable anxieties and greed of
+     speedy news. As the blaze shot up, ruddy, mellow and strong,
+     and flung arms of light aloft and along the glistening decks,
+     and then died into a red centre, masts, spars, and ropes were
+     for the instant touched with a golden gleaming, and strange
+     figures and faces were called out from the darkness--vanished,
+     glinted out again--rushed suddenly into foreground of bright
+     pictures, which faded soon away--flickered--went out--as they
+     were called to life by its warm breath, or were buried in the
+     outer darkness! Outside all was obscurity, but now and then
+     vast shadows, which moved across the arc of the lighted
+     fog-bank, were projected far away by the flare; and one might
+     well pardon the passing mariner, whose bark drifted him in the
+     night across the track of the great ship, if, crossing himself,
+     and praying with shuddering lips, he fancied he beheld a
+     phantom ship freighted with an evil crew, and ever after told
+     how he had seen the workshops of the Inferno floating on the
+     bosom of the ocean."
+
+While preparing for a third attempt, the ship had been drifting about,
+sometimes to a distance of thirty or forty miles, but it had marked the
+course where the cable lay by two buoys, thrown over about ten miles
+apart, each bearing a flag which might be seen at a distance, and so
+easily came back to the spot. On Thursday morning all was ready, and the
+line was cast as before, but after some hours of drifting, it was
+evident that the ship had passed over the cable without grappling. The
+line was hauled in, and the reason at once appeared. One of the flukes
+had caught in the chain, so that it could not strike its teeth into the
+bottom. This was cleared away, and the rope prepared for a fourth and
+final attempt.
+
+It was at noon of Friday that the grapnel went overboard for the last
+time. By four o'clock it had caught, and the work of hauling-in
+recommenced. Again the cable was brought up nearly eight hundred
+fathoms, when the rope broke, carrying down two miles of its own
+length, and with it the hopes of the Atlantic Telegraph for the present
+year.
+
+Their resources were exhausted. For nine days and nights, for the work
+never stopped for light or darkness, had the great ship kept moving
+round and round like some mighty bird of the sea, with her eye fixed on
+the place where her treasure had gone down, and striving to wrest it
+from the hand of the spoiler. Three times had they grasped the prize,
+and each time failed to recover it, only for want of ropes strong enough
+to bring it on board. _The cable itself never broke._ This proof of its
+strength was a good omen for future success.
+
+But for the present all was over. The attempt must be abandoned for the
+year 1865, but not for ever; and with this purpose in her constant mind,
+the Great Eastern swung sullenly around, and turned her imperial head
+toward England, like a warrior retiring from the field--not victorious,
+nor yet defeated and despairing, but with her battle-flag still flying,
+and resolved once more to attempt the conquest of the sea.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Nearly a year and a half after this, when the cable was safely
+landed in Newfoundland, Captain Anderson, still on board the Great
+Eastern, in a letter to a friend, thus referred to his first connection
+with the Atlantic Telegraph:--
+
+"I cannot tell you how I have felt since our success. It is only
+seventeen months since I first walked up to the top of the paddle-box of
+this ship at Sheerness, upon a dark, rainy night--reviewed my past
+career in my mind, and tried to look into the future, to see what I had
+undertaken, and realize if possible what this new step would develop. I
+cannot say I believed much in cables; I rather think I did not; but I
+did believe Mr. Field was an earnest man, of great force of character,
+and working under a strong conviction that what he was attempting was
+thoroughly practicable; and I knew enough of the names with which he had
+associated himself in the enterprise to feel that it was a real, true,
+honest effort, worthy of all the energy and application of one's
+manhood; and come what might in the future, I resolved to do my very
+utmost, and to do nothing else until it was over. More completely
+however than my resolve foreshadowed, I dropped inch by inch, or step by
+step, into the work, until I had no mind, no soul, no sleep, that was
+not tinged with cable. In a word I accuse Mr. Field of having dragged me
+into a vortex, that I could not get out of, and did not wish to try--and
+the sum total of all this is, to lay a thread across an ocean! Dr.
+Russell compared it to an elephant stretching a cobweb, and there lay
+its very danger: the more you multiply the mechanism, the more you
+increase the risk."
+
+[B] "All during the night the process of picking up was carefully
+carried on, the Big Ship behaving beautifully, and hanging lightly over
+the cable, as if fearful of breaking the slender cord which swayed up
+and down in the ocean. Indeed, so delicately did she answer her
+helm, and coil in the film of thread-like cable over her bows, that
+she put one in mind of an elephant taking up a straw in its
+proboscis."--Russell.
+
+[C] So exquisitely sensitive was the copper strand, that as the Great
+Eastern rolled, and so made the cable pass across the magnetic meridian,
+the induced current of electricity, incomprehensibly faint as it must
+have been, produced nevertheless a perceptible deviation of the ray of
+light on the mirror galvanometer at Foilhommerum.--_London Times._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+PREPARING TO RENEW THE BATTLE.
+
+
+The expedition of 1865, though not an immediate success, had the moral
+effect of a victory, as it confirmed the most sanguine expectations of
+all who embarked in it. The great experiment made during those four
+weeks at sea, had demonstrated many points which were most important
+elements in the problem of Ocean Telegraphy. These are summed up in the
+following paper, which was signed by persons officially engaged on board
+the Great Eastern:
+
+     1. It was proved by the expedition of 1858, that a Submarine
+     Telegraph Cable could be laid between Ireland and Newfoundland,
+     and messages transmitted through the same.
+
+     By the expedition of 1865 it has been fully demonstrated:
+
+     2. That the insulation of a cable improves very much after its
+     submersion in the cold deep water of the Atlantic, and that its
+     conducting power is considerably increased thereby.
+
+     3. That the steamship Great Eastern, from her size and constant
+     steadiness, and from the control over her afforded by the joint
+     use of paddles and screw, renders it safe to lay an Atlantic
+     Cable in any weather.
+
+     4. That in a depth of over two miles four attempts were made
+     to grapple the cable. In three of them the cable was caught by
+     the grapnel, and in the other the grapnel was fouled by the
+     chain attached to it.
+
+     5. That the paying-out machinery used on board the Great
+     Eastern worked perfectly, and can be confidently relied on for
+     laying cables across the Atlantic.
+
+     6. That with the improved telegraphic instruments for long
+     submarine lines, a speed of more than eight words per minute
+     can be obtained through such a cable as the present Atlantic
+     between Ireland and Newfoundland, as the amount of slack
+     actually paid out did not exceed fourteen per cent, which would
+     have made the total cable laid between Valentia and Heart's
+     Content nineteen hundred miles.
+
+     7. That the present Atlantic Cable, though capable of bearing a
+     strain of seven tons, did not experience more than fourteen
+     hundred-weight in being paid out into the deepest water of the
+     Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland.
+
+     8. That there is no difficulty in mooring buoys in the deep
+     water of the Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland, and
+     that two buoys even when moored by a piece of the Atlantic
+     Cable itself, which had been previously lifted from the bottom,
+     have ridden out a gale.
+
+     9. That more than four nautical miles of the Atlantic Cable
+     have been recovered from a depth of over two miles, and that
+     the insulation of the gutta-percha-covered wire was in no way
+     whatever impaired by the depth of water or the strains to which
+     it had been subjected by lifting and passing through the
+     hauling-in apparatus.
+
+     10. That the cable of 1865, owing to the improvements
+     introduced into the manufacture of the gutta-percha core, was
+     more than one hundred times better insulated than cables made
+     in 1858, then considered perfect and still working.
+
+     11. That the electrical testing can be conducted with such
+     unerring accuracy as to enable the electricians to discover the
+     existence of a fault immediately after its production or
+     development, and very quickly to ascertain its position in the
+     cable.
+
+     12. That with a steam-engine attached to the paying-out
+     machinery, should a fault be discovered on board whilst laying
+     the cable, it is possible that it might be recovered before it
+     had reached the bottom of the Atlantic, and repaired at once.
+
+                              S. Canning, Engineer-in-Chief,
+                              Telegraph Construction and Maintenance
+                              Company.
+
+                              James Anderson, Commander of the Great
+                              Eastern.
+
+                              Henry A. Moriarty, Staff Commander, R.
+                              N.
+
+                              Daniel Gooch, M.P., Chairman of "Great
+                              Ship Co."
+
+                              Henry Clifford, Engineer.
+
+                              William Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S., Prof.
+                              of Natural Philosophy in the
+                              University of Glasgow.
+
+                              Cromwell F. Varley, Consulting
+                              Electrician Electric and International
+                              Telegraph Co.
+
+                              Willoughby Smith.
+
+                              Jules Despecher.
+
+This was a grand result to be attained in one short month; and if not
+quite so gratifying as to have the cable laid at once, and the wire in
+full operation, yet as it settled the chief elements of success, the
+moral effect was next to that of an immediate triumph. All who were on
+that voyage felt a confidence such as they had never felt before. They
+came back, not desponding and discouraged, but buoyant with hope, and
+ready at once to renew the attempt.
+
+This confidence appeared at the first meeting of directors. The feeling
+was very different from that after the return of the first expedition of
+1858. So animated were they with hope, and so sure of success the next
+time, that all felt that one cable was not enough, they must have two,
+and so it was decided to take measures not only to raise the broken end
+of the cable and to complete it to Newfoundland, but also to construct
+and lay an entirely new one, so as to have a double line in operation
+the following summer.
+
+The contractors, partaking the general confidence, came forward promptly
+with a new offer even more liberal than that made before. They proposed
+to construct a new line, and to lay it across the Atlantic for half a
+million sterling, which was estimated to be the actual cost to them,
+reserving all compensation to themselves to depend on success. If
+successful, they were to receive twenty per cent. on the cost, or one
+hundred thousand pounds, to be paid in shares of the Company. They would
+engage, also, to go to sea fully prepared to raise the broken end of the
+cable now in mid-ocean, and with a sufficient length, including that on
+board the Great Eastern, to complete the line to Newfoundland. Thus the
+company would have two cables instead of one.
+
+In this offer the contractors assumed a very large risk. They now went a
+step further, and in the contingency of the capital not being raised
+otherwise, they offered _to take it all themselves_--to lay the line at
+their own risk, and to be paid only in the stock of the Company, which,
+of course, must depend for its value on the success of the next
+expedition. It was finally resolved to raise six hundred thousand pounds
+of new capital by the issue of a hundred and twenty thousand shares of
+five pounds each, which should be preferential shares, entitled to a
+dividend of twelve per cent. before the eight per cent. dividend to be
+paid on the former preference shares, and the four per cent. on the
+ordinary stock. This was offering a substantial inducement to the public
+to take part in the enterprise, and it was thought with reason that this
+fresh issue of stock, though it increased the capital of the Company,
+yet as it was all to be employed in forwarding the great work, would not
+only create new property, but give value to the old. The proposal of the
+manufacturers was therefore at once accepted by the Directors, and the
+work was instantly begun. Thus hopeful was the state of affairs when Mr.
+Field returned to America in September.
+
+But he was never easy to be long out of sight of his beloved cable, and
+so three months after he went back to England, reaching London on the
+twenty-fourth of December. He came at just the right moment, for the
+Atlantic Telegraph was once more in extremity. Only two days before the
+Attorney-General of England had given a written opinion that the Company
+_had no legal right_ to issue new twelve per cent. preference shares,
+and that such issue could only be authorized by an express act of
+Parliament. This was a fatal decree to the Company. It was the more
+unexpected, as, before offering the twelve per cent. capital, they had
+been fortified by the opinions of several eminent lawyers and solicitors
+in favor of the legality of their proceedings. It invalidated not only
+what they were going to do, but what they had done already. Hence, as
+the effect of this decision, all the works were stopped, and the money
+which had been paid in was returned to the subscribers.
+
+This was a new dilemma, out of which it was not easy to find a way of
+relief. Parliament was not in session, Lords and Commons being away in
+the country keeping the Christmas holidays. Even if it had been, the
+time for applying to it had passed, as a notice of any private bill to
+be introduced must be given before the thirtieth of November, which was
+gone a month ago. To wait for an act of Parliament, therefore, would
+inevitably postpone the laying of the cable for another year. So
+disheartening was the prospect at the close of 1865.
+
+But they had seen dark days before, and were not to give it up without
+a new effort. Happily, the cause had strong friends to stand by it even
+in this crisis of suspended animation.
+
+One of these to whom Mr. Field now went for counsel, was Mr. (afterward
+Sir) Daniel Gooch, M.P., a gentleman well known in London, as one of the
+class of engineers formed in the school of Stephenson and Brunel, who
+had risen to the position of great capitalists, and who, by their
+enterprise and wealth, had done so much to develop the resources of
+England. He was Chairman of the Great Western Railway, and had more
+faith in enterprises on the land than on the sea. It was a long time
+before he could believe in the possibility of an Atlantic Telegraph.
+Though a man of large fortune, and a personal friend of Mr. Field, the
+latter had never prevailed on him to subscribe a single pound. But he
+went out on the expedition of '65, as chairman of the company that owned
+the Great Eastern; and what he then saw convinced him. He came back
+fully satisfied; he knew it could be done, and was ready to prove his
+faith by his works. Consulting on the present difficulty, he suggested
+that the only relief was to organize a new Company, which should assume
+the work, and which could issue its own shares and raise its own
+capital. This opinion was confirmed by the eminent legal authority of
+Mr. John Horatio Lloyd. To such a Company Mr. Gooch said he would
+subscribe £20,000; Mr. Field put down £10,000.
+
+Next, he betook himself to that prince of English capitalists, Mr.
+Thomas Brassey, who heard from his lips for the first time, that the
+affairs of the Atlantic Telegraph Company had suddenly come to a
+standstill. At this he was much surprised, but instantly cheered his
+informer by saying: "Don't be discouraged; go down to the Company, and
+tell them to go ahead, and whatever the cost, I will bear one tenth of
+the whole." Who _could_ be discouraged with such a Richard the
+Lion-hearted to cheer him on?
+
+Meetings were called of the Directors of both the Atlantic Company and
+the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company; and frequent
+conferences were held between them. The result was the formation of a
+new company called the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, with a capital
+of £600,000, which contracted with the Atlantic Company to manufacture
+and lay down a cable in the summer of 1866, for doing which it was to be
+entitled to what virtually amounted to a preference dividend of
+twenty-five per cent: as a first claim was secured to them by the latter
+company upon the revenue of the cable or cables (after the working
+expenses had been provided for) to the extent of £125,000 per annum; and
+the New-York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company undertook to
+contribute from its revenue a further annual sum of £25,000, on
+condition that a cable should be at work during 1866; an agreement to
+this effect having been signed by Mr. Field, subject to ratification by
+the Company in New York, which was obtained as soon as the steamer could
+cross the ocean and bring back the reply.
+
+The terms being settled, it remained only to raise the capital. The
+Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company led off with a
+subscription of £100,000. This was followed by the names of ten
+gentlemen, who put down £10,000 apiece. Of these Mr. Gooch declared his
+willingness to increase his subscription of £10,000 to £20,000, while
+Mr. Brassey would put down £60,000, if it were needed. Mr. Henry Bewley,
+of Dublin also, who was already a large owner of the Atlantic stock,
+declared his readiness to add £20,000 more. But this was not necessary:
+and so they all stood at £10,000. The names of these ten subscribers
+deserve to be given, as showing who stood forward to save the cause in
+this crisis of its fate. They were: Henry Ford Barclay, Henry Bewley,
+Thomas Brassey, A. H. Campbell, M.P., George Elliot, Cyrus W. Field,
+Richard Atwood Glass, Daniel Gooch, M.P., John Pender, M.P., and John
+Smith. There were four subscriptions of £5,000: by Thomas Bolton and
+Sons, James Horsfall, A Friend of Mr. Daniel Gooch, M.P., and John and
+Edwin Wright; one of £2,500 by John Wilkes and Sons; three of £2,000 by
+C. M. Lampson, J. Morison, and Ebenezer Pike; and two of £1,000 by
+Edward Cropper, and Joseph Robinson,--making in all £230,500.
+
+These were all private subscriptions made before even the prospectus was
+issued, or the books opened to the public. After such a manifestation of
+confidence, the whole capital was secured within fourteen days. This was
+a great triumph, especially at a time of general depression in
+commercial affairs in England.
+
+And now once more the work began. No time was to be lost. It was already
+the first of March, and but four months remained to manufacture sixteen
+hundred and sixty nautical miles of cable, and to prepare for sea. But
+the obstacles once cleared away, all sprang to their work with new hope
+and vigor.
+
+In the cable to be made for the new line, there was but little change
+from that of the last year, which had proved nearly perfect. Experience,
+however, was constantly suggesting some improvement; and while the
+general form and size were retained, a slight change in the outer
+covering was found to make the cable both lighter and stronger. The iron
+wires were _galvanized_, which secured them perfectly from rust or
+corrosion by salt water. Thus protected, they could dispense with the
+preservative mixture of the former year. This left the cable much
+cleaner and whiter. Instead of its black coat, it had the fresh, bright
+appearance of new rope. It had another advantage. As the tarry coating
+was sticky, slight fragments of wire might adhere to it, and do injury,
+a danger to which the new cable was not exposed. At the same time,
+galvanizing the wires gave them greater ductility, so that in the case
+of a heavy strain the cable would stretch longer without breaking. By
+this alteration it was rendered more than four hundred-weight lighter
+per mile, and would bear a strain of nearly half a ton more than the one
+laid the year before.
+
+The machinery also was perfected in every part, to withstand the great
+strain which might be brought upon it in grappling and lifting the cable
+from the great depths of the Atlantic. This necessitated almost a
+reconstruction of the machinery, together with engines of greater power,
+applied both to the gear for hauling in forward and that for paying out
+aft. Thus, in case of a fault, the motion of the ship could be easily
+reversed, and the cable hauled back by the paying-out machinery, without
+waiting for the long and tedious process of bringing the cable round
+from the stern to the bow of the ship.
+
+But the most marvellous improvement had been in the method of testing
+the cable for the discovery of faults. In the last expedition, a grave
+omission had been in the long intervals during which the cable was left
+without a test of its insulation. Thus, from thirty to thirty-five
+minutes in each hour it was occupied with tests of minor importance,
+which would not indicate the existence of a fault, so that, if a fault
+occurred on ship-board, it might pass over the stern, and be miles away
+before it was discovered. But now a new and ingenious method was devised
+by Mr. Willoughby Smith, by which the cable will be tested _every
+instant_. The current will not cease to flow any more than the blood
+ceases to flow in human veins. The cord is vital in every part, and if
+touched at any point it reveals the wound as instinctively as the nerves
+of a living man flash to the brain a wound in any part of the human
+frame.
+
+The process of detecting faults is too scientific to be detailed in
+these pages. We can only stand in silent wonder at the result, when we
+hear it stated by Mr. Varley, that the system of testing is brought to
+such a degree of perfection, that skilful electricians can point out
+minute faults with an unerring accuracy "even when they are so small
+that they would not weaken the signals through the Atlantic cable one
+millionth part!"
+
+Another marvellous result of science was the exact report obtained of
+the state of that portion of the cable now lying in the sea. The
+electricians at Valentia were daily experimenting on the line which lay
+stretched twelve hundred and thirteen miles on the bottom of the deep,
+and pronounced it intact. Not a fault could be found from one end to the
+other. As when a master of the organ runs his hands over the keys, and
+tells in an instant if it be in perfect tune, so did these skilful
+manipulators, fingering at the end of this mightier instrument, declare
+it to be in perfect tone, ready to whisper its harmonies through the
+seas. At the same time, the ten hundred and seventy miles of cable left
+on board the Great Eastern were pronounced as faultless as the day they
+had been shipped on board.
+
+With such conclusions of science to animate and inspire them, the great
+task of manufacturing nearly seventeen hundred miles of cable once more
+began. And while this work went on, the Great Eastern, that had done her
+part so well before, again opened her sides, and the mysterious cord was
+drawn into her vast, dark, silent womb, from which it was to issue only
+into the darker and more silent bosom of the deep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+VICTORY AT LAST.
+
+
+In these pages we have led our readers through twelve long years, and
+have had to tell many a tale of disaster and defeat. It is now our
+privilege to tell of triumphant success. Victory has come at last, but
+not by the chance of fortune, but by the utmost efforts of man, by the
+union of science and skill with indomitable perseverance. The failure of
+the last year was a sad disappointment; but so far from damping the
+courage of those embarked in the enterprise, it only roused them to a
+more gigantic effort. They were now to prepare for a fifth expedition.
+In this they set themselves to anticipate every possible emergency, and
+to combine the elements of success so as to render failure impossible.
+
+The Great Eastern herself, which they had come to regard with a kind of
+fondness, a feeling of affection and pride, as the ark that was to bear
+their fortunes across the deep, was made ready for her crowning
+achievement. For months Captain Anderson and Mr. Halpin, his chief
+officer, worked day and night to get her into perfect trim. She had
+become sadly fouled in her many voyages. As she swam the seas, a
+thousand things clung to her as to a floating island, till her hull was
+encrusted with mussels and barnacles two feet thick, and long seaweed
+flaunted from her sides. Like a brave old war-horse, long neglected, she
+needed a thorough grooming, to have her hair combed and her limbs well
+rubbed down, to fit her to take the field. But it was not an easy matter
+to get under the huge creature, to give her such a dressing. Yet Captain
+Anderson was equal to the emergency. He contrived a simple instrument by
+which every part of her bottom was raked and scrubbed. Getting rid of
+this rough, shapeless mass would make her feel easy and comfortable at
+sea, and add at least a knot an hour to her speed.
+
+The boilers too were thoroughly cleansed and repaired in every part, and
+the paddle-engines were so arranged that in five minutes they could be
+disconnected, so that by going ahead with one and backing with the
+other, the ship could be held perfectly at rest or be turned around in
+her own length, a very important matter when they should come to fish in
+deep waters for the broken end of the cable. To prepare for this, she
+was armed with chains and ropes and irons of the most formidable kind.
+For grappling the cable, she took on board twenty miles of rope, which
+would bear a strain of thirty tons, probably the largest fishing-line
+used since the days of Noah!
+
+The cable was manufactured at the rate of twenty miles a day, and as
+fast as delivered and found perfect, was coiled on board. And now the
+electricians tried their skill to outdo all that they had done before.
+As Captain Anderson observed, it seemed as if never had so much brain
+power been concentrated on the problem of success. The cable itself
+furnished the grandest subject of experiment. As every week added more
+than a hundred miles to its length, there was constant opportunity to
+try the electric current on longer distances and with new conditions.
+The results obtained showed the rapid and marvellous progress of
+electrical science. Said The Times:
+
+     "The science of making, testing, and laying cables has so much
+     improved that an undetected fault in an insulated wire has now
+     become literally impossible, while so much are the instruments
+     for signalling improved, that not only can a slight fault be
+     disregarded if necessary, but it is even easy _to work through
+     a submarine wire with a foot of its copper conductor stripped
+     and bare to the water_. This latter result, astonishing as it
+     may appear, has actually been achieved for some days past with
+     the whole Atlantic cable on board the Great Eastern. Out of a
+     length of more than one thousand seven hundred miles, a coil
+     has been taken from the centre, the copper conductor stripped
+     clean of its insulation for a foot in length, and in this
+     condition lowered over the vessel's side till it rested on the
+     ground. Yet through this the clearest signals have been
+     sent--so clear, indeed, as at one time to raise the question
+     whether it would not be worth while to grapple for the first
+     old Atlantic cable ever laid, and with these new instruments
+     working gently through it for a year or so, at least make it
+     pay cost."
+
+As other things were on the same gigantic scale, by the time the big
+ship had her cargo and stores on board, she was well laden. Of the cable
+alone there were two thousand four hundred miles, coiled in three
+immense tanks as the year before. Of this seven hundred and forty-eight
+miles were a part of the cable of the last expedition. The tanks alone,
+with the water in them, weighed over a thousand tons; and the cable
+which they held, four thousand tons more; besides which she had to carry
+eight thousand five hundred tons of coal and five hundred tons of
+telegraph stores, making fourteen thousand tons, besides engines,
+rigging, etc., which made nearly as much more. So enormous was the
+burden, that it was thought prudent not to take on board all her coal
+before she left the Medway, especially as the channel was winding and
+shallow. It was therefore arranged that about a third of her coal should
+be taken in at Berehaven, on the south-west coast of Ireland. With this
+exception, her lading was complete.
+
+The time for departure had been fixed for the last day of June, and so
+admirable had been the arrangements, and such the diligence of all
+concerned, that exactly at the hour of noon, she loosened from her
+moorings, and began to move. It was well that she had not on board her
+whole cargo; for as it was, she drew nearly thirty-two feet. Never had
+any keel pressed so deep in those waters. It required skilful handling
+to get her safely to the sea. Gently and softly she floated down, over
+bars where she almost grazed the sand, where but a few inches lifted her
+enormous hull above the river's bed. But at length the rising tide bears
+her safely over, and she is afloat in the deeper waters of the Channel.
+At first the sea did not give her a very gracious welcome. The wind was
+dead ahead, and the waves dashed furiously against her; but she kept
+steadily on, tossing their spray on high, as if they had struck against
+the rocks of Eddystone lighthouse. In four or five days she had passed
+down the Irish coast, and was quietly anchored in the harbor at
+Berehaven, where she was soon joined by the other vessels of the
+squadron.
+
+The Telegraph fleet was not the same as that of the last year. The
+Government could spare but a single ship; but the Terrible, which had
+accompanied the Great Eastern on the former expedition, was still there
+to represent the majesty of England. The William Corry, a vessel of two
+thousand tons, bore the ponderous shore end, which was to be laid out
+thirty miles from the Irish coast, while the Albany and the Medway were
+ships chartered by the Company. The latter carried several hundred miles
+of the last year's cable, besides one of heavier proportions, ninety
+miles long, to be stretched across the mouth of the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence.
+
+[Illustration: SHORE END--EXACT SIZE.]
+
+While the Great Eastern remained at Berehaven, to take in her final
+stores of coal, the William Corry proceeded around the coast to Valentia
+to lay the shore end. She arrived off the harbor on the morning of
+Saturday, the seventh of July, and immediately began to prepare for her
+heavy task. This shore end was of tremendous size, weighing twenty tons
+to the mile. It was by far the strongest wire cable ever made, and in
+short lengths was stiff as an iron bar. As the year before, the cable
+was to be brought off on a bridge of boats reaching from the ship to the
+foot of the cliff. All the fishermen's boats were gathered from along
+the shore, while H. M. S. Raccoon, which was guarding that part of the
+coast, sent up her boats to help, so that, as they all mustered in line,
+there were forty of them, making a long pontoon-bridge; and Irish
+boatmen with eager looks and strong hands were standing along the line,
+to grasp the ponderous chain. All went well, and by one o'clock the
+cable was landed, and its end brought up the cliff to the station. The
+signals were found to be perfect, and the William Corry then slowly drew
+off to sea, unlimbering her stiff shore end, till she had cast over the
+whole thirty miles. At three o'clock next morning she telegraphed
+through the cable that her work was done, and she had buoyed the end in
+water a hundred fathoms deep. Describing the scene, the correspondent of
+the London News says:
+
+     "In its leading features it presented a striking difference to
+     the ceremony of last year. Earnest gravity and a deep-seated
+     determination to repress all show of the enthusiasm of which
+     everybody was full, was very manifest. The excitement was
+     below, instead of above, the surface. Speech-making, hurrahing,
+     public congratulations, and vaunts of confidence were, as it
+     seemed, avoided as if on purpose. There was something far more
+     touching in the quiet and reverent solemnity of the spectators
+     yesterday than in the slightly boisterous joviality of the
+     peasantry last year. Nothing could prevent the scene being
+     intensely dramatic, but the prevailing tone of the drama was
+     serious instead of comic and triumphant. The old crones in
+     tattered garments who cowered together, dudheen in mouth,
+     their gaudy colored shawls tightly drawn over head and under
+     the chin--the barefooted boys and girls, who by long practice
+     walked over sharp and jagged rocks, which cut up boots and
+     shoes, with perfect impunity--the men at work uncovering the
+     trench, and winding in single file up and down the hazardous
+     path cut by the cablemen in the otherwise inaccessible
+     rock--the patches of bright color furnished by the red
+     petticoats and cloaks--the ragged garments, only kept from
+     falling to pieces by bits of string and tape--the good old
+     parish priest, who exercises mild and gentle spiritual sway
+     over the loving subjects of whom the ever-popular Knight of
+     Kerry is the temporal head, looking on benignly from his
+     car--the bright eyes, supple figures, and innocent faces of the
+     peasant lasses, and the earnestly hopeful expression of
+     all--made up a picture impossible to describe with justice. Add
+     to this, the startling abruptness with which the tremendous
+     cliffs stand flush out of the water, the alternations of bright
+     wild flowers and patches of verdure with the most desolate
+     barrenness, the mountain sheep indifferently cropping the
+     short, sweet grass, and the undercurrent of consciousness of
+     the mighty interests at stake, and few scenes will seem more
+     important and interesting than that of yesterday."
+
+As the ships are now ready for sea, and all who are to embark have come
+on board, we may look about us at the personnel of the expedition. Who
+are here? We recognize many old familiar faces, that we have seen in
+former campaigns--gallant men who have had many a sea-fight in this
+peaceful war. First, the eye seeks the tall form of Captain Anderson.
+There he is, modest and grave, of few words, but seeing every thing,
+watching every thing, and ruling every thing with a quiet power. And
+there is his second officer, Mr. Halpin, who keeps a sharp lookout after
+the crew, to see that every man does his duty. While he thus keeps watch
+of all on board, Staff Commander Moriarty, R. N., comes on deck, with
+instruments in hand, to look after the heavenly bodies, and reckon the
+ship's latitude and longitude. This is an old veteran in the service,
+who has been in all the expeditions, and it would be quite "improper,"
+even if it were possible, for a cable to be laid across the Atlantic
+without his presence and aid. And here comes Mr. Canning, the engineer,
+whose deep-sea soundings, the last year, were on a scale of such
+magnitude, and who, if he cannot well dive deeper, means to pull
+stronger the next time. That slight form yonder is Professor Thomson, of
+Glasgow, a man who in his knowledge of the subtle element to be brought
+into play, and the enthusiasm he brings to its study, is the very genius
+of electrical science; and this is Mr. Varley, who seems to have the
+lightning in his fingers, and to whom the world owes some marvellous
+discoveries of the laws of electricity. Mr. Willoughby Smith, a worthy
+associate in these studies and discoveries, goes out on the ship as
+electrician.
+
+And here is Mr. Glass, the managing director of the Telegraph
+Construction and Maintenance Company, which has undertaken by contract
+to manufacture this cable and lay it safely across the ocean; and Mr.
+Gooch, chairman of the company that owns the Great Eastern--two
+gentlemen to whom the Atlantic Telegraph is under the greatest
+obligation, since it was they who, six months before, when the project
+seemed in danger of being given up or postponed for years, took Mr.
+Field by the hand, and cheered him on to a last effort. Blessings on
+their hearts of oak! Mr. Gooch accompanies the ship, while Mr. Glass,
+keeping Mr. Varley at his side as electrician, remains on shore, to
+receive reports of the daily progress of the expedition, and to issue
+his orders. What a post of observation was that telegraph house on the
+cliffs of Valentia! It commanded a far broader horizon than the top of
+Fiesolé, from which Galileo looked down on the valley of the Arno, and
+up at the stars. Was there ever a naval commander favored with a power
+of vision that could sweep the boundless sea? What would Nelson have
+said, if he had had a spy-glass with which he could watch ships in
+action two thousand miles away, and issue his orders to a fleet on the
+other side of the ocean? With such a long range, he might almost have
+fought the Battle of the Nile from his home in England.
+
+Standing on such a spot, and surrounded by such men, representing the
+capital, the science, and the skill of England, with all those gallant
+ships in sight, one's heart might well beat high. But there were other
+reflections that saddened the hour, and caused some at least to look
+once more on the rocks of Valentia with deep emotion. Some of their old
+companions-in-arms had fallen out of the ranks, while the battle was not
+yet won. Brett, Mr. Field's first friend in England, was in his grave.
+Beyond the Atlantic, Captains Hudson and Berryman slept the sleep that
+knows no waking. They were not forgotten by their survivors, who mourned
+that those who had toiled with them in former days, were not here to
+share their triumph.
+
+The feeling, therefore, of many on this occasion, was not one elate with
+pride and hope, but subdued by serious thoughts and tender memories. In
+harmony with this feeling, and with the great work which they were about
+to undertake, it was proposed that before the expedition sailed they
+should hold a solemn religious service.
+
+Was there ever a fitter place or a fitter hour for prayer than here, in
+the presence of the great sea to which they were about to commit their
+lives and their precious trust? The first expedition ever sent forth had
+been consecrated by prayer. On that very spot, nine years before, all
+heads were uncovered and all forms bent low, at the solemn words of
+supplication; and there had the Earl of Carlisle--since gone to his
+honored grave--cheered them on with high religious hopes, describing
+the ships which were sent forth on such a mission, as "beautiful upon
+the waters as were the feet upon the mountains of them that publish the
+gospel of peace."
+
+In such a spirit two of the directors--Mr. Bevan, of London, and Mr.
+Bewley, of Dublin--sent invitations to a number of persons to meet at
+Valentia, as the expedition was about to sail, and commend it to the
+favor of Almighty God. Captain Anderson had greatly desired to be with
+them at this parting service, but the ships were at Berehaven, and they
+were just embarking for sea. But though the officers could not be
+present, a large company came together. Said an Irish paper: "Men of
+different religious denomination, and of various professions in
+life--Irishmen, Englishmen, and Scotchmen--joined in such a service as
+has never been held in this island." It was a scene long to be
+remembered, as they bowed together before the God and Father of all.
+Their brethren, who were about to go down to the sea in ships, felt
+their dependence on a Higher Power. Their preparations were complete.
+All that man could do was done. They had exhausted every resource of
+science and skill. The issue now remained with Him who controls the
+winds and waves. Therefore was it most fit that, at the very moment of
+embarking, those who remained behind should, as it were, kneel upon the
+cliff, and, with outstretched hands, commit them to Him who alone
+spreadeth out the heavens and ruleth the raging of the sea.
+
+In all this there is something of antique stamp, something which makes
+us think of the sublime men of an earlier and better time; of the
+Pilgrim Fathers kneeling on the deck of their little ship at Leyden, as
+they were about to seek a refuge and a home in the forests of the New
+World; and of Columbus and his companions celebrating a solemn service
+before their departure from Spain. And so with labor and with prayer did
+this great expedition go forth once more from the shores of Ireland,
+bearing the hopes of science and of civilization--with courage and skill
+looking out from the bow across the stormy waters, and a religious
+faith, like that of Columbus, standing at the helm.
+
+On Friday morning, the thirteenth of July, the fleet finally bade adieu
+to the land. Was Friday an unlucky day? Some of the sailors thought so,
+and would have been glad to leave a day before or after. But Columbus
+sailed on Friday, and discovered the New World on Friday; and so this
+expedition put to sea on Friday, and, as a good Providence would have
+it, reached land on the other side of the Atlantic on the same day of
+the week! As the ships disappeared below the horizon, Mr. Glass and Mr.
+Varley went up on their watch-tower--not to look, but to listen for the
+first voice from the sea. The ships bore away for the buoy where lay the
+end of the shore line; but the weather was thick and foggy, with
+frequent bursts of rain, and they could not see far on the water. For an
+hour or two they went sailing round and round, like sea-gulls in search
+of prey. At length the Albany caught sight of the buoy tossing on the
+waves, and, firing a signal gun, bore down straight upon it. The cable
+was soon hauled up from its bed, a hundred fathoms deep, and brought
+over the stern of the Great Eastern; and the watchers on shore, who had
+been waiting with some impatience, saw the first flash, and Varley read,
+"Got the shore end--all right--going to make the splice." Then all was
+still, and they knew that that delicate operation was going on. Quick,
+nimble hands tore off the covering from some yards of the shore end of
+the main cable, till they came to the core; then, swiftly unwinding the
+copper wires, they laid them together, twining them as closely and
+carefully as a silken braid. Thus stripped and bare this new-born child
+of the sea was wrapped in swaddling-clothes, covered up with many
+coatings of gutta-percha, and hempen rope, and strong iron wires, the
+whole bound round and round with heavy bands, and the splicing was
+complete. Signals were now sent through the whole cable on board the
+Great Eastern and back to the telegraph-house at Valentia, and the whole
+length, two thousand four hundred and forty nautical miles, was reported
+perfect. And so with light hearts they bore away. It was a little after
+three o'clock. As they turned to the west, the following was the "order
+of battle": the Terrible went ahead, standing off on the starboard bow,
+to keep other vessels out of the course; the Medway was on the port, and
+the Albany on the starboard quarter, ready to pick up or let go a buoy,
+or to do other work that might be required. All these ships were to keep
+their allotted positions, within signalling distance of the Great
+Eastern, and at any time that she was heard firing guns, they were to
+close in with her to render assistance. Their course lay thirty miles to
+the south of that of the last year, so that there could be no danger, in
+fishing for the old cable, of disturbing the new.
+
+Dr. Russell, the brilliant historian of the Expedition of 1865, was not
+on board the Great Eastern this year. He had left England a few weeks
+before for the scene of the war in Germany. His place was supplied by
+Mr. John C. Deane, the Secretary of the Anglo-American Company, whose
+"Diary of the Expedition" furnishes a faithful record of the incidents
+of this memorable voyage. If the story be not quite so thrilling as that
+of the year before, it is because it has not to tell of such fatal
+accidents. It has the monotony of success. A few pages from this diary,
+giving its most important portions, will render this narrative complete.
+
+The voyage began with good weather and every omen of success. Friday,
+indeed, was a day of fog and rain. At the very time they were making
+the splice with the shore end, the rain was pouring on the deck. But in
+a few hours it cleared off, and Saturday and Sunday, Mr. Field writes in
+his journal, "Weather fine;" and Monday, "Calm, beautiful day. Signals
+perfect." Owing to the improved system adopted by the chief electrician,
+communication with the shore was kept up even while the tests for
+insulation were going on.[A]
+
+Every possible precaution was taken to guard against such accidents as
+had marred the success of the year before. Remembering how small a thing
+had sufficed to puncture the cable, the men in the tank were not allowed
+to wear boots or shoes with nails in their heels, but were cased from
+head to foot in canvas dresses, drawn over their ordinary sailor
+costume, and, with slippers on their feet, they glided about softly as
+ghosts. But we turn to Mr. Deane's diary for a record of the progress
+from day to day:
+
+     "Sunday, July 15.--All through yesterday the paying-out
+     machinery worked so smoothly--the electrical tests were so
+     perfect--the weather was so fine, that fresh confidence in the
+     ultimate result has been naturally inspired. The recollection,
+     however, of the reverses of the expedition of 1865 is always
+     before those who have the greatest reliance on success; and
+     there is a quiet repose about the manner of the chief practical
+     men on board, which is an earnest that they will not allow
+     themselves to be carried away by the smoothness of twenty-four
+     hours' events. The convoy kept their position accurately during
+     the day. The Terrible signalled that a man had fallen
+     overboard. Her cutter was speedily lowered. The sailor had,
+     however, laid hold of a rope thrown to him from the frigate,
+     before the boat reached him.
+
+     "Monday.--Still everything going on well. The sea like a
+     mill-pond. The paying out of the cable from the after tank
+     progressing with uniformity and steadiness, and the electrical
+     tests perfect.
+
+     "Our track is about thirty miles to the south of that of last
+     year, and at that distance we passed parallel to where the
+     telegraph cable parted in August, 1857. Our average speed has
+     been about five knots. We were obliged to stop the screw
+     engines in order to bring down to that speed, and, moreover, to
+     reduce the paddle boiler power. Captain Anderson's ingenious
+     mode of cleaning the ship's bottom, which he carried out last
+     winter at Sheerness, has proved to have effected this very
+     desirable object. Mr. Beckwith, the engineer, is now enabled to
+     regulate and adjust her speed, and get more out of the ship
+     than he could last year, when her bottom was one incrusted mass
+     of mussels.
+
+     "Tuesday.--Another twenty-four hours of uninterrupted success.
+     All day yesterday it was so calm that the masts of our convoy
+     were reflected in the ocean, an unusual thing to see. A large
+     shoal of porpoises gambolled about us for half an hour. A
+     glorious sunset, and later, a crescent moon, which we hope to
+     see in the brightness of her full, lighting our way into
+     Trinity Bay before the days of this July shall have ended."
+
+But the whole night did not pass away so tranquilly. By midnight the
+rain fell fast, and the wind blew fiercely, and then occurred the only
+real alarm of the voyage. The scene is thus described by Mr. Deane:
+
+     "All went on well until twenty minutes past twelve A.M.,
+     Greenwich time, when the first real shock was given to the
+     success which has hitherto attended us, and this time we had
+     real cause to be alarmed. A foul flake took place in the after
+     tank. The engines were immediately turned astern, and the
+     paying out of the cable stopped. We were all soon on deck, and
+     learned that the running or paying-out part of the coil had
+     caught three turns of the flake immediately under it, carried
+     them into the eye of the coil, fouling the lay out, and hauling
+     up one and a half turns from the outside, and five turns in the
+     eye of the under flake. This was stopped, fortunately, before
+     entering the paying out machinery. Stoppers of hemp also were
+     put on near the V-wheel astern, and Mr. Canning gave orders to
+     stand by to let go the buoy. This was not very cheering to
+     hear, but his calm and collected manner gave us all confidence
+     that his skill and experience would extricate the cable from
+     the obvious danger in which it was placed. No fishing line was
+     ever entangled worse than the rope was when thrust up in
+     apparently hopeless knots from the eye of the coil to the deck.
+     There at least five hundred feet of rope lay in this state, in
+     the midst of thick rain and increasing wind. The cable crew set
+     to work under their chief engineer's instructions to
+     disentangle it. Mr. Halpin was there too, patiently following
+     the bights as they showed themselves; the crew now passing them
+     forward, now aft, until at last the character of the tangle was
+     seen, and soon it became apparent that ere long the cable would
+     be cleared. All this time Captain Anderson was at the taffrail
+     anxiously watching the strain on the rope, which he could
+     scarcely make out, the night was so dark, and endeavoring to
+     keep it up and down, going on and reversing with paddle and
+     screw. When one reflects for a moment upon the size of the
+     ship, and the enormous mass she presents to the wind, the
+     difficulty of keeping her stern, under the circumstances, over
+     the cable, can be appreciated. The port paddle-wheel was
+     disconnected; but shortly afterward there was a shift of wind,
+     and the vessel canted the wrong way. Welcome voices were now
+     heard passing the word aft from the tank that the bights were
+     cleared, and to pay out. Then the huge stoppers were gently
+     loosened, and at five minutes past two A.M., to the joy of all,
+     we were once more discharging the cable. They veered it away in
+     the tank to clear away the foul flake until three A.M., when
+     the screw and paddle engines were slowed so as to reduce the
+     speed of the ship to four and a half knots. During all this
+     critical time there was an entire absence of noise and
+     confusion. Every order was silently obeyed, and the cable men
+     and crew worked with hearty good-will. Mr. Canning has had
+     experience of foul flakes before, and showed that he knew what
+     to do in the emergency. But what of the electrical condition of
+     the cable during this period? Simply, that through its entire
+     length it was perfect."
+
+Thus, after three anxious hours, the danger was past, and the next
+morning the report of the ship is, "A fresh breeze from the southward, a
+dull gray sky, with occasional rain, and a moderate sea."
+
+     "Thursday.--There was a fresh breeze in the afternoon
+     yesterday, increasing toward evening. It brought a heavy swell
+     on the port quarter, which caused the ship to roll. The paying
+     out from the after tank went on steadily. Two of the large
+     buoys were lifted by derrick from the deck near the bows of the
+     ship, and placed in position on the port and starboard side of
+     the forward pick-up machinery, ready for letting go if
+     necessary. The sun went down with an angry look, and the scud
+     came rapidly from the eastward, the sea rising. A wind dead aft
+     is not the best for cable laying, particularly if any accident
+     should take place. By half-past eleven to-night we shall have
+     exhausted the contents of the after tank, and the cable will
+     then be paid out from the fore tank along the trough to the
+     stern, the distance from the centre of the tank to the
+     paying-out machinery being four hundred and ninety-four feet.
+     Last night the swell was very heavy, to which the Great Eastern
+     proved herself not insensible. Her rolling, like everything
+     else appertaining to her, is done on a grand scale. We see the
+     liveliness with which that operation is performed on board the
+     Albany and Medway, and we are not at all disposed to be too
+     critical in our observations on our own movements. The speed of
+     the ship was kept at four and a half during the night--the
+     slower the better, is the opinion of all on board--_festina
+     lente_. We are consuming about one hundred tons a day of the
+     seven thousand tons of coal which we had on board when we left
+     Berehaven, and Mr. Beckwith, who has been engineer of the Great
+     Eastern from her first voyage to the present moment, says her
+     engines were never in better order; and their appearance and
+     working do him and his able staff of assistant engineers the
+     greatest credit.
+
+     "Friday.--Yesterday was a day of complete success, the paying
+     out in every respect satisfactory. The wind still from the
+     eastward, but inclined to draw to the northward, the sea
+     entirely gone down. As Mr. Canning told us we should see the
+     after tank emptied at eleven o'clock, ship's time, we were all
+     collected there about ten o'clock, by which time the cable was
+     down to the last flake. Next to having daylight for changing
+     from the after to the fore tank, we could not have had a more
+     favorable time--clear starlight, no wind, and a smooth sea.
+     Looking down into the tank, the scene was highly picturesque.
+     The cable-watch, whose figures were lighted up by the lamps
+     suspended from above, slowly and cautiously lifted the turns of
+     the coil to ease their path to the eye. As each found its way
+     to the drum, the wooden floor of the tank showed itself, and
+     then we saw more floor, and as its area increased the cable
+     swept along its surface with a low, subdued noise, until, with
+     a graceful curve, it mounted to the outlet, where it was soon
+     to join a fresh supply; and now we hear the word passed that
+     they have arrived at the last turn, and the men who stood on
+     the stages of the platform of the eye with the bight, watch the
+     arrival of the cable and pass it up with tender caution, until
+     it reaches the summit; then it rushes down a wooden incline to
+     meet the spliced rope, which had by this time come down along
+     the trough leading from the forward tank. This operation was
+     conducted with great skill by Mr. Canning and his experienced
+     assistants, Messrs. Clifford and Temple. At eleven minutes past
+     one A.M. (Greenwich time), the fresh rope was going over the
+     stern, and the screw engines going ahead at thirteen minutes
+     past one. A watch of four men is now stationed, fore and aft,
+     all along the trough, which is illuminated by many lamps at
+     short distances from each other. A lamp with a green light
+     indicates the mile-mark as it comes up from the tank, and this
+     signal is repeated until it reaches the stern, where it is
+     recorded by the clerk who keeps the cable-log, in an office
+     adjoining the paying-out machinery. A red lamp indicates
+     danger. During the daytime red and blue flags are used. All
+     through the night the sea was smooth as glass, and by this
+     morning we saw that a sensible impression had been made on the
+     contents of the fore tank. The ship begins to lighten at the
+     bows, and by this time to-morrow will come up more as the
+     cable passes out of the tank.
+
+     "Saturday.--Yesterday was our seventh day of paying out cable,
+     and so far we have been more fortunate than the expedition of
+     last year. During the same period of 1865, two faults had
+     occurred--one on the twenty-fourth July, the other on the
+     twenty-ninth--causing a detention of fifty-six hours. At three
+     P.M. we were half-way, and passed where the Atlantic Cable of
+     1858 parted twice, on the twenty-sixth and twenty-eighth of
+     June--sad memories to many! We feel, however, that every hour
+     is increasing our chance of effecting this great work. 'I
+     believe we shall do it this time, Jack,' I heard one of our
+     crew say to another last night. 'I believe so too, Bill,' was
+     the reply; 'and if we don't, we deserve to do it, and that's
+     all.' It blew very hard from two o'clock yesterday, up to 10
+     P.M., by which time the wind gradually found its way from
+     south-west to north-west, which is right ahead, just what we
+     want for cable-laying. The Terrible and the two other ships
+     plunged into the very heavy sea which the southwester raised,
+     and we made up our minds, from what we saw, that the Great
+     Eastern is the right ship to be in, in a gale of wind. During
+     the night heavy showers of rain. This morning the sea was
+     comparatively smooth, and the sky showed welcome patches of
+     bright blue. If all goes well, we shall be up to-morrow evening
+     at the place where last year's cable parted. A couple of days
+     would bring us to shallower water, and then we may fairly look
+     out for our 'Heart's Content.' Messages come from England, with
+     the news, regularly and speedily--excellent practice for the
+     clerks on shore and on board ship--great comfort to us, and the
+     best evidence to those who will read this journal, of the great
+     fact that, up to this time, the cable is doing its electric
+     work efficiently."
+
+The interest of the voyage was greatly increased by the news daily
+received from Europe. Though in the middle of the Atlantic, they were
+still joined with the Old World, and messages came to the "Great Eastern
+Telegraph" as regularly as to the Times in London; reporting the
+quotations of the Stock Exchange, the debates in Parliament, and all the
+news of home. But what was far more exciting, was the tidings of the
+great events transpiring on the Continent. While the expedition had been
+preparing in England, a war had broken out of tremendous magnitude.
+Austria, Prussia, and Italy had rushed into the field. Armies, such as
+had not met since the fatal day of Leipsic, stood in battle array, and
+the thunder of war was echoing and reëchoing among the mountains of
+Bohemia. Amid these convulsions the fleet set sail; but it was still
+linked with the nations which it left behind, and received tidings from
+day to day. What great events were thus heralded to them in mid-ocean
+may be seen by a few items gleaned from the numerous despatches:
+
+     "Saturday evening, July 14th.--General Cialdini is moving upon
+     Rovigo with an army of one hundred thousand men and two hundred
+     guns. The Austrians have evacuated the whole country between
+     the Mincio and Adige."
+
+A day or two later:
+
+     "Cialdini has occupied Padua, twenty-three miles from Venice,
+     on the railway connecting that city with the Quadrilateral, and
+     the Austrians are shut up in Venice."
+
+     "Tuesday, 17th.--Prussians had successful engagement before
+     Olmütz yesterday; captured six guns. Further fighting expected
+     to-day. Austrians withdrawing from Moldavia toward
+     Vienna."----"Conflict between Prussians and Federals. Prussians
+     completely victorious. Federals evacuating Frankfort, and
+     Prussians marching there."
+
+     "Thursday, 19th.--Prussians repeating victories, and gaining
+     adhesions from small States. The main army within fifty miles
+     of Vienna--have cut the railway to Vienna. Austrian army
+     between Prussians and Vienna, under Archduke, one hundred and
+     sixty thousand men. Money and archives removed from Vienna to
+     Comorn."
+
+     "20th.--Frankfort occupied by the Prussians, who are marching
+     on Vienna. Yesterday, Italian fleet, consisting of iron-clad
+     vessels and several steamers, opened attack on Island of Lissa
+     on the coast of Dalmatia--result not known."
+
+The next day it is reported thus:
+
+     "Severe naval engagement off Lissa. Austrians claim the
+     victory. Sunk one Italian iron-clad, run down another, blew up
+     a third."
+
+     "July 21st.--Prussians crossed river; march near Holitzon,
+     Hungary. Austria accepted proposal of armistice. Prussia will
+     abstain from hostilities for five days, during which Austria
+     will have to notify acceptance of preliminaries. A long letter
+     published from the King of Prussia to the Queen, giving account
+     of battle of Königgrätz."
+
+The interest excited by such news may be imagined, coming while the
+events were yet fresh. Twice a day was the bulletin set up on the deck,
+and was surrounded by an eager crowd reading what had transpired on the
+Continent but a few hours before. Nor was the intelligence confined to
+the Great Eastern. By an arrangement of signals, more complete than ever
+was used in a squadron before, the news was telegraphed to the convoy.
+All the ships had been furnished with experienced signal-men by the
+Admiralty. The system adopted was that known as Colomb's Flash Signals,
+by which, even in the darkest night, messages could easily be flashed to
+a distance of several miles. Thus all the ships were supplied with news
+twice a day, and the great military events in Europe were discussed in
+every cabin as eagerly as in the clubs of London. Again Deane's Diary
+reports:
+
+     "Sunday, July 22d.--Still success to record. A bright clear
+     day, with a fresh and invigorating breeze from the north-west.
+     Cable going out with unerring smoothness, at the rate of six
+     miles an hour. There has been great improvement in the
+     insulation. This remarkable improvement is attributable to the
+     greatly decreased temperature of, and pressure on, the cable in
+     the sea. This is a very satisfactory result to Mr. Willoughby
+     Smith. Signals, too, come every hour more distinctly. This
+     morning the breeze freshened. We are now about thirty miles to
+     the southward of the place where the cable parted on the second
+     of August, 1865, having then paid out one thousand two hundred
+     and thirteen miles. Captain Anderson read divine service in the
+     dining saloon.
+
+     "Monday.--Between six and seven P.M. yesterday, we passed over
+     the deepest part of our course. There was no additional strain
+     on the dynamometer, which indicated from ten to fourteen
+     hundred, the cable going out with its accustomed regularity.
+     The wind still fresh from the north-west. During the night it
+     went round to the southwest, and this morning there is a long
+     roll from the southward.
+
+     "At forty-six minutes past eleven A.M., Mr. Cyrus Field sent a
+     message to Valentia, requesting Mr. Glass to obtain the latest
+     news from Egypt, India, and China, and other distant countries,
+     so that on our arrival at Heart's Content we shall be able to
+     transmit it to the principal cities of the United States. In
+     just eight minutes he had a reply in these words: 'Your message
+     received, and is in London by this.' Outside the telegraph room
+     there is a placard put up, on which is posted the news shortly
+     after its arrival, and groups of the crew may be seen reading
+     it, just as we see a crowd at a newspaper office in London. Mr.
+     Dudley, the artist, has made a very spirited sketch of 'Jack'
+     reading the morning news, for he is supplied with the latest
+     intelligence from the seat of war twice a day![B] How he will
+     grumble when he gets ashore! He is not going to pay a pound a
+     word for news, but his newspapers will supply it to him, and he
+     does not know or care what it costs. But what a sum has been
+     spent in Atlantic telegraphs! It cannot now fall short of two
+     millions and a half of pounds, or over twelve millions of
+     dollars. More millions will be found if it shall be practically
+     proved that America can permanently talk to England, and
+     through her to the eastern hemisphere, and England to America
+     by this ocean wire. At a quarter to twelve to-day but two
+     hundred and fifteen miles of cable remained to be paid out of
+     the fore tank. To-morrow night we hope to see it empty--then,
+     for a small supply from the main tank, and then----but, hopeful
+     though we are, let us not anticipate.
+
+     "Tuesday.--Breakfast at eight. Lunch at one. Dinner at six. Tea
+     at eight. Five hundred and two souls who live on board this
+     huge ship following their prescribed occupations. Cable going
+     out merrily. Electrical tests and signals perfect, and this is
+     the history of what has taken place from noon yesterday to noon
+     to-day. May we have three days more of such delightful
+     monotony! It rained very hard during yesterday evening, and as
+     we approach the Banks of Newfoundland we get thick and hazy
+     weather."
+
+The latter part of the voyage did not fulfil in all respects the promise
+of the first. The bright skies were gone; and instead perpetual fog hung
+over the water, while often the clouds poured down their floods. Thus
+the diary continues:
+
+     "Wednesday.--Fog and thick rain--just the weather to expect on
+     approaching the Banks of Newfoundland. The convoy keep their
+     position, and though sometimes the fog hides the ships from our
+     view, yet we know where they are by their signal-whistles--two
+     from the Terrible, three from the Medway, and four from the
+     Albany, which are replied to by the prolonged single shriek
+     from our whistle. At fifty-two minutes past one, Greenwich time
+     (ship's time, forty-five minutes past ten P.M., last night),
+     the fore tank being nearly empty, preparations were made for
+     passing the bight of the cable into the main tank. At fifteen
+     minutes past two all the jockey-wheels of the paying-out
+     machinery were up, and the brakes released. Twenty-three
+     minutes past two the bight was passed steadily and cautiously
+     by the cable hands outside of the trough to the main tank, and
+     at thirty-five minutes past two the splice went over the stern
+     in 1542.8 fathoms. By arrangement with Sir James Hope, the
+     admiral of the North-American station, who has received
+     instructions from the Admiralty to give the present expedition
+     every assistance in his power, a frigate or sloop will be
+     placed in longitude 48°, 25', 52", which is just thirty miles
+     from the entrance of Trinity Bay, and sixty from Heart's
+     Content. She will probably hang on by a kedge in that position,
+     which shows the 'fair way' right up the bay; and if it be
+     clear, we ought to see her about daybreak on Friday morning.
+     The fog was very thick this morning, but occasionally lifts; as
+     long as the wind is from south-west we cannot expect clear
+     weather."
+
+As the week drew on, it was evident that they were approaching the end
+of their voyage. By Thursday they had passed the great depths of the
+Atlantic, and were off soundings. Besides their daily observations,
+there were many signs, well known to mariners, that they were near the
+coast. There were the sea-birds, and they could almost snuff the smell
+of the land, such as once greeted the sharp senses of Columbus, and made
+him sure that he was floating to some undiscovered shore. Captain
+Anderson had timed his departure so that he should approach the American
+coast at the full moon; but for the last two or three nights, as the
+round orb rose behind them, banks of cloud hung so heavily upon the
+water, that the moonlight only gleamed faintly through the vaporous air,
+and the fleet seemed like the phantom ships of the Ancient Mariner,
+drifting on through fog and mist.
+
+     "Thursday.--All day yesterday it was as 'thick as mustard.' We
+     have had now forty-eight hours of fog. Though it lifted a
+     little this morning, at five A.M., it still looks like more of
+     it. Captain Anderson signalled to the Albany, at fifteen
+     minutes past ten last night, to start at daybreak, and proceed
+     to discover the station ship, and report us at hand. Should she
+     fail to find her, then to try and make the land and guide us up
+     Trinity Bay. Another signal was sent at half-past twelve to the
+     effect that the Terrible and Medway would be sent ahead to meet
+     the Albany and establish a line to lead us in even with a fog.
+     The Albany started at half-past three. At forty-five minutes
+     past four, Greenwich time, the cable engineer in charge took
+     one weight off each brake of the paying-out machinery. At forty
+     minutes past seven all weights taken off, the assumed depth
+     being three hundred fathoms. The indicated strain on the
+     dynamometer gradually decreasing. Speed of ship five knots. We
+     are going to try and pick up the cable of 1865 in two thousand
+     five hundred fathoms (and we mean to succeed too); therefore
+     should the cable we are now paying out part, it can be
+     understood how easy it would be to raise it from a depth of
+     three hundred fathoms. At fifty-five minutes past eight we
+     signalled to the Terrible to sound, and received a reply, one
+     hundred and sixty fathoms. At half-past eleven we informed her
+     that when at the buoy off Heart's Content she should have her
+     paddle-box boat and two cutters ready to be alongside
+     immediately, for holding the bight of the cable during the
+     splice and laying the shore end. The Medway was told at the
+     same time to prepare two five-inch ropes, and two large
+     mushroom anchors, with fifty fathoms of chain, for anchoring
+     during the splice in one hundred and seventy fathoms of water,
+     and we intimated to her that when inside of Trinity Bay we
+     should signal for two boats to take hands on board her for
+     shore end. News of to-day, telegram from Mr. Glass in reply to
+     one from Mr. Canning: I congratulate you all most sincerely on
+     your arrival in one hundred and thirty fathoms. I hope nothing
+     will interfere to mar the hitherto brilliant success, and that
+     the cable will be landed to-morrow.'"
+
+As the voyage is about to end, we give the distances run from day to
+day, which show a remarkable uniformity of progress:
+
+                               Distance Run. Cable Paid Out.
+
+     Saturday, fourteenth,           108          115
+     Sunday, fifteenth,              128          139
+     Monday, sixteenth,              115          137
+     Tuesday, seventeenth,           117          138
+     Wednesday, eighteenth,          104          125
+     Thursday, nineteenth,           112          129
+     Friday, twentieth,              117          127
+     Saturday, twenty-first,         121          136
+     Sunday, twenty-second,          123          133
+     Monday, twenty-third,           121          138
+     Tuesday, twenty-fourth,         120          135
+     Wednesday, twenty-fifth,        119          130
+     Thursday, twenty-sixth,         128          134
+     Friday, twenty-seventh.         100          104
+
+From this it appears that the speed of the ship was exactly according
+to the running time fixed before she left England. On the last voyage it
+was thought that she had once or twice run too fast, and thus exposed
+the cable to danger. It was, therefore, decided to go slowly but surely.
+Holding her back to this moderate pace, her average speed, from the time
+the splice was made till they saw land, was a little less than five
+nautical miles an hour, while the cable was paid out at an average of
+not quite five and a half miles. Thus the total slack was about eleven
+per cent, showing that the cable was laid almost in a straight line,
+allowing for the swells and hollows in the bottom of the sea.
+
+     "Friday, July 27th.--Shortly after two P.M., yesterday, two
+     ships, which were soon made out to be steamers, were seen to
+     the westward; and the Terrible, steaming on ahead, in about an
+     hour signalled to us that H.M.S. Niger was one of them,
+     accompanied by the Albany. The Niger, Captain Bruce, sent a
+     boat to the Terrible as soon as he came up with her. The Albany
+     shortly afterward took up her position on our starboard
+     quarter, and signalled that she spoke the Niger at noon,
+     bearing E. by N., and that the Lily was anchored at the station
+     in the entrance of Trinity Bay, as arranged with the Admiral.
+     The Albany also reported that she had passed an iceberg about
+     sixty feet high. At twenty minutes after four P.M., the Niger
+     came on our port side, quite close, and Captain Bruce, sending
+     the crew to the rigging and manning the yards, gave us three
+     cheers, which were heartily returned by the Great Eastern. She
+     then steamed ahead toward Trinity Bay. The Albany was signalled
+     to go on immediately to Heart's Content, clear the northeast
+     side of the harbor of shipping, and place a boat with a red
+     flag for Captain Anderson to steer to, for anchorage. Just
+     before dinner we saw on the southern horizon, distant about ten
+     miles, an iceberg, probably the one which the Albany met with.
+     It was apparently about fifty or sixty feet in height. The fog
+     came on very thick about eight P.M., and between that and ten
+     we were constantly exchanging guns and burning blue lights with
+     the Terrible, which, with the Niger, went in search of the
+     Lily, station ship. The Terrible being signalled to come up and
+     take her position, informed us they had made the Lily out, and
+     that she bore then about E.N.E. distant four miles. Later in
+     the night Captain Commerill said that if Captain Anderson would
+     stop the Great Eastern, he would send the surveyor Mr.
+     Robinson, R. N., who came out in the Niger, on board of us, and
+     about three the engines were slowed, and the Terrible shortly
+     afterwards came alongside with that officer. Catalina light, at
+     the entrance of Trinity Bay, had been made out three hours
+     before this, and the loom of the coast had also been seen. Fog
+     still prevailing! According to Mr. Robinson's account, if they
+     got one clear day in seven at the entrance of Trinity Bay, they
+     considered themselves fortunate. Here we are now (six A.M.),
+     within ten miles of Heart's Content, and we can scarcely see
+     more than a ship's length. The Niger, however, is ahead, and
+     her repeated guns tell us where we are with accuracy. Good
+     fortune follows us, and scarcely has eight o'clock arrived when
+     the massive curtain of fog raises itself gradually from both
+     shores of Trinity Bay, disclosing to us the entrance of Heart's
+     Content, the Albany making for the harbor, the Margaretta
+     Stevenson, surveying vessel, steaming out to meet us, the
+     preärranged pathway all marked with buoys by Mr. J. H. Kerr, R.
+     N., and a whole fleet of fishing boats fishing at the entrance.
+
+     "We could now plainly see that Heart's Content, so far as its
+     capabilities permitted, was prepared to welcome us. The British
+     and American flags floated from the church and telegraph
+     station and other buildings. We had dressed ship, fired a
+     salute, and given three cheers, and Captain Commerill of H.M.S.
+     Terrible was soon on board to congratulate us on our success.
+     At nine o'clock, ship's time, just as we had cut the cable and
+     made arrangements for the Medway to lay the shore end, a
+     message arrived giving us the concluding words of a leader in
+     this morning's Times: 'It is a great work, a glory to our age
+     and nation, and the men who have achieved it deserve to be
+     honored among the benefactors of their race.'--'Treaty of peace
+     signed between Prussia and Austria!' It was now time for the
+     chief engineer, Mr. Canning, to make the necessary preparations
+     for splicing on board the Medway. Accompanied by Mr. Gooch,
+     M.P., Mr. Clifford, Mr. Willoughby Smith, and Messrs. Temple
+     and Deane, he went on board, the Terrible and Niger having sent
+     their paddle-box boats and cutters to assist. Shortly afterward
+     the Great Eastern steamed into the harbor and anchored on the
+     north-east side, and was quickly surrounded by boats laden with
+     visitors. Mr. Cyrus Field had come on shore before the Great
+     Eastern had left the offing, with a view of telegraphing to St.
+     John's to hire a vessel to repair the cable unhappily broken
+     between Cape Ray, in Newfoundland, and Cape North, in Breton
+     Island. Before a couple of hours the shore end will be landed,
+     and it is impossible to conceive a finer day for effecting this
+     our final operation. Even here, people can scarcely realize
+     the fact that the Atlantic Telegraph Cable has been laid.
+     To-morrow, however, Heart's Content[C] will awaken to the fact
+     that it is a highly favored place in the world's esteem, the
+     western landing-place of that marvel of electric communication
+     with the Eastern hemisphere, which is now happily, and we hope
+     finally, established."
+
+This simple record, so modestly termed the Diary of the Expedition,
+tells the story of this memorable voyage in a way that needs no
+embellishment. But if from the ship's deck we transfer ourselves to the
+shore, we may get a new impression of the closing scene. We can well
+believe the sensation of wonder and almost of awe, on the morning when
+the ships entered that little harbor of Newfoundland. In England the
+progress of the expedition was known from day to day, but on this side
+of the ocean all was uncertainty. Some had gone to Heart's Content,
+hoping to witness the arrival of the fleet, but not so many as the year
+before, for the memory of the last failure was too fresh, and they
+feared another disappointment. But still a faithful few were there, who
+kept their daily watch. The correspondents of the American papers report
+only a long and anxious suspense, till the morning when the first ship
+was seen in the offing. As they looked toward her, she came nearer--and
+see, there is another and another! And now the hull of the Great Eastern
+loomed up all glorious in the morning sky. They were coming! Instantly
+all was wild excitement on shore. Boats put off to row toward the fleet.
+The Albany was the first to round the point and enter the bay. The
+Terrible was close behind. The Medway stopped an hour or two to join on
+the heavy shore end, while the Great Eastern, gliding calmly in as if
+she had done nothing remarkable, dropped her anchor in front of the
+telegraph house, having trailed behind her a chain of two thousand
+miles, to bind the Old World to the New.
+
+That same afternoon, as soon as the shore end was landed, Captain
+Anderson and the officers of the fleet went in a body to the little
+church in Heart's Content, to render thanks for the success of the
+expedition. A sermon was preached on the text, "There shall be no more
+sea," and all joined in the sublime prayers and thanksgivings of the
+Church of England. Thus the voyage ended as it began. It left the shores
+of Ireland with prayers wafted after it as a benediction. And now,
+safely landed on the shores of the New World, this gallant company, like
+Columbus and his companions, made it their first thought to render
+homage to the Being who had borne them safely across the deep.
+
+But though their voyage was ended, there was still a work to be done.
+Having crossed the Atlantic, the first thing was to open communication
+with the cities of the United States. And now Mr. Field was extremely
+mortified to find that there was a large gap in the line this side of
+the ocean. His first question to the Superintendent, who came out in a
+boat to meet him, was in regard to the cable across the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence, which had been interrupted the year before; and it was a
+bitter pang to hear that it lay still broken, so that a message which
+came from Ireland in a moment of time, was delayed twenty-four hours in
+its way to New York. Of course the public grew impatient, and there were
+many sneers at the want of foresight which had failed to provide against
+such a contingency; and, as he was the one chiefly known in connection
+with the enterprise, these reproaches fell upon him. He did not tell the
+public, what was the truth, that he had anticipated this very trouble
+long ago, and entreated his associates to be prepared for it. Months
+before he left for England, he urged upon the Company in New York the
+necessity of rebuilding their lines in Newfoundland, which had been
+standing over ten years, and of repairing the old cable, and also laying
+a new one across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But this would cost a large
+sum of money, and as their faith and purses had been sorely tried by
+repeated disasters, they were not willing to spend more in the
+uncertainty of the future. They wished to see the result of this new
+expedition, before advancing further capital. We do not blame them, but
+only mention the fact to show that Mr. Field had foreseen this very
+thing, and endeavored to guard against it.
+
+But regrets were idle. What could he do to repair the injury? "Is there
+a steamer," he asked, "to be had in these waters?" "The Bloodhound is at
+St. John's." "Telegraph instantly to charter her to go around to the
+Gulf of St. Lawrence, and fish up the old cable and repair it. But that
+may take several weeks. Is there nothing else that can serve in the mean
+time to carry despatches across the Gulf?" "There is a little steamer,
+called the Dauntless." "Well, telegraph for her too. Secure her at all
+hazards; only see that the work is done." All this was the work of a few
+minutes. The answers came back quickly, and in a day or two came the
+steamers themselves. The arrangement was immediately carried out. The
+Dauntless took her place in the Gulf, where she made her regular trips
+from Port au Basque, in Newfoundland, to Aspee Bay, in Cape Breton,
+keeping up daily communication with the States. The Bloodhound, which
+had a more difficult task, first took on board eleven miles of cable
+from the Great Eastern, to repair that which was broken. The expedition
+was put in charge of Mr. A. M. Mackay, the indefatigable Superintendent
+of the Company in Newfoundland, who had had the care of their lines for
+ten years. He sailed for Aspee Bay, and made short work of the business,
+dragging the Gulf and raising the cable, which he found had been broken
+by an anchor, in water seventy fathoms deep, a few miles from shore.
+This was spliced out with a portion of the new cable, and the whole was
+as perfect as ever, giving a fresh proof that cables well made are
+likely to be permanent, if not indestructible.
+
+Meanwhile, owing to this interruption of the cable across the Gulf of
+St. Lawrence, the news of the success of the expedition, which reached
+Newfoundland on Friday, the twenty-seventh, did not reach New York till
+the twenty-ninth. It was early Sunday morning, before the Sabbath bells
+had rung their call to prayer, that the tidings came. The first
+announcement was brief: "Heart's Content, July 27.--We arrived here at
+nine o'clock this morning. All well. Thank God, the cable is laid, and
+is in perfect working order.
+
+                              Cyrus W. Field."
+
+Soon followed the despatch to the Associated Press, giving the details
+of the voyage, and ending with a just tribute to the skill and devotion
+of all who had contributed to its success. Said Mr. Field: "I cannot
+find words suitable to convey my admiration for the men who have so ably
+conducted the nautical, engineering, and electrical departments of this
+enterprise, amidst difficulties which must be seen to be appreciated. In
+fact, all on board of the telegraph fleet, and all connected with the
+enterprise, have done their best to have the cable made and laid in a
+perfect condition; and He who rules the winds and the waves has crowned
+their united efforts with perfect success."
+
+Other despatches followed in quick succession, giving the latest events
+of the war in Europe, which startled the public just reading news a
+fortnight old. All this confirmed the great triumph, and filled every
+heart with wonder and gratitude on the Sunday morning, as they went
+again to the little church and rendered thanks to Him who is Lord of the
+earth and sea.
+
+While the Great Eastern was lying in the harbor of Heart's Content, she
+was overrun with visitors. The news of her arrival had spread over the
+island, and from far and near the people flocked to see her. Over the
+hills they came on foot and on horseback, and in wagons and carts of
+every description; and from along the shore in boats and fishing-smacks,
+and sloops and schooners. They came from the most remote parts of the
+island--a distance of three hundred miles--and even from the province of
+New Brunswick. Several parties made the excursion in steamers from St.
+John's. The wondering country folk climbed up the sides of the ship, and
+wandered for hours through its spacious rooms and long passages. All
+were welcomed with hearty sailor courtesy.
+
+As soon as communication was opened with New York, and other cities,
+congratulations poured in from every quarter. Friendly messages were
+exchanged--as eight years before--between the sovereign of England and
+the head of the Great Republic. The President also, and Mr. Seward,
+Secretary of State, sent their congratulations to Mr. Field--greetings
+that were repeated from the most distant States. Among others was a
+message from San Francisco, which was put into his hand almost at the
+same moment with one from M. de Lesseps, dated at Alexandria in Egypt!
+What a meeting and mingling of voices was this, when a winged salutation
+flying over the tops of the Rocky Mountains, reached the same ear with a
+message which had been whispered along the Mediterranean and under the
+Atlantic: when the farthest East touched the farthest West--the most
+ancient of kingdoms answering to the new-born empire of the Pacific.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] The new method is thus explained by Mr. Deane:
+
+"The fundamental difference between last year's system of testing and
+that of the present expedition is, that now all the ordinary tests for
+continuity may be made simultaneously with the test for insulation,
+which is not interrupted at all; whereas, last year, during half the
+time spent in laying the cable, the insulation test was wholly
+neglected.
+
+"Last year, each hour was divided into four parts. The first half of the
+hour was spent in testing for insulation. During the second half, which
+was divided into three periods of ten minutes each, tests were made to
+ascertain the resistance of the conductor and to prove the continuity of
+the same. All these tests were of such a nature as to afford no
+criterion whatever of the state of the insulation during their
+continuance, so that during the half of each hour, or, in other words,
+during half the time spent in laying the cable, the insulation test was
+neglected. Also, while the insulation test was being made, there was no
+means of communicating with the shore, as the observations were taken on
+board only. This year, a test for insulation is constantly kept on, and,
+by Mr. Willoughby Smith's arrangement, corresponding observations are
+made both on ship and shore. At stated times during the hour, the
+continuity test is made at the shore station by means of a condenser
+applied to the conductor of the cable. The effect of this is to increase
+the deflection on the ship's insulation galvanometer, thus serving as a
+continuity test. Communications from shore to ship are also made by
+these means. The ship can send signals to the shore by simply reversing
+the current for certain lengths of time, answering to some understood
+code, or by increasing and diminishing the tension of the line,
+according to a preärranged plan. All these operations may be performed
+without interrupting the insulation test, except for a few seconds while
+the current is being reversed. So far for the new system in the
+electrical room as compared with last year."
+
+[B] Mr. Dudley made a number of sketches for Mr. Field, with several
+large paintings, which have furnished the illustrations for this volume.
+
+[C] The little harbor that bears this gentle name, is a sheltered nook
+where ships may ride at anchor, safe from the storms of the ocean. It is
+but an inlet from the great arm of the sea known as Trinity Bay, which
+is sixty or seventy miles long, and twenty miles broad. On the beach is
+a small village of some sixty houses, most of which are the humble
+dwellings of those hardy men who vex the northern seas with their
+fisheries. The place was never heard of outside of Newfoundland till
+1864, when Mr. Field, sailing up Trinity Bay in the surveying steamer
+Margaretta Stevenson, Captain Orlebar, R. N., in search of a place for
+the landing of the ocean cable, fixed upon this secluded spot. The old
+landing of 1858 was at the Bay of Bull's Arm, at the head of Trinity
+Bay, twenty miles above. Heart's Content was chosen now because its
+waters are still and deep, so that a cable skirting the north side of
+the Banks of Newfoundland can be brought in deep water almost till it
+touches the shore. All around the land rises to pine-crested heights;
+and here the telegraphic fleet, after its memorable voyage, lay in
+quiet, under the shadow of the encircling hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+RECOVERY OF THE LOST CABLE.
+
+
+Though the Great Eastern was still lying in the little harbor of Heart's
+Content, casting her mighty shadow on its tranquil waters, she was not
+"content" with her amazing victory, but sighed for another greater
+still. Though she had done enough to be laid up for a year, still she
+had one more test of her prowess--to recover the cable of 1865, which
+had been lost in the middle of the Atlantic. So eager were all for this
+second trial of their strength, that in less than five days two of the
+ships--the Albany and the Terrible--the vanguard of the telegraphic
+fleet, were on their way back to mid-ocean. Though it was only Friday,
+the 27th of July, that they reached land, they left early Wednesday
+morning, the first day of August. The Great Eastern was detained a week
+longer. She had to lay in immense supplies of coal. Anticipating this
+want, six ships had been despatched from Cardiff, in Wales, weeks
+before, to await the arrival of the fleet. One of these foundered at
+sea; the others arrived out safely, and hardly had the Great Eastern
+cast anchor before they were alongside, ready to fill her bunkers. So
+ample was the provision, that, when she went to sea a few days after,
+she had nearly eight thousand tons of coal on board.
+
+At the same time she had to receive some six hundred miles of the cable
+of 1865, which had been shipped from England in the Medway. The latter
+was now brought alongside, and the whole was transferred into the main
+tank of the Great Eastern, from which it was to be paid out in case the
+lost end were recovered.
+
+At length all these preparations were completed, and on Thursday, the
+9th of August, the Great Eastern and the Medway put to sea. The Governor
+of Newfoundland, who had come around from St. John's and been received
+with the honors due his rank, accompanied them in the Lily down the
+broad expanse of Trinity Bay, and then bore away for St. John's while
+the Great Eastern and Medway kept on their course to join their
+companions in the middle of the Atlantic. They had a little over six
+hundred miles to run to the "fishing ground," and made it in three days.
+On Sunday noon they came in sight of the appointed rendezvous, and soon
+with glasses made out the Albany and the Terrible, which had arrived a
+week before and placed buoys to mark the line of the cable, and then,
+like giant sea-birds with folded wings, sat watching their prey. The sea
+was running high, so that boats could not come off, but the Albany
+signalled that she had not toiled for nothing; that she had once hooked
+the cable, but lost it in rough weather. The history of this first
+attempt, though brief, was cheering.
+
+When the Albany left Heart's Content, Captain Moriarty went in her. He
+had been in the Great Eastern the year before, and saw where the cable
+went down, and had had his eye on the spot ever since. He claimed, with
+Captain Anderson, that he could go straight to it and place the ship
+within half a mile of where it disappeared. At this old sailors shook
+their heads, and said, "They'd like to see him do it;" "No man could
+come within two or three miles of any given place in the ocean." Yet the
+result proved the exactness of his observations. With unerring eye he
+went straight to the spot, and set his buoys as exactly as a fisherman
+sets his nets.
+
+In the Albany, also, had gone Mr. Temple, of Mr. Canning's staff. The
+ship had been fitted up with a complete set of buoys and apparatus for
+grappling; and he was full of ambition to recover the cable before the
+Great Eastern should come up. In this he had nearly proved successful.
+They had caught it once, and raised it a few hundred fathoms from the
+bottom, and buoyed it, but rough weather came on and tore away the buoy,
+so that the cable went down again, carrying two miles of rope.
+
+This was a disappointment, but still, as their first attempt was only a
+"feeler," the result was encouraging. It showed that they had found the
+right place; that the cable was there; that it had not run away nor been
+floated off by those under-currents that exist in the imagination of
+some wise men of the sea; nor that it was so imbedded in the ooze of the
+deep as to be beyond reach or recovery. All this was cheering, but as it
+promised to be a more difficult job than they had supposed, they were
+glad when the Great Eastern hove in sight that Sunday noon.
+
+The next morning Captain Moriarty and Mr. Temple came on board, and
+after reporting their experience, the chief officers of the Expedition
+held a council of war before opening the campaign. The fleet was all
+together, the weather was favorable, and it was determined at once to
+proceed to business.
+
+As the attempt is now to be renewed on a grand scale, the reader may
+wish some further details of the means employed to insure success. As
+nothing in this whole enterprise has excited such astonishment, nothing
+merits a more careful history. When it was first proposed to drag the
+bottom of the Atlantic for a cable lost in waters two and a half miles
+deep, the project was so daring that it seemed to be almost a war of the
+Titans upon the gods. Yet never was anything undertaken less in the
+spirit of reckless desperation. The cable was recovered, as a city is
+taken by siege--by slow approaches, and the sure and inevitable result
+of mathematical calculation. Every point was studied beforehand--the
+position of the broken end, the depth of the ocean, the length of rope
+needed to reach the bottom, and the strength required to lift the
+enormous weight. To find the place was a simple question of nautical
+astronomy--a calculation of latitude and longitude. It seemed
+providential that, when the cable broke on the second of August, 1865,
+it was a few minutes after noon; the sun was shining brightly, and they
+had just taken a perfect observation. This made it much easier to go
+back to the place again. The waters were very deep, but that they could
+touch bottom, and even grapple the cable, was proved by the experiments
+of the year before. But could any power be applied which should lift it
+without breaking, and bring it safely on board? This was a simple
+question of mechanics. Prof. Thomson had made a calculation that in
+raising the cable from a depth of two and a half miles, there would be
+about ten miles of its length suspended in the water. Of course, it was
+a very nice matter to graduate the strain so as not to break the cable.
+For this it had been suggested that two or three ships should grapple it
+at once, and lifting it together, ease the strain on any one point--a
+method of meeting the danger that was finally adopted with success.
+
+With such preparations, let us see how all this science and seamanship
+and engineering are applied. The ships are now all together in the
+middle of the Atlantic. The first point is achieved. They have found
+the place where the broken cable lies--they have laid their hands on the
+bottom of the ocean and "felt of it," and know that it is there. The
+next thing is to draw a line over it, to mark its course, for in fogs
+and dark nights it cannot be traced by observations. The watery line is
+therefore marked by a series of buoys a few miles apart, which are held
+in position by heavy mushroom-anchors, let down to the bottom by a huge
+buoy-rope, which is fastened at the top by a heavy chain. Each buoy is
+numbered, and has on the top a long staff with a flag, and a black ball
+over it, which can be seen at a distance. Thus the ships, ranging around
+in a circuit of many miles, can keep in sight this chain of sentinels.
+The buoy which marks the spot where they wish to grapple has also a
+lantern placed upon it at night, which gleams afar upon the ocean.
+Having thus fixed their bearings, the Great Eastern stands off, north or
+south according to the wind or current, three or four miles from where
+the cable lies, and then, casting over the grapnel, drifts slowly down
+upon the line, as ships going into action reef their sails, and drift
+under the enemy's guns.
+
+The "fishing-tackle" is on a gigantic scale. The "hooks," or grapnels,
+are huge weapons armed with teeth, like Titanic harpoons to be plunged
+into this submarine monster. The "fishing-line" is a rope six and a
+half inches round, and made of twisted hemp and iron, consisting of
+forty-nine galvanized wires, each bound with manilla, the whole capable
+of bearing a strain of thirty tons. Of this heavy rope there are twenty
+miles on board the ships, the Albany carrying five, and the Great
+Eastern and the Medway seven and a half miles each. Of course it is not
+the easiest thing in the world to handle such a rope. But it is paid out
+by machinery, passing over a drum; and the engine works so smoothly,
+that it runs out as easily as ever a fisherman's line was reeled off
+into the sea. As it goes out freely, the strain increases every moment.
+The rope is so ponderous, that the weight mounts up very fast, so that
+by the time it is two thousand fathoms down, the strain is equal to six
+or seven tons. The tension of course is very great, and not unattended
+with danger. What if the rope should break? If it should snap on board,
+it would go into the sea like a cannon-shot. Such was the tension on the
+long line, that once when the splice between the grapnel-rope and the
+buoy-rope "drew," the end passed along the wheels with terrific
+velocity, and flying in the air over the bow, plunged into the sea. But
+the rope is well made, and holds firmly an enormous weight. It takes
+about two hours for the grapnel to reach the bottom, but they can tell
+when it strikes. The strain eases up, and then, as the ship drifts, it
+is easy to see that it is not dragging through the water, but over the
+ground. "I often went to the bow," says Mr. Field, "and sat on the
+rope, and could tell by the quiver that the grapnel was dragging on the
+bottom two miles under us."
+
+And thus, with its fishing line set, the great ship moves slowly down
+over where the cable lies. As the grapnel drags on the bottom, one of
+the engineer's staff stands at the dynamometer to watch for the moment
+of increasing strain. A few hours pass, and the index rises to eight,
+ten, or twelve tons, sure token that there is something at the end of
+the line--it may be the lost cable, or a sunken mast or spar, the
+fragment of a wreck that went down in a storm that swept the Atlantic a
+hundred years ago. And now the engine is set in motion to haul in. As
+the rope comes up, it passes over a five-foot drum, every revolution
+bringing up three fathoms. Thus it takes some hours to haul in over two
+miles' length, perhaps at last to find nothing at the end!
+
+Success in hooking the cable depends on the accuracy of their
+observations. These were sometimes verified in a remarkable manner. When
+the nights were very dark and thick with fog, so that they could not see
+the stars above nor their lights on the ocean, they had to go almost by
+the sense of feeling. Yet so exactly had they taken their bearings, that
+they could almost grope over the ground with their hands. A singular
+proof of this was given one night, when, just as the line began to
+quiver, showing that the cable had been hooked, one of the buoys--which
+had not been seen in the darkness--thumped against the side of the ship.
+So exactly had it been placed over the prescribed line, that the ship
+struck the buoy just as the grapnel struck the cable! The accident,
+which startled them at first, when it occurred in the gloom of night,
+furnished the strongest proof of the accuracy of their observations; and
+the officers were very proud of it, as they well might be, as a victory
+in nautical astronomy!
+
+These different experiments revealed some secrets of the ocean. Its
+bottom proved to be generally ooze, a soft slime. When the rope went
+down, one or two hundred fathoms at the end would trail on the sea
+floor; and when it came up, this was found coated with mud, "very fine
+and soft like putty, and full of minute shells." But it was not _all_
+ooze at the bottom of the sea, even on this telegraphic plateau. There
+were hidden rocks--perhaps not cliffs and ledges, but at least scattered
+boulders, lying on that mighty plain. Sometimes the strain on the
+dynamometer would suddenly go up three or four tons, and then back
+again, as if the grapnel had been caught and broken away. Once it came
+up with two of its hooks bent, as if it had come in contact with a huge
+rock. At one time it brought up in the mud a small stone half the size
+of an almond; and at another a fragment as large as a brick. This was a
+piece of granite.
+
+Friday, August 17th, was a memorable day in the expedition, for the
+cable was not only caught, but brought to the surface, where it was in
+full sight of the whole ship, and yet finally escaped. The day before
+the line had been cast over, at about two o'clock, and struck the ground
+a little before five. After dragging a couple of hours, the increasing
+strain showed that they had grappled the prize, and they began to haul
+in, but soon ceased, and held on till morning. Then the engine was set
+in motion again, and slowly but steadily the ponderous rope came up from
+the deep. By half-past ten o'clock, Friday morning, twenty-three hundred
+fathoms had come on board, and but fifteen or twenty remained. Then was
+the critical moment, and they paused before giving a last pull. Such was
+the eagerness of all, that the diver of the ship, Clark, begged to be
+allowed to plunge down twenty fathoms, to lay his hand on the prize, and
+be sure that it was there. But patience yet a few minutes! A few more
+strokes of the engine, and the sea-serpent shows himself--a long black
+snake with a white belly. "On the appearance of the cable," says Deane,
+in his Diary of the Expedition, "we were all struck with the fact that
+one half of it was covered with ooze, staining it a muddy white, while
+the other half was in just the state in which it left the tank, with its
+tarred surface and strands unchanged, which showed that it lay in the
+sand only half embedded. The strain on the cable gave it a twist, and
+it looked as if it had been painted spirally black and white. This
+disposes of the oft-repeated assertion, that we should not be able to
+pull it up from the bottom, because it would be embedded in the ooze."
+
+The appearance of the cable woke a tremendous hurrah from all on board.
+They cheered as English sailors are apt to cheer when the flag of an
+enemy is struck in battle. But their exultation came too soon. The
+strain on the cable was already mounting up to a dangerous point. Capt.
+Anderson and Mr. Canning were standing on the bow, and saw that the
+strands were going. They hastened men to its relief, but it was too
+late. Before they could put stoppers on it to hold it, it broke close to
+the grapnel, and sunk to the bottom. It had been in sight but just five
+minutes, and was gone. Instantly the feeling of exultation was turned to
+one of disappointment, and almost of rage, at the treacherous monster,
+that lifted up its snaky head from the sea, as if to mock its captors,
+and instantly dived to the silence and darkness below.
+
+It was a cruel disappointment. Yet when they came to think soberly,
+there was no cause for despair, but rather for new confidence and hope.
+They had proved what they could do. But this detained them in the middle
+of the Atlantic for two weeks more.
+
+It were idle to relate all the attempts of those two weeks. Every day
+brought its excitement. Whenever the grapnel caught, there was a
+suspense of many hours till it was brought on board. Several times they
+seemed on the point of success. Two days after that fatal Friday, on
+Sunday, August 19th, they caught the cable again, and brought it up
+within a thousand fathoms of the ship, and buoyed it. But Monday and
+Tuesday were too rough for work, and all their labor was in vain. Thus
+it was a constant battle with the elements. Sometimes the wind blew
+fiercely and drove them off their course. Sometimes the buoys broke
+adrift and had to be pursued and taken. Once or twice the boatswain's
+mate--a brave fellow, by the name of Thornton--was lowered in ropes over
+the bow of the ship and let down astride of a buoy; and though it spun
+round with him like a top, and his life was in danger, he held on and
+fastened a chain to it, by which it was swung on board.
+
+The continued bad weather was the chief obstacle to success. Engineers
+had often grappled for cables in the North Sea and the Mediterranean;
+but there they could look for at least a few days when the sea would be
+at rest; but in the Atlantic it was impossible to calculate on good
+weather for twenty-four hours. For nearly four weeks that they were at
+sea, they had hardly four days of clear sunshine, without wind. Often
+the ocean was covered with a driving mist, and the ships, groping about
+like blind giants, kept blowing their shrill fog-trumpets, or firing
+guns, as signals to their companions that they were still there.
+Occasionally the sun shone out from the clouds, and gave them hope of
+better success. Once or twice we find in the private journal kept by Mr.
+Field, that it was "too calm;" there was not wind enough to drift the
+ship over the cable, so that the rope hung up and down from the bow,
+without dragging. One Sunday night he remembered, when the deep was
+hushed to a Sabbath stillness, the moon was shining brightly, and the
+ships floating over a "sea of glass," that suggested thoughts of a
+better world than this. Such times gave them fresh hopes, that might be
+disappointed on the morrow.
+
+Once, however, the Albany, which had been off a few miles fishing on its
+own hook, suddenly appeared in the night, reporting a victory. All on
+board the Great Eastern were startled by the firing of guns. It was a
+little after midnight, and Mr. Field had gone below, worn out with the
+long suspense and anxiety, when Captain Anderson came rushing to his
+stateroom with tidings that the cable was recovered! Both hurried on
+deck, and sure enough there was the Albany bearing down upon them, with
+her crew cheering in the wildest manner. The gallant Temple had
+conquered at last. But the next morning brought a fresh disappointment.
+They had indeed got hold of the cable, and brought its end on board, and
+afterward buoyed it, but when the Great Eastern went for it, it proved
+to be only a fragment some two miles long, which had been broken off in
+one of the previous grapplings. However, they hauled it in, and kept it
+with pride, as their first trophy from the sea.
+
+And so the days and weeks wore on; it was near the end of August, and
+still the prize was not taken. The courage of the men did not fail, but
+they were becoming worn out. The tension on their nerves of this long
+suspense was terrible. On Tuesday, August 28th, Mr. Temple was brought
+on board from the Albany, very ill. He was worn out with constant
+watching. Their resources, too, must in time be exhausted. On the
+evening of the 29th, Captain Commerill, of the Terrible, came on board,
+and reported the condition of his ship. He was one of the very best
+officers in the fleet, full of zeal, courage, and activity (having a
+good right hand in his first officer, Mr. Curtis), and always kept up a
+brave heart, even in the darkest days.[A] But his supplies were nearly
+exhausted. He had been out four weeks, and his coal was almost gone,
+and his men were on half rations. So he must leave the fishing ground
+for fresh supplies. It was a painful necessity. He mourned his fate,
+like a brave officer who is ordered away in the midst of a battle. But
+he submitted only with a determination to take in ammunition, and to
+come back in a few days to renew the struggle. Accordingly the Terrible
+left the same evening for St. John's.
+
+At the same time it was decided that the three other ships should leave
+their present cruising ground, and try a new spot. As an old fisherman,
+who has cast his line in one place so often as to scare the fish away,
+sometimes has better luck in other waters, so they proposed to go east
+a hundred miles, to a place where the ocean was not quite so deep.
+Deane, in his Diary, calls it "the sixteen hundred fathom patch," but
+they found it nineteen hundred fathoms, or about two miles! So the next
+morning the Great Eastern, the Medway, and the Albany "pulled up
+stakes," that is, took in their buoys, and bore away to the east. In a
+few hours they reached the appointed rendezvous, and had set their
+buoys. The last day of August had come, and all seemed favorable for a
+final attempt. It was a clear day, with no wind. The sea had gone down,
+so that at noon it was a dead calm, as the three ships took their
+position in line, about two miles apart, ready to open their broadsides
+at once. The grapnel went over for _the thirtieth time_. Kind heaven
+favored its search, and at ten minutes before midnight it had found the
+cable, and fastened its teeth never to let go. Feeling something at the
+end of the rope, they began to haul in, but slowly at first, as an
+expert angler decoys a big fish by pulling gently on the line. Watching
+the dynamometer, they saw with delight the strain increase with every
+hundred fathoms. Up it went to eight, nine, ten tons! They had caught
+it, and no mistake. In about five hours they had drawn it up to within a
+thousand fathoms of the top of the water, where it hung suspended from
+the ship. But now came the critical point, for as it approached the
+surface the danger of breaking increased every moment. It required
+delicate handling. To make sure this time, the Great Eastern buoyed the
+cable, and moved off two or three miles to take a fresh gripe in a new
+place; and having got a double hold, the Medway, which was two miles
+further to the west, was ordered to grapple for it also; and having
+caught it, to heave up with all force, till she should bring it on board
+or break it. This was done, and the old cable brought up within three
+hundred fathoms, and there broken. This at once lightened the strain and
+gave them an end to pull upon, whereupon the Great Eastern, having a
+lighter weight on the rope, drew up again, but still gently, watching
+the strain, lest the cable should break. These operations were very
+slow, and lasted many weary hours. It was a little before midnight on
+Friday night that the cable was caught, and it was after midnight Sunday
+morning that it was brought on board. How long that day seemed! Night
+turned to morning, and morning to noon, and noon to night again, and
+still the work was not done; still the great ship hung over the spot
+where its treasure was suspended in the deep. The sun went down, and the
+moon looked forth from driving clouds upon a scene such as the ocean
+never saw before. At a distance could be discerned the black hulls of
+the attendant ships, the Albany and the Medway. But why were they thus
+silent and motionless in the midst of the sea? Some mysterious errand
+brought them here, and as their boats approached with measured sweep,
+at this midnight hour, it seemed as if they came with muffled oars to an
+ocean burial. It was still calm, but the sea began to moan with unrest,
+as if troubled in its sleep. As midnight drew on, the interest gathered
+about the bows of the Great Eastern. The bulwarks were crowded with
+anxious watchers, peering into the darkness below. Still not a word was
+spoken. Not a voice was heard, save that of Captain Anderson, or Mr.
+Halpin, or Mr. Canning, giving orders. As it approached the surface, two
+men, who were tried hands, were lashed with ropes and lowered over the
+bows, to make fast to the cable when it should appear. This was a
+perilous service, and the boats were there to pick up the brave fellows,
+if they should drop into the water. As soon as it showed itself, they
+dived upon it, and seizing it with their hands, fastened it with large
+hempen stoppers, which were quickly attached to five-inch ropes.
+
+     "It was then found, that the bight was so firmly caught in the
+     springs of the grapnel, that one of the brave hands who put on
+     the stoppers, was sent lower down to the grapnel, and with
+     hammer and marlinspike, the rope was ultimately freed from the
+     tenacious gripe of the flukes. The signal being given to haul
+     up, the western end of the bight was cut with a saw, and
+     grandly and majestically the cable rose up the frowning bows of
+     the Great Eastern, slowly passing round the sheave at the bow,
+     and then over the wheels on to the fore part of the deck. The
+     greatest possible care had to be taken by Mr. Canning and his
+     assistants, to secure the cable by putting on stoppers, and to
+     watch the progress of the grapnel, rope, and shackles, round
+     the drum, before it received the cable itself."
+
+When once it was made fast, all took a long breath. The cable was
+recovered. They had the sea-serpent at last. There the monster lay, its
+neck firmly in their gripe, and its black head lying on the deck. But
+even then there was no cheering, as when they caught it two weeks
+before. Men are sometimes stunned by a sudden success, and hardly know
+if it be not all a dream. So now they looked at the cable with eager
+eyes, but without a word, and some crept toward it to take it in their
+hands, to be sure that they were not deceived. Yes--it was the same that
+they paid out into the sea thirteen months before!
+
+But their anxiety was not over. Now that they had regained the lost
+cable of 1865, was it good for any thing? It had been lying more than a
+year at the bottom of the deep. What if it should prove to have been
+broken somewhere in the eleven hundred miles between the ship and
+Ireland? What if some sharp rock had worn it away, or some marine insect
+had eaten into its heart? If there were but a pin's point, anywhere in
+its covering of flesh, the vital current might escape through it into
+the sea. Fears like these restrained their exultation. It was yet too
+soon to proclaim their victory. So, as the cable was passed along the
+deck to the testing room, where the chief electrician was to operate
+upon it, to see whether it was alive or dead, it was followed by an
+anxious group, who stood around him as he sat down at the instrument,
+watching his countenance as friends watch the face of a physician, when
+he feels the pulse of a patient to see if the heart is still beating.
+The scene is thus described by Mr. Robert Dudley, the artist of the
+expedition, whose spirited sketches in the London Illustrated News have
+made known to the world many incidents of this memorable voyage:
+
+     "I made my way with others, in accordance with an invitation
+     from Willoughby Smith, to the electricians' room. Here, after
+     another hour's preparation, during which time the cable had
+     been carefully passed round the drums of the picking-up
+     machinery, and a sufficient length drawn in on board, the
+     severed end was received. And now, in their mysterious,
+     darkened haunt, the wizards are ready to work their spells upon
+     the tamed lightning. Not 'unholy spells' are these, or secret;
+     for, though the wizards' den is but of limited dimensions, they
+     have not been averse to the presence of a few visitors. Mr.
+     Gooch is looking on; Professor Thomson, be sure, is here, a
+     worthy 'Wizard of the North;' Cyrus Field could no more be
+     absent than the cable itself; I think, too, Canning, hard at
+     work as he is forward in the ship, _must_ have dropped in just
+     for a moment; Clifford, Laws, Captain Hamilton, Deane,
+     Dudley--all have, in their several ways, a great interest in
+     every movement of Willoughby Smith and his brother (and able
+     assistant) Oliver; and, when the core of the cable is stripped
+     and the heart itself--the conducting wire--fixed in the
+     instrument, and these two electricians bend over the
+     galvanometer in patient watching for some message from that
+     far-off land of home to which the great news has just been
+     signalled, then the accustomed stillness of the test-room is
+     deepened; the ticking of the chronometer becomes monotonous.
+     Nearly a quarter of an hour has passed, and still no sign!
+     Suddenly Willoughby Smith's hat is off, and the British hurrah
+     bursts from his lips, echoed by all on board with a volley of
+     cheers, evidently none the worse for having been 'bottled up'
+     during the last three hours. Along the deck outside, over the
+     ship, throughout the ship, the pent-up enthusiasm overflowed;
+     and even before the test-room was cleared, the roaring bravos
+     of our guns drowned the huzzas of the crew, and the whiz of
+     rockets was heard rushing high into the clear morning sky to
+     greet our consort-ships with the glad intelligence."
+
+While this scene is going on on board ship, we may turn to the other end
+of the line. It may be well supposed that the result of this attempt was
+watched with deep interest at Valentia. How they looked for the first
+signal from the deep, and how the tidings came, is thus told in the
+London Spectator:
+
+     "Night and day, for a whole year, an electrician has always
+     been on duty, watching the tiny ray of light through which
+     signals are given, and twice every day the whole length of
+     wire--one thousand two hundred and forty miles--has been tested
+     for conductivity and insulation.... The object of observing the
+     ray of light was of course not any expectation of a message,
+     but simply to keep an accurate record of the condition of the
+     wire. Sometimes, indeed, wild, incoherent messages from the
+     deep did come, but these were merely the results of magnetic
+     storms and earth-currents, which deflected the galvanometer
+     rapidly, and _spelt the most extraordinary words, and sometimes
+     even sentences of nonsense_. Suddenly, last Sunday morning, at
+     a quarter to six o'clock, while the light was being watched by
+     Mr. May,[B] he observed a peculiar indication about it, which
+     showed at once to his experienced eye that a message was at
+     hand. In a few minutes afterward the unsteady flickering was
+     changed to coherency, if we may use such a term, and at once
+     the cable began to speak, to transmit, that is, at regular
+     intervals, the appointed signals which indicated human purpose
+     and method at the other end, instead of the hurried signs,
+     broken speech, and inarticulate cries of the illiterate
+     Atlantic. After the long interval in which it had brought us
+     nothing but the moody and often delirious mutterings of the
+     sea, stammering over its alphabet in vain, the words 'Canning
+     to Glass' must have seemed like the first rational word uttered
+     by a high-fevered patient, when the ravings have ceased and his
+     consciousness returns."
+
+The telegraphic fleet remained together but a few hours after this
+recovery of the lost cable. The battle was gained, and the three ships
+were no longer needed. The Albany, therefore, parted company to pick up
+the buoys, and at once sailed for England, while the Great Eastern,
+attended by the faithful Medway, turned to the west. It was about nine
+o'clock that the ship began to pay out the cable. Up to that time it
+had continued calm, but the morning was raw and chill, and the sea began
+to rise as if in anger at those who had torn from it its prey. Captain
+Anderson looked anxiously at the signs of the coming storm. It seemed as
+if Heaven had kept back the winds during the critical day and night when
+they were lifting the cable! But now the tempest was upon them, and for
+thirty-six hours it swept the ocean. All trembled lest they should not
+be able to hold on. But little incidents sometimes turn the current of
+one's thoughts, and give a feeling of peace even in the midst of
+anxiety. Says Mr. Field:
+
+     "In the very height and fury of the gale, as I sat in the
+     electrician's room, a flash of light came up from the deep,
+     which having crossed to Ireland, came back to me in mid-ocean,
+     telling that those so dear to me, whom I had left on the banks
+     of the Hudson, were well, and following us with their wishes
+     and their prayers. This was like a whisper of God from the sea,
+     bidding me keep heart and hope. The Great Eastern bore herself
+     proudly through the storm, as if she knew that the vital cord
+     which was to join two hemispheres, hung at her stern; and so on
+     Saturday, the seventh of September, we brought our second cable
+     safely to the shore."
+
+The scene at Heart's Content, when the fleet appeared the second time,
+was one that beggars description. Its arrival was not unexpected, for
+the success on Sunday morning, that had been telegraphed to Ireland,
+was at once flashed across the Atlantic, and the people were watching
+for its coming. As the ships came up the harbor it was covered with
+boats, and all were wild with excitement; and when the big shore-end was
+got out of the Medway, and dragged to land, the sailors hugged it and
+almost kissed it in their extravagance of joy; and no sooner was it
+safely landed than they seized Mr. Field, Mr. Canning, and Mr. Clifford
+in their arms, and raised them over their heads, while the crowd cheered
+with tumultuous enthusiasm.
+
+The voyage of the Great Eastern was ended. Twice had she been victorious
+over the sea; twice had she laid the spoils of victory on the shores of
+the New World, and her mission was accomplished. All on board, who had
+been detained weeks beyond the expected time, were impatient to return;
+and accordingly she prepared to sail the very next day on her homeward
+voyage. The Medway, which had on board the cable for the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence, remained two or three weeks longer, and with the Terrible,
+whose gallant officers had volunteered for the service, successfully
+accomplished that work. But the Great Eastern was bound for England, and
+Mr. Field had now to part from his friends on board. It was a trying
+moment. Rejoiced as he was at the successful termination of the voyage,
+yet when he came to leave the ship, where he had spent so many anxious
+days and weeks, both this year and the year before; and to part from
+men to whom he was bound by the strong ties that unite those embarked in
+a common enterprise--brave companions in arms--he could not repress a
+feeling of sadness. It was with deep emotion that Captain Anderson took
+him by the hand, as he said, "The time is come that we must part." As he
+went over the side of the ship, the commander cried, "Give him three
+cheers!" "And now three more for his family!" The ringing hurrahs of
+that gallant crew were the last sounds he heard as he sunk back in the
+boat that took him to the Medway, while the wheels of the Great Eastern
+began to move, and the noble ship, with her noble company, bore away for
+England.
+
+Our story is told. We have followed the history of the Atlantic
+Telegraph from the beginning to the end; from the hour that the idea
+first occurred to its projector, turning over the globe in his library,
+till the cable was stretched from continent to continent. Between these
+two points of time many years have passed, and many struggles
+intervened. Never did an enterprise pass through more vicissitudes;
+never was courage tried by more reverses and disappointments, the
+constant repetition of which gives to this narrative an almost painful
+interest. Yet that background of disaster only sets in brighter relief
+the spirit that bore up under all, the faith that never despaired, and
+the patience that was never weary. It was a pathetic as well as heroic
+story which Mr. Field had to tell when it was all over. He said:
+
+     "It has been a long, hard struggle. Nearly thirteen years of
+     anxious watching and ceaseless toil. Often my heart has been
+     ready to sink. Many times, when wandering in the forests of
+     Newfoundland, in the pelting rain, or on the deck of ships, on
+     dark, stormy nights--alone, far from home--I have almost
+     accused myself of madness and folly to sacrifice the peace of
+     my family, and all the hopes of life, for what might prove
+     after all but a dream. I have seen my companions one and
+     another falling by my side, and feared that I too might not
+     live to see the end. And yet one hope has led me on, and I have
+     prayed that I might not taste of death till this work was
+     accomplished. That prayer is answered; and now, beyond all
+     acknowledgments to men, is the feeling of gratitude to Almighty
+     God."[C]
+
+"Long and hard" indeed had been the way, but in the end what a triumph
+was gained: an achievement that was one of the most marvellous in all
+history, as a proof of man's dominion over the forces of nature. When it
+was first proposed to span the Atlantic, it seemed but a beautiful
+dream, fascinating indeed to the imagination, but beyond all human
+power; and men listened to the picture of what might be with delighted
+amazement and wondering incredulity. In an oration at the opening of the
+Dudley Observatory at Albany, in 1857, Edward Everett spoke thus of the
+projected Atlantic Telegraph:
+
+     "I hold in my hand a portion of the identical electrical cable,
+     given me by my friend Mr. Peabody, which is now in progress of
+     manufacture to connect America with Europe. Does it seem all
+     but incredible to you that intelligence should travel for two
+     thousand miles, along those slender copper wires, far down in
+     the all but fathomless Atlantic, never before penetrated by
+     aught pertaining to humanity, save when some foundering vessel
+     has plunged with her hapless company to the eternal silence and
+     darkness of the abyss? Does it seem, I say, all but a miracle
+     of art, that the thoughts of living men--the thoughts that we
+     think up here on the earth's surface, in the cheerful light of
+     day--about the markets and the exchanges, and the seasons, and
+     the elections, and the treaties, and the wars, and all the fond
+     nothings of daily life, should clothe themselves with elemental
+     sparks, and shoot with fiery speed, in a moment, in the
+     twinkling of an eye, from hemisphere to hemisphere, far down
+     among the uncouth monsters that wallow in the nether seas,
+     along the wreck-paved floor, through the oozy dungeons of the
+     rayless deep; that the latest intelligence of the crops, whose
+     dancing tassels will, in a few months, be coquetting with the
+     west wind on those boundless prairies, should go flashing along
+     the slimy decks of old sunken galleons, which have been rotting
+     for ages; that messages of friendship and love, from warm,
+     living bosoms, should burn over the cold, green bones of men
+     and women, whose hearts, once as warm as ours, burst as the
+     eternal gulfs closed and roared over them centuries ago!"
+
+But a few years passed, and the vision became a reality. The heart of
+the world beat under the sea.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Captain Anderson, in a letter published after the return to England,
+says: "Every officer and man of the expedition will have pleasant
+recollection of the cheerful zeal of Captain Commerill, V.C., and the
+officers of Her Majesty's ship Terrible. Captain Commerill frequently
+visited us in his boats, both in high seas and in calms, and his cheery
+way of saying, 'You'll do it yet,' 'What can I do?' and 'I'll do it,'
+was truly characteristic of him. The officers of the Terrible would do
+any thing for their captain, and entered heartily into the object of the
+voyage."
+
+Such a tribute from one brave commander to another, is most honorable to
+both. In the same letter he recognizes, also, the services rendered by
+the captains of the other ships: "I shall do but scant justice to
+Commanders Prowse and Batt, R. N., and Captains Eddington and Harris,
+Mercantile Marine, of the Medway and Albany, if I recall the three weeks
+spent upon the 'grappling ground,' where we were often separated by fog,
+gale, or darkness; yet whenever day dawned, or the fog cleared, there
+the squadron were to be seen, converging from different points towards
+the Mark Buoy, a small spot looking no bigger than a man's hat on the
+surface of the ocean. Unless all had concentrated their minds, and
+watched their ships and compasses night and day, no such beautiful
+illustration of nautical science could have been possible. The vessels
+of the squadron keeping always together, and commanded by men who knew
+the importance of keeping close enough to begin work whenever it was
+possible, and yet to avoid collision in fog, was of the greatest
+importance; and we owe much to that invaluable system of signalling by
+night and day, invented by Captain Colomb, R. N., which enabled us, even
+in dark nights, when two or three miles apart, to communicate or
+ascertain anything we desired."
+
+[B] This is an error. Mr. Crocker, an operator in the Telegraph House at
+Valentia, was the fortunate one on watch at that hour, on whose eye the
+first ray fell, as a spark of life from the dead.
+
+[C] Speech at the Chamber of Commerce Dinner, Nov. 15, 1866.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE AFTERGLOW.
+
+
+It is the clear shining after rain. The storms that swept the sea, have
+blown themselves out, and all is tranquil on the face of the deep. The
+cable is lying in its ocean bed uniting the two hemispheres, nevermore
+to be separated. And now comes the public recognition on both sides the
+Atlantic, though in different form. The event had produced a profound
+impression throughout the civilized world. Yet it was a singular
+illustration of the changes in public interest, that, whereas in 1858 a
+temporary success had kindled the wildest enthusiasm in the United
+States, while in England it was regarded almost with indifference, now
+the state of feeling in the two countries was completely reversed. In
+Great Britain it was the theme of boundless congratulation, while in
+America the public mind--dulled perhaps by the excitements of four years
+of war--received the news with composure. The reason was, in part, that
+England had had a larger share in the later than in the earlier
+expeditions. Certainly none could deny the inestimable services rendered
+by her men of science, her seamen, her engineers, and her great
+capitalists; and it was most fit that the country which they had honored
+should do them honor in its turn. Scarcely had the Great Eastern
+recrossed the sea before those to whom the empire owed so much, were
+duly recognized in the following letter from the Earl of Derby, then
+Prime Minister, addressed to Sir Stafford Northcote, who was to preside
+at a dinner given in Liverpool, to celebrate the great achievement:
+
+                              "Balmoral,
+                              Saturday, Sept. 29, 1866.
+
+     "Dear Sir Stafford: As I understand you are to have the honor
+     of taking the chair at the entertainment which is to be given
+     on Monday next, in Liverpool, to celebrate the double success
+     which has attended the great undertaking of laying the cable of
+     1866, and recovering that of 1865, by which the two continents
+     of Europe and America are happily connected, I am commanded by
+     the Queen to make known to you, and through you to those over
+     whom you are to preside, the deep interest with which Her
+     Majesty has regarded the progress of this noble work; and to
+     tender Her Majesty's cordial congratulations to all of those
+     whose energy and perseverance, whose skill and science have
+     triumphed over all difficulties, and accomplished a success
+     alike honorable to themselves and to their country, and
+     beneficial to the world at large. Her Majesty, desirous of
+     testifying her sense of the various merits which have been
+     displayed in this great enterprise, has commanded me to submit
+     to her, for special marks of her royal favor, the names of
+     those who, having had assigned to them prominent positions, may
+     be considered as representing the different departments, whose
+     united labors have contributed to the final result; and Her
+     Majesty has accordingly been pleased to direct that the honor
+     of knighthood should be conferred upon Captain Anderson, the
+     able and zealous commander of the Great Eastern; Professor
+     Thomson, whose distinguished science has been brought to bear
+     with eminent success upon the improvement of submarine
+     telegraphy; and on Messrs. Glass and Canning, the manager and
+     engineer respectively of the Telegraph Maintenance Company,
+     whose skill and experience have mainly contributed to the
+     admirable construction and successful laying of the cable. Her
+     Majesty is further pleased to mark her approval of the public
+     spirit and energy of the two companies who have had
+     successively the conduct of the undertaking, by offering the
+     dignity of a baronetcy of the United Kingdom to Mr. Lampson,
+     the Deputy Chairman of the original company, to whose resolute
+     support of the project in spite of all discouragements it was
+     in a great measure owing that it was not at one time abandoned
+     in despair; and to Mr. Gooch, M.P., the Chairman of the company
+     which has finally completed the design. If among the names thus
+     submitted to and approved by Her Majesty, that of Mr. Cyrus
+     Field does not appear, the omission must not be attributed to
+     any disregard of the eminent services which, from the first, he
+     has rendered to the cause of transatlantic telegraphy, and the
+     zeal and resolution with which he has adhered to the
+     prosecution of his object, but to an apprehension lest it might
+     appear to encroach on the province of his own Government, if
+     Her Majesty were advised to offer a citizen of the United
+     States, for a service rendered alike to both countries, British
+     marks of honor, which, following the example of another highly
+     distinguished citizen, he might feel himself unable to accept."
+
+The reason assigned by Lord Derby for the omission of Mr. Field's name
+in the distribution of honors, was perfectly understood and entirely
+satisfactory. The British Government had once before offered a baronetcy
+to Mr. George Peabody in recognition of his princely benefactions to the
+poor of London, but while he appreciated the honor, he felt that as a
+citizen of the United States, he could not accept it, and the same
+reason would apply in the present case. But while this alone prevented
+official recognition, it could not prevent the hearty expression of
+Englishmen who knew the history of the great enterprise from the
+beginning. At this very dinner, the Chairman gave, as the first toast,
+"The Original Projectors of the Atlantic Cable," which he proposed early
+in order to give Mr. Cyrus Field (who was very near to them, although he
+happened to be in America!) a chance of responding! The allusion is
+explained by the remark of one present who had said:--
+
+     "You will be pleased to hear that Mr. Bright has kindly brought
+     the telegraph wire into the room in which we are sitting, and
+     no sooner will the toast involving the mention of Mr. Field's
+     name be given from the chair, than it will be flashed with
+     lightning speed to Valentia, thence to Newfoundland, and if Mr.
+     Field is at home, it is quite possible that he himself will
+     receive it, ere the echo of your ringing cheers has died away
+     in Liverpool."
+
+A message was at once sent from the room to Newfoundland, and a reply
+received back that Mr. Field had left for New York. In continuing his
+speech, Sir Stafford Northcote said: "I think there can be no doubt in
+the minds of those who have carefully examined the history of these
+transactions, that it is to Mr. Cyrus Field that we owe the practical
+carrying out of the idea which has borne such glorious fruit. I am sure
+there is none to whom we owe more, or whose name stands in prouder
+connection with this great undertaking, than the name of Mr. Cyrus
+Field."
+
+He called upon Sir Charles Bright to reply, who detailed somewhat the
+history of the enterprise from the very beginning in 1856, when "Mr.
+Cyrus Field, to whom the world was more indebted than to any other
+person for the establishment of the line, came to England upon the
+completion of the telegraph between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland."
+
+To the same effect is the testimony of a distinguished writer, W. H.
+Russell, LL.D., who was on board of the Great Eastern in 1865, as the
+correspondent of The Times, and wrote a very graphic History of the
+Expedition (p. 10):
+
+     "It has been said that the greatest boons conferred on mankind,
+     have been due to men of one idea. If the laying of the Atlantic
+     cable be among those benefits, its consummation may certainly
+     be attributed to the man who, having many ideas, devoted
+     himself to work out one idea, with a gentle force and patient
+     vigor which converted opposition and overcame indifference.
+     Mr. Field may be likened either to the core, or the external
+     protection, of the cable itself. At times he has been its
+     active life; again he has been its iron-bound guardian. Let who
+     will claim the merit of having first said the Atlantic cable
+     was possible; to Mr. Field is due the inalienable merit of
+     having made it possible, and of giving to an abortive
+     conception all the attributes of healthy existence."
+
+Sir William Thomson, on the final triumph, wrote:
+
+     "My dear Field, I cannot refrain from putting down in black and
+     white my hearty congratulations on your great success. Few know
+     better than I do how well you deserve it."
+
+Eight months after he wrote from Scotland:
+
+     "I am sorry I had not an opportunity of saying in public how
+     much I value your energy and perseverance in carrying through
+     the great enterprise, and how clearly you stand out in its
+     history as its originator and its mainspring from beginning to
+     end."
+
+Next to Sir William Thomson was Mr. C. F. Varley, who was associated in
+the work from an early day, and did much to solve the difficult problems
+of ocean telegraphy, and who wrote to Mr. Field, speaking from his
+personal knowledge: "You did more than any other to float the concern,
+and single-handed saved the whole scheme from collapse more than once."
+
+Captain Sir James Anderson repeated the same conviction in numberless
+forms. He had seen how the presence of Mr. Field in London instantly
+revived the languid enthusiasm of others, and infused his own energy
+into the enterprise, and declared again and again that but for these
+heroic and incessant efforts the whole scheme would have broken down,
+and been delayed for many years.
+
+Such expressions from English associates in the great work might be
+multiplied to any extent. They are much stronger than any language used
+by the author of this volume, who has purposely kept back such
+testimonies, lest it should seem that he wished to exalt an individual,
+when he sought to do justice to all, on both sides of the Atlantic.
+
+Nor was such recognition confined to England. The King of Italy
+conferred on Mr. Field the cross of the order of St. Mauritius, as an
+acknowledgment from the country of Columbus to one who had done so much
+to unite to the Old World that New World which Columbus discovered.
+
+A still higher honor was paid by the Great Exposition in Paris, in 1867,
+which, gathering the products of the genius and skill and industry of
+all nations, recognized the labors of men of all countries, who, by
+their discoveries or great enterprises, had rendered eminent services to
+the cause of civilization. It awarded the GRAND PRIZE, the highest
+distinction it had to bestow, to Mr. Field by name, jointly with the
+Anglo-American and Atlantic Telegraph Companies, thus recognizing, as
+was most due, the splendid exhibition of the science and the capital of
+England, which were never more directly employed for the benefit of the
+human race, than in the uniting of the two Hemispheres, while it gave
+the first place in the grand design to its American leader.
+
+But to an American no praise is so dear as that which comes from his own
+countrymen. First of all to Mr. Field, was that which came from the
+faithful few who had stood by him and witnessed his exertions for twelve
+long years. At the first annual meeting of the stockholders of the New
+York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, the following
+resolution was, on motion of Mr. Moses Taylor, seconded by Mr. Wilson G.
+Hunt, unanimously adopted:
+
+     Whereas, This Company was the first ever formed for the
+     establishment of an Atlantic Telegraph; an enterprise upon
+     which it started in the beginning of 1854, at the instance of
+     Mr. Cyrus W. Field, and which, through his wise and unwearied
+     energy, acting upon this Company, and others afterwards formed
+     in connection with it, has been successfully accomplished:
+     Therefore the stockholders of this Company, at this their first
+     meeting since the completion of the enterprise, desiring to
+     testify their sense of Mr. Field's services:
+
+     Resolve: First--That to him more than any other man, the world
+     is indebted for this magnificent instrument of good; and but
+     for him it would not, in all probability, be now in existence;
+
+     Second--That the thanks of the stockholders of this Company are
+     hereby given to Mr. Field for these services, which, though so
+     great in themselves, and so valuable to this Company, were
+     rendered without any remuneration; and
+
+     Third--That a copy of this resolution, certified by the
+     Chairman and Secretary of this meeting, be delivered to Mr.
+     Field as a recognition, by those who best know, of his just
+     right to be always regarded as the first projector, and most
+     persistent and efficient promoter, of the Atlantic Telegraph.
+
+                              Peter Cooper, _Chairman_.
+                              Wilson G. Hunt, _Secretary_.
+
+To testify the public appreciation of this great achievement, and of his
+part in it, the Chamber of Commerce of New York invited Mr. Field to a
+public banquet, which was given on the fifteenth of November. It was
+attended by about three hundred gentlemen--not only merchants and
+bankers, but men of all professions--lawyers and judges, clergymen and
+presidents of colleges, members of the Government and foreign ministers,
+and officers of the army and navy. The President of the Chamber of
+Commerce, Mr. A. A. Low, presided, and, at the close of his opening
+speech, said:
+
+     "We may fairly claim that, from first to last, Cyrus W. Field
+     has been more closely identified with the Atlantic Telegraph
+     than any other living man; and his name and his fame, which the
+     Queen of Great Britain has justly left to the care of the
+     American government and people, will be proudly cherished and
+     gratefully honored. We are in daily use of the fruits of his
+     labors; and it is meet that the men of commerce, of literature
+     and of law, of science and art--of all the professions that
+     impart dignity and worth to our nature--should come together
+     and give a hearty, joyous, and generous welcome to this truly
+     chivalrous son of America."
+
+He proposed the health of their guest:
+
+     "Cyrus W. Field, the projector and mainspring of the Atlantic
+     Telegraph: while the British government justly honors those who
+     have taken part with him in this great work of the age, _his_
+     fame belongs to us, and will be cherished and guarded by his
+     countrymen."
+
+In his reply, Mr. Field told the story with the utmost simplicity,
+passing rapidly over the nearly thirteen years, through which the
+enterprise had struggled with such doubtful fortunes, and taking pains
+to do full justice to all who shared in its labors, its disappointments
+and its triumphs. Especially did he award the highest praise to the
+government of England for its liberal and constant support; to her men
+of science and her great capitalists, and to the officers of ships,
+electricians and engineers, who had taken part in this undertaking. In
+closing, he said:
+
+     "Of the results of this enterprise--commercially and
+     politically--it is for others to speak. To one effect only do I
+     refer as the wish of my heart--that, as it brings us into
+     closer relations with England, it may produce a better
+     understanding between the two countries. Let who will speak
+     against England--words of censure must come from other lips
+     than mine. I have received too much kindness from Englishmen to
+     join in this language. I have eaten of their bread and drunk
+     of their cup, and I have received from them, in the darkest
+     hours of this enterprise, words of cheer which I shall never
+     forget; and if any words of mine can tend to peace and good
+     will, they shall not be wanting. I beg my countrymen to
+     remember the ties of kindred. Blood is thicker than water.
+     America with all her greatness has come out of the loins of
+     England; and though there have been sometimes family
+     quarrels--bitter as family quarrels are apt to be--still in our
+     hearts there is a yearning for the old home, the land of our
+     fathers; and he is an enemy of his country and of the human
+     race, who would stir up strife between two nations that are one
+     in race, in language and in religion. I close with this
+     sentiment: ENGLAND AND AMERICA--CLASPING HANDS ACROSS THE SEA,
+     MAY THIS FIRM GRASP BE A PLEDGE OF FRIENDSHIP TO ALL
+     GENERATIONS!" (To which the whole assembly responded by rising,
+     and by prolonged and tumultuous cheers.)
+
+In the brilliant array of guests was recognized the tall form of General
+Meade, who was loudly called for as "the hero of Gettysburg," to which
+he replied that there was but one hero on this occasion, and he had
+travelled a hundred miles to be there that night to do him honor. He
+said: "I have watched with eagerness the struggle through which he has
+passed and the disasters which attended his early efforts; and I have
+admired and applauded, from the bottom of my heart, the tenacity of
+purpose with which that man has continued to hold on to his original
+idea, with a firm faith to carry to completion one of the greatest works
+the world has ever seen."
+
+The heartiness of this soldierly reply was echoed by the bluff old
+warrior, Admiral Farragut, who had been so often through the smoke and
+flame of battle, that he knew how to appreciate not only common courage,
+but the desperate tenacity which holds on in spite of disaster, that has
+gained many a victory.
+
+Letters were read from the President of the United States, from Chief
+Justice Chase, from General Grant, from Sir Frederick Bruce, the British
+Minister, from Senators Morgan and Sumner, from General Dix, Minister to
+France, and others. The Chief Justice of the United States wrote:
+
+     "I am very sorry that I cannot leave Washington this week, and
+     so cannot avail myself of your kind invitation to join you in
+     congratulations to Mr. Field upon the success of his grand
+     undertaking. It is the most wonderful achievement of
+     civilization; and to his sagacity, patience, perseverance,
+     courage, and faith, is civilization indebted for it.
+
+     "Such works entitle their authors to distinguished rank among
+     public benefactors. You will write the name of your honored
+     guest high upon that illustrious roll, and there it will remain
+     in honor, while oceans divide and telegraphs unite mankind."
+
+There was a telegraph instrument in the room, and despatches were
+received during the evening from Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, and
+other members of the Cabinet at Washington, from Lord Monck,
+Governor-General of Canada, from the Governor of Newfoundland, and
+others. One, from Captain Sir James Anderson, was dated at London the
+same day. John Bright also wrote a despatch and sent it to London, but
+by an oversight it was not forwarded. He afterward wrote a letter,
+giving the message. It was as follows:
+
+     "It is fitting you should honor the man to whom the whole world
+     is debtor. He brought capital and science together to do his
+     bidding, and Europe and America are forever united. I cannot
+     sit at your table, but I can join in doing honor to Cyrus W.
+     Field. My hearty thanks to him may mingle with yours."
+
+He adds that he regarded what had been done as the most marvellous thing
+in human history; as more marvellous than the invention of the art of
+printing, or, he was almost ready to say, than the voyages of the
+Genoese; and of Mr. Field, he says, "The world does not yet know what it
+owes to him, and this generation will never know it."
+
+About the same time, in a speech at a great Reform Meeting in Leeds, he
+bore this proud testimony:
+
+     "A friend of mine, Cyrus Field, of New York, is the Columbus of
+     our time, for after no less than forty voyages across the
+     Atlantic, in pursuit of the great aim of his life, he has at
+     length, by his cable, moored the New World close alongside the
+     Old."
+
+Nor was this mere rhetoric, a burst of extravagance, to which an orator
+might give way in the excitement of a public occasion; it was a
+comparison which he repeated on many occasions, though slightly varied
+in expression. Mr. G. W. Smalley, the well-known correspondent of the
+New York Tribune, in writing from London, on the very day that Mr. Field
+was carried to his grave, recalls how he heard it from Mr. Bright's own
+lips. He says:
+
+     "The great orator spoke of the great American in terms which he
+     did not bestow lavishly, and never bestowed carelessly. His
+     respect for Mr. Field's public work was sufficiently shown in
+     the splendid eulogy which he passed upon him. To be called by
+     such a man as Mr. Bright the Columbus of the Nineteenth Century
+     is renown enough for any man. The epithet is imperishable. It
+     is, as Thackeray said of a similar tribute to Fielding in
+     Gibbon, like having your name written on the dome of St.
+     Peter's. The world knows it and the world remembers. I heard
+     Mr. Bright use the phrase, and he adorned and emphasized it in
+     his noblest tones."
+
+America has no official honors to bestow, no knighthoods or baronetcies
+to confer. But one honor it has, the thanks of Congress, which, like the
+thanks of Parliament, is the more highly prized in that it is so rarely
+bestowed, being reserved generally for distinguished officers in the
+army or navy, like Generals Grant, Sherman or Sheridan, or Admiral
+Farragut, who have won great victories. Yet such was the feeling on this
+occasion, that when Senator Morgan, of New York, moved a vote of thanks
+in the name of the country, it met with an immediate response. It was at
+once referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, which reported
+unanimously in its favor; and when, some weeks after, giving time for
+due deliberation, it was brought up for action, it passed with entire
+unanimity. In the House of Representatives it was preceded by many
+bills, so that there was danger that it might not be reached before the
+end of the session, yet on the very last day Speaker Colfax requested
+unanimous consent of the House to take it up out of its order, which was
+granted, and the resolution was then read three times, and passed
+unanimously. It is as follows:
+
+     "_Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
+     United States of America, in Congress assembled_, That the
+     thanks of Congress be, and they hereby are, presented to Cyrus
+     W. Field of New York, for his foresight, courage, and
+     determination in establishing telegraphic communication by
+     means of the Atlantic cable, traversing mid-ocean and
+     connecting the Old World with the New; and that the President
+     of the United States be requested to cause a gold medal to be
+     struck, with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be
+     presented to Mr. Field.
+
+     "_And be it further resolved_, That when the medal shall have
+     been struck, the President shall cause a copy of this joint
+     resolution to be engrossed on parchment, and shall transmit the
+     same, together with the medal, to Mr. Field, to be presented to
+     him in the name of the people of the United States of America.
+
+     "Approved March 2, 1867.
+
+                              "Andrew Johnson."
+
+This action of Congress reached Mr. Field in England. As he was about
+returning to America, Lord Derby, still at the head of the government,
+addressed to him a letter in which he repeated what he had said before
+"in the Queen's name," "how much of the success of the great undertaking
+of laying the Atlantic Cable was due to the energy and perseverance with
+which, from the very first, in spite of all discouragements, you adhered
+to and supported the project;" and adding, "Your signal services in
+carrying out this great undertaking have been already fully recognized
+by Congress; and it would have been very satisfactory to the Queen to
+have included your name among those on whom, in commemoration of this
+great event, her Majesty was pleased to bestow British honors, if it had
+not been felt that, as a citizen of the United States, it would hardly
+have been competent to you to accept them. As long, however, as the
+telegraphic communication between the two Continents lasts, your name
+cannot fail to be honorably associated with it."
+
+This surely was all that could be expected from the government, but some
+there were in England who felt that there was still a debt of honor to
+be paid, which required some public testimonial. Accordingly, on Mr.
+Field's return to London, in 1868, they prepared for him an imposing
+demonstration in the form of a banquet, given at Willis's Rooms, on the
+first of July, at which was assembled one of the most distinguished
+companies that ever met to do honor to a private citizen of any country.
+It embraced over four hundred gentlemen of all ranks: ministers of
+state, members of parliament, both Lords and Commons; officers of the
+army and navy; great capitalists--merchants and bankers; men of science
+and of letters; inventors, electricians, and engineers--men eminent in
+every walk of life. The Duke of Argyll presided, and speeches were made
+by three members of the government--Sir John Pakington, Secretary of
+State for War; Sir Stafford Northcote, Secretary of State for India; and
+Sir Alexander Milne, First Sea Lord of the Admiralty; by John Bright; by
+the venerable Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, so long the British Minister
+at Constantinople; and by M. de Lesseps, the projector of the Suez
+Canal, who had come from Egypt expressly to be present. It was a tribute
+such as is rarely paid to any man while living--such tributes being
+reserved for the dead--and is still more honorable in this case, alike
+to the givers and the receiver, in that it was paid by the people of one
+country to a citizen of another, who was regarded in both as their
+common benefactor.
+
+But enough of praise that can fall only on the dull, cold ear of death.
+A few words on the after years of this busy life, and I have done. These
+years brought a rich reward for all the sacrifices of the past. The
+first feeling was one of infinite relief that at last the victory was
+won. The terrible strain was taken off, and to him who had borne it so
+long, the change to the quiet of his own happy home was inexpressibly
+grateful after his many and long separations. He was now in his own
+country and under his own roof, but with a name that was known on both
+sides of the sea. The complete success of the Atlantic Telegraph had
+given him an immense reputation at home and abroad. It seemed as if the
+struggles of life were all over, leaving only its honors to be enjoyed.
+What more could he ask to make life worth living than the respect of his
+countrymen for his courage, energy and perseverance, and a name honored
+all over the civilized world as one of the world's benefactors?
+
+The practical results of the cable were even greater than he had dared
+to anticipate. In the space of a few months it wrought a commercial
+revolution in America. It was a new sensation to have the Old World
+brought so near, that it entered into one's daily life. Every morning,
+as Mr. Field went to his office, he found laid on his desk at nine
+o'clock the quotations on the Royal Exchange at twelve! Lombard Street
+and Wall Street talked with each other as two neighbors across the way.
+This soon made an end of the tribe of speculators who calculated on the
+fact that nobody knew at a particular moment the state of the market on
+the other side of the sea, an universal ignorance by which they
+profited by getting the earliest advices. But now everybody got them as
+soon as they, for the news came with the rising of each day's sun, and
+the occupation of a class that did much to demoralize trade on both
+sides of the ocean was gone.
+
+The same restoration of order was seen in the business of importations,
+which had been hitherto almost a matter of guess-work. A merchant who
+wished to buy silks in Lyons, sent out his orders months in advance, and
+of course somewhat at random, not knowing how the market might turn, so
+that when the costly fabrics arrived, he might find that he had ordered
+too many or too few. A China merchant sent his ship round the world for
+a cargo of tea, which returned after a year's absence, bringing not
+enough to supply the public demand, leaving him in vexation at the
+thought of what he might have made, "if he had known," or, what was
+still worse, bringing twice too much, in which case the unsold half
+remained on his hands. This was a risk against which he had to be
+insured, as much as against fire or shipwreck. And the only insurance he
+could have was to take reprisals by an increased charge on his
+unfortunate customers.
+
+This double risk was now greatly reduced, if not entirely removed. The
+merchant need no longer send out orders a year beforehand, nor order a
+whole ship-load of tea when he needed only a hundred chests, since he
+could telegraph to his agent for what he wanted and no more. With this
+opportunity for getting the latest intelligence, the element of
+uncertainty was eliminated, and the importer no longer did business at a
+venture. Buying from time to time, so as to take advantage of low
+markets, he was able to buy cheaper, and of course to sell cheaper. It
+would be a curious study to trace the effect of the cable upon the
+prices of all foreign goods. A New York merchant, who has been himself
+an importer for forty years, tells me that the saving to the American
+people cannot be less than many millions every year.
+
+But the slender cord beneath the sea had finer uses than to be a
+reporter of markets, giving quotations of prices to counting rooms and
+banking houses; it was a link between hearts and homes on opposite sides
+of the ocean, bearing messages of life and death, of joy and sorrow, of
+hopes and fears. One of its happiest uses was the relief of anxiety. A
+ship sailed for England with hundreds of passengers, but did not arrive
+at her destination on the appointed day. Instantly a thousand hearts
+were tortured with fear, lest their loved ones had gone to the bottom of
+the sea, when the cable reported that the delay was due simply to an
+accident to her machinery, that would keep her back for a day or two,
+but that the good ship was safe with all on board. What arithmetic can
+compute the value of a single message that relieves so much anguish?
+Thus the submarine telegraph stretched out its long arms under the sea,
+to lay a friendly hand on two peoples, and give assurance to both.
+
+Such a triumph of commercial enterprise was enough to satisfy the pride
+and ambition of any man; but it was not in Mr. Field's nature to rest
+content with any success, however great, and he was always reaching out
+for some new undertaking to give scope to his restless activity. Such an
+opportunity he found in giving rapid transit to New York, a city which,
+though it has one of the finest harbors in the world, with approaches
+from the sea that afford every possible advantage for commerce, is not
+so favorably situated landward, as it is built on a long and narrow
+island, between two broad rivers, which confine it on either side, so
+that it is stretched out to such distances that it is no easy matter to
+pass from one end to the other. From the Battery to the Harlem river is
+ten miles, so that working men, who lived so far away, were an hour or
+more in getting from their homes to their place of work, and as long in
+getting back again, a large inroad upon their hours of rest or domestic
+comfort. The only means of transportation was by street cars, which
+moved slowly, and in winter, whenever the streets were blocked with
+snow, were crowded to suffocation, and dragged at a snail's pace to the
+upper end of the island.
+
+This was the great barrier to the city's growth, and must be removed if
+it was not to be stunted and dwarfed by these limitations. To furnish
+some relief, an elevated railroad, built on stilts, had been attempted
+on a small scale, but soon broke down, when Mr. Field bought the control
+of the whole concern, and took it in his own strong arms. It was no easy
+matter to galvanize it into life, for though it had a charter, it was
+still obstructed in the legislature, and in the courts, so that it was a
+long time before he could get full possession. But once master of the
+situation, he undertook the work on a grand scale, and pushed it with
+such vigor that in less than two years the road was in operation. It has
+since been extended with the public demand, until now (in 1892) there
+are thirty-six miles of road, over which the trains sweep incessantly
+from the bay to the river, and from the river to the bay.
+
+The structures are not indeed the most graceful in the world, as they
+bestride the long avenues of the city. But these tall iron pillars, that
+line our streets for miles, are the long legs of civilization, and have
+a somewhat imposing effect as they stretch away into the distance, with
+the fire-drawn cars flying swiftly over them. Dean Stanley glorified
+them by a historical parallel which could occur only to one full of the
+wonders of ancient times, that started into life under the touch of his
+imagination. Going with him one day on an excursion, he stepped briskly
+(for his frame was so light as to offer little impediment to motion),
+and as he mounted the long stairway, and stood on the platform above the
+crowded street below, he exclaimed, "This is Babylonian! Four chariots
+driving abreast on the walls of the city!"
+
+But Babylonian or American, the success was enormous. As soon as the
+public became familiar with these elevated roads, and felt that they
+were safe as well as swift, the people swarmed upon them, in numbers
+constantly increasing, till now they carry over seven hundred thousand
+passengers a day! On the day of the Columbus celebration (October 12th)
+it was a million and seventy-five thousand! Indeed, if we are not
+staggered by numbers, we may sum up the whole in the amazing statement
+demonstrated by figures, that since these roads were opened, they have
+carried over eighteen hundred millions of passengers, more than the
+whole population of the globe!
+
+Nor should it be forgotten that, not only is the facility they afford
+the greatest, but the fares the lowest, for, thanks to Mr. Field, they
+were reduced years ago to five cents at all hours and for the longest
+distance, the ten miles from the Battery to the Harlem river.
+
+The effect was immediate in the appreciation of real estate in the city,
+the assessed value of which has already advanced by the sum of five
+hundred millions of dollars! The increased taxation is enough to pay for
+all the cost, while as a relief to the congested parts of the city, and
+as furnishing a means for that easy circulation, which is as necessary
+to a great city as a free circulation of the blood is to the human body,
+it is not too much to say that the construction of the elevated
+railroads is the greatest material benefit that has ever been conferred
+on the city of New York.
+
+But busy as Mr. Field was through all these years, much of his life was
+spent abroad. He had interests on both sides of the Atlantic, but
+stronger than his interests were his friendships to attract him across
+the sea. He had come to feel as much at home in England as in his own
+country: and his visits were so frequent that his sudden appearances and
+disappearances were a subject of amused comment to his English friends.
+When Dean Stanley was in America, a reception was given to him at the
+Century Club, where in a very happy address, he referred to the ties
+between the two countries, among which was "the wonderful cable, on
+which it is popularly believed in England, that my friend and host, Mr.
+Cyrus Field, passes his mysterious existence, appearing and reappearing
+at one and the same moment in London and in New York!"
+
+As Mr. Field was thus brought near to his English friends, they in turn
+were brought near to him, for as no man in America was better known
+abroad, no house received more foreign guests, many of whom he had not
+met before, but who brought letters to him, and there was no end to his
+hospitality. John Bright he could not persuade to cross the sea; but he
+had the pleasure to welcome his co-laborer in the repeal of the
+Corn-laws, Richard Cobden. The house in Gramercy Park became famous for
+its receptions. Many will recall that given to the Marquis of Ripon and
+the other High Commissioners, who came a year or two after the war, as
+representatives of the British government, and negotiated at Washington
+the treaty which settled the Alabama claims; and those to Dean Stanley
+and Archdeacon Farrar; and to many others. If the strangers happened to
+arrive in the summer time, they were entertained at his beautiful
+country seat on the Hudson, to which he had given the name of "Ardsley,"
+from the seat of John Field the astronomer, who lived in the West Riding
+of Yorkshire more than three centuries ago, and introduced the
+Copernican astronomy into England, and from whom the family are
+descended.
+
+In some cases when he went abroad, England was but the starting point
+for excursions on the Continent, in which he visited almost every
+European country. In 1874, in company with two well-known Americans,
+Bayard Taylor and Murat Halstead, he made a voyage to Iceland, as ten
+years before he had been to Egypt, as a delegate from the New York
+Chamber of Commerce, to witness the opening of the Suez Canal.
+
+In 1880-81 he took a still longer flight around the world. Waiting till
+after the Presidential election, that he might cast his vote for his
+friend General Garfield, the very next day he left with his wife in a
+special car for San Francisco, where after a few days, they took ship
+for Japan, from which they passed through the Inland Sea to Shanghai,
+and from China to Singapore, and up the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta, where
+he found the same English nobleman whom he had entertained in New York,
+the Marquis of Ripon, Governor-General of India. Going up the country,
+the travellers visited Agra and Delhi, where the wonders of architecture
+showed the magnificence of the old Mogul Empire. The whole journey was
+one of infinite pleasure and instruction, and they were never weary of
+talking of the strange manners and customs of the people of Asia.
+
+When they returned to America, General Garfield was President of the
+United States, who, though a Western man by birth, had been educated in
+New England, at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he had been
+graduated twenty-five years before, and which he had a desire to
+revisit; and it was arranged that he should leave Washington in the
+morning of July 2d, with as many of his cabinet as could be spared from
+the seat of government, and come on to New York and all be entertained
+at "Ardsley," and the next day proceed up the Hudson and across the
+country to Williamstown; a programme which was interrupted by the
+terrible news that on arriving at the station in Washington he had been
+shot, an event that instantly recalled the assassination of Lincoln. At
+once there rose a cry of horror from one end of the land to the other,
+and for weeks the whole country was watching by the bedside of the
+illustrious sufferer.
+
+Of course, the sympathy for the wife and children was universal, but Mr.
+Field was the first to give this sympathy a practical direction. With
+his quick eye he saw the condition in which they would be left by the
+death of the President, as for them the law makes no provision. His
+salary stops at the very day and hour that he ceases to live, nor is
+there a pension settled upon his family, nor can anything be paid from
+the national treasury except by special act of Congress. In this
+extremity it occurred to Mr. Field that what the Government failed to do
+should be made up by private generosity; and even before General
+Garfield's death he started a subscription, heading it with five
+thousand dollars, and taking it in person to his rich friends. The self
+imposed task occupied him several months, in which he raised a fund of
+over three hundred and sixty thousand dollars, which was put into United
+States four per cent. bonds, yielding an interest of over twelve
+thousand dollars a year, to be paid quarterly during the life of Mrs.
+Garfield, and then to go to her children. It was a great satisfaction to
+have thus provided for those who bore the name of a President of the
+United States, so that they should be able to live in the comfort and
+dignity that befitted the family of one who had occupied the most
+exalted station in the government.
+
+Not content with this, Mr. Field went to Washington, and urged upon his
+friends in Congress, and finally succeeded in getting passed, a bill
+giving to the widows of all Presidents a pension of $5,000, which, it
+added to his gratification to know, would apply to the venerable Mrs.
+Polk: and that still goes, and will go during her lifetime, to the wife
+of General Grant, as the slight expression of a nation's gratitude.
+
+Next to the interest he felt in his own country, his heart was in
+England. While he was an intense American, and perhaps, for that very
+reason, because he was an American, he claimed kindred with the people
+from whom we are not only descended, but have received such an
+inheritance of glory. In his own words: "America, with all her
+greatness, has come out of the loins of England." When he was in India
+he was proud of the mighty English race that from its little island
+governed an empire of two hundred and fifty millions on the other side
+of the globe. Some might have said that he inherited no small portion of
+its unconquerable spirit.
+
+And not only did he admire Old England, but he loved Englishmen. He knew
+all that was said of English reserve and English pride, but long
+familiarity had taught him that underneath this cold exterior were many
+of the noblest qualities--courage, heroism and fidelity--so that it had
+become a part of his creed that an Englishman, when once you have won
+his confidence, will go farther and fight harder for a friend or for a
+cause than any other man on the face of the earth. Among such a people
+Mr. Field was proud to number many of his dearest friends.
+
+A touching proof of their regard for him was given but a few months
+before his death. On the 2d of December, 1890, he and his wife
+celebrated their golden wedding. For fifty years they had travelled on
+the course of life together. Children and grandchildren had been born to
+them, so that at the close of half a century a large and happy family
+was gathered round those to whom they looked up with the tenderest
+affection.
+
+Among the congratulations of that day was a large scroll, signed by Mr.
+Gladstone, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Monck, and some eighty others whose
+names are widely known. It was a graceful tribute from England to a son
+of America, who had done perhaps more than any other living man to bring
+the two countries and the two peoples together.
+
+That golden wedding was the fit coronation of a life of wonderful
+activity, and all the kindred who met under that roof were grateful for
+the past, and full of hopes for the future.
+
+But God's ways are not as our ways. Before many months the clouds began
+to gather. The next summer, when the family were all at their country
+home, sickness cast its shadow over their dwelling, which grew more
+grave till November 23d, when the leaves were falling from the trees
+before their door, the mother of this large household breathed her last.
+Two months later the eldest daughter, who was also the eldest child of
+the family, followed. These repeated blows fell heavy on the
+affectionate heart of the bereaved husband and father, and when to these
+were added other sorrows still, it seemed as if the clouds were piled
+one upon another till they darkened all the horizon. The winter was a
+gloomy one, from its loneliness and its many causes of sadness. But with
+the returning spring the grass grew green again, and the trees put forth
+their leaves, and it seemed as if the new life of nature must put life
+into the heart of man: and when he removed to the country, and began to
+drive about as of old among the familiar haunts, the beautiful scenery
+for a time delighted his eye, and the change of air brought a touch of
+the old spirit, as if perchance his strength were about to return. But
+it was only a momentary flush, and he soon took to his room, where, as
+he looked from his windows, and saw the sun going down over the hills
+beyond the Hudson, it could only remind him that for him the sun of life
+was about to set forever. Fair was the world without but desolate was
+the home within, since she who had made its brightness was gone; and
+here on the 12th of July 1892, the end came.
+
+It was a beautiful morning, and the windows were open, through which
+the soft summer air floated into the chamber of death, where his three
+brothers, all that were left of his father's family, with those of his
+own household, were round his bed, watching the dear pale face. Thus
+surrounded and beloved to the last, he ceased to breathe.
+
+Two days later a large company from the country round and from the city
+gathered at Ardsley, and stood on the lawn and the slopes that lead up
+to the noble trees that shade the dwelling, as Bishop Potter read the
+blessed words, "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord: he
+that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."
+
+The next day we bore him away from his home, and from the great city
+where he had passed his busy life, back to the quiet valley where he was
+born, and laid him down in the shadow of the encircling hills.[A] "Bury
+me there," he had said, "by the side of my beloved wife and by my father
+and mother." The earth closed over him, and all his struggles and his
+sorrows were buried in the grave.
+
+The man is gone, but the work remains, a work that multiplies itself,
+for when once a leader and explorer had opened the way, others were
+swift to follow, so that now there are no less than ten cables stretched
+across the Atlantic, and every hour of day or night, "when men wake and
+when they sleep" (for even in the hours of silence the heart is still
+beating, only a little more slowly), the pulse of life is kept moving to
+and fro. The morning news comes after a night's repose, and we are
+wakened gently to the new day that has dawned upon the world. That which
+serves to such an end; which is a connecting link between countries and
+races of men; is not a mere material thing, an iron chain, lying cold
+and dead in the icy depths of the Atlantic. It is a living, fleshly bond
+between severed portions of the human family, thrilling with life, along
+which every human impulse runs swift as the current in human veins, and
+will run for ever. Free intercourse between nations, as between
+individuals, leads to mutual kindly offices, that make those who at once
+give and receive, feel that they are not only neighbors but friends.
+Hence the "mission" of submarine telegraphy is to be the minister of
+peace. The first message across the deep was "Glory to God in the
+highest; peace on earth, good will to men," and the first news it
+brought was that of peace in China. And when again the sea had found a
+tongue, its first glad intelligence was that the great war between
+Austria and Prussia was ended. Thus at its very birth was this new
+messenger baptized in the name of Peace, and consecrated to a service
+worthy of its name.
+
+     "Man marks the earth with ruin: his control
+     Stops with the shore: upon the watery plain
+     The wrecks are all thy deed."
+
+Not all! The wrath of man adds to the fury of the elements. To strew
+the sea with wrecks is the work of lightning and tempest: man's nobler
+office is to restore what nature may destroy.
+
+It was the chief desire of him who has gone to the grave, that the link
+which unites England and America might bind the countries that he loved
+the most in indissoluble union. Though the two nations dwell apart, on
+opposite shores of the same great and wide sea, they are now brought
+almost within the sound of each other's voice and the touch of each
+other's hand: they can look into each other's eyes, and exchange their
+morning and evening congratulations with the rising and setting of each
+day's sun. May the instrument through which they look and speak never
+startle them with rude alarms, but continue to whisper peace in tones as
+gentle as the murmur of the sea, as long as the winds blow and the
+waters roll.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] The Berkshire Hills, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+INSTRUMENTS FOR SIGNALLING ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.
+
+
+If the project of an Atlantic Telegraph be justly ascribed to the daring
+of an American, and its success to his courage and perseverance through
+years of struggle and disappointment; the solution of the scientific
+problem involved in it, is due to the genius of a Scotchman, whom the
+writer of this volume first knew (and it is a pleasant memory to have
+known such a man in the beginning of his splendid career) as Professor
+Thomson of the University of Glasgow, where his father had been
+professor before him, whom the son succeeded in the Department of
+Physics, which included the then little known science of Electricity, to
+which the young professor devoted himself with all the eagerness of
+scientific genius. The project of a telegraph across the ocean suggested
+new problems and new difficulties, to which he applied himself with
+characteristic ardor, the result of which is here given. When the second
+expedition of the Great Eastern (in 1866) was successful, the British
+Government at once recognized his eminent services; and the name of Sir
+William Thomson has since been recognized, among the leaders in
+scientific discovery, not only in England but all over the scientific
+world. The government has recently added a further dignity in making him
+a peer of the realm, an honor hitherto reserved generally for the
+leaders of armies, like Wellington. To confer it on a simple professor
+shows an advance of civilization in the respect paid to intellectual
+greatness. In conferring such a title, the government does not honor the
+man more than it honors itself. It is to the glory of England that such
+an honor should be paid to science in the person of Lord Kelvin, as was
+paid to literature in the person of Lord Tennyson.
+
+The following, taken in substance from an English scientific review,
+will indicate briefly, but with sufficient clearness, the problem to be
+solved in signalling to great distances under the sea, and the
+instruments by which this is accomplished:--
+
+The speed of signalling through a submarine cable depends upon its
+electrostatic capacity, which, unless it be very small, gives rise to
+"retardation."
+
+In the Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1855, Sir William Thomson
+showed how the effect at the distant end of a cable, caused by the
+application of a battery at one end, could be calculated and represented
+graphically in what is called the "curve of arrival." After contact is
+first made at the sending end between the cable and one pole of the
+battery (the other pole being to earth), a certain interval of time
+elapses before any effect is felt at the distant end. This interval of
+time is denoted by the letter _a_. After the interval of time _a_ has
+passed, a current begins to issue from the cable at the receiving end,
+and increases in strength very rapidly. After a further interval of 4_a_
+or after a period of 5_a_ from the first application of the battery, it
+attains about half its maximum strength, and there is very little
+sensible increase in strength after a time equal to 10_a_ has elapsed.
+The curve of arrival is drawn by taking distances along O X to represent
+intervals of time, and distances along O Y to represent strengths of
+current. Curve No. I. shows the gradual increase in strength of the
+received current at one end of a cable when the battery is applied to
+and kept in contact with the other end. For a distance corresponding to
+the interval of time _a_, the curve does not sensibly deviate from the
+straight line O X; in other words, no effect is observable at the
+receiving end during this time.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+If now, instead of being continuously applied to the battery at the
+sending end, the cable had been applied to it during a short interval of
+time, and then disconnected from the battery and connected to earth, the
+curve of arrival would be of the form shown by curve No. II. Curve No.
+II. shows the effect of applying the battery during a length of time
+equal to 4_a_, and then putting the cable to earth. It will be seen that
+a current gradually diminishing in strength continues to flow out of the
+cable at the distant end for a considerable time after the battery has
+been disconnected. This continued discharge is what gives rise to the
+difficulty experienced in reading the signals sent through long cables.
+
+The instrument first used for receiving signals through a long submarine
+cable (the short-lived 1858 Atlantic cable) was the Mirror Galvanometer,
+which consisted of a small mirror with four light magnets attached to
+its back (weighing, in all, less than half-a-grain), suspended by means
+of a single silk fibre, in a proper position within the hollow of a
+bobbin of fine wire: a suitable controlling magnet being placed adjacent
+to the apparatus. The action of this instrument is as follows. On the
+passage of a current of electricity through the fine wire coil, the
+suspended magnets with the mirror attached, tend to take up a position
+at right angles to the plane of the coil, and are deflected to one side
+or the other according as the current is in one direction or the other.
+
+Of various other forms of _receiving_ instruments devised by Sir William
+Thomson, the next to be noticed is the Spark Recorder, both on account
+of the principles involved in its construction, and because it in some
+respects foreshadowed the more perfect instrument, the Siphon Recorder,
+which he introduced some years later. The action of the Spark Recorder
+was as follows. An indicator, suitably supported, was caused to take a
+to-and-fro motion, by means of the electro-magnetic action due to the
+electric currents constituting the signals. This indicator was connected
+to a Ruhmkorff coil or other equivalent apparatus, designed to cause a
+continual succession of sparks to pass between the indicator, and a
+metal plate situated beneath it and having a plane surface parallel to
+its line of motion. Over the surface of this plate and between it and
+the indicator, there was passed, at a regularly uniform speed in a
+direction perpendicular to the line of motion of the indicator, a
+material capable of being acted on physically by the sparks, either
+through their chemical action, their heat, or their perforating force.
+The record of the signals given by this instrument was an undulating
+line of fine perforations or spots, and the character and succession of
+the undulations were used to interpret the signals desired to be sent.
+
+The latest form of _receiving_ instrument for long submarine cables, is
+that of the Siphon Recorder, for which Sir William Thomson obtained his
+first patent in 1867. Within the three succeeding years he effected
+great improvements on it, and the instrument has, since that date, been
+exclusively employed in working most of the more important submarine
+cables of the world--indeed all except those on which the
+Mirror-Galvanometer method is still in use.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
+
+In the Siphon Recorder (a view of which is shown in Fig. 1), the
+indicator consists of a light rectangular signal-coil of fine wire,
+suspended between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, so as to be
+free to move about its longer axis which is vertical, and so joined up
+that the electric currents constituting the signals through the cable,
+pass through it. A fine glass siphon-tube is suitably suspended, so as
+to have only one degree of freedom to move, and is connected to the
+signal-coil so as to move with it. The short leg of the siphon-tube dips
+into an insulated ink-bottle, which permits of the ink contained by it
+being electrified, while the long leg is situated so that its open end
+is at a very small distance from a brass table, placed with its surface
+parallel to the plane in which the mouth of this leg moves, and over
+which a slip of paper may be passed at a uniform rate as in the Spark
+Recorder. The effect of electrifying the ink is to cause it to be
+projected in very minute drops from the open end of the siphon-tube,
+towards the brass table or on the paper-slip passing over it. Thus when
+the signal-coil moves in obedience to the electric signal currents
+passed through it, the motion then communicated to the siphon, is
+recorded on the moving slip of paper by a wavy line of ink marks very
+close together. The interpretation of the signals is according to the
+Morse code; the dot and dash being represented by deflections of the
+line to one side or the other of the centre line of the paper.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
+
+Perfect as this instrument seemed, yet after further years of study and
+experiment, Sir William Thomson was able, at the close of 1883, to
+present to the world the Siphon Recorder, greatly improved, because in a
+very much simpler form. In this form of the instrument, instead of the
+electro-magnets, he used two bundles of long bar-magnets of square
+section and made up of square bars of glass-hard steel. The two bundles
+are supported vertically on a cast-iron socket, and on the upper end of
+each is fitted a soft iron shoe, so shaped as to concentrate the lines
+of force and thus produce a strong magnetic field in the space within
+which the signal-coil is suspended. He made instruments of this kind to
+work both with and without electrification of the ink. Without
+electrification the instrument, as shown in Fig. 2, is exceedingly
+simple and compact, and in this form is capable of doing good work on
+cables of lengths up to 500 or 600 miles. When constructed for
+electrification of the ink, as shown in Fig. 3, it is of course
+available for much longer lengths of cable, but for cables such as the
+Atlantic cables, the original form of the Siphon Recorder is that still
+chiefly used. The strongest magnetic field hitherto obtained by
+permanent magnets (of glass-hard steel) is about 3000 C. G. S. With the
+electro-magnets of the original form of Siphon Recorder as in ordinary
+use a magnetic field of about or over 5000 C. G. S. is easily attained.
+In Fig. 4 is shown a _fac simile_ of part of a message received and
+recorded by a Siphon Recorder, such as is shown in Fig. 1, from one of
+the Eastern Telegraph Co.'s Cables of about 830 miles length.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+
+Spelling variants where there was no obviously preferred choice were
+left as is. Since there are numerous quotations in this work, this is
+partly due to spelling choices of different authors. Variants include:
+"dispatched" and "despatched;" "embedded" and "imbedded;" "encrusted"
+and "incrusted;" "hurras" and "hurrahs;" "northeast" and "north-east,"
+and similar hyphenation in directions; "per cent." and "per cent"
+(inconsistent use of period); "recrossing" and "re-crossing;"
+"rockbound" and "rock-bound;" "signaled" and "signalled;" "stateroom"
+and "state-room;" "undercurrent" and "under-current."
+
+Removed extra comma after "heart" on page 26: "the heart of a prince."
+
+Changed "abunance" to "abundance" on page 167: "too great abundance."
+
+Changed "Knigthstown" to "Knightstown" on page 187: "at Knightstown,
+Valentia."
+
+Changed "announcment" to "announcement" on page 189: "this simple
+announcement."
+
+Changed "develope" to "develop" on page 299: "develop the resources."
+
+Changed "grip" to "gripe" on page 363, for consistency with spelling
+throughout: "a fresh gripe."
+
+Changed "Hemipheres" to "Hemispheres" on page 381: "the two
+Hemispheres."
+
+Changed "mitror" to "mirror" on page 410: "with the mirror attached."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC
+TELEGRAPH***
+
+
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph, by Henry
+M. (Henry Martyn) Field</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph</p>
+<p>Author: Henry M. (Henry Martyn) Field</p>
+<p>Release Date: December 27, 2010  [eBook #34765]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Stephen H. Sentoff,<br />
+    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.archive.org/">http://www.archive.org</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/storyofatlantict00fielrich">
+      http://www.archive.org/details/storyofatlantict00fielrich</a>
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="likeheading3"><span class="smcap">Dr. Field's Books of Travel.</span></div>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="center">FROM THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY TO THE GOLDEN HORN. Crown 8vo,
+$2.00.</p>
+
+<p class="center">FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN. Crown 8vo, $2.00.</p>
+
+<p class="center">ON THE DESERT. Crown 8vo, $2.00.</p>
+
+<p class="center">AMONG THE HOLY HILLS. With a map. Crown 8vo, $1.50.</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE GREEK ISLANDS, and Turkey after the War. With illustrations
+and maps. Crown 8vo, $1.50.</p>
+
+<p class="center">OLD SPAIN AND NEW SPAIN. With map. Crown 8vo, $1.50.</p>
+
+<p class="center">BRIGHT SKIES AND DARK SHADOWS. With maps. Crown 8vo, $1.50 </p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>The set, 7 vols., in a box, $12.00.</i> </p>
+
+<p class="center">OUR WESTERN ARCHIPELAGO. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, $2.00.</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE BARBARY COAST. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, $2.00.</p>
+
+<p class="center">GIBRALTAR. Illustrated. Small 4to, $2.00. </p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="center">THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. Illustrated. 12mo, $1.50.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/front.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+Cyrus W. Field.</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p>
+<h1>THE STORY<br />
+OF THE<br />
+ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH</h1>
+
+<div class="likeheading3">BY</div>
+
+<div class="likeheading2">HENRY M. FIELD</div>
+
+
+<p class="center">"Since the discovery of Columbus, nothing has been done in any degree
+comparable to the vast enlargement which has thus been given to the
+sphere of human activity."</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 50%">&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Times</span>, August 6th, 1858.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/deco.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+
+<p class="center">
+NEW YORK<br />
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br />
+1898<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1892, by</span><br />
+HENRY M. FIELD.<br />
+<br />
+Press of J. J. Little &amp; Co.<br />
+Astor Place, New York<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p>The recent death of Mr. Cyrus W. Field recalls attention to the great
+enterprise with which his name will be forever associated. "The Atlantic
+Telegraph," said the late Chief Justice Chase, "is the most wonderful
+achievement of civilization, and entitles its author to a distinguished
+rank among public benefactors. High upon that illustrious roll will his
+name be placed, and there will it remain while oceans divide, and
+telegraphs unite, mankind." The memory of such an achievement the world
+should not let die. The story of its varied fortunes reads like a tale
+of adventure. From the beginning it was a series of battles, fighting
+against the elements and against the unbelief of men. This long struggle
+the new generation may forget, profiting by the result, but thinking
+little of the means by which it was attained. What toil of hand and
+brain had gone before; what days and nights of watching and weariness;
+how often hope deferred had made the heart sick: how year after year had
+dragged on, and seen the end still afar off&mdash;all that is dimly
+remembered, even by those who reap the fruits of victory. And yet in the
+history of human achievements, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span>it is necessary to trace these
+beginnings step by step, if we would learn the lesson they teach, that
+it is only out of heroic patience and perseverance that anything truly
+great is born.</p>
+
+<p>Twelve years of unceasing toil was the price the Atlantic Telegraph cost
+its projector; and not years lighted up by the assurance of success, but
+that were often darkened with despair: years in which he was restlessly
+crossing and recrossing the ocean, only to find on either side, worse
+than storms and tempests, an incredulity which sneered at every failure,
+and derided the attempt as a delusion and a dream. Against such
+discouragements nothing could prevail but that faith, or fanaticism,
+which, believing the incredible, achieves the impossible. Such a tale,
+apart from the results, is in itself a lesson and an inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>In attempting to chronicle all this, the relation of the writer to the
+prime mover has given him facilities for obtaining the materials of an
+authentic history; but he trusts that it will not lead him to overstep
+the limits of modesty. Standing by a new-made grave, he has no wish to
+indulge in undue praise even of the beloved dead. Enough for him is it
+to unroll the canvas on which the chief actor stands forth as the
+conspicuous figure. But in a work of such magnitude there are many
+actors, and there is glory enough for all; and it is a sacred duty to
+the dead to recognize, as he did, what was due to the brave companions
+in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span>arms, who stood by him in disaster and defeat; who believed in him
+even when his own countrymen doubted and despaired; and furnished anew
+men and money and ships for the final conquest of the sea. If history
+records that the enterprise of the Atlantic Telegraph owed its inception
+to the faith and daring of an American, it will also record that all his
+ardor and activity would have been of no avail but for the science and
+seamanship, the capital and the undaunted courage, of England. But when
+all these conditions were supplied, it is the testimony of Englishmen
+themselves that his was the spirit within the wheels that made them
+revolve; that it was his intense vitality that infused itself into a
+great organization, and made the dream of science the reality of the
+world. This is not to his honor alone: it is a matter of national pride;
+and Americans may be pardoned if, in the year in which they celebrate
+the discovery of the continent, they recall that it was one of their
+countrymen whom the Great Commoner of England, John Bright, pronounced
+"the Columbus of our time, who, after no less than forty voyages across
+the Atlantic in pursuit of the great aim of his life, had at length by
+his cable moored the New World close alongside the Old." How the miracle
+was wrought, it is the design of these pages to tell.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Discovery of the New World by Columbus.
+Relative Position of the Two Hemispheres. Nearest Points&mdash;The Outlying Islands, Ireland and Newfoundland.
+Shorter Route to Europe suggested by Bishop Mullock. The Electric Telegraph Company of Newfoundland.
+Project of Mr. F. N. Gisborne. Failure of the Company</span></td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Mr. Gisborne comes to New York. Is introduced to Cyrus W.
+Field, who conceives the Idea of a Telegraph across the
+Atlantic Ocean. Is it Practicable? Two Elements to be
+mastered, the Sea and the Electric Current. Letters of
+Lieutenant Maury and Professor Morse</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Mr. Field enlists Capitalists in the Enterprise. Commission
+to Newfoundland to obtain a Charter. The New York,
+Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Land-Line in Newfoundland. Four Hundred Miles of Road
+to be built, a Work of Two Years. Attempt to lay a Cable
+across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in 1855, fails. A Second
+Attempt, in 1856, is successful</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Deep-Sea Soundings by Lieutenant Berryman in the Dolphin in
+1853, and the Arctic in 1856, and by Commander Dayman, of
+the British Navy, in the Cyclops, in 1857. The Bed of the
+Atlantic. The Telegraphic Plateau</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Mr. Field in London. The English Engineers and
+Electricians. Result of Experiments. The Atlantic Telegraph
+Company organized. Applies to the Government for Aid.
+Contract for a Cable</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_91">91</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Mr. Field returns to America. Seeks Aid from the
+Government. Opposition in Congress. Bill passed</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_112">112</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Return to England. The Niagara&mdash;Captain Hudson. The
+Agamemnon. Expedition of 1857 sails from Ireland. Speech of
+the Earl of Carlisle. The Cable broken</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_142">142</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Preparations for an Expedition in 1858. Mr. Field is made
+the General Manager of the Company. The Squadron assemble
+at Plymouth, and put to Sea, June 10. New Method of laying
+Cable, beginning in Mid-Ocean. The Agamemnon in Danger of
+being Foundered. The Cable lost Three Times. The Ships
+return to England. Meeting of the Directors. Shall they
+abandon the Project? One Last Effort</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_165">165</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Second Expedition Successful. Cable landed in Ireland and
+Newfoundland</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_188">188</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Great Excitement in America. Celebration in New York and
+other Cities</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_213">213</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Sudden Stoppage of the Cable. Reaction of Public Feeling.
+Suspicions of Bad Faith. Did the Cable ever work?</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_229">229</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Attempts to revive the Company. The Government asked for
+Aid, but declines to give an Unconditional Guarantee.
+Failure of the Red Sea Telegraph. Scientific Experiments.
+Cables laid in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf.
+Brief History of the next Five Years</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Enterprise renewed. Improvement on the Old Cable. The
+Great Eastern and Captain Anderson. Expedition of 1865.
+Twelve Hundred Miles laid safely, when the Cable is broken</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_293">293</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Formation of a New Company, the Anglo-American. New Cable
+made and shipped on Board the Great Eastern</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_306">306</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Expedition of 1866. Immense Preparations. Religious
+Service at Valentia. Sailing of the Fleet. Diary of the
+Voyage. Cable landed at Heart's Content</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_347">347</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Return to Mid-Ocean to search for the Cable lost the Year
+before. Dragging in the Deep Sea. Repeated Failures. Cable
+finally recovered and completed to Newfoundland</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></td><td align="right" style="width: 8em;"> Page <a href="#Page_376">376</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left" style="width:5%;"></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Afterglow. Honors conferred in England and America.
+Commercial Revolution wrought by the Cable. Mr. Field and
+the Elevated Railroads in New York City. Tour round the
+World. Last Years. Death in 1892</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<div class="likeheading1">STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH</div>
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+
+THE BARRIER OF THE SEA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>When Columbus sailed from the shores of Spain, it was not in search of a
+New World, but only to find a nearer path to the East. He sought a
+western passage to India. He had adopted a traditionary belief that the
+earth was round; but he did not once dream of another continent than the
+three which had been the ancient abodes of the human race&mdash;Europe, Asia,
+and Africa. All the rest was the great deep. The Florentine sage
+Toscanelli, from his knowledge of the world so far as then discovered,
+had made a chart, on which the eastern coast of Asia was represented as
+lying opposite to the western coast of both Europe and Africa. Accepting
+this theory, Columbus reasoned that he could sail direct from Spain to
+India. No intervening continent existed even in his imagination. Even
+after he had crossed the Atlantic, and descried the green woods of San
+Salvador rising out of the western seas, he thought he saw before him
+one of the islands of the Asiatic coast. Cuba he believed was a part of
+the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>mainland of India; Hayti was the Ophir of King Solomon; and when,
+on a later voyage, he came to the broad mouth of the Orinoco, and saw it
+pouring its mighty flood into the Atlantic, he rejoiced that he had
+found the great river Gihon, which had its rise in the garden of Eden!
+Even to the hour of his death, he remained ignorant of the real extent
+of his magnificent discovery. It was reserved to later times to lift the
+curtain fully from the world of waters; to reveal the true magnitude of
+the globe; and to unite the distant hemispheres by ties such as the
+great discoverer never knew.</p>
+
+<p>It is hard to imagine the darkness and the terror which then hung over
+the face of the deep. The ocean to the west was a Mare Tenebrosum&mdash;a Sea
+of Darkness, into which only the boldest voyagers dared to venture.
+Columbus was the most successful navigator of his time. He had made
+voyages to the Western Islands, to Madeira and the Canaries, to Iceland
+on the north, and to the Portuguese settlements in Africa. But when he
+came to cross the sea, he had to grope his way almost blindly. But a few
+rays of knowledge glimmered, like stars, on the pathless waters. When he
+sailed on his voyage of discovery, he directed his course, first to the
+Canaries, which was a sort of outstation for the navigators of those
+times, as the last place at which they could take in supplies; and
+beyond which they were venturing into unknown seas. Here he turned to
+the west, though inclining southward <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>toward the tropics (for even the
+great discoverers of that day, in their search for new realms to
+conquer, were not above the consideration of riches as well as honor,
+and somehow associated gems and gold with torrid climes), and bore away
+for India!</p>
+
+<p>From this route taken by the great navigator, he crossed the ocean in
+its widest part. Had he, instead, followed the track of the Northmen,
+who crept around from Iceland to Greenland and Labrador; or had he
+sailed straight to the Azores, and then borne away to the north-west, he
+would much sooner have descried land from the mast-head. But steering in
+darkness, he crossed the Atlantic where it is broadest <i>and deepest</i>;
+where, as submarine explorers have since shown, it rolls over mountains,
+lofty as the Alps and the Himalayas, which lie buried beneath the
+surface of the deep. But farther north the two continents, so widely
+sundered, incline toward each other, as if inviting that closer relation
+and freer intercourse which the fulness of time was to bring.</p>
+
+<p>As the island of Newfoundland is to stand in the foreground of our
+story, we observe on the map its salient geographical position. It holds
+the same relation to America that Ireland does to Europe. Stretching far
+out into the Atlantic, it is the vanguard of the western continent, or
+rather the signal-tower from which the New World may speak to the Old.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, though large as England, and so near our <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>coast, few Americans
+ever see it, as it lies out of the track of European commerce. Our
+ships, though they skirt the Banks of Newfoundland, pass to the south,
+and get but occasional glimpses of the headlands. Even what is seen
+gives the country rather an ill reputation. It has a rockbound coast,
+around which hang perpetual fogs and mists, through which great icebergs
+drift slowly down, like huge phantoms of the deep, gliding away to be
+dissolved by the warm breath of the Gulf Stream: dangers that warn the
+voyager away from such a sea and shore.</p>
+
+<p>Sailing west from Cape Race, and making the circuit of the island as far
+as the Straits of Belle Isle, one is often reminded of the most northern
+peninsula of Europe. The rocky shores are indented with numerous bays,
+reaching far up into the land, like the fiords along the coast of
+Norway; while the large herds of Caribou deer, that are seen feeding on
+the hills, might easily be mistaken for the flocks of reindeer that
+browse on the pastures and drink of the mountain torrents of ancient
+Scandinavia.</p>
+
+<p>The interior of the island is little known. Not only is it uninhabited,
+it is almost unexplored, a boundless waste of rock and moor, where vast
+forests stretch out their unbroken solitudes, and the wild bird utters
+its lonely cry. Bears and wolves roam on the mountains. Especially
+common is the large and fierce black wolf; while of the smaller animals,
+whose skins furnish <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>material for the fur-trade, such as martins and
+foxes, there is the greatest abundance. But from all pests of the
+serpent tribe, Newfoundland is as free as Ireland, which was delivered
+by the prayers of St. Patrick. There is not a snake or a frog or a toad
+in the island!</p>
+
+<p>Yet, even in this ruggedness of nature, there is a wild beauty, which
+only needs to be "clothed upon" by the hand of man. Newfoundland, in
+many of its features, is not unlike Scotland, even in its most desolate
+portions, where the rocky surface of the country, covered with thick
+moss, reminds the emigrant Scot of the heather on his native moors. In
+the interior are lakes as long as Loch Lomond, and mountains as lofty as
+Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis. There are passes as wild as the Vale of
+Glencoe, where one might feel that he is in the heart of the Highlands,
+while the roar of the torrents yet more vividly recalls the</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+Land of the brown heath and shaggy wood,<br />
+Land of the mountain and the flood.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in all this there is nothing to repel human habitation. By the hand
+of industry, these wild moors might be transformed into fruitful fields.
+We think it a very cold country, where winter reigns over half the year,
+as in Greenland; yet it is not so far north as Scotland, nor is its
+climate more inhospitable. It only needs the same population, the same
+hardy toil: and the same <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>verdure would creep up its hill-sides, which
+now makes green and beautiful the loneliest of Scottish glens.</p>
+
+<p>But at present the country is a <i>terra incognita</i>. In the interior there
+are no towns and no roads. As yet almost the whole wealth of the island
+is drawn from the sea. Its chief trade is its fisheries, and the only
+places of importance are a few small towns, chiefly on the eastern side,
+which have grown up around the trading posts. Besides these, the only
+settlements are the fishermen's huts scattered along the coast. Hence
+the bishop of the island, when he would make his annual visit to his
+scattered flock, is obliged to sail around his diocese in his yacht,
+since even on horseback it would not be possible to make his way through
+the dense forests to the remote parts of the island. This first
+suggested the idea of cutting across the island a nearer way, not only
+for internal intercourse, but for those who were passing to and fro on
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>It was in one of these excursions around the coast that the good Bishop
+Mullock, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland, when
+visiting the western portion of his diocese, lying one day becalmed in
+his yacht, in sight of Cape North, the extreme point of the province of
+Cape Breton, bethought himself how his poor neglected island might be
+benefited by being taken into the track of communication between Europe
+and America. He saw how nature had provided an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>easy approach to the
+mainland on the west. About sixty miles from Cape Ray stretched the long
+island of Cape Breton, while, as a stepping-stone, the little island of
+St. Paul's lay between. So much did it weigh upon his mind that, as soon
+as he got back to St. John's, he wrote a letter to one of the papers on
+the subject. As this was the first suggestion of a telegraph across
+Newfoundland, his letter is here given in full:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p><i>To the Editor of the Courier</i>:</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>: I regret to find that, in every plan for transatlantic
+communication, Halifax is always mentioned, and the natural
+capabilities of Newfoundland entirely overlooked. This has been
+deeply impressed on my mind by the communication I read in your
+paper of Saturday last, regarding telegraphic communication
+between England and Ireland, in which it is said that the
+nearest telegraphic station on the American side is Halifax,
+twenty-one hundred and fifty-five miles from the west of
+Ireland. Now would it not be well to call the attention of
+England and America to the extraordinary capabilities of St.
+John's, as the nearest telegraphic point? It is an Atlantic
+port, lying, I may say, in the track of the ocean steamers, and
+by establishing it as the American telegraphic station, news
+could be communicated to the whole American continent
+forty-eight hours, <i>at least</i>, sooner than by any other route.
+But how will this be accomplished? Just look at the map of
+Newfoundland and Cape Breton. From St. John's to Cape Ray there
+is no difficulty in establishing a line passing near Holy-Rood
+along the neck of land connecting Trinity and Placentia Bays,
+and thence in a direction due west to the Cape. You have then
+about forty-one <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>to forty-five miles of sea to St. Paul's
+Island, with deep soundings of one hundred fathoms, so that the
+electric cable will be perfectly safe from icebergs. Thence to
+Cape North, in Cape Breton, is little more than twelve miles.
+Thus it is not only practicable to bring America two days
+nearer to Europe by this route, but should the telegraphic
+communication between England and Ireland, sixty-two miles, be
+realized, it presents not the least difficulty. Of course, we
+in Newfoundland will have nothing to do with the erection,
+working, and maintenance of the telegraph; but I suppose our
+Government will give every facility to the company, either
+English or American, who will undertake it, as it will be an
+incalculable advantage to this country. I hope the day is not
+far distant when St. John's will be the first link in the
+electric chain which will unite the Old World and the New. </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+J. T. M.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">St. John's</span>, November 8, 1850. </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This suggestion came at the right moment, since it quickened, if it did
+not originate, the first attempt to link the island of Newfoundland with
+the mainland of America. For about the same time, the attention of Mr.
+Frederick N. Gisborne, a telegraph operator, was attracted to a similar
+project. Being a man of great quickness of mind, he instantly saw the
+importance of such a work, and took hold of it with enthusiasm. It might
+easily occur to him without suggestion from any source. He had had much
+experience in telegraphs, and was then engaged in constructing a
+telegraph line in Nova Scotia. Whether, therefore, the idea was first
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>with him or with the bishop, is of little consequence. It might occur
+at the same time to two intelligent minds, and show the sagacity of
+both.</p>
+
+<p>But having taken hold of this idea, Mr. Gisborne pursued it with
+indomitable resolution. As the labors of this gentleman were most
+important in the beginning of this work, it is a pleasure to recognize
+his untiring zeal and energy. In assurance of this we could have no
+higher authority than the following from the late Mr. E. M. Archibald,
+who was at the time Attorney-General of Newfoundland, and afterwards for
+many years British Consul at New York:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It was during the winter of 1849-50, that Mr. Gisborne, who
+had been, as an engineer, engaged in extending the electric
+telegraph through Lower Canada and New Brunswick to Halifax,
+Nova Scotia, conceived the project of a telegraph to connect
+St. John's, the most easterly port of America, with the main
+continent. The importance of the geographical position of
+Newfoundland, in the event of a telegraph ever being carried
+across the Atlantic, was about the same time promulgated by Dr.
+Mullock, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Newfoundland, in a St.
+John's newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>"In the spring of the following year (1851), Mr. Gisborne
+visited Newfoundland, appeared before the Legislature, then in
+session, and explained the details of his plan, which was an
+overland line from St. John's to Cape Ray, nearly four hundred
+miles in length, and (the submarine cable between Dover and
+Calais not having then been laid) a communication between Cape
+Ray and Cape Breton by steamer and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>carrier-pigeons,
+eventually, it was hoped, by a submarine cable across the Gulf
+of St. Lawrence. The Legislature encouraged the project,
+granted £500 sterling to enable Mr. Gisborne to make an
+exploratory survey of the proposed line to Cape Ray, and passed
+an act authorizing its construction, with certain privileges,
+and the appointment of commissioners for the purpose of
+carrying it out. Upon this, Mr. Gisborne, who was then the
+chief officer of the Nova Scotia Telegraph Company, returned to
+that province, resigned his situation, and devoted himself to
+the project of the Newfoundland telegraph. Having organized a
+local company for the purpose of constructing the first
+telegraph line in the island, from St. John's to Carbonear, a
+distance of sixty miles, he, on the fourth of September, set
+out upon the arduous expedition of a survey of the proposed
+line to Cape Ray, which occupied upward of three months, during
+which time himself and his party suffered severe privations,
+and narrowly escaped starvation, having to traverse the most
+rugged and hitherto unexplored part of the island.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> On his
+return, having reported to the Legislature favorably of the
+project, and furnished estimates of the cost, he determined to
+proceed to New York, to obtain assistance to carry it out....
+Mr. Gisborne returned to St. John's in the spring of 1852,
+when, at his instance, an act, incorporating himself (his being
+the only name mentioned in it) and such others as might become
+shareholders in a company, to be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>called the Newfoundland
+Electric Telegraph Company, was passed, granting an exclusive
+right to erect telegraphs in Newfoundland for thirty years,
+with certain concessions of land, by way of encouragement, to
+be granted upon the completion of the telegraph from St. John's
+to Cape Ray. Mr. Gisborne then returned to New York, where he
+organized, under this charter, a company, of which Mr. Tebbets
+and Mr. Holbrook<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> were prominent members, made his financial
+arrangements with them, and proceeded to England to contract
+for the cable from Cape Ray to Prince Edward Island, and from
+thence to the mainland. Returning in the autumn, he proceeded
+in a small steamer, in November of that year, 1852, to stretch
+the first submarine cable, of any length, in America, across
+the Northumberland Strait from Prince Edward Island to New
+Brunswick, which cable, however, was shortly afterward broken,
+and a new one was subsequently laid down by the New York,
+Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company. In the spring of
+the following year, 1853, Mr. Gisborne set vigorously to work
+to complete his favorite project of the line (which he intended
+should be chiefly underground) from St. John's to Cape Ray. He
+had constructed some thirty or forty miles of road, and was
+proceeding with every prospect of success, when, most
+unexpectedly, those of the company who were to furnish the
+needful funds dishonored his bills, and brought his operations
+to a sudden termination. He and the creditors of the company
+were for several months buoyed up with promises of forthcoming
+means from his New York allies, which promises were finally
+entirely unfulfilled; and Gisborne, being the only ostensible
+party, was sued and prosecuted on all <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>sides, stripped of his
+whole property, and himself arrested to answer the claims of
+the creditors of the company. He cheerfully and honorably gave
+up every thing he possessed, and did his utmost to relieve the
+severe distress in which the poor laborers on the line had been
+involved." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This is a testimony most honorable to the engineer who first led the way
+through a pathless wilderness. But this Newfoundland scheme is not to be
+confounded with that of the Atlantic Telegraph, which did not come into
+existence until a year or two later. The latter was not at all included
+in the former. Indeed, Mr. Gisborne himself says, in a letter referring
+to his original project: "My plans were to run a subterranean line from
+Cape Race to Cape Ray, fly carrier-pigeons and run boats across the
+Straits of Northumberland to Cape Breton, and thence by overland lines
+convey the news to New York." He adds however: "Meanwhile Mr. Brett's
+experimental cable between Dover and Calais having proved successful, I
+set forth in my report, [which appeared a year after his first
+proposal], that 'carrier-pigeons and boats would be required only until
+such time as the experiments then making in England with submarine
+cables should warrant a similar attempt between Cape Ray and Cape
+Breton.'" But nowhere in his report does he allude to the possibility of
+ever spanning the mighty gulf of the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>But several years after, when the temporary success <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>of the Atlantic
+Telegraph gave a name to everybody connected with it, he or his friends
+seemed not unwilling to have it supposed that this was embraced in the
+original scheme. When asked why he did not publish his large design to
+the world, he answered: "Because I was looked upon as a wild visionary
+by my friends, and pronounced a fool by my relatives for resigning a
+lucrative government appointment in favor of such a laborious
+speculation as the Newfoundland connection. Now had I coupled it at that
+time with an Atlantic line, all confidence in the prior undertaking
+would have been destroyed, and my object defeated." This may have been a
+reason for not announcing such a project to the public, but not for
+withholding it from his friends. A man can hardly lay claim to that
+which he holds in such absolute reserve.</p>
+
+<p>However, whether he ever entertained the <i>idea</i> of such a project, is
+not a matter of the slightest consequence to the public, nor even to his
+own reputation. Ten years before Professor Morse had expressed, not a
+dreamer's fancy, but a deliberate conviction, founded on scientific
+experiments, that "a telegraphic communication might with certainty be
+established across the Atlantic Ocean;" so that the idea was not
+original with Mr. Gisborne, any more than with others who were eager to
+appropriate it.</p>
+
+<p>It is a part of the history of great enterprises, that the moment one
+succeeds, a host spring up to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>claim the honor. Thus when, in 1858, the
+Atlantic Telegraph seemed to be a success, the public, knowing well who
+had borne the brunt and burden of the undertaking, awarded him the
+praise which he so well deserved; but instantly there were other
+Richmonds in the field. Those who had had no part in the labor, at least
+claimed to have originated the idea! Of course, these many claims
+destroy each other. But after all, to raise such a point at all is the
+merest trifling. The question is not who first had the "idea," but who
+took hold of the enterprise as a practical thing; who grappled with the
+gigantic difficulties of the undertaking, and fought the battle through
+to victory.</p>
+
+<p>As to Mr. Gisborne, his activity in the beginning of the Newfoundland
+telegraph is a matter of history. In that preliminary work, he bore an
+honorable part, and acquired a title to respect, of which he cannot be
+deprived. All honor to him for his enterprise, his courage, and his
+perseverance!</p>
+
+<p>But for the company of which he was the father, which he had got up with
+so much toil, it lived but a few months, when it became involved in debt
+some fifty thousand dollars, chiefly to laborers on the line, and ended
+its existence by an ignominious failure. The concern was bankrupt, and
+it was plain that, if the work was not to be finally abandoned, it must
+be taken up by stronger hands.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> "On the fourth day of December, I accomplished the survey
+through three hundred and fifty miles of wood and wilderness. It was an
+arduous undertaking. My original party, consisting of six white men,
+were exchanged for four Indians; of the latter party, two deserted, one
+died a few days after my return, and the other, 'Joe Paul,' has ever
+since proclaimed himself an ailing man."&mdash;<i>Letter of Mr. Gisborne.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Horace B. Tebbets and Darius B. Holbrook.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+
+CAN THE OCEAN BE SPANNED?</h2>
+
+
+<p>Mr. Gisborne left Halifax and came to New York in January, 1854. Here he
+took counsel with his friend Tebbets and others; but they could give him
+no relief. It was while in this state of suspense that he met, at the
+Astor House, Mr. Matthew D. Field, an engineer who had been engaged in
+building railroads and suspension bridges at the South and West. Mr.
+Field listened to his story with interest, and engaged to speak of it to
+his brother, Cyrus W. Field,<a name="FNanchor_A_3" id="FNanchor_A_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_3" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> a merchant of New York, who had retired
+from business the year before, and had spent six months in travelling
+over the mountains of South America, from which he had lately returned.
+Accordingly, he introduced the subject, but found his brother
+disinclined to embark in any new undertaking. Though still a young man,
+his life had been for many years one of incessant devotion to business.
+He had accumulated an ample fortune, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>and was not disposed to renew the
+cares, the anxieties, and the fatigues of his former life. But listening
+to the details of a scheme which had in it much to excite interest, and
+which by its very difficulty stimulated the spirit of enterprise, he at
+length consented to see Mr. Gisborne, and invited him to his house.
+Accordingly he came, and spent an evening describing the route of his
+proposed telegraph, and the points it was to connect. After he left, Mr.
+Field took the globe which was standing in the library, and began to
+turn it over. <i>It was while thus studying the globe that the idea first
+occurred to him, that the telegraph might be carried further still, and
+be made to span the Atlantic Ocean.</i> The idea was not original with him,
+though he was to carry it out. It was indeed new <i>to him</i>; but it had
+long been a matter of speculation with scientific minds, though their
+theories had never attracted his attention. But once he had grasped the
+idea, it took strong hold of his imagination. Had the Newfoundland
+scheme stood alone, he would never have undertaken it. He cared little
+about shortening communication with Europe by a day or two, by relays of
+boats and carrier-pigeons. But it was the hope of further and grander
+results that inspired him to enter on a work of which no man could
+foresee the end.</p>
+
+<p>An enterprise of such proportions, that would task to the utmost the
+science and the engineering skill of the world, was not to be rashly
+undertaken; and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>before giving a definite reply to Gisborne, Mr. Field
+determined to apply to the highest authorities in his own country.</p>
+
+<p>The project of an Atlantic telegraph involved two problems: Could a
+cable be stretched across the ocean? and if it were, would it be good
+for anything to convey messages? The first was a question of mechanical
+difficulties, requiring a careful survey of the ocean itself, fathoming
+its depth, finding out the character of its bottom, whether level, or
+rough and volcanic; and all the obstacles that might be found in the
+winds that agitate the surface above, or the mighty currents that sweep
+through the waters below. The second problem was purely scientific,
+involving questions as to the laws of electricity, not then fully
+understood, and on which the boldest might feel that he was venturing on
+uncertain ground.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the two elements or forces of nature to be encountered&mdash;the
+ocean and the electric current. Could they be controlled by any power of
+man? The very proposal was enough to stagger the faith even of an
+enthusiast. Who could lay a bridle on the neck of the sea? The attempt
+seemed as idle as that of Xerxes to bind it with chains. Was it possible
+to combat the fierceness of the winds and waves, and to stretch one long
+line from continent to continent? And then, after the work was achieved,
+would the lightning run along the ocean-bed from <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>shore to shore? Such
+were the questions which had puzzled many an anxious brain, and which
+now troubled the one who was to undertake the work.</p>
+
+<p>To get some light in his perplexity, Mr. Field, the very next morning
+after his interview with Gisborne, wrote two letters, one to Lieutenant
+Maury, then at the head of the National Observatory at Washington, on
+the nautical difficulties of the undertaking, asking if the sea were
+itself a barrier too great to be overcome; and the other to Professor
+Morse, inquiring if it would be possible to telegraph over a distance so
+great as that from Europe to America?</p>
+
+<p>The mail soon brought an answer from Lieutenant Maury, which began:
+"Singularly enough, just as I received your letter, I was closing one to
+the Secretary of the Navy on the same subject." A copy of this he
+inclosed to Mr. Field, and it is given here. It shows the conclusions at
+which, even at that early day, scientific men were beginning to arrive:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">National Observatory</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, February 22, 1854.
+</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>: The United States brig Dolphin, Lieutenant Commanding O.
+H. Berryman, was employed last summer upon especial service
+connected with the researches that are carried on at this
+office concerning the winds and currents of the sea. Her
+observations were confined principally to that part of the
+ocean which the merchantmen, as they pass to and fro upon the
+business of trade between Europe and the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>United States, use as
+their great thoroughfare. Lieutenant Berryman availed himself
+of this opportunity to carry along also a line of deep-sea
+soundings, from the shores of Newfoundland to those of Ireland.
+The result is highly interesting, in so far as the bottom of
+the sea is concerned, upon the question of a submarine
+telegraph across the Atlantic; and I therefore beg leave to
+make it the subject of a special report.</p>
+
+<p>"This line of deep-sea soundings seems to be decisive of the
+question of the practicability of a submarine telegraph between
+the two continents, <i>in so far as the bottom of the deep sea is
+concerned</i>. From Newfoundland to Ireland, the distance between
+the nearest points is about sixteen hundred miles;<a name="FNanchor_B_4" id="FNanchor_B_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_4" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> and the
+bottom of the sea between the two places is a plateau, which
+seems to have been placed there especially for the purpose of
+holding the wires of a submarine telegraph, and of keeping them
+out of harm's way. It is neither too deep nor too shallow; yet
+it is so deep that the wires but once landed, will remain for
+ever beyond the reach of vessels' anchors, icebergs, and drifts
+of any kind, and so shallow, that the wires may be readily
+lodged upon the bottom. The depth of this plateau is quite
+regular, gradually increasing from the shores of Newfoundland
+to the depth of from fifteen hundred to two thousand fathoms,
+as you approach the other side. The distance between Ireland
+and Cape St. Charles, or Cape St. Lewis, in Labrador, is
+somewhat less than the distance from any point of Ireland to
+the nearest point of Newfoundland. But whether it would be
+better to lead the wires from Newfoundland or Labrador is not
+now <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>the question; nor do I pretend to consider the question as
+to the possibility of finding <i>a time calm enough, the sea
+smooth enough, a wire long enough, a ship big enough</i>, to lay a
+coil of wire sixteen hundred miles in length: though I have no
+fear but that the enterprise and ingenuity of the age, whenever
+called on with these problems, will be ready with a
+satisfactory and practical solution of them.</p>
+
+<p>"I simply address myself at this time to the question in so far
+as <i>the bottom of the sea</i> is concerned, and as far as that,
+the greatest practical difficulties will, I apprehend, be found
+after reaching soundings at either end of the line, and not in
+the deep sea....</p>
+
+<p>"A wire laid across from either of the above-named places on
+this side will pass to the north of the Grand Banks, and rest
+on that beautiful plateau to which I have alluded, where the
+waters of the sea appear to be as quiet and as completely at
+rest as at the bottom of a mill-pond. It is proper that the
+reasons should be stated for the inference that there are no
+perceptible currents, and no abrading agents at work at the
+bottom of the sea upon this telegraphic plateau. I derive this
+inference from a study of a physical fact, which I little
+deemed, when I sought it, had any such bearings.</p>
+
+<p>"Lieutenant Berryman brought up with Brooke's deep-sea sounding
+apparatus specimens of the bottom from this plateau. I sent
+them to Professor Bailey, of West Point, for examination under
+his microscope. This he kindly gave, and that eminent
+microscopist was quite as much surprised to find, as I was to
+learn, that all those specimens of deep-sea soundings are
+filled with microscopic shells; to use his own words, <i>not a
+particle of sand or gravel exists in them</i>. These little
+shells, therefore, suggest the fact that there are <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>no currents
+at the bottom of the sea whence they came; that Brooke's lead
+found them where they were deposited in their burial-place
+after having lived and died on the surface, and by gradually
+sinking were lodged on the bottom. Had there been currents at
+the bottom, these would have swept and abraded and mingled up
+with these microscopic remains the <i>débris</i> of the bottom of
+the sea, such as ooze, sand, gravel, and other matter; but not
+a particle of sand or gravel was found among them. Hence the
+inference that these depths of the sea are not disturbed either
+by waves or currents. Consequently, a telegraphic wire once
+laid there, there it would remain, as completely beyond the
+reach of accident as it would be if buried in air-tight cases.
+Therefore, so far as the bottom of the deep sea between
+Newfoundland, or the North Cape, at the mouth of the St.
+Lawrence, and Ireland, is concerned, the practicability of a
+submarine telegraph across the Atlantic is proved....</p>
+
+<p>"In this view of the subject, and for the purpose of hastening
+the completion of such a line, I take the liberty of suggesting
+for your consideration the propriety of an offer from the
+proper source, of a prize to the company through whose
+telegraphic wire the first message shall be passed across the
+Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>"I have the honor to be respectfully yours. </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">M. F. Maury</span>,<br />
+"Lieutenant United States Navy.
+</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Hon. J. C. Dobbin</span>, Secretary of the Navy." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The reply of Professor Morse showed equal interest in the subject, in
+proof of which he wrote that he would come down to New York to see Mr.
+Field about it. A few days after he came, and saw Mr. Field at <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>his
+house. This was the beginning of an acquaintance which soon ripened into
+friendship, and which henceforth united these gentlemen together in this
+great achievement. Professor Morse, in conversation, entered at length
+into the laws of electricity as applied to the business of telegraphing,
+and concluded by declaring his entire faith in the undertaking as
+practical; as one that might, could, and would, be achieved. Indeed,
+this faith he had avowed years before. In a letter written as early as
+August tenth, 1843, to John C. Spencer, then Secretary of the Treasury,
+Professor Morse had detailed the results of certain experiments made in
+the harbor of New York to show the power of electricity to communicate
+at great distances, at the close of which he says&mdash;in words that now
+seem prophetic:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The practical inference from this law is, that a telegraphic
+communication on the electro-magnetic plan may with certainty
+be established across the Atlantic Ocean! Startling as this may
+now seem, I am confident the time will come when this project
+will be realized." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It was the good fortune of Mr. Field&mdash;at that time and ever since&mdash;to
+have at hand an adviser in whose judgment he had implicit confidence.
+This was his eldest brother, David Dudley Field. They lived side by side
+on Gramercy Park, and were in daily communication. To the prudent
+counsels, wise judgment and unfaltering courage of the elder brother,
+the Atlantic <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>Telegraph is more indebted than the world will ever know,
+for its first impulse and for the spirit which sustained it through long
+years of discouragement and disaster, when its friends were few. To
+this, his nearest and best counsellor, Mr. Field opened the project
+which had taken possession of his mind; and being strengthened by that
+maturer judgment, he finally resolved that, if he could get a sufficient
+number of capitalists to join him, he would embark in an enterprise
+which, beginning with the line to Newfoundland, involved in the end
+nothing less than an attempt to link this New World which Columbus had
+discovered, to that Old World which had been for ages the home of empire
+and of civilization. How the scheme advanced through the next twelve
+years, it will be our province to relate.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_3" id="Footnote_A_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_3"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Born November 30, 1819, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the
+son of a Congregational minister, of whom three sons are still living:
+Mr. David Dudley Field, of New York; Mr. Justice Stephen J. Field, of
+the Supreme Court of the United States; and the writer of the present
+volume.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_4" id="Footnote_B_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_4"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> From Cape Freels, Newfoundland, to Erris Head, Ireland, the
+distance is sixteen hundred and eleven miles; from Cape Charles, or Cape
+St. Lewis, Labrador, to the same point, the distance is sixteen hundred
+and one miles.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+
+THE COMPANY ORGANIZED.</h2>
+
+
+<p>And so the young New York merchant set out to carry a telegraph across
+the Atlantic Ocean! The design had in it at least the merit of audacity.
+But whether the end was to be sublime or ridiculous time alone could
+tell. Certain it is that when his sanguine temper and youthful blood
+stirred him up to take hold of such an enterprise, he little dreamed of
+what it would involve. He thought lightly of a few thousands risked in
+an uncertain venture; but never imagined that he might yet be drawn on
+to stake upon its success the whole fortune he had accumulated; that he
+was to sacrifice all the peace and quiet he had hoped to enjoy; and that
+for twelve years he was to be almost without a home, crossing and
+re-crossing the sea, urging his enterprise in Europe and America. But so
+it is, that the Being who designs great things for human welfare, and
+would accomplish them by human instruments, does not lift at once the
+curtain from the stern realities they are to meet, nor reveal <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>the
+rugged ascents they are to climb; so that it is only when at last the
+heights are attained, and they look backward, that they realize through
+what they have passed.</p>
+
+<p>But could he find anybody to join him in his bold undertaking? Starving
+adventurers there always are, ready to embark in any Quixotic attempt,
+since they have nothing to lose. But would men of sense and of
+character; men who had fortunes to keep, and the habit which business
+gives of looking calmly and suspiciously at probabilities; be found to
+put capital in an enterprise where, if it failed, they would find their
+money literally at the bottom of the sea? It seemed doubtful, but he
+would try. His plan was, if possible, to enlist ten capitalists, all
+gentlemen of wealth, who together could lift a pretty heavy load; who,
+if need were, could easily raise a million of dollars, to carry out any
+undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>The first man whom he addressed was his next-door neighbor, Mr. Peter
+Cooper, in whom he found the indisposition which a man of large
+fortune&mdash;now well advanced in life&mdash;would naturally feel to embark in
+new enterprises. The reluctance in this case was not so much to the
+risking of capital, as to having his mind occupied with the care which
+it would impose. These objections slowly yielded to other
+considerations. As they talked it over, the large heart of Mr. Cooper
+began to see that, if it were possible to accomplish <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>such a work, it
+would be a great public benefit. This consideration prevailed, and what
+would not have been undertaken as a private speculation, was yielded to
+public interest. The conference ended by a conditional agreement to
+engage in it, if several others did, and, as we shall see, when the
+Company was organized, he became its President.</p>
+
+<p>The early accession of this gentleman gave strength to the new
+enterprise. In all the million inhabitants of the city of New York there
+was not a name which was better known, or more justly held in honor,
+than that of Peter Cooper. A native of the city, where he had passed his
+whole life, he had seen its growth, from the small town it was after the
+War of the Revolution, and had himself grown with it. Beginning with
+very small means and limited opportunities, he had become one of its
+great capitalists. Many who thus rise to wealth, in the process of
+accumulation, form penurious habits which cling to them, and to the end
+of their days it is the chief object of life to hoard and to keep. But
+Mr. Cooper, while acquiring the fortune, had also the heart of a prince;
+and used his wealth with a noble generosity. In the centre of New York
+stands to-day a massive building, erected at a cost of nearly a million
+of dollars, and consecrated "To Science and Art." This was Mr. Cooper's
+gift to his native city. Remembering his own limited advantages of
+education, he desired that the young men of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>New York, the apprentices
+and mechanics, should have better opportunities than he had enjoyed. For
+this he endowed courses of lectures on the natural sciences; he opened
+the largest reading-room in America, which furnishes a pleasant resort
+to thousands of readers daily; while to help the other sex, he added a
+School of Design for Women, which trains hundreds to be teachers, and
+some of them artists; who go forth into the world to earn an honest
+living, and to bless the memory of their generous benefactor. This noble
+institution, standing in the heart of the city, is his enduring
+monument.</p>
+
+<p>Yet while doing so much for the public, those who saw Peter Cooper in
+his family knew how he retained the simple habits of early life&mdash;how,
+while giving hundreds of thousands to others, he cared to spend little
+on himself; how he remained the same modest, kindly old man; the pure,
+the generous, and the good. His was</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+"The good gray head that all men knew,"
+</p>
+
+<p>and that was sadly missed when, nearly thirty years after, in 1883, at
+the age of ninety-two, he was borne to his grave. It is a pleasant
+remembrance that the beginning of this enterprise was connected with
+that honored name.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Field next addressed himself to Mr. Moses Taylor, a well-known
+capitalist of New York, engaged in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>extensive business reaching to
+different parts of the world, and whose daily observation of all sorts
+of enterprises, both sound and visionary, made him perhaps a severer
+judge of any new scheme. With this gentleman he had then no personal
+acquaintance, but sent a note of introduction from his brother, David
+Dudley Field, with a line requesting an interview, to which Mr. Taylor
+replied by an invitation to his house on an evening when he should be
+disengaged. As these two gentlemen afterwards became very intimately
+associated, they often recurred to their first interview. Said Mr.
+Field: "I shall never forget how Mr. Taylor received me. He fixed on me
+his keen eye, as if he would look through me: and then, sitting down, he
+listened to me for nearly an hour without saying a word." This was
+rather an ominous beginning. However, his quick mind soon saw the
+possibilities of the enterprise, and the evening ended by an
+agreement&mdash;conditional, like Mr. Cooper's&mdash;to enter into it.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Taylor, being thus enlisted, brought in his friend, Mr. Marshall O.
+Roberts&mdash;a man whose career has been too remarkable to be passed without
+notice. A native of the City of New York, (though his father was a
+physician from Wales, who came to this country early in this century,)
+he found himself, when a boy of eight years, an orphan, without a friend
+in the world. From that time he made his way purely by his own industry
+and indomitable will. At the age of twenty <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>he was embarked in business
+for himself, and his history soon became a succession of great
+enterprises. If we were to relate some of the incidents connected with
+his rise of fortune, they would sound more like romance than reality. He
+was the first to project those floating palaces which now ply the waters
+of the Hudson and the great lakes. He was one of the early promoters of
+the Erie Railroad. When the discovery of gold in California turned the
+tide of emigration to that coast, he started the line of steamers to the
+Isthmus of Panama, and controlled largely the commerce with the Pacific.
+Thus his hand was felt, giving impulse to many different enterprises on
+land and sea. His whole course was marked by a spirit of commercial
+daring, which men called rashness, until they saw its success, and then
+applauded as marvellous sagacity.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Field next wrote to Mr. Chandler White, a personal friend of many
+years' standing, who had retired from business, and was living a few
+miles below the city, near Fort Hamilton, at one of those beautiful
+points of view which command the whole harbor of New York. He too was
+very slow to yield to argument or persuasion. Why should he&mdash;when he had
+cast anchor in this peaceful spot&mdash;again embark in the cares of
+business, and, worst of all, in an enterprise the scene of which was far
+distant, and the results very uncertain? But enthusiasm is always
+magnetic, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>the glowing descriptions of his persuader at length
+prevailed.<a name="FNanchor_A_5" id="FNanchor_A_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_5" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p>
+
+<p>There were now five gentlemen enlisted; and Mr. Field was about to apply
+to others, to make up his proposed number, when Mr. Cooper came to ask
+why <i>five</i> would not do as well as <i>ten</i>? The question was no sooner
+asked than answered. To this all agreed, and at once fixed an evening
+when they should meet at Mr. Field's house to hear his statements and to
+examine the charter of the old company, find out what it had done, and
+what it proposed to do, what property it had and what debts it owed; and
+decide whether the enterprise offered sufficient inducements to embark
+in it. Accordingly they met, and for four nights in succession discussed
+the subject. It was in the dining-room of Mr. Field's house, and the
+large table was spread with maps of the route to be traversed by the
+line of telegraph, and with plans and estimates of the work to be done,
+the cost of doing it, and the return which they might hope in the end to
+realize for their labor and their capital. The result was an agreement
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>on the part of all to enter on the undertaking, if the Government of
+Newfoundland would grant a new charter conceding more favorable terms.
+To secure this it was important to send at once a commission to
+Newfoundland. Neither Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, nor Mr. Roberts could go;
+and it devolved on Mr. Field to make the first voyage on this business,
+as it did to make many voyages afterwards to Newfoundland, and still
+more across the Atlantic. But not wishing to take the whole
+responsibility, he was accompanied at his earnest request by Mr. White,
+and by Mr. D. D. Field, whose counsel, as he was to be the legal adviser
+of the Company, was all-important in the framing of the new charter that
+was to secure its rights. The latter thus describes this first
+expedition:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The agreement with the Electric Telegraph Company, and the
+formal surrender of its charter, were signed on the tenth of
+March, [1854,] and on the fourteenth we left New York,
+accompanied by Mr. Gisborne. The next morning we took the
+steamer at Boston for Halifax, and thence, on the night of the
+eighteenth, departed in the little steamer Merlin for St.
+John's, Newfoundland. Three more disagreeable days, voyagers
+scarcely ever passed, than we spent in that smallest of
+steamers. It seemed as if all the storms of winter had been
+reserved for the first month of spring. A frost-bound coast, an
+icy sea, rain, hail, snow and tempest, were the greetings of
+the telegraph adventurers in their first movement toward
+Europe. In the darkest night, through which no man could see
+the ship's length, with snow filling <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>the air and flying into
+the eyes of the sailors, with ice in the water, and a heavy sea
+rolling and moaning about us, the captain felt his way around
+Cape Race with his lead, as the blind man feels his way with
+his staff, but as confidently and as safely as if the sky had
+been clear and the sea calm; and the light of morning dawned
+upon deck and mast and spar, coated with glittering ice, but
+floating securely between the mountains which form the gates of
+the harbor of St. John's. In that busy and hospitable town, the
+first person to whom we were introduced was Mr. Edward M.
+Archibald, then Attorney-General of the Colony, and now British
+Consul in New York. He entered warmly into our views, and from
+that day to this, has been an efficient and consistent
+supporter of the undertaking. By him we were introduced to the
+Governor, (Kerr Bailey Hamilton,) who also took an earnest
+interest in our plans. He convoked the Council to receive us,
+and hear an explanation of our views and wishes. In a few hours
+after the conference, the answer of the Governor and Council
+was received, consenting to recommend to the Assembly a
+guarantee of the interest of £50,000 of bonds, an immediate
+grant of fifty square miles of land, a further grant to the
+same extent on the completion of the telegraph across the
+ocean, and a payment of £5,000 toward the construction of a
+bridle-path across the island, along the line of the land
+telegraph." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This was a hopeful beginning; and, though the charter was not yet
+obtained, feeling assured by this official encouragement, and the public
+interest in the project, that it would be granted by the colony, Mr.
+Field remained in St. John's but three days, when he took the Merlin
+back to Halifax on his way to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>New York, there to purchase and send down
+a steamer for the service of the Company, leaving his associates to
+secure the charter and to carry out the arrangements with the former
+company. To settle all these details was necessarily a work of time.
+First, the charter of the old Electric Telegraph Company had to be
+repealed, to clear the way for a new charter to the Company, which was
+to bear the more comprehensive title of "New York, Newfoundland, <i>and
+London</i>." This charter&mdash;which had been drawn with the greatest care by
+the counsel of the Company, while on the voyage to Newfoundland&mdash;bore on
+its very front the declaration that the plans of the new Company were
+much broader than those of the old. In the former charter, the design
+was thus set forth:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The telegraph line of this company is designed to be strictly
+an 'Inter-Continental Telegraph.' Its termini will be New York,
+in the United States, and London, in the kingdom of Great
+Britain; these points are to be connected by a line of electric
+telegraph from New York to St. John's, Newfoundland, partly on
+poles, partly laid in the ground, and partly through the water,
+<i>and a line of the swiftest steamships ever built from that
+point to Ireland</i>. The trips of these steamships, it is
+expected, will not exceed five days, and as very little time
+will be occupied in transmitting messages between St. John's
+and New York, the communication between the latter city and
+London or Liverpool, will be effected <i>in six days</i>, or less.
+The company will have likewise stationed at St. John's a steam
+yacht, for the purpose <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>of intercepting the European and
+American steamships, so that no opportunity may be lost in
+forwarding intelligence in advance of the ordinary channels of
+communication." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>But the charter of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph
+Company, which was now to be obtained, began by declaring, in its very
+first sentence:
+"Whereas it is deemed advisable to establish a line of telegraphic
+communication between America and Europe by way of Newfoundland." Not a
+word is said of fast ships, of communications in less than six days, but
+every thing points to a line across the ocean. Thus one section gives
+authority to establish a submarine telegraph across the ocean, from
+Newfoundland to Ireland; another section prohibits any other company or
+person from touching the coast of Newfoundland or its dependencies
+[which includes Labrador] with a telegraphic cable or wire, from any
+point whatever, for fifty years; and a third section grants the Company
+fifty square miles of land upon the completion of the submarine line
+across the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>In other respects the charter was equally liberal. It incorporated the
+associates for fifty years, established perfect equality, in respect to
+corporators and officers, between citizens of the United States and
+British subjects, and allowed the meetings of the stockholders and
+directors to be held in New York, in Newfoundland, or in London.</p>
+
+<p>To obtain such concessions was a work of some difficulty <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>and delay. The
+Legislature of the province were naturally anxious to scan carefully
+conditions that were to bind them and their children for half a century.
+I have now before me the papers of St. John's of that day, containing
+the discussions in the Legislature; and while all testify to the deep
+public interest in the project, they show a due care for the interests
+of their own colony, which they were bound to protect. At length all
+difficulties were removed, and the charter was passed unanimously by the
+Assembly, and confirmed by the Council.</p>
+
+<p>This happy result was duly celebrated, in the manner which all
+Englishmen approve, by a grand dinner given by the commissioners of the
+new Company, to the members of the Assembly and other dignitaries of the
+colony, at which there were eloquent prophecies of the good time coming,
+showing how heartily the enterprise was welcomed by all classes; and how
+fond were the anticipations of the increased intercourse it would bring,
+and the manifold benefits it would confer on their long-neglected
+island.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner were the papers signed, than the wheels, so long blocked, were
+unloosed, and the machinery began to move. Mr. White at once drew on New
+York for fifty thousand dollars, and paid off all the debts of the old
+company. A St. John's newspaper of April 8th, 1854, amid a great deal on
+the subject, contains this paragraph, which is very significant <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>of the
+dead state of the old company, and of the life of the new:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The office of the new Electric Telegraph Company has been
+surrounded the last two or three days by the men who had been
+engaged the last year on the line, and who are being paid all
+debts, dues, and demands against the old association. We look
+upon the readiness with which these claims are liquidated as a
+substantial indication on the part of the new Company that they
+will complete to the letter all that they have declared to
+accomplish in this important undertaking." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In the early part of May, the two gentlemen who had remained behind in
+Newfoundland rejoined their associates in New York, and there the
+charter was formally accepted and the Company organized. As all the
+associates had not arrived till Saturday evening, the 6th of May, and as
+one of them was to leave town on Monday morning, it was agreed that they
+should meet for organization at six o'clock of that day. At that hour
+they came to the house of Mr. Field's brother Dudley, and as the first
+rays of the morning sun streamed into the windows, the formal
+organization took place. The charter was accepted, the stock subscribed,
+and the officers chosen. Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Field, Mr. Roberts,
+and Mr. White were the first directors. Mr. Cooper was chosen President,
+Mr. White, Vice-President, and Mr. Taylor, Treasurer.</p>
+
+<p>This is a short story, and soon told. It seemed a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>light affair, for
+half a dozen men to meet in the early morning and toss off such a
+business before breakfast. But what a work was that to which they thus
+put their hands! A capital of a million and a half of dollars was
+subscribed in those few minutes, and a company put in operation that was
+to carry a line of telegraph to St. John's, more than a thousand miles
+from New York, and then to span the wild sea. Well was it that they who
+undertook the work did not then fully realize its magnitude, or they
+would have shrunk from the attempt. Well was it for them that the veil
+was not lifted, which shut from their eyes the long delay, the immense
+toil, and the heavy burdens of many wearisome years. Such a prospect
+might have chilled the most sanguine spirit. But a kind Providence gives
+men strength for their day, imposes burdens as they are able to bear
+them, and thus leads them on to greater achievements than they knew.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_5" id="Footnote_A_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_5"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Although it is anticipating a year in time, I cannot resist
+the pleasure of adding here the name of another eminent merchant, who
+afterward joined this little Company, Mr. Wilson G. Hunt. Mr. Hunt is
+one of the old merchants of New York who, through his whole career, has
+maintained the highest reputation for commercial integrity, and whose
+fortune is the reward of a long life of honorable industry. He joined
+the Company in 1855, and was a strong and steady friend through all its
+troubles till the final success.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+
+CROSSING NEWFOUNDLAND.</h2>
+
+
+<p>There is nothing in the world easier than to build a line of railroad,
+or of telegraph, <i>on paper</i>. You have only to take the map, and mark the
+points to be connected, and then with a single sweep of the pencil to
+draw the line along which the iron track is to run. In this airy flight
+of the imagination, distances are nothing. A thousand leagues vanish at
+a stroke. All obstacles disappear. The valleys are exalted, and the
+hills are made low, soaring arches span the mountain streams, and the
+chasms are leaped in safety by the fire-drawn cars.</p>
+
+<p>Very different is it to construct a line of railroad or of telegraph in
+reality; to come with an army of laborers, with axes on their shoulders
+to cut down the forests, and with spades in their hands to cast up the
+highway. Then poetry sinks to prose, and instead of flying over the
+space on wings, one must traverse it on foot, slowly and with painful
+steps. Nature asserts her power; and, as if resentful of the disdain
+with which man in his pride affected to leap over her, she piles up new
+barriers in his way. The mountains <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>with their rugged sides cannot be
+moved out of their place, the rocks must be cleft in twain, to open a
+passage for the conqueror, before he can begin his triumphal march. The
+woods thicken into an impassable jungle; and the morass sinks deeper,
+threatening to swallow up the horse and his rider; until the rash
+projector is startled at his own audacity. Then it becomes a contest of
+forces between man and nature, in which, if he would be victorious, he
+must fight his way. The barriers of nature cannot be lightly pushed
+aside, but must yield at last only to time and toil, and "man's
+unconquerable will."</p>
+
+<p>Seldom have all these obstacles been combined in a more formidable
+manner to obstruct any public work, than against the attempt to build a
+telegraph line across the island of Newfoundland. The distance, by the
+route to be traversed, was over four hundred miles, and the country was
+a wilderness, an utter desolation. Yet through such a country, over
+mountain and moor, through tangled brake and rocky gorge, over rivers
+and through morasses, they were to build a road&mdash;not merely a line of
+telegraph stuck on poles, but "a good and traversable bridle-road, eight
+feet wide, with bridges of the same width," from end to end of the
+island.</p>
+
+<p>But nothing daunted, the new Company undertook the great work with
+spirit and resolution. Gisborne had made a beginning, and got some
+thirty or forty <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>miles out of St. John's. This was the easiest part of
+the whole route, being in the most inhabited region of the island. But
+here he broke down, just where it was necessary to leave civilization
+behind, and to plunge into the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>Intending to resume the work on a much larger scale, Mr. White, the
+Vice-President, was sent down to St. John's to be the General Agent of
+the Company; while Mr. Matthew D. Field, as a practical engineer, was to
+have charge of the construction of the line. The latter soon organized a
+force of six hundred men, which he pushed forward in detachments to the
+scene of operations.</p>
+
+<p>And now began to appear still more the difficulties of the way. To
+provide subsistence for man and beast, it was necessary to keep near the
+coast, for all supplies had to be sent round by sea. Yet in following
+the coast line, they had to wind around bays, or to climb over
+headlands. If they struck into the interior, they had to cut their way
+through the dense and tangled wood. There was not a path to guide them,
+not even an Indian trail. When lost in the forest, they had to follow
+the compass, as much as the mariner at sea.</p>
+
+<p>To keep such a force in the field, that, like an army, produced nothing,
+but consumed fearfully, required constant attention to the commissary
+department. The little steamer Victoria, which belonged to the Company,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>was kept plying along the coast, carrying barrels of pork and potatoes,
+kegs of powder, pickaxes and spades and shovels, and all the implements
+of labor. These were taken up to the heads of the bays, and thence
+carried, chiefly on men's backs, over the hills to the line of the road.</p>
+
+<p>In many respects, it had the features of a military expedition. It moved
+forward in a great camp. The men were sheltered in tents, when sheltered
+at all, or in small huts which they built along the road. But more often
+they slept on the ground. It was a wild and picturesque sight to come
+upon their camp in the woods, to see their fires blazing at night while
+hundreds of stalwart sleepers lay stretched on the ground. Sometimes,
+when encamped on the hills, they could be seen afar off at sea. It made
+a pretty picture then. But the hardy pioneers thought little of the
+figure they were making, when they were exposed to the fury of the
+elements. Often the rain fell in torrents, and the men, crouching under
+their slight shelter, listened sadly to the sighing of the wind among
+the trees, answered by the desolate moaning of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in spite of all obstacles, the work went on. All through the long
+days of summer, and through the months of autumn, every cove and creek
+along that southern coast heard the plashing of their oars, and the
+steady stroke of their axes resounded through the forest.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p><p>But as the season advanced, all these difficulties increased. For
+nearly half the year, the island is buried in snow. Blinding drifts
+sweep over the moors, and choke up the paths of the forest. How at such
+times the expedition lay floundering in the woods, still struggling to
+force its way onward; what hardships and sufferings the men endured&mdash;all
+this is a chapter in the History of the Telegraph which has not been
+written, and which can never be fully told. The</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+Gentlemen of England,<br />
+Who dwell at home at ease,
+</p>
+
+<p>and who are justly proud of the extent of their dominions, and the life
+and power which pervade the whole, may here find another example of the
+way in which great works are borne forward in distant parts of their
+empire.</p>
+
+<p>But to carry out such an enterprise, requires head-work as well as
+hand-work. Engineering in the field must be supported by financiering at
+home. It was here the former enterprise broke down, and now it needed
+constant watching to keep the wheels in steady motion. The directors in
+New York found the demand increasing day by day. The minds which had
+grasped the large design must now descend to an infinity of detail. They
+had to keep an army of men at work, at a point a thousand miles away,
+far beyond their immediate oversight. Drafts for money came <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>thick and
+fast. To provide for all these required constant attention. How
+faithfully they gave to this enterprise, not only their money, but their
+time and thought, few will know; but those who have seen can testify. In
+the autumn of that year, 1854, the writer removed to the city of New
+York, and was almost daily at the house of Mr. Field. Yet for months it
+was hardly possible to go there of an evening without finding the
+library occupied by the Company. Indeed, so uniformly was this the case,
+that "The Telegraph" began to be regarded by the family as an unwelcome
+intruder, since it put an interdict on the former social evenings and
+quiet domestic enjoyment. The circumstance shows the ceaseless care on
+the part of the directors which the enterprise involved. As a witness of
+their incessant labor, it is due to them to bear this testimony to their
+patience and their fidelity.</p>
+
+<p>When they began the work, they hoped to carry the line across
+Newfoundland in one year, completing it in the summer of 1855. In
+anticipation of this, Mr. Field was sent by the Company to England at
+the close of 1854, to order a cable to span the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to
+connect Cape Ray with the island of Cape Breton. This was his first
+voyage across the ocean on the business of the Telegraph&mdash;to be followed
+by more than forty others. In London he met for the first time Mr. John
+W. Brett, with whom he was to be afterward connected in the larger
+enterprise of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>Atlantic Telegraph. Mr. Brett was the father of
+submarine telegraphy in Europe, though in carrying out his first
+projects he was largely indebted to Mr. Crampton, a well-known engineer
+of London, who aided him both with advice and capital. With this
+invaluable assistance, he had stretched two lines across the British
+channel. From his success in passing these waters, he believed a line
+might yet be stretched from continent to continent. The scientific men
+of England were not generally educated up to that point. The bare
+suggestion was received with a smile of incredulity.<a name="FNanchor_A_6" id="FNanchor_A_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_6" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> But Mr. Brett
+had faith, even at that early day, and entered heartily into the schemes
+of Mr. Field. To show his interest, he afterward took a few shares in
+the Newfoundland line&mdash;the only Englishman who had any part in this
+preliminary work.</p>
+
+<p>The summer came, and the work in Newfoundland, though not complete, was
+advancing; and the cable <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>in England was finished and shipped on board
+the bark Sarah L. Bryant to cross the sea. Anticipating its arrival, the
+Company chartered a steamer to go down to Newfoundland to assist in its
+submersion across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. As yet they had no
+experience in the business of laying a submarine telegraph, and did not
+doubt that the work could be accomplished with the greatest ease. It was
+therefore to be an excursion of pleasure as well as of business, and
+accordingly they invited a large party to go with them to witness the
+unaccustomed spectacle.</p>
+
+<p>As we chanced to be among the guests, we have the best reason to
+remember it. Seldom has a more pleasant party been gathered for any
+expedition. Representing the Company were Mr. Field, Mr. Peter Cooper,
+Mr. Robert W. Lowber, and Professor Morse; while among the invited
+guests were gentlemen of all professions&mdash;clergymen, doctors and
+lawyers, artists and editors. In the groups on the deck were the
+venerable Dr. Gardiner Spring and Rev. J. M. Sherwood; Dr. Lewis A.
+Sayre, Bayard Taylor, the well-known traveller, Mr. Fitz-James O'Brien,
+and Mr. John Mullaly&mdash;the three latter gentlemen representing leading
+papers of New York.<a name="FNanchor_B_7" id="FNanchor_B_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_7" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> Besides these, the party included a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>large number
+of ladies, who gave life and animation to the company.</p>
+
+<p>Well does the writer recall the morning of departure&mdash;the seventh day of
+August, 1855. Never did a voyage begin with fairer omens. It was a
+bright summer day. The sky was clear, and the water smooth. We were on
+the deck of the good ship James Adger, long known as one of the fine
+steamers belonging to the Charleston line. She was a swift ship, and cut
+the water like an arrow. Thus we sped down the bay, and turning into the
+ocean, skimmed along the shores of Long Island. The sea was tranquil as
+a lake. The whole party were on deck, scattered in groups here and
+there, watching the sails and the shore. A rude telegraph instrument
+furnished entertainment and instruction, especially as we had Professor
+Morse to explain his marvellous invention, which some who listened then
+for the first time understood.</p>
+
+<p>At Halifax, several of us left the ship, and came across Nova Scotia,
+passing through that lovely region <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>of Acadia which Longfellow has
+invested with such tender interest in his poem of Evangeline. Thence we
+crossed the Bay of Fundy to St. John in New Brunswick, and returned by
+way of Portland.</p>
+
+<p>The James Adger went on to Newfoundland, steering first for Port au
+Basque, near Cape Ray, where they hoped to meet the bark which was to
+come from England with the cable on board. To their disappointment, it
+had not arrived. Mr. Canning, the engineer who was to lay the cable, had
+come out by steamer, and was on hand, but the bark was not to be seen.
+Having to wait several days, and wishing to make the most of their time,
+they sailed for St. John's, where they were received by the Provincial
+Government and the people with unbounded hospitality, after which they
+returned to Port au Basque, and were now rejoiced to discover the little
+bark hidden behind the rocks. It was decided to land the cable in Cape
+Ray Cove. After a day or two's delay in getting the end to the shore,
+they started to cross the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Adger towing the
+bark. The sea was calm, and though they were obliged to move slowly, yet
+all promised well, till they were about half-way across, when a gale
+arose, which pitched the bark so violently, that with its unwieldy bulk
+it was in great danger of sinking. After holding on for hours in the
+vain hope that it would abate, the captain cut the cable to save the
+bark; and thus, after they had paid out forty <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>miles, it was hopelessly
+lost, and the Adger returned to New York.</p>
+
+<p>This loss was owing partly to the severity of the gale, and partly to
+the fact that the bark which had the cable on board was wholly unfitted
+for the purpose. It was a sailing-vessel, and had to be towed by another
+ship. In this way it was impossible to regulate its motion. It was too
+fast or too slow. It was liable to be swayed by the sea, now giving a
+lurch ahead, and now dragging behind. Experience showed that a cable
+should always be laid from a steam vessel which could regulate its own
+motion, running out freely when all went smoothly, and checking its
+speed instantly when it was necessary to ease up the strain, or to pay
+out more slack to fill up the hollows of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>This first loss of a submarine cable was a severe disappointment to the
+Company. It postponed the enterprise for a whole year. To make a new
+cable would require several months, and the season was so far advanced
+that it could not be laid before another summer. Was it strange if some
+of the little band began to ask if they had not lost enough, and to
+reason that it was better to stop where they were, than to go on still
+farther, casting their treasures into the sea?</p>
+
+<p>But there was in that little company a spirit of hope and determination
+that could not be subdued; that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>ever cried: "Once more unto the breach,
+good friends!" After some deliberation, it was resolved to renew the
+attempt. Mr. Field again sailed for England to order another cable,
+which was duly made and sent out the following summer. This time, warned
+by experience, the Company invited no party and made no display. The
+cable was placed on board a steamer fitted for the purpose; from which
+it was laid without accident, and remained in perfect working order for
+nine years.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the work on land had been pushed forward without ceasing.
+After incredible labor, the Company had built a road and a telegraph
+from one end of Newfoundland to the other, four hundred miles; and, as
+if that were not enough, had built also another line, one hundred and
+forty miles in length, in the island of Cape Breton. The first part of
+their work was now done. The telegraph had been carried beyond the
+United States through the British Provinces to St. John's in
+Newfoundland, a distance from New York of over one thousand miles.</p>
+
+<p>The cost of the line, thus far, had been about a million of dollars, and
+of this the whole burden, with but trifling exceptions, had fallen upon
+the original projectors&mdash;Mr. Field having put in over two hundred
+thousand dollars in money&mdash;and Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Roberts
+each a little less. No other contributors beyond the six original
+subscribers had come, except Professor Morse, Mr. Robert W. Lowber, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>Mr.
+Wilson G. Hunt, and Mr. John W. Brett. The list of directors and
+officers remained as it was at first, except that this year, 1856, Mr.
+White died, and his place as director was filled by Mr. Hunt, and that
+Mr. Field was chosen Vice-President, and Mr. Lowber Secretary. In all
+the operations of the Company thus far, the various negotiations, the
+plan of the work, the oversight of its execution, and the correspondence
+with the officers and others, mainly devolved upon Mr. Field.</p>
+
+<p>And so at length, after two long and weary years, these bold projectors
+had accomplished half their work. They had passed over the land, and
+under the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and having reached the farthest point of
+the American coast, they now stood upon the cliffs of Newfoundland,
+looking off upon the wide sea.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_6" id="Footnote_A_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_6"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> One or two exceptions there were, not to be forgotten.
+Professor William Thomson, of the University of Glasgow, then a young
+man, but full of the enthusiasm of science, was already prepared to
+welcome such a project, with confidence of success. As early as October
+and November, 1854, he wrote to the Secretary of the Royal Society of
+London, declaring his belief in its practicability. The letters are
+published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1855. Such faith
+was not visionary, for it was based on clearer knowledge and more
+thorough investigation, and gave promise of those eminent services which
+this gentleman was afterwards to render to the cause of electrical
+science. Mr. C. F. Varley, also, was one of the first to perceive the
+possibility of an ocean telegraph, as he was to contribute greatly to
+its final success.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_7" id="Footnote_B_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_7"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> The letters of Mr. Taylor, which first appeared in The New
+York Tribune have been since collected in one of his volumes of travel.
+Mr. O'Brien, a very brilliant writer, who afterward fell in our civil
+war, fighting bravely for his adopted country, furnished some spirited
+letters to The Times. But Mr. Mullaly, who appeared for The Herald, was
+the most persevering attendant on the Telegraph, and the most
+indefatigable correspondent. He accompanied not only this expedition,
+but several others. He was on board the Niagara in 1857, and again in
+both the expeditions of 1858; and on the final success of the cable,
+prepared a volume, which was published by the Appletons, giving a
+history of the enterprise. This contains the fullest account of all
+those expeditions which has been given to the public. I have had
+frequent occasion to refer to his book, and can bear witness to the
+interest of the narrative. It is written with spirit, and doubtless
+would have had a longer life, if the cable itself had not come to an
+untimely end.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+
+THE DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>When a landsman, born far away among the mountains, comes down to the
+coast, and stands for the first time on the shore of the sea, it excites
+in him a feeling of awe and wonder, not unmingled with terror. There it
+lies, a level surface, with nothing that lifts up its head like a peak
+of his native hills. And yet it is so vast, stretching away to the
+horizon, and all over the sides of the round world; with its tides and
+currents that sweep from the equator to the pole; with its unknown
+depths and its ceaseless motion; that it is to him the highest emblem of
+majesty and of power&mdash;a not unworthy symbol of God himself.</p>
+
+<p>In proportion to its mystery is the terror which hangs over it. A vague
+dread always surrounds the unknown. And what so unknown as the deep,
+unfathomable sea? For thousands of years the sails of ships, like winged
+birds, have skimmed over it, yet it has remained the one thing in nature
+beyond alike man's knowledge and his power:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+Man marks the earth with ruin,<br />
+His control stops with the shore.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p><p>And the little that has been known of the ocean has been chiefly of its
+surface, of the winds that blow over it, and the waves that are lifted
+up on high. We knew somewhat of its tides and currents as observed in
+different parts of the earth. We saw off our coast the great Gulf
+Stream&mdash;that steady flow of waters, so mighty and mysterious, which,
+issuing out of the tropical regions, poured its warm current, sixty
+miles broad, right through the cold waters of the North Atlantic; and
+sweeping round, sent the airs of a softer climate over all the countries
+of Western Europe. Old voyagers told us of the trade-winds that blew
+across the Pacific, and of terrible monsoons in China and Indian seas.
+But all that did not reveal what was going on a hundred fathoms below
+the surface. These old sailors had marvellous tales of Indian
+pearl-divers, who, holding their breath, plunged to the depth of a few
+hundred feet; but they came up half-dead, with but little to tell except
+of the frightful monsters of the deep. The diving-bell was let down over
+sunken wrecks, but the divers came up only with tales of riches and
+ruin, of gold and gems and dead men's bones that lay mingled together on
+the deep sea floor. Was the bottom of the sea all like this? Was it a
+vast realm of death, the sepulchre of the world? No man could tell us.
+Poets might sing of the caves of ocean, but no eye of science had yet
+penetrated those awful depths, which the storms never reach.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p><p>It is indeed marvellous how little was known, up to a very recent date,
+of the true character of the ocean. Navigators had often tried to find
+out how deep it was. When lying becalmed on a tranquil sea, they had
+amused themselves by letting down a long line, weighted with a
+cannon-ball, to see if they could touch bottom. But the results were
+very uncertain. Sometimes the line ran out for miles and miles, but
+whether it was all the while descending, or was swayed hither and
+thither by mighty under-currents, could not be known.</p>
+
+<p>But this true character of the ocean it was necessary to determine,
+before it could be possible to pass the gulf of the Atlantic. What was
+there on the bottom of the sea, where the cable was to find its resting
+place? Was that ocean-bed a wide level plain, or had it been heaved up
+by volcanic forces into a hundred mountain-peaks, with many a gorge and
+precipice between? Such was the character of a part of the basin of the
+ocean. Here and there, all over the globe, are islands, like the Peak of
+Teneriffe, thrown up in some fierce bursting of the crust of our planet,
+that shoot up in tremendous cliffs from the sea. Who shall say that the
+same cliffs do not shoot down below the waves a thousand fathoms deep?
+And might there not be such islands, which did not show their heads
+above the surface, lying in the track between Europe and America: or
+perchance <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>a succession of mountain ranges, over which the cable would
+have to be stretched, and where hanging from the heights it would swing
+with the tide, till at last it snapped and fell into the abyss below?
+Such at least were possible dangers to be encountered; and it was not
+safe to advance a step till the basin of the North Atlantic was
+explored.</p>
+
+<p>The progress of invention, so rapid on land, at length found a way of
+penetrating the sea, and even of turning up its bottom to the gaze of
+men. To measure the depth with something like mathematical accuracy, an
+instrument was introduced known among nautical men as Massey's
+Indicator, the method of which is very clearly explained in an article
+which appeared in one of the New York papers, (The Times,) on the
+deep-sea soundings made for the Atlantic Telegraph:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The old system is with a small line, marked at distances of
+one hundred fathoms, and with a weight of thirty or fifty
+pounds, the depth being told by the length of line run out.
+This is, of course, the most natural apparatus that suggests
+itself, and has been in use from the earliest ages. Experience
+has given directions for its use, avoiding some of the grosser
+causes of error from driftage and other causes. Yet its success
+in immense ocean depths is problematical, and a problem decided
+in the negative by many of the first scientific authorities at
+home and abroad. In the mechanical improvements of the last
+half-century substitutes for this simple but rather uncertain
+method began to be devised. It <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>was proposed to ascertain the
+depth by the amount of pressure, or by explosions under water,
+with other equally impracticable plans. At last was noticed the
+perfect regularity of the movements of a spirally-shaped wheel,
+on being drawn through the water. Experiments proved that this
+regularity, when unaffected by other causes, could be relied on
+with perfect accuracy, and that an arrangement of cog-wheels
+would register its revolutions with mathematical precision.
+Very soon it came in use as a ship's log. So perfect was their
+precision, that they were even introduced in scientific
+surveys. Base lines, where the nicest accuracy is required,
+were run with them, and we have the highest authority of the
+Royal Navy for believing that they never failed. At this point
+it was proposed to apply them in a perpendicular as well as in
+a horizontal motion through the water. Massey's apparatus
+promising to solve those problems of submarine geography left
+unsolved by the old method of obtaining depth with a simple
+line and sinker, and this more especially as some causes of
+error, considerable on the surface, disappear in the still
+water below." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>To make our knowledge of the sea complete, one thing more was wanting&mdash;a
+method not only of reaching the bottom, but of laying hold of it, and
+bringing it up to the light of day. This was now to be supplied.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/illus-1.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+BROOKE'S DEEP SEA SOUNDING APPARATUS.<br />
+A shows the instrument ready for sounding. It is very simple, consisting
+only of a cannon-ball, pierced with an iron rod, and held in its place
+by slings. As the ball goes down swiftly, it drives the rod into the
+bottom like the point of a spear, when an opening at the end catches the
+ooze in its iron lips. The same instant (see B) the slings loosen, the
+ball drops off, and the naked rod, C, with its "bite" is drawn up to the
+surface.</div>
+
+<p>It is to the inventive genius of a lieutenant of the United States navy,
+Mr. J. M. Brooke, that the world owes the means of finding out what is
+at the bottom of the sea. This is by a very simple contrivance, by which
+the heavy weight, used to sink the measuring line, <i>is detached as soon
+as it strikes bottom</i>, leaving the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>line free so that it can be drawn up
+lightly and quickly to the surface without danger of breaking. Below the
+weight, and driven by it into the ooze, is a rod, in which is an open
+valve, that now closes with a spring, by which it catches a cupful of
+the soil, which is thus brought up to the surface, to be placed under
+the microscope, and be subjected to the sharp eye of science. With this
+simple instrument the skilful seaman explores the bottom of the ocean by
+literally feeling over it. With a long line he dives to the very lowest
+depths, while the clasp at the end of it is like the tip of the
+elephant's trunk, serving as a delicate finger with which he picks up
+sand and shells that lie strewn on the floor of the deep. What important
+conclusions are derived from this inspection of the bottom of the sea,
+is well stated by Lieutenant Maury in the letter already quoted.</p>
+
+<p>In happy concurrence with this, as an additional preparation, a partial
+survey of the Atlantic had been made the very year before this
+enterprise was begun, in 1853. Lieutenant Berryman was the first who
+applied this new method of taking deep-sea soundings to that part of the
+Atlantic lying between Newfoundland and Ireland, with results most
+surprising and satisfactory. But to remove all doubt it seemed desirable
+to have a fresh survey. To obtain this, Mr. Field went to Washington and
+applied to the Government in behalf of the Company for a second
+expedition.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p><p>The request was granted, and the Arctic, under command of the same
+gallant Lieutenant Berryman, was assigned to this service. He sailed
+from New York on the eighteenth of July, 1856, and the very next day Mr.
+Field left on the Baltic for England, to organize the Atlantic Telegraph
+Company. The Arctic proceeded to St. John's, and thence with a clear eye
+and a steady hand, this true sailor went "sounding on his dim and
+perilous way" across the deep. In about three weeks he made the coast of
+Ireland, having carried his survey along the great circle arc, which the
+telegraph was to follow as the nearest path from the old world to the
+new. The result fully confirmed his belief of the existence of a great
+plateau underneath the ocean, extending all the way from one hemisphere
+to the other.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot take leave of the name of this gallant officer, who rendered
+such services to science and to his country, without a word of tribute
+to his memory. Lieutenant Berryman is in his grave. He died in the navy
+of his country, worn out by his devotion to her service. When the great
+civil war broke out, he was placed in a position most painful to a man
+of large heart, who loved at once his country and the state in which he
+was born. He was a Southerner, a native of Winchester, Va., and was
+assigned to duty in the South. At the first attack on Southern forts and
+arsenals, he was in command of the Wyandotte, in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>harbor of
+Pensacola, in Florida. His officers, who were nearly all Southerners,
+were in secret sympathy with the rebellion. All the influences around
+him, both on ship and on shore, were such as might have seduced a weaker
+man from his loyalty. But, to his honor, he never hesitated for a
+moment. He stood firm and loyal to his flag. Not knowing whom to trust,
+he had to keep watch day and night against surprise and treachery. It
+was the testimony of Lieutenant Slemmer, then in command of Fort
+Pickens, that but for the ceaseless exertions of Lieutenant Berryman not
+only the ship but the fort would have been lost. But this service to his
+country cost him his life. His constant exertions brought on a brain
+fever, of which he died. His wife, also a native of Winchester, when the
+war came near her early home, removed to Baltimore, saying that "she
+would not live under any other flag than that under which her husband
+had lived and died."</p>
+
+<p>It was to the honor of the American navy, to have led the way in these
+deep-sea soundings. But after this second voyage of exploration, Mr.
+Field applied to the British Admiralty, "to make what further soundings
+might be necessary between Ireland and Newfoundland, and to verify those
+made by Lieutenant Berryman." It was in response to this application
+that the Government sent out the following year a vessel to make still
+another survey of the same ocean-path. This <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>was the steamer Cyclops,
+which was placed under Lieutenant Commander Joseph Dayman, of the
+British navy, an officer who had been with Captain Sir James Ross when
+he made his deep-sea soundings in the South Atlantic in 1840, where he
+attained a depth of twenty-six hundred and sixty-seven fathoms; and who
+by his intelligence and zeal, was admirably fitted for the work. To
+speak now of this <i>third</i> survey, is anticipating in time. But it will
+serve the purpose of unity and clearness in the narrative, to include
+all these deep-sea soundings in one chapter. He was directed to proceed
+to the harbor of Valentia in Ireland, and thence to follow, as nearly as
+possible, along the arc of a great circle to Newfoundland. "The
+soundings for the first few miles from the coast should be frequent,
+decreasing as you draw off shore."</p>
+
+<p>These orders were thoroughly executed. Every pains was taken to make the
+information obtained precise and exact. Whenever a sounding was to be
+taken, the ship was hove to, and the bow kept as nearly as possible in
+the same spot, so that the line might descend perpendicularly. This was
+repeated every few miles until they had got far out into the Atlantic,
+where the general equality of the depths rendered it necessary to cast
+the line only every twenty or thirty miles. Thus the survey was made
+complete, and the results obtained were of the greatest value in
+determining the physical geography of the sea.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p><p>The conclusions of Commander Dayman confirmed in general those of
+Lieutenant Berryman, though in comparing the charts prepared by the two,
+we observe some differences which ought to be noticed. Both agree as to
+the general character of the bottom of the ocean along this
+latitude&mdash;that it is a vast plain, like the steppes of Siberia. Yet on
+the chart of Dayman the floor of the sea seems <i>not such a dead level</i>
+as on that of Berryman. (This may be partly owing to a difference of
+route, as Dayman passed a little to the north of the track of Berryman.)
+There are more unequal depths, which in the small space of a chart,
+appear like hills and valleys. Yet when we consider the wide distances
+passed over, these inequalities seem not greater than the undulations on
+our Western prairies. "This space," says Dayman, "has been named by
+Maury the telegraphic plateau, and although by multiplying the soundings
+upon it, we have depths ranging from fourteen hundred and fifty to
+twenty-four hundred fathoms, these are comparatively small inequalities
+in its surface, and present no new difficulty to the project of laying
+the cable across the ocean. Their importance vanishes when the extent of
+the space over which they are distributed (thirty degrees of longitude)
+is considered."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/illus-2.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+BED OF THE ATLANTIC, NORTH AND SOUTH, THROUGH THE CAPE DE
+VERDS, AZORES, AND TELEGRAPH PLATEAU.</div>
+
+<p>According to Berryman and Dayman both, the ocean in its deepest part on
+this plateau, measured but two thousand and three or four hundred
+fathoms, or about <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>fourteen thousand feet&mdash;a depth of but little over
+two and a half miles. This is not great, compared with the enormous
+depths in other parts of the Atlantic;<a name="FNanchor_A_8" id="FNanchor_A_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_8" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> yet that it is <i>something</i> may
+be realized from the fact that if the Peak of Teneriffe were here "cast
+into the sea," it would sink out of sight, island, mountain and all,
+while even the lofty head of Mont Blanc would be lifted but a few
+hundred feet above the waves.</p>
+
+<p>The only exception to this uniform depth, lies about two hundred miles
+off the coast of Ireland, where within a space of about a dozen miles,
+the depth sinks from five hundred and fifty to seventeen hundred and
+fifty fathoms! "In 14° 48' west," says Dayman, "we have five hundred and
+fifty fathoms rock, and in 15° 6' west we have seventeen hundred and
+fifty fathoms ooze. This is the greatest dip in the whole ocean."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p><p>"In little more than ten miles of distance a change of depth occurs,
+amounting to seventy-two hundred feet." This is indeed a tremendous
+plunge from the hard rock into the slime of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>The same sharp declivity was noticed by Berryman, and has been observed
+in the several attempts to lay the cable. Thus in the second expedition
+of 1858, as the Agamemnon was approaching the coast of Ireland, we read
+in the report of her voyage: "About five o'clock in the evening, the
+steep submarine mountain which divides the telegraphic plateau from the
+Irish coast, was reached; and the sudden shallowing of the water had a
+very marked effect on the cable, causing the strain on, and the speed of
+it, to lessen every minute. A great deal of slack was paid out to allow
+for inequalities which might exist, though undiscovered by the
+sounding-line."</p>
+
+<p>This submarine mountain was then regarded as the chief point of danger
+in the whole bed of the Atlantic, and as the principal source of anxiety
+in laying a cable across the ocean. Yet, after all, the ascent or
+descent of less than a mile and a half in ten miles, is not an
+impassable grade. More recent soundings reduce this still farther.
+Captain Hoskins, of the Royal Navy, afterwards made a more careful
+survey of this precipitous sea bottom, and with results much more
+favorable. The side of the mountain, it is now said, is not very much
+steeper than Holborn Hill in London, or Murray <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>Hill in New York.<a name="FNanchor_B_9" id="FNanchor_B_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_9" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> But
+the best answer to fears on this point, is the fact that in 1857, 1858,
+and 1865, the cable passed over it without difficulty. In 1857 the
+Niagara was a hundred miles farther to sea, when the cable broke. In
+1865 the strain was not increased more than a hundred pounds. In the
+final expedition, that of 1866, this declivity was passed over without
+difficulty or danger.</p>
+
+<p>Next to the depth of the ocean, it was important to ascertain the nature
+of its bottom. What was it&mdash;a vast bed of rock, the iron-bound crust of
+the globe, hardened by internal fires, and which, bending as a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>vault
+over the still glowing centre of the earth, bore up on its mighty arches
+the weight of all the oceans? or was it mere sand like the sea-shore? or
+ooze as soft as that of a mill-pond? The pressure of a column of water
+two miles high would be equal to that of four hundred atmospheres. Would
+not this weight alone be enough to crush any substance that could reach
+that tremendous depth? These were questions which remained to be
+answered, but on which depended the possibility of laying a cable at the
+bottom of the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>By the ingenious contrivance of Lieutenant Brooke, the problem was
+solved, for we got hold of fragments of the under-coating of the sea;
+and to our amazement, instead of finding the ocean bound round with
+thick ribs of granite, its inner lining was found to be soft as a silken
+vest. The soil brought up from the bottom was not even of the hardness
+of sand or gravel. It was mere ooze, like that of our rivers, and was as
+soft as the moss that clings to old, damp stones on the river's brink.
+At first it was thought by Lieutenant Berryman to be common clay, but
+being carefully preserved, and subjected to a powerful microscope, it
+was found to be composed of shells, too small to be discovered by the
+naked eye!</p>
+
+<p>This was a revelation of the myriad forms of animated existence which
+fill the sea: a plenitude of life that is more wonderful by contrast. As
+Maury well <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>puts it: "The ocean teems with life, we know. Of the four
+elements of the old philosophers&mdash;fire, earth, air, and water&mdash;perhaps
+the sea most of all abounds with living creatures. The space occupied on
+the surface of our planet by the different families of animals and their
+remains are inversely as the size of the individual. The smaller the
+animal, the greater the space occupied by his remains. Take the elephant
+and his remains, or a microscopic animal and his, and compare them. The
+contrast, as to space occupied, is as striking as that of the coral reef
+or island with the dimensions of the whale. The graveyard that would
+hold the corallines is larger than the graveyard that would hold the
+elephants."<a name="FNanchor_C_10" id="FNanchor_C_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_10" class="fnanchor">[C]</a></p>
+
+<p>These little creatures, whose remains were thus found at the bottom of
+the ocean, probably did not live there, for there all is dark, and
+shells, like flowers, need the light and warmth of the all-reviving sun.
+It was their sepulchre, but not their dwelling-place. Probably they
+lived near the surface of the ocean, and after their short life, sunk to
+the tranquil waters below. What a work of life and death had been going
+on for ages in the depths of the sea! Myriads upon myriads, ever since
+the morning of creation, had been falling like snow-flakes, till their
+remains literally covered the bottom of the deep.</p>
+
+<p>Equally significant was the fact that these shells <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>were <i>unbroken</i>. Not
+only were they there, but preserved in a perfect form. Organisms the
+most minute and delicate, fragile as drooping flowers, had yet sunk and
+slept uninjured. The same power which watches over the fall of a sparrow
+had kept these frail and tender things, and after their brief existence,
+had laid them gently on the bosom of the mighty mother for their eternal
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>The bearing of this discovery on the problem of a submarine telegraph
+was obvious. For it too was to lie on the ocean-bed, beside and among
+these relics that had so long been drifting down upon the watery plain.
+And if these tiny shells slept there unharmed, surely an iron chord
+might rest there in safety. There were no swift currents down there; no
+rushing waves agitated that sunless sea. There the waters moved not; and
+there might rest the great nerve that was to pass from continent to
+continent. And so far as injury from the surrounding elements was
+concerned, there it might remain, whispering the thoughts of successive
+generations of men, till the sea should give up its dead.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_8" id="Footnote_A_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_8"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> "The ocean bed of the North Atlantic is a curious study; in
+some parts furrowed by currents, in others presenting banks, the
+accumulations perhaps of the débris of these ocean rivers during
+countless ages. To the west, the Gulf Stream pours along in a bed from
+one mile to a mile and a half in depth. To the east of this, and south
+of the Great Banks, is a basin, eight or ten degrees square, where the
+bottom attains a greater depression than perhaps the highest peaks of
+the Andes or Himalayas&mdash;six miles of line have failed to reach the
+bottom! Taking a profile of the Atlantic basin in our own latitude, we
+find a far greater depression than any mountain elevation on our own
+continent. Four or five Alleghanies would have to be piled on each
+other, and on them added Fremont's Peak, before their point would show
+itself above the surface. Between the Azores and the mouth of the Tagus
+this decreases to about three miles."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_9" id="Footnote_B_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_9"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> The results obtained are thus summed up in the London
+Times:
+</p><p>
+"The dangerous part of this course has hitherto been supposed to be the
+sudden dip or bank which occurs off the west coast of Ireland, where the
+water was supposed to deepen in the course of a few miles from about
+three hundred fathoms to nearly two thousand. Such a rapid descent has
+naturally been regarded with alarm by telegraphic engineers, and this
+alarm has led to a most careful sounding survey of the whole supposed
+bank by Captain Dayman, acting under the instructions of the Admiralty.
+The result of this shows that the supposed precipitous bank, or
+submarine cliff, is a gradual slope of nearly sixty miles. Over this
+long slope the difference between its greatest height and greatest depth
+is only eighty-seven hundred and sixty feet; so that the average incline
+is, in round numbers, about one hundred and forty-five feet per mile. A
+good gradient on a railway is now generally considered to be one in one
+hundred feet, or about fifty-three in a mile; so that the incline on
+this supposed bank is only about three times that of an ordinary
+railway. In fact, as far as soundings can demonstrate any thing, there
+are few slopes in the bed of the Atlantic as steep as that of Holborn
+Hill. In no part is the bottom rocky, and with the exception of a few
+miles, which are shingly, only ooze, mud, or sand is to be found."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_10" id="Footnote_C_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_10"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> Physical Geography of the Sea.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+
+THE WORK BEGUN IN ENGLAND.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Up to this time the Telegraph, which was destined to pass the sea, had
+been purely an American enterprise. It had been begun, and for over two
+years had been carried on, wholly by American capital. "Our little
+company," said Mr. Field ten years after, "raised and expended over a
+million and a quarter of dollars before an Englishman paid a single
+pound sterling." Mr. Brett was the first one to take a few shares. But
+this was not to the discredit of England, for the American public had
+done no better. Not a dollar had been raised this side the Atlantic,
+outside of the little circle in which the scheme had its origin. No
+stock or bonds were put upon the market; no man was asked for a
+subscription. If they wanted money, they drew their checks for it. At
+one time, indeed, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of bonds were
+issued, but they were at once taken wholly by themselves. But, as the
+time was now come when the long-meditated attempt was to be made to
+carry the Telegraph across the ocean, it was fitting that Great Britain,
+whose shores <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>it was to touch, should join in the work. Accordingly, in
+the summer of 1856, after finishing all that he could do in America, Mr.
+Field sailed with his family for England. The very day before he
+embarked, he had the pleasure to see his friend, Lieutenant Berryman,
+off on his second voyage to make soundings across the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>In London he sought at once Mr. Brett, with whom in his two former
+visits to England he had already discussed his project, and found in him
+a hearty coöperator. As we go on with our story, it is a melancholy
+satisfaction to refer to one and another worker in this enterprise, who
+lived not to see its last and greatest triumph. Mr. Brett, like
+Berryman, is dead. But he did not go to his grave till after a life of
+usefulness and honor. He was one of the men of the new era&mdash;of the
+school of Stephenson and Brunel&mdash;who believed in the marvellous
+achievements yet to be wrought by human invention, turning to the
+service of man the wonders of scientific discovery. He was one of the
+first to see the boundless possibilities of the telegraph, and to
+believe that what had passed over the land might pass under the sea. He
+was the first to lay a cable across the British Channel, and thus to
+bring into instantaneous communication the two great capitals of
+Europe&mdash;an achievement which, though small compared with what has since
+been done, was then so marvellous, that the intelligence of its success
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>was received with surprise and incredulity. Many could not and would
+not believe it. Even after messages were received in London from Paris,
+there were those who declared that it was an imposition on the public,
+with as much proud scorn as some a few years later scouted the very idea
+that a message had ever passed over the Atlantic Telegraph!</p>
+
+<p>This friendship of Mr. Brett&mdash;both to the enterprise and to Mr. Field
+personally&mdash;remained to the last. In every voyage to England the latter
+found&mdash;however others doubted or despaired&mdash;that Mr. Brett was always
+the same&mdash;full of hope and confidence. In 1864, when they met in London,
+he was unshaken in faith, and urgent to have the great enterprise
+renewed. The triumph was not far off, but he was not to live to see it.
+But, though he passed away before the final victory, he did his part
+toward bringing it on, and no history of this great enterprise can
+overlook his eminent services.</p>
+
+<p>To Mr. Brett, therefore, Mr. Field went first to consult in regard to
+his project of a telegraph across the ocean. This was a part of the
+design embraced in the original organization of the New York,
+Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company; and when Mr. Field went to
+England, he was empowered to receive subscriptions to that Company, so
+as to enlarge its capital, and thus include in one corporation the whole
+line from New York to London; or to organize a new <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>company, which
+should lay a cable across the Atlantic, and there join the Newfoundland
+line.</p>
+
+<p>But before an enterprise so vast and so new could be commended to the
+commercial public of Great Britain, there were many details to be
+settled. The mechanical and scientific problems already referred to,
+whether a cable could be laid across the ocean; and if so, whether it
+could be worked, were to be considered anew. The opinions of Lieutenant
+Maury and of Professor Morse were published in England, and arrested the
+attention of scientific men. But John Bull is slow of belief, and asked
+for more evidence. The thing was too vast to be undertaken rashly. As
+yet there was no experience to decide the possibility of a telegraph
+across the ocean. The longest line which had been laid was three hundred
+miles. This caution, which is a national trait of Englishmen, will not
+be regarded as a fault by those who consider that in proportion as they
+are slow to embark in any new enterprise, are they resolute and
+determined in carrying it out.</p>
+
+<p>To resolve these difficult problems, Mr. Field sought counsel of the
+highest engineering authorities of Great Britain, and of her most
+eminent scientific men. To their honor, all showed the deepest interest
+in the project, and gave it freely the benefit of their knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>First, as to the possibility of laying a cable in the deep sea, Mr.
+Field had witnessed one attempt of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>kind&mdash;that in the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence the year before&mdash;an attempt which had failed. His experience,
+therefore, was not encouraging. If they found so much difficulty in
+laying a cable seventy miles long, how could they hope to lay one of two
+thousand miles across the stormy Atlantic?</p>
+
+<p>This was a question for the engineers. To solve the problem, required
+experiments almost without number. It was now that the most important
+services were rendered by Glass, Elliot &amp; Co., of London, a firm which
+had begun within a few years the manufacture of sea-cables, and was to
+write its name in all the waters of the world. Aided by the skill of
+their admirable engineer, Mr. Canning, they now manufactured cables
+almost without end, applying to them every possible test. At the same
+time, Mr. Field took counsel of Robert Stephenson and George Parker
+Bidder, both of whom manifested a deep interest in the success of the
+enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>Not less cordial was Mr. Brunel, who made many suggestions in regard to
+the form of the cable, and the manner in which it should be laid. He was
+then building the Great Eastern; and one day he took Mr. Field down to
+Blackwall to see it, and, pointing to the monstrous hull which was
+rising on the banks of the Thames, said: "There is the ship to lay the
+Atlantic cable!" Little did he think that ten years after, that ship
+would be employed in this service; and in this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>final victory over the
+sea, would redeem all the misfortunes of her earlier career.</p>
+
+<p>Among the difficulties to be encountered, was that of finding a perfect
+insulator. Without insulation, telegraphic communication by electricity
+is impossible. On land, where wires are carried on the tops of poles,
+the air itself is a sufficient insulator. A few glass rings at the
+points where the wire passes through the iron staples by which it is
+supported, and the insulation is complete. But in the sea the
+electricity would be instantly dissipated, unless some material could be
+found which should insulate a conductor sunk in water, as completely as
+if it were raised in air. But what could thus inclose the lightning, and
+keep it fast while flying from one continent to the other?</p>
+
+<p>Here again it seemed as if Divine wisdom had anticipated the coming of
+this great enterprise, and provided in the realm of nature every
+material needed for its success. It was at least a happy coincidence
+that only a few years before there had been found, in the forests of the
+Malayan archipelago, a substance till then unknown to the world, but
+which answered completely this new demand. This was gutta-percha, which
+is impenetrable by water, and at the same time a bad conductor of
+electricity; so that it forms at once a perfect protection and
+insulation to a telegraph passing through the sea. In the experiments
+that were made to test the value of this material in the grander use to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>which it was to be applied, no man rendered greater service than Mr.
+Samuel Statham, of the London Gutta-Percha Works&mdash;a name to be
+gratefully remembered in the early history of the Atlantic Telegraph.</p>
+
+<p>The mechanical difficulties removed, and the insulation provided, there
+remained yet the great scientific problem: Could a message be sent two
+thousand miles under the Atlantic? The ingenuity of man might devise
+some method of laying a cable across the sea, but of what use were it,
+if the electric current should shrink from the dark abyss?</p>
+
+<p>It was in prosecuting inquiries to resolve this problem, that Mr. Field
+became acquainted with two gentlemen who were to be soon after
+associated with him in the organization of the Atlantic Telegraph
+Company. These were Mr. Charles T. Bright, afterward knighted for his
+part in laying the Atlantic cable in 1858, and Dr. Edward O. Whitehouse,
+both well known in England, the former as an engineer, and the latter
+for his experiments in electro-magnetism, as applied to the business of
+telegraphing. He had invented an instrument by which to ascertain and
+register the velocity of electric currents through submarine cables.
+Both these gentlemen were full of the ardor of science, and entered on
+this new project with the zeal which the prospect of so great a triumph
+might inspire. With them was now to be associated our distinguished
+countryman, Professor Morse. Fortunately he was at this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>time in London,
+and gave his invaluable aid to the experiments which were made to
+determine the possibility of telegraphic communication at great
+distances under the sea. The result of his experiments he communicates
+in a letter to Mr. Field:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">London, Five o'clock a.m.</span>,<br />
+"October 3, 1856.
+</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>: As the electrician of the New York, Newfoundland,
+and London Telegraph Company, it is with the highest
+gratification that I have to apprise you of the result of our
+experiments of this morning upon a single continuous conductor
+of more than two thousand miles in extent, a distance you will
+perceive sufficient to cross the Atlantic Ocean, from
+Newfoundland to Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>"The admirable arrangements made at the Magnetic Telegraph
+Office in Old Broad street, for connecting ten subterranean
+gutta-percha insulated conductors, of over two hundred miles
+each, so as to give one continuous length of more than two
+thousand miles during the hours of the night, when the
+telegraph is not commercially employed, furnished us the means
+of conclusively settling, by actual experiment, the question of
+the practicability as well as the practicality<a name="FNanchor_A_11" id="FNanchor_A_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_11" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> of
+telegraphing through our proposed Atlantic cable.</p>
+
+<p>"This result had been thrown into some doubt by the discovery,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>more than two years since, of certain phenomena upon
+subterranean and submarine conductors, and had attracted the
+attention of electricians, particularly of that most eminent
+philosopher, Professor Faraday, and that clear-sighted
+investigator of electrical phenomena, Dr. Whitehouse; and one
+of these phenomena, to wit, the perceptible retardation of the
+electric current, threatened to perplex our operations, and
+required careful investigation before we could pronounce with
+certainty the commercial practicability of the Ocean Telegraph.</p>
+
+<p>"I am most happy to inform you that, as a crowning result of a
+long series of experimental investigation and inductive
+reasoning upon this subject, the experiments under the
+direction of Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright, which I witnessed
+this morning&mdash;in which the induction coils and receiving
+magnets, as modified by these gentlemen, were made to actuate
+one of my recording instruments&mdash;have most satisfactorily
+resolved all doubts of the practicability as well as
+practicality of operating the telegraph from Newfoundland to
+Ireland.</p>
+
+<p>"Although we telegraphed signals at the rate of two hundred and
+ten, two hundred and forty-one, and, according to the count at
+one time, even of two hundred and seventy per minute upon my
+telegraphic register, (which speed, you will perceive, is at a
+rate commercially advantageous,) these results were
+accomplished notwithstanding many disadvantages in our
+arrangements of a temporary and local character&mdash;disadvantages
+which will not occur in the use of our submarine cable.</p>
+
+<p>"Having passed the whole night with my active and agreeable
+collaborators, Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright, without sleep,
+you will excuse the hurried and brief character <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>of this note,
+which I could not refrain from sending you, since our
+experiments this morning settle the scientific and commercial
+points of our enterprise satisfactorily.</p>
+
+<p>"With respect and esteem, your obedient servant, </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">Samuel F. B. Morse</span>."
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A week later, he wrote again, confirming his former impressions, thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">London</span>, October 10, 1856.
+</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>: After having given the deepest consideration to
+the subject of our successful experiments the other night, when
+we signalled clearly and rapidly through an unbroken circuit of
+subterranean conducting wire, over two thousand miles in
+length, I sit down to give you the result of my reflections and
+calculations.</p>
+
+<p>"There can be no question but that, with a cable containing a
+single conducting wire, of a size not exceeding that through
+which we worked, and with equal insulation, it would be easy to
+telegraph from Ireland to Newfoundland at a speed of at least
+from eight to ten words per minute; nay, more: the varying
+rates of speed at which we worked, depending as they did upon
+differences in the arrangement of the apparatus employed, do of
+themselves prove that even a higher rate than this is
+attainable. Take it, however, at ten words in the minute, and
+allowing ten words for name and address, we can safely
+calculate upon the transmission of a twenty-word message in
+three minutes;</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty such messages in the hour;</p>
+
+<p>"Four hundred and eighty in the twenty-four hours, or fourteen
+thousand four hundred words per day.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p><p>"Such are the capabilities of a single wire cable fairly and
+moderately computed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is, however, evident to me, that by improvements in the
+arrangement of the signals themselves, aided by the adoption of
+a code or system constructed upon the principles of the best
+nautical code, as suggested by Dr. Whitehouse, we may at least
+double the speed in the transmission of our messages.</p>
+
+<p>"As to the structure of the cable itself, the last specimen
+which I examined with you seemed to combine so admirably the
+necessary qualities of strength, flexibility, and lightness,
+with perfect insulation, that I can no longer have any
+misgivings about the ease and safety with which it will be
+submerged.</p>
+
+<p>"In one word, the doubts are resolved, the difficulties
+overcome, success is within our reach, and the great feat of
+the century must shortly be accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>"I would urge you, if the manufacture can be completed within
+the time, (and all things are possible now,) to press forward
+the good work, and not to lose the chance of laying it during
+the ensuing summer.</p>
+
+<p>"Before the close of the present month, I hope to be again
+landed safely on the other side of the water, and I full well
+know, that on all hands the inquiries of most interest with
+which I shall be met, will be about the Ocean Telegraph.</p>
+
+<p>"Much as I have enjoyed my European trip this year, it would
+have enhanced the gratification which I have derived from it
+more than I can describe to you, if on my return to America, I
+could be the first bearer to my friends of the welcome
+intelligence that the great work had been begun, by the
+commencement of the manufacture of the cable to connect Ireland
+with the line of the New York, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>Newfoundland, and London
+Telegraph Company, now so successfully completed to St. John's.</p>
+
+<p>"Respectfully, your obedient servant, </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">Samuel F. B. Morse</span>."
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>These experiments and others removed the doubts of scientific men.
+Professor Faraday, in spite of the law of the retardation of electricity
+on long circuits, which it was said he had discovered, and which would
+render it impossible to work a line of such length as from Ireland to
+Newfoundland, now declared his full conviction that it was within the
+bounds of possibility. The passage of electricity might not be
+absolutely instantaneous, or have the swiftness of the solar beam, yet
+it would be rapid enough for all practical purposes. When Mr. Field
+asked him how long it would take for the electricity to pass from London
+to New York, he answered: "Possibly one second!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus fortified by the highest scientific and engineering authorities,
+the projectors of an ocean telegraph were now ready to bring it before
+the British public, and to see what support could be found from the
+English Government and the English people.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Field first addressed himself to the Government. Without waiting for
+the Company to be fully organized, with true American eagerness and
+impatience, he wrote a letter to the Admiralty asking for a fresh survey
+of the route to be traversed, and for the aid of Government ships to lay
+the cable. He also addressed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>a letter to Lord Clarendon, stating the
+large design which they had conceived, and asking for it the aid which
+was due to what concerned the honor and interest of England. The reply
+was prompt and courteous, inviting him to an interview for the purpose
+of a fuller explanation. Accordingly, Mr. Field, with Professor Morse,
+called upon him at the Foreign Office, and spent an hour in conversation
+on the proposed undertaking. Lord Clarendon showed great interest, and
+made many inquiries. He was a little startled at the magnitude of the
+scheme, and the confident tone of the projectors, and asked pleasantly:
+"But, suppose you <i>don't</i> succeed? Suppose you make the attempt and
+fail&mdash;your cable is lost in the sea&mdash;then what will you do?" "Charge it
+to profit and loss, and go to work to lay another," was the quick answer
+of Mr. Field, which amused him as a truly American reply. In conclusion,
+he desired him to put his request in writing, and, without committing
+the Government, encouraged him to hope that Britain would do all that
+might justly be expected in aid of this great international work. How
+nobly this promise was kept, time will show.</p>
+
+<p>While engaged in these negotiations, Mr. Field took his family to Paris,
+and there met with a great loss in the sudden death of a favorite
+sister, who had accompanied them abroad. Full of the sorrow of this
+event, and unfitted for business of any kind, he returned to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>London to
+find an invitation to go into the country and spend a few days with Mr.
+James Wilson, then Secretary to the Treasury, a man of great influence
+in the Government, at his residence near Bath; there to discuss quietly
+and at length the proposed aid to the Atlantic Telegraph. Though he had
+but little spirit to go among strangers, he felt it his duty not to miss
+an opportunity to advance the cause he had so much at heart. The result
+of this visit was the following letter, received a few days later:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">Treasury Chambers.</span> Nov. 20, 1856.
+</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>: Having laid before the Lords Commissioners of her
+Majesty's Treasury your letter of the 13th ultimo, addressed to
+the Earl of Clarendon, requesting, on behalf of the New York,
+Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, certain privileges
+and protection in regard to the line of telegraph which it is
+proposed to establish between Newfoundland and Ireland, I am
+directed by their lordships to acquaint you that they are
+prepared to enter into a contract with the said Telegraph
+Company, based upon the following conditions, namely:</p>
+
+<p>"1. It is understood that the capital required to lay down the
+line will be three hundred and fifty thousand pounds.</p>
+
+<p>"2. Her Majesty's Government engage to furnish the aid of ships
+to take what soundings may still be considered needful, or to
+verify those already taken, and favorably to consider any
+request that may be made to furnish aid by their vessels in
+laying down the cable.</p>
+
+<p>"3. The British Government, from the time of the completion of
+the line, and so long as it shall continue in working <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>order,
+undertakes to pay at the rate of fourteen thousand pounds a
+year, being at the rate of four per cent. on the assumed
+capital, as a fixed remuneration for the work done on behalf of
+the Government, in the conveyance outward and homeward of their
+messages. This payment to continue until the net profits of the
+Company are equal to a dividend of six per cent., when the
+payment shall be reduced to ten thousand pounds a year, for a
+period of twenty-five years.</p>
+
+<p>"It is, however, understood that if the Government messages in
+any year shall, at the usual tariff-rate charged to the public,
+amount to a larger sum, such additional payment shall be made
+as is equivalent thereto.</p>
+
+<p>"4. That the British Government shall have a priority in the
+conveyance of their messages over all others, subject to the
+exception only of the Government of the United States, in the
+event of their entering into an arrangement with the Telegraph
+Company similar in principle to that of the British Government,
+in which case the messages of the two Governments shall have
+priority in the order in which they arrive at the stations.</p>
+
+<p>"5. That the tariff of charges shall be fixed with the consent
+of the Treasury, and shall not be increased, without such
+consent being obtained, as long as this contract lasts.</p>
+
+<p>"I am, sir, your obedient servant, </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">James Wilson</span>.
+</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Cyrus W. Field</span>, Esq., 37 Jermyn street." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>With this encouragement and promise of aid, the projectors of a
+telegraph across the ocean now went forward to organize a company to
+carry out their design. Mr. Field, on arriving in England, had entered
+into an agreement with Mr. Brett to join their <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>efforts for this
+purpose. With them were afterward united two others&mdash;Sir Charles Bright,
+as engineer, and Dr. Whitehouse, as electrician. These four gentlemen
+agreed to form a new company, to be called The Atlantic Telegraph
+Company, the object of which should be "to continue the existing line of
+the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company to Ireland, by
+making or causing to be made a submarine telegraph cable for the
+Atlantic."</p>
+
+<p>As they were now ready to introduce the enterprise to the British
+public, Mr. Field issued a circular in the name of the Newfoundland
+Company, and as its Vice-President, setting forth the great importance
+of telegraphic communication between the two hemispheres.</p>
+
+<p>The next step was to raise the capital. After the most careful
+estimates, it was thought that a cable could be made and laid across the
+Atlantic for £350,000. This was a large sum to ask from a public slow to
+move, and that lends a dull ear to all new schemes. But armed with facts
+and figures, with maps and estimates, with the opinions of engineers and
+scientific men, they went to work, not only in London, but in other
+parts of the kingdom. Mr. Field, in company with Mr. Brett, made a visit
+to Liverpool and Manchester, to address their Chambers of Commerce. I
+have now before me the papers of those cities, with reports of the
+meetings held and the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>speeches made, which show the vigor with which
+they pushed their enterprise. This energy was rewarded with success. The
+result justified their confidence. In a few weeks the whole capital was
+subscribed. It had been divided into three hundred and fifty shares of a
+thousand pounds each. Of these, a hundred and one were taken in London,
+eighty-six in Liverpool, thirty-seven in Glasgow, twenty-eight in
+Manchester, and a few in other parts of England. The grandeur of the
+design attracted public attention, and some subscribed solely from a
+noble wish to take part in such a work. Among these were Mr. Thackeray
+and Lady Byron. Mr. Field subscribed £100,000, and Mr. Brett £25,000.
+But when the books were closed, it was found that they had more money
+subscribed than they required, so that in the final division of shares,
+there were allotted to Mr. Field eighty-eight, and to Mr. Brett twelve.
+Mr. Field's interest was thus one-fourth of the whole capital of the
+Company.</p>
+
+<p>In taking so large a share, it was not his intention to carry this heavy
+load alone. It was too large a proportion for one man. But he took it
+for his countrymen. He thought one fourth of the stock should be held in
+this country, and did not doubt, from the eagerness with which three
+fourths had been taken in England, that the remainder would be at once
+subscribed in America. Had he been able, on his return, to attend to his
+own interests in the matter, this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>expectation might have been realized;
+but, as we shall see, hardly did he set foot in New York, before he was
+obliged to hurry off to Newfoundland on the business of the Company, and
+when he returned the interest had subsided, so that it required very
+great exertions, continued through many months, to dispose of
+twenty-seven shares. Thus he was by far the largest stockholder in
+England or America&mdash;his interest being over seven times that of Mr.
+Brett, who was the largest next to himself&mdash;and being more than double
+the amount held by all the other American shareholders put together.
+This was at least giving substantial proof of his own faith in the
+undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>But some may imagine that after all this burden was not so great as it
+seemed. In many stock companies the custom obtains of assigning to the
+projectors a certain portion of the stock as a bonus for getting up the
+company, which amount appears among the subscriptions to swell the
+capital. It is indeed subscribed, <i>but not paid</i>. So some have asked
+whether this large subscription of Mr. Field was not in part at least
+merely nominal? To this we answer, that a consideration <i>was</i> granted to
+Mr. Field and his associates for their services in getting up the
+Company, and for their exclusive rights, but this was a contingent
+interest in the profits of the enterprise, <i>to be allowed only after the
+cable was laid</i>. So that the whole amount here subscribed was a
+<i>bona-fide</i> subscription, and paid in solid <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>English gold. We have now
+before us the receipts of the bankers of the Company for the whole
+amount, eighty-eight thousand pounds sterling.</p>
+
+<p>The capital being thus raised, it only remained to complete the
+organization of the Company by the choice of a Board of Directors, and
+to make a contract for the cable. The Company was organized in December,
+1856, by the choice of Directors chiefly from the leading bankers and
+merchants of London and Liverpool. The list included such honored names
+as Samuel Gurney, T. H. Brooking, John W. Brett, and T. A. Hankey, of
+London; Sir William Brown, Henry Harrison, Edward Johnston, Robert
+Crosbie, George Maxwell, and C. W. H. Pickering, of Liverpool; John
+Pender and James Dugdale, of Manchester; and Professor William Thomson,
+LL.D., of Glasgow. With these English Directors were two of our
+countrymen, Mr. George Peabody and Mr. C. M. Lampson, who, residing
+abroad for more than a third of a century, did much in the commercial
+capital of the world to support the honor of the American name. Mr.
+Peabody's firm subscribed £10,000, and Mr. Lampson £2,000. The latter
+gave more time than any other Director in London, except Mr. Brooking,
+the second Vice-Chairman, who, however, retired from the Company after
+the first failure in 1858, when Mr. Lampson was chosen to fill his
+place. The whole Board was full of zeal and energy. All gave their
+services without compensation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p><p>It was the good fortune of the Company to have, from the beginning, in
+the important position of Secretary, a gentleman admirably qualified for
+the post. This was Mr. George Saward&mdash;a name familiar to all who have
+followed the fortunes of the telegraph, in England or America, since he
+has been the organ of communication with the press and the public; and
+with whom none ever had occasion to transact business without
+recognizing his intelligence and courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>The Company being thus in working order, proceeded to make a contract
+for the manufacture of a cable to be laid across the Atlantic. For many
+months the proper form and size of the cable had been the subject of
+constant experiments. The conditions were: to combine the greatest
+degree of strength with lightness and flexibility. It must be strong, or
+it would snap in the process of laying. Yet it would not do to have it
+too large, for it would be unmanageable. Mr. Brett had already lost a
+cable in the Mediterranean chiefly from its bulk. Its size and stiffness
+made it hard to unwind it, while its enormous weight, when once it broke
+loose, caused it to run out with fearful velocity, till it was soon lost
+in the sea. It was only the year before, in September, 1855, that this
+accident had occurred in laying the cable from Sardinia to Algeria. All
+was going on well, until suddenly, "about two miles, weighing sixteen
+tons, flew out with the greatest violence in four or five minutes,
+flying round <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>even when the drums were brought to a dead stop, creating
+the greatest alarm for the safety of the men in the hold and for the
+vessel." This was partly owing to the character of the submarine surface
+over which they were passing. The bottom of the Mediterranean is
+volcanic, and is broken up into mountains and valleys. The cable,
+doubtless, had just passed over some Alpine height, and was descending
+into some fearful depth below; but chiefly it was owing to the great
+size and bulk of the cable. This was a warning to the Atlantic Company.
+The point to be aimed at was to combine the flexibility of a common
+ship's rope with the tenacity of iron. These conditions were thought to
+be united in the form that was adopted.<a name="FNanchor_B_12" id="FNanchor_B_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_12" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> A contract <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>was at once made
+for the manufacture of the cable, one half being given to Messrs. Glass,
+Elliot &amp; Co., of London, and the other to Messrs. R. S. Newall &amp; Co., of
+Liverpool. The whole was to be completed by the first of June, ready to
+be submerged in the sea. The company was organized on the ninth of
+December, and the very next day Mr. Field sailed for America, reaching
+New York on the twenty-fifth of December, after an absence of more than
+five months.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_11" id="Footnote_A_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_11"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Professor Morse was fond of the distinction between the
+words practical and practicable. A thing might be practicable, that is,
+possible of accomplishment, when it was not a practical enterprise, that
+is, one which could be worked to advantage. He here argues that the
+Atlantic Telegraph is both practicable, (or possible,) and at the same
+time a wise, practical undertaking.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_12" id="Footnote_B_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_12"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> On his return to America, many inquiries were addressed to
+Mr. Field in regard to the form and structure of the cable, in answer to
+which he wrote a letter of explanation in which he said:
+</p><p>
+"No particular connected with this great project has been the subject of
+so much comment through the press as the form and structure of the
+telegraph cable. It may be well believed that the Directors have not
+decided upon a matter so all-important to success, without availing
+themselves of the most eminent talent and experience which could be
+commanded. The practical history of submarine telegraphs dates from the
+successful submersion of the cable between Dover and Calais in 1851, and
+advantage has been taken of whatever instruction this history could
+furnish or suggest. Of the submarine cables heretofore laid down,
+without enumerating others, the one between Dover and Calais weighs six
+tons to the mile; that between Spezzia and Corsica, eight tons to the
+mile; that laid from Varna to Balaklava, and used during the war in the
+Crimea, less than three hundred pounds to the mile; while the weight of
+the cable for the Atlantic Telegraph is between nineteen hundred pounds
+and one ton to the mile. This cable, to use the words of Dr. Whitehouse,
+'is the result of many months thought, experiment, and trial. Hundreds
+of specimens have been made, comprising every variety of form, size, and
+structure, and most severely tested as to their powers and capabilities;
+and the result has been the adoption of this, which we know to possess
+all the properties required, and in a far higher degree than any cable
+that has yet been laid. Its flexibility is such as to make it as
+manageable as a small line, and its strength such that it will bear, in
+water, over six miles of its own weight suspended vertically.' The
+conducting medium consists not of one single straight copper-wire, but
+of seven wires of copper of the best quality, twisted round each other
+spirally, and capable of undergoing great tension without injury. This
+conductor is then enveloped in three separate coverings of gutta-percha,
+of the best quality, forming the core of the cable, round which tarred
+hemp is wrapped, and over this, the outside covering, consisting of
+eighteen strands of the best quality of iron-wire; each strand composed
+of seven distinct wires, twisted spirally, in the most approved manner,
+by machinery specially adapted to the purpose. The attempt to insulate
+more than one conducting-wire or medium would not only have increased
+the chances of failure of all of them, but would have necessitated the
+adoption of a proportionably heavier and more cumbrous cable. The
+tensile power of the outer or wire covering of the cable, being very
+much less than that of the conductor within it, the latter is protected
+from any such strain as can possibly rupture it or endanger its
+insulation without an entire fracture of the cable."</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+
+SEEKING AID FROM CONGRESS.</h2>
+
+
+<p>When Mr. Field reached home from abroad, he hoped for a brief respite.
+He had had a pretty hard campaign during the summer and autumn in
+England, and needed at least a few weeks of rest; but that was denied
+him. He landed in New York on Christmas Day, and was not allowed even to
+spend the New Year with his family. There were interests of the Company
+in Newfoundland which required immediate attention, and it was important
+that one of the Directors should go there without delay. As usual, it
+devolved upon him. He left at once for Boston, where he took the steamer
+to Halifax, and thence to St. John's. Such a voyage may be very
+agreeable in summer, but in mid-winter it is not a pleasant thing to
+face the storms of those northern latitudes. The passage was unusually
+tempestuous. At St. John's he broke down, and was put under the care of
+a physician. But he did not stop to think of himself. The work for which
+he came was done; and though the physician warned him that it was a
+great risk to leave his bed, he took the steamer on her return, and was
+again in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>New York after a month's absence&mdash;a month of hardship, of
+exposure, and of suffering, such as he had long occasion to remember.</p>
+
+<p>The mention of this voyage came up a year afterward at a meeting of the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company in London, when a resolution was offered,
+tendering Mr. Field a vote of thanks for "the great services he had
+rendered to the Company by his untiring zeal, energy, and devotion." Mr.
+Brooking, the Vice-Chairman, had spent a large part of his life in
+Newfoundland, and knew the dangers of that inhospitable coast, and in
+seconding the resolution he said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It is now about a year and a half ago since I had the pleasure
+of making the acquaintance of my friend Mr. Field. It was he
+who initiated me into this Company, and induced me to take an
+interest in it from its earliest stage. From that period to the
+present I have observed in Mr. Field the most determined
+perseverance, and the exercise of great talent, extraordinary
+assiduity and diligence, coupled with an amount of fortitude
+which has seldom been equalled. I have known him cross the
+Atlantic in the depth of winter, and, within twenty-four hours
+after his arrival in New York, having ascertained that his
+presence was necessary in a distant British colony, he has not
+hesitated at once to direct his course thitherward. That colony
+is one with which I am intimately acquainted, having resided in
+it for upward of twenty years, and am enabled to speak of the
+hazards and danger which attend a voyage to it in winter. Mr.
+Field no sooner arrived at New York, in the latter part of
+December, than he got aboard a steamer for <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>Halifax, and
+proceeded to St. John's, Newfoundland. In three weeks he
+accomplished there a very great object for this Company. He
+procured the passage of an Act of the Legislature which has
+given to our Company the right of establishing a footing on
+those shores. [The rights before conferred, it would seem,
+applied only to the Newfoundland Company.] That is only one of
+the acts which he has performed with a desire to promote the
+interests of this great enterprise." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The very next day after his return from Newfoundland, Mr. Field was
+called to Washington, to seek the aid of his own Government to the
+Atlantic Telegraph. The English Government had proffered the most
+generous aid, both in ships to lay the cable, and in an annual subsidy
+of £14,000. It was on every account desirable that this should be met by
+corresponding liberality on the part of the American Government. Before
+he left England, he had sent home the letter received from the Lords
+Commissioners of the Treasury; and thereupon the Directors of the New
+York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company had inclosed a copy to
+the President, with a letter asking for the same aid in ships, and in an
+annual sum of $70,000, [equivalent to £14,000,] to be paid for the
+government messages, the latter to be conditioned on the success of the
+telegraph, and to be continued only so long as it was in full operation.
+They urged with reason that the English Government had acted with great
+liberality&mdash;not only toward the enterprise, but <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>toward our own
+Government. Although both ends of the line were in the British
+possessions, it had claimed no exclusive privileges, but had stipulated
+for perfect equality between the United States and Great Britain. The
+agreement expressly provided "that the British Government shall have a
+priority in the conveyance of their messages over all others, <i>subject
+to the exception only of the Government of the United States</i>, in the
+event of their entering into an arrangement with the Telegraph Company
+similar in principle to that of the British Government, in which case
+the messages of the two governments shall have priority in the order in
+which they arrive at the stations."</p>
+
+<p>The letter to the President called attention to this generous offer&mdash;an
+offer which it was manifestly to the advantage of our Government to
+accept&mdash;and added: "The Company will enter into a contract with the
+Government of the United States on the same terms and conditions as it
+has made with the British Government." They asked only for the same
+recognition and aid which they had received in England. This surely was
+not a very bold request. It was natural that American citizens should
+think that in a work begun by Americans, and of which, if successful,
+their country would reap largely the honor and the advantage, they might
+expect the aid from their own Government which they had already received
+from a foreign power. It was, therefore, not without <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>a mixture of
+surprise and mortification that they learned that the proposal in
+Congress had provoked a violent opposition, and that the bill was likely
+to be defeated. Such was the attitude of affairs when Mr. Field returned
+from Newfoundland, and which led him to hasten to Washington.</p>
+
+<p>He now found that it was much easier to deal with the English than with
+the American Government. Whatever may be said of the respective methods
+of administration, it must be confessed that the forms of English
+procedure furnish greater facility in the despatch of business. A
+contract can be made by the Lords of the Treasury without waiting the
+action of Parliament. The proposal is referred to two or three
+intelligent officers of the Government&mdash;perhaps even to a single
+individual&mdash;on whose report it takes action without further delay. Thus
+it is probable that the action of the British Government was decided
+wholly by the recommendation of Mr. Wilson, formed after the visit of
+Mr. Field.</p>
+
+<p>But in our country we do things differently. Here it would be considered
+a stretch of power for any administration to enter into a contract with
+a private company&mdash;a contract binding the Government for a period of
+twenty-five years, and involving an annual appropriation of
+money&mdash;without the action of Congress. This is a safeguard against
+reckless and extravagant expenditure, but, as one of the penalties we
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>pay for our more popular form of government, in which every thing has
+to be referred to the people, it involves delay, and sometimes the
+defeat of wise and important public measures.</p>
+
+<p>Besides&mdash;shall we confess it to our shame&mdash;another secret influence
+often appears in American legislation, which has defeated many an act
+demanded by the public good&mdash;the influence of the Lobby! This now began
+to show itself in opposition. It had been whispered in Washington that
+the gentlemen in New York who were at the head of this enterprise were
+very rich; and a measure coming from such a source surely ought to be
+made to pay tribute before it was allowed to pass. This was a new
+experience. Those few weeks in Washington were worse than being among
+the icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland. The Atlantic Cable has had
+many a kink since, but never did it seem to be entangled in such a
+hopeless twist as when it got among the politicians.</p>
+
+<p>But it would be very unjust to suppose that there were no better
+influences in our Halls of Congress. There were then&mdash;as there have
+always been in our history&mdash;some men of large wisdom and of a noble
+patriotic pride, who in such a measure thought only of the good of their
+country and of the triumph of science and of civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Two years after&mdash;in August, 1858&mdash;when the Atlantic Telegraph proved at
+last a reality, and the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>New World was full of its fame, Mr. Seward, in
+a speech at Auburn, thus referred to the ordeal it had to pass through
+in Congress:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The two great countries of which I have spoken, [England and
+America,] are now ringing with the praises of Cyrus W. Field,
+who chiefly has brought this great enterprise to its glorious
+and beneficent consummation. You have never heard his story;
+let me give you a few points in it, as a lesson that there is
+no condition of life in which a man, endowed with native
+genius, a benevolent spirit, and a courageous patience, may not
+become a benefactor of nations and of mankind." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>After speaking of the efforts by which this New York merchant "brought
+into being an association of Americans and Englishmen, which contributed
+from surplus wealth the capital necessary as a basis for the
+enterprise"; he adds:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It remained to engage the consent and the activity of the
+Governments of Great Britain and the United States. That was
+all that remained. Such consent and activity on the part of
+some one great nation of Europe was all that remained needful
+for Columbus when he stood ready to bring a new continent
+forward as a theatre of the world's civilization. But in each
+case that effort was the most difficult of all. Cyrus W. Field,
+by assiduity and patience, first secured consent and
+conditional engagement on the part of Great Britain, and then,
+less than two years ago, he repaired to Washington. The
+President and Secretary of State individually favored his
+proposition; but the jealousies <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>of parties and sections in
+Congress forbade them to lend it their official sanction and
+patronage. He appealed to me. I drew the necessary bill. With
+the generous aid of others, Northern Representatives, and the
+indispensable aid of the late Thomas J. Rusk, a Senator from
+Texas, that bill, after a severe contest and long delay, was
+carried through the Senate of the United States by the
+majority, if I remember rightly, of one vote, and escaped
+defeat in the House of Representatives with equal difficulty. I
+have said the aid of Mr. Rusk was indispensable. If any one has
+wondered why I, an extreme Northern man, loved and lamented
+Thomas J. Rusk, an equally extreme Southern man, he has here an
+explanation. There was no good thing which, as it seemed to me,
+I could not do in Congress with his aid. When he died, it
+seemed to me that no good thing could be done by any one. Such
+was the position of Cyrus W. Field at that stage of the great
+enterprise. But, thus at last fortified with capital derived
+from New York and London, and with the navies of Great Britain
+and the United States at his command, he has, after trials that
+would have discouraged any other than a true discoverer,
+brought the great work to a felicitous consummation. And now
+the Queen of Great Britain and the President of the United
+States stand waiting his permission to speak, and ready to
+speak at his bidding; and the people of these two great
+countries await only the signal from him to rush into a
+fraternal embrace which will prove the oblivion of ages of
+suspicion, of jealousies and of anger." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. Seward might well refer with pride to the part he took in sustaining
+this enterprise. He was from the beginning its firmest supporter. The
+bill was introduced into the Senate by him, and was carried through
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>mainly by his influence, seconded by Mr. Rusk, Mr. Douglas, and one or
+two others. It was introduced on the ninth of January, and came up for
+consideration on the twenty-first. Its friends had hoped that it might
+pass with entire unanimity. But such was the opposition, that the
+discussion lasted two days. The report shows that it was a subject of
+animated and almost angry debate, which brought out the secret of the
+opposition to aid being given by the Government.</p>
+
+<p>Probably no measure was ever introduced in Congress for the help of any
+commercial enterprise, that some member, imagining that it was to
+benefit a particular section, did not object that it was
+"unconstitutional"! This objection was well answered in this case by Mr.
+Benjamin, of Louisiana, who asked:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"If we have a right to hire a warehouse at Port Mahon, in the
+Mediterranean, for storing naval stores, have we not a right to
+hire a company to carry our messages? I should as soon think of
+questioning the constitutional power of the Government to pay
+freight to a vessel for carrying its mail-bags across the
+ocean, as to pay a telegraph company a certain sum per annum
+for conveying its messages by the use of the electric
+telegraph." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This touched the precise ground on which the appropriation was asked. In
+their memorial to the President, the Company had said: "Such a contract
+will, we suppose, fall within the provisions of the Constitution <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>in
+regard to postal arrangements, of which this is only a new and improved
+form."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, explained in the same terms the nature of the
+proposed agreement:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It is a mail operation. It is a Post-Office arrangement. It is
+for the transmission of intelligence, and that is what I
+understood to be the function of the Post-Office Department. I
+hold it, therefore, to be as legitimately within the proper
+powers of the Government, as the employing of a stage-coach, or
+a steam-car, or a ship, to transport the mails, either to
+foreign countries, or to different portions of our own
+country." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Of course, as in all appropriations of money, the question of expense
+had to be considered, and here there were not wanting some to cry out
+against the extravagance of paying seventy thousand dollars a year! We
+had not then got used to the colossal expenditures of war, when we grew
+familiar with paying three millions a day! Seventy thousand dollars
+seemed a great sum; but Mr. Bayard in reply reminded them that England
+then paid nine hundred thousand dollars a year for the transportation of
+the mails between the United States and England; and argued that it was
+a very small amount for the great service rendered. He said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We have sent out ships to make explorations and observations
+in the Red Sea and in South America; we sent <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>one or two
+expensive expeditions to Japan, and published at great cost
+some elegant books narrating their exploits. The expense even
+in ships alone, in that instance, was at the rate of twenty to
+one here, but no cry of economy was then raised." "I look upon
+this proposition solely as a business measure; in that point of
+view I believe the Government will obtain more service for the
+amount of money, than by any other contract that we have ever
+made, or now can make, for the transmission of intelligence." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As to the expense of furnishing a ship of war to assist in laying the
+cable, Mr. Douglas asked:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Will it cost anything to furnish the use of one of our
+steamships? They are idle. We have no practical use for them at
+present. They are in commission. They have their coal on board,
+and their full armament. They will be rendering no service to
+us if they are not engaged in this work. If there was nothing
+more than a question of national pride involved, I would gladly
+furnish the use of an American ship for that purpose. England
+tenders one of her national vessels, and why should we not
+tender one also? It costs England nothing, and it costs us
+nothing." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. Rusk made the same point, in arguing that ships might be sent to
+assist in laying the cable, giving this homely but sufficient reason: "I
+think that is better than to keep them rotting at the navy-yards, with
+the officers frollicking on shore."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Douglas urged still further:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"American citizens have commenced this enterprise. The honor
+and the glory of the achievement, if successful, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>will be due
+to American genius and American daring. Why should the American
+Government be so penurious&mdash;I do not know that that is the
+proper word, for it costs nothing&mdash;why should we be actuated by
+so illiberal a spirit as to refuse the use of one of our
+steamships to convey the wire when it does not cost one
+farthing to the Treasury of the United States?" </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>But behind all these objections of expense and of want of constitutional
+power, was one greater than all, and that was England! The real animus
+of the opposition was a fear of giving some advantage to Great Britain.
+This has always been sufficient to excite the hostility of a certain
+class of politicians. No matter what the subject of the proposed
+coöperation, if it were purely a scientific expedition, they were sure
+England was going to profit by it to our injury. So now there were those
+who felt that in this submarine cable England was literally crawling
+under the sea to get some advantage of the United States!</p>
+
+<p>This jealousy and hostility spoke loudest from the mouths of
+Southerners. It is noteworthy that men who, in less than five years
+after, were figuring abroad, courting foreign influence against their
+own country, were then fiercest in denunciation of England. Mason and
+Slidell voted together against the bill. Butler, of South Carolina, was
+very bitter in his opposition&mdash;saying, with a sneer, that "this was
+simply a mail service under the surveillance of Great Britain"&mdash;and so
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>was Hunter, of Virginia; while Jones, of Tennessee, bursting with
+patriotism, found a sufficient reason for his opposition, in that "he
+did not want anything to do with England or Englishmen!"</p>
+
+<p>But it should be said in justice, that to this general hostility of the
+South there were some exceptions. Benjamin, of Louisiana, gave the bill
+an earnest support; so did Mallory, of Florida, Chairman of the Naval
+Committee; and especially that noble Southerner, Rusk, of Texas, "with
+whose aid," as Mr. Seward said, "it seemed that there was no good thing
+which he could not do in Congress." Mr. Rusk declared that he regarded
+it as "the great enterprise of the age," and expressed his surprise at
+the very moderate subsidy asked for, only seventy thousand dollars a
+year, saying that, "with a reasonable prospect of success in an
+enterprise, calculated to produce such beneficial results, he should be
+willing to vote two hundred thousand dollars."</p>
+
+<p>But with the majority of Southern Senators, there was a repugnance to
+acting in concert with England, which could not be overcome. They argued
+that this was not truly a line between England and the United States,
+but between England and her own colonies&mdash;a line of which she alone was
+to reap the benefit. <i>Both its termini were in the British possessions.</i>
+In the event of war this would give a tremendous advantage to the power
+holding both ends of the line. All <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>the speakers harped on this string;
+and it may be worth a page or two to see how this was met and answered.
+When Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, asked, "What security are we to have that
+in time of war we shall have the use of the telegraph as well as the
+British Government?" Mr. Seward answered:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It appears not to have been contemplated by the British
+Government that there would ever be any interruption of the
+amicable relations between the two countries. Therefore nothing
+was proposed in their contract for the contingency of war.</p>
+
+<p>"That the two termini are both in the British dominions is
+true; but it is equally true that there is no other terminus on
+this continent where it is practicable to make that
+communication except in the British dominions. We have no
+dominions on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. There is no
+other route known on which the telegraphic wire could be drawn
+through the ocean so as to find a proper resting-place or
+anchorage except this. The distance on this route is seventeen
+hundred miles. It is not even known that the telegraphic wire
+will carry the fluid with sufficient strength to communicate
+across those seventeen hundred miles. That is yet a scientific
+experiment, and the Company are prepared to make it.</p>
+
+<p>"In regard to war, all the danger is this: There is a hazard of
+war at some future time, and whatever arrangements we might
+make, war would break them up. No treaty would save us. My own
+hope is, that after the telegraphic wire is once laid, there
+will be no more war between the United States and Great
+Britain. I believe that whenever <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>such a connection as this
+shall be made, we diminish the chances of war, and diminish
+them in such a degree, that it is not necessary to take them
+into consideration at the present moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us see where we are. What shall we gain by refusing to
+enter into this agreement? If we do not make it, the British
+Government has only to add ten thousand pounds sterling more
+annually, and they have the whole monopoly of this wire,
+without any stipulation whatever&mdash;not only in war but in peace.
+If we make this contract with the Company, we at least secure
+the benefit of it in time of peace, and we postpone and delay
+the dangers of war. If there shall ever be war, it would
+abrogate all treaties that can be made in regard to this
+subject, unless it be true, as the honorable Senator from
+Virginia thinks, that treaties can be made which will be
+regarded as obligatory by nations in time of war. If so, we
+have all the advantages in time of peace, for the purpose of
+making such treaties hereafter, without the least reason to
+infer that there would be any reluctance on the part of the
+British Government to enter into that negotiation with us, if
+we should desire to do so. The British Government, if it had
+such a disposition as the honorable Senator supposes, would
+certainly have proposed to monopolize all this telegraphic
+line, instead of proposing to divide it."<a name="FNanchor_A_13" id="FNanchor_A_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_13" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> </p></blockquote>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p><p>Mr. Hale spoke in the same strain:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It seems to me that the war spirit and the contingencies of
+war are brought in a little too often upon matters of
+legislation which have no necessary connection with them. If we
+are to be governed by considerations of that sort, they would
+paralyze all improvements; they would stop the great
+appropriations for commerce; they would at once neutralize that
+policy which sets our ocean steamers afloat. Nobody pretends
+that the intercourse which is kept up between Great Britain and
+this country by our ocean steamers would be continued in time
+of war; nor the communication with France or other nations.</p>
+
+<p>"If we are deterred for that reason, we shall be pursuing a
+policy that will paralyze improvements on those parts of the
+coast which lie contiguous to the lakes. The city of Detroit
+will have to be abandoned, beautiful and progressive <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>as it is,
+because in time of war the mansions of her citizens there lie
+within the range of British guns.</p>
+
+<p>"What will the suspension bridge at Niagara be good for in a
+time of war? If the British cut off their end of it, our end
+will not be worth much. I believe that among the things which
+will bind us together in peace, this telegraphic wire will be
+one of the most potent. It will bind the two countries together
+literally with cords of iron that will hold us in the bonds of
+peace. I repudiate entirely the policy which refuses to adopt
+it, because in time of war it may be interrupted. Such a policy
+as that would drive us back to a state of barbarism. It would
+destroy the spirit of progress; it would retard improvement; it
+would paralyze all the advances which are making us a more
+civilized, and a more informed and a better people than the one
+which preceded us." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. Douglas cut the matter short by saying:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I am willing to vote for this bill as a peace measure, as a
+commercial measure&mdash;but not as a war measure; and when war
+comes, let us rely on our power and ability to take this end of
+the wire, and keep it." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. Benjamin said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The sum of money that this Government proposes to give for the
+use of this telegraph will amount, in the twenty-five years, to
+something between £300,000 and £400,000. Now, if this be a
+matter of such immense importance to Great Britain&mdash;if this be
+the golden opportunity&mdash;and if, indeed, her control of this
+line be such a powerful engine, whether in war or in peace, is
+it not most extraordinary that she proposes to us a full share
+in its benefits and in its <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>control, and allows to our
+Government equal rights with herself in the transmission of
+communications for the sum of about £300,000, to be paid in
+annual instalments through twenty-five years? If this be,
+indeed, a very important instrumentality in behalf of Great
+Britain for the conduct of her commerce, the government of her
+possessions, or the efficient action of her troops in time of
+war, the £300,000 expended upon it are but as a drop in the
+bucket when compared with the immense resources of that empire.
+I think, therefore, we may as well discard from our
+consideration of this subject all these visions about the
+immense importance of the governmental aid in this matter, to
+be rendered under the provisions of this bill.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. President, let us not always be thinking of war; let us be
+using means to preserve peace. The amount that would be
+expended by this Government in six months' war with Great
+Britain, would far exceed every thing that we shall have to pay
+for the use of this telegraphic line for the entire twenty-five
+years of the contract; and do you not believe that this
+instrumentality will be sufficiently efficient to bind together
+the peace, the commerce, and the interests of the two
+countries, so as even to defer a war for six months or twelve
+months, if one should ever become inevitable, beyond the period
+at which it would otherwise occur? If it does that, it will in
+six or eight or nine months repay the expenditures of
+twenty-five years.</p>
+
+<p>"Again, Sir, I say, if Great Britain wants it for war, she will
+put it there at her own expense. It is not three hundred
+thousand pounds, or four hundred thousand pounds, that will
+arrest her. If, on the contrary, this be useful to
+commerce&mdash;useful in an eminent degree&mdash;useful for the
+preservation of peace, then I confess I feel some pride that my
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>country should aid in establishing it. I confess I feel a glow
+of something like pride that I belong to the great human family
+when I see these triumphs of science, by which mind is brought
+into instant communication with mind across the intervening
+oceans, which, to our unenlightened forefathers, seemed placed
+there by Providence as an eternal barrier to communication
+between man and man. Now, Sir, we speak from minute to minute.
+Scarcely can a gun be fired in war on the European shore ere
+its echoes will reverberate among our own mountains, and be
+heard by every citizen in the land. All this is a triumph of
+science&mdash;of American genius, and I for one feel proud of it,
+and feel desirous of sustaining and promoting it." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. Douglas said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Our policy is essentially a policy of peace. We want peace
+with the whole world, above all other considerations. There
+never has been a time in the history of this Republic, when
+peace was more essential to our prosperity, to our advancement,
+and to our progress, than it is now. We have made great
+progress in time of peace&mdash;an almost inconceivable progress
+since the last war with Great Britain. Twenty-five years more
+of peace will put us far in advance of any other nation on
+earth." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>It was fit that Mr. Seward, who introduced the bill, and opened the
+debate, should close in words that now seem prophetic, and show the
+large wisdom, looking before and after, of this eminent statesman:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>"There was an American citizen who, in the year 1770, or
+thereabout, indicated to this country, to Great Britain, and to
+the world, the use of the lightning for the purposes of
+communication of intelligence, and that was Dr. Franklin. I am
+sure that there is not only no member of the Senate, but no
+American citizen, however humble, who would be willing to have
+struck out from the achievements of American invention this
+great discovery of the lightning as an agent for the uses of
+human society.</p>
+
+<p>"The suggestion made by that distinguished and illustrious
+American was followed up some fifty years afterward by another
+suggestion and another indication from another American, and
+that was Mr. Samuel F. B. Morse, who indicated to the American
+Government the means by which the lightning could be made to
+write, and by which the telegraphic wires could be made to
+supply the place of wind and steam for carrying intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>"We have followed out the suggestions of these eminent
+Americans hitherto, and I am sure at a very small cost. The
+Government of the United States appropriated $40,000 to test
+the practicability of Morse's suggestion; the $40,000 thus
+expended established its practicability and its use. Now, there
+is no person on the face of the globe who can measure the price
+at which, if a reasonable man, he would be willing to strike
+from the world the use of the magnetic telegraph as a means of
+communication between different portions of the same country.
+This great invention is now to be brought into its further,
+wider, and broader use&mdash;the use by the general society of
+nations, international use, the use of the society of mankind.
+Its benefits are large&mdash;just in proportion to the extent and
+scope of its operation. They are not merely benefits to the
+Government, but they are <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>benefits to the citizens and subjects
+of all nations and of all States.</p>
+
+<p>"I might enlarge further on this subject, but I forbear to do
+so, because I know that at some future time I shall come across
+the record of what I have said to-day. I know that then what I
+have said to-day, by way of anticipation, will fall so far
+short of the reality of benefits which individuals, States, and
+nations will have derived from this great enterprise, that I
+shall not reflect upon it without disappointment and
+mortification." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>After such arguments, it should seem that there could be but one
+opinion, and yet the bill passed the Senate by only <i>one</i> majority! It
+also had to run the gauntlet of the House of Representatives, where it
+encountered the same hostility. But at length it got through, and was
+signed by President Pierce on the third of March, the day before he went
+out of office. Thus it became a law.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_13" id="Footnote_A_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_13"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> It is worthy of notice, that when the Bill granting a
+charter to the Atlantic Telegraph Company was offered in the British
+Parliament, at least one nobleman found fault with it on this very
+ground, that it gave away important advantages which properly belonged
+to England, and which she ought to reserve to herself:
+</p><p>
+"In the House of Lords, on the twentieth of July, 1857, on the motion
+for the third reading of the Telegraph Company's bill,
+</p><p>
+"Lord Redesdale called attention to the fact that, although the termini
+of the proposed telegraph were both in her Majesty's dominions, namely,
+in Ireland and Newfoundland, the American Government were to enjoy the
+same priority as the British Government with regard to the transmission
+of messages. It was said that this equal right was owing to the fact
+that a joint guarantee had been given by the two Governments. <i>He
+thought, however, it would have been far better policy on the part of
+her Majesty's Government if they had either undertaken the whole
+guarantee themselves, and thus had obtained free and sole control over
+the connecting line of telegraph, or had invited our own colonies to
+participate in that guarantee, rather than have allowed a foreign
+government to join in making it.</i> At the same time, if the clause in
+question had the sanction of her Majesty's ministry, it was not his
+intention to object to it.
+</p><p>
+"Earl Granville said this telegraph was intended to connect two great
+countries, and, as the two Governments had gone hand in hand with regard
+to the guarantee, it seemed only reasonable that both should have the
+same rights as to transmitting messages.
+</p><p>
+"The bill was then read a third time and passed."</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+
+THE EXPEDITION OF 1857.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Scarcely was the business with the American Government completed, before
+Mr. Field was recalled to England. Once more upon the waves, he forgot
+the long delay and the vexatious opposition which he left behind&mdash;the
+fogs of Newfoundland, and the denser fogs of Washington. He was bound
+for England, and there at least the work did not stand still. All winter
+long the wheels of the machinery had kept in motion. The cable was
+uncoiling its mighty folds to a length sufficient to span the Atlantic,
+and at last there was hope of victory.</p>
+
+<p>Although the United States Government had seemed a little ungracious in
+its delay, it yet rendered, this year and the next, most important
+service. Already it had prepared the way, by the deep-sea soundings,
+which it was the first to take across the Atlantic. It now rendered
+additional and substantial aid in lending to this enterprise the two
+finest ships in the American navy&mdash;the Niagara and the Susquehanna. The
+former was built some dozen years before by George Steers&mdash;a name
+celebrated among our marine architects as the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>constructor of the famous
+yacht America, that "racehorse of the sea," which had crossed the
+Atlantic, and carried off the prize in the British Channel from the
+yachts of England&mdash;and was designed to be a model of naval architecture.
+She was the largest steam-frigate in the world, exceeding in tonnage the
+heaviest line-of-battle ship in the English navy, and yet so finely
+modelled that, propelled only by a screw, she could make ten or twelve
+miles an hour. Notwithstanding her bulk, she was intended to carry but
+twelve guns&mdash;being one of the first ships in our navy to substitute a
+few heavy Dahlgrens for half a dozen times as many fifty-six-pounders.
+This was the beginning of that revolution in naval warfare, which was
+carried to such extent in the Monitors and other ironclads introduced in
+our civil war. Each gun weighed fourteen tons&mdash;requiring a crew of
+twenty-five men to wield it&mdash;and threw a shell of one hundred and thirty
+pounds a distance of three miles. One or two broadsides from such a deck
+would sink an old-fashioned seventy-four, or even a ninety or
+hundred-gun ship.</p>
+
+<p>But as the Niagara was now to go on an errand of peace, this formidable
+armament was not taken on board. She was built with what is known as a
+flush deck, clear from stem to stern, and being without her guns, was
+left free for the more peaceful burden that she was to bear. When the
+orders were received from Washington, she was lying at the Brooklyn
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>Navy-Yard, but began immediately to prepare for her expedition.
+Bulkheads were knocked down, above and below, to make room for the huge
+monster of the deep that was to be coiled within her sides. These
+preparations occupied four or five weeks. On the twenty-second of April,
+she made a trial trip down the bay, and two days after sailed for
+England, in command of Captain William L. Hudson, one of the oldest and
+best officers in our navy, who, to his past services to his country, was
+now to add another in the expeditions of this and the following year. He
+had with him as Chief Engineer Mr. William E. Everett, whose mechanical
+genius proved so important in constructing the paying-out machinery.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the regular ship's crew, no one was received on board except Mr.
+Field and Professor Morse, who went as the electrician of the
+Newfoundland Company; and two officers of the Russian navy&mdash;Captain
+Schwartz and Lieutenant Kolobnin&mdash;who were permitted by our Government,
+as an act of national courtesy, to go out to witness the great
+experiment. The regulations of the navy did not admit correspondents of
+the press; but Professor Morse was permitted to take a secretary, and
+chose Mr. Mullaly, who reported for the New York Herald, and who had
+thus an opportunity to witness all the preparations on land and sea, and
+to furnish those minute and detailed accounts of the several
+expeditions, which contribute <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>some important chapters in the history of
+this enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>The Niagara arrived out on the fourteenth of May, and cast anchor off
+Gravesend, about twenty-five miles below London. As it was the first
+time&mdash;at least for many years&mdash;that an American ship of war had appeared
+in the Thames, this fact, with her fine proportions and the object for
+which she came, attracted a crowd of visitors. Every day, from morning
+to night, a fleet of boats was around her, and men and women thronged
+over her sides. Everybody was welcome. All were received with the utmost
+courtesy, and allowed access to all parts of the ship. Among these were
+many visitors of distinction. Here came Lady Franklin to thank the
+generous nation that had sent two expeditions to recover her husband
+lost amid Polar seas. She was, of course, the object of general
+attention and respectful sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>While lying in the Thames, the Agamemnon, that was to take the other
+half of the cable, passed up the river. This was a historical ship,
+having borne the flag of the British admiral at the bombardment of
+Sebastopol, and distinguished herself by steaming up within a few
+hundred yards of the guns of the fortress. After passing through the
+fires of that terrible day, she was justly an object of pride to
+Britons, whose hearts swelled as they saw this oak-ribbed leviathan,
+that had come "out of the gates of death, out <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>of the jaws of hell," now
+preparing to take part in achievements of peace, not less glorious than
+those of war. She was under command of Captain Noddal, of the Royal
+Navy.</p>
+
+<p>As the Agamemnon came up the river in grand style, she recognized the
+Niagara lying off Gravesend, and manning her yards, gave her a
+succession of those English hurras so stirring to the blood, when heard
+on land or sea, to which our tars replied with lusty American cheers. It
+was pleasant to observe, from this time, the hearty good-will that
+existed between the officers and crews of the two ships, who in their
+exertions for the common object, were animated only by a generous
+rivalry.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after, the Niagara was joined by the Susquehanna, Captain
+Sands, which had been ordered from the Mediterranean to take part also
+in the expedition. She was a fit companion ship, being the largest
+side-wheel steamer in our navy, as the other was the largest propeller.
+Both together, they were worthy representatives of the American navy.</p>
+
+<p>When the Niagara arrived in the Thames, it was supposed she would take
+on board her half of the cable from the manufactory of Glass, Elliot &amp;
+Co., at Greenwich; but on account of her great length, it was difficult
+to bring her up alongside the wharf in front of the works. This was
+therefore left to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>Agamemnon, while the Niagara was ordered around
+to Liverpool, to take the other half from the works of Newall &amp; Co., at
+Birkenhead, opposite that city. Accordingly she left Gravesend on the
+fifth of June, and reached Portsmouth the next day, where she remained a
+fortnight, to have some further alterations to fit her to receive the
+cable. Although she had been already pretty well "scooped out," fore and
+aft, the cry was still for room. Officers had to shift for themselves,
+as their quarters were swept away to make a wider berth for their iron
+guest. But all submitted with excellent grace. Like true sailors, they
+took it gayly as if they were only clearing the decks for battle. Among
+other alterations for safety, was a framework or cage of iron, which was
+put over the stern of the ship, to keep the cable from getting entangled
+in the screw. As soon as these were completed, the Niagara left for
+Liverpool, and on the twenty-second of June cast anchor in the Mersey.
+Here she attracted as much attention as in the Thames, being crowded
+with visitors during the week; and on Sundays, when none were received
+on board, the river-boats sought to gratify public curiosity by sailing
+round her. The officers of the ship were objects of constant
+hospitality, both from private citizens and from the public authorities.
+The Mayor of Liverpool gave them a dinner, the Chamber of Commerce
+another, while the Americans in Liverpool entertained them on the fourth
+of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>July&mdash;the first public celebration of our national anniversary ever
+had in that city.</p>
+
+<p>But while these festivities were kept up on shore, hard work was done on
+board the ship. To coil thirteen hundred miles of cable was an immense
+undertaking. Yet it was all done by the sailors themselves. No
+compulsion was used, and none was needed. No sooner was there a call for
+volunteers, than men stepped forward in greater numbers than could be
+employed. Out of these were chosen one hundred and twenty stalwart
+fellows, who were divided into two gangs of sixty men, and each gang
+into watches of thirty, which relieved each other, and all went to work
+with such enthusiasm, that in three weeks the herculean task was
+completed. The event was celebrated by a final dinner given by the
+shareholders of the Atlantic Telegraph Company in Liverpool to Captain
+Hudson and Captain Sands of the Susquehanna, whose arrival in the Mersey
+enabled them to extend their hospitalities to the officers of both
+ships.</p>
+
+<p>While the Niagara was thus doing her part, the same scene was repeated
+on board the Agamemnon, which was still lying in the Thames. There the
+work was completed about the same day, and the occasion duly honored by
+a scene as unique as it was beautiful. Says the London Times of July
+twenty-fourth:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"All the details connected with the manufacture and stowage of
+the cable are now completed, and the conclusion <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>of the arduous
+labor was celebrated yesterday with high festivity and
+rejoicing. All the artisans who have been engaged upon the
+great work, with their wives and families, a large party of the
+officers, with the sailors from the Agamemnon, and a number of
+distinguished scientific visitors, were entertained upon this
+occasion at a kind of <i>fête champêtre</i> at Belvidere House, the
+seat of Sir Culling Eardley, near Erith. The festival was held
+in the beautiful park which had been obligingly opened by Sir
+Culling Eardley for the purpose. Although in no way personally
+interested in the project, the honorable baronet has all along
+evinced the liveliest sympathy with the undertaking, and
+himself proposed to have the completion of the work celebrated
+in his picturesque grounds. The manufacturers, fired with
+generous emulation, erected spacious tents on the lawn, and
+provided a magnificent banquet for the guests, and a
+substantial one for the sailors of the Agamemnon and the
+artificers who had been employed in the construction of the
+cable. By an admirable arrangement, the guests were
+accommodated at a vast semi-circular table, which ran round the
+whole pavilion, while the sailors and workmen sat at a number
+of long tables arranged at right angles with the chord, so that
+the general effect was that all dined together, while at the
+same time sufficient distinction was preserved to satisfy the
+most fastidious. The three centre tables were occupied by the
+crew of the Agamemnon, a fine, active body of young men, who
+paid the greatest attention to the speeches, and drank all the
+toasts with an admirable punctuality, at least so long as their
+three pints of beer per man lasted; but we regret to add that,
+what with the heat of the day and the enthusiasm of Jack in the
+cause of science, the mugs were all empty long before the
+chairman's list of toasts <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>had been gone through. Next in
+interest to the sailors were the workmen and their wives and
+babies, all being permitted to assist at the great occasion.
+The latter, it is true, sometimes squalled at an affecting
+peroration, but that rather improved the effect than otherwise,
+and the presence of these little ones only marked the genuine
+good feeling of the employers, who had thus invited not only
+their workmen, but their workmen's families to the feast. It
+was a momentary return to the old patriarchal times, and every
+one present seemed delighted with the experiment." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Speeches were made by Sir Culling Eardley, by Mr. Cardwell, of the House
+of Commons, Mr. Brooking, one of the Directors, by Professor Morse, and
+others. Mr. Field read a letter from President Buchanan, saying that he
+should feel honored if the first message should be one from Queen
+Victoria to himself, and that he "would endeavor to answer it in a
+spirit and manner becoming a great occasion."</p>
+
+<p>Thus, labor and feasting being ended, the Niagara and the Susquehanna
+left Liverpool the latter part of July and steamed down St. George's
+Channel to Queenstown, which was to be the rendezvous of the telegraphic
+squadron, where they were joined by the Agamemnon and the Leopard, which
+was to be her consort. The former, as she entered the harbor, came to
+anchor about a third of a mile from the Niagara. The presence of the two
+ships which had the cable on board, gave an opportunity which the
+electricians had desired to test its integrity. Accordingly one end of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>each cable was carried to the opposite ship, and so joined as to form a
+continuous length of twenty-five hundred miles, both ends of which were
+on board the Agamemnon. One end was then connected with the apparatus
+for transmitting the electric current, and on a sensitive galvanometer
+being attached to the other end, the whole cable was tested from end to
+end, and found to be perfect. These experiments were continued for two
+days with the same result. This inspired fresh hopes for the success of
+the expedition, and in high spirits they bore away for the harbor of
+Valentia.</p>
+
+<p>It had been for some time a matter of discussion, where they should
+begin to lay the cable, whether from the coast of Ireland, or in
+mid-ocean, the two ships making the junction there, and dropping it to
+the bottom of the sea, and then parting, one to the east and the other
+to the west, till they landed their ends on the opposite shores of the
+Atlantic. This was the plan adopted the following year, and which
+finally proved successful. It was the one preferred by the engineers
+now, but the electricians favored the other course, and their counsel
+prevailed. It was therefore decided to submerge the whole cable in a
+continuous line from Valentia Bay to Newfoundland. The Niagara was to
+lay the first half from Ireland to the middle of the Atlantic; the end
+would then be joined to the other half on board the Agamemnon, which
+would take it on to the coast of Newfoundland. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>During the whole process
+the four vessels were to remain together and give whatever assistance
+was required. While it was being laid down, messages were to be sent
+back to Valentia, reporting each day of progress.</p>
+
+<p>As might be supposed, the mustering of such a fleet of ships, and the
+busy note of preparation which had been heard for weeks, produced a
+great sensation in this remote part of Ireland. The people from far and
+near, gathered on the hills and looked on in silent wonder.</p>
+
+<p>To add to the dignity of the occasion, the Lord Lieutenant came down
+from Dublin to witness the departure of the expedition. No one could
+have been better fitted to represent his own country, and to command
+audience from ours. The Earl of Carlisle&mdash;better known among us as Lord
+Morpeth&mdash;had travelled in the United States a few years before, and
+shown himself one of the most intelligent and liberal foreigners that
+have visited America. No representative of England could on that day
+have stood upon the shores of Ireland, and stretched out his hand to his
+kindred beyond the sea with more assurance that his greeting would be
+warmly responded to. And never did one speak more aptly words of wisdom
+and of peace. We read them still with admiration for their beauty and
+their eloquence, and with an interest more tender but more sad, that
+this great and good man&mdash;the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>true friend of his own country and of
+ours&mdash;has gone to his grave. To quote his own words is the best tribute
+to his memory, and will do more than any eulogy to keep it fresh and
+green in the hearts of Americans. On his arrival at Valentia, he was
+entertained by the Knight of Kerry at one of those public breakfasts so
+much in fashion in England, at which in response to a toast in his
+honor, after making his personal acknowledgments, he said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I believe, as your worthy chairman has already hinted, that I
+am probably the first Lieutenant of Ireland who ever appeared
+upon this lovely strand. At all events, no Lord Lieutenant
+could have come amongst you on an occasion like the present.
+Amidst all the pride and the stirring hopes which cluster
+around the work of this week, we ought still to remember that
+we must speak with the modesty of those who begin and not of
+those who close an experiment, and it behooves us to remember
+that the pathway to great achievements has frequently to be
+hewn out amidst risks and difficulties, and that preliminary
+failure is even the law and condition of the ultimate success.
+Therefore, whatever disappointments may possibly be in store, I
+must yet insinuate to you that in a cause like this it would be
+criminal to feel discouragement. In the very design and
+endeavor to establish the Atlantic Telegraph there is almost
+enough of glory. It is true if it be only an attempt there
+would not be quite enough of profit. I hope that will come,
+too; but there is enough of public spirit, of love for science,
+for our country, for the human race, almost to suffice in
+themselves. However, upon this rocky frontlet of Ireland, at
+all events, to-day <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>we will presume upon success. We are about,
+either by this sundown or by to-morrow's dawn, to establish a
+new material link between the Old World and the New. Moral
+links there have been&mdash;links of race, links of commerce, links
+of friendship, links of literature, links of glory; but this,
+our new link, instead of superseding and supplanting the old
+ones, is to give a life and an intensity which they never had
+before. Highly as I value the reputations of those who have
+conceived, and those who have contributed to carry out this
+bright design&mdash;and I wish that so many of them had not been
+unavoidably prevented from being amongst us at this
+moment<a name="FNanchor_A_14" id="FNanchor_A_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_14" class="fnanchor">[A]</a>&mdash;highly as I estimate their reputation, yet I do not
+compliment them with the idea that they are to efface or dim
+the glory of that Columbus, who, when the large vessels in the
+harbor of Cork yesterday weighed their anchors, did so on that
+very day three hundred and sixty-five years ago&mdash;it would have
+been called in Hebrew writ a year of years&mdash;and set sail upon
+his glorious enterprise of discovery. They, I say, will not dim
+or efface his glory, but they are now giving the last finish
+and consummation to his work. Hitherto the inhabitants of the
+two worlds have associated perhaps in the chilling atmosphere
+of distance with each other&mdash;a sort of bowing distance; but now
+we can be hand to hand, grasp to grasp, pulse to pulse. The
+link, which is now to connect us, like the insect in the
+immortal couplet of our poet: </p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">While exquisitely fine,</span><br />
+Feels at each thread and lives along the line.
+</p>
+
+<p>And we may feel, gentlemen of Ireland, of England, and of
+America, that we may take our stand here upon the extreme
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>rocky edge of our beloved Ireland; we may, as it were, leave
+in our rear behind us the wars, the strifes, and the bloodshed
+of the elder Europe, and of the elder Asia; and we may pledge
+ourselves, weak as our agency may be, imperfect as our powers
+may be, inadequate in strict diplomatic form as our credentials
+may be, yet, in the face of the unparalleled circumstances, of
+the place and the hour, in the immediate neighborhood of the
+mighty vessels whose appearance may be beautiful upon the
+waters, even as are the feet upon the mountains of those who
+preach the Gospel of peace&mdash;as an homage due to that serene
+science which often affords higher and holier lessons of
+harmony and good will than the wayward passions of man are
+always apt to learn&mdash;in the face and in the strength of such
+circumstances, let us pledge ourselves to eternal peace between
+the Old World and the New." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>While these greetings were exchanged on shore, only the smaller vessels
+of the squadron had arrived. But in a few hours the great hulls of the
+Niagara and the Agamemnon, followed by the Leopard and the Susquehanna,
+were seen in the horizon, and soon they all cast anchor in the bay. As
+the sun went down in the west, shining still on the other hemisphere
+which they were going to seek, its last rays fell on an expedition more
+suggestive and hopeful than any since that of Columbus from the shores
+of Spain, and upon navigators not unworthy to be his followers.</p>
+
+<p>The whole squadron was now assembled, and made gallant array. There were
+present in the little harbor <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>of Valentia seven ships&mdash;the stately
+Niagara, which was to lay the half of the cable from Ireland, and her
+consort, the Susquehanna, riding by her side; while floating the flag of
+England, were the Agamemnon, which was appointed to lay the cable on the
+American side, and her consort, the Leopard. Beside these high-decked
+ships of war, the steamer Advice had come round to give, not merely
+advice but lusty help in landing the cable at Valentia; and the little
+steamer Willing Mind, with a zeal worthy of her name, was flying back
+and forth between ship and shore, lending a hand wherever there was work
+to be done; and the Cyclops, under the experienced command of Captain
+Dayman, who had made the deep-sea soundings across the Atlantic only the
+month before, here joined the squadron to lead the way across the deep.
+This made five English ships, with but two American; but to keep up our
+part, there were two more steamers on the other side of the sea, the
+Arctic, under Lieutenant Berryman, and the Company's steamer Victoria,
+to watch for the coming of the fleet off the coast of Newfoundland, and
+help in landing the cable on the shores of the New World.</p>
+
+<p>It was now Tuesday evening, the fourth of August, too late to undertake
+the landing that night, but preparations were at once begun for it the
+next morning. Said the correspondent of the Liverpool Post:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>"The ships were visited in the course of the evening by the
+Directors and others interested in the great undertaking, and
+arrangements were immediately commenced on board the Niagara
+for paying out the shore rope for conveyance to the mainland.
+These arrangements were fully perfected by Wednesday morning;
+but for some hours the state of the weather rendered it
+doubtful whether operations could be safely proceeded with.
+Toward the afternoon the breeze calmed down, and at two o'clock
+it was decided that an effort should be made to land the cable
+at once. The process of uncoiling into the small boats
+commenced at half-past two, and the scene at this period was
+grand and exciting in the highest degree.</p>
+
+<p>"Valentia Bay was studded with innumerable small craft, decked
+with the gayest bunting&mdash;small boats flitted hither and
+thither, their occupants cheering enthusiastically as the work
+successfully progressed. The cable-boats were managed by the
+sailors of the Niagara and Susquehanna, and it was a
+well-designed compliment, and indicative of the future
+fraternization of the nations, that the shore rope was arranged
+to be presented at this side the Atlantic to the representative
+of the Queen, by the officers and men of the United States
+navy, and that at the other side the British officers and
+sailors should make a similar presentation to the President of
+the Great Republic.</p>
+
+<p>"From the main land the operations were watched with intense
+interest. For several hours the Lord Lieutenant stood on the
+beach, surrounded by his staff and the directors of the railway
+and telegraph companies, waiting the arrival of the cable, and
+when at length the American sailors jumped through the surge
+with the hawser to which it was attached, his Excellency was
+among the first to lay hold of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>it and pull it lustily to the
+shore. Indeed every one present seemed desirous of having a
+hand in the great work; and never before perhaps were there so
+many willing assistants, at 'the long pull, the strong pull,
+and the pull all together.'</p>
+
+<p>"At half-past seven o'clock the cable was hauled on shore, and
+formal presentation was made of it to the Lord Lieutenant by
+Captain Pennock, of the Niagara; his Excellency expressing a
+hope that the work so well begun would be carried to a
+satisfactory completion." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The wire having been secured to a house on the beach, the Reverend Mr.
+Day, of Kenmore, advanced and offered the following prayer:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"O Eternal Lord God, who alone spreadest out the heavens, and
+rulest the raging of the sea; who hast compassed the water with
+bounds, till day and night come to an end; and whom the winds
+and the sea obey; look down in mercy, we beseech thee, upon us
+thy servants, who now approach the throne of grace; and let our
+prayer ascend before thee with acceptance. Thou hast commanded
+and encouraged us, in all our ways, to acknowledge thee, and to
+commit our works to thee; and thou hast graciously promised to
+direct our paths, and to prosper our handiwork. We desire now
+to look up to thee; and believing that without thy help and
+blessing, nothing can prosper or succeed, we humbly commit this
+work, and all who are engaged in it, to thy care and guidance.
+Let it please thee to grant to us thy servants wisdom and
+power, to complete what we have been led by thy Providence to
+undertake; that being begun and carried on in the spirit of
+prayer, and in dependence upon thee, it may tend to thy glory:
+and to the good of all nations, by promoting the increase of
+unity, peace, and concord.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p><p>"Overrule, we pray thee, every obstacle, and remove every
+difficulty which would prevent us from succeeding in this
+important undertaking. Control the winds and the sea by thy
+Almighty power, and grant us such favorable weather that we may
+be enabled to lay the Cable safely and effectually. And may thy
+hand of power and mercy be so acknowledged by all, that the
+language of every heart may be, 'Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
+us, but unto thy name give glory,' that so thy name may be
+hallowed and magnified in us and by us.</p>
+
+<p>"Finally, we beseech thee to implant within us a spirit of
+humility and childlike dependence upon thee; and teach us to
+feel as well as to say, 'If the Lord will, we shall do this or
+that.'</p>
+
+<p>"Hear us, O Lord, and answer us in these our petitions,
+according to thy precious promise, for Jesus Christ's sake.
+Amen." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The Lord Lieutenant then spoke once more&mdash;words that amid such a scene
+and at such an hour, sank into all hearts:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"My American, English, and Irish friends, I feel at such a
+moment as this that no language of mine can be becoming except
+that of prayer and praise. However, it is allowable to any
+human lips, though they have not been specially qualified for
+the office, to raise the ascription of 'Glory to God in the
+highest; on earth peace, good-will to men.' That, I believe, is
+the spirit in which this great work has been undertaken; and it
+is this reflection that encourages me to feel confident hopes
+in its final success. I believe that the great work now so
+happily begun will accomplish many great and noble purposes of
+trade, of national policy, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>and of empire. But there is only
+one view in which I will present it to those whom I have the
+pleasure to address. You are aware&mdash;you must know, some of you,
+from your own experience&mdash;that many of your dear friends and
+near relatives have left their native land to receive
+hospitable shelter in America. Well, then, I do not expect that
+all of you can understand the wondrous mechanism by which this
+great undertaking is to be carried on. But this, I think, you
+all of you understand. If you wished to communicate some piece
+of intelligence straightway to your relatives across the wide
+world of waters&mdash;if you wished to tell those whom you know it
+would interest in their heart of hearts, of a birth, or a
+marriage, or, alas, a death, among you, the little cord, which
+we have now hauled up to the shore, will impart that tidings
+quicker than the flash of the lightning. Let us indeed hope,
+let us pray that the hopes of those who have set on foot this
+great design, may be rewarded by its entire success; and let us
+hope, further, that this Atlantic Cable will, in all future
+time, serve as an emblem of that strong cord of love which I
+trust will always unite the British islands to the great
+continent of America. And you will join me in my fervent wish
+that the Giver of all good, who has enabled some of his
+servants to discern so much of the working of the mighty laws
+by which he fills the universe, will further so bless this
+wonderful work, as to make it even more to serve the high
+purpose of the good of man, and tend to his great glory. And
+now, all my friends, as there can be no project or undertaking
+which ought not to receive the approbation and applause of the
+people, will you join with me in giving three hearty cheers for
+it? [Loud cheering.] Three cheers are not enough for me&mdash;they
+are what we give on common occasions&mdash;and as it is for the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>success of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable, I must have at least
+one dozen cheers. [Loud and protracted cheering.]" </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Mr. Brooking, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Atlantic
+Telegraph Company, then expressed the thanks which all felt to the Lord
+Lieutenant for his presence on that occasion.</p>
+
+<p>Then there were loud calls for Mr. Field. He could only answer:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I have no words to express the feelings which fill my heart
+to-night&mdash;it beats with love and affection for every man, woman
+and child who hears me. I may say, however, that, if ever at
+the other side of the waters now before us, any one of you
+shall present himself at my door and say that he took hand or
+part, even by an approving smile, in our work here to-day, he
+shall have a true American welcome. I cannot bind myself to
+more, and shall merely say: 'What God has joined together, let
+not man put asunder.'" </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Thus closed this most interesting scene. The Lord Lieutenant was obliged
+to return at once to the capital. He therefore left, and posted that
+night to Killarney, and the next day returned by special train to
+Dublin, leaving the ships to complete the work so happily begun.</p>
+
+<p>The landing of the cable took place on Wednesday, the fifth of August,
+near the hour of sunset. As it was too late to proceed that evening, the
+ships remained at anchor till the morning. They got under weigh at an
+early hour, but were soon checked by an accident <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>which detained them
+another day. Before they had gone five miles, the heavy shore end of the
+cable caught in the machinery and parted. The Niagara put back, and the
+cable was "underrun" the whole distance. At length the end was lifted
+out of the water and spliced to the gigantic coil, and as it dropped
+safely to the bottom of the sea, the mighty ship began to stir. At first
+she moved very slowly, not more than two miles an hour, to avoid the
+danger of accident; but the feeling that they were at last away was
+itself a relief. The ships were all in sight, and so near that they
+could hear each other's bells. The Niagara, as if knowing that she was
+bound for the land out of whose forests she came, bowed her head to the
+waves, as her prow was turned toward her native shores.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly passed the hours of that day. But all went well, and the ships
+were moving out into the broad Atlantic. At length the sun went down in
+the west, and stars came out on the face of the deep. But no man slept.
+A thousand eyes were watching a great experiment as those who have a
+personal interest in the issue. All through that night, and through the
+anxious days and nights that followed, there was a feeling in every soul
+on board, as if some dear friend were at the turning-point of life or
+death, and they were watching beside him. There was a strange, unnatural
+silence in the ship. Men paced the deck with soft and muffled tread,
+speaking only in whispers, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>as if a loud voice or a heavy footfall might
+snap the vital cord. So much had they grown to feel for the enterprise,
+that the cable seemed to them like a human creature, on whose fate they
+hung, as if it were to decide their own destiny.</p>
+
+<p>There are some who will never forget that first night at sea. Perhaps
+the reaction from the excitement on shore made the impression the
+deeper. There are moments in life when every thing comes back upon us.
+What memories came up in those long night hours! How many on board that
+ship, as they stood on the deck and watched that mysterious cord
+disappearing in the darkness, thought of homes beyond the sea, of absent
+ones, of the distant and the dead!</p>
+
+<p>But no musings turn them from the work in hand. There are vigilant eyes
+on deck. Mr. Bright, the engineer of the Company, is there, and Mr.
+Everett, Mr. De Sauty, the electrician, and Professor Morse. The
+paying-out machinery does its work, and though it makes a constant
+rumble in the ship, that dull, heavy sound is music to their ears, as it
+tells them that all is well. If one should drop to sleep, and wake up at
+night, he has only to hear the sound of "the old coffee-mill," and his
+fears are relieved, and he goes to sleep again.</p>
+
+<p>Saturday was a day of beautiful weather. The ships were getting farther
+away from land, and began to steam ahead at the rate of four and five
+miles an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>hour. The cable was paid out at a speed a little faster than
+that of the ship, to allow for any inequalities of surface on the bottom
+of the sea. While it was thus going overboard, communication was kept up
+constantly with the land. Every moment the current was passing between
+ship and shore. The communication was as perfect as between Liverpool
+and London, or Boston and New York. Not only did the electricians
+telegraph back to Valentia the progress they were making, but the
+officers on board sent messages to their friends in America, to go out
+by the steamers from Liverpool. The heavens seemed to smile on them that
+day. The coils came up from below the deck without a kink, and unwinding
+themselves easily, passed over the stern into the sea. Once or twice an
+alarm was created by the cable being thrown off the wheels. This was
+owing to the sheaves not being wide enough and deep enough, and being
+filled with tar, which hardened in the air. This was a great defect of
+the machinery which was remedied in the later expeditions. Still it
+worked well, and so long as those terrible brakes kept off their iron
+gripe, it might work through to the end.</p>
+
+<p>All day Sunday the same favoring fortune continued; and when the
+officers, who could be spared from the deck, met in the cabin, and
+Captain Hudson read the service, it was with subdued voices and grateful
+hearts they responded to the prayers to Him who <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>spreadeth out the
+heavens, and ruleth the raging of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday they were over two hundred miles at sea. They had got far
+beyond the shallow waters off the coast. They had passed over the
+submarine mountain which figures on the charts of Dayman and Berryman,
+and where Mr. Bright's log gives a descent from five hundred and fifty
+to seventeen hundred and fifty fathoms within eight miles! Then they
+came to the deeper waters of the Atlantic, where the cable sank to the
+awful depth of two thousand fathoms. Still the iron cord buried itself
+in the waves, and every instant the flash of light in the darkened
+telegraph room told of the passage of the electric current.</p>
+
+<p>But Monday evening, about nine o'clock, occurred a mysterious
+interruption, which staggered all on board. Suddenly the electrical
+continuity was lost. The cable was not broken, but it ceased to work.
+Here was a mystery. De Sauty tried it, and Professor Morse tried it. But
+neither could make it work. It seemed that all was over. The
+electricians gave it up, and the engineers were preparing to cut the
+cable, and to endeavor to wind it in, when suddenly <i>the electricity
+came back again</i>. This made the mystery greater than ever. It had been
+interrupted for two hours and a half. This was a phenomenon which has
+never been explained. Professor Morse was of opinion that the cable, in
+getting off the wheels, had been strained so <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>as to open the
+gutta-percha, and thus destroy the insulation. If this be the true
+explanation, it would seem that on reaching the bottom the seam had
+closed, and thus the continuity had been restored. But it was certainly
+an untoward incident, which "cast ominous conjecture on the whole
+success," as it seemed to indicate that there were at the bottom of the
+sea causes which were wholly unknown and against which it was impossible
+to provide.</p>
+
+<p>The return of the current was like life from the dead. Says Mullaly:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The glad news was soon circulated throughout the ship, and all
+felt as if they had a new life. A rough, weather-beaten old
+sailor, who had assisted in coiling many a long mile of it on
+board the Niagara, and who was among the first to run to the
+telegraph office to have the news confirmed, said he would have
+given fifty dollars out of his pay to have saved that cable. 'I
+have watched nearly every mile of it,' he added, 'as it came
+over the side, and I would have given fifty dollars, poor as I
+am, to have saved it, although I don't expect to make any thing
+by it when it is laid down.' In his own simple way he expressed
+the feelings of every one on board, for all are as much
+interested in the success of the enterprise as the largest
+shareholder in the Company. They talked of the cable as they
+would of a pet child, and never was child treated with deeper
+solicitude than that with which the cable is watched by them.
+You could see the tears standing in the eyes of some as they
+almost cried for joy, and told their messmates that it was all
+right." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p><p>It was indeed a great relief; and though still anxious, after watching
+till past midnight, a few crept to their couches, to snatch an hour or
+two of broken sleep. But before the morning broke, the hopes thus
+revived were again and finally destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>The cable was running out freely at the rate of six miles an hour, while
+the ship was advancing but about four. This was supposed to be owing to
+a powerful under-current. To check this waste, the engineer applied the
+brakes firmly, which at once stopped the machine. The effect was to
+bring a heavy strain on the cable that was in the water. The stern of
+the ship was down in the trough of the sea, and as it rose upward on the
+swell, the tension was too great, and the cable parted.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly ran through the ship a cry of grief and dismay. She was
+stopped in her onward path, and in a few minutes all gathered on deck
+with feelings which may be imagined. One who was present wrote: "The
+unbidden tear started to many a manly eye. The interest taken in the
+enterprise by all, every one, officers and men, exceeded any thing I
+ever saw, and there is no wonder that there should have been so much
+emotion at our failure." Captain Hudson says: "It made all hands of us
+through the day like a household or family which had lost their dearest
+friend, for officers and men had been deeply interested in the success
+of the enterprise."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p><p>There was nothing left but to return to England. The position is very
+clearly stated by Mr. Field in a letter to one of his family, which
+shows how his own courage survived the great disaster:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">H. M. Steamer Leopard</span>,<br />
+Thursday, August 13, 1857.
+</p>
+
+<p>"The successful laying down of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable is
+put off for a short time, but its final triumph has been fully
+proved, by the experience that we have had since we left
+Valentia. My confidence was never so strong as at the present
+time, and I feel sure, that with God's blessing, we shall
+connect Europe and America with the electric cord.</p>
+
+<p>"After having successfully laid&mdash;and part of the time while a
+heavy sea was running&mdash;three hundred and thirty-five miles of
+the cable, and over one hundred miles of it in water more than
+two miles in depth, the brakes were applied more firmly, by
+order of Mr. Bright, the engineer, to prevent the cable from
+going out so fast, and it parted.</p>
+
+<p>"I retired to my state-room at a little after midnight Monday,
+all going on well, and at a quarter before four o'clock on
+Tuesday morning, the eleventh instant, I was awoke from my
+sleep by the cry of 'Stop her, back her!' and in a moment Mr.
+Bright was in my room, with the sad intelligence that the cable
+was broken. In as short a time as possible I was dressed, and
+on deck; and Captain Hudson at once signaled the other steamers
+that the cable had parted, and in a few moments Captain
+Wainwright, of the Leopard, and Captain Sands, of the
+Susquehanna, were on board of the Niagara.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p><p>"I requested Captain Wainwright, the commander of the English
+Telegraph Fleet, to order the Agamemnon to remain with the
+Niagara and Susquehanna, in this deep part of the Atlantic for
+a few days, to try certain experiments which will be of great
+value to us, and then sail with them back to England, and all
+wait at Plymouth until further orders. I further requested
+Captain Wainwright to order the Cyclops to sound here where the
+cable parted, and then steam back to Valentia, with letters
+from me to Dr. Whitehouse, and Mr. Saward, the secretary of the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company; and that he should take me in the
+Leopard as soon as possible to Portsmouth.</p>
+
+<p>"All of my requests were cheerfully complied with, and in a few
+hours the Cyclops had sounded, and found the bottom at two
+thousand fathoms, and was on her way back to Valentia with
+letters from me; the Niagara and the Agamemnon were connected
+together by the cable, and engaged in trying experiments; the
+Susquehanna in attendance, and the Leopard, with your
+affectionate &mdash;&mdash; on board, on her way back to England.</p>
+
+<p>"In my letter to Dr. Whitehouse I requested him to telegraph to
+London, and have a special meeting of the Directors called for
+twelve o'clock on Saturday, to decide whether we should have
+more cable made at once, and try again this season, or wait
+until next year.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall close this letter on board, so as to have it ready to
+mail the moment we arrive at Portsmouth, as I wish to leave by
+the very next train for London, so as to be there in time to
+meet the Directors Saturday noon, and read them my report,
+which I am busy making up.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not think that I feel discouraged, or am in low spirits,
+for I am not; and I think I can see how this accident <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>will be
+of great advantage to the Atlantic Telegraph Company.</p>
+
+<p>"All the officers and men on board of the Telegraph Fleet, seem
+to take the greatest interest in our enterprise, and are very
+desirous to go out in the ships the next time.</p>
+
+<p>"Since my arrival, I have received the greatest kindness and
+attention from all whom I have met, from the Lord Lieutenant of
+Ireland, down to the cabin-boys and sailors. The inclosed
+letter from the Knight of Kerry, I received with a basket of
+hothouse fruit, just as we were getting ready to leave Valentia
+harbor. </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+Your &mdash;&mdash;<br />
+"<span class="smcap">Cyrus W. Field</span>."
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The day that this was written, Mr. Field landed at Portsmouth, and at
+once hastened to London to meet the Directors. At first it was a
+question if they should renew the expedition this year. But their brief
+experience had shown the need of more ample preparations for their next
+attempt. They required six hundred miles more of cable to make up for
+over three hundred lost in the sea, and to provide a surplus so as to
+run no risk of falling short from other accidents; and most of all they
+needed better machinery to pay out the cable into the ocean. These
+preparations required time, and before they could be made, it would be
+late in the autumn. Hence they reluctantly decided to defer the
+expedition till another year. The Niagara and the Agamemnon therefore
+discharged their cable at Plymouth, whence the Niagara returned home;
+and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>Mr. Field, after remaining a few weeks in London to complete the
+preparations for the next year, sailed for America.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to find that a commercial hurricane had swept over the
+country, in which a thousand stately fortunes had gone down, and in
+which the wealth he had accumulated by years of toil had nearly suffered
+shipwreck. Such were the tidings that met him on landing. It had been a
+year of disappointments in England and America&mdash;of disasters on land and
+sea&mdash;and all his high hopes were</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_14" id="Footnote_A_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_14"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Mr. Field was detained by illness at Valentia, and several
+of the ships had not arrived.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
+
+THE FIRST EXPEDITION OF 1858.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The expedition of 1857 was little more than an experiment on a grand
+scale. As such it had its use; but its abrupt ending within three
+hundred miles of the Irish coast was a severe shock to public
+confidence. Up to that time the enterprise had been accepted by the
+people of England and of America, almost without considering its
+magnitude and difficulty. They had taken it for granted as a thing which
+must some day be accomplished by human skill and perseverance. But now
+it had been tried and failed. This first expedition opened their eyes to
+the vastness of the undertaking, and led many to doubt who did not doubt
+before. Some even began to look upon it as a romantic adventure of the
+sea, rather than a serious undertaking. This decline of popular faith
+was felt as soon as there was a call for more money. Men reasoned that
+if the former attempt was but an experiment, it was rather a costly one.
+The loss of three hundred and thirty-five miles of cable, with the
+postponement of the expedition to another year, was equivalent to a loss
+of a hundred thousand pounds. To make this good, the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>Directors had to
+enlarge the capital of the Company. This new capital was not so readily
+obtained. Those who had subscribed before, thought they had lost enough;
+and the public stood aloof till they could see the result of the next
+experiment. The projectors found that it was easy to go with the current
+of popular enthusiasm, but very hard to stem a growing popular distrust.
+They found how great an element of success in all public enterprises is
+public confidence.</p>
+
+<p>But against this very revulsion of feeling they had been already warned.
+The Earl of Carlisle the year before had cautioned them against being
+too sanguine of immediate results, and reminded them that "preliminary
+failure was even the law and condition of ultimate success." There were
+many who now remembered his words, and on whom the lesson was not lost.</p>
+
+<p>But whatever the depression at the failure of the first attempt to lay a
+telegraph across the ocean, and at the thick-coming disasters on land
+and sea, it did not interfere with renewed and vigorous efforts to
+prepare for a second expedition. The Directors gave orders for the
+manufacture of seven hundred miles of new cable, to make up for the loss
+of the previous year, and to provide a surplus against all
+contingencies. And the Government promised again its powerful aid.</p>
+
+<p>In America, Mr. Field went to Washington to ask a second time the use of
+the ships, which had already <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>represented the country so well. He made
+also a special request for the services of Mr. William E. Everett. This
+gentleman had been the chief-engineer of the Niagara the year before. He
+had watched closely the paying-out machine, as it was put together on
+the deck, and as it worked on the voyage, and with the eye of a
+practised mechanic, he saw that it required great alterations. It was
+too cumbrous, had too many wheels, and especially its brakes shut down
+with a gripe that would snap the strongest chain cable.<a name="FNanchor_A_15" id="FNanchor_A_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_15" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> Mr. Field saw
+that this was the man to remedy the defects of the old machine, and to
+make one that would work more smoothly. He therefore applied especially
+for his services. To the credit of the administration, it granted both
+requests in the most handsome manner. "There," said the Secretary of the
+Navy, handing Mr. Field the official letter, "I have given you all you
+asked."</p>
+
+<p>After such an answer he did not wait long. The letter is dated the
+thirtieth of December, and in just one week, on the sixth of January, he
+sailed in the Persia for England with Mr. Everett. Scarcely had <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>he
+arrived in London before he was made the General Manager of the Company,
+with control of the entire staff, including electricians and engineers.
+The following extract from the minutes of the Board of Directors, dated
+January 27, 1858, explains the new position to which he was invited:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The Directors having for several months felt that it would
+greatly advance the interests of this enterprise, if Mr. Cyrus
+W. Field, of New York, could be induced to come over to
+England, for the purpose of undertaking the general management
+and supervision of all the various arrangements that would be
+required to be carried out before the sailing of the next
+expedition; application was made to Mr. Field, with the view of
+securing his consent to the proposal, and he arrived in this
+country on the sixteenth instant, when it was ascertained that
+he would be willing, if unanimously desired by the Directors,
+to act in behalf of the Company as proposed; and Mr. Field
+having retired, it was unanimously resolved to tender him, in
+respect to such services, the sum of £1000 over and above his
+travelling and other expenses, as remuneration." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This resolution was at once communicated to Mr. Field, who replied that
+he would undertake the duties of General Manager, but declined the offer
+of £1000, preferring to give his services to the Company without
+compensation. Whereupon the Directors immediately passed another
+resolution:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"That Mr. Field's kind and generous offer be accepted by this
+Board; and that their best thanks are hereby tendered <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>to him
+for his devotion to the interests of the undertaking." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The following, passed a few weeks later, March 26, was designed to
+emphasize the authority given over all the employés of the Company:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<i>Resolved</i>, That Mr. Cyrus W. Field, General Manager of the
+Company, is hereby authorized and empowered to give such
+directions and orders to the officers composing the staff of
+the Company, as he may from time to time deem necessary and
+expedient with regard to all matters connected with the
+business proceedings of the Company, subject to the control of
+the Directors.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Resolved</i>, That the staff of the Company be notified hereof,
+and required to observe and follow such directions as may be
+issued by the General Manager." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As Mr. Field was thus invested with the entire charge of the
+preparations for the next expedition, he was made responsible for it,
+and felt it due alike to himself and to the Company to omit no means to
+insure success. It was therefore his duty to examine into every detail.
+The manufacture of the new cable was already under way, and there was no
+opportunity to make any change in its construction, even if any had been
+desired. But there was another matter which was quite as important to
+success&mdash;the construction of the paying-out machines. This had been the
+great defect of the previous year, and, while it continued, would render
+success almost impossible. No matter <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>how many hundreds or thousands of
+miles of cable might be made, if the machinery was not fitted to pay it
+out into the sea, it would be constantly broken. To remedy these defects
+was an object of anxious solicitude, and to this the new manager gave
+his first attention. Hardly was he in London before Mr. Everett was
+installed at the large machine works of Easton and Amos, in Southwark,
+where, surrounded by plans and models, he devoted himself for three
+months to studying out a better invention for this most important work.
+At the end of that time he had a model complete, and invited a number of
+the most eminent engineers of London to witness its operation. Among
+these were Mr. Brunel, and Messrs. Lloyd, Penn, and Field, who had given
+the enterprise the benefit of their counsel for months, refusing all
+compensation; Mr. Charles T. Bright, the engineer of the Company, and
+his two assistants, Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford, and Mr. Follansbee,
+the chief-engineer of the Niagara, in the place Mr. Everett had occupied
+the year before. The machine was set in motion, and all saw its
+operation, while Mr. Everett explained its parts, and the difficulties
+which he had tried to overcome. It was obvious at a glance that it was a
+great improvement on that of the former year. It was much smaller and
+lighter. It would take up only about one-third of the room on the deck,
+and had only one-fourth the weight of the old machine. Its construction
+was much more <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>simple. Instead of four heavy wheels, it had but two, and
+these were made to revolve with ease, and without danger of sudden
+check, by the application of what were known as self-releasing brakes.
+These were the invention of Mr. Appold, of London, a gentleman of
+fortune, but with a strong taste for mechanics, which led him to spend
+his time and wealth in exercising his mechanical ingenuity. These brakes
+were so adjusted as to bear only a certain strain, when they released
+themselves. This ingenious contrivance was applied by Mr. Everett to the
+paying-out machinery. The strength of the cable was such that it would
+not break except under a tension of a little over three tons. The
+machinery was so adjusted that not more than half that strain could
+possibly come upon the cable, when the brakes would relax their grasp,
+the wheels revolve easily, and the cable run out into the sea without a
+jar. The paying-out machine, therefore, we are far from claiming as
+wholly an American invention. This part of the mechanism was English.
+The merit of Mr. Everett lay in the skill with which he adapted it to
+the laying of the Atlantic cable, and in his improvements of other parts
+of the machinery. The whole construction, as it afterwards stood upon
+the decks of the Niagara and the Agamemnon, was the product of English
+and American invention combined. The engineers, who now saw it for the
+first time, were delighted. It seemed to have the intelligence of a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>human being, to know when to hold on, and when to let go. All felt that
+the great difficulty in laying the cable was removed, and that under
+this gentle manipulation it would glide easily and smoothly from the
+ship into the sea.</p>
+
+<p>While these preparations were going on in London, the Niagara, which did
+not leave New York till the ninth of March, arrived at Plymouth, under
+command of Captain Hudson, to take on board her share of the cable. Both
+ships had discharged their burden at Keyham Docks, where the precious
+freight was passed through a composition of tar and pitch and
+linseed-oil and beeswax, to preserve it from injury, and had been coiled
+under cover to be kept safely through the winter. The Agamemnon was
+already at Plymouth, having been designated by the Admiralty again to
+take part in the work, though under a new commander, Captain George W.
+Preedy, an excellent officer. The place of the Leopard was taken by the
+Gorgon, under command of Captain Dayman, who had made the deep-sea
+soundings in the Cyclops the year before.</p>
+
+<p>While the English Government was thus prompt in furnishing its ships,
+news arrived from America that the Company could not have again the
+assistance of the Susquehanna, which had accompanied the Niagara on the
+preceding expedition. She was in the West-Indies, and the yellow fever
+had broken out on board. What should be done? It was late to apply again
+to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>the American Government, and it was doubtful what would be the
+result of the application. This threatened some embarrassment. Mr. Field
+resolved the difficulty in a way which showed his confidence in the
+great and generous Government on the other side of the water, with which
+he had occasion so often to deal. Without waiting for the action of the
+Company, he called a cab, and drove straight to the Admiralty, and sent
+in his card to Sir John Pakington, then First Lord of the Admiralty.
+This gentleman, like his predecessor, Sir Charles Wood, had shown the
+most friendly interest in the Atlantic Telegraph, and given it his
+warmest support. Mr. Field was received at once, and began with true
+American eagerness: "I am ashamed to come to you, after what the English
+Government has done for us. But here is our case. We are disappointed in
+the Susquehanna. She is in the West-Indies, with the yellow fever on
+board. She cannot come to England to take part in the expedition. Can
+you do anything for us?" Sir John replied that the Government had not
+ships enough for its own use; that it was at that very moment chartering
+vessels to take troops to Malta&mdash;"but he would see what he could do." In
+an hour or two he sent word to the office of the Company, that Her
+Majesty's ship Valorous&mdash;commanded by Captain W. C. Aldham, an officer
+of great experience&mdash;had been ordered to take the place of the
+Susquehanna in the next expedition. We mention this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>little incident,
+not so much to illustrate Mr. Field's prompt and quick manner of
+deciding and acting, as to show the noble and generous spirit in which
+the English Government responded to every appeal.</p>
+
+<p>The reshipping of the cable at Plymouth occupied the whole month of
+April and part of May. Some changes were made in the mode adopted, it
+being coiled around large cones. The work was done as before, by a
+hundred and sixty men detailed for the purpose, of whom one fourth were
+the workmen of the Company, and the rest sailors who had volunteered for
+the duty. These were divided into gangs of forty, that relieved each
+other, by which the work went on day and night. In this way they coiled
+about thirty miles in the twenty-four hours. Owing to the increased
+length of cable, and the greater care in coiling, it took a longer time
+than the year before. The whole was completed about the middle of May.
+There was then in all, on board the two ships, a little over three
+thousand statute miles. This included, besides seven hundred miles of
+new cable, thirty-nine miles of that lost the year before, which had
+been recovered by the Company, and a few miles of condemned cable from
+Greenwich, which was put on board for experiments. The shipment being
+thus complete, and the paying-out machines in position, the ships were
+ready to make a trial trip, preparatory to their final departure.</p>
+
+<p>For this purpose the telegraphic squadron sailed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>from Plymouth on
+Saturday, the twenty-ninth of May, and bore southward two or three
+hundred miles, till the green color of the sea changing to a deep blue,
+showed that they had reached the great depths of the ocean. They were
+now in the waters of the Bay of Biscay, where the soundings were over
+twenty-five hundred fathoms. Here the Niagara and the Agamemnon were
+connected by a hawser, being about a quarter of a mile apart. The cable
+was then passed from one to the other, and a series of experiments
+begun, designed to test both the strength of the cable and the working
+of the machinery. Two miles of the cable were paid out, when it parted.
+This would have seemed a bad sign, had it been any other part of the
+cable than that which was known to be imperfect and had long since been
+condemned. The next day three miles were paid out. This, too, was
+broken, but only when they tried to haul it in, and under a pressure of
+several tons.</p>
+
+<p>Other experiments were tried, such as splicing the cable, and lowering
+it to the bottom of the sea&mdash;an operation which it was thought might be
+critical in mid-ocean, but which was performed without difficulty&mdash;and
+running out the cable at a rapid rate, when the speed of the ship was
+increased to seven knots, without causing the cable to break, or even to
+kink. On the whole, the result of the trip was satisfactory. The
+paying-out machine of Mr. Everett worked well, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>the electric
+continuity through the whole cable was perfect. It was on this
+expedition that was used for the first time the marine mirror
+galvanometer of Professor Thomson, by whom it had been invented for
+marine testing within the previous four weeks, and which afterwards
+proved an instrument so important to the success of ocean telegraphy.
+After these experiments the squadron returned to Plymouth.</p>
+
+<p>As it happened, the present writer had just arrived in England, and
+landing at Falmouth, hastened to Plymouth, where the ships were lying in
+the Sound. It was Saturday, the fifth of June, and the next day, by
+invitation of Captain Hudson, he conducted Divine service on the
+Niagara, where an awning was spread over the quarter-deck, round which
+were grouped the officers of the ship, behind whom were crowded four or
+five hundred seamen. If it was a pleasure in such circumstances to speak
+to one's countrymen, it was not less to be received with equal kindness
+on board the Agamemnon. To see these two mighty ships of war, with their
+consorts, lying side by side, not with guns run out, but engaged in a
+mission of peace, seemed indeed an omen of the good time coming, when
+nations shall learn war no more.</p>
+
+<p>Among the matters of personal solicitude and anxiety at this time&mdash;next
+to the success of the expedition&mdash;was Mr. Field himself. He was working
+with an activity which was unnatural&mdash;which could only be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>kept up by
+great excitement, and which involved the most serious danger. The strain
+on the man was more than the strain on the cable, and we were in fear
+that both would break together. Often he had no sleep, except such as he
+caught flying on the railway. Indeed, when we remonstrated, he said he
+could rest better there than anywhere else, for then he was not
+tormented with the thought of any thing undone. For the time being he
+could do no more; and putting his head in the cushioned corner of the
+carriage, he got an hour or two of broken sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Of this activity we had an instance while in Plymouth. The ships were
+then lying in the Sound, only waiting orders from the Admiralty to go to
+sea; but some business required one of the Directors to go to Paris, and
+as usual, it fell upon Mr. Field. He left on Sunday night and went to
+Bristol, and thence, by the first morning train, to London. Monday he
+was busy all day, and that night went to Paris. Tuesday, another busy
+day, and that night back to London. Wednesday, occupied every minute
+till the departure of the Great Western train. That night back to
+Plymouth. Thursday morning on board the Niagara, and immediately the
+squadron sailed.</p>
+
+<p>It was the tenth day of June that the expedition left England, with fair
+skies and bright prospects. In truth, it was a gallant sight, as these
+four ships stood out to sea together&mdash;those old companions, the Niagara
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>and the Agamemnon, leading the way, followed by their new attendants,
+the Valorous and the Gorgon. Never did a voyage begin with better omens.
+The day was one of the mildest of June, and the sea so still, that one
+could scarcely perceive, by the motion of the ship, when they passed
+beyond the breakwater off Plymouth harbor into the Channel, or into the
+open sea. At night, it was almost a dead calm. The second day was like
+the first. There was scarcely wind enough to swell the sails. The ships
+were all in sight, and as they kept under easy steam, they seemed bound
+on a voyage of pleasure, gliding over a summer sea to certain success.</p>
+
+<p>It had been supposed that the expedition of this year would have a great
+advantage over the last, from sailing two months earlier, at what was
+considered a more favorable season. So said all the wise men of the sea.
+They had given their opinion that June was the best month for crossing
+the Atlantic. Then they were almost sure of fair weather. The first
+three days of the voyage confirmed these predictions, and they who had
+made them, being found true prophets, shook their heads with great
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>But alas! for the vanity of human expectations, or for those who put
+trust in the treacherous sea. On Sunday it began to blow. The barometer
+fell, and all signs indicated to the eye of a seaman rough weather. From
+this time they had a succession of gales for more <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>than a week. From day
+to day it blew fiercer than before, till Sunday, the twentieth, when the
+gale was at its height, and the spirit of the storm was out on the
+Atlantic. Up to this time the Niagara and the Agamemnon (though they had
+long since parted from the Valorous and the Gorgon) had managed to keep
+in sight of each other; and now from the deck of the former the latter
+was seen a mile and a half distant, rolling heavily in the sea. The
+signals which she made showed that she was struggling with the fury of
+the gale. She was really in great danger of foundering. But this was
+owing, not merely to the severity of the gale, but to the enormous
+weight she carried, and to the way this huge bulk was stowed in the
+ship. Only a few days before we had been on board of her, and Captain
+Preedy showed us, in one coil, thirteen hundred miles of cable! This
+made a dead weight of as many hundred tons, which rendered her in rough
+weather almost unmanageable. To make the matter worse, she had another
+coil of about two hundred and fifty tons on the forward deck, where it
+made the head of the ship heavy. In her tremendous rolls, this coil
+broke loose, and threatened at a time to dash like an avalanche through
+the side of the ship. But at the most fearful moments the gallant seaman
+in command never lost his presence of mind. He was always on deck,
+watching with a vigilant eye the raging of the tempest, and issuing his
+orders with <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>coolness and prompt decision. To this admirable skill was
+due the safety of the ship, and of all on board.<a name="FNanchor_B_16" id="FNanchor_B_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_16" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p>
+
+<p>But all things have an end; and this long gale at last blew itself out,
+and the weary ocean rocked itself to rest. Toward the last of the week
+the squadron got together at the appointed rendezvous in mid-ocean. As
+the ships came in sight, the angry sea went down; and on Friday, June
+twenty-fifth, just fifteen days from Plymouth, they were all together,
+as tranquil in the middle of the Atlantic as if in Plymouth Sound. "This
+evening the four vessels lay together, side by side, and there was such
+a stillness in the sea and air, as would have seemed remarkable in an
+inland lake; on the Atlantic, and after what we had all so lately
+witnessed, it seemed almost unnatural." The boats were out, and the
+officers were passing from ship to ship, telling their experiences of
+the voyage, and forming their plans for the morrow. Captains Aldham and
+Dayman said it was the worst weather they had ever experienced in the
+North-Atlantic. But it was the Agamemnon that suffered most. The rough
+sea <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>had shaken not only the ship, but the cable in her. The upper part
+of the main coil had shifted, and become so twisted and tangled, that a
+hundred miles had to be got out and coiled in another part of the ship,
+so that it was not till the afternoon of Saturday, the twenty-sixth,
+that the splice was finally made, and the cable lowered to the bottom of
+the sea. The ships were then got under way, but had not gone three
+miles, before the cable broke, being caught in the machinery on board
+the Niagara. It was fortunate they had gone no farther. Both ships at
+once turned about and spliced again the same afternoon, and made a fresh
+start. Now all went well. The paying-out machines worked smoothly, and
+the cable ran off easily into the sea. Thus each ship had paid out about
+forty miles when suddenly the current ceased!</p>
+
+<p>Says the writer on the Agamemnon: "At half-past three o'clock [Sunday
+morning] forty miles had gone, and nothing could be more perfect and
+regular than the working of every thing, when suddenly Professor Thomson
+came on deck, and reported a total break of continuity; that the cable
+in fact had parted, and, as was believed at the time, from the Niagara.
+In another instant a gun and a blue-light warned the Valorous of what
+had happened, and roused all on board the Agamemnon to a knowledge that
+the machinery was silent, and that the first part of the Atlantic Cable
+had been laid and lost effectually." <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This was disheartening, but not so much from the fact of a fresh
+breaking of the cable, as from the mystery as to its cause. The fact, of
+course, was known instantly on both ships, but the cause was unknown.
+Those on each ship supposed it had occurred on the other. With this
+impression they turned about to beat up again toward the rendezvous. It
+was noon of Monday, the twenty-eighth, before the Agamemnon rejoined the
+Niagara; and then, says the writer:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"While all were waiting with impatience for her explanation of
+how they broke the cable, she electrified every one by running
+up the interrogatory: 'How did the cable part?' This was
+astounding. As soon as the boats could be lowered, Mr. Cyrus
+Field, with the electricians from the Niagara, came on board,
+and a comparison of logs showed the painful and mysterious fact
+that, <i>at the same second of time</i>, each vessel discovered that
+a total fracture had taken place at a distance of certainly not
+less than ten miles from each ship; in fact, as well as can be
+judged, at the bottom of the ocean. That of all the many
+mishaps connected with the Atlantic Telegraph, this is the
+worst and most disheartening is certain, since it proves that,
+after all that human skill and science can effect to lay the
+wire down with safety has been accomplished, there may be some
+fatal obstacles to success at the bottom of the ocean, which
+can never be guarded against; for even the nature of the peril
+must always remain as secret and unknown as the depths in which
+it is to be encountered." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>But it was no time for useless regrets. Once more the cable was joined
+in mid-ocean, and dropped to its <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>silent bed, and the Niagara and the
+Agamemnon began to steam away toward opposite shores of the Atlantic.
+This time the experiment succeeded better than before. The progress of
+the English ship is thus reported:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"At first, the ship's speed was only two knots, the cable going
+three and three and a half, with a strain of fifteen hundred
+pounds. By and by, however, the speed was increased to four
+knots, the cable going five, at a strain of two thousand
+pounds. At this rate it was kept, with trifling variations,
+throughout almost the whole of Monday night, and neither Mr.
+Bright, Mr. Canning, nor Mr. Clifford ever quitted the machines
+for an instant. Toward the middle of the night, while the rate
+of the ship continued the same, the speed at which the cable
+paid out slackened nearly a knot an hour, while the dynamometer
+indicated as low as thirteen hundred pounds. This change could
+only be accounted for on the supposition that the water had
+shallowed to a considerable extent, and that the vessel was, in
+fact, passing over some submarine Ben Nevis or Skiddaw. After
+an interval of about an hour, the strain and rate of progress
+of the cable again increased, while the increase of the
+vertical angle seemed to indicate that the wire was sinking
+down the side of a declivity. Beyond this, there was no
+variation throughout Monday night, or, indeed, through
+Tuesday." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>On board the Niagara was the same scene of anxious watching every hour
+of the day and night. Engineers and electricians were constantly on
+duty:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The scene at night was beautiful. Scarcely a word was spoken;
+silence was commanded, and no conversation <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>allowed. Nothing
+was heard but the strange rattling of the machine as the cable
+was running out. The lights about deck and in the quarter-deck
+circle added to the singularity of the spectacle; and those who
+were on board the ship describe the state of anxious suspense
+in which all were held as exceedingly impressive." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Warned by repeated failures, they hardly dared to hope for success in
+this last experiment. And yet the spirits of all rose, as the distance
+widened between the ships. A hundred miles were laid safely&mdash;a hundred
+and fifty&mdash;two hundred! Why might they not lay two thousand? So reasoned
+the sanguine and hopeful when, Tuesday night, came the fatal
+announcement that the electric current had ceased to flow. It afterward
+appeared that the cable had broken about twenty feet from the stern of
+the Agamemnon.</p>
+
+<p>As the cable was now useless, it only remained to cut it from the stern
+of the Niagara. Before doing this, it was thought a good opportunity to
+test its strength. For this purpose the brakes were shut down, so that
+the paying-out machine could not move. But still the cable did not
+break, although the whole weight of the Niagara hung upon that slender
+cord, and though several men got upon the brakes. Says Captain Hudson:
+"Although the wind was quite fresh, the cable held the ship for one hour
+and forty minutes before breaking, and notwithstanding a strain of four
+tons."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p><p>Though not unexpected, this last breaking of the cable was a sad blow
+to all on board. It was the end of their hopes, at least for the present
+expedition. Before separating, it had been agreed, that if the cable
+should part again before either ship had run a hundred miles, they
+should return and renew the attempt. If they had passed that limit, they
+were all to sail for Ireland. But the Niagara had run out a hundred and
+eleven miles, and knowing that the Agamemnon had done about the same,
+she expected the latter would keep on her course eastward, not stopping
+till she reached Queenstown. The Niagara, therefore, reluctantly bore
+away for the same port.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the return voyage was "any thing but gay." When soldiers come
+home from the war, they march with a proud step, if they have had a
+victorious campaign. But it is otherwise when they come with a sad tale
+of disaster and defeat. Seldom had an expedition begun with higher
+hopes, or ended in more complete failure. Who could help feeling keenly
+this fresh disappointment? Even with all the courage "that may become a
+man," heightened by a natural buoyancy of spirits, how was it possible
+to resist the impression of the facts they had just witnessed? If&mdash;as
+Lord Carlisle had told them the year before&mdash;"there was almost enough of
+glory in the very design of an Atlantic telegraph," that glory might
+still be theirs. But apparently they could hope for nothing more. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>They
+had done all that men could do. But fate seemed against them; and who
+can fight against destiny? No one can blame them if they sometimes had
+sore misgivings, and looked out sadly upon the sea that had baffled
+their utmost skill, and now laughed their efforts to scorn.</p>
+
+<p>In this mood they entered once more the harbor of Queenstown. The
+Niagara was the first to arrive and to bring tidings of the great
+disaster. The Agamemnon came in a few days after. Knowing the fatal
+impression their report was likely to produce, Mr. Field hastened to
+London to meet the Directors. It was high time. The news had reached
+there before him, and had already produced its effect. Under its
+impression the Board was called together. It met in the same room where,
+six weeks before, it had discussed the prospects of the expedition with
+full confidence of success. Now it met, as a council of war is summoned
+after a terrible defeat, to decide whether to surrender or to try once
+more the chances of battle. When the Directors came together, the
+feeling&mdash;to call it by the mildest name&mdash;was one of extreme
+discouragement. They looked blankly in each other's faces. With some,
+the feeling was one almost of despair. Sir William Brown, of Liverpool,
+the first Chairman, wrote, advising them to sell the cable. Mr.
+Brooking, the Vice-Chairman, who had given more time to it than any
+other Director, when he saw <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>that his colleagues were disposed to make
+still another trial, left the room, and the next day sent in his
+resignation, determined to take no further part in an undertaking which
+had been proved hopeless, and to persist in which seemed mere rashness
+and folly.</p>
+
+<p>But others thought there was still a chance. Like Robert Bruce, who,
+after twelve battles and twelve defeats, yet believed that a thirteenth
+<i>might</i> bring victory, they clung to this bare possibility. Mr. Field
+and Professor Thomson gave the results of their experience, from which
+it appeared that there was no obstacle in the nature of the case which
+might not be overcome. Mr. Bright and Mr. Woodhouse joined with them in
+advising strongly that they should renew the attempt. To be sure, it was
+a forlorn hope. But the ships were there. Though they had lost three
+hundred miles of cable, they had still enough on board to cross the sea.
+These arguments prevailed, and it was voted to make one more trial
+before the project was finally abandoned. Even though the chances were a
+hundred to one against them, that one might bring them success. And so
+it proved. But was it their own wisdom or courage that got them the
+victory, or were they led by that Being whose way is in the sea, and
+whose path is in the great waters?</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_15" id="Footnote_A_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_15"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> It should be said, however, in justice to Mr. Bright, that
+most of these defects he had himself perceived on seeing it in
+operation. On his return from the expedition of 1857, he sent in a
+report, pointing out the defects of the machinery, and how to remedy
+them. These suggestions were approved by the Scientific Committee, and
+carried out by Mr. Everett. The recognition of this fact, while it takes
+nothing from the practical skill shown by the American engineer, is but
+just to his predecessor, who, as the pioneer in this work, might easily
+fall into mistakes, which it needed only time and experience to
+correct.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_16" id="Footnote_B_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_16"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> As there is no trouble without a compensation, it is
+something that this voyage, fearful as it was, furnished a subject for a
+description of marvellous power. The letter to the London Times, written
+by Mr. Woods, its correspondent on board the Agamemnon, is one of the
+finest descriptions of a storm at sea we know of in the language. It is
+a wonderful specimen of "word-painting," and brings the scene before us
+with a vividness like that of the marine paintings of Stanfield or
+Turner.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
+
+THE SECOND EXPEDITION SUCCESSFUL.</h2>
+
+
+<p>A bold decision needs to be followed by prompt action, lest the spirit
+that inspired it be weakened by delay. When once it had been fixed that
+there was to be another attempt to lay the Atlantic cable, no time was
+lost in carrying the resolve into execution. The telegraphic fleet was
+lying at Queenstown. The Niagara had arrived on the fifth of July, but
+the Agamemnon, which, through some misunderstanding, had returned to the
+rendezvous in mid-ocean, thus crossing the Niagara on her track, did not
+get in till a week later. However, all were now there, safe and sound,
+and Mr. Field and Mr. Samuel Gurney went to the Admiralty, and got an
+order which they telegraphed to the ships to get ready immediately to go
+to sea. Not an hour was lost. They had barely time to take in coal and
+other supplies for the voyage. Mr. Field hastened from England, and
+Prof. Thomson from his home in Scotland, and in five days the squadron
+was under way, bound once more for the middle of the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>It was Saturday, the seventeenth of July, that the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>ships left on their
+second expedition. As they sailed out of the Cove of Cork, it was with
+none of the enthusiasm which attended their departure from Valentia the
+year before, or even from Plymouth on the tenth of June. Nobody cheered;
+nobody bade them God-speed. "As the ships left the harbor, there was
+apparently no notice taken of their departure by those on shore, or in
+the vessels anchored around them; every one seemed impressed with the
+conviction that they were engaged in a hopeless enterprise, and the
+squadron seemed rather to have slunk away on some discreditable mission,
+than to have sailed for the accomplishment of a grand national scheme."
+Many even of those on board felt that they were going on a fool's
+errand; that the Company was possessed by a kind of insanity, of which
+they would soon be cured by another bitter experience.</p>
+
+<p>On leaving this second time, it was agreed that the squadron should not
+try to keep together, but each ship make its way to the given latitude
+and longitude which was the appointed rendezvous in mid-ocean. The
+Niagara, being the largest, and able to carry the most coal, kept under
+steam the whole way, and arrived first, and waited several days for the
+other ships to appear. The Valorous came next, and then the Gorgon, and,
+last of all, the Agamemnon, which had been saving her coal for the
+return voyage, and had been delayed for want of a little of that wind
+which, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>in the former expedition, she had had in too great abundance.
+Says the English correspondent on board:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"For several days in succession there was an uninterrupted
+calm. The moon was just at the full, and for several nights it
+shone with a brilliancy which turned the sea into one silvery
+sheet, which brought out the dark hull and white sails of the
+ship in strong contrast to the sea and sky, as the vessel lay
+all but motionless on the water, the very impersonation of
+solitude and repose. Indeed, until the rendezvous was gained,
+we had such a succession of beautiful sunrises, gorgeous
+sunsets, and tranquil moonlight nights, as would have excited
+the most enthusiastic admiration of any one but persons
+situated as we were. But by us such scenes were regarded only
+as the annoying indications of the calm, which delayed our
+progress and wasted our coal. By dint, however, of a judicious
+expenditure of fuel, and a liberal use of the cheaper motive
+power of sail, the rendezvous was reached on Wednesday, the
+twenty-eighth of July, just eleven days after our departure
+from Queenstown. The rest of the squadron came in sight at
+nightfall, but at such a distance that it was past ten o'clock
+on the morning of Thursday, the twenty-ninth, before the
+Agamemnon joined them.</p>
+
+<p>"The day was beautifully calm, so no time was to be lost before
+making the splice; boats were soon lowered from the attendant
+ships, the two vessels made fast by a hawser, and the Niagara's
+end of the cable conveyed on board the Agamemnon. About
+half-past twelve o'clock the splice was effectually made. In
+hoisting it out from the side of the ship the leaden sinker
+broke short off and fell overboard; and there being no more
+convenient weight at hand, a thirty-two <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>pound shot was
+fastened to the splice instead, and the whole apparatus was
+quickly dropped into the sea without any formality, and indeed
+almost without a spectator, for those on board the ship had
+witnessed so many beginnings to the telegraphic line, that it
+was evident they despaired of there ever being an end to it.
+The stipulated two hundred and ten fathoms having been paid
+out, the signal to start was hoisted, the hawser cast loose,
+and the Niagara and Agamemnon started for the last time for
+their opposite destinations." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>At this moment the ships were nearly in mid-ocean, but not exactly. Mr.
+Field, who never indulged in poetical descriptions, but always gave the
+figures, stating the precise latitude and longitude, and from what
+quarter the wind blew, and how many fathoms deep the ocean was, and how
+many miles of cable were on board, made the following entry in his
+journal:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Thursday, July twenty-ninth, latitude fifty-two degrees nine
+minutes north, longitude thirty-two degrees twenty-seven
+minutes west. Telegraph Fleet all in sight; sea smooth; light
+wind from S.E. to S.S.E.; cloudy. Splice made at one <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>
+Signals through the whole length of the cable on board both
+ships perfect. Depth of water fifteen hundred fathoms; distance
+to the entrance of Valentia harbor eight hundred and thirteen
+nautical miles, and from there to the telegraph-house the shore
+end of the cable is laid. Distance to the entrance of Trinity
+Bay, Newfoundland, eight hundred and twenty-two nautical miles,
+and from there to the telegraph-house at the head of the bay of
+Bull's <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>Arm, sixty miles, making in all eight hundred and
+eighty-two nautical miles. The Niagara has sixty-nine miles
+further to run than the Agamemnon. The Niagara and Agamemnon
+have each eleven hundred nautical miles of cable on board,
+about the same quantity as last year." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>And now, as the ships are fairly apart, and will soon lose sight of each
+other, we will leave the Agamemnon for the present to pursue her course
+toward Ireland, while we follow our own Niagara to the shores of the New
+World. At first of course, while all hoped for success, no one dared to
+expect it. They said afterwards that "Mr. Field was the only man on
+board who kept up his courage through it all." But the chances seemed
+many to one against them; and the warnings were frequent to excite their
+fears. That very evening, about sunset, all again seemed lost. We quote
+from Mr. Field's journal: "At forty-five minutes past seven <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, ship's
+time, signals from the Agamemnon ceased, and the tests applied by the
+electricians showed that there was a want of continuity in the cable,
+but the insulation was perfect. Kept on paying out from the Niagara very
+slowly, and constantly applying all kinds of electrical tests until ten
+minutes past nine, ship's time, when again commenced receiving perfect
+signals from the Agamemnon." At the same moment the English ship had the
+same relief from anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>The next day there was a fresh cause of alarm. It <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>was found that the
+Niagara had run some miles out of her course. Comparing the distance run
+by observation and by patent log, there was a difference of sixteen
+miles and a third. With such a percentage of loss, the cable would not
+hold out to reach Newfoundland. This was alarming, but it was soon
+explained. The mass of iron in the ship had affected the compass, so
+that it no longer pointed to the right quarter of the heavens. Had the
+Niagara been alone on the ocean, this might have caused serious trouble.
+But now appeared the great advantage of an attendant ship. It was at
+once arranged that the Gorgon should go ahead and lead the way. As she
+had no cable on board, her compasses were subject to no deviation.
+Accordingly she took her position in the advance, keeping the line along
+the great circle arc, which was the prescribed route. From that moment
+there was no variation, or but a very slight one. The two methods of
+computing the distance&mdash;by log and by observation&mdash;nearly coincided, and
+the ship varied scarcely a mile from her course till she entered Trinity
+Bay.</p>
+
+<p>It is not necessary to follow the whole voyage, for the record is the
+same from day to day. It is the same sleepless watching of the cable as
+it runs out day and night, and the same anxious estimate of the distance
+that still separates them from land. Communication is kept up constantly
+between the ships. Mr. Field's journal contains entries like these:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>"Saturday, July thirty-first. By eleven o'clock had paid out
+from the Niagara three hundred miles of cable; at forty-five
+minutes past two received signals from the Agamemnon that they
+had paid out from her three hundred miles of cable; at
+thirty-seven minutes past five finished coil on the berth-deck,
+and commenced paying out from the lower deck."</p>
+
+<p>"Monday, August second. The Niagara getting light, and rolling
+very much; it was not considered safe to carry sail to steady
+ship, for in case of accident it might be necessary to stop the
+vessel as soon as possible. Passed and signalled the Cunard
+steamer from Boston to Liverpool." Same day about noon,
+"imperfect insulation of cable detected in sending and
+receiving signals from the Agamemnon, which continued until
+forty minutes past five, when all was right again. The fault
+was found to be in the ward-room, about sixty miles from the
+lower end, which was immediately cut out, and taken out of the
+circuit."</p>
+
+<p>"Tuesday, August third. At a quarter-past eleven, ship's time,
+received signals from on board the Agamemnon, that they had
+paid out from her seven hundred and eighty miles of cable. In
+the afternoon and evening passed several icebergs. At ten
+minutes past nine <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, ship's time, received signal from the
+Agamemnon that she was in water of two hundred fathoms. At
+twenty minutes past ten <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, ship's time, Niagara in water of
+two hundred fathoms, and informed the Agamemnon of the same.</p>
+
+<p>"Wednesday, August fourth. Depth of water less than two hundred
+fathoms. Weather beautiful, perfectly calm. Gorgon in sight.
+Sixty-four miles from the telegraph-house. Received signal from
+Agamemnon at noon that they had paid out from her nine hundred
+and forty miles of cable. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>Passed this morning several
+icebergs. Made the land off entrance to Trinity Bay at eight
+<span class="smcap">a.m.</span> Entered Trinity Bay at half-past twelve. At half-past two,
+we stopped sending signals to Agamemnon for fourteen minutes,
+for the purpose of making splice. At five <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> saw Her
+Majesty's steamer Porcupine [which had been sent by the British
+Government to Newfoundland, to watch for the telegraph ships]
+coming to us. At half-past seven, Captain Otter, of the
+Porcupine, came on board of the Niagara to pilot us to the
+anchorage, near the telegraph-house.<a name="FNanchor_A_17" id="FNanchor_A_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_17" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p><p>"Thursday, August fifth. At forty-five minutes past one <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>,
+Niagara anchored. Total amount of cable paid out since splice
+was made, ten hundred and sixteen miles, six hundred fathoms.
+Total amount of distance, eight hundred and eighty-two miles.
+Amount of cable paid out over distance run, one hundred and
+thirty-four miles, six hundred fathoms, being a surplus of
+about fifteen per cent. At two <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, I went ashore in a small
+boat, and awoke persons in charge of the telegraph-house, half
+a mile from landing, and informed them that the Telegraph Fleet
+had arrived, and were ready to land the end of the cable. At
+forty-five minutes past two, received signal from the Agamemnon
+that she had paid out ten hundred and ten miles of cable. At
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>four <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, delivered telegraphic despatch for the Associated
+Press, to be forwarded to New York as early in the morning as
+the offices of the line were open.</p>
+
+<p>"At a quarter-past five <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, telegraph cable landed. At six,
+end of cable carried into telegraph-house, and received very
+strong currents of electricity through the whole cable from the
+other side of the Atlantic. Captain Hudson, of the Niagara,
+then read prayers, and made some remarks.</p>
+
+<p>"At one <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, Her Majesty's steamer Gorgon fired a royal salute
+of twenty-one guns." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Thus simply was the story told, that in a few hours was to send a thrill
+throughout the continent.</p>
+
+<p>To complete the narrative of the expedition, it is necessary to include
+the voyage of the Agamemnon, the best account of which is given in the
+letter of the correspondent of the London Times. We quote from the time
+of junction in mid-ocean, just as the ships went sailing eastward and
+westward:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"For the first three hours the ships proceeded very slowly,
+paying out a great quantity of slack, but after the expiration
+of this time, the speed of the Agamemnon was increased to about
+five knots per hour, the cable going at about six, without
+indicating more than a few hundred pounds of strain upon the
+dynamometer. Shortly after six o'clock a very large whale was
+seen approaching the starboard bow at a great speed, rolling
+and tossing the sea into foam all around and for the first time
+we felt the possibility of the supposition that our second
+mysterious breakage of the cable might have been caused after
+all by one of these animals getting foul of it under water. It
+appeared as if it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>were making direct for the cable, and great
+was the relief of all when the ponderous living mass was seen
+slowly to pass astern, just grazing the cable where it entered
+the water, but fortunately without doing any mischief.</p>
+
+<p>"All seemed to go well up to about eight o'clock; the cable
+paid out from the hold with an evenness and regularity which
+showed how carefully and perfectly it had been coiled away; and
+to guard against accidents which might arise in consequence of
+the cable having suffered injury during the storm, the
+indicated strain upon the dynamometer was never allowed to go
+beyond seventeen hundred pounds, or less than one quarter what
+the cable is estimated to bear, and thus far every thing looked
+promising of success. But, in such a hazardous work, no one
+knows what a few minutes may bring forth, for soon after eight,
+an injured portion of the cable was discovered about a mile or
+two from the portion paying out. Not a moment was lost by Mr.
+Canning, the engineer on duty, in setting men to work to cobble
+up the injury as well as time would permit, for the cable was
+going out at such a rate that the damaged portion would be paid
+overboard in less than twenty minutes, and former experience
+had shown us that to check either the speed of the ship, or the
+cable, would, in all probability, be attended by the most fatal
+results.</p>
+
+<p>"Just before the lapping was finished, Professor Thomson
+reported that the electrical continuity of the wire had ceased,
+but that the insulation was still perfect; attention was
+naturally directed to the injured piece as the probable source
+of the stoppage, and not a moment was lost in cutting the cable
+at that point, with the intention of making a perfect splice.
+To the consternation of all, the electrical tests applied
+showed the fault to be overboard, and in all <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>probability some
+fifty miles from the ship. Not a second was to be lost, for it
+was evident that the cut portion must be paid overboard in a
+few minutes, and in the mean time, the tedious and difficult
+operation of making a splice had to be performed. The ship was
+immediately stopped, and no more cable paid out than was
+absolutely necessary to prevent it breaking.</p>
+
+<p>"As the stern of the ship was lifted by the waves, a scene of
+the most intense excitement followed. It seemed impossible,
+even by using the greatest possible speed, and paying out the
+least possible amount of cable, that the junction could be
+finished before the part was taken out of the hands of the
+workmen. The main hold presented an extraordinary scene; nearly
+all the officers of the ship and of those connected with the
+expedition, stood in groups about the coil, watching with
+intense anxiety the cable, as it slowly unwound itself nearer
+and nearer the joint, while the workmen, directed by Mr.
+Canning, under whose superintendence the cable was originally
+manufactured, worked at the splice as only men could work who
+felt that the life and death of the expedition depended upon
+their rapidity. But all their speed was to no purpose, as the
+cable was unwinding within a hundred fathoms, and, as a last
+and desperate resource, the cable was stopped altogether, and,
+for a few minutes, the ship hung on by the end. Fortunately,
+however, it was only for a few minutes, as the strain was
+continually rising above two tons, and it would not hold on
+much longer; when the splice was finished, the signal was made
+to loose the stopper, and it passed overboard safely enough.</p>
+
+<p>"When the excitement consequent upon having so narrowly saved
+the cable had passed away, we awoke to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>consciousness that
+the case was still as hopeless as ever, for the electrical
+continuity was still entirely wanting. Preparations were
+consequently made to pay out as little rope as possible, and to
+hold on for six hours, in the hopes that the fault, whatever it
+might be, might mend itself before cutting the cable and
+returning to the rendezvous to make another splice. The
+magnetic needles on the receiving instruments were watched
+closely for the returning signals; when, in a few minutes, the
+last hope was extinguished by their suddenly indicating dead
+earth, which tended to show that the cable had broken from the
+Niagara, or that the insulation had been completely destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>"In three minutes, however, every one was agreeably surprised
+by the intelligence that the stoppage had disappeared, and that
+the signals had again appeared at their regular intervals from
+the Niagara. It is needless to say what a load of anxiety this
+news removed from the minds of every one; but the general
+confidence in the ultimate success of the operations was much
+shaken by the occurrence, for all felt that every minute a
+similar accident might occur. For some time the paying-out
+continued as usual, but toward the morning another damaged
+place was discovered in the cable; there was fortunately,
+however, time to repair it in the hold without in any way
+interfering with the operations beyond for a time slightly
+reducing the speed of the ship.</p>
+
+<p>"During the morning of Friday, the thirtieth, every thing went
+well; the ship had been kept at the speed of about five knots,
+the cable paid out at about six, the average angle with the
+horizon at which it left the ship being about fifteen degrees,
+while the indicated strain upon the dynamometer seldom showed
+more than sixteen hundred pounds to seventeen hundred pounds.
+Observations made at noon <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>showed that we had made good ninety
+miles from the starting-point since the previous day, with an
+expenditure, including the loss in lowering the splice and
+during the subsequent stoppages, of one hundred and thirty-five
+miles of the cable. During the latter portion of the day the
+barometer fell considerably, and toward the evening it blew
+almost a gale of wind from the eastward, dead ahead of course.
+As the breeze freshened, the speed of the engines was gradually
+increased, but the wind more than increased in proportion, so
+that, before the sun went down, the Agamemnon was going full
+steam against the wind, only making a speed of about four knots
+an hour. During the evening topmasts were lowered, and spars,
+yards, sails, and indeed every thing aloft that could offer
+resistance to the wind, was sent down on deck; but still the
+ship made but little way, chiefly in consequence of the heavy
+sea, though the enormous quantity of fuel consumed showed us
+that, if the wind lasted, we should be reduced to burning the
+masts, spars, and even the decks, to bring the ship into
+Valentia.</p>
+
+<p>"It seemed to be our particular ill-fortune to meet with
+head-winds whichever way the ship's head was turned. On our
+journey out we had been delayed, and obliged to consume an
+undue proportion of coal, for want of an easterly wind, and now
+all our fuel was wanted because of one. However, during the
+next day the wind gradually went around to the south-west,
+which, though it raised a very heavy sea, allowed us to husband
+our small remaining store of fuel.</p>
+
+<p>"At noon on Saturday, the thirty-first of July, observations
+showed us to have made good one hundred and twenty miles of
+distance since noon of the previous day, with a loss of about
+twenty-seven per cent of cable. The Niagara, as <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>far as could
+be judged from the amount of cable she paid out, which, by a
+previous arrangement, was signalled at every ten miles, kept
+pace with us, within one or two miles, the whole distance
+across. During the afternoon of Saturday, the wind again
+freshened up, and before nightfall it again blew nearly a gale
+of wind, and a tremendous sea ran before it from the
+south-west, which made the Agamemnon pitch to such an extent
+that it was thought impossible the cable could hold on through
+the night; indeed, had it not been for the constant care and
+watchfulness exercised by Mr. Bright, and the two energetic
+engineers, Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford, who acted with him, it
+could not have been done at all. Men were kept at the wheels of
+the machine to prevent their stopping as the stern of the ship
+rose and fell with the sea, for, had they done so, the cable
+must undoubtedly have parted.</p>
+
+<p>"During Sunday the sea and wind increased, and before the
+evening it blew a smart gale. Now, indeed, were the energy and
+activity of all engaged in the operation tasked to the utmost.
+Mr. Hoar and Mr. Moore, the two engineers who had the charge of
+the relieving-wheels of the dynamometer, had to keep watch and
+watch alternately every four hours, and while on duty durst not
+let their attention be removed from their occupation for one
+moment, for on their releasing the brakes every time the stern
+of the ship fell into the trough of the sea entirely depended
+the safety of the cable, and the result shows how ably they
+discharged their duty. Throughout the night, there were few who
+had the least expectation of the cable holding on till morning,
+and many remained awake listening for the sound that all most
+dreaded to hear&mdash;namely, the gun which should announce the
+failure of all our hopes. But still the cable, which, in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>comparison with the ship from which it was paid out, and the
+gigantic waves among which it was delivered, was but a mere
+thread, continued to hold on, only leaving a silvery
+phosphorous line upon the stupendous seas as they rolled on
+toward the ship.</p>
+
+<p>"With Sunday morning came no improvement in the weather; still
+the sky remained black and stormy to windward, and the constant
+violent squalls of wind and rain which prevailed during the
+whole day served to keep up, if not to augment, the height of
+the waves. But the cable had gone through so much during the
+night, that our confidence in its continuing to hold was much
+restored.</p>
+
+<p>"At noon, observations showed us to have made good one hundred
+and thirty miles from noon of the previous day, and about three
+hundred and sixty from our starting-point in mid-ocean. We had
+passed by the deepest sounding of twenty-four hundred fathoms,
+and over more than half of the deep water generally, while the
+amount of cable still remaining in the ship was more than
+sufficient to carry us to the Irish coast, even supposing the
+continuance of the bad weather should oblige us to pay out the
+same amount of slack cable we had been hitherto wasting. Thus
+far things looked very promising for our ultimate success. But
+former experience showed us only too plainly that we could
+never suppose that some accident might not arise until the ends
+had been fairly landed on the opposite shores.</p>
+
+<p>"During Sunday night and Monday morning the weather continued
+as boisterous as ever, and it was only by the most
+indefatigable exertions of the engineer upon duty that the
+wheels could be prevented from stopping altogether, as the
+vessel rose and fell with the sea, and once or twice they did
+come completely to a standstill, in spite of all that could be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>done to keep them moving; but fortunately they were again set
+in motion before the stern of the ship was thrown up by the
+succeeding wave. No strain could be placed upon the cable, of
+course; and though the dynamometer occasionally registered
+seventeen hundred pounds as the ship lifted, it was oftener
+below one thousand, and was frequently nothing, the cable
+running out as fast as its own weight and the speed of the ship
+could draw it. But even with all these forces acting
+unresistedly upon it, the cable never paid itself out at a
+greater speed than eight knots an hour at the time the ship was
+going at the rate of six knots and a half. Subsequently,
+however, when the speed of the ship even exceeded six knots and
+a half, the cable never ran out so quick. The average speed
+maintained by the ship up to this time, and, indeed, for the
+whole voyage, was about five knots and a half, the cable, with
+occasional exceptions, running about thirty per cent faster.</p>
+
+<p>"At noon on Monday, August second, had made good one hundred
+and twenty-seven and a half miles since noon of the previous
+day, and completed more than the half way to our ultimate
+destination.</p>
+
+<p>"During the afternoon an American three-masted schooner, which
+afterward proved to be the Chieftain, was seen standing from
+the eastward toward us. No notice was taken of her at first,
+but when she was within about half a mile of the Agamemnon she
+altered her course, and bore right down across our bows. A
+collision, which might prove fatal to the cable, now seemed
+inevitable, or could only be avoided by the equally hazardous
+expedient of altering the Agamemnon's course. The Valorous
+steamed ahead, and fired a gun for her to heave to, which, as
+she did not appear to take much notice of, was quickly followed
+by another from the bows <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>of the Agamemnon, and a second and
+third from the Valorous, but still the vessel held on her
+course; and as the only resource left to avoid a collision, the
+course of the Agamemnon was altered just in time to pass within
+a few yards of her. It was evident that our proceedings were a
+source of the greatest possible astonishment to them, for all
+her crew crowded upon her deck and rigging. At length they
+evidently discovered who we were, and what we were doing, for
+the crew manned the rigging, and dipping the ensign several
+times they gave us three hearty cheers. Though the Agamemnon
+was obliged to acknowledge these congratulations in due form,
+the feelings of annoyance with which we regarded the vessel
+which, either by the stupidity or carelessness of those on
+board, was so near adding a fatal and unexpected mishap to the
+long chapter of accidents which had already been encountered,
+may easily be imagined. To those below, who of course did not
+see the ship approaching, the sound of the first gun came like
+a thunderbolt, for all took it as the signal of the breaking of
+the cable. The dinner-tables were deserted in a moment, and a
+general rush made up the hatches to the deck; but before
+reaching it, their fears were quickly banished by the report of
+the succeeding gun, which all knew well could only be caused by
+a ship in our way or a man overboard.</p>
+
+<p>"Throughout the greater portion of Monday morning the
+electrical signals from the Niagara had been getting gradually
+weaker, until they ceased altogether for nearly three-quarters
+of an hour. Our uneasiness, however, was in some degree
+lessened by the fact that the stoppage appeared to be a want of
+continuity,<a name="FNanchor_B_18" id="FNanchor_B_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_18" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> and not any defect in insulation, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>and there was
+consequently every reason to suppose that it might arise from
+faulty connection on board the Niagara. Accordingly Professor
+Thomson sent a message to the effect that the signals were too
+weak to be read, and, as if they had been awaiting such a
+signal to increase their battery power, the deflections
+immediately returned even stronger than they had ever been
+before. Toward the evening, however, they again declined in
+force for a short time. With the exception of these little
+stoppages, the electrical condition of the submerged wire
+seemed to be much improved. It was evident that the low
+temperature of the water at the immense depth improved
+considerably the insulating properties of the gutta-percha,
+while the enormous pressure to which it must have been
+subjected probably tended to consolidate its texture, and to
+fill up any air-bubbles or slight faults in manufacture which
+may have existed.</p>
+
+<p>"The weather during Monday night moderated a little, but still
+there was a very heavy sea on, which endangered the wire every
+second minute.</p>
+
+<p>"About three o'clock on Tuesday morning, all on board were
+startled from their beds by the loud booming of a gun. Every
+one, without waiting for the performance of the most particular
+toilet, rushed on deck to ascertain the cause of the
+disturbance. Contrary to all expectation, the cable was safe,
+but just in the gray light could be seen the Valorous rounded
+to in the most warlike attitude, firing gun after gun in quick
+succession toward a large American bark, which, quite
+unconscious of our proceeding, was standing right across our
+stern. Such loud and repeated remonstrances from a large <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>steam
+frigate were not to be despised, and, evidently without knowing
+the why or the wherefore, she quickly threw her sails aback and
+remained hove to. Whether those on board her considered that we
+were engaged in some filibustering expedition, or regarded our
+proceedings as another British outrage upon the American flag,
+it is impossible to say; but certain it is that, apparently in
+great trepidation, she remained hove to until we had lost sight
+of her in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>"Tuesday was a much finer day than any we had experienced for
+nearly a week, but still there was a considerable sea running,
+and our dangers were far from passed; yet the hopes of our
+ultimate success ran high. We had accomplished nearly the whole
+of the deep-sea portion of the route in safety, and that, too,
+under the most unfavorable circumstances possible; therefore
+there was every reason to believe that unless some unforeseen
+accident should occur, we should accomplish the remainder.</p>
+
+<p>"About five o'clock in the evening, the steep submarine
+mountain which divides the telegraphic plateau from the Irish
+coast was reached, and the sudden shallowing of the water had a
+very marked effect upon the cable, causing the strain on and
+the speed of it to lessen every minute. A great deal of slack
+was paid out to allow for any great inequalities which might
+exist, though undiscovered by the sounding-line. About ten
+o'clock the shoal water of two hundred and fifty fathoms was
+reached; the only remaining anxiety now was the changing from
+the lower main coil to that upon the upper deck, and this most
+difficult and dangerous operation was successfully performed
+between three and four o'clock on Wednesday morning.</p>
+
+<p>"Wednesday was a beautiful, calm day; indeed, it was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>the first
+on which any one would have thought of making a splice since
+the day we started from the rendezvous. We therefore
+congratulated ourselves on having saved a week by commencing
+operations on the Thursday previous. At noon, we were
+eighty-nine miles distant from the telegraph station at
+Valentia. The water was shallow, so that there was no
+difficulty in paying out the wire almost without any loss of
+slack, and all looked upon the undertaking as virtually
+accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>"At about one o'clock in the evening, the second change from
+the upper-deck coil to that upon the orlop-deck was safely
+effected, and shortly after the vessels exchanged signals that
+they were in two hundred fathoms water. As the night advanced
+the speed of the ship was reduced, as it was known that we were
+only a short distance from the land, and there would be no
+advantage in making it before daylight in the morning. About
+twelve o'clock, however, the Skelligs Light was seen in the
+distance, and the Valorous steamed on ahead to lead us in to
+the coast, firing rockets at intervals to direct us, which were
+answered by us from the Agamemnon, though, according to Mr.
+Moriarty, the master's wish, the ship, disregarding the
+Valorous, kept her own course, which proved to be the right one
+in the end.</p>
+
+<p>"By daylight on the morning of Thursday, the bold and rocky
+mountains which entirely surround the wild and picturesque
+neighborhood of Valentia, rose right before us at a few miles'
+distance. Never, probably, was the sight of land more welcome,
+as it brought to a successful termination one of the greatest,
+but, at the same time, most difficult schemes which was ever
+undertaken. Had it been the dullest and most melancholy swamp
+on the face of the earth that lay before us, we should have
+found it a pleasant prospect; but, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>as the sun rose from the
+estuary of Dingle Bay, tinging with a deep, soft purple the
+lofty summits of the steep mountains which surround its shores,
+and illuminating the masses of morning vapor which hung upon
+them, it was a scene which might vie in beauty with any thing
+that could be produced by the most florid imagination of an
+artist.</p>
+
+<p>"No one on shore was apparently conscious of our approach, so
+the Valorous steamed ahead to the mouth of the harbor and fired
+a gun. Both ships made straight for Doulus Bay, and about six
+o'clock came to anchor at the side of Beginish Island, opposite
+to Valentia. As soon as the inhabitants became aware of our
+approach, there was a general desertion of the place, and
+hundreds of boats crowded around us, their passengers in the
+greatest state of excitement to hear all about our voyage. The
+Knight of Kerry was absent in Dingle, but a messenger was
+immediately dispatched for him, and he soon arrived in Her
+Majesty's gunboat Shamrock. Soon after our arrival, a signal
+was received from the Niagara that they were preparing to land,
+having paid out one thousand and thirty nautical miles of
+cable, while the Agamemnon had accomplished her portion of the
+distance with an expenditure of one thousand and twenty
+miles,<a name="FNanchor_C_19" id="FNanchor_C_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_19" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> making the total length of the wire submerged two
+thousand and fifty geographical miles. Immediately after the
+ships cast anchor, the paddle-box boats of the Valorous were
+got ready, and two miles of cable coiled away in them, for the
+purpose of landing the end; but it was late in the afternoon
+before the procession of boats left the ship, under a salute of
+three rounds of small-arms from <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>the detachment of marines on
+board the Agamemnon, under the command of Lieutenant Morris.</p>
+
+<p>"The progress of the end to the shore was very slow, in
+consequence of the very stiff wind which blew at the time, but
+at about three o'clock the end was safely brought on shore at
+Knightstown, Valentia, by Mr. Bright and Mr. Canning, the chief
+and second engineers, to whose exertions the success of the
+undertaking is attributable, and the Knight of Kerry.<a name="FNanchor_D_20" id="FNanchor_D_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_20" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> The
+end was immediately laid in the trench which had been dug to
+receive it, while a royal salute, making the neighboring rocks
+and mountains reverberate, announced that the communication
+between the Old and the New World had been completed." </p></blockquote>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_17" id="Footnote_A_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_17"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The spot chosen as the terminus of the Atlantic cable, with
+the views around it&mdash;both on the water and on land&mdash;is thus described by
+a correspondent:
+</p><p>
+"All who have visited Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, with one consent allow
+it to be one of the most beautiful sheets of water they ever set eyes
+upon. Its color is very peculiar&mdash;an inexpressible mingling of the pure
+blue ocean with the deep evergreen woodlands and the serene blue sky.
+Its extreme length is about eighty miles, its breadth about thirty
+miles, opening boldly into the Atlantic on the northern side of the
+island. At its south-western shore it branches into the Bay of Bull's
+Arm, which is a quiet, safe, and beautiful harbor, about two miles in
+breadth, and nine or ten in length, running in a direction north-west.
+</p><p>
+"The depth of water is sufficient for the largest vessels. The tide
+rises seven or eight feet, and the bay terminates in a beautiful
+sand-beach. The shore is clothed with dark green fir-trees, which, mixed
+with birch and mountain-ash, present a pleasing contrast. The land rises
+gradually from the water all around, so as to afford one of the most
+agreeable town sites in the island. You ascend only about a quarter of a
+mile from the water, and there are no longer trees, but wild grass like
+an open prairie. Here are found at this season myriads of the upland
+cranberries, upon which unnumbered ptarmigan, or the northern partridge,
+feed.
+</p><p>
+"The raspberry, bake-apple berry, and the whortleberry are also common.
+Numerous little lakes may be seen in the open, elevated ground, from
+which flow rivulets, affording abundance of fine trout. After ascending
+for about a mile and a half, you are then probably three hundred or four
+hundred feet above the tide, and nothing can exceed the beauty of the
+scene when, at one view, you behold the placid waters of both Trinity
+and Placentia Bays&mdash;the latter sprinkled with clusters of verdant
+islands.
+</p><p>
+"You can now descend westward as gradually as you came up from the
+Telegraph landing, to the shores of Placentia Bay, where there is an
+excellent harbor and admirable fisheries, skirting the shore, and the
+accompanying road of the land Telegraph line leading from St. John's
+westward through the island, to Cape Ray. At this season of the year
+game is very abundant. Reindeer in great numbers, bears, wolves&mdash;others
+very numerous, the large northern hare, foxes, wild geese, ducks, etc.
+</p><p>
+"About four miles southward of the entrance of the bay of Bull's Arm, on
+the shore of Placentia Bay, is situated the extraordinary La Manche lead
+mine, the property of the Telegraph Company, already yielding a rich
+supply of remarkably pure galena. The place where the cable is landed is
+memorable in the history of the island as the naval battle-ground
+between the French and English in their early struggle for the exclusive
+occupancy of the valuable fisheries along the coast."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_18" id="Footnote_B_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_18"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> This is an error, as we learn on the high authority of
+Professor Thomson himself. It was defective insulation, not any "want of
+continuity," that caused the weak signals. Want of continuity would
+have stopped the signals altogether, and given quite different
+indications on the testing instruments from those he observed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_19" id="Footnote_C_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_19"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> The Niagara had sixty miles farther to run than the
+Agamemnon, to land the cable at the head of Trinity Bay.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_20" id="Footnote_D_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_20"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> A name that occurs several times in this history, and one
+never to be mentioned but with honor. The Knight of Kerry was Lord of
+the Isles on that part of the Irish coast; and from the beginning showed
+the deepest interest in this enterprise; and by his generous hospitality
+to all connected with it made many friends by whom he was gratefully
+remembered on both sides of the Atlantic.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
+
+EXCITEMENT IN AMERICA.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Whoever shall write the history of popular enthusiasms, must give a
+large space to the Atlantic Telegraph. Never did the tidings of any
+great achievement&mdash;whether in peace or war&mdash;more truly electrify a
+nation. No doubt, the impression was the greater because it took the
+country by surprise. Had the attempt succeeded in June, it would have
+found a people prepared for it. But the failure of the first expedition,
+added to that of the previous year, settled the fate of the enterprise
+in the minds of the public. It was a hopeless undertaking; and its
+projectors shared the usual lot of those who conceive vast designs, and
+venture on great enterprises, which are not successful, to be regarded
+with a mixture of derision and pity.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the temper of the public mind, when at noon of Thursday, the
+fifth of August, the following despatch was received:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">United States Frigate Niagara</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Trinity Bay, Newfoundland</span>,<br />
+August 5, 1858.
+</p>
+
+<p>"<i>To the Associated Press, New York</i>:</p>
+
+<p>"The Atlantic Telegraph fleet sailed from Queenstown, Ireland,
+Saturday, July seventeenth, and met in mid-ocean <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>Wednesday,
+July twenty-eighth. Made the splice at one <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, Thursday, the
+twenty-ninth, and separated&mdash;the Agamemnon and Valorous, bound
+to Valentia, Ireland; the Niagara and Gorgon, for this place,
+where they arrived yesterday, and this morning the end of the
+cable will be landed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is one thousand six hundred and ninety-six nautical, or one
+thousand nine hundred and fifty statute, miles from the
+Telegraph House at the head of Valentia harbor to the Telegraph
+House at the Bay of Bulls, Trinity Bay, and for more than two
+thirds of this distance the water is over two miles in depth.
+The cable has been paid out from the Agamemnon at about the
+same speed as from the Niagara. The electric signals sent and
+received through the whole cable are perfect.</p>
+
+<p>"The machinery for paying out the cable worked in the most
+satisfactory manner, and was not stopped for a single moment
+from the time the splice was made until we arrived here.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Hudson, Messrs. Everett and Woodhouse, the engineers,
+the electricians, the officers of the ship, and in fact, every
+man on board the telegraph fleet, has exerted himself to the
+utmost to make the expedition successful, and by the blessing
+of Divine Providence it has succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>"After the end of the cable is landed and connected with the
+land line of telegraph, and the Niagara has discharged some
+cargo belonging to the Telegraph Company, she will go to St.
+John's for coal, and then proceed at once to New York. </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">Cyrus W. Field.</span>"
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The impression of this simple announcement it is impossible to conceive.
+It was immediately telegraphed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>to all parts of the United States, and
+everywhere produced the greatest excitement. In some places all business
+was suspended; men rushed into the streets, and flocked to the offices
+where the news was received. At Andover, Massachusetts, the news arrived
+while the Alumni of the Theological Seminary were celebrating their
+semi-centennial anniversary by a dinner. One thousand persons were
+present, all of whom rose to their feet, and gave vent to their excited
+feelings by continued and enthusiastic cheers. When quiet was restored,
+Rev. Dr. Adams, of New York, said his heart was too full for a speech,
+and suggested, as the more fitting utterance of what all felt, that they
+should join in thanksgiving to Almighty God, and the venerable Dr.
+Hawes, of Hartford, led them in fervent prayer, acknowledging the great
+event as from the hand of God, and as calculated to hasten the triumphs
+of civilization and Christianity. Then all standing up together, sang,
+to the tune of Old Hundred, the majestic doxology:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,<br />
+Praise Him all creatures here below;<br />
+Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,<br />
+Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!"
+</p>
+
+<p>Thus&mdash;said Dr. Hawes&mdash;"we have now consecrated this new power, so far as
+our agency is concerned, to the building up of the truth."</p>
+
+<p>In New York the news was received at first with <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>some incredulity. But
+as it was confirmed by subsequent despatches, the city broke out into
+tumultuous rejoicing. Never was there such an outburst of popular
+feeling. In Boston a hundred guns were fired on the Common, and the
+bells of the city were rung for an hour to give utterance to the general
+joy. Similar scenes were witnessed in all parts of the United States. I
+have now before me the New York papers of August, 1858, and from the
+memorable fifth, when the landing took place, to the end of the month,
+they contain hardly any thing else than popular demonstrations in honor
+of the Atlantic Telegraph. It was indeed a national jubilee.</p>
+
+<p>It was natural that this overflow of public feeling should express
+itself towards one who was recognized as the author of the great work,
+which inspired such universal joy. Mr. Field, much to his own surprise,
+"awoke and found himself famous." In twenty-four hours his name was on
+millions of tongues. Congratulations poured in from all quarters, from
+mayors of cities and governors of States; from all parts of the Union
+and the British Provinces; from the President of the United States and
+the Governor-General of Canada. Mr. Buchanan telegraphed to Mr. Field,
+at Trinity Bay:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>: I congratulate you with all my heart on the
+success of the great enterprise with which your name is so
+honorably connected. Under the blessing of Divine <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>Providence I
+trust it may prove instrumental in promoting perpetual peace
+and friendship between the kindred nations." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The popular estimate of the achievement and its author went still
+farther. With the natural exaggeration common to masses of men, when
+carried away by a sudden enthusiasm, the Atlantic Telegraph was hailed
+as an immense stride in the onward progress of the race, an event in the
+history of the world hardly inferior to the discovery of America, or to
+the invention of the art of printing; and the name of its projector was
+coupled with those of Franklin and Columbus. He who but yesterday was
+regarded as a visionary, to-day was exalted as a benefactor of his
+country and of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>This avalanche of praise was quite overwhelming. It is always
+embarrassing to be forced into sudden conspicuity, and to find one's
+self the object of general attention and applause. While feeling this
+embarrassment, Mr. Field could not but be gratified to witness the
+public joy at the success of the enterprise, and he was deeply touched
+and grateful for the appreciation of his own services. But probably all
+these public demonstrations did not go to his heart so much as private
+letters received from the other side of the Atlantic, from those who had
+shared the labors of the enterprise&mdash;old companions in arms who had
+borne with him the heavy burden, and now were fully entitled <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>to a share
+in the honor which was the reward of their common toil.</p>
+
+<p>As a specimen of the congratulations which came from beyond the sea, we
+quote a single passage from a letter of Mr. George Saward, the Secretary
+of the Company in London, written immediately on receiving the news of
+the success of the enterprise. Under the impression of that event, he
+writes to Mr. Field:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"At last the great work is successful. I rejoice at it for the
+sake of humanity at large. I rejoice at it for the sake of our
+common nationalities, and last but not least, for your personal
+sake. I most heartily and sincerely rejoice with you, and
+congratulate you, upon this happy termination to the trouble
+and anxiety, the continuous and persevering labor, and
+never-ceasing and sleepless energy, which the successful
+accomplishment of this vast and noble enterprise has cost you.
+Never was man more devoted&mdash;never did man's energy better
+deserve success than yours has done. May you in the bosom of
+your family reap those rewards of repose and affection, which
+will be doubly sweet from the reflection, that you return to
+them after having been under Providence the main and leading
+principal in conferring a vast and enduring benefit on mankind.
+If the contemplation of fame has a charm for you, you may well
+indulge in the reflection; for the name of Cyrus W. Field will
+now go onward to immortality, as long as that of the Atlantic
+Telegraph shall be known to mankind." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The Directors, whose faith and courage had been so severely tried, now
+felt double joy, for their friend <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>and for themselves, at this glorious
+result of their united labors. Mr. Peabody wrote to Mr. Field that "his
+reflections must be like those of Columbus, after the discovery of
+America." Sir Charles Wood and Sir John Pakington, who, as successive
+First Lords of the Admiralty, had supported the enterprise with the
+constant aid of the British Government, wrote letters of congratulation
+on the great work which had been carried through mainly by his energy
+and unconquerable will. They were above any petty national jealousy, and
+never imagined that it would detract aught from the just honor of
+England, to award full praise to the courage and enterprise of an
+American.</p>
+
+<p>On his part, Mr. Field was equally anxious to acknowledge the invaluable
+aid given by others&mdash;aid, without which the efforts of no single
+individual could command success. On his arrival at St. John's, he was
+welcomed with enthusiasm by the whole population. An address was
+presented to him by the Executive Council of Newfoundland, in which they
+offered their hearty congratulations on the success of the undertaking,
+which they recognized as chiefly due to him. "Intimately acquainted as
+we have been"&mdash;these are their words&mdash;"with the energy and enterprise
+which have distinguished you from the commencement of the great work of
+telegraph connection between the Old and the New Worlds; and feeling
+that under Providence this triumph of science is mainly <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>due to your
+well-directed and indomitable exertions, we desire to express to you our
+high appreciation of your success in the cause of the world's progress,"
+etc.; to which Mr. Field replied, recognizing in turn the cordial
+support which he had always received from the Government of
+Newfoundland. The Chamber of Commerce of St. John's also presented an
+address in similar terms, to which he replied&mdash;after acknowledging their
+kind mention of his own labors and sacrifices:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"But it would not only be ungenerous, but unjust, that I should
+for a moment forget the services of those who were my
+co-workers in this enterprise, and without whom any labors of
+mine would have been unavailing. It would be difficult to
+enumerate the many gentlemen whose scientific acquirements and
+skill and energy have been devoted to the advancement of this
+work, and who have so mainly produced the issue which has
+called forth this expression of your good wishes on my behalf.
+But I could not do justice to my own feelings did I fail to
+acknowledge how much is owing to Captain Hudson and the
+officers of the Niagara, whose hearts were in the work, and
+whose toil was unceasing; to Captain Dayman of her Majesty's
+ship Gorgon, for the soundings so accurately made by him last
+year, and for the perfect manner in which he led the Niagara
+over the great-circle arc while laying the cable; to Captain
+Otter, of the Porcupine, for the careful survey made by him in
+Trinity Bay, and for the admirable manner in which he piloted
+the Niagara at night to her anchorage; to Mr. Everett, who has
+for months devoted his whole time to designing and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>perfecting
+the beautiful machinery that has so successfully paid out the
+cable from the ships&mdash;machinery so perfect in every respect,
+that it was not for one moment stopped on board the Niagara
+until she reached her destination in Trinity Bay; to Mr.
+Woodhouse, who superintended the coiling of the cable, and
+zealously and ably coöperated with his brother engineer during
+the progress of paying-out; to the electricians for their
+constant watchfulness; to the men for their almost ceaseless
+labor (and I feel confident that you will have a good report
+from the commanders, engineers, electricians, on board the
+Agamemnon and Valorous, the Irish portion of the fleet); to the
+Directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company for the time they
+have devoted to the undertaking without receiving any
+compensation for their services (and it must be a pleasure to
+many of you to know that the director, who has devoted more
+time than any other, was for many years a resident of this
+place, and well known to all of you&mdash;I allude to Mr. Brooking,
+of London); to Mr. C. M. Lampson, a native of New England, but
+who has for the last twenty-seven years resided in London, who
+appreciated the great importance of this enterprise to both
+countries, and gave it most valuable aid, bringing his sound
+judgment and great business talent to the service of the
+Company; to that distinguished American, Mr. George Peabody,
+and his worthy partner, Mr. Morgan, who not only assisted it
+most liberally with their means, but to whom I could always go
+with confidence for advice." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Such acknowledgments, constantly repeated, showed a mind incapable of
+envy or jealousy; that was chiefly anxious to recognize the services of
+others, and that they should receive from the public, both of England
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>and America, the honors which they had so nobly earned.</p>
+
+<p>After two or three days' delay at St. John's, which the Niagara was
+obliged to make for coal, but which the people spent in festivity and
+rejoicing, she left for New York, where she arrived on the
+eighteenth&mdash;two weeks from the landing of the cable in Trinity Bay.
+These had been weeks of great excitement, yet not unmingled with
+suspense and anxiety. The public, eager for news, devoured every thing
+that concerned the telegraph with impatience, but all was not
+satisfactory. Despatches from Trinity Bay said that signals were
+continually passing over the cable, yet no news reached the public from
+the other side of the Atlantic. This was partially explained by a
+message from Mr. Field, sent from Trinity Bay to the Associated Press as
+early as the seventh:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We landed here in the woods, and until the telegraph
+instruments are perfectly adjusted, no communications can pass
+between the two continents; but the electric currents are
+received freely.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall have the earliest intimation when all is ready, but
+it may be some days before every thing is perfected. The first
+through message between Europe and America will be from the
+Queen of Great Britain to the President of the United States,
+and the second his reply." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>But as the public grew impatient, and friends sent anxious inquiring
+messages, he telegraphed again from St. John's on the eleventh:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>"Before I left London, the Directors of the Atlantic Telegraph
+Company decided unanimously that, after the cable was laid, and
+the Queen's and President's messages transmitted, the line
+should be kept for several weeks for the sole use of Dr.
+Whitehouse, Professor Thomson, and other electricians, to
+enable them to test thoroughly their several modes of
+telegraphing, so that the Directors might decide which was the
+best and most rapid method for future use: for it was
+considered that after the line should be once thrown open for
+business, it would be very difficult to obtain it for
+experimental purposes, even for a short time.</p>
+
+<p>"Due notice will be given when the line will be ready for
+business, and the tariff of prices." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Still the public were not satisfied, and many were beginning to doubt,
+when, on the sixteenth, it was suddenly announced that the Queen's
+message was received. It was as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<i>To the President of the United States, Washington</i>:</p>
+
+<p>"The Queen desires to congratulate the President upon the
+successful completion of this great international work, in
+which the Queen has taken the deepest interest.</p>
+
+<p>"The Queen is convinced that the President will join with her
+in fervently hoping that the electric cable which now connects
+Great Britain with the United States will prove an additional
+link between the nations, whose friendship is founded upon
+their common interest and reciprocal esteem.</p>
+
+<p>"The Queen has much pleasure in thus communicating with the
+President, and renewing to him her wishes for the prosperity of
+the United States." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>To this the President replied:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p><p class="letterindent">"<span class="smcap">Washington City</span>, August 16, 1858.
+</p>
+
+<p>"<i>To Her Majesty Victoria, the Queen of Great Britain</i>:</p>
+
+<p>"The President cordially reciprocates the congratulations of
+her Majesty the Queen, on the success of the great
+international enterprise accomplished by the science, skill,
+and indomitable energy of the two countries.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to
+mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle.</p>
+
+<p>"May the Atlantic Telegraph, under the blessing of Heaven,
+prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between
+the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine
+Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty, and law
+throughout the world.</p>
+
+<p>"In this view, will not all nations of Christendom
+spontaneously unite in the declaration that it shall be for
+ever neutral, and that its communications shall be held sacred
+in passing to their places of destination, even in the midst of
+hostilities? </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">James Buchanan.</span>"
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The arrival of the Queen's message was the signal for a fresh outbreak
+of popular enthusiasm. The next morning, August seventeenth, the city of
+New York was awakened by the thunder of artillery. A hundred guns were
+fired in the City Hall Park at daybreak, and the salute was repeated at
+noon. At this hour, flags were flying from all the public buildings, and
+the bells of the principal churches began to ring, as Christmas bells
+signal the birth of one who came to bring peace and good-will to
+men&mdash;chimes that, it was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>fondly hoped, might usher in a new era, as
+they should</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+Ring out the old, ring in the new,<br />
+Ring out the false, ring in the true.
+</p>
+
+<p>That night the city was illuminated. Never had it seen so brilliant a
+spectacle. Such was the blaze of light around the City Hall, that the
+cupola caught fire, and was consumed, and the Hall itself narrowly
+escaped destruction. Similar demonstrations took place in other parts of
+the United States. From the Atlantic to the Valley of the Mississippi,
+and to the Gulf of Mexico, in every city was heard the firing of guns
+and the ringing of bells. Nothing seemed too extravagant to give
+expression to the popular rejoicing.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning after this illumination, the Niagara entered the harbor
+of New York, and Mr. Field hastened to his home. The night before
+leaving the ship, he had written to the Directors in London, giving a
+full report of the laying of the cable, which he closed by resigning the
+position which he had held for the last seven months. He wrote:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"At your unanimous request, but at a very great personal
+sacrifice to myself, I accepted the office of General Manager
+of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, for the sole purpose of
+doing all in my power to aid you to make the enterprise
+successful; and as that object has been attained, you will
+please accept my resignation. It will always afford me pleasure
+to do any thing in my power, consistent with my duties to my
+family and my own private affairs, to promote the interests of
+the Atlantic Telegraph Company." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p><p>Once more with his family, Mr. Field hoped for a brief interval of rest
+and quiet. But this was impossible. The great event with which his name
+was connected was too fresh in the public mind. He could not escape
+public observation. He was at once thronged with visitors, offering
+their congratulations, and his house surrounded with crowds eager to see
+and hear him. While making all allowance for popular excitement, yet
+none could deny that a service so great demanded some public
+recognition. Even in England, where the enthusiasm did not approach that
+in this country, still the wondrous character of the achievement was
+fully acknowledged. Said the London Times on the morning of the sixth of
+August: "Since the discovery of Columbus, nothing has been done in any
+degree comparable to the vast enlargement which has thus been given to
+the sphere of human activity." "More was done yesterday for the
+consolidation of our empire, than the wisdom of our statesmen, the
+liberality of our Legislature, or the loyalty of our colonists, could
+ever have effected." To mark the public benefit which had been
+conferred, the Chief Engineer of the Expedition, Mr. Charles T. Bright,
+was knighted, and Captains Preedy and Aldham were both made Companions
+of the Bath, and other officers were promoted. Thus England showed her
+appreciation of their services.</p>
+
+<p>But in this country titles and honors come not from <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>the Government, but
+from the people. Popular enthusiasm exhausted itself in eulogies of the
+man who had linked the Old World to the New. It seems strange now to sit
+down in cold blood and read what was published in the papers of that
+day. A collection of American journals issued during that eventful
+month, August, 1858, would be a literary curiosity.<a name="FNanchor_A_21" id="FNanchor_A_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_21" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p><p>Nor was it merely in such outward demonstrations that the public
+enthusiasm showed itself. The feeling struck deeper, and reached all
+minds. While the people shouted and cannon roared, sober and thoughtful
+men pondered on the change that was being wrought in the earth. Business
+men reasoned how it would affect the commerce of the world, while the
+philanthropic regarded it as the forerunner of an age of universal
+peace. The first message flashed across the sea&mdash;even before that of the
+Queen&mdash;had been one of religious exultation. It was from the Directors
+in Great Britain to those on this side the Atlantic, and, simply
+reciting the fact that Europe and America were united by telegraph, at
+once broke into a strain of religious rapture, echoing the song of the
+angels over a Saviour's birth: "Glory to God in the highest; on earth,
+peace, good-will toward men." Poetry at once caught up the strain. The
+event became the theme of innumerable odes and hymns, of which it must
+be said that, whatever their merit as poetry, their spirit at least was
+noble, celebrating the event chiefly as promoting the brotherhood of the
+human family. The key-note was struck in such lines as these:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Tis done! the angry sea consents,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The nations stand no more apart,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With claspèd hands the continents<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Feel throbbings of each other's heart.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Speed, speed the cable; let it run<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A loving girdle round the earth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till all the nations 'neath the sun<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Shall be as brothers of one hearth;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As brothers pledging, hand in hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">One freedom for the world abroad,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One commerce over every land,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">One language and one God.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The sermons preached on this occasion were literally without number.
+Enough found their way into print to make a large volume. Never had an
+event touched more deeply the spirit of religious enthusiasm. Devout men
+held it as an advance toward that millennial era which was at once the
+object of their faith and hope. Was not this the predicted time when,
+"many should run to and fro, and knowledge should be increased?" So said
+the preachers, taking for their favorite text the vision of the
+Psalmist, "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words
+to the end of the world;" or the question of Job: "Canst thou send forth
+the lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are?" Was
+not this the dawn of that happy age, when all men should be bound
+together in peaceful intercourse, and nations should learn war no more?
+Such was the burden of the discourses that were preached in a thousand
+pulpits from one end of the country to the other. Even the Roman
+Catholic Church, so lofty and inflexible in its claims, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>soaring into
+the past centuries, and almost disdaining the material progress of the
+present day as compared with the spiritual glories of the Ages of Faith,
+did not ignore the great event; and in laying the foundation of the new
+Cathedral of St. Patrick, the largest temple of religion on the
+continent, Archbishop Hughes placed under the corner-stone an
+inscription, wherein, along with the enduring record of the Christian
+faith and the names of martyrs and confessors, he did not disdain to
+include a brief memorial of this last achievement of science, and the
+name of him who had conferred so great a benefit on mankind.</p>
+
+<p>These public demonstrations culminated on the first of September, when
+the city authorities gave a public ovation to Mr. Field and the officers
+of the expedition. In accepting these honors, Mr. Field had taken good
+care that the British officers should be included with the American. At
+St. John's he had been notified of the intended celebration, and at once
+telegraphed to the British Admiral at Halifax:</p>
+
+<p>"I should consider it a very great personal favor if you would permit
+the Gorgon, Captain Dayman, to accompany the Niagara, Captain Hudson, to
+New York. English officers and English sailors have labored with
+American officers and American sailors to lay the Atlantic cable. They
+were with us in our days of trial, and pray let them, if you can, share
+with us our triumph."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p><p>The request was granted so far as this, that the officers were allowed
+leave of absence, and came on to New York to take part in the
+celebration, and in all the honors which followed, the officers of the
+Gorgon were associated with those of the Niagara.</p>
+
+<p>The day arrived, and the celebration surpassed any thing which the city
+had ever witnessed before. It was a mild autumn day&mdash;warm, yet with a
+sky softly veiled with clouds, that seemed to invite a whole population
+into the streets. The day commenced with a solemn service at Trinity
+Church, which was attended by the city authorities, the representatives
+of foreign powers, and an immense concourse of people. The vast edifice
+was decorated with evergreens; in the centre hung a cross, with the
+inscription: "Glory to God on high; and on earth, peace, good-will
+towards men." When the audience were assembled, there entered a
+procession of two hundred clergy, headed by Bishop Doane of New Jersey,
+who was to deliver the address. Prayers were offered and Scriptures were
+read, and at intervals the choir gave voice to the general joy in the
+anthems in which for ages the Church has been wont to pour forth its
+exultation: "O come, let us sing unto the Lord," the Gloria in Excelsis,
+and the Te Deum Laudamus.</p>
+
+<p>At noon, Mr. Field and the officers of the ships landed at Castle Garden
+and were received with a national salute. A procession was formed which
+extended <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>for miles from the Battery to the Crystal Palace, which stood
+on the plot of ground now known as Bryant Park, between Fortieth and
+Forty-second streets. In the procession were Lord Napier, the British
+Minister, and officers of the army and navy. For the whole distance the
+streets were crowded. The windows and even the tops of the houses were
+filled with people. Everywhere flags and banners, with every device,
+floated in the air. So dense was the crowd that it was five or six hours
+before the procession could reach the Crystal Palace.</p>
+
+<p>Here its coming was awaited by an assembly that filled all the aisles
+and galleries. An address was delivered, giving the history of the
+Atlantic Telegraph. The Mayor then rose, and presenting Mr. Field to the
+audience, spoke as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>: History records but few enterprises of such 'pith and
+moment' as to command the attention and at the same time enlist
+the sympathies of all mankind. In all ages warlike expeditions
+have been undertaken on a scale of grandeur sufficient to
+astonish the world; but the evils which are inseparable from
+their prosecution have always sent a thrill of horror through
+the anxious nations. The discovery of the Western continent
+even, the grandest event of modern times, was made by an
+insignificant fleet which left the shores of Spain without
+attracting the notice of the civilized world. Far different has
+been the history of the daring and difficult enterprise of
+uniting the Old World and the New by means of the electric
+telegraph. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>From the very outset the good, the great and the
+wise of all lands beneath the sun, have watched with intense
+anxiety, and even when doubt existed, with warm interest, every
+step taken toward the accomplishment of what was universally
+acknowledged to be the most momentous undertaking of an age
+made marvellous by wonderful scientific and mechanical
+achievements. The two greatest and freest nations of the globe,
+by independent constitutional legislation, and by the aid of
+their finest ships and their ablest officers and engineers,
+combined together to insure success. Capital was liberally
+subscribed by private citizens in a spirit which put greed to
+the blush. The press on both sides of the Atlantic recorded the
+details of the progress of the undertaking with cordial
+interest, and secured the generous sympathies of men of all
+kindreds and tongues and nations in its behalf. You were thus
+fortunate, sir, in being identified with a project of such
+magnificent proportions and universal concern. But the
+enterprise itself was no less fortunate in being projected and
+carried into execution by a man whom no obstacles could daunt,
+no disasters discourage, no doubts paralyze, no opposition
+dishearten. If you, to whom the conduct of this great
+enterprise was assigned by the will of Providence and the
+judgment of your fellow-men, had been found wanting in courage,
+in energy, in determination, and in a faith that was truly
+sublime, the very grandeur of the undertaking would only have
+rendered its failure the more conspicuous. But, sir, the
+incidents of the expedition, and the final result&mdash;too familiar
+to all the world to need repetition here&mdash;have demonstrated
+that you possessed all the qualities essential to achieve a
+successful issue. It is for this reason that you now stand out
+from among your fellow-men a mark for their cordial admiration
+and grateful <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>applause. The city of your home delights to honor
+you; your fellow-citizens, conscious that the glory of your
+success is reflected back upon them, are proud that your lot
+has been cast among them. They have already testified their
+appreciation of your great services and heroic perseverance by
+illuminations, processions, serenades, and addresses. And now,
+sir, the municipal government of this, the first city on the
+Western continent, instruct me, who have never felt the honor
+of being its chief magistrate so sensibly as in the presence of
+this vast assemblage of its fair women and substantial
+citizens, to present to you a gold box, with the arms of the
+city engraved thereon, in testimony of the fact that to you
+mainly, under Divine Providence, the world is indebted for the
+successful execution of the grandest enterprise of our day and
+generation; and in behalf of the Mayor, Aldermen, and
+Commonalty of the City of New York, I now request your
+acceptance of this token of their approbation. In conclusion,
+sir, of this, the most agreeable duty of my public life, I
+sincerely trust that your days may be long in the land, and as
+prosperous and honorable as your achievement in uniting the two
+hemispheres by a cord of electric communication has been
+successful and glorious." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>To this flattering address, Mr. Field replied:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>: This will be a memorable day in my life; not only because
+it celebrates the success of an achievement with which my name
+is connected, but because the honor comes from the city of my
+home&mdash;the metropolitan city of the new world. I see here not
+only the civic authorities and citizens at large, but my own
+personal friends&mdash;men with whom I have been connected in
+business and friendly intercourse for the greater part of my
+life. Five weeks ago, this day <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>and hour, I was standing on the
+deck of the Niagara in mid-ocean, with the Gorgon and Valorous
+in sight, waiting for the Agamemnon. The day was cold and
+cheerless, the air was misty, and the wind roughened the sea;
+and when I thought of all that we had passed through&mdash;of the
+hopes thus far disappointed, of the friends saddened by our
+reverses, of the few that remained to sustain us&mdash;I felt a load
+at my heart almost too heavy to bear, though my confidence was
+firm, and my determination fixed. How different is the scene
+now before me&mdash;this vast crowd testifying their sympathy and
+approval, praises without stint, and friends without number!
+This occasion, sir, gives me the opportunity to express my
+thanks for the enthusiastic reception which I have received,
+and I here make my acknowledgments before this vast concourse
+of my fellow-citizens. To the ladies I may, perhaps, add, that
+they have had their appropriate place, for when the cable was
+laid, the first public message that passed over it came from
+one of their own sex. This box, sir, which I have the honor to
+receive from your hand, shall testify to me and to my children
+what my own city thinks of my acts. For your kindness, sir,
+expressed in such flattering, too flattering terms, and for the
+kindness of my fellow-citizens, I repeat my most heartfelt
+thanks." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The enthusiasm with which this address was received reached its height,
+when at the close, Mr. Field advanced to the edge of the platform, and
+unrolling a despatch, held it up, saying: "Gentlemen, I have just
+received a telegraphic message from a little village, now a suburb of
+New York, which I will read to you:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>
+</p>
+<blockquote><p class="letterindent">"London, September 1, 1858.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">To Cyrus W. Field</span>, New York:</p>
+
+<p>"The directors are on their way to Valentia, to make
+arrangements for opening the line to the public. They convey,
+through the cable, to you and your fellow-citizens, their
+hearty congratulations and good wishes, and cordially
+sympathize in your joyous celebration of the great
+international work."<a name="FNanchor_B_22" id="FNanchor_B_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_22" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A gold medal was presented to Captain Hudson, with an address, to which
+he made a fitting reply. Similar testimonials were presented to all the
+English captains through Mr. Archibald, the British Consul, who replied
+for his absent countrymen, after which the whole audience rose to their
+feet, as the band played "God save the Queen."</p>
+
+<p>It was long after dark when the exercises closed, and the vast multitude
+dispersed.</p>
+
+<p>The night witnessed one of those displays for which New York surpasses
+all the cities of the world&mdash;a firemen's torchlight procession&mdash;a
+display such as was afterward given to the Prince of Wales, but which we
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>shall probably witness no more, since the Volunteer Fire Department is
+disbanded.</p>
+
+<p>But one day did not exhaust the public enthusiasm. The next evening, a
+grand banquet was given by the city authorities, at which were present a
+great number of distinguished guests. Lord Napier spoke, in language as
+happy as it was eloquent, of the new tie that was formed between kindred
+dwelling on opposite sides of the sea, and awarded the highest praise to
+the one whom he recognized as the author of this great achievement.</p>
+
+<p>While these demonstrations continued, every opposing voice was hushed in
+the chorus of national rejoicing; yet some there were, no doubt, who
+looked on with silent envy or whispered detraction. But who could grudge
+these honors to the hero of the hour&mdash;honors so hardly won, and which,
+as it proved, were soon to give place to harsh censures and unjust
+imputations?</p>
+
+<p>Alas for all human glory! Its paths lead but to the grave. Death is the
+end of human ambition. The very day that a whole city rose up to do
+honor to the Atlantic Telegraph and its author, it gave its last throb,
+and that first cable was thenceforth to sleep for ever silent in its
+ocean grave.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_21" id="Footnote_A_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_21"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Such a curiosity exists, prepared by the industry of a
+gentleman who was one of the most careful collectors of the events of
+his time&mdash;by which he gathered up the materials of future history&mdash;Mr.
+John R. Bartlett, formerly Secretary of State of Rhode Island. This
+gentleman kept files of all the papers referring to the Atlantic
+Telegraph, from which he compiled a very unique volume. It is in the
+form of a scrap-book, but on a gigantic scale, being of a size equal to
+Webster's large Dictionary. It is made up entirely of newspaper
+cuttings, classified under different heads, and neatly arranged in
+double columns on nearly four hundred folio pages. The matter thus
+compressed would make between three and four octavo volumes of the size
+of Prescott's Histories, if printed in the style of those works. Every
+thing is included that could be gathered from European as well as
+American papers, touching the claims of the inventors and projectors of
+the electric telegraph in general, and of the Atlantic Telegraph in
+particular. The historical sketches are set off by illustrations taken
+from the pictorial papers. Altogether it embraces more of the materials
+of a history of this subject than any other volume with which we are
+acquainted, and well deserves the title prefixed to it by the laborious
+compiler:
+</p><p>
+"<span class="smcap">The Atlantic Telegraph.</span>&mdash;Its Origin and History, with an Account of the
+Voyages of the Steamers Niagara and Agamemnon, in Laying the Cable, and
+of the Celebration of the Great Event in New York, Philadelphia,
+Brooklyn, Montreal, Dublin, Paris, etc.; together with the Discussions,
+Sermons, Poetry, and Anecdotes relating thereto; also, a History of the
+Invention of the Electric Telegraph. Illustrated with Maps, Plans,
+Views, and Portraits, collected from the Newspapers of the Day, and
+arranged by John Russell Bartlett. 1858."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_22" id="Footnote_B_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_22"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> The history of this despatch is curious. Though dated at
+London, it was sent from a small town in Ireland. The directors were on
+their way from Dublin to Valentia, on the morning of the first of
+September, when Mr. Saward remarked: "This is the day of the celebration
+in New York&mdash;we ought to send a despatch to Mr. Field." Accordingly, at
+the first stopping-place (Mallow Station) the message was written, and
+forwarded to Valentia, and thence sent across the Atlantic. It was put
+into Mr. Field's hand as he was getting into his carriage on the
+Battery.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
+
+DID THE FIRST CABLE EVER WORK?</h2>
+
+
+<p>The Atlantic cable was dead! That word fell heavy as a stone on the
+hearts of those who had staked so much upon it. What a bitter
+disappointment to their hopes! In all the experience of life there are
+no sadder moments than those in which, after years of anxious toil,
+striving for a great object, and after one glorious hour of triumph, the
+achievement that seemed complete becomes a total wreck. Vain is all
+human toil and endeavor. The years thus spent are fled away; the labor
+that was to have brought such a reward of "riches and honor," is lost;
+and the prolonged tension of the mind by the excitement of hope and
+ambition, and the temporary success, reacts to plunge it into a deeper
+depression. So was it here. Years of labor and millions of capital were
+swept away in an hour into the bosom of the pitiless sea.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the reaction of the public mind was very great. As its elation
+had been so extravagant before, it was now silent and almost sullen.
+People were ashamed of their late enthusiasm, and disposed to revenge
+themselves on those who had been the objects <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>of their idolatry. It is
+instructive to read the papers of the day. As soon as it was evident
+that the Atlantic cable was a dead lion, many hastened to give it a
+parting kick. There was no longer any dispute as to who was the author
+of the great achievement. Rival claimants quietly withdrew from the
+field, content to leave him alone in his glory.</p>
+
+<p>Many explanations were offered of this sudden suspension of life. One
+writer argued that the Telegraphic Plateau was only a myth; that the
+bottom of the ocean was jagged and precipitous; that the cable passed
+over lofty mountain chains, and hung suspended from the peaks of
+submarine Alps, till it broke and fell into the tremendous depths below.</p>
+
+<p>But others found a readier explanation. With the natural tendency of a
+popular excitement to rush from one extreme to the other, many now
+believed that the whole thing was an imposition on public credulity, a
+sort of "Moon hoax." An elaborate article appeared in a Boston paper,
+headed with the alarming question, "Was the Atlantic cable a humbug?"
+wherein the writer argued through several columns that it was a huge
+deception. A writer in an English paper also made merry of the
+celebration in Dublin, where a banquet was given to Sir Charles Bright,
+in an article bearing the ominous title: "Very like a whale!" This
+writer proved not only that the Atlantic cable was never laid, but that
+such a thing was mathematically <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>impossible. But since he turned out to
+be a crazy fellow, whom the police had to take into custody, his
+"demonstrations" did not make much impression on the public. The
+difficulty of finding a motive for the perpetration of such a stupendous
+fraud, did not at all embarrass these ingenious writers. Was it not
+enough to make the world stare? to furnish something to the gaping
+crowd, even though it were but a nine days' wonder? Those who thus
+reasoned seemed not to reflect that such deceptions are always sure to
+be found out; that one who goes up like a rocket comes down like a
+stick; and that if by false means he has made himself an object of
+popular idolatry, he is likely to become the object of popular
+indignation.</p>
+
+<p>But others there were&mdash;sharp, shrewd men&mdash;who thought they could see
+through a mill-stone farther than their neighbors, who shook their heads
+with a knowing air, and said: "It was all a stock speculation." One
+writer stepped before the public with this solemn inquiry: "Now that the
+great cable glorification is over, we should like to ask one question:
+How many shares of his stock did Mr. Field sell during the month of
+August?" This he evidently thought was a question which could not be
+answered, except by acknowledging a great imposition on the public. If
+this brilliant inquirer after truth really desired to be informed, we
+could have referred him to Messrs. George Peabody &amp; Co., of London, with
+whom was deposited <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>all of Mr. Field's stock at the time, and who,
+during that memorable month of August, sold <i>just one share</i>, and that
+at a price below the par value, which had been paid by Mr. Field
+himself. Whether this was an object sufficiently great to set two
+hemispheres in a blaze, we leave him to judge.</p>
+
+<p>To those who have followed this narrative, all these conjectures and
+suspicions will appear very absurd. The personal reflections of course
+deserved and received only the contempt with which a man of character
+always scorns an imputation on his personal honor. But while these
+anonymous scribblers might be despised, many honest people not disposed
+to think evil were sorely perplexed. That the cable should continue to
+work for three or four weeks, <i>and then stop the very day of the
+celebration</i>, was certainly a singular, if not a suspicious
+circumstance; and it was not to be wondered at that it should excite a
+painful feeling of doubt. The distrust is quite natural, and ought not
+to be matter either of offence or surprise. On the contrary, those who
+are fully satisfied of the facts, ought rather to be glad of the
+opportunity which such questions afford, to present the amplest
+vindication.</p>
+
+<p>To relieve all doubts, it is only necessary to give a very brief history
+of the working of the Atlantic cable. It was landed on both sides of the
+ocean on the fifth of August. The last recorded message passed over it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>on the first of September, one day short of four weeks. Within that
+time there were sent exactly four hundred messages, of which two hundred
+and seventy-one were from Newfoundland to Ireland, and one hundred and
+twenty-nine from Ireland to Newfoundland. Of these, the greater part
+were merely between the operators themselves, respecting the adjustment
+of instruments, and working the telegraph, which, while they furnished
+decisive evidence <i>to them</i>, were of no force to the public. Of course
+an operator, working with a battery on the shore at Valentia, or at
+Trinity Bay, watching his instrument, and seeing the little tongue of
+light reflected from the moving mirror of the galvanometer, needed no
+other evidence of an electric current that had passed through the cable.
+He <i>saw</i> it, and knew, as if he saw the flash of a gun on the coast of
+Ireland, that it was a light which had come from beyond the sea. But
+these private assurances were nothing to the outside world. What they
+needed was <i>public</i> messages, conveying news from one hemisphere to the
+other. Of these, there were not a great number, for obvious reasons. The
+cable, during the four weeks of its existence, never worked
+<i>perfectly</i>&mdash;that is, as a land line works, transmitting messages freely
+and rapidly, and with perfect accuracy. It was subject to frequent
+interruptions for reasons which may satisfy any one that the wonder is,
+not that it did so little, but that it did so much.</p>
+
+<p>1st. To begin with, the cable was not constructed in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>the most perfect
+manner. Its makers, though the best then in the world, had had but
+little experience in making deep-sea cables. No line over three hundred
+miles long had ever been laid. 2d. It had been made more than a year
+before. After it was finished, part of it had been coiled out of doors,
+where it was exposed to a burning sun, by which, as was afterward found,
+the gutta-percha had been melted in many places till the insulation was
+nearly destroyed. 3d. It had been put on board the ships in 1857, and
+after the first failure, had been taken out and coiled on the dock at
+Plymouth, and then re-shipped in 1858. Thus it had been twisted and
+untwisted, some portions of it as many as ten times. Then the Agamemnon
+was so shaken in the terrible gale of June, that the cable on board of
+her was seriously injured, and some portions were cut out and condemned.
+Taking all these things together, the wonder is, not that the cable
+failed after a month, but that it ever worked at all!</p>
+
+<p>Owing to this impaired state of the cable, it did <i>not</i> work perfectly.
+Probably it would not have worked at all with ordinary instruments. But
+the galvanometer of Professor Thomson, that instrument of marvellous
+delicacy, drew faint whispers from its muttering lips. Signals came and
+went, which showed that the electric current passed from shore to shore,
+and gave promise that with delicate handling it could be taught to speak
+plainly. But for the present it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>spoke slowly and with difficulty. It
+often took hours to get through a single despatch of any length. Witness
+the delay in transmitting the Queen's message! These frequent
+interruptions were ascribed to various causes. Sometimes it was
+earth-currents; at others, a thunderstorm was raging. Thus, on the
+morning of Thursday, the twenty-sixth of August, there was a violent
+storm in Newfoundland, heavy rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning.
+At three o'clock, the lightning was so intense that for an hour and a
+half the end of the cable had to be put to the earth for protection.
+After that the storm cleared away, and at seven o'clock the weather was
+reported as very fine. But aside from these local and temporary causes,
+the real difficulty was in the cable itself, whose insulation had been
+fatally impaired, and which was now wearing out its life on the rocks of
+the sea. These causes made its speech difficult and broken. Yet
+sometimes it flashed up with sudden power. In one case, a message was
+sent from the office at Trinity Bay to Ireland and an answer received
+back in two minutes! Such incidents excited the liveliest hopes that all
+difficulties would be speedily overcome, and justified the messages
+which were sent to the New York papers from day to day, that the
+instruments were being adjusted, by which it was expected that the line
+would soon be put in perfect working order, and be thrown open to the
+public. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>But these flashes of light proved to be only the flickering of
+the flame, that was soon to be extinguished in the eternal darkness of
+the waters.</p>
+
+<p>But the question which perplexed not only skeptics, but the truest
+friends, was not whether the cable worked fast or slow, <i>but whether it
+ever worked at all</i>. Happily, this is a question which can easily be
+settled, since it is one simply of facts and dates, which can be
+ascertained by referring to the files of the English and American
+papers. Of course the only proof must be in messages containing <i>news</i>.
+Mere congratulations between the Queen and the President, or the Mayor
+of New York and the Mayor of London, prove nothing, for these might have
+been prepared beforehand, if we suppose a design to impose on the
+credulity of the public. But the decisive test is this: Was there at any
+time within that month published in the English or American journals
+<i>news</i> which could not be matter of guess or conjecture, and within a
+time too short for its possible transmission in any other way? If this
+can be proved beyond all doubt, even in a few instances, the question is
+decided, for the argument is just as strong with a dozen cases as with a
+thousand. We give, therefore, a few dates, the accuracy of which can be
+tested by any one who will take the trouble to examine the English and
+American papers:</p>
+
+<p>On Saturday, the fourteenth of August, the steamships <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>Arabia and
+Europa, the former bound for New York and the latter for Liverpool, came
+into collision off Cape Race. The accident was not known in New York
+until Tuesday, the seventeenth, since it could not be telegraphed till
+the Arabia reached Halifax or the Europa St. John's, into which port she
+put for repairs. As soon as the news reached New York, the agent of the
+Company, Mr. Nimmo (Mr. Cunard himself being then in England), at once
+prepared a despatch to be sent to relieve immediate anxiety. This was
+not forwarded to Newfoundland, as peremptory orders had been given not
+to transmit any private business messages to go through the cable until
+the line was fully open to the public. But the next day Mr. Field
+arrived in New York, and Mr. Nimmo applied to him. Seeing the urgency of
+the case, he ordered it to be forwarded. It was accordingly sent, and
+arrived in London on the twentieth, giving the first news that was
+received of the accident. This was repeatedly stated by the late Sir
+Samuel Cunard, of London, and confirmed by his son Mr. Edward Cunard, of
+New York. The message was published in the London papers of the
+twenty-first, as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Arabia in collision with Europa, Cape Race, Saturday. Arabia
+on her way. Head slightly injured. Europa lost bowsprit,
+cutwater stem sprung. Will remain in St. John's ten days from
+sixteenth. Persia calls at St. John's for mails and passengers.
+No loss of life or limb." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p><p>This first news message was not only a very decisive one as to the fact
+of telegraphic communication, but one which showed the relief given by
+speedy knowledge in dispelling doubt and fear. Mr. William E. Dodge, of
+New York, says: "I was in Liverpool at the time, and expecting friends
+by the Europa. Any delay in the arrival of the ship would have caused
+great anxiety. But one morning, on going down to the Exchange, we saw
+posted up this despatch received the night before by the Atlantic
+Telegraph. All then said, if the cable never did any thing more, it had
+fully repaid its cost." Well may he add with devout feeling: "It seemed
+as if Divine Providence had permitted the event, to furnish a testimony
+which could not be denied, to the reality and the benefit of this new
+means of communication between the two continents."</p>
+
+<p>Passing over all the messages exchanged between the operators at the
+stations, the congratulations of Queen and President, and of the Mayors
+of New York and London, we come to another news despatch. August
+twenty-fifth, Newfoundland reports to Valentia:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Persia takes Europa's passengers and mails. Great rejoicing
+everywhere at success of cable. Bonfires, fireworks, <i>feux de
+joie</i>, speeches, balls, etc. <i>Mr. Eddy, the first and best
+telegrapher in the States, died to-day.</i> Pray give some news
+for New York; they are mad for news." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This despatch the writer, who was then in Europe, read first in the
+London Times. The item which arrested <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>his attention was the death of
+Mr. Eddy, as he had some acquaintance with that gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>That the news must have come by cable, is clearly shown by an
+examination of dates. He died suddenly, at Burlington, Vermont, Monday,
+August twenty-third, 1858, at ten o'clock fifteen minutes <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> The exact
+day and hour we learned from his widow, who after his death lived in
+Brooklyn. The news was telegraphed to New York, and from there sent to
+Trinity Bay, which it reached the following day, and from which it was
+forwarded to Valentia, and appeared in the London Times Wednesday
+morning. Thus not forty-eight hours elapsed after he breathed his last,
+before it was published in England. If any one wishes to see the
+despatch, he will find a file of The Times in the Astor Library.</p>
+
+<p>But here appears a slight discrepancy, that, however, when examined,
+furnishes double proof. The despatch is dated August twenty-fifth, and
+says Mr. Eddy died <i>to-day</i>, and yet it is published in the London Times
+of the same date! How is this? It was sent between nine and ten o'clock
+at night of the twenty-fourth, when the operator at Heart's Content
+would say <i>this day</i> of a piece of news just received, but in affixing
+the date, he was governed <i>by Greenwich time</i>, which made it more than
+three hours later. Accordingly it was published in The Times, dated
+August twenty-fifth, fifty-three minutes past twelve <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p><p>Those who argued for the theory of collusion and deception, must have
+been embarrassed by this unexpected intelligence appearing in London,
+which could only be explained as a false report, unless (more wonderful
+still!) Mr. Eddy had entered into the plot, and sent the message
+beforehand, and then offered himself as a sacrifice, to prove it
+correct!</p>
+
+<p>To the demand for news in the above despatch, a reply was at once
+returned: "Sent to London for news." And later the same day came the
+following:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"North American with Canadian, and the Asia with direct Boston
+mails, leave Liverpool, and Fulton, Southampton, Saturday next.
+To-day's morning papers have long, interesting reports by
+Bright. Indian news. Virago arrived at Liverpool to-day; Bombay
+dates nineteenth July. Mutiny being rapidly quelled." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A despatch of the same date, August twenty-fifth, also announces peace
+with China. The whole was received at Trinity Bay about nine o'clock
+<span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and would have been sent on at once to New York, but that the land
+lines in Nova Scotia were closed at that hour. It was sent the next
+morning, and appeared in the evening papers of the twenty-sixth.</p>
+
+<p>By referring again to the London Times, the reader will see that the
+news from China was published in London on the twenty-third of August.
+It was there given as <i>unexpected news</i>, so that it could not have been
+a shrewd guess on the part of anybody <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>either in England or America. It
+took the public by surprise, both for the news itself and <i>for the way
+in which it came</i>&mdash;which was not by India and the Red Sea, but by St.
+Petersburg, where it arrived on the twenty-first, having been brought
+overland by a courier to Prince Gortchakoff. From there it was
+telegraphed to the Government at Paris, and thence to London. The Times
+comments on this roundabout way in which intelligence so important
+reached England. Yet this news, so unlooked for, announced in London
+only on the morning of the twenty-third of August, was published in New
+York on the twenty-sixth.</p>
+
+<p>August twenty-seventh, comes a still longer despatch, which we give in
+full:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"George Saward, Secretary Atlantic Telegraph Company, to
+Associated Press, New York. News for America by Atlantic cable.
+Emperor of France returned to Paris, Saturday. King of Prussia
+too ill to visit Queen Victoria. Her Majesty returns to England
+thirtieth of August.&mdash;St. Petersburg, twenty-first of August.
+Settlement of Chinese question. Chinese empire opened to trade;
+Christian religion allowed; foreign diplomatic agents admitted;
+indemnity to England and France.&mdash;Alexandria, August ninth. The
+Madras arrived at Suez seventh inst. Dates Bombay to the
+nineteenth; Aden, thirty-first. Gwalior insurgent army broken
+up. All India becoming tranquil." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This despatch embodies about a dozen distinct items of news, not one of
+which could be known without a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>telegraphic communication. The whole was
+received in New York, and published in the evening papers <i>the same
+day</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Not to be outdone in giving news, the next day, Saturday, August
+twenty-eighth, Newfoundland thus replies to Valentia:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"To the Directors: Take news first, Saward. Sir William
+Williams, of Kars, arrived Halifax Tuesday. Enthusiastically
+received. Immense procession&mdash;welcome address&mdash;feeling reply.
+Held levee&mdash;large number presented. Niagara sailed for
+Liverpool at one this morning. The Gorgon arrived at Halifax
+last night. Yellow fever in New Orleans, sixty to seventy
+deaths per day. Also declared epidemic, Charleston. Great
+preparations in New York and other places for celebration, to
+be held the first and second of September. New Yorkers will
+make it the greatest gala-day ever known in this country.
+Hermann sailed for Fraser's River; six hundred passengers.
+Prince Albert sailed yesterday for Galway. Arabia and Ariel
+arrived New York; Anglo Saxon, Quebec; Canada, Boston. Europa
+left St. John's this morning. Splendid aurora Bay of Bulls
+to-night, extending over eighty-five degrees of the horizon." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Let any one read this despatch, sentence by sentence, noting the
+minuteness of the details&mdash;which could not be known or conjectured&mdash;such
+as the appearance of yellow fever at New Orleans, with the number of
+deaths a day; the sailing or arrival of seven steamers; the number of
+passengers for Fraser's River, etc.&mdash;and then examine the London Times,
+in which all these <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>items appeared Monday morning, August thirtieth, and
+if he does not admit that collusion or deception is out of the question,
+no amount of evidence could convince him.</p>
+
+<p>We will give but one proof more. On the last day of August, the day
+before the cable ceased to work, Valentia sent to Newfoundland two
+messages for the British Government, both signed by "the Military
+Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief, Horse Guards, London," and
+addressed&mdash;the first to General Trollope, Halifax, which said, "The
+Sixty-second regiment is not to return to England;" and the other to the
+General Officer commanding at Montreal, saying: "The Thirty-ninth
+regiment is not to return to England." The year before (1857) had
+witnessed the Sepoy Mutiny, which threatened the overthrow of the
+British Empire in India. The fighting was over, but the country was
+still agitated, and the Home Government in fear that the rebellion might
+be renewed, so that it continued to send forward fresh troops. It had
+sent out orders by mail for these two regiments to embark immediately
+for home, to be sent to India. But the mutiny being nearly suppressed,
+this was found not to be necessary, and the prompt countermanding of the
+order by telegraph saved the British Government, in the cost of
+transportation of troops, not less than fifty thousand pounds. The
+despatch to Halifax was received the same day that it was sent from
+London. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>The sending of this despatch, and its almost immediate
+reception, is attested by an official letter from the War Office in
+London.</p>
+
+<p>This array of proofs of what took place a quarter of a century ago, may
+seem superfluous now that experience has made despatches from the other
+side of the ocean one of the familiar things of our daily life. And yet
+at that date the achievement was so stupendous, and, as some thought, in
+its very nature so incredible, that men of the greatest intelligence
+could not be convinced. The late Mr. Charles O'Conor continued for years
+to quote the fact that some men believed that a message had actually
+passed across the Atlantic as the most amazing illustration of human
+credulity! Happily he lived to see and to appreciate to its full value
+this latest miracle of scientific discovery, applied by human genius and
+skill.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+
+CAST DOWN, BUT NOT IN DESPAIR.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It takes a long time to recover from a great disaster. When at last the
+friends of the Atlantic Telegraph were obliged to confess that the cable
+had ceased to work; when all the efforts of the electricians failed to
+draw more than a few faint whispers, a dying gasp, from the depths of
+the sea, there ensued in the public mind a feeling of profound
+discouragement. For a time this paralyzed all effort to revive the
+Company and to renew the enterprise. And yet the feeling, though
+natural, was extreme. If they had not done all they attempted, they had
+accomplished much. They had at least demonstrated the possibility of
+laying a cable across the Atlantic Ocean, and of sending messages
+through it. This alone was no small triumph. So men reasoned when sober
+reflection returned, and at length the tide of public confidence, which
+had ebbed so strongly, began to reflow, and once more to creep up the
+shores of England.</p>
+
+<p>But when a great enterprise has been overthrown, and lies prostrate on
+the earth, the first impulse of its friends is to call on Cæsar for
+help. So the first appeal <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>of the Atlantic Telegraph Company was to the
+British Government. It was claimed, and with reason, that the work was
+too great to be undertaken by private capital alone. It was a matter,
+not of private speculation, but of public and national concern. It was,
+therefore, an object which might justly be undertaken by a powerful
+government, in the interest of science and of civilization.</p>
+
+<p>To raise capital for a new cable, it was necessary to have some better
+security than the hazards of a vast and doubtful undertaking. Hence the
+Company asked the Government to guarantee the interest on a certain
+amount of stock, even if the second attempt should not prove a success.
+With such a guarantee, the capital could be raised in London in a day.</p>
+
+<p>In this application they might have been successful, but for an untoward
+event, which dampened the confidence of the public in all submarine
+enterprises&mdash;the failure of the Red Sea Telegraph. The British
+Government, anxious to forward communication with India, had given that
+Company an unconditional guarantee, on the strength of which the capital
+was raised, and the cable manufactured and laid. But in a short time it
+ceased to work, a loss which the treasury of Great Britain had to make
+good. To the public, which did not understand the cause of the failure
+to be the imperfect construction of the cable, the effect was to impair
+confidence in all long submarine telegraphs. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>Of course, after such an
+experience, the Government was not disposed to bind itself by such
+pledges again. It was, however, ready to aid the enterprise by any safe
+means. It therefore increased its subsidy from fourteen thousand pounds
+to twenty thousand pounds; and guaranteed eight per cent on six hundred
+thousand pounds of new capital for twenty-five years, with only one
+condition&mdash;<i>that the cable should work</i>. This was a liberal grant, and
+under the circumstances, was all that could be expected.</p>
+
+<p>Still further to encourage the undertaking, it ordered new soundings to
+be taken off the coast of Ireland. These were made by Captain Hoskins,
+of the Royal Navy, and dispelled the fears which had been entertained of
+a submarine mountain, which would prove an impassable barrier in the
+path of an ocean telegraph.</p>
+
+<p>But the greatest service which the British Government rendered, was in
+the long course of experiments which it now ordered, to determine all
+the difficult problems of submarine telegraphy. In 1859, the year after
+the failure of the first Atlantic cable, the Board of Trade appointed a
+committee of the most eminent scientific and engineering authorities in
+Great Britain to investigate the whole subject. This was composed of
+Captain Douglas Galton, of the Royal Engineers, then of the War Office,
+who represented the Government; Professor Wheatstone, the celebrated
+electrician; William Fairbairn, President of the British Association
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>for the Advancement of Science; George Parker Bidder, whose name ranks
+with those of Stephenson and Brunel; C. F. Varley, who, in the practical
+working of telegraphs, had no superior in England; Latimer Clark and
+Edwin Clark, both engineers, who had had great experience in the
+business of telegraphing; and George Saward, the Secretary of the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company.</p>
+
+<p>This Committee sat for nearly two years, at the end of which it made a
+report to the Government, which fills a very large volume, in which are
+detailed an immense number of experiments, touching the form and size of
+cables, their relative strength and flexibility, the power of
+telegraphing at long distances, the speed at which messages could be
+sent; and in fine, every possible question, either as to the electrical
+or engineering difficulties to be overcome. The result of these manifold
+and laborious experiments is summed up in the following certificate,
+signed by all who had taken part in this memorable investigation:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">London</span>, 13th July, 1863.
+</p>
+
+<p>"We, the undersigned, members of the Committee, who were
+appointed by the Board of Trade, in 1859, to investigate the
+question of submarine telegraphy, and whose investigation
+continued from that time to April, 1861, do hereby state, as
+the result of our deliberations, that a well-insulated cable,
+properly protected, of suitable specific gravity, made with
+care, and tested under water throughout <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>its progress with the
+best known apparatus, and paid into the ocean with the most
+improved machinery, possesses every prospect of not only being
+successfully laid in the first instance, but may reasonably be
+relied upon to continue for many years in an efficient state
+for the transmission of signals. </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+<span class="smcap">Douglas Galton,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">C. Wheatstone,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Wm. Fairbairn,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Geo. P. Bidder,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Cromwell F. Varley,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Latimer Clark,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Edwin Clark,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Geo. Saward.</span>"
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Thus the years which followed the failure of 1858&mdash;though they saw no
+attempt to lay another ocean cable&mdash;were not years of idleness. They
+were rather years of experiment and of preparation, clearing the way for
+new efforts and final victory. The Atlantic Telegraph itself had been a
+grand experiment. It had taught many important truths which could be
+learned in no other way. Not only had it demonstrated the possibility of
+telegraphing from continent to continent, but it had been useful even in
+exposing its own defects, as it taught how to avoid them in the future.</p>
+
+<p>For example, in working the first cable, the electricians had thought it
+necessary to use a very strong battery. They did not suppose they could
+reach across the whole breadth of the Atlantic, and touch the Western
+hemisphere, unless they sent an electric current that was almost like a
+stroke of lightning; and that, in fact, endangered the safety of the
+conducting wire. But they soon found that this was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>unnecessary. God was
+not in the whirlwind, but in the still, small voice. A soft touch could
+send a thrill along that iron nerve. It seemed as if the deep were a
+vast whispering gallery, and that a gentle voice murmured in the ocean
+caves, like a whisper in a sea-shell, might be caught, so wonderful are
+the harmonies of nature, by listening ears on remote continents; a
+miracle of science, that could give a literal meaning to Milton's</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+"Airy tongues, that syllable men's names<br />
+On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses."
+</p>
+
+<p>These were also years of great progress, not only in the science of
+submarine telegraphy, but in the construction of deep-sea cables. In
+spite of the failure of that in the Red Sea, one was laid down in the
+Mediterranean, 1,535 miles long, from Malta to Alexandria, and another
+in the Persian Gulf, 1,400 miles long, by which telegraphic
+communication was finally opened from England to India. Others were laid
+in different seas and oceans in distant parts of the world. These great
+triumphs, following the scientific experiments which had been made,
+revived public confidence, and prepared the way for a fresh attempt to
+pass the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>Yet not much was done to renew the enterprise until 1862. Mr. Field had
+been indefatigable in his efforts to reanimate the Company. He was
+continually <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>going back and forth to the British Provinces and to
+England, urging it wherever his voice could be heard. Yet times were
+adverse. The United States had been suddenly involved in a tremendous
+war, which called into the field hundreds of thousands of men, and
+entailed a burden of many hundreds of millions. While engaged in this
+life-and-death struggle, and rolling up a mountain of debt, our people
+had little thought to bestow on great enterprises by land or sea.</p>
+
+<p>And yet one incident of the war forcibly recalled public attention to
+the necessity of some speedier communication with Europe than by steam.
+The unhappy Trent affair aroused an angry feeling in Great Britain which
+nearly resulted in hostilities, all of which might have been prevented
+by a single word of explanation. As The Times said truly: "We nearly
+went to war with America because we had not a telegraph across the
+Atlantic." After such a warning, it was natural that both countries
+should begin to think seriously of the means of preventing future
+misunderstanding. Mr. Field went to Washington, and found great
+readiness on the part of the President and his Cabinet to encourage the
+enterprise. Mr. Seward wrote to our Minister in London that the American
+Government would be happy to join with that of Great Britain in
+promoting this international work. With this encouragement, Mr. Field
+went to England to urge the Company <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>to renew the undertaking. While in
+London, he endeavored to obtain from some responsible parties an offer
+to construct and lay down a cable. Messrs. Glass, Elliot &amp; Co., replied,
+declaring their willingness to undertake the work, without at first
+naming the precise terms. They wrote to him under date of February
+seventeenth:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>: In reply to your inquiries, we beg to state that we
+should not be willing to manufacture and lay a Submarine
+Telegraph Cable across the Atlantic, from Ireland to
+Newfoundland, assuming the entire risk, as we consider that
+would be too great a responsibility for any single firm to
+undertake; but we are so confident that these points can be
+connected by a good and durable cable, that we are willing to
+contract to do the work, and stake a large sum upon its
+successful laying and working.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall be prepared in a few days, as soon as we can get the
+necessary information in regard to what price we can charter
+suitable ships for the service, to make you a definite offer." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Although it is anticipating a few months in time, we may give here the
+"definite offer," which was obtained by Mr. Field, on his return to
+England in the autumn:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">London</span>, October 20, 1862.
+</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Cyrus W. Field, Esq., Atlantic Telegraph Company</i>:</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: In reply to your inquiries, we beg to state, that we
+are perfectly confident that a good and durable Submarine Cable
+can be laid from Ireland to Newfoundland, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>and are willing to
+undertake the contract upon the following conditions:</p>
+
+<p>"First. That we shall be paid each week our actual
+disbursements for labor and material.</p>
+
+<p>"Second. That when the cable is laid and in working order, we
+shall receive for our time, services, and profit twenty per
+cent on the actual cost of the line, in shares of the Company,
+deliverable to us, in twelve equal monthly instalments, at the
+end of each successive month whereat the cable shall be found
+in working order.</p>
+
+<p>"We are so confident that this enterprise can be successfully
+carried out, that we will make a cash subscription for a sum of
+twenty-five thousand pounds sterling in the ordinary capital of
+the Company, and pay the calls on the same when made by the
+Company.</p>
+
+<p>"Annexed we beg to hand you, for your guidance, a list of all
+the submarine telegraph cables manufactured and laid by our
+firm since we commenced this branch of our business, the whole
+mileage of which, with the exception of the short one between
+Liverpool and Holyhead, which has been taken up, is at this
+time in perfect and successful working order. The cable that we
+had the honor to contract for and lay down for the French
+Government, connecting France with Algeria, is submerged in
+water of nearly equal depths to any we should have to encounter
+between Ireland and Newfoundland.</p>
+
+<p>"You will permit us to suggest that the shore ends of the
+Atlantic Cable should be composed of very heavy wires, as from
+our experience the only accidents that have arisen to any of
+the cables that we have laid have been caused by ships'
+anchors, and none of those laid out of anchorage ground have
+ever cost one shilling for repairs.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p><p>"The cable that we would suggest for the Atlantic will be an
+improvement on all those yet manufactured, and we firmly
+believe will be imperishable when once laid.</p>
+
+<p>"We remain, sir, yours faithfully, </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">Glass, Elliot &amp; Co.</span>"
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The summer of this year Mr. Field spent in America, where he applied
+himself vigorously to raise capital for the new enterprise. To this end
+he visited Boston, Providence, Philadelphia, Albany, and Buffalo&mdash;to
+address meetings of merchants and others. He used to amuse us with the
+account of his visit to the first city, where he was honored with the
+attendance of a large array of "the solid men of Boston," who listened
+with an attention that was most flattering to the pride of the speaker,
+addressing such an assemblage in the capital of his native State. There
+was no mistaking the interest they felt in the subject. They went still
+farther, they passed a series of resolutions, in which they applauded
+the projected telegraph across the ocean as one of the grandest
+enterprises ever undertaken by man, which they proudly commended to the
+confidence and support of the American public, after which they went
+home, feeling that they had done the generous thing in bestowing upon it
+such a mark of their approbation. <i>But not a man subscribed a dollar!</i>
+Yet it is not necessary to charge them with meanness or hypocrisy. No
+doubt they felt just what they said. They could not but admire the
+courage of their countryman. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>It was inspiring to hear him talk. Yet
+these solid men were never lifted off their feet so far as to forget the
+main chance. What were to be the returns for this magnificent adventure?
+Peering into the future, the prospect of dividends was very remote. In
+fact they looked upon the Atlantic Telegraph as a sort of South Sea
+Bubble, an airy fancy, which would go up like a balloon, never to return
+to earth again. So, like the high priest and the Levite, they passed by
+on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>Other cities were equally gracious, equally complimentary, but equally
+prudent. In New York he succeeded better, but only by indefatigable
+exertions. He addressed the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Brokers,
+and the Corn Exchange, and then he went almost literally from door to
+door, calling on merchants and bankers to enlist their aid. The result
+was, subscriptions amounting to about seventy thousand pounds, the whole
+of which was due to persevering personal solicitation. Even of those who
+subscribed, a large part did so more from sympathy and admiration of his
+indomitable spirit than from confidence in the success of the
+enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>In England, however, the subject was better understood. For obvious
+reasons, the science of submarine telegraphy had made greater advances
+in that country than in ours. As England is an island, she is obliged to
+hold all her telegraphic communication with the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>continent by cables
+under the sea. She has colonial possessions in all parts of the world. A
+power that rules so large a part of the earth cannot be shut up in her
+island home. No one has depicted the extent of her dominion in nobler
+phrase than our own Webster when he speaks of the imperial sway which
+"has dotted the face of the whole globe with its possessions and
+military posts, whose morning drumbeat, following the sun and keeping
+company with the hours, encircles the whole earth with one continuous
+and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." Was it strange that
+this mother of nations should reach out her long arms to embrace her
+distant children?</p>
+
+<p>Hence it was that the subject of submarine telegraphs was so much better
+understood in England than in America, not only by scientific men, but
+by capitalists. The appeal could be made to them with more assurance of
+intelligent sympathy. And yet so vast was the undertaking, that it
+required ceaseless effort to roll the stone to the top of the mountain,
+and the result was not completely achieved till the beginning of the
+year 1864.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
+
+THE EXPEDITION OF 1865.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is a long night which has no morning. At last the day is breaking.
+While weary eyes are watching the East, daylight comes over the sea.
+Five years have passed away, and though the time seemed long as an
+Arctic winter, that only made more bright the rising of the sun. Those
+years of patient experiment, when scientific men were applying tests
+without number, and submarine lines were feeling their way along the
+deep-sea floor in all the waters of the world, at last brought forth
+their fruit in that renewed confidence which is the forerunner of
+victory.</p>
+
+<p>So strong was this feeling, that as early as August, 1863, although the
+capital was not raised, the Board advertised for proposals for a cable
+suitable to be laid across the Atlantic Ocean; and in order to leave
+invention entirely unfettered, abstained from any dictation as to the
+form or materials to be adopted, merely stipulating for a working speed
+of eight words a minute.</p>
+
+<p>To this request they received, in the course of a few weeks, seventeen
+different proposals from as many <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>companies, many of them firms of large
+wealth and experience. These different tenders, with the numerous
+specimens of cable and materials, were at once submitted to a Consulting
+Committee composed in part of members of the Committee which had already
+rendered such service by its advice. It consisted of Captain Douglas
+Galton, William Fairbairn, Professor C. Wheatstone, William Whitworth
+and Professor William Thomson. There were no more distinguished
+engineers and electricians in the world. They examined all the
+proposals, and then, taking up one by one the different samples of
+cable, caused them in turn to be subjected to the severest tests. This
+took a long time, as it required a great number of experiments; but the
+result was highly satisfactory. The Committee were all of one mind, and
+recommended unanimously that the Board should accept the tender of
+Messrs. Glass, Elliot &amp; Co., and the general principle of their proposed
+cable; but advised that before settling the final specification, every
+portion of the material to be employed should be tested with the
+greatest care, both separately and in combination, so as to ascertain
+what further improvements could be made. To this the manufacturers
+readily consented, feeling a noble ambition to justify the confidence of
+the Committee and the public. They provided abundant materials for fresh
+experiments. New cables were made and tested in different lengths; and
+experiments <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>were also tried upon different qualities of wire and hemp,
+that were to compose its external protection. The result of all these
+investigations was the selection of a model which seemed to combine
+every excellence, and to approach absolute perfection.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the cable which this eminent firm offered to manufacture, and
+to lay across the Atlantic, and that on terms so favorable, that it
+seemed as if it could not be difficult to raise the capital and proceed
+with the work. Indeed, a contract was partially made to that effect. So
+confident was Mr. Field, who was then in London, that an expedition
+would sail the following summer, that he insured his stock, part of it
+only against ordinary sea-risks, but part also to be laid and to work!
+But hardly had he left England before there was some unforeseen hitch in
+the arrangements, the money was not forthcoming, or some of the
+conditions were not complied with, and he had the mortification to
+receive letters, saying that the whole enterprise was postponed for
+another year!</p>
+
+<p>This was indeed discouraging. Yet this sudden dropping of the scheme did
+not imply a loss of interest or of faith on the part of those embarked
+in it. They believed in it as much as ever. But the general public did
+not respond to the call for more capital. Alas that the noblest
+enterprises should so often be delayed or defeated by the want of money!
+Capital is always <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>cautious and timid, and follows slowly in the path of
+great discoveries. If Columbus, instead of the patronage of a Queen full
+of womanly enthusiasm, had depended on a stock company for the means for
+his expedition, he might never have sailed from the shores of Spain.
+Happy was it for mankind that his faith and patience did not wear out,
+while going from court to court, and kingdom to kingdom, and almost
+begging his way from door to door!</p>
+
+<p>But it is not in human nature&mdash;least of all in American nature&mdash;to
+despond long. Though ten years of constant defeat would seem to have
+wrought a lasting discouragement, yet again and again did the baffled
+spirit of enterprise return to the attempt. In January, 1864, Mr. Field
+was once more on his way to England. He found the Directors, as before,
+deeply interested in the enterprise, and wishing it success. With a
+grateful heart he bore witness to their unfaltering courage. But mere
+courage and good wishes would not lay the Atlantic Telegraph. Yet what
+could they do? They could not be expected to advance all the capital
+themselves. They had already subscribed liberally, and he could not ask
+them to do more. But with all the efforts that had been made in England
+and America, not half the capital was yet raised. The machinery was in a
+dead lock, with little prospect of being able to move. It was the
+misfortune of the enterprise that there was no one man who made it his
+sole and exclusive <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>charge. The Board of Directors contained some of the
+best men in London. But they were, almost without exception, engaged in
+very large affairs of their own, with no leisure to make a public
+enterprise their special care. To insure success, it needed a trial of
+the one-man power&mdash;one brain, planning night and day; one agency
+incessantly at work, stirring up directors, contractors, and engineers;
+and one will pushing it forward by main strength. This was the force now
+to be applied.</p>
+
+<p>The first element needed to put life into the old system was an infusion
+of new blood&mdash;new capital and new men. While the enterprise was in this
+state of collapse, Mr. Field addressed himself to a gentleman with whom,
+until then, he had no personal acquaintance, but who was well known in
+London as one of the largest capitalists of Great Britain&mdash;Mr. Thomas
+Brassey. Their first interview was somewhat remarkable. Referring to it
+a few months after, Mr. Field said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"When I arrived in this country, in January last, the Atlantic
+Telegraph Company trembled in the balance. We were in want of
+funds, and were in negotiations with the government, and making
+great exertions to raise the money. At this juncture I was
+introduced to a gentleman of great integrity and enterprise,
+who is well known, not only for his wealth, but for his
+foresight, and in attempting to enlist him in our cause he put
+me through such a cross-examination as I had never before
+experienced. I thought I was in the witness-box. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>He inquired
+of me the practicability of the scheme&mdash;what it would pay, and
+every thing else connected with it; but before I left him, I
+had the pleasure of hearing him say that it was a great
+national enterprise that ought to be carried out, and, he
+added, I will be one of ten to find the money required for it.
+From that day to this he has never hesitated about it, and when
+I mention his name, you will know him as a man whose word is as
+good as his bond, and as for his bond, there is no better in
+England." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Having thus secured one powerful ally, Mr. Field took courage in the
+hope to find another. He says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The words spoken by Mr. Brassey in the latter part of January,
+'Let the Electric Telegraph be laid between England and
+America,' encouraged us all, and made us believe we should
+succeed in raising the necessary capital, and I then went to
+work to find nine other Thomas Brasseys (I did not know whether
+he was an Englishman, a Scotchman, or an Irishman; but I made
+up my mind that he combined all the good qualities of every one
+of them), and after considerable search I met with a rich
+friend from Manchester, Mr. [now Sir] John Pender, and I asked
+him if he would second Mr. Brassey, and walked with him from 28
+Pall Mall to the House of Commons, of which he is a member.
+Before we reached the House, he expressed his willingness to do
+so to an equal amount." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This was putting strong arms to the wheel. A few days after, a
+combination was formed to carry on the whole business of making
+Submarine Telegraphs, by a union of the Gutta-Percha Company with the
+firm <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>of Glass, Elliot &amp; Co., the principal manufacturers of sea cables,
+making one grand concern, to be called The Telegraph Construction and
+Maintenance Company. These two great capitalists entered into the new
+organization, of which Mr. Pender was made Chairman. The Gutta-Percha
+Company brought in still further strength to the joint enterprise, in
+the person of Mr. Willoughby Smith, their electrician, and of Mr. John
+Chatterton, the inventor of the insulating material known as
+Chatterton's Compound. The union of all these men made a combination of
+practical skill and financial ability, such as could be found in few
+companies in England or in the world. Mr. R. A. Glass was chosen
+Managing Director&mdash;a gentleman who seemed born to be a manager, such
+power had he of gathering about him talent in every department and
+combining all into one organization. Reënforced by such powerful aid,
+the new Company now came forward, and offered at one stroke to take all
+the remaining stock of the Company. This was more than half the whole
+capital. As yet, of the £600,000 required, but £285,000 had been
+subscribed. Now this princely Company offered to take the balance
+themselves&mdash;£315,000. They did more, they took £100,000 of bonds; and so
+by one dead lift these stalwart Englishmen took the whole enterprise on
+their broad shoulders. From that hour the problem was solved. Thus after
+a dead lock of six months the wheels <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>were unloosed, and the gigantic
+machinery began to revolve.</p>
+
+<p>This was a triumph worthy to be honored in the way that Englishmen love,
+by a little festivity; and as it chanced to be now ten years since Mr.
+Field had embarked in the enterprise, the pleasant thought occurred to
+him of getting his friends together to celebrate the anniversary.
+Accordingly, on the fifteenth of March, he invited them to dine together
+at the Buckingham Palace Hotel. It was a joyous occasion, and called
+forth the usual amount of toasts and speeches. Of the latter, those of
+Mr. Adams, the American Minister, and of John Bright, were widely copied
+in the United States. The next day was the annual meeting of the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company, when the Chairman, the Right Hon. James
+Stuart Wortley, thus referred to the gathering of the night before:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Without saying any thing to detract from my deep gratitude to
+the other Directors, I cannot help especially alluding to Mr.
+Cyrus Field, who is present to-day, and who has crossed the
+Atlantic thirty-one times in the service of this Company,
+having celebrated at his table yesterday the anniversary of the
+tenth year of the day when he first left Boston in the service
+of the Company. Collected round his table last night was a
+company of distinguished men&mdash;members of Parliament, great
+capitalists, distinguished merchants and manufacturers,
+engineers and men of science, such as is rarely found together
+even in the highest house in this great metropolis. It was very
+agreeable to see an American citizen <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>so surrounded. It was
+still more gratifying, inasmuch as we were there to celebrate
+the approaching accomplishment of the Atlantic Telegraph." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This was a congratulation on an escape from death, for their cherished
+scheme had just passed through a critical period of its history. The
+enterprise had been in great danger of abandonment&mdash;at least for years,
+a peril from which it had been rescued only by the most prompt and
+vigorous effort.</p>
+
+<p>Thus after infinite toil, the wreck of old disasters was cleared away,
+and the mighty task begun anew. The works of the Telegraph Construction
+and Maintenance Company were the largest in the world, and all their
+resources were now put in requisition. Never did greater care preside
+over a public enterprise. It was a case in which the motive of interest
+was seconded or overborne by pride and ambition. A cable was to be made
+to span the Atlantic Ocean, and to join the hemispheres; and they were
+determined to produce a work that should be as nearly perfect as human
+skill could make it. The Scientific Committee, that had so long
+investigated the subject, had approved a particular form of cable, as
+"the one most calculated to insure success in the present state of our
+experimental knowledge respecting deep-sea cables," but at the same time
+recommended the utmost vigilance at every stage of the manufacture.
+These precautions deserve to be noted, as showing with what jealous care
+science <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>watches over the birth of a great enterprise, and prescribes
+the conditions of success. They recommended:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>That the conductivity of the wire should be fixed at a high
+standard, certainly not less than eighty-five per cent; that
+the cable should be at least equal to the best ever made; that
+the core should be electrically perfect; that it should be
+tested under hydraulic pressure, and at the highest pressure
+attainable in the tanks at the Company's works; that after this
+pressure, the core should be examined again, and before
+receiving its outer covering, be required to pass the full
+electrical test under water; that careful and frequent
+mechanical tests be made upon the iron wire and hemp as to
+their strength; that special care be given to the joints, where
+different lengths of cable were spliced together; and that when
+completed, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>the whole be tested under water for some length of
+time, at a temperature of seventy-five degrees. </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This was higher by forty degrees than the temperature of the Atlantic.
+The insulation is improved by cold; so that, if it remained perfect in
+this warm water, it could not fail in the icy depths of the ocean.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/illus-3.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+OLD ATLANTIC CABLE, 1858.</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/illus-4.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+NEW ATLANTIC CABLE, 1865.</div>
+
+<p>After passing through such elaborate tests, all will be glad to see the
+final product of so much care and skill. As the long line begins to reel
+off from the great wheels and drums, we may examine it in its completed
+and more perfect form. It is only necessary to compare it with the cable
+laid in 1858, to show its immense superiority. A glance at the two as
+they appear on the preceding page will show that the cable had <i>grown</i>
+since first it was planted in the ocean, as if it were a living product
+of the sea. This growth had been in every part, from core to
+circumference.</p>
+
+<p>First, the central copper wire, which was the spinal cord, the nerve
+along which the centre current was to run, was nearly three times as
+large as before. Prof. Thomson had long seen that this was a condition
+of success. While joining heartily in the attempts of 1857-58, he felt
+that an error was committed in the smallness of the cable; that the
+copper conductors and the gutta-percha covering should both be much
+larger. The old conductor was a strand consisting of seven fine wires,
+six laid round one, and weighed only one hundred and seven pounds to the
+mile. The new was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>composed of the same number of wires, but weighed
+three hundred pounds to the mile. As it was made of the finest copper
+that could be obtained in the world, it was a perfect conductor. Next,
+to secure insulation, it was first imbedded for solidity in Chatterton's
+compound, a preparation impervious to water, and then covered with four
+layers of gutta-percha, which were laid on alternately with four thin
+layers of Chatterton's compound. The old cable had but three coatings of
+gutta-percha, with nothing between. Its entire insulation weighed but
+two hundred and sixty-one pounds to the mile, while that of the new
+weighed four hundred pounds.</p>
+
+<p>But a conductor ever so perfect, with insulation complete, was useless
+without proper external protection, to guard it against the dangers
+which must attend the long and difficult process of laying it across the
+ocean. The old cable had broken a number of times. The new must be made
+stronger. To this end it was incased with ten solid wires of the best
+iron, or rather, of a soft steel, like that used in the making of
+Whitworth's cannon. This made the cable much heavier than before. The
+old cable weighed but twenty cwt. to the mile, while the new one reached
+thirty-five cwt. and three quarters. But mere size and weight were
+nothing, except as they indicated increased strength. This was secured,
+not only by the larger iron wires, but by a further coating of rope.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>Each wire was surrounded separately with five strands of Manilla yarn,
+saturated with a preservative compound, and the whole laid spirally
+round the core, which latter was padded with ordinary hemp, saturated
+with the same preservative mixture. This rope covering was important in
+several respects. It kept the wires from coming in contact with the salt
+water, by which they might be corroded; and while it added greatly to
+the strength of the cable, it gave it also its own flexibility&mdash;so that
+while it had the strength of an iron chain, it had also the lightness
+and flexibility of a common ship's rope. This union of two qualities was
+all-important. The great problem had been to combine strength with
+flexibility. Mere dead weight was an objection. The new cable, though
+nearly twice as heavy as the old in air, when immersed in water, weighed
+but a trifle more; so that it was really much lighter in proportion to
+its size. This increased lightness was a very important matter in laying
+the cable, as it caused it to sink slowly. The old cable, though
+smaller, was heavy almost as a rod of iron, so that, as it ran out, it
+dropped at an angle which exposed it to great danger in case of a sudden
+lurch of the ship. Thus in 1857 it was broken by the stern of the
+Niagara being thrown up on a wave just as the brakes were shut down. Now
+the cable, being partially buoyed by the rope, would float out to a
+great distance from the ship, and sink down slowly in the deep waters.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p><p>By this combination of rope and iron, a cable was secured two and a
+half times as strong as the old&mdash;the breaking strain of the former
+having been three tons five cwt., and of the latter seven tons and
+fifteen cwt. Or, to put it in another form, the contract strain of the
+former was less than five times its own weight per mile in water; so
+that if the cable had been laid in some parts of the Atlantic, where the
+ocean is more than five miles deep, it would have broken under the
+enormous strain. But the contract strain of the new cable was equal to
+<i>eleven</i> times its weight per mile in water, which, as the greatest
+depth of water to be passed was but two and a half miles, rendered the
+cable more than four times as strong as was required.</p>
+
+<p>This great chain which was to bind the sea was to be 2,300 nautical
+miles long, or nearly 2,700 statute miles! But where could this enormous
+bulk be stowed? Its weight would sink the Spanish Armada. In 1858, the
+cable loaded down two of the largest ships of war in the world, the
+Niagara and the Agamemnon. Yet now one much larger and bulkier was to be
+taken on board. This might have proved a serious embarrassment, but that
+a few years before there had been built in England a ship of enormous
+proportions. The Great Eastern, whose iron walls had been reared by the
+genius of Brunel, had been for ten years waiting for "a mission." As a
+specimen of marine architecture she was perfect. She walked the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>waters
+in towering pride, scarce bending her imperial head to the waves that
+broke against her sides, as against the rocks of the shore. But with all
+her noble qualities, she was too great for the ordinary demands of
+commerce. Her very size was against her; and while smaller ships, on
+which she looked down with contempt, were continually flying to and fro
+across the sea, this leviathan,</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+Hugest of all God's works<br />
+That swim the ocean stream,
+</p>
+
+<p>could find nothing worthy of her greatness. Here then was the vessel to
+receive the Atlantic cable.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing her fitness for the purpose, a few of the gentlemen who were
+active in reviving the Atlantic Telegraph combined to purchase her, as
+she was about to be sold. One of them went down with all speed to
+Liverpool, and the next day telegraphed that the big ship was theirs.
+The new owners at once put her at the service of the Atlantic Company,
+with the express agreement that any compensation for her use should
+depend on the success of the expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Next to the good fortune of finding such a ship ready to their hands,
+was that of finding an officer worthy to command her. Captain James
+Anderson, of the China, one of the Cunard steamers, had long been known
+to the travelling public, both of England and America, and no one ever
+crossed the sea with him without the strongest feeling of respect for
+his manly <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>and seamanly qualities. A thorough master of his profession,
+having followed the sea for a quarter of a century, he was also a man of
+much general intelligence, and of no small scientific attainments. But
+it was something more than this which inspired such confidence. It was
+his ceaseless watchfulness. He always carried with him a feeling of
+religious responsibility for the lives of all on board, and for every
+interest committed to him. A man of few words, modest in manner, he was
+yet clear in judgment and prompt in action. This vigilance was
+especially marked in moments of danger. When a storm was gathering, all
+who saw that tall figure on the wheel-house, watching with a keen eye
+every spar in the ship and every cloud in the horizon, felt a new
+security from being under his care. Such was the man to be put in charge
+of a great expedition. He was recommended by Mr. Field in the strongest
+terms, and was chosen unanimously by the Board. The Cunard Company, with
+great generosity, consented to give up his services, valuable as they
+were, to forward an enterprise of such public interest. Being thus free,
+he accepted the trust, and entered upon it with enthusiasm. How well he
+fulfilled the expectations of all, the sequel will show.<a name="FNanchor_A_23" id="FNanchor_A_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_23" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p><p>The work now went on with speed. The wheels began to hum, and the great
+drums to reel off that line which, considering the distance it was to
+span, was hardly to be measured by miles, but rather by degrees of the
+earth's surface. Mere figures give but a vague impression of vast
+spaces. But it is a curious fact, ascertained by an exact computation,
+that if all the wires of copper and of iron, with the layers that made
+up the core and the outer covering, and the strands of yarn that were
+twisted into this one knotted sea-cable, were placed end to end, the
+whole length would reach from the earth to the moon!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p><p>As it came from the works in its completed state, it was plunged in
+water, to make it familiar with the element which was to be its future
+home. In the yards of the Company stood eight large tanks, which could
+hold each a hundred and forty miles. Here the cable was coiled to
+"hibernate," till it should be wanted for use the coming spring.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing the work thus well under way, with no chance of another
+disastrous check, Mr. Field left England with heart at rest, and
+returned to America for the winter. But the first days of spring saw him
+again on the Atlantic. He reached England on the eighteenth of March.
+His visit was more satisfactory than a year before. The work was now
+well advanced. It was a goodly sight to go down to Morden Wharf at
+Greenwich, and see the huge machinery in motion, spinning off the
+leagues of deep-sea line. The triumph apparently was near at hand. It
+seemed indeed a predestined thing that the cable should finally be laid
+in the year of grace 1865&mdash;the end for which he had so faithfully toiled
+since 1858&mdash;seven weary years&mdash;as long as Jacob served for Rachel! But,
+less fortunate than Jacob, he was doomed to one more disappointment. At
+present, however, all looked well, and he could not but regard the
+prospect with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>Having no more drudgery of raising money, he had now a few weeks'
+leisure to take a voyage up the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>Mediterranean. The canal across the
+Isthmus of Suez, which had been so long in progress, under the
+supervision of French engineers, was at length so far advanced that the
+waters of the Mediterranean were about to mingle with those of the Red
+Sea, and delegates were invited to be present from all parts of the
+world. An invitation had been sent to the Chamber of Commerce in New
+York, and Mr. Field, then starting for Europe, was appointed as its
+representative. The visit was one of extraordinary interest. The
+occasion brought together a number of eminent engineers from every
+country of Europe, in company with whom this stranger from the New World
+visited the most ancient of kingdoms to see the spirit of modern
+enterprise invading the land of the Pyramids.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to England about the first of May to find the work nearly
+completed. The cable was almost done, and a large part of it was already
+coiled on board the ship. This was an operation of much interest, which
+deserves to be described. The manufacture had begun on the first of
+September, and had gone on for eight months without ceasing, the works
+turning out fourteen miles a day even during the short days of winter.
+As the spring advanced, and the days grew longer, the amount was of
+course much increased. But by the last of January they had already
+accumulated about nine hundred miles of completed cable, when began the
+long and tedious work of transferring <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>it to the Great Eastern. It was
+thus slow, because it could not be made directly from the yard to the
+ship. The depth of water at Greenwich was not such as to allow the Great
+Eastern to be brought up alongside the wharf. She was lying at
+Sheerness, thirty miles below, and the cable had to be put on board of
+lighters and taken down to where she lay in the stream. For this purpose
+the Admiralty had furnished to the Company two old hulks, the Iris and
+the Amethyst, which took their loads in turn. When the former had taken
+on board some two hundred and fifty tons of cable, she was towed down to
+the side of the Great Eastern, and the other took her place.</p>
+
+<p>This was an operation which could not be done with speed. With all the
+men who could be employed, they coiled on board only about two miles an
+hour, or twenty miles a day&mdash;at which rate it would take some five
+months. The work began on the nineteenth of January, early in the
+morning, and continued till June, before all was safely stowed on board.
+The Great Eastern herself had been fitted up to receive her enormous
+burden. It was an object to stow the cable in as few coils as possible.
+Yet it could not be all piled in one mass. Such a dead weight in the
+centre of the ship would cause her to roll fearfully. If coiled in one
+circle, it was computed that it would nearly fill Astley's theatre from
+the floor of the circus to the roof&mdash;making a pile fifty-eight feet wide
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>and sixty feet high. To distribute this enormous bulk and weight, it
+was disposed in three tanks&mdash;one aft, one amidships, and one forward.
+The latter, from the shape of the ship, was a little smaller than the
+others, and held only six hundred and thirty-three miles of cable, while
+the two former held a little over eight hundred each. All were made of
+thick wrought-iron plates, and water-tight, so that the cable could be
+kept under water till it was immersed in the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Thus with her spacious chambers prepared for the reception of her guest,
+the Great Eastern opened her doors to take in the Atlantic cable; and
+long as it was, and wide and high the space it filled, it found ample
+verge and room within her capacious sides. Indeed, it was the wonder of
+all who beheld it, how, like a monster of the sea, she devoured all that
+other ships could bring. The Iris and the Amethyst came up time after
+time and disgorged their iron contents. Yet this leviathan swallowed
+ship-load after ship-load, as if she could never be satisfied. A writer
+who visited her when the cable was nearly all on board, was at a loss to
+find it. He looked along the deck, from stem to stern, but not a sign of
+it appeared. How he searched, and how the wonder grew, he tells in a
+published letter. After describing his approach to the ship, and
+climbing up her sides and his survey of her deck, he proceeds:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>"But it is time that we should look after what we have mainly
+come to see, the telegraph cable. To our intense astonishment,
+we behold it nowhere, although informed that there are nearly
+two thousand miles of it already on board, and the remaining
+piece&mdash;a piece long enough to stretch from Land's End to John
+O'Groat's&mdash;is in course of shipment. We walk up and down on the
+deck of the Great Eastern without seeing this gigantic chain
+which is to bind together the Old and the New World; and it is
+only on having the place pointed out to us that we find where
+the cable lies and by what process it is taken on board. On the
+side opposite to where we landed, deep below the deck of our
+giant, there is moored a vessel surmounted by a timber
+structure resembling a house, and from this vessel the
+wonderful telegraph cable is drawn silently into the immense
+womb of the Great Eastern. The work is done so quietly and
+noiselessly, by means of a small steam-engine, that we scarcely
+notice it. Indeed, were it not pointed out to us, we would
+never think that that little iron cord, about an inch in
+diameter, which is sliding over a few rollers and through a
+wooden table, is a thing of world-wide fame&mdash;a thing which may
+influence the life of whole nations; nay, which may affect the
+march of civilization. Following the direction in which the
+iron rope goes, we now come to the most marvellous sight yet
+seen on board the Great Eastern. We find ourselves in a little
+wooden cabin, and look down, over a railing at the side, into
+an immense cavern below. This cavern is one of the three
+'tanks' in which the two-thousand-mile cable is finding a
+temporary home. The passive agent of electricity comes creeping
+in here in a beautiful, silent manner, and is deposited in
+spiral coils, layer upon layer. It is almost dark at the
+immense depth below, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>we can only dimly discern the human
+figures through whose hands the coil passes to its bed.
+Suddenly, however, the men begin singing. They intone a low,
+plaintive song of the sea; something like Kingsley's </p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+'Three fishers went sailing away to the West,<br />
+Away to the West as the sun went down&mdash;'
+</p>
+
+<p>the sounds of which rise up from the dark, deep cavern with
+startling effect, and produce an indescribable impression.</p>
+
+<p>"We proceed on; but the song of the sailors who are taking
+charge of the Atlantic Telegraph cable is haunting us like a
+dream. In vain our guide conducts us all over the big ship,
+through miles of galleries, passages, staircases, and
+promenades; through gorgeous saloons, full of mirrors, marbles,
+paintings, and upholstery, made 'regardless of expense;' and
+through buildings crowded with glittering steam apparatus of
+gigantic dimensions, where the latent power of coal and water
+creates the force which propels this monster vessel over the
+seas. In vain our attention is directed to all these sights; we
+do not admire them; our imagination is used up. The echo of the
+sailors' song in the womb of the Great Eastern will not be
+banished from our mind. It raises visions of the future of the
+mystic iron coil under our feet&mdash;how it will roll forth again
+from its narrow berth; how it will sink to the bottom of the
+Atlantic, or hang from mountain to mountain far below the
+stormy waves; and how two great nations, offsprings of one race
+and pioneers of civilization, will speak through this wonderful
+coil, annihilating distance and time. Who can help dreaming
+here, on the spot where we stand? For it is truly a marvellous
+romance of civilization, this Great Eastern and this Atlantic
+Telegraph cable. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>Even should our age produce nothing else, it
+alone would be the triumph of our age." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As the work approached completion, public interest revived in the
+stupendous undertaking, and crowds of wonder-seekers came down from
+London to see the preparations for the expedition. Even if not admitted
+on board, they found a satisfaction in sailing round the great ship, in
+whose mighty bosom was coiled this huge sea-serpent. It had also many
+distinguished visitors. Among others, the Prince of Wales came to see
+the ocean girdle which was to link the British islands with his future
+dominions beyond the sea.</p>
+
+<p>At length, on the twenty-ninth of May, almost the last day of Spring,
+the manufacture of the cable was finished. The machines which for eight
+months had been in a constant whirl, made their last round. The tinkling
+of a bell announced that the machinery was empty, and the mighty work
+stood completed. It only remained that it should be got on board, and
+the ship prepared for her voyage. Hundreds of busy hands were at work
+without ceasing, and yet it was six weeks before she was ready to put to
+sea.</p>
+
+<p>It may well be believed that it was no small affair to equip such an
+expedition. Beside the enormous burden of the cable itself, the Great
+Eastern had to take on board seven or eight thousand tons of coal,
+enough for a fleet, to feed her fires. Then she carried about five
+hundred men, for whom she had to make <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>provision during the weeks they
+might be at sea. The stores laid in were enough for a small army.
+Standing on the wheel-house, and looking down, one might fancy himself
+in some large farm-yard of England. There stood the motherly cow that
+was to give them milk; and a dozen oxen, and twenty pigs, and a hundred
+and twenty sheep, while whole flocks of ducks and geese, and fowls of
+every kind, cackled as in a poultry-yard. Beside all this live stock,
+hundreds of barrels of provisions, of meats and fruits, were stored in
+the well-stocked larder below. Thus laden for her voyage, the Great
+Eastern had in her a weight, including her own machinery, of twenty-one
+thousand tons&mdash;a burden almost as great as could have been carried by
+the whole fleet with which Nelson fought the battle of Trafalgar.</p>
+
+<p>As the time of departure drew near, public curiosity was excited, and
+there was an extraordinary desire to witness the approaching attempt.
+The Company was besieged by applications from all quarters for
+permission to accompany the expedition. Had these requests been granted,
+on the scale asked, even the large dimensions of the Great Eastern could
+hardly have been sufficient for the crowds on board. The demand was most
+pressing for places for newspaper correspondents. These came not only
+from England, but from France and America. Almost every journal in
+London claimed the privilege of being represented. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>result was what
+might have been expected. As it was impossible to satisfy all, and to
+discriminate in favor of some, and exclude others, would seem partial
+and unjust, they were finally obliged to exclude all. Of course this
+gave great offence. There was an outcry in England and in the United
+States at what was denounced as a selfish and suicidal policy. But it is
+doubtful whether any other possible course would have given better
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>Whether the Managers erred in this or not, it should be said that they
+applied the same inexorable rule to themselves&mdash;even Directors of the
+Company being excluded, unless they had some special business on board.</p>
+
+<p>It should be borne in mind that the expedition was not under the control
+of the Atlantic Telegraph Company at all, but of the Telegraph
+Construction and Maintenance Company, which had undertaken the work in
+fulfilment of a contract with the former Company to manufacture and lay
+down a cable across the Atlantic, in which it assumed the whole
+responsibility, not only making the cable, but chartering the ship and
+appointing the officers, and sending its own engineers to lay it down.
+Of course it had an enormous stake in the result. Hence it felt, not
+only authorized, but bound, to organize the expedition solely with
+reference to success. It was not a voyage of pleasure, but for business;
+for the accomplishment of a great and most difficult undertaking. Hence
+it was right that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>the most strict rules should be adopted. Accordingly
+there was not a man on board who had not some business there. As the
+voyage promised to be one of the utmost practical interest to
+electricians and engineers, several young men were received as
+assistants in the testing-room or in the engineers' department; but
+there was no person who was not in some way engaged on the business of
+one or the other company, or connected with the management of the ship.
+Except Mr. Field, not an Atlantic Telegraph Director accompanied the
+expedition; and he represented also the Newfoundland Company. Mr. Gooch,
+M.P., was at once a Director of the Telegraph Construction and
+Maintenance Company, and Chairman of the Board that owned the Great
+Eastern, and so represented both those companies which had so great a
+stake in the result.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the whole business was in the hands of the Telegraph Construction
+and Maintenance Company. It had its own officers to man the
+expedition&mdash;the captain and crew to sail the ship&mdash;its engineers to lay
+the cable&mdash;and its electricians to test it. Even the eminent
+electricians, Professor Thomson and Mr. Varley, who were on board in the
+service of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, were not allowed to
+interfere, <i>nor even to give advice</i> unless it were asked for in
+writing, and then it was to be given in writing. Their office was only
+to test the cable when laid, to pass <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>messages through it from
+Newfoundland to Ireland, and to report it complete.</p>
+
+<p>So rigorous were the rules which governed this memorable voyage. The
+whole enterprise was organized as completely as a naval expedition.
+Every man had his place. As when a ship is going into battle, everybody
+is sent below that has not some business on deck, so it is not strange
+that in such a critical enterprise they did not want a host of
+supernumeraries on board.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the Company was not unmindful of the anxiety of the public for news,
+and since it could not give a place to many correspondents, it engaged
+one, and that the best&mdash;W. H. Russell, LL.D., the well-known
+correspondent of the London Times in the Crimea and in India. This
+brilliant writer was engaged to accompany the expedition&mdash;not to praise
+without discrimination, but to report events faithfully from day to day.
+He was accompanied by two artists, Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Dudley, to
+illustrate the scenes of the voyage. Thus the Company made every
+provision to furnish information and even entertainment to the public.
+Several of these gentlemen afterward wrote accounts for different
+magazines&mdash;Blackwood, Cornhill, and Macmillan's. Their different
+reports, and especially the volume of Dr. Russell, which combines the
+accuracy and minuteness of a diary kept from day to day, with brilliant
+descriptions, set off by illustrations <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>from drawings of Mr. Dudley,
+furnish the public as full and complete an account as if there had been
+a special correspondent for every journal of England and America.</p>
+
+<p>But if the public at large were very properly excluded, the organization
+on board was perfect and complete. At the head was Captain Anderson, of
+whom we have already spoken. As his duties would be manifold and
+increasing, he had requested the aid of an assistant commander, and
+Captain Moriarty, R. N., who had been in the Agamemnon in 1858, was
+permitted by the Admiralty to accompany the ship, and to give the
+invaluable aid of his experience and skill. The government also
+generously granted two ships of war, the Sphinx and the Terrible, to
+attend the Great Eastern. Thus the whole equipment of the expedition was
+English. Of the five hundred men on board the Great Eastern, there was
+but one American, and that was Mr. Field.</p>
+
+<p>The engineering department was under charge of Mr. (now Sir) Samuel
+Canning, who, as the representative of the Telegraph Construction and
+Maintenance Company, was chief in command of all matters relating to
+laying the cable. For this responsible position no better man could have
+been chosen. Before the voyage was ended, he had ample opportunity to
+show his resources. He was ably seconded by Mr. Henry Clifford. Both
+these gentlemen had been on board the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>Agamemnon in the two expeditions
+of 1858. They had since had large experience in laying submarine cables
+in the Mediterranean and other seas. It was chiefly by their united
+skill that the paying-out machinery had been brought to such perfection,
+that throughout the voyage it worked without a single hitch or jar. They
+had an invaluable helper in Mr. John Temple.</p>
+
+<p>The electrical department was under charge of Mr. De Sauty, who had had
+long experience in submarine telegraphs, and who was aided by an
+efficient corps of assistants. Professor Thomson and Mr. Varley, as we
+have said, were there to examine and report for the Atlantic Company.
+All these gentlemen had been unceasing in their tests of the cable in
+every form, both while in the process of manufacture and after it was
+coiled in the Great Eastern. The result of their repeated tests was to
+demonstrate that the cable was <i>many times more perfect than the
+contract required</i>. With such marvellous delicacy did they test the
+current of electricity sent through it, that it was determined that of
+one thousand parts, over nine hundred and ninety-nine came out at the
+other end!</p>
+
+<p>To complete this organization and equipment caused such delays as
+excited the impatience of all on board. But at length, when midsummer
+had fully come&mdash;at noon of Saturday, July fifteenth&mdash;the song of the
+sailors sounded the <i>chant du départ</i>. The Great Eastern <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>was then lying
+at the Nore, and she seemed to cling to the English soil which she had
+griped with a huge Trotman weighing seven tons, held fast by a chain
+whereof every link weighed seventy pounds! To wrench this ponderous
+anchor from its bed required the united strength of near two hundred
+men. At last the bottom lets go its hold, the anchor swings to the bow,
+the gun is fired, and the voyage is begun. A fleet of yachts and boats
+raise their cheers as the mighty hull begins to move. But mark how
+carefully she feels her way, following the lead of yonder little
+steamer, the Porcupine, the same faithful guide that seven years before
+led the Niagara up Trinity Bay one night when the faint light of stars
+twinkled on all the surrounding hills. Slowly they near the sea. Now the
+cliffs of Dover are in sight, and bidding her escort adieu, the Great
+Eastern glides along by the beautiful Isle of Wight, and then quickening
+her speed, with a royal sweep, she moves down the Channel. Off Falmouth
+she picked up the Caroline, a small steamer, which had left several days
+before with the shore end on board. She was laboring heavily with her
+burden, and made little headway in the rough waves. But the Great
+Eastern took her in tow, and she followed like a ship's boat in the wake
+of the monarch of the seas.</p>
+
+<p>Thus they passed round to the coast of Ireland, to that Valentia Bay
+where, eight years before, the Earl of Carlisle gave his benediction on
+the departure of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>the Niagara and the Agamemnon, and where, a year
+later, the gallant English ship brought her end of the cable safely to
+the shore.</p>
+
+<p>The point of landing had been changed from Valentia harbor five or six
+miles to Foilhommerum Bay, a wild spot where huge cliffs hang over the
+waves that here come rolling in from the Atlantic. On the top, an old
+tower of the time of Cromwell tells of the bloody days of England's
+great civil war. It is now but a mossy ruin. Here the peasants who
+flocked in from the country pitched their booths on the green sward, and
+looked down from the dizzy heights on the boats dancing in the bay
+below. At the foot of the cliff, a soft, sandy beach forms a bed for the
+cable, and here, as it issues from the sea, it is led up a channel which
+had been cut for it in the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>As the shore end was very massive and unwieldy, it could not be laid
+except in good weather; and as the sea was now rough, the Great Eastern
+withdrew to Bantry Bay, to be out of the way of the storms which
+sometimes break with fury on this rock-bound coast.</p>
+
+<p>On Saturday this preliminary work was completed, the heavy shore end was
+carried from the deck of the Caroline across a bridge of boats to the
+beach, and hauled up the cliffs amid the shouts of the people. When once
+it was made fast to the rocks, the little steamer began to move, and the
+huge coil slowly unwound, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>and like a giant awakened, stretched out its
+long iron arms. By half-past ten o'clock at night the hold was empty,
+the whole twenty-seven miles having been safely laid, and the end buoyed
+in seventy-five fathoms water. A despatch was at once sent across the
+country to Bantry Bay to the Great Eastern to come around with all
+speed, and early the next morning her smoke was seen in the offing.
+Passing the harbor of Valentia, she proceeded to join the Caroline,
+which she reached about noon, and at once commenced splicing the massive
+shore end to her own deep-sea line. This was a work of several hours, so
+that it was toward evening before all was completed.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, so many had been the delays of the past week, that it had come on
+to Sunday before the Great Eastern was ready to begin her voyage.
+This&mdash;which some might count a desecration of the holy day&mdash;the sailors
+rather accepted as a good omen. Had the shore end been laid forty-eight
+hours sooner, the voyage might have begun on Friday, which sailors, who
+are proverbially superstitious, would have thought an unlucky beginning.
+But Sunday, in their esteem, is a good day. They like, when a ship is
+moving out of sight of land, that the last sound from the shore should
+be the blessed Sabbath bells. If that sacred chime were not heard
+to-day, at least a Sabbath peace rested on sea and sky. It was a calm
+summer's evening. The sun was just sinking in the waves, as <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>the Great
+Eastern, with the two ships of war which waited on either hand, to
+attend her royal progress, turned their faces to the West, and caught
+the sudden glory. Says Russell: "As the sun set, a broad stream of
+golden light was thrown across the smooth billows toward their bows, as
+if to indicate and illumine the path marked out by the hand of Heaven."
+What a sacred omen! Had it been the fleet of Columbus sailing westward,
+every ship's company would have fallen upon their knees on those decks,
+and burst forth in an Ave Maria to the gentle Mistress of the Seas. But
+in that manly crew there was many an eye that took in the full beauty of
+the scene, and many a reverent heart that invoked a benediction.</p>
+
+<p>In other respects the day was well chosen. It was the twenty-third of
+July. From the beginning, Captain Anderson had wished to sail on the
+twenty-third of June, or the twenty-second of July, so as to have the
+full moon on the American coast. He desired also to take advantage of
+the westerly winds which prevail at that season, for in going against
+the wind the Great Eastern was steady as a rock. Every expectation was
+realized. To the big ship the ocean was as an inland lake. The
+paying-out machinery&mdash;the product of so much study and skill&mdash;worked
+beautifully, and as the ship increased her speed, the cable glided into
+the water with such ease that it seemed but a holiday affair to carry it
+across to yonder <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>continent. Such were the reflections of all that
+evening as the long summer twilight lingered on the sea. At midnight
+they went to sleep, to dream of an easy triumph.</p>
+
+<p>Yet be not too confident. But a few hours had passed before the booming
+of a gun awoke all on board with the heavy tidings of disaster. The
+morning breaks early in those high latitudes, and by four o'clock all
+were on deck, with anxious looks inquiring for the cause of alarm. The
+ship was lying still, as if her voyage had already come to an end, and
+electricians, with troubled countenances, were passing in and out of the
+testing-room, which, as it was always kept darkened, looked like a
+sick-chamber where some royal patient lay trembling between life and
+death.</p>
+
+<p>The method used by the electricians to discover a fault is one of such
+delicacy and beauty as shows the marvellous perfection of the
+instruments which science employs to learn the secrets of nature. The
+galvanometer is an invention of Professor Thomson, by which "a ray of
+light reflected from a tiny mirror suspended to a magnet travels along a
+scale, and indicates the resistance to the passage of the current
+through the cable by the deflection of the magnet, which is marked by
+the course of this speck of light. If the light of the mirror travels
+beyond the index, or out of bounds, an escape of the current is taking
+place, and what is technically called a fault has occurred." Such was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>the discovery on Monday morning. At a quarter past three o'clock the
+electrician on duty saw the light suddenly glide to the end of the scale
+and vanish.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately it was not a fatal injury. It did not prevent signalling
+through the cable, and a message was at once sent back to the shore,
+giving notice of the check that had been received. But the electric
+current did not flow freely. There was a leak at some point of the line
+which it would not be prudent to pass over. They were now seventy-three
+miles from shore, having run out eighty-four miles of cable. The tests
+of the electricians indicated the fault to be ten or a dozen miles from
+the stern of the ship. The only safe course was to go back and get this
+on board, and cut out the defective portion. It was a most ungrateful
+operation thus to be undoing their own work, but there was no help for
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Such accidents had been anticipated, and before the Great Eastern left
+England, she had been provided with machinery to be used in case of
+necessity for picking up the cable. But this proved rather an unwieldy
+affair. It was at the bow, and as the paying-out machine was at the
+stern, the ship had to be got round, and the cable, which must first be
+cut, had to be transferred from one end to the other. This was not an
+easy matter. The Great Eastern was an eighth of a mile long, and to
+carry the cable along her sides for <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>this distance, and over her high
+wheel-houses, was an operation at once tedious and difficult.</p>
+
+<p>But at length the ship's head was brought round, and the end of the
+cable lifted over the bow, and grasped by the pulling-in machine, and
+the engine began to puff with the labor of raising the cable from the
+depths of the ocean. Fortunately they were only in four or five hundred
+fathoms water, so that the strain was not great. But the engine worked
+poorly, and the operation was very slow. With the best they could do, it
+was impossible to raise more than a mile an hour! But patience and
+courage, though it should take all day and all night!<a name="FNanchor_B_24" id="FNanchor_B_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_24" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> The Great
+Eastern did her duty well, steaming slowly back toward Ireland, while
+the engine pulled, and the cable came up, though reluctantly, from the
+sea, till on Tuesday morning at seven o'clock, when they had hauled in a
+little over ten miles, the cause of offence was brought on board. It was
+found to be a small piece of wire, not longer than a needle, that by
+some accident (for they did not then suspect a design) had been driven
+through the outer cover of the cable till it touched the core. There was
+the source of all the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>mischief. It was this pin's point which pricked
+the vital cord, opening a minute passage through which the electricity,
+like a jet of blood from a pierced artery, went streaming into the sea.
+It was with an almost angry feeling, as if to punish it for its
+intrusion, that this insignificant and contemptible source of trouble
+was snatched from its place, the wounded piece of cable was cut off, and
+a splice made and the work of paying out renewed. But it was four
+o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday before they were ready to resume the
+voyage. A full day and a half had been lost by this miserable piece of
+wire.</p>
+
+<p>But the vexatious delay was over at last, and the stately ship, once
+more turning to the West, moved ahead with a steady composure, as if no
+petty trouble could vex her tranquil mind. Throughout the voyage the
+behavior of the ship was the admiration of all on board. While her
+consorts on either side were pitched about at the mercy of the waves,
+she moved forward with a grave demeanor, as if conscious of her mission,
+or as if eager to unburden her mighty heart, to throw overboard the
+great mystery that was coiled up within her, and to cast her burden on
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>The electricians, too, were elated, and with reason, at the perfection
+of the cable as demonstrated by every hour's experience. At intervals of
+thirty minutes, day and night, tests were passed from ship to shore,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>and to the delight of all, instead of finding the insulation weakened,
+it steadily improved as the cable was brought into contact with the cold
+depths of the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>All now went well till Saturday, the twenty-ninth, when a little after
+noon there was again a cry from the ship, as if once more the cable were
+wounded and in pain. This time the fault was more serious than before.
+The electricians looked very grave, for they had struck "dead earth,"
+that is, the insulation was completely destroyed, and the electric
+current was escaping into the sea.</p>
+
+<p>As the fault had gone overboard, it was necessary to reverse their
+course, and haul in till the defective part was brought up from the
+bottom. This time it was more difficult, for they were in water two
+miles deep. Still the cable yielded slowly to the iron hands that drew
+it upward; and after working all the afternoon, about ten o'clock at
+night they got the fault on board. The wounded limb was at once
+amputated, and joining the parts that were whole, the cable was made new
+and strong again. Thus ended a day of anxiety. The next morning, which
+was the second Sabbath at sea, was welcomed with a grateful feeling
+after the suspense of the last twenty-four hours.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday, the miles of cable that had been hauled up, and which were
+lying in huge piles upon the deck, were subjected to a rigid
+examination, to find out <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>where the fault lay. This was soon apparent.
+Near the end was found a piece of wire thrust through its very heart, as
+if it had been driven into it. All looked black when this was
+discovered, for at once it excited suspicions of design. It was remarked
+that the same gang of workmen were in the tank as at the time of the
+first fault. Mr. Canning sent for the men, and showing them the cable
+pierced through with the wire, asked them how it occurred. Every man
+replied that <i>it must have been done by design</i>, even though they
+accused themselves, as this implied that there was a traitor among them.
+It seemed hard to believe that any one could be guilty of such devilish
+malignity. Yet such a thing had been done before in a cable laid in the
+North Sea, where the insulation was destroyed by a nail driven into it.
+The man was afterward arrested, and confessed that he had been hired to
+do it by a rival company. The matter was the subject of a long
+investigation in the English courts. In the present case there were many
+motives which might prompt to such an act. The fall in the stock on the
+London Exchange, caused by a loss of the cable, could hardly be less
+than half a million sterling. Here was a temptation such as betrays
+bold, bad men into crime. However, as it was impossible to fix the deed
+on any one, nothing was proved, and there only remained a painful
+suspicion of treachery. Against this it was their duty to guard.
+Therefore it was agreed that the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>gentlemen on board should take turns
+in keeping watch in the tank. It was very unpleasant to Mr. Canning thus
+to set a watch on men, many of whom had been with him in his former
+cable-laying expeditions, but the best of them admitted the necessity of
+it, and were as eager as himself to find out the Judas among them.</p>
+
+<p>But accident or villainy, it was defeated this time, and the Great
+Eastern proudly continued her voyage. Not the slightest check
+interrupted their progress for the next three days, during which they
+passed over five hundred miles of ocean. It was now they enjoyed their
+greatest triumph. They were in the middle of the Atlantic, and thus far
+the voyage had been a complete success. The ship seemed as if made by
+Heaven to accomplish this great work of civilization. The paying-out
+apparatus was a piece of mechanism to excite the enthusiasm of an
+engineer, so smoothly did its well-oiled wheels run. The strain never
+exceeded fourteen hundred-weight, even in the greatest depths of the
+Atlantic. And as for the cable itself, it seemed to come as near
+perfection as it was possible to attain. As before, the insulation was
+greatly improved by submergence in the ocean. With every lengthening
+league it grew better and better. It seems almost beyond belief, yet the
+fact is fully attested that, when in the middle of the ocean, the
+communication was so perfect that they could tell at Valentia every time
+the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>Great Eastern rolled.<a name="FNanchor_C_25" id="FNanchor_C_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_25" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> With such omens of success, who could but
+feel confident? And when on Monday they passed over a deep valley, where
+lay "the bones of three Atlantic cables," it was with a proud assurance
+that they should not add another to the number.</p>
+
+<p>But Wednesday brought a sudden termination of their hopes. They had run
+out about twelve hundred miles of cable, and were now within six hundred
+miles of Newfoundland. Two days more would have made them safe, as it
+would have brought them into the shallow waters of the coast. Thus it
+was when least expected that disaster came. The record of that fatal day
+may be given in few words. In the morning, while Mr. Field was keeping
+watch in the tank, with the same gang of men who had been there when the
+trouble occurred before, a grating sound was heard, as if a piece of
+wire had caught in the machinery, and word was passed up to the deck to
+look out for it; but the caution seems not to have been heard, and it
+passed over the stern of the ship. Soon after a report came from the
+testing-room of "another fault." It was not a bad one, since it did not
+prevent communication with land; and much anxiety might have been saved
+had a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>message been sent to Ireland that they were about to cut the
+cable, in order to haul it on board. But small as the fault was, it
+could not be left behind. Down on the deep sea-floor was some minute
+defect, a pin's point in a length measured by thousands of miles. Yet
+that was enough. Of this marvellous product of human skill, it might in
+truth be said, that it was like the law of God in demanding absolute
+perfection. To offend in one point was to be guilty of all.</p>
+
+<p>This new fault, though it was annoying, did not create alarm, for they
+had been accustomed to such things, and regarded them only as the
+natural incidents of the voyage. Had the apparatus for pulling in been
+complete, it could not have delayed them more than a few hours. But this
+had been the weak point of the arrangements from the beginning&mdash;the
+<i>bête noire</i> of the expedition. The only motive power was a little
+donkey engine, (rightly named,) which puffed and wheezed as if it had
+the asthma. This was now put in requisition, but soon gave out for want
+of more steam. While waiting for this a breeze sprang up, which caused
+the Great Eastern to drift over the cable, by which it was badly chafed,
+so that when it was hauled in, as the injured part was coming over the
+bows and was almost within grasp, suddenly it broke and plunged into the
+sea!</p>
+
+<p>It came without a moment's warning. So unexpected was such a
+catastrophe, that the gentlemen had <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>gone down to lunch, as it was a
+little past the hour of noon. But Mr. Canning and Mr. Field stood
+watching the cable as it was straining upward from the sea, and saw the
+snapping of that cord, which broke so many hopes. The impression may be
+better imagined than described. Says a writer on board: "Suddenly Mr.
+Canning appeared in the saloon, and in a manner which caused every one
+to start in his seat, said, 'It is all over! It is gone!' then hastened
+onward to his cabin. Ere the thrill of surprise and pain occasioned by
+these words had passed away, Mr. Field came from the companion into the
+saloon, and said, with composure admirable under the circumstances,
+though his lip quivered and his cheek was blanched, 'The cable has
+parted and has gone overboard.' All were on deck in a moment, and there,
+indeed, a glance revealed the truth."</p>
+
+<p>At last it had come&mdash;the calamity which all had feared, yet that seemed
+so far away only a few hours before. Yet there it was&mdash;the ragged end on
+board, torn and bleeding, the other lying far down in its ocean grave.</p>
+
+<p>In America, of course, nothing could be known of the fate of the
+expedition till its arrival on our shores. But in England its progress
+was reported from day to day, and as the success up to this point had
+raised the hopes of all to the highest pitch, the sudden loss of
+communication with the ship was a heavy blow <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>to public expectation, and
+gave rise to all sorts of conjectures. At first a favorite theory was,
+that communication had been interrupted by a magnetic storm. These are
+among the most mysterious phenomena of nature&mdash;so subtle and fleeting as
+to be almost beyond the reach of science. No visible sign do they give
+of their presence. No clouds darken the heavens; no thunder peals along
+the sky. Yet strange influences trouble the air. At this very hour,
+Professor Airy, the Astronomer Royal at the Observatory at Greenwich,
+reported a magnetic storm of unusual violence. Said a London paper:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Just when the signals from the Great Eastern ceased, a
+magnetic storm of singular violence had set in. Unperceived by
+us, not to be seen in the heavens, nor felt in the atmosphere,
+the earth's electricity underwent a mysterious disturbance. The
+recording instruments scattered about the kingdom, everywhere
+testified to the fury of this voiceless tempest, and there is
+every reason to suppose that the confusion of signals at midday
+on Wednesday was due to the strange and unusual earth-currents
+of magnetism, sweeping wildly across the cable as it lay in
+apparently untroubled waters at the bottom of the Atlantic." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Said the Times:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"At Valentia, on Wednesday last, the signals, up to nine <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>,
+were coming with wonderful distinctness and regularity, but
+about that time a violent magnetic storm set in. No insulation
+of a submarine cable is ever so perfect as to withstand the
+influence of these electrical phenomena, which correspond <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>in
+some particulars to storms in the ordinary atmosphere, their
+direction generally being from east to west. Their action is
+immediately communicated to all conductors of electricity, and
+a struggle set up between the natural current and that used
+artificially in sending messages. This magnetic storm affected
+every telegraphic station in the kingdom. At some the wires
+were utterly useless; and between Valentia and Killarney the
+natural current toward the west was so strong along the land
+lines that it required an addition of five times the ordinary
+battery power to overcome it. This magnetic storm, which ceased
+at two <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> on Friday, was instantly perceptible in the
+Atlantic cable." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>But these explanations, so consoling to anxious friends on land, did not
+comfort those on board the Great Eastern. They knew, alas! that the
+cable was at the bottom of the ocean, and the only question was, if any
+thing could be done to recover it.</p>
+
+<p>Now began a work of which there had been no example in the annals of the
+sea. The intrepid Canning declared his purpose to grapple for the cable!
+The proposal seemed wild, dictated by the frenzy of despair. Yet he had
+fished in deep waters before. He had laid his hand on the bottom of the
+Mediterranean, but that was a shallow lake compared with the depths into
+which the Atlantic cable had descended. The ocean is here two and a half
+miles deep. It was as if an Alpine hunter stood on the summit of Mont
+Blanc and cast a line into the vale of Chamouni. Yet who shall put
+bounds to human courage? The expedition <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>was not to be abandoned without
+a trial of this forlorn hope. There were on board some five miles of
+wire rope, intended to hold the cable in case it became necessary to cut
+it and lash it to the buoys, to save it from being lost in a storm. This
+was brought on deck for another purpose. "And now came forth the
+grapnels, two five-armed anchors, with flukes sharply curved and tapered
+to a tooth-like end&mdash;the hooks with which the Giant Despair was going to
+fish from the Great Eastern for a take worth, with all its belongings,
+more than a million." These huge grappling-irons were firmly shackled to
+the end of the rope, and brought to the bows and thrown overboard. One
+splash, and the whole has disappeared in the bosom of the ocean. Down it
+goes&mdash;deeper, deeper, deeper still! For two full hours it continued
+sinking before it struck the earth, and like a pearl-diver, began
+searching for its lost treasure on the bottom of the sea. What did it
+find there? The wrecks of ships that had gone down a hundred years ago,
+with dead men's bones whitening in the deep sea caves? It sought for
+something more precious to the interest of civilization than gems and
+gold.</p>
+
+<p>The ship was now a dozen miles or so from the place of accident. The
+cable had broken a little after noon, when the sun was shining clear, so
+that Captains Anderson and Moriarty had just obtained a perfect
+observation, from which they could tell, within half a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>mile, the very
+spot where it had gone down. To reach it now, with any chance of
+bringing it up, it would be necessary to hook it a few miles from the
+end. It had been paid out in a line from east to west. To strike it
+broadside, the ship stood off in the afternoon a few miles to the south.
+Here the grapnel was thrown over about three o'clock, and struck bottom
+about five, when the ship began slowly drifting back on her course. All
+night long those iron fingers were raking the bottom of the deep but
+grasping nothing, till toward morning the long rope quivered like a
+fisherman's line when something has seized the end, and the head of the
+Great Eastern began to sway from her course, as if it felt some unseen
+attraction. As they began to haul in, the rapidly increasing strain soon
+rendered it certain that they had got hold of <i>something</i>. But what
+could it be? How did they know it was their lost cable? This question
+has often been asked. They did not see it. How did they know that it was
+not the skeleton of a whale, or a mast or spar, the fragment of a
+wrecked ship? The question is easily answered. If it had been any loose
+object which was being drawn up from the sea, its weight would have
+diminished as it came nearer the surface. But on the contrary, the
+strain, as shown by the dynamometer, steadily <i>increased</i>. This could
+only be from some object lying prone on the bottom. To an engineer the
+proof was like a mathematical demonstration. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>Another fact observed by
+Captain Anderson was equally decisive:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The grapnel had caught something at the exact hour when by
+calculation the ship was known to be crossing the line of the
+cable; nor had the grapnel upon this or any other occasion even
+for an instant caught any impediment from the time of its being
+lowered to the bottom, until the hour indicated by calculation,
+when the cable ought to be hooked." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Having thus caught the cable, they had good hopes of getting it again,
+their confidence increasing with every hundred fathoms brought on board.
+For hours the work went on. They had raised it seven hundred fathoms&mdash;or
+three quarters of a mile&mdash;from the bottom, when an iron swivel gave way,
+and the cable once more fell back into the sea, carrying with it nearly
+two miles of rope.</p>
+
+<p>The first attempt had failed, but the fact that they had unmistakably
+caught the prize gave them courage for a second. Preparations were at
+once begun, but fogs came on and delayed the attempt till Monday, when
+it was repeated. The grapnel caught again. It was late in the afternoon
+when it got its hold, and the work of pulling in was kept up all night.
+But as the sea was calm and the moon shining brightly, all joined in it
+with spirit, feeling elated with the hope of triumph on the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>That was not to be; but each attempt seemed to come nearer and nearer to
+victory. This time the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>cable was drawn up a full mile from the bottom,
+and hung suspended a mile and a half below the ship. Had the rope been
+strong enough, it might have been brought on board. But again a swivel
+gave way, and the cable, whose sleep had been a second time disturbed,
+sought its ocean bed.</p>
+
+<p>These experiments were fast using up the wire rope, and every expedient
+had to be resorted to, to piece it out and to give it strength. Each
+shackle and swivel was replaced by new bolts, and the capstan was
+increased four feet in diameter, by being belted with enormous plates of
+iron, to wind the rope around it, if the picking-up machinery should
+fail. This gave full work to all the mechanics on board. The ship was
+turned into a very cave of Vulcan, presenting at night a scene which
+might well take the eye of an artist, and which Russell thus describes:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The forge fires glared on her decks, and there, out in the
+midst of the Atlantic, anvils rang and sparks flew; and the
+spectator thought of some village far away, where the
+blacksmith worked, unvexed by cable anxieties and greed of
+speedy news. As the blaze shot up, ruddy, mellow and strong,
+and flung arms of light aloft and along the glistening decks,
+and then died into a red centre, masts, spars, and ropes were
+for the instant touched with a golden gleaming, and strange
+figures and faces were called out from the darkness&mdash;vanished,
+glinted out again&mdash;rushed suddenly into foreground of bright
+pictures, which faded soon away&mdash;flickered&mdash;went out&mdash;as they
+were called to life by its warm <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>breath, or were buried in the
+outer darkness! Outside all was obscurity, but now and then
+vast shadows, which moved across the arc of the lighted
+fog-bank, were projected far away by the flare; and one might
+well pardon the passing mariner, whose bark drifted him in the
+night across the track of the great ship, if, crossing himself,
+and praying with shuddering lips, he fancied he beheld a
+phantom ship freighted with an evil crew, and ever after told
+how he had seen the workshops of the Inferno floating on the
+bosom of the ocean." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>While preparing for a third attempt, the ship had been drifting about,
+sometimes to a distance of thirty or forty miles, but it had marked the
+course where the cable lay by two buoys, thrown over about ten miles
+apart, each bearing a flag which might be seen at a distance, and so
+easily came back to the spot. On Thursday morning all was ready, and the
+line was cast as before, but after some hours of drifting, it was
+evident that the ship had passed over the cable without grappling. The
+line was hauled in, and the reason at once appeared. One of the flukes
+had caught in the chain, so that it could not strike its teeth into the
+bottom. This was cleared away, and the rope prepared for a fourth and
+final attempt.</p>
+
+<p>It was at noon of Friday that the grapnel went overboard for the last
+time. By four o'clock it had caught, and the work of hauling-in
+recommenced. Again the cable was brought up nearly eight hundred
+fathoms, when the rope broke, carrying down two miles of its <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>own
+length, and with it the hopes of the Atlantic Telegraph for the present
+year.</p>
+
+<p>Their resources were exhausted. For nine days and nights, for the work
+never stopped for light or darkness, had the great ship kept moving
+round and round like some mighty bird of the sea, with her eye fixed on
+the place where her treasure had gone down, and striving to wrest it
+from the hand of the spoiler. Three times had they grasped the prize,
+and each time failed to recover it, only for want of ropes strong enough
+to bring it on board. <i>The cable itself never broke.</i> This proof of its
+strength was a good omen for future success.</p>
+
+<p>But for the present all was over. The attempt must be abandoned for the
+year 1865, but not for ever; and with this purpose in her constant mind,
+the Great Eastern swung sullenly around, and turned her imperial head
+toward England, like a warrior retiring from the field&mdash;not victorious,
+nor yet defeated and despairing, but with her battle-flag still flying,
+and resolved once more to attempt the conquest of the sea.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_23" id="Footnote_A_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_23"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Nearly a year and a half after this, when the cable was
+safely landed in Newfoundland, Captain Anderson, still on board the
+Great Eastern, in a letter to a friend, thus referred to his first
+connection with the Atlantic Telegraph:&mdash;
+</p><p>
+"I cannot tell you how I have felt since our success. It is only
+seventeen months since I first walked up to the top of the paddle-box of
+this ship at Sheerness, upon a dark, rainy night&mdash;reviewed my past
+career in my mind, and tried to look into the future, to see what I had
+undertaken, and realize if possible what this new step would develop. I
+cannot say I believed much in cables; I rather think I did not; but I
+did believe Mr. Field was an earnest man, of great force of character,
+and working under a strong conviction that what he was attempting was
+thoroughly practicable; and I knew enough of the names with which he had
+associated himself in the enterprise to feel that it was a real, true,
+honest effort, worthy of all the energy and application of one's
+manhood; and come what might in the future, I resolved to do my very
+utmost, and to do nothing else until it was over. More completely
+however than my resolve foreshadowed, I dropped inch by inch, or step by
+step, into the work, until I had no mind, no soul, no sleep, that was
+not tinged with cable. In a word I accuse Mr. Field of having dragged me
+into a vortex, that I could not get out of, and did not wish to try&mdash;and
+the sum total of all this is, to lay a thread across an ocean! Dr.
+Russell compared it to an elephant stretching a cobweb, and there lay
+its very danger: the more you multiply the mechanism, the more you
+increase the risk."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_24" id="Footnote_B_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_24"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> "All during the night the process of picking up was
+carefully carried on, the Big Ship behaving beautifully, and hanging
+lightly over the cable, as if fearful of breaking the slender cord which
+swayed up and down in the ocean. Indeed, so delicately did she answer
+her helm, and coil in the film of thread-like cable over her bows, that
+she put one in mind of an elephant taking up a straw in its
+proboscis."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Russell.</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_25" id="Footnote_C_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_25"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> So exquisitely sensitive was the copper strand, that as the
+Great Eastern rolled, and so made the cable pass across the magnetic
+meridian, the induced current of electricity, incomprehensibly faint as
+it must have been, produced nevertheless a perceptible deviation of the
+ray of light on the mirror galvanometer at Foilhommerum.&mdash;<i>London
+Times.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br />
+
+PREPARING TO RENEW THE BATTLE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The expedition of 1865, though not an immediate success, had the moral
+effect of a victory, as it confirmed the most sanguine expectations of
+all who embarked in it. The great experiment made during those four
+weeks at sea, had demonstrated many points which were most important
+elements in the problem of Ocean Telegraphy. These are summed up in the
+following paper, which was signed by persons officially engaged on board
+the Great Eastern:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>1. It was proved by the expedition of 1858, that a Submarine
+Telegraph Cable could be laid between Ireland and Newfoundland,
+and messages transmitted through the same.</p>
+
+<p>By the expedition of 1865 it has been fully demonstrated:</p>
+
+<p>2. That the insulation of a cable improves very much after its
+submersion in the cold deep water of the Atlantic, and that its
+conducting power is considerably increased thereby.</p>
+
+<p>3. That the steamship Great Eastern, from her size and constant
+steadiness, and from the control over her afforded by the joint
+use of paddles and screw, renders it safe to lay an Atlantic
+Cable in any weather.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p><p>4. That in a depth of over two miles four attempts were made
+to grapple the cable. In three of them the cable was caught by
+the grapnel, and in the other the grapnel was fouled by the
+chain attached to it.</p>
+
+<p>5. That the paying-out machinery used on board the Great
+Eastern worked perfectly, and can be confidently relied on for
+laying cables across the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>6. That with the improved telegraphic instruments for long
+submarine lines, a speed of more than eight words per minute
+can be obtained through such a cable as the present Atlantic
+between Ireland and Newfoundland, as the amount of slack
+actually paid out did not exceed fourteen per cent, which would
+have made the total cable laid between Valentia and Heart's
+Content nineteen hundred miles.</p>
+
+<p>7. That the present Atlantic Cable, though capable of bearing a
+strain of seven tons, did not experience more than fourteen
+hundred-weight in being paid out into the deepest water of the
+Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland.</p>
+
+<p>8. That there is no difficulty in mooring buoys in the deep
+water of the Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland, and
+that two buoys even when moored by a piece of the Atlantic
+Cable itself, which had been previously lifted from the bottom,
+have ridden out a gale.</p>
+
+<p>9. That more than four nautical miles of the Atlantic Cable
+have been recovered from a depth of over two miles, and that
+the insulation of the gutta-percha-covered wire was in no way
+whatever impaired by the depth of water or the strains to which
+it had been subjected by lifting and passing through the
+hauling-in apparatus.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p><p>10. That the cable of 1865, owing to the improvements
+introduced into the manufacture of the gutta-percha core, was
+more than one hundred times better insulated than cables made
+in 1858, then considered perfect and still working.</p>
+
+<p>11. That the electrical testing can be conducted with such
+unerring accuracy as to enable the electricians to discover the
+existence of a fault immediately after its production or
+development, and very quickly to ascertain its position in the
+cable.</p>
+
+<p>12. That with a steam-engine attached to the paying-out
+machinery, should a fault be discovered on board whilst laying
+the cable, it is possible that it might be recovered before it
+had reached the bottom of the Atlantic, and repaired at once. </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent"><span class="smcap">S. Canning</span>, Engineer-in-Chief,
+Telegraph Construction and Maintenance
+Company.</p>
+
+<p class="letterindent"><span class="smcap">James Anderson</span>, Commander of the Great
+Eastern.</p>
+
+<p class="letterindent"><span class="smcap">Henry A. Moriarty</span>, Staff Commander, R.
+N.</p>
+
+<p class="letterindent"><span class="smcap">Daniel Gooch</span>, M.P., Chairman of "Great
+Ship Co."</p>
+
+<p class="letterindent"><span class="smcap">Henry Clifford</span>, Engineer.</p>
+
+<p class="letterindent"><span class="smcap">William Thomson</span>, LL.D., F.R.S., Prof.
+of Natural Philosophy in the
+University of Glasgow.</p>
+
+<p class="letterindent"><span class="smcap">Cromwell F. Varley</span>, Consulting
+Electrician Electric and International
+Telegraph Co.</p>
+
+<p class="letterindent"><span class="smcap">Willoughby Smith.</span></p>
+
+<p class="letterindent"><span class="smcap">Jules Despecher.</span> </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This was a grand result to be attained in one short month; and if not
+quite so gratifying as to have the cable laid at once, and the wire in
+full operation, yet as it settled the chief elements of success, the
+moral <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>effect was next to that of an immediate triumph. All who were on
+that voyage felt a confidence such as they had never felt before. They
+came back, not desponding and discouraged, but buoyant with hope, and
+ready at once to renew the attempt.</p>
+
+<p>This confidence appeared at the first meeting of directors. The feeling
+was very different from that after the return of the first expedition of
+1858. So animated were they with hope, and so sure of success the next
+time, that all felt that one cable was not enough, they must have two,
+and so it was decided to take measures not only to raise the broken end
+of the cable and to complete it to Newfoundland, but also to construct
+and lay an entirely new one, so as to have a double line in operation
+the following summer.</p>
+
+<p>The contractors, partaking the general confidence, came forward promptly
+with a new offer even more liberal than that made before. They proposed
+to construct a new line, and to lay it across the Atlantic for half a
+million sterling, which was estimated to be the actual cost to them,
+reserving all compensation to themselves to depend on success. If
+successful, they were to receive twenty per cent. on the cost, or one
+hundred thousand pounds, to be paid in shares of the Company. They would
+engage, also, to go to sea fully prepared to raise the broken end of the
+cable now in mid-ocean, and with a sufficient length, including that on
+board the Great Eastern, to complete the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>line to Newfoundland. Thus the
+company would have two cables instead of one.</p>
+
+<p>In this offer the contractors assumed a very large risk. They now went a
+step further, and in the contingency of the capital not being raised
+otherwise, they offered <i>to take it all themselves</i>&mdash;to lay the line at
+their own risk, and to be paid only in the stock of the Company, which,
+of course, must depend for its value on the success of the next
+expedition. It was finally resolved to raise six hundred thousand pounds
+of new capital by the issue of a hundred and twenty thousand shares of
+five pounds each, which should be preferential shares, entitled to a
+dividend of twelve per cent. before the eight per cent. dividend to be
+paid on the former preference shares, and the four per cent. on the
+ordinary stock. This was offering a substantial inducement to the public
+to take part in the enterprise, and it was thought with reason that this
+fresh issue of stock, though it increased the capital of the Company,
+yet as it was all to be employed in forwarding the great work, would not
+only create new property, but give value to the old. The proposal of the
+manufacturers was therefore at once accepted by the Directors, and the
+work was instantly begun. Thus hopeful was the state of affairs when Mr.
+Field returned to America in September.</p>
+
+<p>But he was never easy to be long out of sight of his beloved cable, and
+so three months after he went back <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>to England, reaching London on the
+twenty-fourth of December. He came at just the right moment, for the
+Atlantic Telegraph was once more in extremity. Only two days before the
+Attorney-General of England had given a written opinion that the Company
+<i>had no legal right</i> to issue new twelve per cent. preference shares,
+and that such issue could only be authorized by an express act of
+Parliament. This was a fatal decree to the Company. It was the more
+unexpected, as, before offering the twelve per cent. capital, they had
+been fortified by the opinions of several eminent lawyers and solicitors
+in favor of the legality of their proceedings. It invalidated not only
+what they were going to do, but what they had done already. Hence, as
+the effect of this decision, all the works were stopped, and the money
+which had been paid in was returned to the subscribers.</p>
+
+<p>This was a new dilemma, out of which it was not easy to find a way of
+relief. Parliament was not in session, Lords and Commons being away in
+the country keeping the Christmas holidays. Even if it had been, the
+time for applying to it had passed, as a notice of any private bill to
+be introduced must be given before the thirtieth of November, which was
+gone a month ago. To wait for an act of Parliament, therefore, would
+inevitably postpone the laying of the cable for another year. So
+disheartening was the prospect at the close of 1865.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p><p>But they had seen dark days before, and were not to give it up without
+a new effort. Happily, the cause had strong friends to stand by it even
+in this crisis of suspended animation.</p>
+
+<p>One of these to whom Mr. Field now went for counsel, was Mr. (afterward
+Sir) Daniel Gooch, M.P., a gentleman well known in London, as one of the
+class of engineers formed in the school of Stephenson and Brunel, who
+had risen to the position of great capitalists, and who, by their
+enterprise and wealth, had done so much to develop the resources of
+England. He was Chairman of the Great Western Railway, and had more
+faith in enterprises on the land than on the sea. It was a long time
+before he could believe in the possibility of an Atlantic Telegraph.
+Though a man of large fortune, and a personal friend of Mr. Field, the
+latter had never prevailed on him to subscribe a single pound. But he
+went out on the expedition of '65, as chairman of the company that owned
+the Great Eastern; and what he then saw convinced him. He came back
+fully satisfied; he knew it could be done, and was ready to prove his
+faith by his works. Consulting on the present difficulty, he suggested
+that the only relief was to organize a new Company, which should assume
+the work, and which could issue its own shares and raise its own
+capital. This opinion was confirmed by the eminent legal authority of
+Mr. John Horatio Lloyd. To such a Company Mr. Gooch said <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>he would
+subscribe £20,000; Mr. Field put down £10,000.</p>
+
+<p>Next, he betook himself to that prince of English capitalists, Mr.
+Thomas Brassey, who heard from his lips for the first time, that the
+affairs of the Atlantic Telegraph Company had suddenly come to a
+standstill. At this he was much surprised, but instantly cheered his
+informer by saying: "Don't be discouraged; go down to the Company, and
+tell them to go ahead, and whatever the cost, I will bear one tenth of
+the whole." Who <i>could</i> be discouraged with such a Richard the
+Lion-hearted to cheer him on?</p>
+
+<p>Meetings were called of the Directors of both the Atlantic Company and
+the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company; and frequent
+conferences were held between them. The result was the formation of a
+new company called the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, with a capital
+of £600,000, which contracted with the Atlantic Company to manufacture
+and lay down a cable in the summer of 1866, for doing which it was to be
+entitled to what virtually amounted to a preference dividend of
+twenty-five per cent: as a first claim was secured to them by the latter
+company upon the revenue of the cable or cables (after the working
+expenses had been provided for) to the extent of £125,000 per annum; and
+the New-York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company undertook to
+contribute from its revenue a further annual <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>sum of £25,000, on
+condition that a cable should be at work during 1866; an agreement to
+this effect having been signed by Mr. Field, subject to ratification by
+the Company in New York, which was obtained as soon as the steamer could
+cross the ocean and bring back the reply.</p>
+
+<p>The terms being settled, it remained only to raise the capital. The
+Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company led off with a
+subscription of £100,000. This was followed by the names of ten
+gentlemen, who put down £10,000 apiece. Of these Mr. Gooch declared his
+willingness to increase his subscription of £10,000 to £20,000, while
+Mr. Brassey would put down £60,000, if it were needed. Mr. Henry Bewley,
+of Dublin also, who was already a large owner of the Atlantic stock,
+declared his readiness to add £20,000 more. But this was not necessary:
+and so they all stood at £10,000. The names of these ten subscribers
+deserve to be given, as showing who stood forward to save the cause in
+this crisis of its fate. They were: Henry Ford Barclay, Henry Bewley,
+Thomas Brassey, A. H. Campbell, M.P., George Elliot, Cyrus W. Field,
+Richard Atwood Glass, Daniel Gooch, M.P., John Pender, M.P., and John
+Smith. There were four subscriptions of £5,000: by Thomas Bolton and
+Sons, James Horsfall, A Friend of Mr. Daniel Gooch, M.P., and John and
+Edwin Wright; one of £2,500 by John Wilkes and Sons; three of £2,000 by
+C. M. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>Lampson, J. Morison, and Ebenezer Pike; and two of £1,000 by
+Edward Cropper, and Joseph Robinson,&mdash;making in all £230,500.</p>
+
+<p>These were all private subscriptions made before even the prospectus was
+issued, or the books opened to the public. After such a manifestation of
+confidence, the whole capital was secured within fourteen days. This was
+a great triumph, especially at a time of general depression in
+commercial affairs in England.</p>
+
+<p>And now once more the work began. No time was to be lost. It was already
+the first of March, and but four months remained to manufacture sixteen
+hundred and sixty nautical miles of cable, and to prepare for sea. But
+the obstacles once cleared away, all sprang to their work with new hope
+and vigor.</p>
+
+<p>In the cable to be made for the new line, there was but little change
+from that of the last year, which had proved nearly perfect. Experience,
+however, was constantly suggesting some improvement; and while the
+general form and size were retained, a slight change in the outer
+covering was found to make the cable both lighter and stronger. The iron
+wires were <i>galvanized</i>, which secured them perfectly from rust or
+corrosion by salt water. Thus protected, they could dispense with the
+preservative mixture of the former year. This left the cable much
+cleaner and whiter. Instead of its black coat, it had the fresh, bright
+appearance of new rope. It had another advantage. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>As the tarry coating
+was sticky, slight fragments of wire might adhere to it, and do injury,
+a danger to which the new cable was not exposed. At the same time,
+galvanizing the wires gave them greater ductility, so that in the case
+of a heavy strain the cable would stretch longer without breaking. By
+this alteration it was rendered more than four hundred-weight lighter
+per mile, and would bear a strain of nearly half a ton more than the one
+laid the year before.</p>
+
+<p>The machinery also was perfected in every part, to withstand the great
+strain which might be brought upon it in grappling and lifting the cable
+from the great depths of the Atlantic. This necessitated almost a
+reconstruction of the machinery, together with engines of greater power,
+applied both to the gear for hauling in forward and that for paying out
+aft. Thus, in case of a fault, the motion of the ship could be easily
+reversed, and the cable hauled back by the paying-out machinery, without
+waiting for the long and tedious process of bringing the cable round
+from the stern to the bow of the ship.</p>
+
+<p>But the most marvellous improvement had been in the method of testing
+the cable for the discovery of faults. In the last expedition, a grave
+omission had been in the long intervals during which the cable was left
+without a test of its insulation. Thus, from thirty to thirty-five
+minutes in each hour it was occupied with tests of minor importance,
+which would not indicate <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>the existence of a fault, so that, if a fault
+occurred on ship-board, it might pass over the stern, and be miles away
+before it was discovered. But now a new and ingenious method was devised
+by Mr. Willoughby Smith, by which the cable will be tested <i>every
+instant</i>. The current will not cease to flow any more than the blood
+ceases to flow in human veins. The cord is vital in every part, and if
+touched at any point it reveals the wound as instinctively as the nerves
+of a living man flash to the brain a wound in any part of the human
+frame.</p>
+
+<p>The process of detecting faults is too scientific to be detailed in
+these pages. We can only stand in silent wonder at the result, when we
+hear it stated by Mr. Varley, that the system of testing is brought to
+such a degree of perfection, that skilful electricians can point out
+minute faults with an unerring accuracy "even when they are so small
+that they would not weaken the signals through the Atlantic cable one
+millionth part!"</p>
+
+<p>Another marvellous result of science was the exact report obtained of
+the state of that portion of the cable now lying in the sea. The
+electricians at Valentia were daily experimenting on the line which lay
+stretched twelve hundred and thirteen miles on the bottom of the deep,
+and pronounced it intact. Not a fault could be found from one end to the
+other. As when a master of the organ runs his hands over the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>keys, and
+tells in an instant if it be in perfect tune, so did these skilful
+manipulators, fingering at the end of this mightier instrument, declare
+it to be in perfect tone, ready to whisper its harmonies through the
+seas. At the same time, the ten hundred and seventy miles of cable left
+on board the Great Eastern were pronounced as faultless as the day they
+had been shipped on board.</p>
+
+<p>With such conclusions of science to animate and inspire them, the great
+task of manufacturing nearly seventeen hundred miles of cable once more
+began. And while this work went on, the Great Eastern, that had done her
+part so well before, again opened her sides, and the mysterious cord was
+drawn into her vast, dark, silent womb, from which it was to issue only
+into the darker and more silent bosom of the deep.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
+
+VICTORY AT LAST.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In these pages we have led our readers through twelve long years, and
+have had to tell many a tale of disaster and defeat. It is now our
+privilege to tell of triumphant success. Victory has come at last, but
+not by the chance of fortune, but by the utmost efforts of man, by the
+union of science and skill with indomitable perseverance. The failure of
+the last year was a sad disappointment; but so far from damping the
+courage of those embarked in the enterprise, it only roused them to a
+more gigantic effort. They were now to prepare for a fifth expedition.
+In this they set themselves to anticipate every possible emergency, and
+to combine the elements of success so as to render failure impossible.</p>
+
+<p>The Great Eastern herself, which they had come to regard with a kind of
+fondness, a feeling of affection and pride, as the ark that was to bear
+their fortunes across the deep, was made ready for her crowning
+achievement. For months Captain Anderson and Mr. Halpin, his chief
+officer, worked day and night to get her into perfect trim. She had
+become sadly fouled <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>in her many voyages. As she swam the seas, a
+thousand things clung to her as to a floating island, till her hull was
+encrusted with mussels and barnacles two feet thick, and long seaweed
+flaunted from her sides. Like a brave old war-horse, long neglected, she
+needed a thorough grooming, to have her hair combed and her limbs well
+rubbed down, to fit her to take the field. But it was not an easy matter
+to get under the huge creature, to give her such a dressing. Yet Captain
+Anderson was equal to the emergency. He contrived a simple instrument by
+which every part of her bottom was raked and scrubbed. Getting rid of
+this rough, shapeless mass would make her feel easy and comfortable at
+sea, and add at least a knot an hour to her speed.</p>
+
+<p>The boilers too were thoroughly cleansed and repaired in every part, and
+the paddle-engines were so arranged that in five minutes they could be
+disconnected, so that by going ahead with one and backing with the
+other, the ship could be held perfectly at rest or be turned around in
+her own length, a very important matter when they should come to fish in
+deep waters for the broken end of the cable. To prepare for this, she
+was armed with chains and ropes and irons of the most formidable kind.
+For grappling the cable, she took on board twenty miles of rope, which
+would bear a strain of thirty tons, probably the largest fishing-line
+used since the days of Noah!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p><p>The cable was manufactured at the rate of twenty miles a day, and as
+fast as delivered and found perfect, was coiled on board. And now the
+electricians tried their skill to outdo all that they had done before.
+As Captain Anderson observed, it seemed as if never had so much brain
+power been concentrated on the problem of success. The cable itself
+furnished the grandest subject of experiment. As every week added more
+than a hundred miles to its length, there was constant opportunity to
+try the electric current on longer distances and with new conditions.
+The results obtained showed the rapid and marvellous progress of
+electrical science. Said The Times:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The science of making, testing, and laying cables has so much
+improved that an undetected fault in an insulated wire has now
+become literally impossible, while so much are the instruments
+for signalling improved, that not only can a slight fault be
+disregarded if necessary, but it is even easy <i>to work through
+a submarine wire with a foot of its copper conductor stripped
+and bare to the water</i>. This latter result, astonishing as it
+may appear, has actually been achieved for some days past with
+the whole Atlantic cable on board the Great Eastern. Out of a
+length of more than one thousand seven hundred miles, a coil
+has been taken from the centre, the copper conductor stripped
+clean of its insulation for a foot in length, and in this
+condition lowered over the vessel's side till it rested on the
+ground. Yet through this the clearest signals have been
+sent&mdash;so clear, indeed, as at one time to raise the question
+whether it would <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>not be worth while to grapple for the first
+old Atlantic cable ever laid, and with these new instruments
+working gently through it for a year or so, at least make it
+pay cost." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As other things were on the same gigantic scale, by the time the big
+ship had her cargo and stores on board, she was well laden. Of the cable
+alone there were two thousand four hundred miles, coiled in three
+immense tanks as the year before. Of this seven hundred and forty-eight
+miles were a part of the cable of the last expedition. The tanks alone,
+with the water in them, weighed over a thousand tons; and the cable
+which they held, four thousand tons more; besides which she had to carry
+eight thousand five hundred tons of coal and five hundred tons of
+telegraph stores, making fourteen thousand tons, besides engines,
+rigging, etc., which made nearly as much more. So enormous was the
+burden, that it was thought prudent not to take on board all her coal
+before she left the Medway, especially as the channel was winding and
+shallow. It was therefore arranged that about a third of her coal should
+be taken in at Berehaven, on the south-west coast of Ireland. With this
+exception, her lading was complete.</p>
+
+<p>The time for departure had been fixed for the last day of June, and so
+admirable had been the arrangements, and such the diligence of all
+concerned, that exactly at the hour of noon, she loosened from her
+moorings, and began to move. It was well that she <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>had not on board her
+whole cargo; for as it was, she drew nearly thirty-two feet. Never had
+any keel pressed so deep in those waters. It required skilful handling
+to get her safely to the sea. Gently and softly she floated down, over
+bars where she almost grazed the sand, where but a few inches lifted her
+enormous hull above the river's bed. But at length the rising tide bears
+her safely over, and she is afloat in the deeper waters of the Channel.
+At first the sea did not give her a very gracious welcome. The wind was
+dead ahead, and the waves dashed furiously against her; but she kept
+steadily on, tossing their spray on high, as if they had struck against
+the rocks of Eddystone lighthouse. In four or five days she had passed
+down the Irish coast, and was quietly anchored in the harbor at
+Berehaven, where she was soon joined by the other vessels of the
+squadron.</p>
+
+<p>The Telegraph fleet was not the same as that of the last year. The
+Government could spare but a single ship; but the Terrible, which had
+accompanied the Great Eastern on the former expedition, was still there
+to represent the majesty of England. The William Corry, a vessel of two
+thousand tons, bore the ponderous shore end, which was to be laid out
+thirty miles from the Irish coast, while the Albany and the Medway were
+ships chartered by the Company. The latter carried several hundred miles
+of the last year's cable, besides one of heavier proportions, ninety
+miles <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>long, to be stretched across the mouth of the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/illus-5.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+SHORE END&mdash;EXACT SIZE.</div>
+
+<p>While the Great Eastern remained at Berehaven, to take in her final
+stores of coal, the William Corry proceeded around the coast to Valentia
+to lay the shore end. She arrived off the harbor on the morning of
+Saturday, the seventh of July, and immediately began to prepare for her
+heavy task. This shore end was of tremendous size, weighing twenty tons
+to the mile. It was by far the strongest wire cable ever made, and in
+short lengths was stiff as an iron bar. As the year before, the cable
+was to be brought off on a bridge of boats reaching from the ship to the
+foot of the cliff. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>All the fishermen's boats were gathered from along
+the shore, while H. M. S. Raccoon, which was guarding that part of the
+coast, sent up her boats to help, so that, as they all mustered in line,
+there were forty of them, making a long pontoon-bridge; and Irish
+boatmen with eager looks and strong hands were standing along the line,
+to grasp the ponderous chain. All went well, and by one o'clock the
+cable was landed, and its end brought up the cliff to the station. The
+signals were found to be perfect, and the William Corry then slowly drew
+off to sea, unlimbering her stiff shore end, till she had cast over the
+whole thirty miles. At three o'clock next morning she telegraphed
+through the cable that her work was done, and she had buoyed the end in
+water a hundred fathoms deep. Describing the scene, the correspondent of
+the London News says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"In its leading features it presented a striking difference to
+the ceremony of last year. Earnest gravity and a deep-seated
+determination to repress all show of the enthusiasm of which
+everybody was full, was very manifest. The excitement was
+below, instead of above, the surface. Speech-making, hurrahing,
+public congratulations, and vaunts of confidence were, as it
+seemed, avoided as if on purpose. There was something far more
+touching in the quiet and reverent solemnity of the spectators
+yesterday than in the slightly boisterous joviality of the
+peasantry last year. Nothing could prevent the scene being
+intensely dramatic, but the prevailing tone of the drama was
+serious instead of comic and triumphant. The old crones in
+tattered garments <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>who cowered together, dudheen in mouth,
+their gaudy colored shawls tightly drawn over head and under
+the chin&mdash;the barefooted boys and girls, who by long practice
+walked over sharp and jagged rocks, which cut up boots and
+shoes, with perfect impunity&mdash;the men at work uncovering the
+trench, and winding in single file up and down the hazardous
+path cut by the cablemen in the otherwise inaccessible
+rock&mdash;the patches of bright color furnished by the red
+petticoats and cloaks&mdash;the ragged garments, only kept from
+falling to pieces by bits of string and tape&mdash;the good old
+parish priest, who exercises mild and gentle spiritual sway
+over the loving subjects of whom the ever-popular Knight of
+Kerry is the temporal head, looking on benignly from his
+car&mdash;the bright eyes, supple figures, and innocent faces of the
+peasant lasses, and the earnestly hopeful expression of
+all&mdash;made up a picture impossible to describe with justice. Add
+to this, the startling abruptness with which the tremendous
+cliffs stand flush out of the water, the alternations of bright
+wild flowers and patches of verdure with the most desolate
+barrenness, the mountain sheep indifferently cropping the
+short, sweet grass, and the undercurrent of consciousness of
+the mighty interests at stake, and few scenes will seem more
+important and interesting than that of yesterday." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As the ships are now ready for sea, and all who are to embark have come
+on board, we may look about us at the personnel of the expedition. Who
+are here? We recognize many old familiar faces, that we have seen in
+former campaigns&mdash;gallant men who have had many a sea-fight in this
+peaceful war. First, the eye seeks the tall form of Captain Anderson.
+There he <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>is, modest and grave, of few words, but seeing every thing,
+watching every thing, and ruling every thing with a quiet power. And
+there is his second officer, Mr. Halpin, who keeps a sharp lookout after
+the crew, to see that every man does his duty. While he thus keeps watch
+of all on board, Staff Commander Moriarty, R. N., comes on deck, with
+instruments in hand, to look after the heavenly bodies, and reckon the
+ship's latitude and longitude. This is an old veteran in the service,
+who has been in all the expeditions, and it would be quite "improper,"
+even if it were possible, for a cable to be laid across the Atlantic
+without his presence and aid. And here comes Mr. Canning, the engineer,
+whose deep-sea soundings, the last year, were on a scale of such
+magnitude, and who, if he cannot well dive deeper, means to pull
+stronger the next time. That slight form yonder is Professor Thomson, of
+Glasgow, a man who in his knowledge of the subtle element to be brought
+into play, and the enthusiasm he brings to its study, is the very genius
+of electrical science; and this is Mr. Varley, who seems to have the
+lightning in his fingers, and to whom the world owes some marvellous
+discoveries of the laws of electricity. Mr. Willoughby Smith, a worthy
+associate in these studies and discoveries, goes out on the ship as
+electrician.</p>
+
+<p>And here is Mr. Glass, the managing director of the Telegraph
+Construction and Maintenance Company, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>which has undertaken by contract
+to manufacture this cable and lay it safely across the ocean; and Mr.
+Gooch, chairman of the company that owns the Great Eastern&mdash;two
+gentlemen to whom the Atlantic Telegraph is under the greatest
+obligation, since it was they who, six months before, when the project
+seemed in danger of being given up or postponed for years, took Mr.
+Field by the hand, and cheered him on to a last effort. Blessings on
+their hearts of oak! Mr. Gooch accompanies the ship, while Mr. Glass,
+keeping Mr. Varley at his side as electrician, remains on shore, to
+receive reports of the daily progress of the expedition, and to issue
+his orders. What a post of observation was that telegraph house on the
+cliffs of Valentia! It commanded a far broader horizon than the top of
+Fiesolé, from which Galileo looked down on the valley of the Arno, and
+up at the stars. Was there ever a naval commander favored with a power
+of vision that could sweep the boundless sea? What would Nelson have
+said, if he had had a spy-glass with which he could watch ships in
+action two thousand miles away, and issue his orders to a fleet on the
+other side of the ocean? With such a long range, he might almost have
+fought the Battle of the Nile from his home in England.</p>
+
+<p>Standing on such a spot, and surrounded by such men, representing the
+capital, the science, and the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>skill of England, with all those gallant
+ships in sight, one's heart might well beat high. But there were other
+reflections that saddened the hour, and caused some at least to look
+once more on the rocks of Valentia with deep emotion. Some of their old
+companions-in-arms had fallen out of the ranks, while the battle was not
+yet won. Brett, Mr. Field's first friend in England, was in his grave.
+Beyond the Atlantic, Captains Hudson and Berryman slept the sleep that
+knows no waking. They were not forgotten by their survivors, who mourned
+that those who had toiled with them in former days, were not here to
+share their triumph.</p>
+
+<p>The feeling, therefore, of many on this occasion, was not one elate with
+pride and hope, but subdued by serious thoughts and tender memories. In
+harmony with this feeling, and with the great work which they were about
+to undertake, it was proposed that before the expedition sailed they
+should hold a solemn religious service.</p>
+
+<p>Was there ever a fitter place or a fitter hour for prayer than here, in
+the presence of the great sea to which they were about to commit their
+lives and their precious trust? The first expedition ever sent forth had
+been consecrated by prayer. On that very spot, nine years before, all
+heads were uncovered and all forms bent low, at the solemn words of
+supplication; and there had the Earl of Carlisle&mdash;since gone to his
+honored grave&mdash;cheered them on with high religious <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>hopes, describing
+the ships which were sent forth on such a mission, as "beautiful upon
+the waters as were the feet upon the mountains of them that publish the
+gospel of peace."</p>
+
+<p>In such a spirit two of the directors&mdash;Mr. Bevan, of London, and Mr.
+Bewley, of Dublin&mdash;sent invitations to a number of persons to meet at
+Valentia, as the expedition was about to sail, and commend it to the
+favor of Almighty God. Captain Anderson had greatly desired to be with
+them at this parting service, but the ships were at Berehaven, and they
+were just embarking for sea. But though the officers could not be
+present, a large company came together. Said an Irish paper: "Men of
+different religious denomination, and of various professions in
+life&mdash;Irishmen, Englishmen, and Scotchmen&mdash;joined in such a service as
+has never been held in this island." It was a scene long to be
+remembered, as they bowed together before the God and Father of all.
+Their brethren, who were about to go down to the sea in ships, felt
+their dependence on a Higher Power. Their preparations were complete.
+All that man could do was done. They had exhausted every resource of
+science and skill. The issue now remained with Him who controls the
+winds and waves. Therefore was it most fit that, at the very moment of
+embarking, those who remained behind should, as it were, kneel upon the
+cliff, and, with outstretched hands, commit them to Him who <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>alone
+spreadeth out the heavens and ruleth the raging of the sea.</p>
+
+<p>In all this there is something of antique stamp, something which makes
+us think of the sublime men of an earlier and better time; of the
+Pilgrim Fathers kneeling on the deck of their little ship at Leyden, as
+they were about to seek a refuge and a home in the forests of the New
+World; and of Columbus and his companions celebrating a solemn service
+before their departure from Spain. And so with labor and with prayer did
+this great expedition go forth once more from the shores of Ireland,
+bearing the hopes of science and of civilization&mdash;with courage and skill
+looking out from the bow across the stormy waters, and a religious
+faith, like that of Columbus, standing at the helm.</p>
+
+<p>On Friday morning, the thirteenth of July, the fleet finally bade adieu
+to the land. Was Friday an unlucky day? Some of the sailors thought so,
+and would have been glad to leave a day before or after. But Columbus
+sailed on Friday, and discovered the New World on Friday; and so this
+expedition put to sea on Friday, and, as a good Providence would have
+it, reached land on the other side of the Atlantic on the same day of
+the week! As the ships disappeared below the horizon, Mr. Glass and Mr.
+Varley went up on their watch-tower&mdash;not to look, but to listen for the
+first voice from the sea. The ships bore away for the buoy where lay the
+end of the shore line; but the weather was thick <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>and foggy, with
+frequent bursts of rain, and they could not see far on the water. For an
+hour or two they went sailing round and round, like sea-gulls in search
+of prey. At length the Albany caught sight of the buoy tossing on the
+waves, and, firing a signal gun, bore down straight upon it. The cable
+was soon hauled up from its bed, a hundred fathoms deep, and brought
+over the stern of the Great Eastern; and the watchers on shore, who had
+been waiting with some impatience, saw the first flash, and Varley read,
+"Got the shore end&mdash;all right&mdash;going to make the splice." Then all was
+still, and they knew that that delicate operation was going on. Quick,
+nimble hands tore off the covering from some yards of the shore end of
+the main cable, till they came to the core; then, swiftly unwinding the
+copper wires, they laid them together, twining them as closely and
+carefully as a silken braid. Thus stripped and bare this new-born child
+of the sea was wrapped in swaddling-clothes, covered up with many
+coatings of gutta-percha, and hempen rope, and strong iron wires, the
+whole bound round and round with heavy bands, and the splicing was
+complete. Signals were now sent through the whole cable on board the
+Great Eastern and back to the telegraph-house at Valentia, and the whole
+length, two thousand four hundred and forty nautical miles, was reported
+perfect. And so with light hearts they bore away. It was a little after
+three o'clock. As they turned to the west, the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>following was the "order
+of battle": the Terrible went ahead, standing off on the starboard bow,
+to keep other vessels out of the course; the Medway was on the port, and
+the Albany on the starboard quarter, ready to pick up or let go a buoy,
+or to do other work that might be required. All these ships were to keep
+their allotted positions, within signalling distance of the Great
+Eastern, and at any time that she was heard firing guns, they were to
+close in with her to render assistance. Their course lay thirty miles to
+the south of that of the last year, so that there could be no danger, in
+fishing for the old cable, of disturbing the new.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Russell, the brilliant historian of the Expedition of 1865, was not
+on board the Great Eastern this year. He had left England a few weeks
+before for the scene of the war in Germany. His place was supplied by
+Mr. John C. Deane, the Secretary of the Anglo-American Company, whose
+"Diary of the Expedition" furnishes a faithful record of the incidents
+of this memorable voyage. If the story be not quite so thrilling as that
+of the year before, it is because it has not to tell of such fatal
+accidents. It has the monotony of success. A few pages from this diary,
+giving its most important portions, will render this narrative complete.</p>
+
+<p>The voyage began with good weather and every omen of success. Friday,
+indeed, was a day of fog <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>and rain. At the very time they were making
+the splice with the shore end, the rain was pouring on the deck. But in
+a few hours it cleared off, and Saturday and Sunday, Mr. Field writes in
+his journal, "Weather fine;" and Monday, "Calm, beautiful day. Signals
+perfect." Owing to the improved system adopted by the chief electrician,
+communication with the shore was kept up even while the tests for
+insulation were going on.<a name="FNanchor_A_26" id="FNanchor_A_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_26" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span></p><p>Every possible precaution was taken to guard against such accidents as
+had marred the success of the year before. Remembering how small a thing
+had sufficed to puncture the cable, the men in the tank were not allowed
+to wear boots or shoes with nails in their heels, but were cased from
+head to foot in canvas dresses, drawn over their ordinary sailor
+costume, and, with slippers on their feet, they glided about softly as
+ghosts. But we turn to Mr. Deane's diary for a record of the progress
+from day to day:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Sunday, July 15.&mdash;All through yesterday the paying-out
+machinery worked so smoothly&mdash;the electrical tests were so
+perfect&mdash;the weather was so fine, that fresh confidence in the
+ultimate result has been naturally inspired. The recollection,
+however, of the reverses of the expedition of 1865 is always
+before those who have the greatest reliance on success; and
+there is a quiet repose about the manner of the chief practical
+men on board, which is an earnest that they will not allow
+themselves to be carried away by the smoothness of twenty-four
+hours' events. The convoy kept their position accurately during
+the day. The Terrible signalled that a man had fallen
+overboard. Her cutter was speedily lowered. The sailor had,
+however, laid hold of a rope thrown to him from the frigate,
+before the boat reached him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p><p>"Monday.&mdash;Still everything going on well. The sea like a
+mill-pond. The paying out of the cable from the after tank
+progressing with uniformity and steadiness, and the electrical
+tests perfect.</p>
+
+<p>"Our track is about thirty miles to the south of that of last
+year, and at that distance we passed parallel to where the
+telegraph cable parted in August, 1857. Our average speed has
+been about five knots. We were obliged to stop the screw
+engines in order to bring down to that speed, and, moreover, to
+reduce the paddle boiler power. Captain Anderson's ingenious
+mode of cleaning the ship's bottom, which he carried out last
+winter at Sheerness, has proved to have effected this very
+desirable object. Mr. Beckwith, the engineer, is now enabled to
+regulate and adjust her speed, and get more out of the ship
+than he could last year, when her bottom was one incrusted mass
+of mussels.</p>
+
+<p>"Tuesday.&mdash;Another twenty-four hours of uninterrupted success.
+All day yesterday it was so calm that the masts of our convoy
+were reflected in the ocean, an unusual thing to see. A large
+shoal of porpoises gambolled about us for half an hour. A
+glorious sunset, and later, a crescent moon, which we hope to
+see in the brightness of her full, lighting our way into
+Trinity Bay before the days of this July shall have ended." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>But the whole night did not pass away so tranquilly. By midnight the
+rain fell fast, and the wind blew fiercely, and then occurred the only
+real alarm of the voyage. The scene is thus described by Mr. Deane:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"All went on well until twenty minutes past twelve <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>,
+Greenwich time, when the first real shock was given to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>success which has hitherto attended us, and this time we had
+real cause to be alarmed. A foul flake took place in the after
+tank. The engines were immediately turned astern, and the
+paying out of the cable stopped. We were all soon on deck, and
+learned that the running or paying-out part of the coil had
+caught three turns of the flake immediately under it, carried
+them into the eye of the coil, fouling the lay out, and hauling
+up one and a half turns from the outside, and five turns in the
+eye of the under flake. This was stopped, fortunately, before
+entering the paying out machinery. Stoppers of hemp also were
+put on near the V-wheel astern, and Mr. Canning gave orders to
+stand by to let go the buoy. This was not very cheering to
+hear, but his calm and collected manner gave us all confidence
+that his skill and experience would extricate the cable from
+the obvious danger in which it was placed. No fishing line was
+ever entangled worse than the rope was when thrust up in
+apparently hopeless knots from the eye of the coil to the deck.
+There at least five hundred feet of rope lay in this state, in
+the midst of thick rain and increasing wind. The cable crew set
+to work under their chief engineer's instructions to
+disentangle it. Mr. Halpin was there too, patiently following
+the bights as they showed themselves; the crew now passing them
+forward, now aft, until at last the character of the tangle was
+seen, and soon it became apparent that ere long the cable would
+be cleared. All this time Captain Anderson was at the taffrail
+anxiously watching the strain on the rope, which he could
+scarcely make out, the night was so dark, and endeavoring to
+keep it up and down, going on and reversing with paddle and
+screw. When one reflects for a moment upon the size of the
+ship, and the enormous mass she presents to the wind, the
+difficulty of keeping her <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>stern, under the circumstances, over
+the cable, can be appreciated. The port paddle-wheel was
+disconnected; but shortly afterward there was a shift of wind,
+and the vessel canted the wrong way. Welcome voices were now
+heard passing the word aft from the tank that the bights were
+cleared, and to pay out. Then the huge stoppers were gently
+loosened, and at five minutes past two <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, to the joy of all,
+we were once more discharging the cable. They veered it away in
+the tank to clear away the foul flake until three <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, when
+the screw and paddle engines were slowed so as to reduce the
+speed of the ship to four and a half knots. During all this
+critical time there was an entire absence of noise and
+confusion. Every order was silently obeyed, and the cable men
+and crew worked with hearty good-will. Mr. Canning has had
+experience of foul flakes before, and showed that he knew what
+to do in the emergency. But what of the electrical condition of
+the cable during this period? Simply, that through its entire
+length it was perfect." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Thus, after three anxious hours, the danger was past, and the next
+morning the report of the ship is, "A fresh breeze from the southward, a
+dull gray sky, with occasional rain, and a moderate sea."</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Thursday.&mdash;There was a fresh breeze in the afternoon
+yesterday, increasing toward evening. It brought a heavy swell
+on the port quarter, which caused the ship to roll. The paying
+out from the after tank went on steadily. Two of the large
+buoys were lifted by derrick from the deck near the bows of the
+ship, and placed in position on the port and starboard side of
+the forward pick-up machinery, ready for letting go if
+necessary. The sun went down with an angry <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>look, and the scud
+came rapidly from the eastward, the sea rising. A wind dead aft
+is not the best for cable laying, particularly if any accident
+should take place. By half-past eleven to-night we shall have
+exhausted the contents of the after tank, and the cable will
+then be paid out from the fore tank along the trough to the
+stern, the distance from the centre of the tank to the
+paying-out machinery being four hundred and ninety-four feet.
+Last night the swell was very heavy, to which the Great Eastern
+proved herself not insensible. Her rolling, like everything
+else appertaining to her, is done on a grand scale. We see the
+liveliness with which that operation is performed on board the
+Albany and Medway, and we are not at all disposed to be too
+critical in our observations on our own movements. The speed of
+the ship was kept at four and a half during the night&mdash;the
+slower the better, is the opinion of all on board&mdash;<i>festina
+lente</i>. We are consuming about one hundred tons a day of the
+seven thousand tons of coal which we had on board when we left
+Berehaven, and Mr. Beckwith, who has been engineer of the Great
+Eastern from her first voyage to the present moment, says her
+engines were never in better order; and their appearance and
+working do him and his able staff of assistant engineers the
+greatest credit.</p>
+
+<p>"Friday.&mdash;Yesterday was a day of complete success, the paying
+out in every respect satisfactory. The wind still from the
+eastward, but inclined to draw to the northward, the sea
+entirely gone down. As Mr. Canning told us we should see the
+after tank emptied at eleven o'clock, ship's time, we were all
+collected there about ten o'clock, by which time the cable was
+down to the last flake. Next to having daylight for changing
+from the after to the fore tank, we could not have had a more
+favorable time&mdash;clear starlight, no wind, and a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>smooth sea.
+Looking down into the tank, the scene was highly picturesque.
+The cable-watch, whose figures were lighted up by the lamps
+suspended from above, slowly and cautiously lifted the turns of
+the coil to ease their path to the eye. As each found its way
+to the drum, the wooden floor of the tank showed itself, and
+then we saw more floor, and as its area increased the cable
+swept along its surface with a low, subdued noise, until, with
+a graceful curve, it mounted to the outlet, where it was soon
+to join a fresh supply; and now we hear the word passed that
+they have arrived at the last turn, and the men who stood on
+the stages of the platform of the eye with the bight, watch the
+arrival of the cable and pass it up with tender caution, until
+it reaches the summit; then it rushes down a wooden incline to
+meet the spliced rope, which had by this time come down along
+the trough leading from the forward tank. This operation was
+conducted with great skill by Mr. Canning and his experienced
+assistants, Messrs. Clifford and Temple. At eleven minutes past
+one <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> (Greenwich time), the fresh rope was going over the
+stern, and the screw engines going ahead at thirteen minutes
+past one. A watch of four men is now stationed, fore and aft,
+all along the trough, which is illuminated by many lamps at
+short distances from each other. A lamp with a green light
+indicates the mile-mark as it comes up from the tank, and this
+signal is repeated until it reaches the stern, where it is
+recorded by the clerk who keeps the cable-log, in an office
+adjoining the paying-out machinery. A red lamp indicates
+danger. During the daytime red and blue flags are used. All
+through the night the sea was smooth as glass, and by this
+morning we saw that a sensible impression had been made on the
+contents of the fore tank. The ship begins to lighten at the
+bows, and by this time to-morrow <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>will come up more as the
+cable passes out of the tank.</p>
+
+<p>"Saturday.&mdash;Yesterday was our seventh day of paying out cable,
+and so far we have been more fortunate than the expedition of
+last year. During the same period of 1865, two faults had
+occurred&mdash;one on the twenty-fourth July, the other on the
+twenty-ninth&mdash;causing a detention of fifty-six hours. At three
+<span class="smcap">p.m.</span> we were half-way, and passed where the Atlantic Cable of
+1858 parted twice, on the twenty-sixth and twenty-eighth of
+June&mdash;sad memories to many! We feel, however, that every hour
+is increasing our chance of effecting this great work. 'I
+believe we shall do it this time, Jack,' I heard one of our
+crew say to another last night. 'I believe so too, Bill,' was
+the reply; 'and if we don't, we deserve to do it, and that's
+all.' It blew very hard from two o'clock yesterday, up to 10
+<span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, by which time the wind gradually found its way from
+south-west to north-west, which is right ahead, just what we
+want for cable-laying. The Terrible and the two other ships
+plunged into the very heavy sea which the southwester raised,
+and we made up our minds, from what we saw, that the Great
+Eastern is the right ship to be in, in a gale of wind. During
+the night heavy showers of rain. This morning the sea was
+comparatively smooth, and the sky showed welcome patches of
+bright blue. If all goes well, we shall be up to-morrow evening
+at the place where last year's cable parted. A couple of days
+would bring us to shallower water, and then we may fairly look
+out for our 'Heart's Content.' Messages come from England, with
+the news, regularly and speedily&mdash;excellent practice for the
+clerks on shore and on board ship&mdash;great comfort to us, and the
+best evidence to those who will read this journal, of the great
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>fact that, up to this time, the cable is doing its electric
+work efficiently." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The interest of the voyage was greatly increased by the news daily
+received from Europe. Though in the middle of the Atlantic, they were
+still joined with the Old World, and messages came to the "Great Eastern
+Telegraph" as regularly as to the Times in London; reporting the
+quotations of the Stock Exchange, the debates in Parliament, and all the
+news of home. But what was far more exciting, was the tidings of the
+great events transpiring on the Continent. While the expedition had been
+preparing in England, a war had broken out of tremendous magnitude.
+Austria, Prussia, and Italy had rushed into the field. Armies, such as
+had not met since the fatal day of Leipsic, stood in battle array, and
+the thunder of war was echoing and reëchoing among the mountains of
+Bohemia. Amid these convulsions the fleet set sail; but it was still
+linked with the nations which it left behind, and received tidings from
+day to day. What great events were thus heralded to them in mid-ocean
+may be seen by a few items gleaned from the numerous despatches:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Saturday evening, July 14th.&mdash;General Cialdini is moving upon
+Rovigo with an army of one hundred thousand men and two hundred
+guns. The Austrians have evacuated the whole country between
+the Mincio and Adige." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A day or two later:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>"Cialdini has occupied Padua, twenty-three miles from Venice,
+on the railway connecting that city with the Quadrilateral, and
+the Austrians are shut up in Venice."</p>
+
+<p>"Tuesday, 17th.&mdash;Prussians had successful engagement before
+Olmütz yesterday; captured six guns. Further fighting expected
+to-day. Austrians withdrawing from Moldavia toward
+Vienna."&mdash;&mdash;"Conflict between Prussians and Federals. Prussians
+completely victorious. Federals evacuating Frankfort, and
+Prussians marching there."</p>
+
+<p>"Thursday, 19th.&mdash;Prussians repeating victories, and gaining
+adhesions from small States. The main army within fifty miles
+of Vienna&mdash;have cut the railway to Vienna. Austrian army
+between Prussians and Vienna, under Archduke, one hundred and
+sixty thousand men. Money and archives removed from Vienna to
+Comorn."</p>
+
+<p>"20th.&mdash;Frankfort occupied by the Prussians, who are marching
+on Vienna. Yesterday, Italian fleet, consisting of iron-clad
+vessels and several steamers, opened attack on Island of Lissa
+on the coast of Dalmatia&mdash;result not known." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The next day it is reported thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Severe naval engagement off Lissa. Austrians claim the
+victory. Sunk one Italian iron-clad, run down another, blew up
+a third."</p>
+
+<p>"July 21st.&mdash;Prussians crossed river; march near Holitzon,
+Hungary. Austria accepted proposal of armistice. Prussia will
+abstain from hostilities for five days, during which Austria
+will have to notify acceptance of preliminaries. A long letter
+published from the King of Prussia to the Queen, giving account
+of battle of Königgrätz." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The interest excited by such news may be imagined, coming while the
+events were yet fresh. Twice <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>a day was the bulletin set up on the deck,
+and was surrounded by an eager crowd reading what had transpired on the
+Continent but a few hours before. Nor was the intelligence confined to
+the Great Eastern. By an arrangement of signals, more complete than ever
+was used in a squadron before, the news was telegraphed to the convoy.
+All the ships had been furnished with experienced signal-men by the
+Admiralty. The system adopted was that known as Colomb's Flash Signals,
+by which, even in the darkest night, messages could easily be flashed to
+a distance of several miles. Thus all the ships were supplied with news
+twice a day, and the great military events in Europe were discussed in
+every cabin as eagerly as in the clubs of London. Again Deane's Diary
+reports:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Sunday, July 22d.&mdash;Still success to record. A bright clear
+day, with a fresh and invigorating breeze from the north-west.
+Cable going out with unerring smoothness, at the rate of six
+miles an hour. There has been great improvement in the
+insulation. This remarkable improvement is attributable to the
+greatly decreased temperature of, and pressure on, the cable in
+the sea. This is a very satisfactory result to Mr. Willoughby
+Smith. Signals, too, come every hour more distinctly. This
+morning the breeze freshened. We are now about thirty miles to
+the southward of the place where the cable parted on the second
+of August, 1865, having then paid out one thousand two hundred
+and thirteen miles. Captain Anderson read divine service in the
+dining saloon.</p>
+
+<p>"Monday.&mdash;Between six and seven <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> yesterday, we <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>passed over
+the deepest part of our course. There was no additional strain
+on the dynamometer, which indicated from ten to fourteen
+hundred, the cable going out with its accustomed regularity.
+The wind still fresh from the north-west. During the night it
+went round to the southwest, and this morning there is a long
+roll from the southward.</p>
+
+<p>"At forty-six minutes past eleven <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, Mr. Cyrus Field sent a
+message to Valentia, requesting Mr. Glass to obtain the latest
+news from Egypt, India, and China, and other distant countries,
+so that on our arrival at Heart's Content we shall be able to
+transmit it to the principal cities of the United States. In
+just eight minutes he had a reply in these words: 'Your message
+received, and is in London by this.' Outside the telegraph room
+there is a placard put up, on which is posted the news shortly
+after its arrival, and groups of the crew may be seen reading
+it, just as we see a crowd at a newspaper office in London. Mr.
+Dudley, the artist, has made a very spirited sketch of 'Jack'
+reading the morning news, for he is supplied with the latest
+intelligence from the seat of war twice a day!<a name="FNanchor_B_27" id="FNanchor_B_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_27" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> How he will
+grumble when he gets ashore! He is not going to pay a pound a
+word for news, but his newspapers will supply it to him, and he
+does not know or care what it costs. But what a sum has been
+spent in Atlantic telegraphs! It cannot now fall short of two
+millions and a half of pounds, or over twelve millions of
+dollars. More millions will be found if it shall be practically
+proved that America can permanently talk to England, and
+through her to the eastern hemisphere, and England to America
+by this ocean wire. At a quarter to twelve to-day but <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>two
+hundred and fifteen miles of cable remained to be paid out of
+the fore tank. To-morrow night we hope to see it empty&mdash;then,
+for a small supply from the main tank, and then&mdash;&mdash;but, hopeful
+though we are, let us not anticipate.</p>
+
+<p>"Tuesday.&mdash;Breakfast at eight. Lunch at one. Dinner at six. Tea
+at eight. Five hundred and two souls who live on board this
+huge ship following their prescribed occupations. Cable going
+out merrily. Electrical tests and signals perfect, and this is
+the history of what has taken place from noon yesterday to noon
+to-day. May we have three days more of such delightful
+monotony! It rained very hard during yesterday evening, and as
+we approach the Banks of Newfoundland we get thick and hazy
+weather." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The latter part of the voyage did not fulfil in all respects the promise
+of the first. The bright skies were gone; and instead perpetual fog hung
+over the water, while often the clouds poured down their floods. Thus
+the diary continues:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Wednesday.&mdash;Fog and thick rain&mdash;just the weather to expect on
+approaching the Banks of Newfoundland. The convoy keep their
+position, and though sometimes the fog hides the ships from our
+view, yet we know where they are by their signal-whistles&mdash;two
+from the Terrible, three from the Medway, and four from the
+Albany, which are replied to by the prolonged single shriek
+from our whistle. At fifty-two minutes past one, Greenwich time
+(ship's time, forty-five minutes past ten <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, last night),
+the fore tank being nearly empty, preparations were made for
+passing the bight of the cable into the main tank. At fifteen
+minutes past two all the jockey-wheels of the paying-out
+machinery <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>were up, and the brakes released. Twenty-three
+minutes past two the bight was passed steadily and cautiously
+by the cable hands outside of the trough to the main tank, and
+at thirty-five minutes past two the splice went over the stern
+in 1542.8 fathoms. By arrangement with Sir James Hope, the
+admiral of the North-American station, who has received
+instructions from the Admiralty to give the present expedition
+every assistance in his power, a frigate or sloop will be
+placed in longitude 48°, 25', 52", which is just thirty miles
+from the entrance of Trinity Bay, and sixty from Heart's
+Content. She will probably hang on by a kedge in that position,
+which shows the 'fair way' right up the bay; and if it be
+clear, we ought to see her about daybreak on Friday morning.
+The fog was very thick this morning, but occasionally lifts; as
+long as the wind is from south-west we cannot expect clear
+weather." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As the week drew on, it was evident that they were approaching the end
+of their voyage. By Thursday they had passed the great depths of the
+Atlantic, and were off soundings. Besides their daily observations,
+there were many signs, well known to mariners, that they were near the
+coast. There were the sea-birds, and they could almost snuff the smell
+of the land, such as once greeted the sharp senses of Columbus, and made
+him sure that he was floating to some undiscovered shore. Captain
+Anderson had timed his departure so that he should approach the American
+coast at the full moon; but for the last two or three nights, as the
+round orb rose behind them, banks of cloud hung so <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span>heavily upon the
+water, that the moonlight only gleamed faintly through the vaporous air,
+and the fleet seemed like the phantom ships of the Ancient Mariner,
+drifting on through fog and mist.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Thursday.&mdash;All day yesterday it was as 'thick as mustard.' We
+have had now forty-eight hours of fog. Though it lifted a
+little this morning, at five <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, it still looks like more of
+it. Captain Anderson signalled to the Albany, at fifteen
+minutes past ten last night, to start at daybreak, and proceed
+to discover the station ship, and report us at hand. Should she
+fail to find her, then to try and make the land and guide us up
+Trinity Bay. Another signal was sent at half-past twelve to the
+effect that the Terrible and Medway would be sent ahead to meet
+the Albany and establish a line to lead us in even with a fog.
+The Albany started at half-past three. At forty-five minutes
+past four, Greenwich time, the cable engineer in charge took
+one weight off each brake of the paying-out machinery. At forty
+minutes past seven all weights taken off, the assumed depth
+being three hundred fathoms. The indicated strain on the
+dynamometer gradually decreasing. Speed of ship five knots. We
+are going to try and pick up the cable of 1865 in two thousand
+five hundred fathoms (and we mean to succeed too); therefore
+should the cable we are now paying out part, it can be
+understood how easy it would be to raise it from a depth of
+three hundred fathoms. At fifty-five minutes past eight we
+signalled to the Terrible to sound, and received a reply, one
+hundred and sixty fathoms. At half-past eleven we informed her
+that when at the buoy off Heart's Content she should have her
+paddle-box boat and two cutters ready to be alongside
+immediately, for holding the bight of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>cable during the
+splice and laying the shore end. The Medway was told at the
+same time to prepare two five-inch ropes, and two large
+mushroom anchors, with fifty fathoms of chain, for anchoring
+during the splice in one hundred and seventy fathoms of water,
+and we intimated to her that when inside of Trinity Bay we
+should signal for two boats to take hands on board her for
+shore end. News of to-day, telegram from Mr. Glass in reply to
+one from Mr. Canning: I congratulate you all most sincerely on
+your arrival in one hundred and thirty fathoms. I hope nothing
+will interfere to mar the hitherto brilliant success, and that
+the cable will be landed to-morrow.'" </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>As the voyage is about to end, we give the distances run from day to
+day, which show a remarkable uniformity of progress:</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">Distance Run.</td><td align="right">Cable Paid Out.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Saturday, fourteenth,</td><td align="right">108</td><td align="right">115</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Sunday, fifteenth,</td><td align="right">128</td><td align="right">139</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Monday, sixteenth,</td><td align="right">115</td><td align="right">137</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Tuesday, seventeenth,</td><td align="right">117</td><td align="right">138</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Wednesday, eighteenth,</td><td align="right">104</td><td align="right">125</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Thursday, nineteenth,</td><td align="right">112</td><td align="right">129</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Friday, twentieth,</td><td align="right">117</td><td align="right">127</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Saturday, twenty-first,</td><td align="right">121</td><td align="right">136</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Sunday, twenty-second,</td><td align="right">123</td><td align="right">133</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Monday, twenty-third,</td><td align="right">121</td><td align="right">138</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Tuesday, twenty-fourth,</td><td align="right">120</td><td align="right">135</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Wednesday, twenty-fifth,</td><td align="right">119</td><td align="right">130</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Thursday, twenty-sixth,</td><td align="right">128</td><td align="right">134</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Friday, twenty-seventh.</td><td align="right">100</td><td align="right">104</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p><p>From this it appears that the speed of the ship was exactly according
+to the running time fixed before she left England. On the last voyage it
+was thought that she had once or twice run too fast, and thus exposed
+the cable to danger. It was, therefore, decided to go slowly but surely.
+Holding her back to this moderate pace, her average speed, from the time
+the splice was made till they saw land, was a little less than five
+nautical miles an hour, while the cable was paid out at an average of
+not quite five and a half miles. Thus the total slack was about eleven
+per cent, showing that the cable was laid almost in a straight line,
+allowing for the swells and hollows in the bottom of the sea.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Friday, July 27th.&mdash;Shortly after two <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, yesterday, two
+ships, which were soon made out to be steamers, were seen to
+the westward; and the Terrible, steaming on ahead, in about an
+hour signalled to us that H.M.S. Niger was one of them,
+accompanied by the Albany. The Niger, Captain Bruce, sent a
+boat to the Terrible as soon as he came up with her. The Albany
+shortly afterward took up her position on our starboard
+quarter, and signalled that she spoke the Niger at noon,
+bearing E. by N., and that the Lily was anchored at the station
+in the entrance of Trinity Bay, as arranged with the Admiral.
+The Albany also reported that she had passed an iceberg about
+sixty feet high. At twenty minutes after four <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, the Niger
+came on our port side, quite close, and Captain Bruce, sending
+the crew to the rigging and manning the yards, gave us three
+cheers, which were heartily <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span>returned by the Great Eastern. She
+then steamed ahead toward Trinity Bay. The Albany was signalled
+to go on immediately to Heart's Content, clear the northeast
+side of the harbor of shipping, and place a boat with a red
+flag for Captain Anderson to steer to, for anchorage. Just
+before dinner we saw on the southern horizon, distant about ten
+miles, an iceberg, probably the one which the Albany met with.
+It was apparently about fifty or sixty feet in height. The fog
+came on very thick about eight <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and between that and ten
+we were constantly exchanging guns and burning blue lights with
+the Terrible, which, with the Niger, went in search of the
+Lily, station ship. The Terrible being signalled to come up and
+take her position, informed us they had made the Lily out, and
+that she bore then about E.N.E. distant four miles. Later in
+the night Captain Commerill said that if Captain Anderson would
+stop the Great Eastern, he would send the surveyor Mr.
+Robinson, R. N., who came out in the Niger, on board of us, and
+about three the engines were slowed, and the Terrible shortly
+afterwards came alongside with that officer. Catalina light, at
+the entrance of Trinity Bay, had been made out three hours
+before this, and the loom of the coast had also been seen. Fog
+still prevailing! According to Mr. Robinson's account, if they
+got one clear day in seven at the entrance of Trinity Bay, they
+considered themselves fortunate. Here we are now (six <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>),
+within ten miles of Heart's Content, and we can scarcely see
+more than a ship's length. The Niger, however, is ahead, and
+her repeated guns tell us where we are with accuracy. Good
+fortune follows us, and scarcely has eight o'clock arrived when
+the massive curtain of fog raises itself gradually from both
+shores of Trinity Bay, disclosing to us the entrance of Heart's
+Content, the Albany making <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span>for the harbor, the Margaretta
+Stevenson, surveying vessel, steaming out to meet us, the
+preärranged pathway all marked with buoys by Mr. J. H. Kerr, R.
+N., and a whole fleet of fishing boats fishing at the entrance.</p>
+
+<p>"We could now plainly see that Heart's Content, so far as its
+capabilities permitted, was prepared to welcome us. The British
+and American flags floated from the church and telegraph
+station and other buildings. We had dressed ship, fired a
+salute, and given three cheers, and Captain Commerill of H.M.S.
+Terrible was soon on board to congratulate us on our success.
+At nine o'clock, ship's time, just as we had cut the cable and
+made arrangements for the Medway to lay the shore end, a
+message arrived giving us the concluding words of a leader in
+this morning's Times: 'It is a great work, a glory to our age
+and nation, and the men who have achieved it deserve to be
+honored among the benefactors of their race.'&mdash;'Treaty of peace
+signed between Prussia and Austria!' It was now time for the
+chief engineer, Mr. Canning, to make the necessary preparations
+for splicing on board the Medway. Accompanied by Mr. Gooch,
+M.P., Mr. Clifford, Mr. Willoughby Smith, and Messrs. Temple
+and Deane, he went on board, the Terrible and Niger having sent
+their paddle-box boats and cutters to assist. Shortly afterward
+the Great Eastern steamed into the harbor and anchored on the
+north-east side, and was quickly surrounded by boats laden with
+visitors. Mr. Cyrus Field had come on shore before the Great
+Eastern had left the offing, with a view of telegraphing to St.
+John's to hire a vessel to repair the cable unhappily broken
+between Cape Ray, in Newfoundland, and Cape North, in Breton
+Island. Before a couple of hours the shore end will be landed,
+and it is impossible to conceive a finer day for effecting this
+our final <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>operation. Even here, people can scarcely realize
+the fact that the Atlantic Telegraph Cable has been laid.
+To-morrow, however, Heart's Content<a name="FNanchor_C_28" id="FNanchor_C_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_28" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> will awaken to the fact
+that it is a highly favored place in the world's esteem, the
+western landing-place of that marvel of electric communication
+with the Eastern hemisphere, which is now happily, and we hope
+finally, established." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>This simple record, so modestly termed the Diary of the Expedition,
+tells the story of this memorable voyage in a way that needs no
+embellishment. But if from the ship's deck we transfer ourselves to the
+shore, we may get a new impression of the closing scene. We can well
+believe the sensation of wonder and almost of awe, on the morning when
+the ships entered that little harbor of Newfoundland. In England the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>progress of the expedition was known from day to day, but on this side
+of the ocean all was uncertainty. Some had gone to Heart's Content,
+hoping to witness the arrival of the fleet, but not so many as the year
+before, for the memory of the last failure was too fresh, and they
+feared another disappointment. But still a faithful few were there, who
+kept their daily watch. The correspondents of the American papers report
+only a long and anxious suspense, till the morning when the first ship
+was seen in the offing. As they looked toward her, she came nearer&mdash;and
+see, there is another and another! And now the hull of the Great Eastern
+loomed up all glorious in the morning sky. They were coming! Instantly
+all was wild excitement on shore. Boats put off to row toward the fleet.
+The Albany was the first to round the point and enter the bay. The
+Terrible was close behind. The Medway stopped an hour or two to join on
+the heavy shore end, while the Great Eastern, gliding calmly in as if
+she had done nothing remarkable, dropped her anchor in front of the
+telegraph house, having trailed behind her a chain of two thousand
+miles, to bind the Old World to the New.</p>
+
+<p>That same afternoon, as soon as the shore end was landed, Captain
+Anderson and the officers of the fleet went in a body to the little
+church in Heart's Content, to render thanks for the success of the
+expedition. A sermon was preached on the text, "There shall be no <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span>more
+sea," and all joined in the sublime prayers and thanksgivings of the
+Church of England. Thus the voyage ended as it began. It left the shores
+of Ireland with prayers wafted after it as a benediction. And now,
+safely landed on the shores of the New World, this gallant company, like
+Columbus and his companions, made it their first thought to render
+homage to the Being who had borne them safely across the deep.</p>
+
+<p>But though their voyage was ended, there was still a work to be done.
+Having crossed the Atlantic, the first thing was to open communication
+with the cities of the United States. And now Mr. Field was extremely
+mortified to find that there was a large gap in the line this side of
+the ocean. His first question to the Superintendent, who came out in a
+boat to meet him, was in regard to the cable across the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence, which had been interrupted the year before; and it was a
+bitter pang to hear that it lay still broken, so that a message which
+came from Ireland in a moment of time, was delayed twenty-four hours in
+its way to New York. Of course the public grew impatient, and there were
+many sneers at the want of foresight which had failed to provide against
+such a contingency; and, as he was the one chiefly known in connection
+with the enterprise, these reproaches fell upon him. He did not tell the
+public, what was the truth, that he had anticipated this very trouble
+long ago, and entreated his associates to be prepared for it. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>Months
+before he left for England, he urged upon the Company in New York the
+necessity of rebuilding their lines in Newfoundland, which had been
+standing over ten years, and of repairing the old cable, and also laying
+a new one across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But this would cost a large
+sum of money, and as their faith and purses had been sorely tried by
+repeated disasters, they were not willing to spend more in the
+uncertainty of the future. They wished to see the result of this new
+expedition, before advancing further capital. We do not blame them, but
+only mention the fact to show that Mr. Field had foreseen this very
+thing, and endeavored to guard against it.</p>
+
+<p>But regrets were idle. What could he do to repair the injury? "Is there
+a steamer," he asked, "to be had in these waters?" "The Bloodhound is at
+St. John's." "Telegraph instantly to charter her to go around to the
+Gulf of St. Lawrence, and fish up the old cable and repair it. But that
+may take several weeks. Is there nothing else that can serve in the mean
+time to carry despatches across the Gulf?" "There is a little steamer,
+called the Dauntless." "Well, telegraph for her too. Secure her at all
+hazards; only see that the work is done." All this was the work of a few
+minutes. The answers came back quickly, and in a day or two came the
+steamers themselves. The arrangement was immediately carried out. The
+Dauntless <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>took her place in the Gulf, where she made her regular trips
+from Port au Basque, in Newfoundland, to Aspee Bay, in Cape Breton,
+keeping up daily communication with the States. The Bloodhound, which
+had a more difficult task, first took on board eleven miles of cable
+from the Great Eastern, to repair that which was broken. The expedition
+was put in charge of Mr. A. M. Mackay, the indefatigable Superintendent
+of the Company in Newfoundland, who had had the care of their lines for
+ten years. He sailed for Aspee Bay, and made short work of the business,
+dragging the Gulf and raising the cable, which he found had been broken
+by an anchor, in water seventy fathoms deep, a few miles from shore.
+This was spliced out with a portion of the new cable, and the whole was
+as perfect as ever, giving a fresh proof that cables well made are
+likely to be permanent, if not indestructible.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, owing to this interruption of the cable across the Gulf of
+St. Lawrence, the news of the success of the expedition, which reached
+Newfoundland on Friday, the twenty-seventh, did not reach New York till
+the twenty-ninth. It was early Sunday morning, before the Sabbath bells
+had rung their call to prayer, that the tidings came. The first
+announcement was brief: "Heart's Content, July 27.&mdash;We arrived here at
+nine o'clock this morning. All well. Thank God, the cable is laid, and
+is in perfect working order.</p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+<span class="smcap">Cyrus W. Field.</span>"
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span></p><p>Soon followed the despatch to the Associated Press, giving the details
+of the voyage, and ending with a just tribute to the skill and devotion
+of all who had contributed to its success. Said Mr. Field: "I cannot
+find words suitable to convey my admiration for the men who have so ably
+conducted the nautical, engineering, and electrical departments of this
+enterprise, amidst difficulties which must be seen to be appreciated. In
+fact, all on board of the telegraph fleet, and all connected with the
+enterprise, have done their best to have the cable made and laid in a
+perfect condition; and He who rules the winds and the waves has crowned
+their united efforts with perfect success."</p>
+
+<p>Other despatches followed in quick succession, giving the latest events
+of the war in Europe, which startled the public just reading news a
+fortnight old. All this confirmed the great triumph, and filled every
+heart with wonder and gratitude on the Sunday morning, as they went
+again to the little church and rendered thanks to Him who is Lord of the
+earth and sea.</p>
+
+<p>While the Great Eastern was lying in the harbor of Heart's Content, she
+was overrun with visitors. The news of her arrival had spread over the
+island, and from far and near the people flocked to see her. Over the
+hills they came on foot and on horseback, and in wagons and carts of
+every description; and from along the shore in boats and fishing-smacks,
+and sloops and schooners. They came from the most remote parts <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span>of the
+island&mdash;a distance of three hundred miles&mdash;and even from the province of
+New Brunswick. Several parties made the excursion in steamers from St.
+John's. The wondering country folk climbed up the sides of the ship, and
+wandered for hours through its spacious rooms and long passages. All
+were welcomed with hearty sailor courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as communication was opened with New York, and other cities,
+congratulations poured in from every quarter. Friendly messages were
+exchanged&mdash;as eight years before&mdash;between the sovereign of England and
+the head of the Great Republic. The President also, and Mr. Seward,
+Secretary of State, sent their congratulations to Mr. Field&mdash;greetings
+that were repeated from the most distant States. Among others was a
+message from San Francisco, which was put into his hand almost at the
+same moment with one from M. de Lesseps, dated at Alexandria in Egypt!
+What a meeting and mingling of voices was this, when a winged salutation
+flying over the tops of the Rocky Mountains, reached the same ear with a
+message which had been whispered along the Mediterranean and under the
+Atlantic: when the farthest East touched the farthest West&mdash;the most
+ancient of kingdoms answering to the new-born empire of the Pacific.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_26" id="Footnote_A_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_26"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The new method is thus explained by Mr. Deane:
+</p><p>
+"The fundamental difference between last year's system of testing and
+that of the present expedition is, that now all the ordinary tests for
+continuity may be made simultaneously with the test for insulation,
+which is not interrupted at all; whereas, last year, during half the
+time spent in laying the cable, the insulation test was wholly
+neglected.
+</p><p>
+"Last year, each hour was divided into four parts. The first half of the
+hour was spent in testing for insulation. During the second half, which
+was divided into three periods of ten minutes each, tests were made to
+ascertain the resistance of the conductor and to prove the continuity of
+the same. All these tests were of such a nature as to afford no
+criterion whatever of the state of the insulation during their
+continuance, so that during the half of each hour, or, in other words,
+during half the time spent in laying the cable, the insulation test was
+neglected. Also, while the insulation test was being made, there was no
+means of communicating with the shore, as the observations were taken on
+board only. This year, a test for insulation is constantly kept on, and,
+by Mr. Willoughby Smith's arrangement, corresponding observations are
+made both on ship and shore. At stated times during the hour, the
+continuity test is made at the shore station by means of a condenser
+applied to the conductor of the cable. The effect of this is to increase
+the deflection on the ship's insulation galvanometer, thus serving as a
+continuity test. Communications from shore to ship are also made by
+these means. The ship can send signals to the shore by simply reversing
+the current for certain lengths of time, answering to some understood
+code, or by increasing and diminishing the tension of the line,
+according to a preärranged plan. All these operations may be performed
+without interrupting the insulation test, except for a few seconds while
+the current is being reversed. So far for the new system in the
+electrical room as compared with last year."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_27" id="Footnote_B_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_27"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Mr. Dudley made a number of sketches for Mr. Field, with
+several large paintings, which have furnished the illustrations for this
+volume.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_28" id="Footnote_C_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_28"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> The little harbor that bears this gentle name, is a
+sheltered nook where ships may ride at anchor, safe from the storms of
+the ocean. It is but an inlet from the great arm of the sea known as
+Trinity Bay, which is sixty or seventy miles long, and twenty miles
+broad. On the beach is a small village of some sixty houses, most of
+which are the humble dwellings of those hardy men who vex the northern
+seas with their fisheries. The place was never heard of outside of
+Newfoundland till 1864, when Mr. Field, sailing up Trinity Bay in the
+surveying steamer Margaretta Stevenson, Captain Orlebar, R. N., in
+search of a place for the landing of the ocean cable, fixed upon this
+secluded spot. The old landing of 1858 was at the Bay of Bull's Arm, at
+the head of Trinity Bay, twenty miles above. Heart's Content was chosen
+now because its waters are still and deep, so that a cable skirting the
+north side of the Banks of Newfoundland can be brought in deep water
+almost till it touches the shore. All around the land rises to
+pine-crested heights; and here the telegraphic fleet, after its
+memorable voyage, lay in quiet, under the shadow of the encircling
+hills.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
+
+RECOVERY OF THE LOST CABLE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Though the Great Eastern was still lying in the little harbor of Heart's
+Content, casting her mighty shadow on its tranquil waters, she was not
+"content" with her amazing victory, but sighed for another greater
+still. Though she had done enough to be laid up for a year, still she
+had one more test of her prowess&mdash;to recover the cable of 1865, which
+had been lost in the middle of the Atlantic. So eager were all for this
+second trial of their strength, that in less than five days two of the
+ships&mdash;the Albany and the Terrible&mdash;the vanguard of the telegraphic
+fleet, were on their way back to mid-ocean. Though it was only Friday,
+the 27th of July, that they reached land, they left early Wednesday
+morning, the first day of August. The Great Eastern was detained a week
+longer. She had to lay in immense supplies of coal. Anticipating this
+want, six ships had been despatched from Cardiff, in Wales, weeks
+before, to await the arrival of the fleet. One of these foundered at
+sea; the others arrived out safely, and hardly had the Great Eastern
+cast anchor before they were alongside, ready to fill her bunkers. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span>So
+ample was the provision, that, when she went to sea a few days after,
+she had nearly eight thousand tons of coal on board.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time she had to receive some six hundred miles of the cable
+of 1865, which had been shipped from England in the Medway. The latter
+was now brought alongside, and the whole was transferred into the main
+tank of the Great Eastern, from which it was to be paid out in case the
+lost end were recovered.</p>
+
+<p>At length all these preparations were completed, and on Thursday, the
+9th of August, the Great Eastern and the Medway put to sea. The Governor
+of Newfoundland, who had come around from St. John's and been received
+with the honors due his rank, accompanied them in the Lily down the
+broad expanse of Trinity Bay, and then bore away for St. John's while
+the Great Eastern and Medway kept on their course to join their
+companions in the middle of the Atlantic. They had a little over six
+hundred miles to run to the "fishing ground," and made it in three days.
+On Sunday noon they came in sight of the appointed rendezvous, and soon
+with glasses made out the Albany and the Terrible, which had arrived a
+week before and placed buoys to mark the line of the cable, and then,
+like giant sea-birds with folded wings, sat watching their prey. The sea
+was running high, so that boats could not come off, but the Albany
+signalled <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>that she had not toiled for nothing; that she had once hooked
+the cable, but lost it in rough weather. The history of this first
+attempt, though brief, was cheering.</p>
+
+<p>When the Albany left Heart's Content, Captain Moriarty went in her. He
+had been in the Great Eastern the year before, and saw where the cable
+went down, and had had his eye on the spot ever since. He claimed, with
+Captain Anderson, that he could go straight to it and place the ship
+within half a mile of where it disappeared. At this old sailors shook
+their heads, and said, "They'd like to see him do it;" "No man could
+come within two or three miles of any given place in the ocean." Yet the
+result proved the exactness of his observations. With unerring eye he
+went straight to the spot, and set his buoys as exactly as a fisherman
+sets his nets.</p>
+
+<p>In the Albany, also, had gone Mr. Temple, of Mr. Canning's staff. The
+ship had been fitted up with a complete set of buoys and apparatus for
+grappling; and he was full of ambition to recover the cable before the
+Great Eastern should come up. In this he had nearly proved successful.
+They had caught it once, and raised it a few hundred fathoms from the
+bottom, and buoyed it, but rough weather came on and tore away the buoy,
+so that the cable went down again, carrying two miles of rope.</p>
+
+<p>This was a disappointment, but still, as their first attempt was only a
+"feeler," the result was encouraging. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>It showed that they had found the
+right place; that the cable was there; that it had not run away nor been
+floated off by those under-currents that exist in the imagination of
+some wise men of the sea; nor that it was so imbedded in the ooze of the
+deep as to be beyond reach or recovery. All this was cheering, but as it
+promised to be a more difficult job than they had supposed, they were
+glad when the Great Eastern hove in sight that Sunday noon.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning Captain Moriarty and Mr. Temple came on board, and
+after reporting their experience, the chief officers of the Expedition
+held a council of war before opening the campaign. The fleet was all
+together, the weather was favorable, and it was determined at once to
+proceed to business.</p>
+
+<p>As the attempt is now to be renewed on a grand scale, the reader may
+wish some further details of the means employed to insure success. As
+nothing in this whole enterprise has excited such astonishment, nothing
+merits a more careful history. When it was first proposed to drag the
+bottom of the Atlantic for a cable lost in waters two and a half miles
+deep, the project was so daring that it seemed to be almost a war of the
+Titans upon the gods. Yet never was anything undertaken less in the
+spirit of reckless desperation. The cable was recovered, as a city is
+taken by siege&mdash;by slow approaches, and the sure and inevitable result
+of mathematical calculation. Every point was studied <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>beforehand&mdash;the
+position of the broken end, the depth of the ocean, the length of rope
+needed to reach the bottom, and the strength required to lift the
+enormous weight. To find the place was a simple question of nautical
+astronomy&mdash;a calculation of latitude and longitude. It seemed
+providential that, when the cable broke on the second of August, 1865,
+it was a few minutes after noon; the sun was shining brightly, and they
+had just taken a perfect observation. This made it much easier to go
+back to the place again. The waters were very deep, but that they could
+touch bottom, and even grapple the cable, was proved by the experiments
+of the year before. But could any power be applied which should lift it
+without breaking, and bring it safely on board? This was a simple
+question of mechanics. Prof. Thomson had made a calculation that in
+raising the cable from a depth of two and a half miles, there would be
+about ten miles of its length suspended in the water. Of course, it was
+a very nice matter to graduate the strain so as not to break the cable.
+For this it had been suggested that two or three ships should grapple it
+at once, and lifting it together, ease the strain on any one point&mdash;a
+method of meeting the danger that was finally adopted with success.</p>
+
+<p>With such preparations, let us see how all this science and seamanship
+and engineering are applied. The ships are now all together in the
+middle of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>Atlantic. The first point is achieved. They have found
+the place where the broken cable lies&mdash;they have laid their hands on the
+bottom of the ocean and "felt of it," and know that it is there. The
+next thing is to draw a line over it, to mark its course, for in fogs
+and dark nights it cannot be traced by observations. The watery line is
+therefore marked by a series of buoys a few miles apart, which are held
+in position by heavy mushroom-anchors, let down to the bottom by a huge
+buoy-rope, which is fastened at the top by a heavy chain. Each buoy is
+numbered, and has on the top a long staff with a flag, and a black ball
+over it, which can be seen at a distance. Thus the ships, ranging around
+in a circuit of many miles, can keep in sight this chain of sentinels.
+The buoy which marks the spot where they wish to grapple has also a
+lantern placed upon it at night, which gleams afar upon the ocean.
+Having thus fixed their bearings, the Great Eastern stands off, north or
+south according to the wind or current, three or four miles from where
+the cable lies, and then, casting over the grapnel, drifts slowly down
+upon the line, as ships going into action reef their sails, and drift
+under the enemy's guns.</p>
+
+<p>The "fishing-tackle" is on a gigantic scale. The "hooks," or grapnels,
+are huge weapons armed with teeth, like Titanic harpoons to be plunged
+into this submarine monster. The "fishing-line" is a rope six <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span>and a
+half inches round, and made of twisted hemp and iron, consisting of
+forty-nine galvanized wires, each bound with manilla, the whole capable
+of bearing a strain of thirty tons. Of this heavy rope there are twenty
+miles on board the ships, the Albany carrying five, and the Great
+Eastern and the Medway seven and a half miles each. Of course it is not
+the easiest thing in the world to handle such a rope. But it is paid out
+by machinery, passing over a drum; and the engine works so smoothly,
+that it runs out as easily as ever a fisherman's line was reeled off
+into the sea. As it goes out freely, the strain increases every moment.
+The rope is so ponderous, that the weight mounts up very fast, so that
+by the time it is two thousand fathoms down, the strain is equal to six
+or seven tons. The tension of course is very great, and not unattended
+with danger. What if the rope should break? If it should snap on board,
+it would go into the sea like a cannon-shot. Such was the tension on the
+long line, that once when the splice between the grapnel-rope and the
+buoy-rope "drew," the end passed along the wheels with terrific
+velocity, and flying in the air over the bow, plunged into the sea. But
+the rope is well made, and holds firmly an enormous weight. It takes
+about two hours for the grapnel to reach the bottom, but they can tell
+when it strikes. The strain eases up, and then, as the ship drifts, it
+is easy to see that it is not dragging through the water, but over the
+ground. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span>"I often went to the bow," says Mr. Field, "and sat on the
+rope, and could tell by the quiver that the grapnel was dragging on the
+bottom two miles under us."</p>
+
+<p>And thus, with its fishing line set, the great ship moves slowly down
+over where the cable lies. As the grapnel drags on the bottom, one of
+the engineer's staff stands at the dynamometer to watch for the moment
+of increasing strain. A few hours pass, and the index rises to eight,
+ten, or twelve tons, sure token that there is something at the end of
+the line&mdash;it may be the lost cable, or a sunken mast or spar, the
+fragment of a wreck that went down in a storm that swept the Atlantic a
+hundred years ago. And now the engine is set in motion to haul in. As
+the rope comes up, it passes over a five-foot drum, every revolution
+bringing up three fathoms. Thus it takes some hours to haul in over two
+miles' length, perhaps at last to find nothing at the end!</p>
+
+<p>Success in hooking the cable depends on the accuracy of their
+observations. These were sometimes verified in a remarkable manner. When
+the nights were very dark and thick with fog, so that they could not see
+the stars above nor their lights on the ocean, they had to go almost by
+the sense of feeling. Yet so exactly had they taken their bearings, that
+they could almost grope over the ground with their hands. A singular
+proof of this was given one night, when, just as the line began to
+quiver, showing that the cable had <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span>been hooked, one of the buoys&mdash;which
+had not been seen in the darkness&mdash;thumped against the side of the ship.
+So exactly had it been placed over the prescribed line, that the ship
+struck the buoy just as the grapnel struck the cable! The accident,
+which startled them at first, when it occurred in the gloom of night,
+furnished the strongest proof of the accuracy of their observations; and
+the officers were very proud of it, as they well might be, as a victory
+in nautical astronomy!</p>
+
+<p>These different experiments revealed some secrets of the ocean. Its
+bottom proved to be generally ooze, a soft slime. When the rope went
+down, one or two hundred fathoms at the end would trail on the sea
+floor; and when it came up, this was found coated with mud, "very fine
+and soft like putty, and full of minute shells." But it was not <i>all</i>
+ooze at the bottom of the sea, even on this telegraphic plateau. There
+were hidden rocks&mdash;perhaps not cliffs and ledges, but at least scattered
+boulders, lying on that mighty plain. Sometimes the strain on the
+dynamometer would suddenly go up three or four tons, and then back
+again, as if the grapnel had been caught and broken away. Once it came
+up with two of its hooks bent, as if it had come in contact with a huge
+rock. At one time it brought up in the mud a small stone half the size
+of an almond; and at another a fragment as large as a brick. This was a
+piece of granite.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p><p>Friday, August 17th, was a memorable day in the expedition, for the
+cable was not only caught, but brought to the surface, where it was in
+full sight of the whole ship, and yet finally escaped. The day before
+the line had been cast over, at about two o'clock, and struck the ground
+a little before five. After dragging a couple of hours, the increasing
+strain showed that they had grappled the prize, and they began to haul
+in, but soon ceased, and held on till morning. Then the engine was set
+in motion again, and slowly but steadily the ponderous rope came up from
+the deep. By half-past ten o'clock, Friday morning, twenty-three hundred
+fathoms had come on board, and but fifteen or twenty remained. Then was
+the critical moment, and they paused before giving a last pull. Such was
+the eagerness of all, that the diver of the ship, Clark, begged to be
+allowed to plunge down twenty fathoms, to lay his hand on the prize, and
+be sure that it was there. But patience yet a few minutes! A few more
+strokes of the engine, and the sea-serpent shows himself&mdash;a long black
+snake with a white belly. "On the appearance of the cable," says Deane,
+in his Diary of the Expedition, "we were all struck with the fact that
+one half of it was covered with ooze, staining it a muddy white, while
+the other half was in just the state in which it left the tank, with its
+tarred surface and strands unchanged, which showed that it lay in the
+sand only half embedded. The strain on the cable <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span>gave it a twist, and
+it looked as if it had been painted spirally black and white. This
+disposes of the oft-repeated assertion, that we should not be able to
+pull it up from the bottom, because it would be embedded in the ooze."</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of the cable woke a tremendous hurrah from all on board.
+They cheered as English sailors are apt to cheer when the flag of an
+enemy is struck in battle. But their exultation came too soon. The
+strain on the cable was already mounting up to a dangerous point. Capt.
+Anderson and Mr. Canning were standing on the bow, and saw that the
+strands were going. They hastened men to its relief, but it was too
+late. Before they could put stoppers on it to hold it, it broke close to
+the grapnel, and sunk to the bottom. It had been in sight but just five
+minutes, and was gone. Instantly the feeling of exultation was turned to
+one of disappointment, and almost of rage, at the treacherous monster,
+that lifted up its snaky head from the sea, as if to mock its captors,
+and instantly dived to the silence and darkness below.</p>
+
+<p>It was a cruel disappointment. Yet when they came to think soberly,
+there was no cause for despair, but rather for new confidence and hope.
+They had proved what they could do. But this detained them in the middle
+of the Atlantic for two weeks more.</p>
+
+<p>It were idle to relate all the attempts of those two weeks. Every day
+brought its excitement. Whenever <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span>the grapnel caught, there was a
+suspense of many hours till it was brought on board. Several times they
+seemed on the point of success. Two days after that fatal Friday, on
+Sunday, August 19th, they caught the cable again, and brought it up
+within a thousand fathoms of the ship, and buoyed it. But Monday and
+Tuesday were too rough for work, and all their labor was in vain. Thus
+it was a constant battle with the elements. Sometimes the wind blew
+fiercely and drove them off their course. Sometimes the buoys broke
+adrift and had to be pursued and taken. Once or twice the boatswain's
+mate&mdash;a brave fellow, by the name of Thornton&mdash;was lowered in ropes over
+the bow of the ship and let down astride of a buoy; and though it spun
+round with him like a top, and his life was in danger, he held on and
+fastened a chain to it, by which it was swung on board.</p>
+
+<p>The continued bad weather was the chief obstacle to success. Engineers
+had often grappled for cables in the North Sea and the Mediterranean;
+but there they could look for at least a few days when the sea would be
+at rest; but in the Atlantic it was impossible to calculate on good
+weather for twenty-four hours. For nearly four weeks that they were at
+sea, they had hardly four days of clear sunshine, without wind. Often
+the ocean was covered with a driving mist, and the ships, groping about
+like blind giants, kept blowing their shrill fog-trumpets, or firing
+guns, as signals to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span>their companions that they were still there.
+Occasionally the sun shone out from the clouds, and gave them hope of
+better success. Once or twice we find in the private journal kept by Mr.
+Field, that it was "too calm;" there was not wind enough to drift the
+ship over the cable, so that the rope hung up and down from the bow,
+without dragging. One Sunday night he remembered, when the deep was
+hushed to a Sabbath stillness, the moon was shining brightly, and the
+ships floating over a "sea of glass," that suggested thoughts of a
+better world than this. Such times gave them fresh hopes, that might be
+disappointed on the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>Once, however, the Albany, which had been off a few miles fishing on its
+own hook, suddenly appeared in the night, reporting a victory. All on
+board the Great Eastern were startled by the firing of guns. It was a
+little after midnight, and Mr. Field had gone below, worn out with the
+long suspense and anxiety, when Captain Anderson came rushing to his
+stateroom with tidings that the cable was recovered! Both hurried on
+deck, and sure enough there was the Albany bearing down upon them, with
+her crew cheering in the wildest manner. The gallant Temple had
+conquered at last. But the next morning brought a fresh disappointment.
+They had indeed got hold of the cable, and brought its end on board, and
+afterward buoyed it, but when the Great Eastern went for it, it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span>proved
+to be only a fragment some two miles long, which had been broken off in
+one of the previous grapplings. However, they hauled it in, and kept it
+with pride, as their first trophy from the sea.</p>
+
+<p>And so the days and weeks wore on; it was near the end of August, and
+still the prize was not taken. The courage of the men did not fail, but
+they were becoming worn out. The tension on their nerves of this long
+suspense was terrible. On Tuesday, August 28th, Mr. Temple was brought
+on board from the Albany, very ill. He was worn out with constant
+watching. Their resources, too, must in time be exhausted. On the
+evening of the 29th, Captain Commerill, of the Terrible, came on board,
+and reported the condition of his ship. He was one of the very best
+officers in the fleet, full of zeal, courage, and activity (having a
+good right hand in his first officer, Mr. Curtis), and always kept up a
+brave heart, even in the darkest days.<a name="FNanchor_A_29" id="FNanchor_A_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_29" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> But his supplies were nearly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span>exhausted. He had been out four weeks, and his coal was almost gone,
+and his men were on half rations. So he must leave the fishing ground
+for fresh supplies. It was a painful necessity. He mourned his fate,
+like a brave officer who is ordered away in the midst of a battle. But
+he submitted only with a determination to take in ammunition, and to
+come back in a few days to renew the struggle. Accordingly the Terrible
+left the same evening for St. John's.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time it was decided that the three other ships should leave
+their present cruising ground, and try a new spot. As an old fisherman,
+who has cast his line in one place so often as to scare the fish away,
+sometimes has better luck in other waters, so they proposed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span>to go east
+a hundred miles, to a place where the ocean was not quite so deep.
+Deane, in his Diary, calls it "the sixteen hundred fathom patch," but
+they found it nineteen hundred fathoms, or about two miles! So the next
+morning the Great Eastern, the Medway, and the Albany "pulled up
+stakes," that is, took in their buoys, and bore away to the east. In a
+few hours they reached the appointed rendezvous, and had set their
+buoys. The last day of August had come, and all seemed favorable for a
+final attempt. It was a clear day, with no wind. The sea had gone down,
+so that at noon it was a dead calm, as the three ships took their
+position in line, about two miles apart, ready to open their broadsides
+at once. The grapnel went over for <i>the thirtieth time</i>. Kind heaven
+favored its search, and at ten minutes before midnight it had found the
+cable, and fastened its teeth never to let go. Feeling something at the
+end of the rope, they began to haul in, but slowly at first, as an
+expert angler decoys a big fish by pulling gently on the line. Watching
+the dynamometer, they saw with delight the strain increase with every
+hundred fathoms. Up it went to eight, nine, ten tons! They had caught
+it, and no mistake. In about five hours they had drawn it up to within a
+thousand fathoms of the top of the water, where it hung suspended from
+the ship. But now came the critical point, for as it approached the
+surface the danger of breaking increased every moment. It required
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>delicate handling. To make sure this time, the Great Eastern buoyed the
+cable, and moved off two or three miles to take a fresh gripe in a new
+place; and having got a double hold, the Medway, which was two miles
+further to the west, was ordered to grapple for it also; and having
+caught it, to heave up with all force, till she should bring it on board
+or break it. This was done, and the old cable brought up within three
+hundred fathoms, and there broken. This at once lightened the strain and
+gave them an end to pull upon, whereupon the Great Eastern, having a
+lighter weight on the rope, drew up again, but still gently, watching
+the strain, lest the cable should break. These operations were very
+slow, and lasted many weary hours. It was a little before midnight on
+Friday night that the cable was caught, and it was after midnight Sunday
+morning that it was brought on board. How long that day seemed! Night
+turned to morning, and morning to noon, and noon to night again, and
+still the work was not done; still the great ship hung over the spot
+where its treasure was suspended in the deep. The sun went down, and the
+moon looked forth from driving clouds upon a scene such as the ocean
+never saw before. At a distance could be discerned the black hulls of
+the attendant ships, the Albany and the Medway. But why were they thus
+silent and motionless in the midst of the sea? Some mysterious errand
+brought them here, and as their boats approached with <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span>measured sweep,
+at this midnight hour, it seemed as if they came with muffled oars to an
+ocean burial. It was still calm, but the sea began to moan with unrest,
+as if troubled in its sleep. As midnight drew on, the interest gathered
+about the bows of the Great Eastern. The bulwarks were crowded with
+anxious watchers, peering into the darkness below. Still not a word was
+spoken. Not a voice was heard, save that of Captain Anderson, or Mr.
+Halpin, or Mr. Canning, giving orders. As it approached the surface, two
+men, who were tried hands, were lashed with ropes and lowered over the
+bows, to make fast to the cable when it should appear. This was a
+perilous service, and the boats were there to pick up the brave fellows,
+if they should drop into the water. As soon as it showed itself, they
+dived upon it, and seizing it with their hands, fastened it with large
+hempen stoppers, which were quickly attached to five-inch ropes.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It was then found, that the bight was so firmly caught in the
+springs of the grapnel, that one of the brave hands who put on
+the stoppers, was sent lower down to the grapnel, and with
+hammer and marlinspike, the rope was ultimately freed from the
+tenacious gripe of the flukes. The signal being given to haul
+up, the western end of the bight was cut with a saw, and
+grandly and majestically the cable rose up the frowning bows of
+the Great Eastern, slowly passing round the sheave at the bow,
+and then over the wheels on to the fore part of the deck. The
+greatest possible care had to be taken by Mr. Canning and his
+assistants, to secure the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>cable by putting on stoppers, and to
+watch the progress of the grapnel, rope, and shackles, round
+the drum, before it received the cable itself." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>When once it was made fast, all took a long breath. The cable was
+recovered. They had the sea-serpent at last. There the monster lay, its
+neck firmly in their gripe, and its black head lying on the deck. But
+even then there was no cheering, as when they caught it two weeks
+before. Men are sometimes stunned by a sudden success, and hardly know
+if it be not all a dream. So now they looked at the cable with eager
+eyes, but without a word, and some crept toward it to take it in their
+hands, to be sure that they were not deceived. Yes&mdash;it was the same that
+they paid out into the sea thirteen months before!</p>
+
+<p>But their anxiety was not over. Now that they had regained the lost
+cable of 1865, was it good for any thing? It had been lying more than a
+year at the bottom of the deep. What if it should prove to have been
+broken somewhere in the eleven hundred miles between the ship and
+Ireland? What if some sharp rock had worn it away, or some marine insect
+had eaten into its heart? If there were but a pin's point, anywhere in
+its covering of flesh, the vital current might escape through it into
+the sea. Fears like these restrained their exultation. It was yet too
+soon to proclaim their victory. So, as the cable was passed along the
+deck to the testing room, where the chief electrician was to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>operate
+upon it, to see whether it was alive or dead, it was followed by an
+anxious group, who stood around him as he sat down at the instrument,
+watching his countenance as friends watch the face of a physician, when
+he feels the pulse of a patient to see if the heart is still beating.
+The scene is thus described by Mr. Robert Dudley, the artist of the
+expedition, whose spirited sketches in the London Illustrated News have
+made known to the world many incidents of this memorable voyage:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I made my way with others, in accordance with an invitation
+from Willoughby Smith, to the electricians' room. Here, after
+another hour's preparation, during which time the cable had
+been carefully passed round the drums of the picking-up
+machinery, and a sufficient length drawn in on board, the
+severed end was received. And now, in their mysterious,
+darkened haunt, the wizards are ready to work their spells upon
+the tamed lightning. Not 'unholy spells' are these, or secret;
+for, though the wizards' den is but of limited dimensions, they
+have not been averse to the presence of a few visitors. Mr.
+Gooch is looking on; Professor Thomson, be sure, is here, a
+worthy 'Wizard of the North;' Cyrus Field could no more be
+absent than the cable itself; I think, too, Canning, hard at
+work as he is forward in the ship, <i>must</i> have dropped in just
+for a moment; Clifford, Laws, Captain Hamilton, Deane,
+Dudley&mdash;all have, in their several ways, a great interest in
+every movement of Willoughby Smith and his brother (and able
+assistant) Oliver; and, when the core of the cable is stripped
+and the heart itself&mdash;the conducting wire&mdash;fixed in the
+instrument, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>these two electricians bend over the
+galvanometer in patient watching for some message from that
+far-off land of home to which the great news has just been
+signalled, then the accustomed stillness of the test-room is
+deepened; the ticking of the chronometer becomes monotonous.
+Nearly a quarter of an hour has passed, and still no sign!
+Suddenly Willoughby Smith's hat is off, and the British hurrah
+bursts from his lips, echoed by all on board with a volley of
+cheers, evidently none the worse for having been 'bottled up'
+during the last three hours. Along the deck outside, over the
+ship, throughout the ship, the pent-up enthusiasm overflowed;
+and even before the test-room was cleared, the roaring bravos
+of our guns drowned the huzzas of the crew, and the whiz of
+rockets was heard rushing high into the clear morning sky to
+greet our consort-ships with the glad intelligence." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>While this scene is going on on board ship, we may turn to the other end
+of the line. It may be well supposed that the result of this attempt was
+watched with deep interest at Valentia. How they looked for the first
+signal from the deep, and how the tidings came, is thus told in the
+London Spectator:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Night and day, for a whole year, an electrician has always
+been on duty, watching the tiny ray of light through which
+signals are given, and twice every day the whole length of
+wire&mdash;one thousand two hundred and forty miles&mdash;has been tested
+for conductivity and insulation.... The object of observing the
+ray of light was of course not any expectation of a message,
+but simply to keep an accurate record of the condition of the
+wire. Sometimes, indeed, wild, incoherent <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>messages from the
+deep did come, but these were merely the results of magnetic
+storms and earth-currents, which deflected the galvanometer
+rapidly, and <i>spelt the most extraordinary words, and sometimes
+even sentences of nonsense</i>. Suddenly, last Sunday morning, at
+a quarter to six o'clock, while the light was being watched by
+Mr. May,<a name="FNanchor_B_30" id="FNanchor_B_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_30" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> he observed a peculiar indication about it, which
+showed at once to his experienced eye that a message was at
+hand. In a few minutes afterward the unsteady flickering was
+changed to coherency, if we may use such a term, and at once
+the cable began to speak, to transmit, that is, at regular
+intervals, the appointed signals which indicated human purpose
+and method at the other end, instead of the hurried signs,
+broken speech, and inarticulate cries of the illiterate
+Atlantic. After the long interval in which it had brought us
+nothing but the moody and often delirious mutterings of the
+sea, stammering over its alphabet in vain, the words 'Canning
+to Glass' must have seemed like the first rational word uttered
+by a high-fevered patient, when the ravings have ceased and his
+consciousness returns." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The telegraphic fleet remained together but a few hours after this
+recovery of the lost cable. The battle was gained, and the three ships
+were no longer needed. The Albany, therefore, parted company to pick up
+the buoys, and at once sailed for England, while the Great Eastern,
+attended by the faithful Medway, turned to the west. It was about nine
+o'clock that the ship <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span>began to pay out the cable. Up to that time it
+had continued calm, but the morning was raw and chill, and the sea began
+to rise as if in anger at those who had torn from it its prey. Captain
+Anderson looked anxiously at the signs of the coming storm. It seemed as
+if Heaven had kept back the winds during the critical day and night when
+they were lifting the cable! But now the tempest was upon them, and for
+thirty-six hours it swept the ocean. All trembled lest they should not
+be able to hold on. But little incidents sometimes turn the current of
+one's thoughts, and give a feeling of peace even in the midst of
+anxiety. Says Mr. Field:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"In the very height and fury of the gale, as I sat in the
+electrician's room, a flash of light came up from the deep,
+which having crossed to Ireland, came back to me in mid-ocean,
+telling that those so dear to me, whom I had left on the banks
+of the Hudson, were well, and following us with their wishes
+and their prayers. This was like a whisper of God from the sea,
+bidding me keep heart and hope. The Great Eastern bore herself
+proudly through the storm, as if she knew that the vital cord
+which was to join two hemispheres, hung at her stern; and so on
+Saturday, the seventh of September, we brought our second cable
+safely to the shore." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The scene at Heart's Content, when the fleet appeared the second time,
+was one that beggars description. Its arrival was not unexpected, for
+the success on Sunday morning, that had been telegraphed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>to Ireland,
+was at once flashed across the Atlantic, and the people were watching
+for its coming. As the ships came up the harbor it was covered with
+boats, and all were wild with excitement; and when the big shore-end was
+got out of the Medway, and dragged to land, the sailors hugged it and
+almost kissed it in their extravagance of joy; and no sooner was it
+safely landed than they seized Mr. Field, Mr. Canning, and Mr. Clifford
+in their arms, and raised them over their heads, while the crowd cheered
+with tumultuous enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>The voyage of the Great Eastern was ended. Twice had she been victorious
+over the sea; twice had she laid the spoils of victory on the shores of
+the New World, and her mission was accomplished. All on board, who had
+been detained weeks beyond the expected time, were impatient to return;
+and accordingly she prepared to sail the very next day on her homeward
+voyage. The Medway, which had on board the cable for the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence, remained two or three weeks longer, and with the Terrible,
+whose gallant officers had volunteered for the service, successfully
+accomplished that work. But the Great Eastern was bound for England, and
+Mr. Field had now to part from his friends on board. It was a trying
+moment. Rejoiced as he was at the successful termination of the voyage,
+yet when he came to leave the ship, where he had spent so many anxious
+days and weeks, both this year <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span>and the year before; and to part from
+men to whom he was bound by the strong ties that unite those embarked in
+a common enterprise&mdash;brave companions in arms&mdash;he could not repress a
+feeling of sadness. It was with deep emotion that Captain Anderson took
+him by the hand, as he said, "The time is come that we must part." As he
+went over the side of the ship, the commander cried, "Give him three
+cheers!" "And now three more for his family!" The ringing hurrahs of
+that gallant crew were the last sounds he heard as he sunk back in the
+boat that took him to the Medway, while the wheels of the Great Eastern
+began to move, and the noble ship, with her noble company, bore away for
+England.</p>
+
+<p>Our story is told. We have followed the history of the Atlantic
+Telegraph from the beginning to the end; from the hour that the idea
+first occurred to its projector, turning over the globe in his library,
+till the cable was stretched from continent to continent. Between these
+two points of time many years have passed, and many struggles
+intervened. Never did an enterprise pass through more vicissitudes;
+never was courage tried by more reverses and disappointments, the
+constant repetition of which gives to this narrative an almost painful
+interest. Yet that background of disaster only sets in brighter relief
+the spirit that bore up under all, the faith that never despaired, and
+the patience that was never weary. It was a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span>pathetic as well as heroic
+story which Mr. Field had to tell when it was all over. He said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It has been a long, hard struggle. Nearly thirteen years of
+anxious watching and ceaseless toil. Often my heart has been
+ready to sink. Many times, when wandering in the forests of
+Newfoundland, in the pelting rain, or on the deck of ships, on
+dark, stormy nights&mdash;alone, far from home&mdash;I have almost
+accused myself of madness and folly to sacrifice the peace of
+my family, and all the hopes of life, for what might prove
+after all but a dream. I have seen my companions one and
+another falling by my side, and feared that I too might not
+live to see the end. And yet one hope has led me on, and I have
+prayed that I might not taste of death till this work was
+accomplished. That prayer is answered; and now, beyond all
+acknowledgments to men, is the feeling of gratitude to Almighty
+God."<a name="FNanchor_C_31" id="FNanchor_C_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_31" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Long and hard" indeed had been the way, but in the end what a triumph
+was gained: an achievement that was one of the most marvellous in all
+history, as a proof of man's dominion over the forces of nature. When it
+was first proposed to span the Atlantic, it seemed but a beautiful
+dream, fascinating indeed to the imagination, but beyond all human
+power; and men listened to the picture of what might be with delighted
+amazement and wondering incredulity. In an oration at the opening of the
+Dudley Observatory at Albany, in 1857, Edward Everett spoke thus of the
+projected Atlantic Telegraph: <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I hold in my hand a portion of the identical electrical cable,
+given me by my friend Mr. Peabody, which is now in progress of
+manufacture to connect America with Europe. Does it seem all
+but incredible to you that intelligence should travel for two
+thousand miles, along those slender copper wires, far down in
+the all but fathomless Atlantic, never before penetrated by
+aught pertaining to humanity, save when some foundering vessel
+has plunged with her hapless company to the eternal silence and
+darkness of the abyss? Does it seem, I say, all but a miracle
+of art, that the thoughts of living men&mdash;the thoughts that we
+think up here on the earth's surface, in the cheerful light of
+day&mdash;about the markets and the exchanges, and the seasons, and
+the elections, and the treaties, and the wars, and all the fond
+nothings of daily life, should clothe themselves with elemental
+sparks, and shoot with fiery speed, in a moment, in the
+twinkling of an eye, from hemisphere to hemisphere, far down
+among the uncouth monsters that wallow in the nether seas,
+along the wreck-paved floor, through the oozy dungeons of the
+rayless deep; that the latest intelligence of the crops, whose
+dancing tassels will, in a few months, be coquetting with the
+west wind on those boundless prairies, should go flashing along
+the slimy decks of old sunken galleons, which have been rotting
+for ages; that messages of friendship and love, from warm,
+living bosoms, should burn over the cold, green bones of men
+and women, whose hearts, once as warm as ours, burst as the
+eternal gulfs closed and roared over them centuries ago!" </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>But a few years passed, and the vision became a reality. The heart of
+the world beat under the sea.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_29" id="Footnote_A_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_29"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Captain Anderson, in a letter published after the return to
+England, says: "Every officer and man of the expedition will have
+pleasant recollection of the cheerful zeal of Captain Commerill, V.C.,
+and the officers of Her Majesty's ship Terrible. Captain Commerill
+frequently visited us in his boats, both in high seas and in calms, and
+his cheery way of saying, 'You'll do it yet,' 'What can I do?' and 'I'll
+do it,' was truly characteristic of him. The officers of the Terrible
+would do any thing for their captain, and entered heartily into the
+object of the voyage."
+</p><p>
+Such a tribute from one brave commander to another, is most honorable to
+both. In the same letter he recognizes, also, the services rendered by
+the captains of the other ships: "I shall do but scant justice to
+Commanders Prowse and Batt, R. N., and Captains Eddington and Harris,
+Mercantile Marine, of the Medway and Albany, if I recall the three weeks
+spent upon the 'grappling ground,' where we were often separated by fog,
+gale, or darkness; yet whenever day dawned, or the fog cleared, there
+the squadron were to be seen, converging from different points towards
+the Mark Buoy, a small spot looking no bigger than a man's hat on the
+surface of the ocean. Unless all had concentrated their minds, and
+watched their ships and compasses night and day, no such beautiful
+illustration of nautical science could have been possible. The vessels
+of the squadron keeping always together, and commanded by men who knew
+the importance of keeping close enough to begin work whenever it was
+possible, and yet to avoid collision in fog, was of the greatest
+importance; and we owe much to that invaluable system of signalling by
+night and day, invented by Captain Colomb, R. N., which enabled us, even
+in dark nights, when two or three miles apart, to communicate or
+ascertain anything we desired."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_30" id="Footnote_B_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_30"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> This is an error. Mr. Crocker, an operator in the Telegraph
+House at Valentia, was the fortunate one on watch at that hour, on whose
+eye the first ray fell, as a spark of life from the dead.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_31" id="Footnote_C_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_31"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> Speech at the Chamber of Commerce Dinner, Nov. 15, 1866.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
+
+THE AFTERGLOW.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is the clear shining after rain. The storms that swept the sea, have
+blown themselves out, and all is tranquil on the face of the deep. The
+cable is lying in its ocean bed uniting the two hemispheres, nevermore
+to be separated. And now comes the public recognition on both sides the
+Atlantic, though in different form. The event had produced a profound
+impression throughout the civilized world. Yet it was a singular
+illustration of the changes in public interest, that, whereas in 1858 a
+temporary success had kindled the wildest enthusiasm in the United
+States, while in England it was regarded almost with indifference, now
+the state of feeling in the two countries was completely reversed. In
+Great Britain it was the theme of boundless congratulation, while in
+America the public mind&mdash;dulled perhaps by the excitements of four years
+of war&mdash;received the news with composure. The reason was, in part, that
+England had had a larger share in the later than in the earlier
+expeditions. Certainly none could deny the inestimable services rendered
+by her men of science, her seamen, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span>her engineers, and her great
+capitalists; and it was most fit that the country which they had honored
+should do them honor in its turn. Scarcely had the Great Eastern
+recrossed the sea before those to whom the empire owed so much, were
+duly recognized in the following letter from the Earl of Derby, then
+Prime Minister, addressed to Sir Stafford Northcote, who was to preside
+at a dinner given in Liverpool, to celebrate the great achievement:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">Balmoral</span>,<br />
+Saturday, Sept. 29, 1866.
+</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir Stafford</span>: As I understand you are to have the honor
+of taking the chair at the entertainment which is to be given
+on Monday next, in Liverpool, to celebrate the double success
+which has attended the great undertaking of laying the cable of
+1866, and recovering that of 1865, by which the two continents
+of Europe and America are happily connected, I am commanded by
+the Queen to make known to you, and through you to those over
+whom you are to preside, the deep interest with which Her
+Majesty has regarded the progress of this noble work; and to
+tender Her Majesty's cordial congratulations to all of those
+whose energy and perseverance, whose skill and science have
+triumphed over all difficulties, and accomplished a success
+alike honorable to themselves and to their country, and
+beneficial to the world at large. Her Majesty, desirous of
+testifying her sense of the various merits which have been
+displayed in this great enterprise, has commanded me to submit
+to her, for special marks of her royal favor, the names of
+those who, having had assigned to them prominent positions, may
+be considered as representing the different <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>departments, whose
+united labors have contributed to the final result; and Her
+Majesty has accordingly been pleased to direct that the honor
+of knighthood should be conferred upon Captain Anderson, the
+able and zealous commander of the Great Eastern; Professor
+Thomson, whose distinguished science has been brought to bear
+with eminent success upon the improvement of submarine
+telegraphy; and on Messrs. Glass and Canning, the manager and
+engineer respectively of the Telegraph Maintenance Company,
+whose skill and experience have mainly contributed to the
+admirable construction and successful laying of the cable. Her
+Majesty is further pleased to mark her approval of the public
+spirit and energy of the two companies who have had
+successively the conduct of the undertaking, by offering the
+dignity of a baronetcy of the United Kingdom to Mr. Lampson,
+the Deputy Chairman of the original company, to whose resolute
+support of the project in spite of all discouragements it was
+in a great measure owing that it was not at one time abandoned
+in despair; and to Mr. Gooch, M.P., the Chairman of the company
+which has finally completed the design. If among the names thus
+submitted to and approved by Her Majesty, that of Mr. Cyrus
+Field does not appear, the omission must not be attributed to
+any disregard of the eminent services which, from the first, he
+has rendered to the cause of transatlantic telegraphy, and the
+zeal and resolution with which he has adhered to the
+prosecution of his object, but to an apprehension lest it might
+appear to encroach on the province of his own Government, if
+Her Majesty were advised to offer a citizen of the United
+States, for a service rendered alike to both countries, British
+marks of honor, which, following the example of another highly
+distinguished citizen, he might feel himself unable to accept." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p><p>The reason assigned by Lord Derby for the omission of Mr. Field's name
+in the distribution of honors, was perfectly understood and entirely
+satisfactory. The British Government had once before offered a baronetcy
+to Mr. George Peabody in recognition of his princely benefactions to the
+poor of London, but while he appreciated the honor, he felt that as a
+citizen of the United States, he could not accept it, and the same
+reason would apply in the present case. But while this alone prevented
+official recognition, it could not prevent the hearty expression of
+Englishmen who knew the history of the great enterprise from the
+beginning. At this very dinner, the Chairman gave, as the first toast,
+"The Original Projectors of the Atlantic Cable," which he proposed early
+in order to give Mr. Cyrus Field (who was very near to them, although he
+happened to be in America!) a chance of responding! The allusion is
+explained by the remark of one present who had said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"You will be pleased to hear that Mr. Bright has kindly brought
+the telegraph wire into the room in which we are sitting, and
+no sooner will the toast involving the mention of Mr. Field's
+name be given from the chair, than it will be flashed with
+lightning speed to Valentia, thence to Newfoundland, and if Mr.
+Field is at home, it is quite possible that he himself will
+receive it, ere the echo of your ringing cheers has died away
+in Liverpool." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A message was at once sent from the room to Newfoundland, and a reply
+received back that Mr. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span>Field had left for New York. In continuing his
+speech, Sir Stafford Northcote said: "I think there can be no doubt in
+the minds of those who have carefully examined the history of these
+transactions, that it is to Mr. Cyrus Field that we owe the practical
+carrying out of the idea which has borne such glorious fruit. I am sure
+there is none to whom we owe more, or whose name stands in prouder
+connection with this great undertaking, than the name of Mr. Cyrus
+Field."</p>
+
+<p>He called upon Sir Charles Bright to reply, who detailed somewhat the
+history of the enterprise from the very beginning in 1856, when "Mr.
+Cyrus Field, to whom the world was more indebted than to any other
+person for the establishment of the line, came to England upon the
+completion of the telegraph between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland."</p>
+
+<p>To the same effect is the testimony of a distinguished writer, W. H.
+Russell, LL.D., who was on board of the Great Eastern in 1865, as the
+correspondent of The Times, and wrote a very graphic History of the
+Expedition (p. 10):</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It has been said that the greatest boons conferred on mankind,
+have been due to men of one idea. If the laying of the Atlantic
+cable be among those benefits, its consummation may certainly
+be attributed to the man who, having many ideas, devoted
+himself to work out one idea, with a gentle force and patient
+vigor which converted opposition and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span>overcame indifference.
+Mr. Field may be likened either to the core, or the external
+protection, of the cable itself. At times he has been its
+active life; again he has been its iron-bound guardian. Let who
+will claim the merit of having first said the Atlantic cable
+was possible; to Mr. Field is due the inalienable merit of
+having made it possible, and of giving to an abortive
+conception all the attributes of healthy existence." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Sir William Thomson, on the final triumph, wrote:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"My dear Field, I cannot refrain from putting down in black and
+white my hearty congratulations on your great success. Few know
+better than I do how well you deserve it." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Eight months after he wrote from Scotland:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I am sorry I had not an opportunity of saying in public how
+much I value your energy and perseverance in carrying through
+the great enterprise, and how clearly you stand out in its
+history as its originator and its mainspring from beginning to
+end." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Next to Sir William Thomson was Mr. C. F. Varley, who was associated in
+the work from an early day, and did much to solve the difficult problems
+of ocean telegraphy, and who wrote to Mr. Field, speaking from his
+personal knowledge: "You did more than any other to float the concern,
+and single-handed saved the whole scheme from collapse more than once."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Sir James Anderson repeated the same conviction in numberless
+forms. He had seen how the presence of Mr. Field in London instantly
+revived the languid enthusiasm of others, and infused his own <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span>energy
+into the enterprise, and declared again and again that but for these
+heroic and incessant efforts the whole scheme would have broken down,
+and been delayed for many years.</p>
+
+<p>Such expressions from English associates in the great work might be
+multiplied to any extent. They are much stronger than any language used
+by the author of this volume, who has purposely kept back such
+testimonies, lest it should seem that he wished to exalt an individual,
+when he sought to do justice to all, on both sides of the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was such recognition confined to England. The King of Italy
+conferred on Mr. Field the cross of the order of St. Mauritius, as an
+acknowledgment from the country of Columbus to one who had done so much
+to unite to the Old World that New World which Columbus discovered.</p>
+
+<p>A still higher honor was paid by the Great Exposition in Paris, in 1867,
+which, gathering the products of the genius and skill and industry of
+all nations, recognized the labors of men of all countries, who, by
+their discoveries or great enterprises, had rendered eminent services to
+the cause of civilization. It awarded the <span class="smcap">Grand Prize</span>, the highest
+distinction it had to bestow, to Mr. Field by name, jointly with the
+Anglo-American and Atlantic Telegraph Companies, thus recognizing, as
+was most due, the splendid exhibition of the science and the capital of
+England, which were <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span>never more directly employed for the benefit of the
+human race, than in the uniting of the two Hemispheres, while it gave
+the first place in the grand design to its American leader.</p>
+
+<p>But to an American no praise is so dear as that which comes from his own
+countrymen. First of all to Mr. Field, was that which came from the
+faithful few who had stood by him and witnessed his exertions for twelve
+long years. At the first annual meeting of the stockholders of the New
+York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, the following
+resolution was, on motion of Mr. Moses Taylor, seconded by Mr. Wilson G.
+Hunt, unanimously adopted:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>Whereas, This Company was the first ever formed for the
+establishment of an Atlantic Telegraph; an enterprise upon
+which it started in the beginning of 1854, at the instance of
+Mr. Cyrus W. Field, and which, through his wise and unwearied
+energy, acting upon this Company, and others afterwards formed
+in connection with it, has been successfully accomplished:
+Therefore the stockholders of this Company, at this their first
+meeting since the completion of the enterprise, desiring to
+testify their sense of Mr. Field's services:</p>
+
+<p>Resolve: First&mdash;That to him more than any other man, the world
+is indebted for this magnificent instrument of good; and but
+for him it would not, in all probability, be now in existence;</p>
+
+<p>Second&mdash;That the thanks of the stockholders of this Company are
+hereby given to Mr. Field for these services, which, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span>though so
+great in themselves, and so valuable to this Company, were
+rendered without any remuneration; and</p>
+
+<p>Third&mdash;That a copy of this resolution, certified by the
+Chairman and Secretary of this meeting, be delivered to Mr.
+Field as a recognition, by those who best know, of his just
+right to be always regarded as the first projector, and most
+persistent and efficient promoter, of the Atlantic Telegraph. </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+<span class="smcap">Peter Cooper</span>, <i>Chairman</i>.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Wilson G. Hunt</span>, <i>Secretary</i>.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>To testify the public appreciation of this great achievement, and of his
+part in it, the Chamber of Commerce of New York invited Mr. Field to a
+public banquet, which was given on the fifteenth of November. It was
+attended by about three hundred gentlemen&mdash;not only merchants and
+bankers, but men of all professions&mdash;lawyers and judges, clergymen and
+presidents of colleges, members of the Government and foreign ministers,
+and officers of the army and navy. The President of the Chamber of
+Commerce, Mr. A. A. Low, presided, and, at the close of his opening
+speech, said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"We may fairly claim that, from first to last, Cyrus W. Field
+has been more closely identified with the Atlantic Telegraph
+than any other living man; and his name and his fame, which the
+Queen of Great Britain has justly left to the care of the
+American government and people, will be proudly cherished and
+gratefully honored. We are in daily use of the fruits of his
+labors; and it is meet that the men of commerce, of literature
+and of law, of science and art&mdash;of all the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span>professions that
+impart dignity and worth to our nature&mdash;should come together
+and give a hearty, joyous, and generous welcome to this truly
+chivalrous son of America." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He proposed the health of their guest:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Cyrus W. Field</span>, the projector and mainspring of the Atlantic
+Telegraph: while the British government justly honors those who
+have taken part with him in this great work of the age, <i>his</i>
+fame belongs to us, and will be cherished and guarded by his
+countrymen." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In his reply, Mr. Field told the story with the utmost simplicity,
+passing rapidly over the nearly thirteen years, through which the
+enterprise had struggled with such doubtful fortunes, and taking pains
+to do full justice to all who shared in its labors, its disappointments
+and its triumphs. Especially did he award the highest praise to the
+government of England for its liberal and constant support; to her men
+of science and her great capitalists, and to the officers of ships,
+electricians and engineers, who had taken part in this undertaking. In
+closing, he said:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Of the results of this enterprise&mdash;commercially and
+politically&mdash;it is for others to speak. To one effect only do I
+refer as the wish of my heart&mdash;that, as it brings us into
+closer relations with England, it may produce a better
+understanding between the two countries. Let who will speak
+against England&mdash;words of censure must come from other lips
+than mine. I have received too much kindness from Englishmen to
+join in this language. I have eaten of their <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span>bread and drunk
+of their cup, and I have received from them, in the darkest
+hours of this enterprise, words of cheer which I shall never
+forget; and if any words of mine can tend to peace and good
+will, they shall not be wanting. I beg my countrymen to
+remember the ties of kindred. Blood is thicker than water.
+America with all her greatness has come out of the loins of
+England; and though there have been sometimes family
+quarrels&mdash;bitter as family quarrels are apt to be&mdash;still in our
+hearts there is a yearning for the old home, the land of our
+fathers; and he is an enemy of his country and of the human
+race, who would stir up strife between two nations that are one
+in race, in language and in religion. I close with this
+sentiment: <span class="smcap">England and America&mdash;clasping hands across the sea,
+may this firm grasp be a pledge of friendship to all
+generations</span>!" (To which the whole assembly responded by rising,
+and by prolonged and tumultuous cheers.) </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>In the brilliant array of guests was recognized the tall form of General
+Meade, who was loudly called for as "the hero of Gettysburg," to which
+he replied that there was but one hero on this occasion, and he had
+travelled a hundred miles to be there that night to do him honor. He
+said: "I have watched with eagerness the struggle through which he has
+passed and the disasters which attended his early efforts; and I have
+admired and applauded, from the bottom of my heart, the tenacity of
+purpose with which that man has continued to hold on to his original
+idea, with a firm faith to carry to completion one of the greatest works
+the world has ever seen."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span></p><p>The heartiness of this soldierly reply was echoed by the bluff old
+warrior, Admiral Farragut, who had been so often through the smoke and
+flame of battle, that he knew how to appreciate not only common courage,
+but the desperate tenacity which holds on in spite of disaster, that has
+gained many a victory.</p>
+
+<p>Letters were read from the President of the United States, from Chief
+Justice Chase, from General Grant, from Sir Frederick Bruce, the British
+Minister, from Senators Morgan and Sumner, from General Dix, Minister to
+France, and others. The Chief Justice of the United States wrote:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I am very sorry that I cannot leave Washington this week, and
+so cannot avail myself of your kind invitation to join you in
+congratulations to Mr. Field upon the success of his grand
+undertaking. It is the most wonderful achievement of
+civilization; and to his sagacity, patience, perseverance,
+courage, and faith, is civilization indebted for it.</p>
+
+<p>"Such works entitle their authors to distinguished rank among
+public benefactors. You will write the name of your honored
+guest high upon that illustrious roll, and there it will remain
+in honor, while oceans divide and telegraphs unite mankind." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>There was a telegraph instrument in the room, and despatches were
+received during the evening from Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, and
+other members of the Cabinet at Washington, from Lord Monck,
+Governor-General of Canada, from the Governor of Newfoundland, and
+others. One, from Captain Sir James <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span>Anderson, was dated at London the
+same day. John Bright also wrote a despatch and sent it to London, but
+by an oversight it was not forwarded. He afterward wrote a letter,
+giving the message. It was as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"It is fitting you should honor the man to whom the whole world
+is debtor. He brought capital and science together to do his
+bidding, and Europe and America are forever united. I cannot
+sit at your table, but I can join in doing honor to Cyrus W.
+Field. My hearty thanks to him may mingle with yours." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>He adds that he regarded what had been done as the most marvellous thing
+in human history; as more marvellous than the invention of the art of
+printing, or, he was almost ready to say, than the voyages of the
+Genoese; and of Mr. Field, he says, "The world does not yet know what it
+owes to him, and this generation will never know it."</p>
+
+<p>About the same time, in a speech at a great Reform Meeting in Leeds, he
+bore this proud testimony:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"A friend of mine, Cyrus Field, of New York, is the Columbus of
+our time, for after no less than forty voyages across the
+Atlantic, in pursuit of the great aim of his life, he has at
+length, by his cable, moored the New World close alongside the
+Old." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Nor was this mere rhetoric, a burst of extravagance, to which an orator
+might give way in the excitement of a public occasion; it was a
+comparison which he <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span>repeated on many occasions, though slightly varied
+in expression. Mr. G. W. Smalley, the well-known correspondent of the
+New York Tribune, in writing from London, on the very day that Mr. Field
+was carried to his grave, recalls how he heard it from Mr. Bright's own
+lips. He says:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The great orator spoke of the great American in terms which he
+did not bestow lavishly, and never bestowed carelessly. His
+respect for Mr. Field's public work was sufficiently shown in
+the splendid eulogy which he passed upon him. To be called by
+such a man as Mr. Bright the Columbus of the Nineteenth Century
+is renown enough for any man. The epithet is imperishable. It
+is, as Thackeray said of a similar tribute to Fielding in
+Gibbon, like having your name written on the dome of St.
+Peter's. The world knows it and the world remembers. I heard
+Mr. Bright use the phrase, and he adorned and emphasized it in
+his noblest tones." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>America has no official honors to bestow, no knighthoods or baronetcies
+to confer. But one honor it has, the thanks of Congress, which, like the
+thanks of Parliament, is the more highly prized in that it is so rarely
+bestowed, being reserved generally for distinguished officers in the
+army or navy, like Generals Grant, Sherman or Sheridan, or Admiral
+Farragut, who have won great victories. Yet such was the feeling on this
+occasion, that when Senator Morgan, of New York, moved a vote of thanks
+in the name of the country, it met with an immediate response. It was at
+once <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, which reported
+unanimously in its favor; and when, some weeks after, giving time for
+due deliberation, it was brought up for action, it passed with entire
+unanimity. In the House of Representatives it was preceded by many
+bills, so that there was danger that it might not be reached before the
+end of the session, yet on the very last day Speaker Colfax requested
+unanimous consent of the House to take it up out of its order, which was
+granted, and the resolution was then read three times, and passed
+unanimously. It is as follows:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<i>Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
+United States of America, in Congress assembled</i>, That the
+thanks of Congress be, and they hereby are, presented to Cyrus
+W. Field of New York, for his foresight, courage, and
+determination in establishing telegraphic communication by
+means of the Atlantic cable, traversing mid-ocean and
+connecting the Old World with the New; and that the President
+of the United States be requested to cause a gold medal to be
+struck, with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be
+presented to Mr. Field.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>And be it further resolved</i>, That when the medal shall have
+been struck, the President shall cause a copy of this joint
+resolution to be engrossed on parchment, and shall transmit the
+same, together with the medal, to Mr. Field, to be presented to
+him in the name of the people of the United States of America.</p>
+
+<p>"Approved March 2, 1867. </p>
+
+<p class="letterindent">
+"<span class="smcap">Andrew Johnson.</span>"
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span></p><p>This action of Congress reached Mr. Field in England. As he was about
+returning to America, Lord Derby, still at the head of the government,
+addressed to him a letter in which he repeated what he had said before
+"in the Queen's name," "how much of the success of the great undertaking
+of laying the Atlantic Cable was due to the energy and perseverance with
+which, from the very first, in spite of all discouragements, you adhered
+to and supported the project;" and adding, "Your signal services in
+carrying out this great undertaking have been already fully recognized
+by Congress; and it would have been very satisfactory to the Queen to
+have included your name among those on whom, in commemoration of this
+great event, her Majesty was pleased to bestow British honors, if it had
+not been felt that, as a citizen of the United States, it would hardly
+have been competent to you to accept them. As long, however, as the
+telegraphic communication between the two Continents lasts, your name
+cannot fail to be honorably associated with it."</p>
+
+<p>This surely was all that could be expected from the government, but some
+there were in England who felt that there was still a debt of honor to
+be paid, which required some public testimonial. Accordingly, on Mr.
+Field's return to London, in 1868, they prepared for him an imposing
+demonstration in the form of a banquet, given at Willis's Rooms, on the
+first of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span>July, at which was assembled one of the most distinguished
+companies that ever met to do honor to a private citizen of any country.
+It embraced over four hundred gentlemen of all ranks: ministers of
+state, members of parliament, both Lords and Commons; officers of the
+army and navy; great capitalists&mdash;merchants and bankers; men of science
+and of letters; inventors, electricians, and engineers&mdash;men eminent in
+every walk of life. The Duke of Argyll presided, and speeches were made
+by three members of the government&mdash;Sir John Pakington, Secretary of
+State for War; Sir Stafford Northcote, Secretary of State for India; and
+Sir Alexander Milne, First Sea Lord of the Admiralty; by John Bright; by
+the venerable Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, so long the British Minister
+at Constantinople; and by M. de Lesseps, the projector of the Suez
+Canal, who had come from Egypt expressly to be present. It was a tribute
+such as is rarely paid to any man while living&mdash;such tributes being
+reserved for the dead&mdash;and is still more honorable in this case, alike
+to the givers and the receiver, in that it was paid by the people of one
+country to a citizen of another, who was regarded in both as their
+common benefactor.</p>
+
+<p>But enough of praise that can fall only on the dull, cold ear of death.
+A few words on the after years of this busy life, and I have done. These
+years brought a rich reward for all the sacrifices of the past. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span>first feeling was one of infinite relief that at last the victory was
+won. The terrible strain was taken off, and to him who had borne it so
+long, the change to the quiet of his own happy home was inexpressibly
+grateful after his many and long separations. He was now in his own
+country and under his own roof, but with a name that was known on both
+sides of the sea. The complete success of the Atlantic Telegraph had
+given him an immense reputation at home and abroad. It seemed as if the
+struggles of life were all over, leaving only its honors to be enjoyed.
+What more could he ask to make life worth living than the respect of his
+countrymen for his courage, energy and perseverance, and a name honored
+all over the civilized world as one of the world's benefactors?</p>
+
+<p>The practical results of the cable were even greater than he had dared
+to anticipate. In the space of a few months it wrought a commercial
+revolution in America. It was a new sensation to have the Old World
+brought so near, that it entered into one's daily life. Every morning,
+as Mr. Field went to his office, he found laid on his desk at nine
+o'clock the quotations on the Royal Exchange at twelve! Lombard Street
+and Wall Street talked with each other as two neighbors across the way.
+This soon made an end of the tribe of speculators who calculated on the
+fact that nobody knew at a particular moment the state of the market on
+the other side of the sea, an universal ignorance by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span>which they
+profited by getting the earliest advices. But now everybody got them as
+soon as they, for the news came with the rising of each day's sun, and
+the occupation of a class that did much to demoralize trade on both
+sides of the ocean was gone.</p>
+
+<p>The same restoration of order was seen in the business of importations,
+which had been hitherto almost a matter of guess-work. A merchant who
+wished to buy silks in Lyons, sent out his orders months in advance, and
+of course somewhat at random, not knowing how the market might turn, so
+that when the costly fabrics arrived, he might find that he had ordered
+too many or too few. A China merchant sent his ship round the world for
+a cargo of tea, which returned after a year's absence, bringing not
+enough to supply the public demand, leaving him in vexation at the
+thought of what he might have made, "if he had known," or, what was
+still worse, bringing twice too much, in which case the unsold half
+remained on his hands. This was a risk against which he had to be
+insured, as much as against fire or shipwreck. And the only insurance he
+could have was to take reprisals by an increased charge on his
+unfortunate customers.</p>
+
+<p>This double risk was now greatly reduced, if not entirely removed. The
+merchant need no longer send out orders a year beforehand, nor order a
+whole ship-load of tea when he needed only a hundred chests, since he
+could telegraph to his agent for what he wanted <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span>and no more. With this
+opportunity for getting the latest intelligence, the element of
+uncertainty was eliminated, and the importer no longer did business at a
+venture. Buying from time to time, so as to take advantage of low
+markets, he was able to buy cheaper, and of course to sell cheaper. It
+would be a curious study to trace the effect of the cable upon the
+prices of all foreign goods. A New York merchant, who has been himself
+an importer for forty years, tells me that the saving to the American
+people cannot be less than many millions every year.</p>
+
+<p>But the slender cord beneath the sea had finer uses than to be a
+reporter of markets, giving quotations of prices to counting rooms and
+banking houses; it was a link between hearts and homes on opposite sides
+of the ocean, bearing messages of life and death, of joy and sorrow, of
+hopes and fears. One of its happiest uses was the relief of anxiety. A
+ship sailed for England with hundreds of passengers, but did not arrive
+at her destination on the appointed day. Instantly a thousand hearts
+were tortured with fear, lest their loved ones had gone to the bottom of
+the sea, when the cable reported that the delay was due simply to an
+accident to her machinery, that would keep her back for a day or two,
+but that the good ship was safe with all on board. What arithmetic can
+compute the value of a single message that relieves so much anguish?
+Thus the submarine telegraph stretched out its long arms under the sea,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span>to lay a friendly hand on two peoples, and give assurance to both.</p>
+
+<p>Such a triumph of commercial enterprise was enough to satisfy the pride
+and ambition of any man; but it was not in Mr. Field's nature to rest
+content with any success, however great, and he was always reaching out
+for some new undertaking to give scope to his restless activity. Such an
+opportunity he found in giving rapid transit to New York, a city which,
+though it has one of the finest harbors in the world, with approaches
+from the sea that afford every possible advantage for commerce, is not
+so favorably situated landward, as it is built on a long and narrow
+island, between two broad rivers, which confine it on either side, so
+that it is stretched out to such distances that it is no easy matter to
+pass from one end to the other. From the Battery to the Harlem river is
+ten miles, so that working men, who lived so far away, were an hour or
+more in getting from their homes to their place of work, and as long in
+getting back again, a large inroad upon their hours of rest or domestic
+comfort. The only means of transportation was by street cars, which
+moved slowly, and in winter, whenever the streets were blocked with
+snow, were crowded to suffocation, and dragged at a snail's pace to the
+upper end of the island.</p>
+
+<p>This was the great barrier to the city's growth, and must be removed if
+it was not to be stunted and dwarfed by these limitations. To furnish
+some relief, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span>an elevated railroad, built on stilts, had been attempted
+on a small scale, but soon broke down, when Mr. Field bought the control
+of the whole concern, and took it in his own strong arms. It was no easy
+matter to galvanize it into life, for though it had a charter, it was
+still obstructed in the legislature, and in the courts, so that it was a
+long time before he could get full possession. But once master of the
+situation, he undertook the work on a grand scale, and pushed it with
+such vigor that in less than two years the road was in operation. It has
+since been extended with the public demand, until now (in 1892) there
+are thirty-six miles of road, over which the trains sweep incessantly
+from the bay to the river, and from the river to the bay.</p>
+
+<p>The structures are not indeed the most graceful in the world, as they
+bestride the long avenues of the city. But these tall iron pillars, that
+line our streets for miles, are the long legs of civilization, and have
+a somewhat imposing effect as they stretch away into the distance, with
+the fire-drawn cars flying swiftly over them. Dean Stanley glorified
+them by a historical parallel which could occur only to one full of the
+wonders of ancient times, that started into life under the touch of his
+imagination. Going with him one day on an excursion, he stepped briskly
+(for his frame was so light as to offer little impediment to motion),
+and as he mounted the long stairway, and stood on the platform above the
+crowded street below, he exclaimed, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>"This is Babylonian! Four chariots
+driving abreast on the walls of the city!"</p>
+
+<p>But Babylonian or American, the success was enormous. As soon as the
+public became familiar with these elevated roads, and felt that they
+were safe as well as swift, the people swarmed upon them, in numbers
+constantly increasing, till now they carry over seven hundred thousand
+passengers a day! On the day of the Columbus celebration (October 12th)
+it was a million and seventy-five thousand! Indeed, if we are not
+staggered by numbers, we may sum up the whole in the amazing statement
+demonstrated by figures, that since these roads were opened, they have
+carried over eighteen hundred millions of passengers, more than the
+whole population of the globe!</p>
+
+<p>Nor should it be forgotten that, not only is the facility they afford
+the greatest, but the fares the lowest, for, thanks to Mr. Field, they
+were reduced years ago to five cents at all hours and for the longest
+distance, the ten miles from the Battery to the Harlem river.</p>
+
+<p>The effect was immediate in the appreciation of real estate in the city,
+the assessed value of which has already advanced by the sum of five
+hundred millions of dollars! The increased taxation is enough to pay for
+all the cost, while as a relief to the congested parts of the city, and
+as furnishing a means for that easy circulation, which is as necessary
+to a great city as a free circulation of the blood is to the human body,
+it is not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span>too much to say that the construction of the elevated
+railroads is the greatest material benefit that has ever been conferred
+on the city of New York.</p>
+
+<p>But busy as Mr. Field was through all these years, much of his life was
+spent abroad. He had interests on both sides of the Atlantic, but
+stronger than his interests were his friendships to attract him across
+the sea. He had come to feel as much at home in England as in his own
+country: and his visits were so frequent that his sudden appearances and
+disappearances were a subject of amused comment to his English friends.
+When Dean Stanley was in America, a reception was given to him at the
+Century Club, where in a very happy address, he referred to the ties
+between the two countries, among which was "the wonderful cable, on
+which it is popularly believed in England, that my friend and host, Mr.
+Cyrus Field, passes his mysterious existence, appearing and reappearing
+at one and the same moment in London and in New York!"</p>
+
+<p>As Mr. Field was thus brought near to his English friends, they in turn
+were brought near to him, for as no man in America was better known
+abroad, no house received more foreign guests, many of whom he had not
+met before, but who brought letters to him, and there was no end to his
+hospitality. John Bright he could not persuade to cross the sea; but he
+had the pleasure to welcome his co-laborer in the repeal of the
+Corn-laws, Richard Cobden. The house in Gramercy <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>Park became famous for
+its receptions. Many will recall that given to the Marquis of Ripon and
+the other High Commissioners, who came a year or two after the war, as
+representatives of the British government, and negotiated at Washington
+the treaty which settled the Alabama claims; and those to Dean Stanley
+and Archdeacon Farrar; and to many others. If the strangers happened to
+arrive in the summer time, they were entertained at his beautiful
+country seat on the Hudson, to which he had given the name of "Ardsley,"
+from the seat of John Field the astronomer, who lived in the West Riding
+of Yorkshire more than three centuries ago, and introduced the
+Copernican astronomy into England, and from whom the family are
+descended.</p>
+
+<p>In some cases when he went abroad, England was but the starting point
+for excursions on the Continent, in which he visited almost every
+European country. In 1874, in company with two well-known Americans,
+Bayard Taylor and Murat Halstead, he made a voyage to Iceland, as ten
+years before he had been to Egypt, as a delegate from the New York
+Chamber of Commerce, to witness the opening of the Suez Canal.</p>
+
+<p>In 1880-81 he took a still longer flight around the world. Waiting till
+after the Presidential election, that he might cast his vote for his
+friend General Garfield, the very next day he left with his wife in a
+special car for San Francisco, where after a few days, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span>they took ship
+for Japan, from which they passed through the Inland Sea to Shanghai,
+and from China to Singapore, and up the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta, where
+he found the same English nobleman whom he had entertained in New York,
+the Marquis of Ripon, Governor-General of India. Going up the country,
+the travellers visited Agra and Delhi, where the wonders of architecture
+showed the magnificence of the old Mogul Empire. The whole journey was
+one of infinite pleasure and instruction, and they were never weary of
+talking of the strange manners and customs of the people of Asia.</p>
+
+<p>When they returned to America, General Garfield was President of the
+United States, who, though a Western man by birth, had been educated in
+New England, at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he had been
+graduated twenty-five years before, and which he had a desire to
+revisit; and it was arranged that he should leave Washington in the
+morning of July 2d, with as many of his cabinet as could be spared from
+the seat of government, and come on to New York and all be entertained
+at "Ardsley," and the next day proceed up the Hudson and across the
+country to Williamstown; a programme which was interrupted by the
+terrible news that on arriving at the station in Washington he had been
+shot, an event that instantly recalled the assassination of Lincoln. At
+once there rose a cry of horror from one end of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span>land to the other,
+and for weeks the whole country was watching by the bedside of the
+illustrious sufferer.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the sympathy for the wife and children was universal, but Mr.
+Field was the first to give this sympathy a practical direction. With
+his quick eye he saw the condition in which they would be left by the
+death of the President, as for them the law makes no provision. His
+salary stops at the very day and hour that he ceases to live, nor is
+there a pension settled upon his family, nor can anything be paid from
+the national treasury except by special act of Congress. In this
+extremity it occurred to Mr. Field that what the Government failed to do
+should be made up by private generosity; and even before General
+Garfield's death he started a subscription, heading it with five
+thousand dollars, and taking it in person to his rich friends. The self
+imposed task occupied him several months, in which he raised a fund of
+over three hundred and sixty thousand dollars, which was put into United
+States four per cent. bonds, yielding an interest of over twelve
+thousand dollars a year, to be paid quarterly during the life of Mrs.
+Garfield, and then to go to her children. It was a great satisfaction to
+have thus provided for those who bore the name of a President of the
+United States, so that they should be able to live in the comfort and
+dignity that befitted the family of one who had occupied the most
+exalted station in the government.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span></p><p>Not content with this, Mr. Field went to Washington, and urged upon his
+friends in Congress, and finally succeeded in getting passed, a bill
+giving to the widows of all Presidents a pension of $5,000, which, it
+added to his gratification to know, would apply to the venerable Mrs.
+Polk: and that still goes, and will go during her lifetime, to the wife
+of General Grant, as the slight expression of a nation's gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>Next to the interest he felt in his own country, his heart was in
+England. While he was an intense American, and perhaps, for that very
+reason, because he was an American, he claimed kindred with the people
+from whom we are not only descended, but have received such an
+inheritance of glory. In his own words: "America, with all her
+greatness, has come out of the loins of England." When he was in India
+he was proud of the mighty English race that from its little island
+governed an empire of two hundred and fifty millions on the other side
+of the globe. Some might have said that he inherited no small portion of
+its unconquerable spirit.</p>
+
+<p>And not only did he admire Old England, but he loved Englishmen. He knew
+all that was said of English reserve and English pride, but long
+familiarity had taught him that underneath this cold exterior were many
+of the noblest qualities&mdash;courage, heroism and fidelity&mdash;so that it had
+become a part of his creed that an Englishman, when once you have won
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span>his confidence, will go farther and fight harder for a friend or for a
+cause than any other man on the face of the earth. Among such a people
+Mr. Field was proud to number many of his dearest friends.</p>
+
+<p>A touching proof of their regard for him was given but a few months
+before his death. On the 2d of December, 1890, he and his wife
+celebrated their golden wedding. For fifty years they had travelled on
+the course of life together. Children and grandchildren had been born to
+them, so that at the close of half a century a large and happy family
+was gathered round those to whom they looked up with the tenderest
+affection.</p>
+
+<p>Among the congratulations of that day was a large scroll, signed by Mr.
+Gladstone, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Monck, and some eighty others whose
+names are widely known. It was a graceful tribute from England to a son
+of America, who had done perhaps more than any other living man to bring
+the two countries and the two peoples together.</p>
+
+<p>That golden wedding was the fit coronation of a life of wonderful
+activity, and all the kindred who met under that roof were grateful for
+the past, and full of hopes for the future.</p>
+
+<p>But God's ways are not as our ways. Before many months the clouds began
+to gather. The next summer, when the family were all at their country
+home, sickness cast its shadow over their dwelling, which grew <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span>more
+grave till November 23d, when the leaves were falling from the trees
+before their door, the mother of this large household breathed her last.
+Two months later the eldest daughter, who was also the eldest child of
+the family, followed. These repeated blows fell heavy on the
+affectionate heart of the bereaved husband and father, and when to these
+were added other sorrows still, it seemed as if the clouds were piled
+one upon another till they darkened all the horizon. The winter was a
+gloomy one, from its loneliness and its many causes of sadness. But with
+the returning spring the grass grew green again, and the trees put forth
+their leaves, and it seemed as if the new life of nature must put life
+into the heart of man: and when he removed to the country, and began to
+drive about as of old among the familiar haunts, the beautiful scenery
+for a time delighted his eye, and the change of air brought a touch of
+the old spirit, as if perchance his strength were about to return. But
+it was only a momentary flush, and he soon took to his room, where, as
+he looked from his windows, and saw the sun going down over the hills
+beyond the Hudson, it could only remind him that for him the sun of life
+was about to set forever. Fair was the world without but desolate was
+the home within, since she who had made its brightness was gone; and
+here on the 12th of July 1892, the end came.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beautiful morning, and the windows were <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span>open, through which
+the soft summer air floated into the chamber of death, where his three
+brothers, all that were left of his father's family, with those of his
+own household, were round his bed, watching the dear pale face. Thus
+surrounded and beloved to the last, he ceased to breathe.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later a large company from the country round and from the city
+gathered at Ardsley, and stood on the lawn and the slopes that lead up
+to the noble trees that shade the dwelling, as Bishop Potter read the
+blessed words, "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord: he
+that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."</p>
+
+<p>The next day we bore him away from his home, and from the great city
+where he had passed his busy life, back to the quiet valley where he was
+born, and laid him down in the shadow of the encircling hills.<a name="FNanchor_A_32" id="FNanchor_A_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_32" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> "Bury
+me there," he had said, "by the side of my beloved wife and by my father
+and mother." The earth closed over him, and all his struggles and his
+sorrows were buried in the grave.</p>
+
+<p>The man is gone, but the work remains, a work that multiplies itself,
+for when once a leader and explorer had opened the way, others were
+swift to follow, so that now there are no less than ten cables stretched
+across the Atlantic, and every hour of day or night, "when men wake and
+when they sleep" (for even in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span>the hours of silence the heart is still
+beating, only a little more slowly), the pulse of life is kept moving to
+and fro. The morning news comes after a night's repose, and we are
+wakened gently to the new day that has dawned upon the world. That which
+serves to such an end; which is a connecting link between countries and
+races of men; is not a mere material thing, an iron chain, lying cold
+and dead in the icy depths of the Atlantic. It is a living, fleshly bond
+between severed portions of the human family, thrilling with life, along
+which every human impulse runs swift as the current in human veins, and
+will run for ever. Free intercourse between nations, as between
+individuals, leads to mutual kindly offices, that make those who at once
+give and receive, feel that they are not only neighbors but friends.
+Hence the "mission" of submarine telegraphy is to be the minister of
+peace. The first message across the deep was "Glory to God in the
+highest; peace on earth, good will to men," and the first news it
+brought was that of peace in China. And when again the sea had found a
+tongue, its first glad intelligence was that the great war between
+Austria and Prussia was ended. Thus at its very birth was this new
+messenger baptized in the name of Peace, and consecrated to a service
+worthy of its name.</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+"Man marks the earth with ruin: his control<br />
+Stops with the shore: upon the watery plain<br />
+The wrecks are all thy deed."
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span></p><p>Not all! The wrath of man adds to the fury of the elements. To strew
+the sea with wrecks is the work of lightning and tempest: man's nobler
+office is to restore what nature may destroy.</p>
+
+<p>It was the chief desire of him who has gone to the grave, that the link
+which unites England and America might bind the countries that he loved
+the most in indissoluble union. Though the two nations dwell apart, on
+opposite shores of the same great and wide sea, they are now brought
+almost within the sound of each other's voice and the touch of each
+other's hand: they can look into each other's eyes, and exchange their
+morning and evening congratulations with the rising and setting of each
+day's sun. May the instrument through which they look and speak never
+startle them with rude alarms, but continue to whisper peace in tones as
+gentle as the murmur of the sea, as long as the winds blow and the
+waters roll.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_32" id="Footnote_A_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_32"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The Berkshire Hills, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX"></a>APPENDIX.<br />
+
+INSTRUMENTS FOR SIGNALLING ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.</h2>
+
+
+<p>If the project of an Atlantic Telegraph be justly ascribed to the daring
+of an American, and its success to his courage and perseverance through
+years of struggle and disappointment; the solution of the scientific
+problem involved in it, is due to the genius of a Scotchman, whom the
+writer of this volume first knew (and it is a pleasant memory to have
+known such a man in the beginning of his splendid career) as Professor
+Thomson of the University of Glasgow, where his father had been
+professor before him, whom the son succeeded in the Department of
+Physics, which included the then little known science of Electricity, to
+which the young professor devoted himself with all the eagerness of
+scientific genius. The project of a telegraph across the ocean suggested
+new problems and new difficulties, to which he applied himself with
+characteristic ardor, the result of which is here given. When the second
+expedition of the Great Eastern (in 1866) was successful, the British
+Government at once recognized his eminent services; and the name of Sir
+William Thomson has since been recognized, among the leaders in
+scientific discovery, not only in England but all over the scientific
+world. The government has recently added a further dignity in making him
+a peer of the realm, an honor hitherto reserved generally for the
+leaders of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span>armies, like Wellington. To confer it on a simple professor
+shows an advance of civilization in the respect paid to intellectual
+greatness. In conferring such a title, the government does not honor the
+man more than it honors itself. It is to the glory of England that such
+an honor should be paid to science in the person of Lord Kelvin, as was
+paid to literature in the person of Lord Tennyson.</p>
+
+<p>The following, taken in substance from an English scientific review,
+will indicate briefly, but with sufficient clearness, the problem to be
+solved in signalling to great distances under the sea, and the
+instruments by which this is accomplished:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The speed of signalling through a submarine cable depends upon its
+electrostatic capacity, which, unless it be very small, gives rise to
+"retardation."</p>
+
+<p>In the Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1855, Sir William Thomson
+showed how the effect at the distant end of a cable, caused by the
+application of a battery at one end, could be calculated and represented
+graphically in what is called the "curve of arrival." After contact is
+first made at the sending end between the cable and one pole of the
+battery (the other pole being to earth), a certain interval of time
+elapses before any effect is felt at the distant end. This interval of
+time is denoted by the letter <i>a</i>. After the interval of time <i>a</i> has
+passed, a current begins to issue from the cable at the receiving end,
+and increases in strength very rapidly. After a further interval of 4<i>a</i>
+or after a period of 5<i>a</i> from the first application of the battery, it
+attains about half its maximum strength, and there is very little
+sensible increase in strength after a time equal to 10<i>a</i> has elapsed.
+The curve of arrival is drawn by taking distances along <span class="smcap">o x</span> to represent
+intervals of time, and distances along <span class="smcap">o y</span> to represent <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span>strengths of
+current. Curve No. I. shows the gradual increase in strength of the
+received current at one end of a cable when the battery is applied to
+and kept in contact with the other end. For a distance corresponding to
+the interval of time <i>a</i>, the curve does not sensibly deviate from the
+straight line <span class="smcap">o x</span>; in other words, no effect is observable at the
+receiving end during this time.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/illus-6.jpg" alt="Chart of curves of arrival" /></div>
+
+
+<p>If now, instead of being continuously applied to the battery at the
+sending end, the cable had been applied to it during a short interval of
+time, and then disconnected from the battery and connected to earth, the
+curve of arrival would be of the form shown by curve No. II. Curve No.
+II. shows <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span>the effect of applying the battery during a length of time
+equal to 4<i>a</i>, and then putting the cable to earth. It will be seen that
+a current gradually diminishing in strength continues to flow out of the
+cable at the distant end for a considerable time after the battery has
+been disconnected. This continued discharge is what gives rise to the
+difficulty experienced in reading the signals sent through long cables.</p>
+
+<p>The instrument first used for receiving signals through a long submarine
+cable (the short-lived 1858 Atlantic cable) was the Mirror Galvanometer,
+which consisted of a small mirror with four light magnets attached to
+its back (weighing, in all, less than half-a-grain), suspended by means
+of a single silk fibre, in a proper position within the hollow of a
+bobbin of fine wire: a suitable controlling magnet being placed adjacent
+to the apparatus. The action of this instrument is as follows. On the
+passage of a current of electricity through the fine wire coil, the
+suspended magnets with the mirror attached, tend to take up a position
+at right angles to the plane of the coil, and are deflected to one side
+or the other according as the current is in one direction or the other.</p>
+
+<p>Of various other forms of <i>receiving</i> instruments devised by Sir William
+Thomson, the next to be noticed is the Spark Recorder, both on account
+of the principles involved in its construction, and because it in some
+respects foreshadowed the more perfect instrument, the Siphon Recorder,
+which he introduced some years later. The action of the Spark Recorder
+was as follows. An indicator, suitably supported, was caused to take a
+to-and-fro motion, by means of the electro-magnetic action due to the
+electric currents constituting the signals. This indicator was connected
+to a Ruhmkorff coil or other equivalent apparatus, designed to cause a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span>continual succession of sparks to pass between the indicator, and a
+metal plate situated beneath it and having a plane surface parallel to
+its line of motion. Over the surface of this plate and between it and
+the indicator, there was passed, at a regularly uniform speed in a
+direction perpendicular to the line of motion of the indicator, a
+material capable of being <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span>acted on physically by the sparks, either
+through their chemical action, their heat, or their perforating force.
+The record of the signals given by this instrument was an undulating
+line of fine perforations or spots, and the character and succession of
+the undulations were used to interpret the signals desired to be sent.</p>
+
+<p>The latest form of <i>receiving</i> instrument for long submarine cables, is
+that of the Siphon Recorder, for which Sir William Thomson obtained his
+first patent in 1867. Within the three succeeding years he effected
+great improvements on it, and the instrument has, since that date, been
+exclusively employed in working most of the more important submarine
+cables of the world&mdash;indeed all except those on which the
+Mirror-Galvanometer method is still in use.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="FIG_1"></a><img src="images/fig-1.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+FIG. 1.</div>
+
+<p>In the Siphon Recorder (a view of which is shown in <a href="#FIG_1">Fig. 1</a>), the
+indicator consists of a light rectangular signal-coil of fine wire,
+suspended between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, so as to be
+free to move about its longer axis which is vertical, and so joined up
+that the electric currents constituting the signals through the cable,
+pass through it. A fine glass siphon-tube is suitably suspended, so as
+to have only one degree of freedom to move, and is connected to the
+signal-coil so as to move with it. The short leg of the siphon-tube dips
+into an insulated ink-bottle, which permits of the ink contained by it
+being electrified, while the long leg is situated so that its open end
+is at a very small distance from a brass table, placed with its surface
+parallel to the plane in which the mouth of this leg moves, and over
+which a slip of paper may be passed at a uniform rate as in the Spark
+Recorder. The effect of electrifying the ink is to cause it to be
+projected in very minute drops from the open end of the siphon-tube,
+towards the brass table or on the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span>paper-slip passing over it. Thus when
+the signal-coil moves in obedience to the electric signal currents
+passed through it, the motion then communicated to the siphon, is
+recorded on the moving slip of paper by a wavy line of ink marks very
+close together. The interpretation of the signals is according to the
+Morse code; the dot and dash being represented by deflections of the
+line to one side or the other of the centre line of the paper.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="FIG_2"></a><img src="images/fig-2.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+FIG. 2.</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="FIG_3"></a><img src="images/fig-3.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+FIG. 3.</div>
+
+<p>Perfect as this instrument seemed, yet after further years of study and
+experiment, Sir William Thomson was able, at the close of 1883, to
+present to the world the Siphon Recorder, greatly improved, because in a
+very much simpler form. In this form of the instrument, instead of the
+electro-magnets, he used two bundles of long bar-magnets of square
+section and made up of square bars of glass-hard steel. The two bundles
+are supported vertically on a cast-iron socket, and on the upper end of
+each is fitted a soft iron shoe, so shaped as to concentrate the lines
+of force and thus produce a strong <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span>magnetic field in the space within
+which the signal-coil is suspended. He made instruments of this kind to
+work both with and without electrification of the ink. Without
+electrification the instrument, as shown in <a href="#FIG_2">Fig. 2</a>, is exceedingly
+simple and compact, and in this form is capable of doing good work on
+cables of lengths up to 500 or 600 miles. When constructed for
+electrification of the ink, as shown in <a href="#FIG_3">Fig. 3</a>, it is of course
+available for much longer lengths of cable, but for cables such as the
+Atlantic cables, the original form of the Siphon Recorder is that still
+chiefly used. The strongest magnetic field hitherto obtained by
+permanent magnets (of glass-hard steel) is about 3000 <span class="smcap">c. g. s.</span> With the
+electro-magnets of the original form of Siphon Recorder as in ordinary
+use a magnetic field of about or over 5000 <span class="smcap">c. g. s.</span> is easily attained.
+In <a href="#FIG_4">Fig. 4</a> is shown a <i>fac simile</i> of part of a message received and
+recorded by a Siphon Recorder, such as is shown in <a href="#FIG_1">Fig. 1</a>, from one of
+the Eastern Telegraph Co.'s Cables of about 830 miles length.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="FIG_4"></a><img src="images/fig-4.jpg" alt="" /><br />
+FIG. 4.</div>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="chap" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>Transcriber's Note.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Spelling variants where there was no obviously preferred choice were
+left as is. Since there are numerous quotations in this work, this is
+partly due to spelling choices of different authors. Variants include:
+"dispatched" and "despatched;" "embedded" and "imbedded;" "encrusted"
+and "incrusted;" "hurras" and "hurrahs;" "northeast" and "north-east,"
+and similar hyphenation in directions; "per cent." and "per cent"
+(inconsistent use of period); "recrossing" and "re-crossing;"
+"rockbound" and "rock-bound;" "signaled" and "signalled;" "stateroom"
+and "state-room;" "undercurrent" and "under-current."</p>
+
+<p>Removed extra comma after "heart" on page 26: "the heart of a prince."</p>
+
+<p>Changed "abunance" to "abundance" on page 167: "too great abundance."</p>
+
+<p>Changed "Knigthstown" to "Knightstown" on page 187: "at Knightstown,
+Valentia."</p>
+
+<p>Changed "announcment" to "announcement" on page 189: "this simple
+announcement."</p>
+
+<p>Changed "develope" to "develop" on page 299: "develop the resources."</p>
+
+<p>Changed "grip" to "gripe" on page 363, for consistency with spelling
+throughout: "a fresh gripe."</p>
+
+<p>Changed "Hemipheres" to "Hemispheres" on page 381: "the two
+Hemispheres."</p>
+
+<p>Changed "mitror" to "mirror" on page 410: "with the mirror attached."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 34765-h.txt or 34765-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/7/6/34765">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/6/34765</a></p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph, by Henry
+M. (Henry Martyn) Field
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
+
+
+Author: Henry M. (Henry Martyn) Field
+
+
+
+Release Date: December 27, 2010  [eBook #34765]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC
+TELEGRAPH***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Stephen H. Sentoff, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 34765-h.htm or 34765-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34765/34765-h/34765-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34765/34765-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/storyofatlantict00fielrich
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH
+
+by
+
+HENRY M. FIELD
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DR. FIELD'S BOOKS OF TRAVEL.
+
+
+     FROM THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY TO THE GOLDEN HORN. Crown 8vo,
+     $2.00.
+
+     FROM EGYPT TO JAPAN. Crown 8vo, $2.00.
+
+     ON THE DESERT. Crown 8vo, $2.00.
+
+     AMONG THE HOLY HILLS. With a map. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
+
+     THE GREEK ISLANDS, and Turkey after the War. With illustrations
+     and maps. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
+
+     OLD SPAIN AND NEW SPAIN. With map. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
+
+     BRIGHT SKIES AND DARK SHADOWS. With maps. Crown 8vo, $1.50
+
+          _The set, 7 vols., in a box, $12.00._
+
+     OUR WESTERN ARCHIPELAGO. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, $2.00.
+
+     THE BARBARY COAST. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, $2.00.
+
+     GIBRALTAR. Illustrated. Small 4to, $2.00.
+
+
+     THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH. Illustrated. 12mo, $1.50.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cyrus W. Field.]
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH
+
+by
+
+HENRY M. FIELD
+
+
+"Since the discovery of Columbus, nothing has been done in any degree
+comparable to the vast enlargement which has thus been given to the
+sphere of human activity."
+
+                              --THE TIMES, August 6th, 1858.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+Charles Scribner's Sons
+1898
+
+Copyright, 1892, by
+Henry M. Field.
+
+Press of J. J. Little & Co.
+Astor Place, New York
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The recent death of Mr. Cyrus W. Field recalls attention to the great
+enterprise with which his name will be forever associated. "The Atlantic
+Telegraph," said the late Chief Justice Chase, "is the most wonderful
+achievement of civilization, and entitles its author to a distinguished
+rank among public benefactors. High upon that illustrious roll will his
+name be placed, and there will it remain while oceans divide, and
+telegraphs unite, mankind." The memory of such an achievement the world
+should not let die. The story of its varied fortunes reads like a tale
+of adventure. From the beginning it was a series of battles, fighting
+against the elements and against the unbelief of men. This long struggle
+the new generation may forget, profiting by the result, but thinking
+little of the means by which it was attained. What toil of hand and
+brain had gone before; what days and nights of watching and weariness;
+how often hope deferred had made the heart sick: how year after year had
+dragged on, and seen the end still afar off--all that is dimly
+remembered, even by those who reap the fruits of victory. And yet in the
+history of human achievements, it is necessary to trace these
+beginnings step by step, if we would learn the lesson they teach, that
+it is only out of heroic patience and perseverance that anything truly
+great is born.
+
+Twelve years of unceasing toil was the price the Atlantic Telegraph cost
+its projector; and not years lighted up by the assurance of success, but
+that were often darkened with despair: years in which he was restlessly
+crossing and recrossing the ocean, only to find on either side, worse
+than storms and tempests, an incredulity which sneered at every failure,
+and derided the attempt as a delusion and a dream. Against such
+discouragements nothing could prevail but that faith, or fanaticism,
+which, believing the incredible, achieves the impossible. Such a tale,
+apart from the results, is in itself a lesson and an inspiration.
+
+In attempting to chronicle all this, the relation of the writer to the
+prime mover has given him facilities for obtaining the materials of an
+authentic history; but he trusts that it will not lead him to overstep
+the limits of modesty. Standing by a new-made grave, he has no wish to
+indulge in undue praise even of the beloved dead. Enough for him is it
+to unroll the canvas on which the chief actor stands forth as the
+conspicuous figure. But in a work of such magnitude there are many
+actors, and there is glory enough for all; and it is a sacred duty to
+the dead to recognize, as he did, what was due to the brave companions
+in arms, who stood by him in disaster and defeat; who believed in him
+even when his own countrymen doubted and despaired; and furnished anew
+men and money and ships for the final conquest of the sea. If history
+records that the enterprise of the Atlantic Telegraph owed its inception
+to the faith and daring of an American, it will also record that all his
+ardor and activity would have been of no avail but for the science and
+seamanship, the capital and the undaunted courage, of England. But when
+all these conditions were supplied, it is the testimony of Englishmen
+themselves that his was the spirit within the wheels that made them
+revolve; that it was his intense vitality that infused itself into a
+great organization, and made the dream of science the reality of the
+world. This is not to his honor alone: it is a matter of national pride;
+and Americans may be pardoned if, in the year in which they celebrate
+the discovery of the continent, they recall that it was one of their
+countrymen whom the Great Commoner of England, John Bright, pronounced
+"the Columbus of our time, who, after no less than forty voyages across
+the Atlantic in pursuit of the great aim of his life, had at length by
+his cable moored the New World close alongside the Old." How the miracle
+was wrought, it is the design of these pages to tell.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I.                                                        Page 1
+
+     Discovery of the New World by Columbus. Relative Position
+     of the Two Hemispheres. Nearest Points--The Outlying
+     Islands, Ireland and Newfoundland. Shorter Route to Europe
+     suggested by Bishop Mullock. The Electric Telegraph Company
+     of Newfoundland. Project of Mr. F. N. Gisborne. Failure of
+     the Company
+
+CHAPTER II.                                                      Page 15
+
+     Mr. Gisborne comes to New York. Is introduced to Cyrus W.
+     Field, who conceives the Idea of a Telegraph across the
+     Atlantic Ocean. Is it Practicable? Two Elements to be
+     mastered, the Sea and the Electric Current. Letters of
+     Lieutenant Maury and Professor Morse
+
+CHAPTER III.                                                     Page 24
+
+     Mr. Field enlists Capitalists in the Enterprise. Commission
+     to Newfoundland to obtain a Charter. The New York,
+     Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company
+
+CHAPTER IV.                                                      Page 38
+
+     The Land-Line in Newfoundland. Four Hundred Miles of Road
+     to be built, a Work of Two Years. Attempt to lay a Cable
+     across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in 1855, fails. A Second
+     Attempt, in 1856, is successful
+
+CHAPTER V.                                                       Page 51
+
+     Deep-Sea Soundings by Lieutenant Berryman in the Dolphin in
+     1853, and the Arctic in 1856, and by Commander Dayman, of
+     the British Navy, in the Cyclops, in 1857. The Bed of the
+     Atlantic. The Telegraphic Plateau
+
+CHAPTER VI.                                                      Page 69
+
+     Mr. Field in London. The English Engineers and
+     Electricians. Result of Experiments. The Atlantic Telegraph
+     Company organized. Applies to the Government for Aid.
+     Contract for a Cable
+
+CHAPTER VII.                                                     Page 91
+
+     Mr. Field returns to America. Seeks Aid from the
+     Government. Opposition in Congress. Bill passed
+
+CHAPTER VIII.                                                   Page 112
+
+     Return to England. The Niagara--Captain Hudson. The
+     Agamemnon. Expedition of 1857 sails from Ireland. Speech of
+     the Earl of Carlisle. The Cable broken
+
+CHAPTER IX.                                                     Page 142
+
+     Preparations for an Expedition in 1858. Mr. Field is made
+     the General Manager of the Company. The Squadron assemble
+     at Plymouth, and put to Sea, June 10. New Method of laying
+     Cable, beginning in Mid-Ocean. The Agamemnon in Danger of
+     being Foundered. The Cable lost Three Times. The Ships
+     return to England. Meeting of the Directors. Shall they
+     abandon the Project? One Last Effort
+
+CHAPTER X.                                                      Page 165
+
+     Second Expedition Successful. Cable landed in Ireland and
+     Newfoundland
+
+CHAPTER XI.                                                     Page 188
+
+     Great Excitement in America. Celebration in New York and
+     other Cities
+
+CHAPTER XII.                                                    Page 213
+
+     Sudden Stoppage of the Cable. Reaction of Public Feeling.
+     Suspicions of Bad Faith. Did the Cable ever work?
+
+CHAPTER XIII.                                                   Page 229
+
+     Attempts to revive the Company. The Government asked for
+     Aid, but declines to give an Unconditional Guarantee.
+     Failure of the Red Sea Telegraph. Scientific Experiments.
+     Cables laid in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf.
+     Brief History of the next Five Years
+
+CHAPTER XIV.                                                    Page 241
+
+     The Enterprise renewed. Improvement on the Old Cable. The
+     Great Eastern and Captain Anderson. Expedition of 1865.
+     Twelve Hundred Miles laid safely, when the Cable is broken
+
+CHAPTER XV.                                                     Page 293
+
+     Formation of a New Company, the Anglo-American. New Cable
+     made and shipped on Board the Great Eastern
+
+CHAPTER XVI.                                                    Page 306
+
+     The Expedition of 1866. Immense Preparations. Religious
+     Service at Valentia. Sailing of the Fleet. Diary of the
+     Voyage. Cable landed at Heart's Content
+
+CHAPTER XVII.                                                   Page 347
+
+     Return to Mid-Ocean to search for the Cable lost the Year
+     before. Dragging in the Deep Sea. Repeated Failures. Cable
+     finally recovered and completed to Newfoundland
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.                                                  Page 376
+
+     The Afterglow. Honors conferred in England and America.
+     Commercial Revolution wrought by the Cable. Mr. Field and
+     the Elevated Railroads in New York City. Tour round the
+     World. Last Years. Death in 1892
+
+
+
+
+STORY OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BARRIER OF THE SEA.
+
+
+When Columbus sailed from the shores of Spain, it was not in search of a
+New World, but only to find a nearer path to the East. He sought a
+western passage to India. He had adopted a traditionary belief that the
+earth was round; but he did not once dream of another continent than the
+three which had been the ancient abodes of the human race--Europe, Asia,
+and Africa. All the rest was the great deep. The Florentine sage
+Toscanelli, from his knowledge of the world so far as then discovered,
+had made a chart, on which the eastern coast of Asia was represented as
+lying opposite to the western coast of both Europe and Africa. Accepting
+this theory, Columbus reasoned that he could sail direct from Spain to
+India. No intervening continent existed even in his imagination. Even
+after he had crossed the Atlantic, and descried the green woods of San
+Salvador rising out of the western seas, he thought he saw before him
+one of the islands of the Asiatic coast. Cuba he believed was a part of
+the mainland of India; Hayti was the Ophir of King Solomon; and when,
+on a later voyage, he came to the broad mouth of the Orinoco, and saw it
+pouring its mighty flood into the Atlantic, he rejoiced that he had
+found the great river Gihon, which had its rise in the garden of Eden!
+Even to the hour of his death, he remained ignorant of the real extent
+of his magnificent discovery. It was reserved to later times to lift the
+curtain fully from the world of waters; to reveal the true magnitude of
+the globe; and to unite the distant hemispheres by ties such as the
+great discoverer never knew.
+
+It is hard to imagine the darkness and the terror which then hung over
+the face of the deep. The ocean to the west was a Mare Tenebrosum--a Sea
+of Darkness, into which only the boldest voyagers dared to venture.
+Columbus was the most successful navigator of his time. He had made
+voyages to the Western Islands, to Madeira and the Canaries, to Iceland
+on the north, and to the Portuguese settlements in Africa. But when he
+came to cross the sea, he had to grope his way almost blindly. But a few
+rays of knowledge glimmered, like stars, on the pathless waters. When he
+sailed on his voyage of discovery, he directed his course, first to the
+Canaries, which was a sort of outstation for the navigators of those
+times, as the last place at which they could take in supplies; and
+beyond which they were venturing into unknown seas. Here he turned to
+the west, though inclining southward toward the tropics (for even the
+great discoverers of that day, in their search for new realms to
+conquer, were not above the consideration of riches as well as honor,
+and somehow associated gems and gold with torrid climes), and bore away
+for India!
+
+From this route taken by the great navigator, he crossed the ocean in
+its widest part. Had he, instead, followed the track of the Northmen,
+who crept around from Iceland to Greenland and Labrador; or had he
+sailed straight to the Azores, and then borne away to the north-west, he
+would much sooner have descried land from the mast-head. But steering in
+darkness, he crossed the Atlantic where it is broadest _and deepest_;
+where, as submarine explorers have since shown, it rolls over mountains,
+lofty as the Alps and the Himalayas, which lie buried beneath the
+surface of the deep. But farther north the two continents, so widely
+sundered, incline toward each other, as if inviting that closer relation
+and freer intercourse which the fulness of time was to bring.
+
+As the island of Newfoundland is to stand in the foreground of our
+story, we observe on the map its salient geographical position. It holds
+the same relation to America that Ireland does to Europe. Stretching far
+out into the Atlantic, it is the vanguard of the western continent, or
+rather the signal-tower from which the New World may speak to the Old.
+
+And yet, though large as England, and so near our coast, few Americans
+ever see it, as it lies out of the track of European commerce. Our
+ships, though they skirt the Banks of Newfoundland, pass to the south,
+and get but occasional glimpses of the headlands. Even what is seen
+gives the country rather an ill reputation. It has a rockbound coast,
+around which hang perpetual fogs and mists, through which great icebergs
+drift slowly down, like huge phantoms of the deep, gliding away to be
+dissolved by the warm breath of the Gulf Stream: dangers that warn the
+voyager away from such a sea and shore.
+
+Sailing west from Cape Race, and making the circuit of the island as far
+as the Straits of Belle Isle, one is often reminded of the most northern
+peninsula of Europe. The rocky shores are indented with numerous bays,
+reaching far up into the land, like the fiords along the coast of
+Norway; while the large herds of Caribou deer, that are seen feeding on
+the hills, might easily be mistaken for the flocks of reindeer that
+browse on the pastures and drink of the mountain torrents of ancient
+Scandinavia.
+
+The interior of the island is little known. Not only is it uninhabited,
+it is almost unexplored, a boundless waste of rock and moor, where vast
+forests stretch out their unbroken solitudes, and the wild bird utters
+its lonely cry. Bears and wolves roam on the mountains. Especially
+common is the large and fierce black wolf; while of the smaller animals,
+whose skins furnish material for the fur-trade, such as martins and
+foxes, there is the greatest abundance. But from all pests of the
+serpent tribe, Newfoundland is as free as Ireland, which was delivered
+by the prayers of St. Patrick. There is not a snake or a frog or a toad
+in the island!
+
+Yet, even in this ruggedness of nature, there is a wild beauty, which
+only needs to be "clothed upon" by the hand of man. Newfoundland, in
+many of its features, is not unlike Scotland, even in its most desolate
+portions, where the rocky surface of the country, covered with thick
+moss, reminds the emigrant Scot of the heather on his native moors. In
+the interior are lakes as long as Loch Lomond, and mountains as lofty as
+Ben Lomond and Ben Nevis. There are passes as wild as the Vale of
+Glencoe, where one might feel that he is in the heart of the Highlands,
+while the roar of the torrents yet more vividly recalls the
+
+     Land of the brown heath and shaggy wood,
+     Land of the mountain and the flood.
+
+Yet in all this there is nothing to repel human habitation. By the hand
+of industry, these wild moors might be transformed into fruitful fields.
+We think it a very cold country, where winter reigns over half the year,
+as in Greenland; yet it is not so far north as Scotland, nor is its
+climate more inhospitable. It only needs the same population, the same
+hardy toil: and the same verdure would creep up its hill-sides, which
+now makes green and beautiful the loneliest of Scottish glens.
+
+But at present the country is a _terra incognita_. In the interior there
+are no towns and no roads. As yet almost the whole wealth of the island
+is drawn from the sea. Its chief trade is its fisheries, and the only
+places of importance are a few small towns, chiefly on the eastern side,
+which have grown up around the trading posts. Besides these, the only
+settlements are the fishermen's huts scattered along the coast. Hence
+the bishop of the island, when he would make his annual visit to his
+scattered flock, is obliged to sail around his diocese in his yacht,
+since even on horseback it would not be possible to make his way through
+the dense forests to the remote parts of the island. This first
+suggested the idea of cutting across the island a nearer way, not only
+for internal intercourse, but for those who were passing to and fro on
+the sea.
+
+It was in one of these excursions around the coast that the good Bishop
+Mullock, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland, when
+visiting the western portion of his diocese, lying one day becalmed in
+his yacht, in sight of Cape North, the extreme point of the province of
+Cape Breton, bethought himself how his poor neglected island might be
+benefited by being taken into the track of communication between Europe
+and America. He saw how nature had provided an easy approach to the
+mainland on the west. About sixty miles from Cape Ray stretched the long
+island of Cape Breton, while, as a stepping-stone, the little island of
+St. Paul's lay between. So much did it weigh upon his mind that, as soon
+as he got back to St. John's, he wrote a letter to one of the papers on
+the subject. As this was the first suggestion of a telegraph across
+Newfoundland, his letter is here given in full:
+
+     _To the Editor of the Courier_:
+
+     Sir: I regret to find that, in every plan for transatlantic
+     communication, Halifax is always mentioned, and the natural
+     capabilities of Newfoundland entirely overlooked. This has been
+     deeply impressed on my mind by the communication I read in your
+     paper of Saturday last, regarding telegraphic communication
+     between England and Ireland, in which it is said that the
+     nearest telegraphic station on the American side is Halifax,
+     twenty-one hundred and fifty-five miles from the west of
+     Ireland. Now would it not be well to call the attention of
+     England and America to the extraordinary capabilities of St.
+     John's, as the nearest telegraphic point? It is an Atlantic
+     port, lying, I may say, in the track of the ocean steamers, and
+     by establishing it as the American telegraphic station, news
+     could be communicated to the whole American continent
+     forty-eight hours, _at least_, sooner than by any other route.
+     But how will this be accomplished? Just look at the map of
+     Newfoundland and Cape Breton. From St. John's to Cape Ray there
+     is no difficulty in establishing a line passing near Holy-Rood
+     along the neck of land connecting Trinity and Placentia Bays,
+     and thence in a direction due west to the Cape. You have then
+     about forty-one to forty-five miles of sea to St. Paul's
+     Island, with deep soundings of one hundred fathoms, so that the
+     electric cable will be perfectly safe from icebergs. Thence to
+     Cape North, in Cape Breton, is little more than twelve miles.
+     Thus it is not only practicable to bring America two days
+     nearer to Europe by this route, but should the telegraphic
+     communication between England and Ireland, sixty-two miles, be
+     realized, it presents not the least difficulty. Of course, we
+     in Newfoundland will have nothing to do with the erection,
+     working, and maintenance of the telegraph; but I suppose our
+     Government will give every facility to the company, either
+     English or American, who will undertake it, as it will be an
+     incalculable advantage to this country. I hope the day is not
+     far distant when St. John's will be the first link in the
+     electric chain which will unite the Old World and the New.
+
+                              J. T. M.
+
+     St. John's, November 8, 1850.
+
+This suggestion came at the right moment, since it quickened, if it did
+not originate, the first attempt to link the island of Newfoundland with
+the mainland of America. For about the same time, the attention of Mr.
+Frederick N. Gisborne, a telegraph operator, was attracted to a similar
+project. Being a man of great quickness of mind, he instantly saw the
+importance of such a work, and took hold of it with enthusiasm. It might
+easily occur to him without suggestion from any source. He had had much
+experience in telegraphs, and was then engaged in constructing a
+telegraph line in Nova Scotia. Whether, therefore, the idea was first
+with him or with the bishop, is of little consequence. It might occur
+at the same time to two intelligent minds, and show the sagacity of
+both.
+
+But having taken hold of this idea, Mr. Gisborne pursued it with
+indomitable resolution. As the labors of this gentleman were most
+important in the beginning of this work, it is a pleasure to recognize
+his untiring zeal and energy. In assurance of this we could have no
+higher authority than the following from the late Mr. E. M. Archibald,
+who was at the time Attorney-General of Newfoundland, and afterwards for
+many years British Consul at New York:
+
+     "It was during the winter of 1849-50, that Mr. Gisborne, who
+     had been, as an engineer, engaged in extending the electric
+     telegraph through Lower Canada and New Brunswick to Halifax,
+     Nova Scotia, conceived the project of a telegraph to connect
+     St. John's, the most easterly port of America, with the main
+     continent. The importance of the geographical position of
+     Newfoundland, in the event of a telegraph ever being carried
+     across the Atlantic, was about the same time promulgated by Dr.
+     Mullock, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Newfoundland, in a St.
+     John's newspaper.
+
+     "In the spring of the following year (1851), Mr. Gisborne
+     visited Newfoundland, appeared before the Legislature, then in
+     session, and explained the details of his plan, which was an
+     overland line from St. John's to Cape Ray, nearly four hundred
+     miles in length, and (the submarine cable between Dover and
+     Calais not having then been laid) a communication between Cape
+     Ray and Cape Breton by steamer and carrier-pigeons,
+     eventually, it was hoped, by a submarine cable across the Gulf
+     of St. Lawrence. The Legislature encouraged the project,
+     granted L500 sterling to enable Mr. Gisborne to make an
+     exploratory survey of the proposed line to Cape Ray, and passed
+     an act authorizing its construction, with certain privileges,
+     and the appointment of commissioners for the purpose of
+     carrying it out. Upon this, Mr. Gisborne, who was then the
+     chief officer of the Nova Scotia Telegraph Company, returned to
+     that province, resigned his situation, and devoted himself to
+     the project of the Newfoundland telegraph. Having organized a
+     local company for the purpose of constructing the first
+     telegraph line in the island, from St. John's to Carbonear, a
+     distance of sixty miles, he, on the fourth of September, set
+     out upon the arduous expedition of a survey of the proposed
+     line to Cape Ray, which occupied upward of three months, during
+     which time himself and his party suffered severe privations,
+     and narrowly escaped starvation, having to traverse the most
+     rugged and hitherto unexplored part of the island.[A] On his
+     return, having reported to the Legislature favorably of the
+     project, and furnished estimates of the cost, he determined to
+     proceed to New York, to obtain assistance to carry it out....
+     Mr. Gisborne returned to St. John's in the spring of 1852,
+     when, at his instance, an act, incorporating himself (his being
+     the only name mentioned in it) and such others as might become
+     shareholders in a company, to be called the Newfoundland
+     Electric Telegraph Company, was passed, granting an exclusive
+     right to erect telegraphs in Newfoundland for thirty years,
+     with certain concessions of land, by way of encouragement, to
+     be granted upon the completion of the telegraph from St. John's
+     to Cape Ray. Mr. Gisborne then returned to New York, where he
+     organized, under this charter, a company, of which Mr. Tebbets
+     and Mr. Holbrook[B] were prominent members, made his financial
+     arrangements with them, and proceeded to England to contract
+     for the cable from Cape Ray to Prince Edward Island, and from
+     thence to the mainland. Returning in the autumn, he proceeded
+     in a small steamer, in November of that year, 1852, to stretch
+     the first submarine cable, of any length, in America, across
+     the Northumberland Strait from Prince Edward Island to New
+     Brunswick, which cable, however, was shortly afterward broken,
+     and a new one was subsequently laid down by the New York,
+     Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company. In the spring of
+     the following year, 1853, Mr. Gisborne set vigorously to work
+     to complete his favorite project of the line (which he intended
+     should be chiefly underground) from St. John's to Cape Ray. He
+     had constructed some thirty or forty miles of road, and was
+     proceeding with every prospect of success, when, most
+     unexpectedly, those of the company who were to furnish the
+     needful funds dishonored his bills, and brought his operations
+     to a sudden termination. He and the creditors of the company
+     were for several months buoyed up with promises of forthcoming
+     means from his New York allies, which promises were finally
+     entirely unfulfilled; and Gisborne, being the only ostensible
+     party, was sued and prosecuted on all sides, stripped of his
+     whole property, and himself arrested to answer the claims of
+     the creditors of the company. He cheerfully and honorably gave
+     up every thing he possessed, and did his utmost to relieve the
+     severe distress in which the poor laborers on the line had been
+     involved."
+
+This is a testimony most honorable to the engineer who first led the way
+through a pathless wilderness. But this Newfoundland scheme is not to be
+confounded with that of the Atlantic Telegraph, which did not come into
+existence until a year or two later. The latter was not at all included
+in the former. Indeed, Mr. Gisborne himself says, in a letter referring
+to his original project: "My plans were to run a subterranean line from
+Cape Race to Cape Ray, fly carrier-pigeons and run boats across the
+Straits of Northumberland to Cape Breton, and thence by overland lines
+convey the news to New York." He adds however: "Meanwhile Mr. Brett's
+experimental cable between Dover and Calais having proved successful, I
+set forth in my report, [which appeared a year after his first
+proposal], that 'carrier-pigeons and boats would be required only until
+such time as the experiments then making in England with submarine
+cables should warrant a similar attempt between Cape Ray and Cape
+Breton.'" But nowhere in his report does he allude to the possibility of
+ever spanning the mighty gulf of the Atlantic.
+
+But several years after, when the temporary success of the Atlantic
+Telegraph gave a name to everybody connected with it, he or his friends
+seemed not unwilling to have it supposed that this was embraced in the
+original scheme. When asked why he did not publish his large design to
+the world, he answered: "Because I was looked upon as a wild visionary
+by my friends, and pronounced a fool by my relatives for resigning a
+lucrative government appointment in favor of such a laborious
+speculation as the Newfoundland connection. Now had I coupled it at that
+time with an Atlantic line, all confidence in the prior undertaking
+would have been destroyed, and my object defeated." This may have been a
+reason for not announcing such a project to the public, but not for
+withholding it from his friends. A man can hardly lay claim to that
+which he holds in such absolute reserve.
+
+However, whether he ever entertained the _idea_ of such a project, is
+not a matter of the slightest consequence to the public, nor even to his
+own reputation. Ten years before Professor Morse had expressed, not a
+dreamer's fancy, but a deliberate conviction, founded on scientific
+experiments, that "a telegraphic communication might with certainty be
+established across the Atlantic Ocean;" so that the idea was not
+original with Mr. Gisborne, any more than with others who were eager to
+appropriate it.
+
+It is a part of the history of great enterprises, that the moment one
+succeeds, a host spring up to claim the honor. Thus when, in 1858, the
+Atlantic Telegraph seemed to be a success, the public, knowing well who
+had borne the brunt and burden of the undertaking, awarded him the
+praise which he so well deserved; but instantly there were other
+Richmonds in the field. Those who had had no part in the labor, at least
+claimed to have originated the idea! Of course, these many claims
+destroy each other. But after all, to raise such a point at all is the
+merest trifling. The question is not who first had the "idea," but who
+took hold of the enterprise as a practical thing; who grappled with the
+gigantic difficulties of the undertaking, and fought the battle through
+to victory.
+
+As to Mr. Gisborne, his activity in the beginning of the Newfoundland
+telegraph is a matter of history. In that preliminary work, he bore an
+honorable part, and acquired a title to respect, of which he cannot be
+deprived. All honor to him for his enterprise, his courage, and his
+perseverance!
+
+But for the company of which he was the father, which he had got up with
+so much toil, it lived but a few months, when it became involved in debt
+some fifty thousand dollars, chiefly to laborers on the line, and ended
+its existence by an ignominious failure. The concern was bankrupt, and
+it was plain that, if the work was not to be finally abandoned, it must
+be taken up by stronger hands.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] "On the fourth day of December, I accomplished the survey through
+three hundred and fifty miles of wood and wilderness. It was an arduous
+undertaking. My original party, consisting of six white men, were
+exchanged for four Indians; of the latter party, two deserted, one died
+a few days after my return, and the other, 'Joe Paul,' has ever since
+proclaimed himself an ailing man."--_Letter of Mr. Gisborne._
+
+[B] Horace B. Tebbets and Darius B. Holbrook.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CAN THE OCEAN BE SPANNED?
+
+
+Mr. Gisborne left Halifax and came to New York in January, 1854. Here he
+took counsel with his friend Tebbets and others; but they could give him
+no relief. It was while in this state of suspense that he met, at the
+Astor House, Mr. Matthew D. Field, an engineer who had been engaged in
+building railroads and suspension bridges at the South and West. Mr.
+Field listened to his story with interest, and engaged to speak of it to
+his brother, Cyrus W. Field,[A] a merchant of New York, who had retired
+from business the year before, and had spent six months in travelling
+over the mountains of South America, from which he had lately returned.
+Accordingly, he introduced the subject, but found his brother
+disinclined to embark in any new undertaking. Though still a young man,
+his life had been for many years one of incessant devotion to business.
+He had accumulated an ample fortune, and was not disposed to renew the
+cares, the anxieties, and the fatigues of his former life. But listening
+to the details of a scheme which had in it much to excite interest, and
+which by its very difficulty stimulated the spirit of enterprise, he at
+length consented to see Mr. Gisborne, and invited him to his house.
+Accordingly he came, and spent an evening describing the route of his
+proposed telegraph, and the points it was to connect. After he left, Mr.
+Field took the globe which was standing in the library, and began to
+turn it over. _It was while thus studying the globe that the idea first
+occurred to him, that the telegraph might be carried further still, and
+be made to span the Atlantic Ocean._ The idea was not original with him,
+though he was to carry it out. It was indeed new _to him_; but it had
+long been a matter of speculation with scientific minds, though their
+theories had never attracted his attention. But once he had grasped the
+idea, it took strong hold of his imagination. Had the Newfoundland
+scheme stood alone, he would never have undertaken it. He cared little
+about shortening communication with Europe by a day or two, by relays of
+boats and carrier-pigeons. But it was the hope of further and grander
+results that inspired him to enter on a work of which no man could
+foresee the end.
+
+An enterprise of such proportions, that would task to the utmost the
+science and the engineering skill of the world, was not to be rashly
+undertaken; and before giving a definite reply to Gisborne, Mr. Field
+determined to apply to the highest authorities in his own country.
+
+The project of an Atlantic telegraph involved two problems: Could a
+cable be stretched across the ocean? and if it were, would it be good
+for anything to convey messages? The first was a question of mechanical
+difficulties, requiring a careful survey of the ocean itself, fathoming
+its depth, finding out the character of its bottom, whether level, or
+rough and volcanic; and all the obstacles that might be found in the
+winds that agitate the surface above, or the mighty currents that sweep
+through the waters below. The second problem was purely scientific,
+involving questions as to the laws of electricity, not then fully
+understood, and on which the boldest might feel that he was venturing on
+uncertain ground.
+
+Such were the two elements or forces of nature to be encountered--the
+ocean and the electric current. Could they be controlled by any power of
+man? The very proposal was enough to stagger the faith even of an
+enthusiast. Who could lay a bridle on the neck of the sea? The attempt
+seemed as idle as that of Xerxes to bind it with chains. Was it possible
+to combat the fierceness of the winds and waves, and to stretch one long
+line from continent to continent? And then, after the work was achieved,
+would the lightning run along the ocean-bed from shore to shore? Such
+were the questions which had puzzled many an anxious brain, and which
+now troubled the one who was to undertake the work.
+
+To get some light in his perplexity, Mr. Field, the very next morning
+after his interview with Gisborne, wrote two letters, one to Lieutenant
+Maury, then at the head of the National Observatory at Washington, on
+the nautical difficulties of the undertaking, asking if the sea were
+itself a barrier too great to be overcome; and the other to Professor
+Morse, inquiring if it would be possible to telegraph over a distance so
+great as that from Europe to America?
+
+The mail soon brought an answer from Lieutenant Maury, which began:
+"Singularly enough, just as I received your letter, I was closing one to
+the Secretary of the Navy on the same subject." A copy of this he
+inclosed to Mr. Field, and it is given here. It shows the conclusions at
+which, even at that early day, scientific men were beginning to arrive:
+
+                              "National Observatory,
+                              Washington, February 22, 1854.
+
+     "Sir: The United States brig Dolphin, Lieutenant Commanding O.
+     H. Berryman, was employed last summer upon especial service
+     connected with the researches that are carried on at this
+     office concerning the winds and currents of the sea. Her
+     observations were confined principally to that part of the
+     ocean which the merchantmen, as they pass to and fro upon the
+     business of trade between Europe and the United States, use as
+     their great thoroughfare. Lieutenant Berryman availed himself
+     of this opportunity to carry along also a line of deep-sea
+     soundings, from the shores of Newfoundland to those of Ireland.
+     The result is highly interesting, in so far as the bottom of
+     the sea is concerned, upon the question of a submarine
+     telegraph across the Atlantic; and I therefore beg leave to
+     make it the subject of a special report.
+
+     "This line of deep-sea soundings seems to be decisive of the
+     question of the practicability of a submarine telegraph between
+     the two continents, _in so far as the bottom of the deep sea is
+     concerned_. From Newfoundland to Ireland, the distance between
+     the nearest points is about sixteen hundred miles;[B] and the
+     bottom of the sea between the two places is a plateau, which
+     seems to have been placed there especially for the purpose of
+     holding the wires of a submarine telegraph, and of keeping them
+     out of harm's way. It is neither too deep nor too shallow; yet
+     it is so deep that the wires but once landed, will remain for
+     ever beyond the reach of vessels' anchors, icebergs, and drifts
+     of any kind, and so shallow, that the wires may be readily
+     lodged upon the bottom. The depth of this plateau is quite
+     regular, gradually increasing from the shores of Newfoundland
+     to the depth of from fifteen hundred to two thousand fathoms,
+     as you approach the other side. The distance between Ireland
+     and Cape St. Charles, or Cape St. Lewis, in Labrador, is
+     somewhat less than the distance from any point of Ireland to
+     the nearest point of Newfoundland. But whether it would be
+     better to lead the wires from Newfoundland or Labrador is not
+     now the question; nor do I pretend to consider the question as
+     to the possibility of finding _a time calm enough, the sea
+     smooth enough, a wire long enough, a ship big enough_, to lay a
+     coil of wire sixteen hundred miles in length: though I have no
+     fear but that the enterprise and ingenuity of the age, whenever
+     called on with these problems, will be ready with a
+     satisfactory and practical solution of them.
+
+     "I simply address myself at this time to the question in so far
+     as _the bottom of the sea_ is concerned, and as far as that,
+     the greatest practical difficulties will, I apprehend, be found
+     after reaching soundings at either end of the line, and not in
+     the deep sea....
+
+     "A wire laid across from either of the above-named places on
+     this side will pass to the north of the Grand Banks, and rest
+     on that beautiful plateau to which I have alluded, where the
+     waters of the sea appear to be as quiet and as completely at
+     rest as at the bottom of a mill-pond. It is proper that the
+     reasons should be stated for the inference that there are no
+     perceptible currents, and no abrading agents at work at the
+     bottom of the sea upon this telegraphic plateau. I derive this
+     inference from a study of a physical fact, which I little
+     deemed, when I sought it, had any such bearings.
+
+     "Lieutenant Berryman brought up with Brooke's deep-sea sounding
+     apparatus specimens of the bottom from this plateau. I sent
+     them to Professor Bailey, of West Point, for examination under
+     his microscope. This he kindly gave, and that eminent
+     microscopist was quite as much surprised to find, as I was to
+     learn, that all those specimens of deep-sea soundings are
+     filled with microscopic shells; to use his own words, _not a
+     particle of sand or gravel exists in them_. These little
+     shells, therefore, suggest the fact that there are no currents
+     at the bottom of the sea whence they came; that Brooke's lead
+     found them where they were deposited in their burial-place
+     after having lived and died on the surface, and by gradually
+     sinking were lodged on the bottom. Had there been currents at
+     the bottom, these would have swept and abraded and mingled up
+     with these microscopic remains the _debris_ of the bottom of
+     the sea, such as ooze, sand, gravel, and other matter; but not
+     a particle of sand or gravel was found among them. Hence the
+     inference that these depths of the sea are not disturbed either
+     by waves or currents. Consequently, a telegraphic wire once
+     laid there, there it would remain, as completely beyond the
+     reach of accident as it would be if buried in air-tight cases.
+     Therefore, so far as the bottom of the deep sea between
+     Newfoundland, or the North Cape, at the mouth of the St.
+     Lawrence, and Ireland, is concerned, the practicability of a
+     submarine telegraph across the Atlantic is proved....
+
+     "In this view of the subject, and for the purpose of hastening
+     the completion of such a line, I take the liberty of suggesting
+     for your consideration the propriety of an offer from the
+     proper source, of a prize to the company through whose
+     telegraphic wire the first message shall be passed across the
+     Atlantic.
+
+     "I have the honor to be respectfully yours.
+
+                              "M. F. Maury,
+                              "Lieutenant United States Navy.
+
+     "Hon. J. C. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy."
+
+The reply of Professor Morse showed equal interest in the subject, in
+proof of which he wrote that he would come down to New York to see Mr.
+Field about it. A few days after he came, and saw Mr. Field at his
+house. This was the beginning of an acquaintance which soon ripened into
+friendship, and which henceforth united these gentlemen together in this
+great achievement. Professor Morse, in conversation, entered at length
+into the laws of electricity as applied to the business of telegraphing,
+and concluded by declaring his entire faith in the undertaking as
+practical; as one that might, could, and would, be achieved. Indeed,
+this faith he had avowed years before. In a letter written as early as
+August tenth, 1843, to John C. Spencer, then Secretary of the Treasury,
+Professor Morse had detailed the results of certain experiments made in
+the harbor of New York to show the power of electricity to communicate
+at great distances, at the close of which he says--in words that now
+seem prophetic:
+
+     "The practical inference from this law is, that a telegraphic
+     communication on the electro-magnetic plan may with certainty
+     be established across the Atlantic Ocean! Startling as this may
+     now seem, I am confident the time will come when this project
+     will be realized."
+
+It was the good fortune of Mr. Field--at that time and ever since--to
+have at hand an adviser in whose judgment he had implicit confidence.
+This was his eldest brother, David Dudley Field. They lived side by side
+on Gramercy Park, and were in daily communication. To the prudent
+counsels, wise judgment and unfaltering courage of the elder brother,
+the Atlantic Telegraph is more indebted than the world will ever know,
+for its first impulse and for the spirit which sustained it through long
+years of discouragement and disaster, when its friends were few. To
+this, his nearest and best counsellor, Mr. Field opened the project
+which had taken possession of his mind; and being strengthened by that
+maturer judgment, he finally resolved that, if he could get a sufficient
+number of capitalists to join him, he would embark in an enterprise
+which, beginning with the line to Newfoundland, involved in the end
+nothing less than an attempt to link this New World which Columbus had
+discovered, to that Old World which had been for ages the home of empire
+and of civilization. How the scheme advanced through the next twelve
+years, it will be our province to relate.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Born November 30, 1819, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the son of a
+Congregational minister, of whom three sons are still living: Mr. David
+Dudley Field, of New York; Mr. Justice Stephen J. Field, of the Supreme
+Court of the United States; and the writer of the present volume.
+
+[B] From Cape Freels, Newfoundland, to Erris Head, Ireland, the distance
+is sixteen hundred and eleven miles; from Cape Charles, or Cape St.
+Lewis, Labrador, to the same point, the distance is sixteen hundred and
+one miles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE COMPANY ORGANIZED.
+
+
+And so the young New York merchant set out to carry a telegraph across
+the Atlantic Ocean! The design had in it at least the merit of audacity.
+But whether the end was to be sublime or ridiculous time alone could
+tell. Certain it is that when his sanguine temper and youthful blood
+stirred him up to take hold of such an enterprise, he little dreamed of
+what it would involve. He thought lightly of a few thousands risked in
+an uncertain venture; but never imagined that he might yet be drawn on
+to stake upon its success the whole fortune he had accumulated; that he
+was to sacrifice all the peace and quiet he had hoped to enjoy; and that
+for twelve years he was to be almost without a home, crossing and
+re-crossing the sea, urging his enterprise in Europe and America. But so
+it is, that the Being who designs great things for human welfare, and
+would accomplish them by human instruments, does not lift at once the
+curtain from the stern realities they are to meet, nor reveal the
+rugged ascents they are to climb; so that it is only when at last the
+heights are attained, and they look backward, that they realize through
+what they have passed.
+
+But could he find anybody to join him in his bold undertaking? Starving
+adventurers there always are, ready to embark in any Quixotic attempt,
+since they have nothing to lose. But would men of sense and of
+character; men who had fortunes to keep, and the habit which business
+gives of looking calmly and suspiciously at probabilities; be found to
+put capital in an enterprise where, if it failed, they would find their
+money literally at the bottom of the sea? It seemed doubtful, but he
+would try. His plan was, if possible, to enlist ten capitalists, all
+gentlemen of wealth, who together could lift a pretty heavy load; who,
+if need were, could easily raise a million of dollars, to carry out any
+undertaking.
+
+The first man whom he addressed was his next-door neighbor, Mr. Peter
+Cooper, in whom he found the indisposition which a man of large
+fortune--now well advanced in life--would naturally feel to embark in
+new enterprises. The reluctance in this case was not so much to the
+risking of capital, as to having his mind occupied with the care which
+it would impose. These objections slowly yielded to other
+considerations. As they talked it over, the large heart of Mr. Cooper
+began to see that, if it were possible to accomplish such a work, it
+would be a great public benefit. This consideration prevailed, and what
+would not have been undertaken as a private speculation, was yielded to
+public interest. The conference ended by a conditional agreement to
+engage in it, if several others did, and, as we shall see, when the
+Company was organized, he became its President.
+
+The early accession of this gentleman gave strength to the new
+enterprise. In all the million inhabitants of the city of New York there
+was not a name which was better known, or more justly held in honor,
+than that of Peter Cooper. A native of the city, where he had passed his
+whole life, he had seen its growth, from the small town it was after the
+War of the Revolution, and had himself grown with it. Beginning with
+very small means and limited opportunities, he had become one of its
+great capitalists. Many who thus rise to wealth, in the process of
+accumulation, form penurious habits which cling to them, and to the end
+of their days it is the chief object of life to hoard and to keep. But
+Mr. Cooper, while acquiring the fortune, had also the heart of a prince;
+and used his wealth with a noble generosity. In the centre of New York
+stands to-day a massive building, erected at a cost of nearly a million
+of dollars, and consecrated "To Science and Art." This was Mr. Cooper's
+gift to his native city. Remembering his own limited advantages of
+education, he desired that the young men of New York, the apprentices
+and mechanics, should have better opportunities than he had enjoyed. For
+this he endowed courses of lectures on the natural sciences; he opened
+the largest reading-room in America, which furnishes a pleasant resort
+to thousands of readers daily; while to help the other sex, he added a
+School of Design for Women, which trains hundreds to be teachers, and
+some of them artists; who go forth into the world to earn an honest
+living, and to bless the memory of their generous benefactor. This noble
+institution, standing in the heart of the city, is his enduring
+monument.
+
+Yet while doing so much for the public, those who saw Peter Cooper in
+his family knew how he retained the simple habits of early life--how,
+while giving hundreds of thousands to others, he cared to spend little
+on himself; how he remained the same modest, kindly old man; the pure,
+the generous, and the good. His was
+
+     "The good gray head that all men knew,"
+
+and that was sadly missed when, nearly thirty years after, in 1883, at
+the age of ninety-two, he was borne to his grave. It is a pleasant
+remembrance that the beginning of this enterprise was connected with
+that honored name.
+
+Mr. Field next addressed himself to Mr. Moses Taylor, a well-known
+capitalist of New York, engaged in extensive business reaching to
+different parts of the world, and whose daily observation of all sorts
+of enterprises, both sound and visionary, made him perhaps a severer
+judge of any new scheme. With this gentleman he had then no personal
+acquaintance, but sent a note of introduction from his brother, David
+Dudley Field, with a line requesting an interview, to which Mr. Taylor
+replied by an invitation to his house on an evening when he should be
+disengaged. As these two gentlemen afterwards became very intimately
+associated, they often recurred to their first interview. Said Mr.
+Field: "I shall never forget how Mr. Taylor received me. He fixed on me
+his keen eye, as if he would look through me: and then, sitting down, he
+listened to me for nearly an hour without saying a word." This was
+rather an ominous beginning. However, his quick mind soon saw the
+possibilities of the enterprise, and the evening ended by an
+agreement--conditional, like Mr. Cooper's--to enter into it.
+
+Mr. Taylor, being thus enlisted, brought in his friend, Mr. Marshall O.
+Roberts--a man whose career has been too remarkable to be passed without
+notice. A native of the City of New York, (though his father was a
+physician from Wales, who came to this country early in this century,)
+he found himself, when a boy of eight years, an orphan, without a friend
+in the world. From that time he made his way purely by his own industry
+and indomitable will. At the age of twenty he was embarked in business
+for himself, and his history soon became a succession of great
+enterprises. If we were to relate some of the incidents connected with
+his rise of fortune, they would sound more like romance than reality. He
+was the first to project those floating palaces which now ply the waters
+of the Hudson and the great lakes. He was one of the early promoters of
+the Erie Railroad. When the discovery of gold in California turned the
+tide of emigration to that coast, he started the line of steamers to the
+Isthmus of Panama, and controlled largely the commerce with the Pacific.
+Thus his hand was felt, giving impulse to many different enterprises on
+land and sea. His whole course was marked by a spirit of commercial
+daring, which men called rashness, until they saw its success, and then
+applauded as marvellous sagacity.
+
+Mr. Field next wrote to Mr. Chandler White, a personal friend of many
+years' standing, who had retired from business, and was living a few
+miles below the city, near Fort Hamilton, at one of those beautiful
+points of view which command the whole harbor of New York. He too was
+very slow to yield to argument or persuasion. Why should he--when he had
+cast anchor in this peaceful spot--again embark in the cares of
+business, and, worst of all, in an enterprise the scene of which was far
+distant, and the results very uncertain? But enthusiasm is always
+magnetic, and the glowing descriptions of his persuader at length
+prevailed.[A]
+
+There were now five gentlemen enlisted; and Mr. Field was about to apply
+to others, to make up his proposed number, when Mr. Cooper came to ask
+why _five_ would not do as well as _ten_? The question was no sooner
+asked than answered. To this all agreed, and at once fixed an evening
+when they should meet at Mr. Field's house to hear his statements and to
+examine the charter of the old company, find out what it had done, and
+what it proposed to do, what property it had and what debts it owed; and
+decide whether the enterprise offered sufficient inducements to embark
+in it. Accordingly they met, and for four nights in succession discussed
+the subject. It was in the dining-room of Mr. Field's house, and the
+large table was spread with maps of the route to be traversed by the
+line of telegraph, and with plans and estimates of the work to be done,
+the cost of doing it, and the return which they might hope in the end to
+realize for their labor and their capital. The result was an agreement
+on the part of all to enter on the undertaking, if the Government of
+Newfoundland would grant a new charter conceding more favorable terms.
+To secure this it was important to send at once a commission to
+Newfoundland. Neither Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, nor Mr. Roberts could go;
+and it devolved on Mr. Field to make the first voyage on this business,
+as it did to make many voyages afterwards to Newfoundland, and still
+more across the Atlantic. But not wishing to take the whole
+responsibility, he was accompanied at his earnest request by Mr. White,
+and by Mr. D. D. Field, whose counsel, as he was to be the legal adviser
+of the Company, was all-important in the framing of the new charter that
+was to secure its rights. The latter thus describes this first
+expedition:
+
+     "The agreement with the Electric Telegraph Company, and the
+     formal surrender of its charter, were signed on the tenth of
+     March, [1854,] and on the fourteenth we left New York,
+     accompanied by Mr. Gisborne. The next morning we took the
+     steamer at Boston for Halifax, and thence, on the night of the
+     eighteenth, departed in the little steamer Merlin for St.
+     John's, Newfoundland. Three more disagreeable days, voyagers
+     scarcely ever passed, than we spent in that smallest of
+     steamers. It seemed as if all the storms of winter had been
+     reserved for the first month of spring. A frost-bound coast, an
+     icy sea, rain, hail, snow and tempest, were the greetings of
+     the telegraph adventurers in their first movement toward
+     Europe. In the darkest night, through which no man could see
+     the ship's length, with snow filling the air and flying into
+     the eyes of the sailors, with ice in the water, and a heavy sea
+     rolling and moaning about us, the captain felt his way around
+     Cape Race with his lead, as the blind man feels his way with
+     his staff, but as confidently and as safely as if the sky had
+     been clear and the sea calm; and the light of morning dawned
+     upon deck and mast and spar, coated with glittering ice, but
+     floating securely between the mountains which form the gates of
+     the harbor of St. John's. In that busy and hospitable town, the
+     first person to whom we were introduced was Mr. Edward M.
+     Archibald, then Attorney-General of the Colony, and now British
+     Consul in New York. He entered warmly into our views, and from
+     that day to this, has been an efficient and consistent
+     supporter of the undertaking. By him we were introduced to the
+     Governor, (Kerr Bailey Hamilton,) who also took an earnest
+     interest in our plans. He convoked the Council to receive us,
+     and hear an explanation of our views and wishes. In a few hours
+     after the conference, the answer of the Governor and Council
+     was received, consenting to recommend to the Assembly a
+     guarantee of the interest of L50,000 of bonds, an immediate
+     grant of fifty square miles of land, a further grant to the
+     same extent on the completion of the telegraph across the
+     ocean, and a payment of L5,000 toward the construction of a
+     bridle-path across the island, along the line of the land
+     telegraph."
+
+This was a hopeful beginning; and, though the charter was not yet
+obtained, feeling assured by this official encouragement, and the public
+interest in the project, that it would be granted by the colony, Mr.
+Field remained in St. John's but three days, when he took the Merlin
+back to Halifax on his way to New York, there to purchase and send down
+a steamer for the service of the Company, leaving his associates to
+secure the charter and to carry out the arrangements with the former
+company. To settle all these details was necessarily a work of time.
+First, the charter of the old Electric Telegraph Company had to be
+repealed, to clear the way for a new charter to the Company, which was
+to bear the more comprehensive title of "New York, Newfoundland, _and
+London_." This charter--which had been drawn with the greatest care by
+the counsel of the Company, while on the voyage to Newfoundland--bore on
+its very front the declaration that the plans of the new Company were
+much broader than those of the old. In the former charter, the design
+was thus set forth:
+
+     "The telegraph line of this company is designed to be strictly
+     an 'Inter-Continental Telegraph.' Its termini will be New York,
+     in the United States, and London, in the kingdom of Great
+     Britain; these points are to be connected by a line of electric
+     telegraph from New York to St. John's, Newfoundland, partly on
+     poles, partly laid in the ground, and partly through the water,
+     _and a line of the swiftest steamships ever built from that
+     point to Ireland_. The trips of these steamships, it is
+     expected, will not exceed five days, and as very little time
+     will be occupied in transmitting messages between St. John's
+     and New York, the communication between the latter city and
+     London or Liverpool, will be effected _in six days_, or less.
+     The company will have likewise stationed at St. John's a steam
+     yacht, for the purpose of intercepting the European and
+     American steamships, so that no opportunity may be lost in
+     forwarding intelligence in advance of the ordinary channels of
+     communication."
+
+But the charter of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph
+Company, which was now to be obtained, began by declaring, in its very
+first sentence: "Whereas it is deemed advisable to establish a line of
+telegraphic communication between America and Europe by way of
+Newfoundland." Not a word is said of fast ships, of communications in
+less than six days, but every thing points to a line across the ocean.
+Thus one section gives authority to establish a submarine telegraph
+across the ocean, from Newfoundland to Ireland; another section
+prohibits any other company or person from touching the coast of
+Newfoundland or its dependencies [which includes Labrador] with a
+telegraphic cable or wire, from any point whatever, for fifty years; and
+a third section grants the Company fifty square miles of land upon the
+completion of the submarine line across the Atlantic.
+
+In other respects the charter was equally liberal. It incorporated the
+associates for fifty years, established perfect equality, in respect to
+corporators and officers, between citizens of the United States and
+British subjects, and allowed the meetings of the stockholders and
+directors to be held in New York, in Newfoundland, or in London.
+
+To obtain such concessions was a work of some difficulty and delay. The
+Legislature of the province were naturally anxious to scan carefully
+conditions that were to bind them and their children for half a century.
+I have now before me the papers of St. John's of that day, containing
+the discussions in the Legislature; and while all testify to the deep
+public interest in the project, they show a due care for the interests
+of their own colony, which they were bound to protect. At length all
+difficulties were removed, and the charter was passed unanimously by the
+Assembly, and confirmed by the Council.
+
+This happy result was duly celebrated, in the manner which all
+Englishmen approve, by a grand dinner given by the commissioners of the
+new Company, to the members of the Assembly and other dignitaries of the
+colony, at which there were eloquent prophecies of the good time coming,
+showing how heartily the enterprise was welcomed by all classes; and how
+fond were the anticipations of the increased intercourse it would bring,
+and the manifold benefits it would confer on their long-neglected
+island.
+
+No sooner were the papers signed, than the wheels, so long blocked, were
+unloosed, and the machinery began to move. Mr. White at once drew on New
+York for fifty thousand dollars, and paid off all the debts of the old
+company. A St. John's newspaper of April 8th, 1854, amid a great deal on
+the subject, contains this paragraph, which is very significant of the
+dead state of the old company, and of the life of the new:
+
+     "The office of the new Electric Telegraph Company has been
+     surrounded the last two or three days by the men who had been
+     engaged the last year on the line, and who are being paid all
+     debts, dues, and demands against the old association. We look
+     upon the readiness with which these claims are liquidated as a
+     substantial indication on the part of the new Company that they
+     will complete to the letter all that they have declared to
+     accomplish in this important undertaking."
+
+In the early part of May, the two gentlemen who had remained behind in
+Newfoundland rejoined their associates in New York, and there the
+charter was formally accepted and the Company organized. As all the
+associates had not arrived till Saturday evening, the 6th of May, and as
+one of them was to leave town on Monday morning, it was agreed that they
+should meet for organization at six o'clock of that day. At that hour
+they came to the house of Mr. Field's brother Dudley, and as the first
+rays of the morning sun streamed into the windows, the formal
+organization took place. The charter was accepted, the stock subscribed,
+and the officers chosen. Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Field, Mr. Roberts,
+and Mr. White were the first directors. Mr. Cooper was chosen President,
+Mr. White, Vice-President, and Mr. Taylor, Treasurer.
+
+This is a short story, and soon told. It seemed a light affair, for
+half a dozen men to meet in the early morning and toss off such a
+business before breakfast. But what a work was that to which they thus
+put their hands! A capital of a million and a half of dollars was
+subscribed in those few minutes, and a company put in operation that was
+to carry a line of telegraph to St. John's, more than a thousand miles
+from New York, and then to span the wild sea. Well was it that they who
+undertook the work did not then fully realize its magnitude, or they
+would have shrunk from the attempt. Well was it for them that the veil
+was not lifted, which shut from their eyes the long delay, the immense
+toil, and the heavy burdens of many wearisome years. Such a prospect
+might have chilled the most sanguine spirit. But a kind Providence gives
+men strength for their day, imposes burdens as they are able to bear
+them, and thus leads them on to greater achievements than they knew.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Although it is anticipating a year in time, I cannot resist the
+pleasure of adding here the name of another eminent merchant, who
+afterward joined this little Company, Mr. Wilson G. Hunt. Mr. Hunt is
+one of the old merchants of New York who, through his whole career, has
+maintained the highest reputation for commercial integrity, and whose
+fortune is the reward of a long life of honorable industry. He joined
+the Company in 1855, and was a strong and steady friend through all its
+troubles till the final success.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+CROSSING NEWFOUNDLAND.
+
+
+There is nothing in the world easier than to build a line of railroad,
+or of telegraph, _on paper_. You have only to take the map, and mark the
+points to be connected, and then with a single sweep of the pencil to
+draw the line along which the iron track is to run. In this airy flight
+of the imagination, distances are nothing. A thousand leagues vanish at
+a stroke. All obstacles disappear. The valleys are exalted, and the
+hills are made low, soaring arches span the mountain streams, and the
+chasms are leaped in safety by the fire-drawn cars.
+
+Very different is it to construct a line of railroad or of telegraph in
+reality; to come with an army of laborers, with axes on their shoulders
+to cut down the forests, and with spades in their hands to cast up the
+highway. Then poetry sinks to prose, and instead of flying over the
+space on wings, one must traverse it on foot, slowly and with painful
+steps. Nature asserts her power; and, as if resentful of the disdain
+with which man in his pride affected to leap over her, she piles up new
+barriers in his way. The mountains with their rugged sides cannot be
+moved out of their place, the rocks must be cleft in twain, to open a
+passage for the conqueror, before he can begin his triumphal march. The
+woods thicken into an impassable jungle; and the morass sinks deeper,
+threatening to swallow up the horse and his rider; until the rash
+projector is startled at his own audacity. Then it becomes a contest of
+forces between man and nature, in which, if he would be victorious, he
+must fight his way. The barriers of nature cannot be lightly pushed
+aside, but must yield at last only to time and toil, and "man's
+unconquerable will."
+
+Seldom have all these obstacles been combined in a more formidable
+manner to obstruct any public work, than against the attempt to build a
+telegraph line across the island of Newfoundland. The distance, by the
+route to be traversed, was over four hundred miles, and the country was
+a wilderness, an utter desolation. Yet through such a country, over
+mountain and moor, through tangled brake and rocky gorge, over rivers
+and through morasses, they were to build a road--not merely a line of
+telegraph stuck on poles, but "a good and traversable bridle-road, eight
+feet wide, with bridges of the same width," from end to end of the
+island.
+
+But nothing daunted, the new Company undertook the great work with
+spirit and resolution. Gisborne had made a beginning, and got some
+thirty or forty miles out of St. John's. This was the easiest part of
+the whole route, being in the most inhabited region of the island. But
+here he broke down, just where it was necessary to leave civilization
+behind, and to plunge into the wilderness.
+
+Intending to resume the work on a much larger scale, Mr. White, the
+Vice-President, was sent down to St. John's to be the General Agent of
+the Company; while Mr. Matthew D. Field, as a practical engineer, was to
+have charge of the construction of the line. The latter soon organized a
+force of six hundred men, which he pushed forward in detachments to the
+scene of operations.
+
+And now began to appear still more the difficulties of the way. To
+provide subsistence for man and beast, it was necessary to keep near the
+coast, for all supplies had to be sent round by sea. Yet in following
+the coast line, they had to wind around bays, or to climb over
+headlands. If they struck into the interior, they had to cut their way
+through the dense and tangled wood. There was not a path to guide them,
+not even an Indian trail. When lost in the forest, they had to follow
+the compass, as much as the mariner at sea.
+
+To keep such a force in the field, that, like an army, produced nothing,
+but consumed fearfully, required constant attention to the commissary
+department. The little steamer Victoria, which belonged to the Company,
+was kept plying along the coast, carrying barrels of pork and potatoes,
+kegs of powder, pickaxes and spades and shovels, and all the implements
+of labor. These were taken up to the heads of the bays, and thence
+carried, chiefly on men's backs, over the hills to the line of the road.
+
+In many respects, it had the features of a military expedition. It moved
+forward in a great camp. The men were sheltered in tents, when sheltered
+at all, or in small huts which they built along the road. But more often
+they slept on the ground. It was a wild and picturesque sight to come
+upon their camp in the woods, to see their fires blazing at night while
+hundreds of stalwart sleepers lay stretched on the ground. Sometimes,
+when encamped on the hills, they could be seen afar off at sea. It made
+a pretty picture then. But the hardy pioneers thought little of the
+figure they were making, when they were exposed to the fury of the
+elements. Often the rain fell in torrents, and the men, crouching under
+their slight shelter, listened sadly to the sighing of the wind among
+the trees, answered by the desolate moaning of the sea.
+
+Yet in spite of all obstacles, the work went on. All through the long
+days of summer, and through the months of autumn, every cove and creek
+along that southern coast heard the plashing of their oars, and the
+steady stroke of their axes resounded through the forest.
+
+But as the season advanced, all these difficulties increased. For
+nearly half the year, the island is buried in snow. Blinding drifts
+sweep over the moors, and choke up the paths of the forest. How at such
+times the expedition lay floundering in the woods, still struggling to
+force its way onward; what hardships and sufferings the men endured--all
+this is a chapter in the History of the Telegraph which has not been
+written, and which can never be fully told. The
+
+     Gentlemen of England,
+     Who dwell at home at ease,
+
+and who are justly proud of the extent of their dominions, and the life
+and power which pervade the whole, may here find another example of the
+way in which great works are borne forward in distant parts of their
+empire.
+
+But to carry out such an enterprise, requires head-work as well as
+hand-work. Engineering in the field must be supported by financiering at
+home. It was here the former enterprise broke down, and now it needed
+constant watching to keep the wheels in steady motion. The directors in
+New York found the demand increasing day by day. The minds which had
+grasped the large design must now descend to an infinity of detail. They
+had to keep an army of men at work, at a point a thousand miles away,
+far beyond their immediate oversight. Drafts for money came thick and
+fast. To provide for all these required constant attention. How
+faithfully they gave to this enterprise, not only their money, but their
+time and thought, few will know; but those who have seen can testify. In
+the autumn of that year, 1854, the writer removed to the city of New
+York, and was almost daily at the house of Mr. Field. Yet for months it
+was hardly possible to go there of an evening without finding the
+library occupied by the Company. Indeed, so uniformly was this the case,
+that "The Telegraph" began to be regarded by the family as an unwelcome
+intruder, since it put an interdict on the former social evenings and
+quiet domestic enjoyment. The circumstance shows the ceaseless care on
+the part of the directors which the enterprise involved. As a witness of
+their incessant labor, it is due to them to bear this testimony to their
+patience and their fidelity.
+
+When they began the work, they hoped to carry the line across
+Newfoundland in one year, completing it in the summer of 1855. In
+anticipation of this, Mr. Field was sent by the Company to England at
+the close of 1854, to order a cable to span the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to
+connect Cape Ray with the island of Cape Breton. This was his first
+voyage across the ocean on the business of the Telegraph--to be followed
+by more than forty others. In London he met for the first time Mr. John
+W. Brett, with whom he was to be afterward connected in the larger
+enterprise of the Atlantic Telegraph. Mr. Brett was the father of
+submarine telegraphy in Europe, though in carrying out his first
+projects he was largely indebted to Mr. Crampton, a well-known engineer
+of London, who aided him both with advice and capital. With this
+invaluable assistance, he had stretched two lines across the British
+channel. From his success in passing these waters, he believed a line
+might yet be stretched from continent to continent. The scientific men
+of England were not generally educated up to that point. The bare
+suggestion was received with a smile of incredulity.[A] But Mr. Brett
+had faith, even at that early day, and entered heartily into the schemes
+of Mr. Field. To show his interest, he afterward took a few shares in
+the Newfoundland line--the only Englishman who had any part in this
+preliminary work.
+
+The summer came, and the work in Newfoundland, though not complete, was
+advancing; and the cable in England was finished and shipped on board
+the bark Sarah L. Bryant to cross the sea. Anticipating its arrival, the
+Company chartered a steamer to go down to Newfoundland to assist in its
+submersion across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. As yet they had no
+experience in the business of laying a submarine telegraph, and did not
+doubt that the work could be accomplished with the greatest ease. It was
+therefore to be an excursion of pleasure as well as of business, and
+accordingly they invited a large party to go with them to witness the
+unaccustomed spectacle.
+
+As we chanced to be among the guests, we have the best reason to
+remember it. Seldom has a more pleasant party been gathered for any
+expedition. Representing the Company were Mr. Field, Mr. Peter Cooper,
+Mr. Robert W. Lowber, and Professor Morse; while among the invited
+guests were gentlemen of all professions--clergymen, doctors and
+lawyers, artists and editors. In the groups on the deck were the
+venerable Dr. Gardiner Spring and Rev. J. M. Sherwood; Dr. Lewis A.
+Sayre, Bayard Taylor, the well-known traveller, Mr. Fitz-James O'Brien,
+and Mr. John Mullaly--the three latter gentlemen representing leading
+papers of New York.[B] Besides these, the party included a large number
+of ladies, who gave life and animation to the company.
+
+Well does the writer recall the morning of departure--the seventh day of
+August, 1855. Never did a voyage begin with fairer omens. It was a
+bright summer day. The sky was clear, and the water smooth. We were on
+the deck of the good ship James Adger, long known as one of the fine
+steamers belonging to the Charleston line. She was a swift ship, and cut
+the water like an arrow. Thus we sped down the bay, and turning into the
+ocean, skimmed along the shores of Long Island. The sea was tranquil as
+a lake. The whole party were on deck, scattered in groups here and
+there, watching the sails and the shore. A rude telegraph instrument
+furnished entertainment and instruction, especially as we had Professor
+Morse to explain his marvellous invention, which some who listened then
+for the first time understood.
+
+At Halifax, several of us left the ship, and came across Nova Scotia,
+passing through that lovely region of Acadia which Longfellow has
+invested with such tender interest in his poem of Evangeline. Thence we
+crossed the Bay of Fundy to St. John in New Brunswick, and returned by
+way of Portland.
+
+The James Adger went on to Newfoundland, steering first for Port au
+Basque, near Cape Ray, where they hoped to meet the bark which was to
+come from England with the cable on board. To their disappointment, it
+had not arrived. Mr. Canning, the engineer who was to lay the cable, had
+come out by steamer, and was on hand, but the bark was not to be seen.
+Having to wait several days, and wishing to make the most of their time,
+they sailed for St. John's, where they were received by the Provincial
+Government and the people with unbounded hospitality, after which they
+returned to Port au Basque, and were now rejoiced to discover the little
+bark hidden behind the rocks. It was decided to land the cable in Cape
+Ray Cove. After a day or two's delay in getting the end to the shore,
+they started to cross the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Adger towing the
+bark. The sea was calm, and though they were obliged to move slowly, yet
+all promised well, till they were about half-way across, when a gale
+arose, which pitched the bark so violently, that with its unwieldy bulk
+it was in great danger of sinking. After holding on for hours in the
+vain hope that it would abate, the captain cut the cable to save the
+bark; and thus, after they had paid out forty miles, it was hopelessly
+lost, and the Adger returned to New York.
+
+This loss was owing partly to the severity of the gale, and partly to
+the fact that the bark which had the cable on board was wholly unfitted
+for the purpose. It was a sailing-vessel, and had to be towed by another
+ship. In this way it was impossible to regulate its motion. It was too
+fast or too slow. It was liable to be swayed by the sea, now giving a
+lurch ahead, and now dragging behind. Experience showed that a cable
+should always be laid from a steam vessel which could regulate its own
+motion, running out freely when all went smoothly, and checking its
+speed instantly when it was necessary to ease up the strain, or to pay
+out more slack to fill up the hollows of the sea.
+
+This first loss of a submarine cable was a severe disappointment to the
+Company. It postponed the enterprise for a whole year. To make a new
+cable would require several months, and the season was so far advanced
+that it could not be laid before another summer. Was it strange if some
+of the little band began to ask if they had not lost enough, and to
+reason that it was better to stop where they were, than to go on still
+farther, casting their treasures into the sea?
+
+But there was in that little company a spirit of hope and determination
+that could not be subdued; that ever cried: "Once more unto the breach,
+good friends!" After some deliberation, it was resolved to renew the
+attempt. Mr. Field again sailed for England to order another cable,
+which was duly made and sent out the following summer. This time, warned
+by experience, the Company invited no party and made no display. The
+cable was placed on board a steamer fitted for the purpose; from which
+it was laid without accident, and remained in perfect working order for
+nine years.
+
+Meanwhile the work on land had been pushed forward without ceasing.
+After incredible labor, the Company had built a road and a telegraph
+from one end of Newfoundland to the other, four hundred miles; and, as
+if that were not enough, had built also another line, one hundred and
+forty miles in length, in the island of Cape Breton. The first part of
+their work was now done. The telegraph had been carried beyond the
+United States through the British Provinces to St. John's in
+Newfoundland, a distance from New York of over one thousand miles.
+
+The cost of the line, thus far, had been about a million of dollars, and
+of this the whole burden, with but trifling exceptions, had fallen upon
+the original projectors--Mr. Field having put in over two hundred
+thousand dollars in money--and Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Roberts
+each a little less. No other contributors beyond the six original
+subscribers had come, except Professor Morse, Mr. Robert W. Lowber, Mr.
+Wilson G. Hunt, and Mr. John W. Brett. The list of directors and
+officers remained as it was at first, except that this year, 1856, Mr.
+White died, and his place as director was filled by Mr. Hunt, and that
+Mr. Field was chosen Vice-President, and Mr. Lowber Secretary. In all
+the operations of the Company thus far, the various negotiations, the
+plan of the work, the oversight of its execution, and the correspondence
+with the officers and others, mainly devolved upon Mr. Field.
+
+And so at length, after two long and weary years, these bold projectors
+had accomplished half their work. They had passed over the land, and
+under the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and having reached the farthest point of
+the American coast, they now stood upon the cliffs of Newfoundland,
+looking off upon the wide sea.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] One or two exceptions there were, not to be forgotten. Professor
+William Thomson, of the University of Glasgow, then a young man, but
+full of the enthusiasm of science, was already prepared to welcome such
+a project, with confidence of success. As early as October and November,
+1854, he wrote to the Secretary of the Royal Society of London,
+declaring his belief in its practicability. The letters are published in
+the Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1855. Such faith was not
+visionary, for it was based on clearer knowledge and more thorough
+investigation, and gave promise of those eminent services which this
+gentleman was afterwards to render to the cause of electrical science.
+Mr. C. F. Varley, also, was one of the first to perceive the possibility
+of an ocean telegraph, as he was to contribute greatly to its final
+success.
+
+[B] The letters of Mr. Taylor, which first appeared in The New York
+Tribune have been since collected in one of his volumes of travel. Mr.
+O'Brien, a very brilliant writer, who afterward fell in our civil war,
+fighting bravely for his adopted country, furnished some spirited
+letters to The Times. But Mr. Mullaly, who appeared for The Herald, was
+the most persevering attendant on the Telegraph, and the most
+indefatigable correspondent. He accompanied not only this expedition,
+but several others. He was on board the Niagara in 1857, and again in
+both the expeditions of 1858; and on the final success of the cable,
+prepared a volume, which was published by the Appletons, giving a
+history of the enterprise. This contains the fullest account of all
+those expeditions which has been given to the public. I have had
+frequent occasion to refer to his book, and can bear witness to the
+interest of the narrative. It is written with spirit, and doubtless
+would have had a longer life, if the cable itself had not come to an
+untimely end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS.
+
+
+When a landsman, born far away among the mountains, comes down to the
+coast, and stands for the first time on the shore of the sea, it excites
+in him a feeling of awe and wonder, not unmingled with terror. There it
+lies, a level surface, with nothing that lifts up its head like a peak
+of his native hills. And yet it is so vast, stretching away to the
+horizon, and all over the sides of the round world; with its tides and
+currents that sweep from the equator to the pole; with its unknown
+depths and its ceaseless motion; that it is to him the highest emblem of
+majesty and of power--a not unworthy symbol of God himself.
+
+In proportion to its mystery is the terror which hangs over it. A vague
+dread always surrounds the unknown. And what so unknown as the deep,
+unfathomable sea? For thousands of years the sails of ships, like winged
+birds, have skimmed over it, yet it has remained the one thing in nature
+beyond alike man's knowledge and his power:
+
+     Man marks the earth with ruin,
+     His control stops with the shore.
+
+And the little that has been known of the ocean has been chiefly of its
+surface, of the winds that blow over it, and the waves that are lifted
+up on high. We knew somewhat of its tides and currents as observed in
+different parts of the earth. We saw off our coast the great Gulf
+Stream--that steady flow of waters, so mighty and mysterious, which,
+issuing out of the tropical regions, poured its warm current, sixty
+miles broad, right through the cold waters of the North Atlantic; and
+sweeping round, sent the airs of a softer climate over all the countries
+of Western Europe. Old voyagers told us of the trade-winds that blew
+across the Pacific, and of terrible monsoons in China and Indian seas.
+But all that did not reveal what was going on a hundred fathoms below
+the surface. These old sailors had marvellous tales of Indian
+pearl-divers, who, holding their breath, plunged to the depth of a few
+hundred feet; but they came up half-dead, with but little to tell except
+of the frightful monsters of the deep. The diving-bell was let down over
+sunken wrecks, but the divers came up only with tales of riches and
+ruin, of gold and gems and dead men's bones that lay mingled together on
+the deep sea floor. Was the bottom of the sea all like this? Was it a
+vast realm of death, the sepulchre of the world? No man could tell us.
+Poets might sing of the caves of ocean, but no eye of science had yet
+penetrated those awful depths, which the storms never reach.
+
+It is indeed marvellous how little was known, up to a very recent date,
+of the true character of the ocean. Navigators had often tried to find
+out how deep it was. When lying becalmed on a tranquil sea, they had
+amused themselves by letting down a long line, weighted with a
+cannon-ball, to see if they could touch bottom. But the results were
+very uncertain. Sometimes the line ran out for miles and miles, but
+whether it was all the while descending, or was swayed hither and
+thither by mighty under-currents, could not be known.
+
+But this true character of the ocean it was necessary to determine,
+before it could be possible to pass the gulf of the Atlantic. What was
+there on the bottom of the sea, where the cable was to find its resting
+place? Was that ocean-bed a wide level plain, or had it been heaved up
+by volcanic forces into a hundred mountain-peaks, with many a gorge and
+precipice between? Such was the character of a part of the basin of the
+ocean. Here and there, all over the globe, are islands, like the Peak of
+Teneriffe, thrown up in some fierce bursting of the crust of our planet,
+that shoot up in tremendous cliffs from the sea. Who shall say that the
+same cliffs do not shoot down below the waves a thousand fathoms deep?
+And might there not be such islands, which did not show their heads
+above the surface, lying in the track between Europe and America: or
+perchance a succession of mountain ranges, over which the cable would
+have to be stretched, and where hanging from the heights it would swing
+with the tide, till at last it snapped and fell into the abyss below?
+Such at least were possible dangers to be encountered; and it was not
+safe to advance a step till the basin of the North Atlantic was
+explored.
+
+The progress of invention, so rapid on land, at length found a way of
+penetrating the sea, and even of turning up its bottom to the gaze of
+men. To measure the depth with something like mathematical accuracy, an
+instrument was introduced known among nautical men as Massey's
+Indicator, the method of which is very clearly explained in an article
+which appeared in one of the New York papers, (The Times,) on the
+deep-sea soundings made for the Atlantic Telegraph:
+
+     "The old system is with a small line, marked at distances of
+     one hundred fathoms, and with a weight of thirty or fifty
+     pounds, the depth being told by the length of line run out.
+     This is, of course, the most natural apparatus that suggests
+     itself, and has been in use from the earliest ages. Experience
+     has given directions for its use, avoiding some of the grosser
+     causes of error from driftage and other causes. Yet its success
+     in immense ocean depths is problematical, and a problem decided
+     in the negative by many of the first scientific authorities at
+     home and abroad. In the mechanical improvements of the last
+     half-century substitutes for this simple but rather uncertain
+     method began to be devised. It was proposed to ascertain the
+     depth by the amount of pressure, or by explosions under water,
+     with other equally impracticable plans. At last was noticed the
+     perfect regularity of the movements of a spirally-shaped wheel,
+     on being drawn through the water. Experiments proved that this
+     regularity, when unaffected by other causes, could be relied on
+     with perfect accuracy, and that an arrangement of cog-wheels
+     would register its revolutions with mathematical precision.
+     Very soon it came in use as a ship's log. So perfect was their
+     precision, that they were even introduced in scientific
+     surveys. Base lines, where the nicest accuracy is required,
+     were run with them, and we have the highest authority of the
+     Royal Navy for believing that they never failed. At this point
+     it was proposed to apply them in a perpendicular as well as in
+     a horizontal motion through the water. Massey's apparatus
+     promising to solve those problems of submarine geography left
+     unsolved by the old method of obtaining depth with a simple
+     line and sinker, and this more especially as some causes of
+     error, considerable on the surface, disappear in the still
+     water below."
+
+To make our knowledge of the sea complete, one thing more was wanting--a
+method not only of reaching the bottom, but of laying hold of it, and
+bringing it up to the light of day. This was now to be supplied.
+
+[Illustration: BROOKE'S DEEP SEA SOUNDING APPARATUS.
+A shows the instrument ready for sounding. It is very simple, consisting
+only of a cannon-ball, pierced with an iron rod, and held in its place
+by slings. As the ball goes down swiftly, it drives the rod into the
+bottom like the point of a spear, when an opening at the end catches the
+ooze in its iron lips. The same instant (see B) the slings loosen, the
+ball drops off, and the naked rod, C, with its "bite" is drawn up to the
+surface.]
+
+It is to the inventive genius of a lieutenant of the United States navy,
+Mr. J. M. Brooke, that the world owes the means of finding out what is
+at the bottom of the sea. This is by a very simple contrivance, by which
+the heavy weight, used to sink the measuring line, _is detached as soon
+as it strikes bottom_, leaving the line free so that it can be drawn up
+lightly and quickly to the surface without danger of breaking. Below the
+weight, and driven by it into the ooze, is a rod, in which is an open
+valve, that now closes with a spring, by which it catches a cupful of
+the soil, which is thus brought up to the surface, to be placed under
+the microscope, and be subjected to the sharp eye of science. With this
+simple instrument the skilful seaman explores the bottom of the ocean by
+literally feeling over it. With a long line he dives to the very lowest
+depths, while the clasp at the end of it is like the tip of the
+elephant's trunk, serving as a delicate finger with which he picks up
+sand and shells that lie strewn on the floor of the deep. What important
+conclusions are derived from this inspection of the bottom of the sea,
+is well stated by Lieutenant Maury in the letter already quoted.
+
+In happy concurrence with this, as an additional preparation, a partial
+survey of the Atlantic had been made the very year before this
+enterprise was begun, in 1853. Lieutenant Berryman was the first who
+applied this new method of taking deep-sea soundings to that part of the
+Atlantic lying between Newfoundland and Ireland, with results most
+surprising and satisfactory. But to remove all doubt it seemed desirable
+to have a fresh survey. To obtain this, Mr. Field went to Washington and
+applied to the Government in behalf of the Company for a second
+expedition.
+
+The request was granted, and the Arctic, under command of the same
+gallant Lieutenant Berryman, was assigned to this service. He sailed
+from New York on the eighteenth of July, 1856, and the very next day Mr.
+Field left on the Baltic for England, to organize the Atlantic Telegraph
+Company. The Arctic proceeded to St. John's, and thence with a clear eye
+and a steady hand, this true sailor went "sounding on his dim and
+perilous way" across the deep. In about three weeks he made the coast of
+Ireland, having carried his survey along the great circle arc, which the
+telegraph was to follow as the nearest path from the old world to the
+new. The result fully confirmed his belief of the existence of a great
+plateau underneath the ocean, extending all the way from one hemisphere
+to the other.
+
+I cannot take leave of the name of this gallant officer, who rendered
+such services to science and to his country, without a word of tribute
+to his memory. Lieutenant Berryman is in his grave. He died in the navy
+of his country, worn out by his devotion to her service. When the great
+civil war broke out, he was placed in a position most painful to a man
+of large heart, who loved at once his country and the state in which he
+was born. He was a Southerner, a native of Winchester, Va., and was
+assigned to duty in the South. At the first attack on Southern forts and
+arsenals, he was in command of the Wyandotte, in the harbor of
+Pensacola, in Florida. His officers, who were nearly all Southerners,
+were in secret sympathy with the rebellion. All the influences around
+him, both on ship and on shore, were such as might have seduced a weaker
+man from his loyalty. But, to his honor, he never hesitated for a
+moment. He stood firm and loyal to his flag. Not knowing whom to trust,
+he had to keep watch day and night against surprise and treachery. It
+was the testimony of Lieutenant Slemmer, then in command of Fort
+Pickens, that but for the ceaseless exertions of Lieutenant Berryman not
+only the ship but the fort would have been lost. But this service to his
+country cost him his life. His constant exertions brought on a brain
+fever, of which he died. His wife, also a native of Winchester, when the
+war came near her early home, removed to Baltimore, saying that "she
+would not live under any other flag than that under which her husband
+had lived and died."
+
+It was to the honor of the American navy, to have led the way in these
+deep-sea soundings. But after this second voyage of exploration, Mr.
+Field applied to the British Admiralty, "to make what further soundings
+might be necessary between Ireland and Newfoundland, and to verify those
+made by Lieutenant Berryman." It was in response to this application
+that the Government sent out the following year a vessel to make still
+another survey of the same ocean-path. This was the steamer Cyclops,
+which was placed under Lieutenant Commander Joseph Dayman, of the
+British navy, an officer who had been with Captain Sir James Ross when
+he made his deep-sea soundings in the South Atlantic in 1840, where he
+attained a depth of twenty-six hundred and sixty-seven fathoms; and who
+by his intelligence and zeal, was admirably fitted for the work. To
+speak now of this _third_ survey, is anticipating in time. But it will
+serve the purpose of unity and clearness in the narrative, to include
+all these deep-sea soundings in one chapter. He was directed to proceed
+to the harbor of Valentia in Ireland, and thence to follow, as nearly as
+possible, along the arc of a great circle to Newfoundland. "The
+soundings for the first few miles from the coast should be frequent,
+decreasing as you draw off shore."
+
+These orders were thoroughly executed. Every pains was taken to make the
+information obtained precise and exact. Whenever a sounding was to be
+taken, the ship was hove to, and the bow kept as nearly as possible in
+the same spot, so that the line might descend perpendicularly. This was
+repeated every few miles until they had got far out into the Atlantic,
+where the general equality of the depths rendered it necessary to cast
+the line only every twenty or thirty miles. Thus the survey was made
+complete, and the results obtained were of the greatest value in
+determining the physical geography of the sea.
+
+The conclusions of Commander Dayman confirmed in general those of
+Lieutenant Berryman, though in comparing the charts prepared by the two,
+we observe some differences which ought to be noticed. Both agree as to
+the general character of the bottom of the ocean along this
+latitude--that it is a vast plain, like the steppes of Siberia. Yet on
+the chart of Dayman the floor of the sea seems _not such a dead level_
+as on that of Berryman. (This may be partly owing to a difference of
+route, as Dayman passed a little to the north of the track of Berryman.)
+There are more unequal depths, which in the small space of a chart,
+appear like hills and valleys. Yet when we consider the wide distances
+passed over, these inequalities seem not greater than the undulations on
+our Western prairies. "This space," says Dayman, "has been named by
+Maury the telegraphic plateau, and although by multiplying the soundings
+upon it, we have depths ranging from fourteen hundred and fifty to
+twenty-four hundred fathoms, these are comparatively small inequalities
+in its surface, and present no new difficulty to the project of laying
+the cable across the ocean. Their importance vanishes when the extent of
+the space over which they are distributed (thirty degrees of longitude)
+is considered."
+
+[Illustration: BED OF THE ATLANTIC, NORTH AND SOUTH, THROUGH THE CAPE DE
+VERDS, AZORES, AND TELEGRAPH PLATEAU.]
+
+According to Berryman and Dayman both, the ocean in its deepest part on
+this plateau, measured but two thousand and three or four hundred
+fathoms, or about fourteen thousand feet--a depth of but little over
+two and a half miles. This is not great, compared with the enormous
+depths in other parts of the Atlantic;[A] yet that it is _something_ may
+be realized from the fact that if the Peak of Teneriffe were here "cast
+into the sea," it would sink out of sight, island, mountain and all,
+while even the lofty head of Mont Blanc would be lifted but a few
+hundred feet above the waves.
+
+The only exception to this uniform depth, lies about two hundred miles
+off the coast of Ireland, where within a space of about a dozen miles,
+the depth sinks from five hundred and fifty to seventeen hundred and
+fifty fathoms! "In 14 deg. 48' west," says Dayman, "we have five hundred
+and fifty fathoms rock, and in 15 deg. 6' west we have seventeen hundred
+and fifty fathoms ooze. This is the greatest dip in the whole ocean."
+
+"In little more than ten miles of distance a change of depth occurs,
+amounting to seventy-two hundred feet." This is indeed a tremendous
+plunge from the hard rock into the slime of the sea.
+
+The same sharp declivity was noticed by Berryman, and has been observed
+in the several attempts to lay the cable. Thus in the second expedition
+of 1858, as the Agamemnon was approaching the coast of Ireland, we read
+in the report of her voyage: "About five o'clock in the evening, the
+steep submarine mountain which divides the telegraphic plateau from the
+Irish coast, was reached; and the sudden shallowing of the water had a
+very marked effect on the cable, causing the strain on, and the speed of
+it, to lessen every minute. A great deal of slack was paid out to allow
+for inequalities which might exist, though undiscovered by the
+sounding-line."
+
+This submarine mountain was then regarded as the chief point of danger
+in the whole bed of the Atlantic, and as the principal source of anxiety
+in laying a cable across the ocean. Yet, after all, the ascent or
+descent of less than a mile and a half in ten miles, is not an
+impassable grade. More recent soundings reduce this still farther.
+Captain Hoskins, of the Royal Navy, afterwards made a more careful
+survey of this precipitous sea bottom, and with results much more
+favorable. The side of the mountain, it is now said, is not very much
+steeper than Holborn Hill in London, or Murray Hill in New York.[B] But
+the best answer to fears on this point, is the fact that in 1857, 1858,
+and 1865, the cable passed over it without difficulty. In 1857 the
+Niagara was a hundred miles farther to sea, when the cable broke. In
+1865 the strain was not increased more than a hundred pounds. In the
+final expedition, that of 1866, this declivity was passed over without
+difficulty or danger.
+
+Next to the depth of the ocean, it was important to ascertain the nature
+of its bottom. What was it--a vast bed of rock, the iron-bound crust of
+the globe, hardened by internal fires, and which, bending as a vault
+over the still glowing centre of the earth, bore up on its mighty arches
+the weight of all the oceans? or was it mere sand like the sea-shore? or
+ooze as soft as that of a mill-pond? The pressure of a column of water
+two miles high would be equal to that of four hundred atmospheres. Would
+not this weight alone be enough to crush any substance that could reach
+that tremendous depth? These were questions which remained to be
+answered, but on which depended the possibility of laying a cable at the
+bottom of the Atlantic.
+
+By the ingenious contrivance of Lieutenant Brooke, the problem was
+solved, for we got hold of fragments of the under-coating of the sea;
+and to our amazement, instead of finding the ocean bound round with
+thick ribs of granite, its inner lining was found to be soft as a silken
+vest. The soil brought up from the bottom was not even of the hardness
+of sand or gravel. It was mere ooze, like that of our rivers, and was as
+soft as the moss that clings to old, damp stones on the river's brink.
+At first it was thought by Lieutenant Berryman to be common clay, but
+being carefully preserved, and subjected to a powerful microscope, it
+was found to be composed of shells, too small to be discovered by the
+naked eye!
+
+This was a revelation of the myriad forms of animated existence which
+fill the sea: a plenitude of life that is more wonderful by contrast. As
+Maury well puts it: "The ocean teems with life, we know. Of the four
+elements of the old philosophers--fire, earth, air, and water--perhaps
+the sea most of all abounds with living creatures. The space occupied on
+the surface of our planet by the different families of animals and their
+remains are inversely as the size of the individual. The smaller the
+animal, the greater the space occupied by his remains. Take the elephant
+and his remains, or a microscopic animal and his, and compare them. The
+contrast, as to space occupied, is as striking as that of the coral reef
+or island with the dimensions of the whale. The graveyard that would
+hold the corallines is larger than the graveyard that would hold the
+elephants."[C]
+
+These little creatures, whose remains were thus found at the bottom of
+the ocean, probably did not live there, for there all is dark, and
+shells, like flowers, need the light and warmth of the all-reviving sun.
+It was their sepulchre, but not their dwelling-place. Probably they
+lived near the surface of the ocean, and after their short life, sunk to
+the tranquil waters below. What a work of life and death had been going
+on for ages in the depths of the sea! Myriads upon myriads, ever since
+the morning of creation, had been falling like snow-flakes, till their
+remains literally covered the bottom of the deep.
+
+Equally significant was the fact that these shells were _unbroken_. Not
+only were they there, but preserved in a perfect form. Organisms the
+most minute and delicate, fragile as drooping flowers, had yet sunk and
+slept uninjured. The same power which watches over the fall of a sparrow
+had kept these frail and tender things, and after their brief existence,
+had laid them gently on the bosom of the mighty mother for their eternal
+rest.
+
+The bearing of this discovery on the problem of a submarine telegraph
+was obvious. For it too was to lie on the ocean-bed, beside and among
+these relics that had so long been drifting down upon the watery plain.
+And if these tiny shells slept there unharmed, surely an iron chord
+might rest there in safety. There were no swift currents down there; no
+rushing waves agitated that sunless sea. There the waters moved not; and
+there might rest the great nerve that was to pass from continent to
+continent. And so far as injury from the surrounding elements was
+concerned, there it might remain, whispering the thoughts of successive
+generations of men, till the sea should give up its dead.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] "The ocean bed of the North Atlantic is a curious study; in some
+parts furrowed by currents, in others presenting banks, the
+accumulations perhaps of the debris of these ocean rivers during
+countless ages. To the west, the Gulf Stream pours along in a bed from
+one mile to a mile and a half in depth. To the east of this, and south
+of the Great Banks, is a basin, eight or ten degrees square, where the
+bottom attains a greater depression than perhaps the highest peaks of
+the Andes or Himalayas--six miles of line have failed to reach the
+bottom! Taking a profile of the Atlantic basin in our own latitude, we
+find a far greater depression than any mountain elevation on our own
+continent. Four or five Alleghanies would have to be piled on each
+other, and on them added Fremont's Peak, before their point would show
+itself above the surface. Between the Azores and the mouth of the Tagus
+this decreases to about three miles."
+
+[B] The results obtained are thus summed up in the London Times:
+
+"The dangerous part of this course has hitherto been supposed to be the
+sudden dip or bank which occurs off the west coast of Ireland, where the
+water was supposed to deepen in the course of a few miles from about
+three hundred fathoms to nearly two thousand. Such a rapid descent has
+naturally been regarded with alarm by telegraphic engineers, and this
+alarm has led to a most careful sounding survey of the whole supposed
+bank by Captain Dayman, acting under the instructions of the Admiralty.
+The result of this shows that the supposed precipitous bank, or
+submarine cliff, is a gradual slope of nearly sixty miles. Over this
+long slope the difference between its greatest height and greatest depth
+is only eighty-seven hundred and sixty feet; so that the average incline
+is, in round numbers, about one hundred and forty-five feet per mile. A
+good gradient on a railway is now generally considered to be one in one
+hundred feet, or about fifty-three in a mile; so that the incline on
+this supposed bank is only about three times that of an ordinary
+railway. In fact, as far as soundings can demonstrate any thing, there
+are few slopes in the bed of the Atlantic as steep as that of Holborn
+Hill. In no part is the bottom rocky, and with the exception of a few
+miles, which are shingly, only ooze, mud, or sand is to be found."
+
+[C] Physical Geography of the Sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE WORK BEGUN IN ENGLAND.
+
+
+Up to this time the Telegraph, which was destined to pass the sea, had
+been purely an American enterprise. It had been begun, and for over two
+years had been carried on, wholly by American capital. "Our little
+company," said Mr. Field ten years after, "raised and expended over a
+million and a quarter of dollars before an Englishman paid a single
+pound sterling." Mr. Brett was the first one to take a few shares. But
+this was not to the discredit of England, for the American public had
+done no better. Not a dollar had been raised this side the Atlantic,
+outside of the little circle in which the scheme had its origin. No
+stock or bonds were put upon the market; no man was asked for a
+subscription. If they wanted money, they drew their checks for it. At
+one time, indeed, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of bonds were
+issued, but they were at once taken wholly by themselves. But, as the
+time was now come when the long-meditated attempt was to be made to
+carry the Telegraph across the ocean, it was fitting that Great Britain,
+whose shores it was to touch, should join in the work. Accordingly, in
+the summer of 1856, after finishing all that he could do in America, Mr.
+Field sailed with his family for England. The very day before he
+embarked, he had the pleasure to see his friend, Lieutenant Berryman,
+off on his second voyage to make soundings across the Atlantic.
+
+In London he sought at once Mr. Brett, with whom in his two former
+visits to England he had already discussed his project, and found in him
+a hearty cooperator. As we go on with our story, it is a melancholy
+satisfaction to refer to one and another worker in this enterprise, who
+lived not to see its last and greatest triumph. Mr. Brett, like
+Berryman, is dead. But he did not go to his grave till after a life of
+usefulness and honor. He was one of the men of the new era--of the
+school of Stephenson and Brunel--who believed in the marvellous
+achievements yet to be wrought by human invention, turning to the
+service of man the wonders of scientific discovery. He was one of the
+first to see the boundless possibilities of the telegraph, and to
+believe that what had passed over the land might pass under the sea. He
+was the first to lay a cable across the British Channel, and thus to
+bring into instantaneous communication the two great capitals of
+Europe--an achievement which, though small compared with what has since
+been done, was then so marvellous, that the intelligence of its success
+was received with surprise and incredulity. Many could not and would
+not believe it. Even after messages were received in London from Paris,
+there were those who declared that it was an imposition on the public,
+with as much proud scorn as some a few years later scouted the very idea
+that a message had ever passed over the Atlantic Telegraph!
+
+This friendship of Mr. Brett--both to the enterprise and to Mr. Field
+personally--remained to the last. In every voyage to England the latter
+found--however others doubted or despaired--that Mr. Brett was always
+the same--full of hope and confidence. In 1864, when they met in London,
+he was unshaken in faith, and urgent to have the great enterprise
+renewed. The triumph was not far off, but he was not to live to see it.
+But, though he passed away before the final victory, he did his part
+toward bringing it on, and no history of this great enterprise can
+overlook his eminent services.
+
+To Mr. Brett, therefore, Mr. Field went first to consult in regard to
+his project of a telegraph across the ocean. This was a part of the
+design embraced in the original organization of the New York,
+Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company; and when Mr. Field went to
+England, he was empowered to receive subscriptions to that Company, so
+as to enlarge its capital, and thus include in one corporation the whole
+line from New York to London; or to organize a new company, which
+should lay a cable across the Atlantic, and there join the Newfoundland
+line.
+
+But before an enterprise so vast and so new could be commended to the
+commercial public of Great Britain, there were many details to be
+settled. The mechanical and scientific problems already referred to,
+whether a cable could be laid across the ocean; and if so, whether it
+could be worked, were to be considered anew. The opinions of Lieutenant
+Maury and of Professor Morse were published in England, and arrested the
+attention of scientific men. But John Bull is slow of belief, and asked
+for more evidence. The thing was too vast to be undertaken rashly. As
+yet there was no experience to decide the possibility of a telegraph
+across the ocean. The longest line which had been laid was three hundred
+miles. This caution, which is a national trait of Englishmen, will not
+be regarded as a fault by those who consider that in proportion as they
+are slow to embark in any new enterprise, are they resolute and
+determined in carrying it out.
+
+To resolve these difficult problems, Mr. Field sought counsel of the
+highest engineering authorities of Great Britain, and of her most
+eminent scientific men. To their honor, all showed the deepest interest
+in the project, and gave it freely the benefit of their knowledge.
+
+First, as to the possibility of laying a cable in the deep sea, Mr.
+Field had witnessed one attempt of the kind--that in the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence the year before--an attempt which had failed. His experience,
+therefore, was not encouraging. If they found so much difficulty in
+laying a cable seventy miles long, how could they hope to lay one of two
+thousand miles across the stormy Atlantic?
+
+This was a question for the engineers. To solve the problem, required
+experiments almost without number. It was now that the most important
+services were rendered by Glass, Elliot & Co., of London, a firm which
+had begun within a few years the manufacture of sea-cables, and was to
+write its name in all the waters of the world. Aided by the skill of
+their admirable engineer, Mr. Canning, they now manufactured cables
+almost without end, applying to them every possible test. At the same
+time, Mr. Field took counsel of Robert Stephenson and George Parker
+Bidder, both of whom manifested a deep interest in the success of the
+enterprise.
+
+Not less cordial was Mr. Brunel, who made many suggestions in regard to
+the form of the cable, and the manner in which it should be laid. He was
+then building the Great Eastern; and one day he took Mr. Field down to
+Blackwall to see it, and, pointing to the monstrous hull which was
+rising on the banks of the Thames, said: "There is the ship to lay the
+Atlantic cable!" Little did he think that ten years after, that ship
+would be employed in this service; and in this final victory over the
+sea, would redeem all the misfortunes of her earlier career.
+
+Among the difficulties to be encountered, was that of finding a perfect
+insulator. Without insulation, telegraphic communication by electricity
+is impossible. On land, where wires are carried on the tops of poles,
+the air itself is a sufficient insulator. A few glass rings at the
+points where the wire passes through the iron staples by which it is
+supported, and the insulation is complete. But in the sea the
+electricity would be instantly dissipated, unless some material could be
+found which should insulate a conductor sunk in water, as completely as
+if it were raised in air. But what could thus inclose the lightning, and
+keep it fast while flying from one continent to the other?
+
+Here again it seemed as if Divine wisdom had anticipated the coming of
+this great enterprise, and provided in the realm of nature every
+material needed for its success. It was at least a happy coincidence
+that only a few years before there had been found, in the forests of the
+Malayan archipelago, a substance till then unknown to the world, but
+which answered completely this new demand. This was gutta-percha, which
+is impenetrable by water, and at the same time a bad conductor of
+electricity; so that it forms at once a perfect protection and
+insulation to a telegraph passing through the sea. In the experiments
+that were made to test the value of this material in the grander use to
+which it was to be applied, no man rendered greater service than Mr.
+Samuel Statham, of the London Gutta-Percha Works--a name to be
+gratefully remembered in the early history of the Atlantic Telegraph.
+
+The mechanical difficulties removed, and the insulation provided, there
+remained yet the great scientific problem: Could a message be sent two
+thousand miles under the Atlantic? The ingenuity of man might devise
+some method of laying a cable across the sea, but of what use were it,
+if the electric current should shrink from the dark abyss?
+
+It was in prosecuting inquiries to resolve this problem, that Mr. Field
+became acquainted with two gentlemen who were to be soon after
+associated with him in the organization of the Atlantic Telegraph
+Company. These were Mr. Charles T. Bright, afterward knighted for his
+part in laying the Atlantic cable in 1858, and Dr. Edward O. Whitehouse,
+both well known in England, the former as an engineer, and the latter
+for his experiments in electro-magnetism, as applied to the business of
+telegraphing. He had invented an instrument by which to ascertain and
+register the velocity of electric currents through submarine cables.
+Both these gentlemen were full of the ardor of science, and entered on
+this new project with the zeal which the prospect of so great a triumph
+might inspire. With them was now to be associated our distinguished
+countryman, Professor Morse. Fortunately he was at this time in London,
+and gave his invaluable aid to the experiments which were made to
+determine the possibility of telegraphic communication at great
+distances under the sea. The result of his experiments he communicates
+in a letter to Mr. Field:
+
+                              "London, Five o'clock A.M.,
+                              "October 3, 1856.
+
+     "My dear Sir: As the electrician of the New York, Newfoundland,
+     and London Telegraph Company, it is with the highest
+     gratification that I have to apprise you of the result of our
+     experiments of this morning upon a single continuous conductor
+     of more than two thousand miles in extent, a distance you will
+     perceive sufficient to cross the Atlantic Ocean, from
+     Newfoundland to Ireland.
+
+     "The admirable arrangements made at the Magnetic Telegraph
+     Office in Old Broad street, for connecting ten subterranean
+     gutta-percha insulated conductors, of over two hundred miles
+     each, so as to give one continuous length of more than two
+     thousand miles during the hours of the night, when the
+     telegraph is not commercially employed, furnished us the means
+     of conclusively settling, by actual experiment, the question of
+     the practicability as well as the practicality[A] of
+     telegraphing through our proposed Atlantic cable.
+
+     "This result had been thrown into some doubt by the discovery,
+     more than two years since, of certain phenomena upon
+     subterranean and submarine conductors, and had attracted the
+     attention of electricians, particularly of that most eminent
+     philosopher, Professor Faraday, and that clear-sighted
+     investigator of electrical phenomena, Dr. Whitehouse; and one
+     of these phenomena, to wit, the perceptible retardation of the
+     electric current, threatened to perplex our operations, and
+     required careful investigation before we could pronounce with
+     certainty the commercial practicability of the Ocean Telegraph.
+
+     "I am most happy to inform you that, as a crowning result of a
+     long series of experimental investigation and inductive
+     reasoning upon this subject, the experiments under the
+     direction of Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright, which I witnessed
+     this morning--in which the induction coils and receiving
+     magnets, as modified by these gentlemen, were made to actuate
+     one of my recording instruments--have most satisfactorily
+     resolved all doubts of the practicability as well as
+     practicality of operating the telegraph from Newfoundland to
+     Ireland.
+
+     "Although we telegraphed signals at the rate of two hundred and
+     ten, two hundred and forty-one, and, according to the count at
+     one time, even of two hundred and seventy per minute upon my
+     telegraphic register, (which speed, you will perceive, is at a
+     rate commercially advantageous,) these results were
+     accomplished notwithstanding many disadvantages in our
+     arrangements of a temporary and local character--disadvantages
+     which will not occur in the use of our submarine cable.
+
+     "Having passed the whole night with my active and agreeable
+     collaborators, Dr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright, without sleep,
+     you will excuse the hurried and brief character of this note,
+     which I could not refrain from sending you, since our
+     experiments this morning settle the scientific and commercial
+     points of our enterprise satisfactorily.
+
+     "With respect and esteem, your obedient servant,
+
+                              "Samuel F. B. Morse."
+
+A week later, he wrote again, confirming his former impressions, thus:
+
+                              "London, October 10, 1856.
+
+     "My dear Sir: After having given the deepest consideration to
+     the subject of our successful experiments the other night, when
+     we signalled clearly and rapidly through an unbroken circuit of
+     subterranean conducting wire, over two thousand miles in
+     length, I sit down to give you the result of my reflections and
+     calculations.
+
+     "There can be no question but that, with a cable containing a
+     single conducting wire, of a size not exceeding that through
+     which we worked, and with equal insulation, it would be easy to
+     telegraph from Ireland to Newfoundland at a speed of at least
+     from eight to ten words per minute; nay, more: the varying
+     rates of speed at which we worked, depending as they did upon
+     differences in the arrangement of the apparatus employed, do of
+     themselves prove that even a higher rate than this is
+     attainable. Take it, however, at ten words in the minute, and
+     allowing ten words for name and address, we can safely
+     calculate upon the transmission of a twenty-word message in
+     three minutes;
+
+     "Twenty such messages in the hour;
+
+     "Four hundred and eighty in the twenty-four hours, or fourteen
+     thousand four hundred words per day.
+
+     "Such are the capabilities of a single wire cable fairly and
+     moderately computed.
+
+     "It is, however, evident to me, that by improvements in the
+     arrangement of the signals themselves, aided by the adoption of
+     a code or system constructed upon the principles of the best
+     nautical code, as suggested by Dr. Whitehouse, we may at least
+     double the speed in the transmission of our messages.
+
+     "As to the structure of the cable itself, the last specimen
+     which I examined with you seemed to combine so admirably the
+     necessary qualities of strength, flexibility, and lightness,
+     with perfect insulation, that I can no longer have any
+     misgivings about the ease and safety with which it will be
+     submerged.
+
+     "In one word, the doubts are resolved, the difficulties
+     overcome, success is within our reach, and the great feat of
+     the century must shortly be accomplished.
+
+     "I would urge you, if the manufacture can be completed within
+     the time, (and all things are possible now,) to press forward
+     the good work, and not to lose the chance of laying it during
+     the ensuing summer.
+
+     "Before the close of the present month, I hope to be again
+     landed safely on the other side of the water, and I full well
+     know, that on all hands the inquiries of most interest with
+     which I shall be met, will be about the Ocean Telegraph.
+
+     "Much as I have enjoyed my European trip this year, it would
+     have enhanced the gratification which I have derived from it
+     more than I can describe to you, if on my return to America, I
+     could be the first bearer to my friends of the welcome
+     intelligence that the great work had been begun, by the
+     commencement of the manufacture of the cable to connect Ireland
+     with the line of the New York, Newfoundland, and London
+     Telegraph Company, now so successfully completed to St. John's.
+
+     "Respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+                              "Samuel F. B. Morse."
+
+These experiments and others removed the doubts of scientific men.
+Professor Faraday, in spite of the law of the retardation of electricity
+on long circuits, which it was said he had discovered, and which would
+render it impossible to work a line of such length as from Ireland to
+Newfoundland, now declared his full conviction that it was within the
+bounds of possibility. The passage of electricity might not be
+absolutely instantaneous, or have the swiftness of the solar beam, yet
+it would be rapid enough for all practical purposes. When Mr. Field
+asked him how long it would take for the electricity to pass from London
+to New York, he answered: "Possibly one second!"
+
+Thus fortified by the highest scientific and engineering authorities,
+the projectors of an ocean telegraph were now ready to bring it before
+the British public, and to see what support could be found from the
+English Government and the English people.
+
+Mr. Field first addressed himself to the Government. Without waiting for
+the Company to be fully organized, with true American eagerness and
+impatience, he wrote a letter to the Admiralty asking for a fresh survey
+of the route to be traversed, and for the aid of Government ships to lay
+the cable. He also addressed a letter to Lord Clarendon, stating the
+large design which they had conceived, and asking for it the aid which
+was due to what concerned the honor and interest of England. The reply
+was prompt and courteous, inviting him to an interview for the purpose
+of a fuller explanation. Accordingly, Mr. Field, with Professor Morse,
+called upon him at the Foreign Office, and spent an hour in conversation
+on the proposed undertaking. Lord Clarendon showed great interest, and
+made many inquiries. He was a little startled at the magnitude of the
+scheme, and the confident tone of the projectors, and asked pleasantly:
+"But, suppose you _don't_ succeed? Suppose you make the attempt and
+fail--your cable is lost in the sea--then what will you do?" "Charge it
+to profit and loss, and go to work to lay another," was the quick answer
+of Mr. Field, which amused him as a truly American reply. In conclusion,
+he desired him to put his request in writing, and, without committing
+the Government, encouraged him to hope that Britain would do all that
+might justly be expected in aid of this great international work. How
+nobly this promise was kept, time will show.
+
+While engaged in these negotiations, Mr. Field took his family to Paris,
+and there met with a great loss in the sudden death of a favorite
+sister, who had accompanied them abroad. Full of the sorrow of this
+event, and unfitted for business of any kind, he returned to London to
+find an invitation to go into the country and spend a few days with Mr.
+James Wilson, then Secretary to the Treasury, a man of great influence
+in the Government, at his residence near Bath; there to discuss quietly
+and at length the proposed aid to the Atlantic Telegraph. Though he had
+but little spirit to go among strangers, he felt it his duty not to miss
+an opportunity to advance the cause he had so much at heart. The result
+of this visit was the following letter, received a few days later:
+
+                              "Treasury Chambers. Nov. 20, 1856.
+
+     "Sir: Having laid before the Lords Commissioners of her
+     Majesty's Treasury your letter of the 13th ultimo, addressed to
+     the Earl of Clarendon, requesting, on behalf of the New York,
+     Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, certain privileges
+     and protection in regard to the line of telegraph which it is
+     proposed to establish between Newfoundland and Ireland, I am
+     directed by their lordships to acquaint you that they are
+     prepared to enter into a contract with the said Telegraph
+     Company, based upon the following conditions, namely:
+
+     "1. It is understood that the capital required to lay down the
+     line will be three hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
+
+     "2. Her Majesty's Government engage to furnish the aid of ships
+     to take what soundings may still be considered needful, or to
+     verify those already taken, and favorably to consider any
+     request that may be made to furnish aid by their vessels in
+     laying down the cable.
+
+     "3. The British Government, from the time of the completion of
+     the line, and so long as it shall continue in working order,
+     undertakes to pay at the rate of fourteen thousand pounds a
+     year, being at the rate of four per cent. on the assumed
+     capital, as a fixed remuneration for the work done on behalf of
+     the Government, in the conveyance outward and homeward of their
+     messages. This payment to continue until the net profits of the
+     Company are equal to a dividend of six per cent., when the
+     payment shall be reduced to ten thousand pounds a year, for a
+     period of twenty-five years.
+
+     "It is, however, understood that if the Government messages in
+     any year shall, at the usual tariff-rate charged to the public,
+     amount to a larger sum, such additional payment shall be made
+     as is equivalent thereto.
+
+     "4. That the British Government shall have a priority in the
+     conveyance of their messages over all others, subject to the
+     exception only of the Government of the United States, in the
+     event of their entering into an arrangement with the Telegraph
+     Company similar in principle to that of the British Government,
+     in which case the messages of the two Governments shall have
+     priority in the order in which they arrive at the stations.
+
+     "5. That the tariff of charges shall be fixed with the consent
+     of the Treasury, and shall not be increased, without such
+     consent being obtained, as long as this contract lasts.
+
+     "I am, sir, your obedient servant,
+
+                              "James Wilson.
+
+     "Cyrus W. Field, Esq., 37 Jermyn street."
+
+With this encouragement and promise of aid, the projectors of a
+telegraph across the ocean now went forward to organize a company to
+carry out their design. Mr. Field, on arriving in England, had entered
+into an agreement with Mr. Brett to join their efforts for this
+purpose. With them were afterward united two others--Sir Charles Bright,
+as engineer, and Dr. Whitehouse, as electrician. These four gentlemen
+agreed to form a new company, to be called The Atlantic Telegraph
+Company, the object of which should be "to continue the existing line of
+the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company to Ireland, by
+making or causing to be made a submarine telegraph cable for the
+Atlantic."
+
+As they were now ready to introduce the enterprise to the British
+public, Mr. Field issued a circular in the name of the Newfoundland
+Company, and as its Vice-President, setting forth the great importance
+of telegraphic communication between the two hemispheres.
+
+The next step was to raise the capital. After the most careful
+estimates, it was thought that a cable could be made and laid across the
+Atlantic for L350,000. This was a large sum to ask from a public slow to
+move, and that lends a dull ear to all new schemes. But armed with facts
+and figures, with maps and estimates, with the opinions of engineers and
+scientific men, they went to work, not only in London, but in other
+parts of the kingdom. Mr. Field, in company with Mr. Brett, made a visit
+to Liverpool and Manchester, to address their Chambers of Commerce. I
+have now before me the papers of those cities, with reports of the
+meetings held and the speeches made, which show the vigor with which
+they pushed their enterprise. This energy was rewarded with success. The
+result justified their confidence. In a few weeks the whole capital was
+subscribed. It had been divided into three hundred and fifty shares of a
+thousand pounds each. Of these, a hundred and one were taken in London,
+eighty-six in Liverpool, thirty-seven in Glasgow, twenty-eight in
+Manchester, and a few in other parts of England. The grandeur of the
+design attracted public attention, and some subscribed solely from a
+noble wish to take part in such a work. Among these were Mr. Thackeray
+and Lady Byron. Mr. Field subscribed L100,000, and Mr. Brett L25,000.
+But when the books were closed, it was found that they had more money
+subscribed than they required, so that in the final division of shares,
+there were allotted to Mr. Field eighty-eight, and to Mr. Brett twelve.
+Mr. Field's interest was thus one-fourth of the whole capital of the
+Company.
+
+In taking so large a share, it was not his intention to carry this heavy
+load alone. It was too large a proportion for one man. But he took it
+for his countrymen. He thought one fourth of the stock should be held in
+this country, and did not doubt, from the eagerness with which three
+fourths had been taken in England, that the remainder would be at once
+subscribed in America. Had he been able, on his return, to attend to his
+own interests in the matter, this expectation might have been realized;
+but, as we shall see, hardly did he set foot in New York, before he was
+obliged to hurry off to Newfoundland on the business of the Company, and
+when he returned the interest had subsided, so that it required very
+great exertions, continued through many months, to dispose of
+twenty-seven shares. Thus he was by far the largest stockholder in
+England or America--his interest being over seven times that of Mr.
+Brett, who was the largest next to himself--and being more than double
+the amount held by all the other American shareholders put together.
+This was at least giving substantial proof of his own faith in the
+undertaking.
+
+But some may imagine that after all this burden was not so great as it
+seemed. In many stock companies the custom obtains of assigning to the
+projectors a certain portion of the stock as a bonus for getting up the
+company, which amount appears among the subscriptions to swell the
+capital. It is indeed subscribed, _but not paid_. So some have asked
+whether this large subscription of Mr. Field was not in part at least
+merely nominal? To this we answer, that a consideration _was_ granted to
+Mr. Field and his associates for their services in getting up the
+Company, and for their exclusive rights, but this was a contingent
+interest in the profits of the enterprise, _to be allowed only after the
+cable was laid_. So that the whole amount here subscribed was a
+_bona-fide_ subscription, and paid in solid English gold. We have now
+before us the receipts of the bankers of the Company for the whole
+amount, eighty-eight thousand pounds sterling.
+
+The capital being thus raised, it only remained to complete the
+organization of the Company by the choice of a Board of Directors, and
+to make a contract for the cable. The Company was organized in December,
+1856, by the choice of Directors chiefly from the leading bankers and
+merchants of London and Liverpool. The list included such honored names
+as Samuel Gurney, T. H. Brooking, John W. Brett, and T. A. Hankey, of
+London; Sir William Brown, Henry Harrison, Edward Johnston, Robert
+Crosbie, George Maxwell, and C. W. H. Pickering, of Liverpool; John
+Pender and James Dugdale, of Manchester; and Professor William Thomson,
+LL.D., of Glasgow. With these English Directors were two of our
+countrymen, Mr. George Peabody and Mr. C. M. Lampson, who, residing
+abroad for more than a third of a century, did much in the commercial
+capital of the world to support the honor of the American name. Mr.
+Peabody's firm subscribed L10,000, and Mr. Lampson L2,000. The latter
+gave more time than any other Director in London, except Mr. Brooking,
+the second Vice-Chairman, who, however, retired from the Company after
+the first failure in 1858, when Mr. Lampson was chosen to fill his
+place. The whole Board was full of zeal and energy. All gave their
+services without compensation.
+
+It was the good fortune of the Company to have, from the beginning, in
+the important position of Secretary, a gentleman admirably qualified for
+the post. This was Mr. George Saward--a name familiar to all who have
+followed the fortunes of the telegraph, in England or America, since he
+has been the organ of communication with the press and the public; and
+with whom none ever had occasion to transact business without
+recognizing his intelligence and courtesy.
+
+The Company being thus in working order, proceeded to make a contract
+for the manufacture of a cable to be laid across the Atlantic. For many
+months the proper form and size of the cable had been the subject of
+constant experiments. The conditions were: to combine the greatest
+degree of strength with lightness and flexibility. It must be strong, or
+it would snap in the process of laying. Yet it would not do to have it
+too large, for it would be unmanageable. Mr. Brett had already lost a
+cable in the Mediterranean chiefly from its bulk. Its size and stiffness
+made it hard to unwind it, while its enormous weight, when once it broke
+loose, caused it to run out with fearful velocity, till it was soon lost
+in the sea. It was only the year before, in September, 1855, that this
+accident had occurred in laying the cable from Sardinia to Algeria. All
+was going on well, until suddenly, "about two miles, weighing sixteen
+tons, flew out with the greatest violence in four or five minutes,
+flying round even when the drums were brought to a dead stop, creating
+the greatest alarm for the safety of the men in the hold and for the
+vessel." This was partly owing to the character of the submarine surface
+over which they were passing. The bottom of the Mediterranean is
+volcanic, and is broken up into mountains and valleys. The cable,
+doubtless, had just passed over some Alpine height, and was descending
+into some fearful depth below; but chiefly it was owing to the great
+size and bulk of the cable. This was a warning to the Atlantic Company.
+The point to be aimed at was to combine the flexibility of a common
+ship's rope with the tenacity of iron. These conditions were thought to
+be united in the form that was adopted.[B] A contract was at once made
+for the manufacture of the cable, one half being given to Messrs. Glass,
+Elliot & Co., of London, and the other to Messrs. R. S. Newall & Co., of
+Liverpool. The whole was to be completed by the first of June, ready to
+be submerged in the sea. The company was organized on the ninth of
+December, and the very next day Mr. Field sailed for America, reaching
+New York on the twenty-fifth of December, after an absence of more than
+five months.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Professor Morse was fond of the distinction between the words
+practical and practicable. A thing might be practicable, that is,
+possible of accomplishment, when it was not a practical enterprise, that
+is, one which could be worked to advantage. He here argues that the
+Atlantic Telegraph is both practicable, (or possible,) and at the same
+time a wise, practical undertaking.
+
+[B] On his return to America, many inquiries were addressed to Mr. Field
+in regard to the form and structure of the cable, in answer to which he
+wrote a letter of explanation in which he said:
+
+"No particular connected with this great project has been the subject of
+so much comment through the press as the form and structure of the
+telegraph cable. It may be well believed that the Directors have not
+decided upon a matter so all-important to success, without availing
+themselves of the most eminent talent and experience which could be
+commanded. The practical history of submarine telegraphs dates from the
+successful submersion of the cable between Dover and Calais in 1851, and
+advantage has been taken of whatever instruction this history could
+furnish or suggest. Of the submarine cables heretofore laid down,
+without enumerating others, the one between Dover and Calais weighs six
+tons to the mile; that between Spezzia and Corsica, eight tons to the
+mile; that laid from Varna to Balaklava, and used during the war in the
+Crimea, less than three hundred pounds to the mile; while the weight of
+the cable for the Atlantic Telegraph is between nineteen hundred pounds
+and one ton to the mile. This cable, to use the words of Dr. Whitehouse,
+'is the result of many months thought, experiment, and trial. Hundreds
+of specimens have been made, comprising every variety of form, size, and
+structure, and most severely tested as to their powers and capabilities;
+and the result has been the adoption of this, which we know to possess
+all the properties required, and in a far higher degree than any cable
+that has yet been laid. Its flexibility is such as to make it as
+manageable as a small line, and its strength such that it will bear, in
+water, over six miles of its own weight suspended vertically.' The
+conducting medium consists not of one single straight copper-wire, but
+of seven wires of copper of the best quality, twisted round each other
+spirally, and capable of undergoing great tension without injury. This
+conductor is then enveloped in three separate coverings of gutta-percha,
+of the best quality, forming the core of the cable, round which tarred
+hemp is wrapped, and over this, the outside covering, consisting of
+eighteen strands of the best quality of iron-wire; each strand composed
+of seven distinct wires, twisted spirally, in the most approved manner,
+by machinery specially adapted to the purpose. The attempt to insulate
+more than one conducting-wire or medium would not only have increased
+the chances of failure of all of them, but would have necessitated the
+adoption of a proportionably heavier and more cumbrous cable. The
+tensile power of the outer or wire covering of the cable, being very
+much less than that of the conductor within it, the latter is protected
+from any such strain as can possibly rupture it or endanger its
+insulation without an entire fracture of the cable."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SEEKING AID FROM CONGRESS.
+
+
+When Mr. Field reached home from abroad, he hoped for a brief respite.
+He had had a pretty hard campaign during the summer and autumn in
+England, and needed at least a few weeks of rest; but that was denied
+him. He landed in New York on Christmas Day, and was not allowed even to
+spend the New Year with his family. There were interests of the Company
+in Newfoundland which required immediate attention, and it was important
+that one of the Directors should go there without delay. As usual, it
+devolved upon him. He left at once for Boston, where he took the steamer
+to Halifax, and thence to St. John's. Such a voyage may be very
+agreeable in summer, but in mid-winter it is not a pleasant thing to
+face the storms of those northern latitudes. The passage was unusually
+tempestuous. At St. John's he broke down, and was put under the care of
+a physician. But he did not stop to think of himself. The work for which
+he came was done; and though the physician warned him that it was a
+great risk to leave his bed, he took the steamer on her return, and was
+again in New York after a month's absence--a month of hardship, of
+exposure, and of suffering, such as he had long occasion to remember.
+
+The mention of this voyage came up a year afterward at a meeting of the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company in London, when a resolution was offered,
+tendering Mr. Field a vote of thanks for "the great services he had
+rendered to the Company by his untiring zeal, energy, and devotion." Mr.
+Brooking, the Vice-Chairman, had spent a large part of his life in
+Newfoundland, and knew the dangers of that inhospitable coast, and in
+seconding the resolution he said:
+
+     "It is now about a year and a half ago since I had the pleasure
+     of making the acquaintance of my friend Mr. Field. It was he
+     who initiated me into this Company, and induced me to take an
+     interest in it from its earliest stage. From that period to the
+     present I have observed in Mr. Field the most determined
+     perseverance, and the exercise of great talent, extraordinary
+     assiduity and diligence, coupled with an amount of fortitude
+     which has seldom been equalled. I have known him cross the
+     Atlantic in the depth of winter, and, within twenty-four hours
+     after his arrival in New York, having ascertained that his
+     presence was necessary in a distant British colony, he has not
+     hesitated at once to direct his course thitherward. That colony
+     is one with which I am intimately acquainted, having resided in
+     it for upward of twenty years, and am enabled to speak of the
+     hazards and danger which attend a voyage to it in winter. Mr.
+     Field no sooner arrived at New York, in the latter part of
+     December, than he got aboard a steamer for Halifax, and
+     proceeded to St. John's, Newfoundland. In three weeks he
+     accomplished there a very great object for this Company. He
+     procured the passage of an Act of the Legislature which has
+     given to our Company the right of establishing a footing on
+     those shores. [The rights before conferred, it would seem,
+     applied only to the Newfoundland Company.] That is only one of
+     the acts which he has performed with a desire to promote the
+     interests of this great enterprise."
+
+The very next day after his return from Newfoundland, Mr. Field was
+called to Washington, to seek the aid of his own Government to the
+Atlantic Telegraph. The English Government had proffered the most
+generous aid, both in ships to lay the cable, and in an annual subsidy
+of L14,000. It was on every account desirable that this should be met by
+corresponding liberality on the part of the American Government. Before
+he left England, he had sent home the letter received from the Lords
+Commissioners of the Treasury; and thereupon the Directors of the New
+York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company had inclosed a copy to
+the President, with a letter asking for the same aid in ships, and in an
+annual sum of $70,000, [equivalent to L14,000,] to be paid for the
+government messages, the latter to be conditioned on the success of the
+telegraph, and to be continued only so long as it was in full operation.
+They urged with reason that the English Government had acted with great
+liberality--not only toward the enterprise, but toward our own
+Government. Although both ends of the line were in the British
+possessions, it had claimed no exclusive privileges, but had stipulated
+for perfect equality between the United States and Great Britain. The
+agreement expressly provided "that the British Government shall have a
+priority in the conveyance of their messages over all others, _subject
+to the exception only of the Government of the United States_, in the
+event of their entering into an arrangement with the Telegraph Company
+similar in principle to that of the British Government, in which case
+the messages of the two governments shall have priority in the order in
+which they arrive at the stations."
+
+The letter to the President called attention to this generous offer--an
+offer which it was manifestly to the advantage of our Government to
+accept--and added: "The Company will enter into a contract with the
+Government of the United States on the same terms and conditions as it
+has made with the British Government." They asked only for the same
+recognition and aid which they had received in England. This surely was
+not a very bold request. It was natural that American citizens should
+think that in a work begun by Americans, and of which, if successful,
+their country would reap largely the honor and the advantage, they might
+expect the aid from their own Government which they had already received
+from a foreign power. It was, therefore, not without a mixture of
+surprise and mortification that they learned that the proposal in
+Congress had provoked a violent opposition, and that the bill was likely
+to be defeated. Such was the attitude of affairs when Mr. Field returned
+from Newfoundland, and which led him to hasten to Washington.
+
+He now found that it was much easier to deal with the English than with
+the American Government. Whatever may be said of the respective methods
+of administration, it must be confessed that the forms of English
+procedure furnish greater facility in the despatch of business. A
+contract can be made by the Lords of the Treasury without waiting the
+action of Parliament. The proposal is referred to two or three
+intelligent officers of the Government--perhaps even to a single
+individual--on whose report it takes action without further delay. Thus
+it is probable that the action of the British Government was decided
+wholly by the recommendation of Mr. Wilson, formed after the visit of
+Mr. Field.
+
+But in our country we do things differently. Here it would be considered
+a stretch of power for any administration to enter into a contract with
+a private company--a contract binding the Government for a period of
+twenty-five years, and involving an annual appropriation of
+money--without the action of Congress. This is a safeguard against
+reckless and extravagant expenditure, but, as one of the penalties we
+pay for our more popular form of government, in which every thing has
+to be referred to the people, it involves delay, and sometimes the
+defeat of wise and important public measures.
+
+Besides--shall we confess it to our shame--another secret influence
+often appears in American legislation, which has defeated many an act
+demanded by the public good--the influence of the Lobby! This now began
+to show itself in opposition. It had been whispered in Washington that
+the gentlemen in New York who were at the head of this enterprise were
+very rich; and a measure coming from such a source surely ought to be
+made to pay tribute before it was allowed to pass. This was a new
+experience. Those few weeks in Washington were worse than being among
+the icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland. The Atlantic Cable has had
+many a kink since, but never did it seem to be entangled in such a
+hopeless twist as when it got among the politicians.
+
+But it would be very unjust to suppose that there were no better
+influences in our Halls of Congress. There were then--as there have
+always been in our history--some men of large wisdom and of a noble
+patriotic pride, who in such a measure thought only of the good of their
+country and of the triumph of science and of civilization.
+
+Two years after--in August, 1858--when the Atlantic Telegraph proved at
+last a reality, and the New World was full of its fame, Mr. Seward, in
+a speech at Auburn, thus referred to the ordeal it had to pass through
+in Congress:
+
+     "The two great countries of which I have spoken, [England and
+     America,] are now ringing with the praises of Cyrus W. Field,
+     who chiefly has brought this great enterprise to its glorious
+     and beneficent consummation. You have never heard his story;
+     let me give you a few points in it, as a lesson that there is
+     no condition of life in which a man, endowed with native
+     genius, a benevolent spirit, and a courageous patience, may not
+     become a benefactor of nations and of mankind."
+
+After speaking of the efforts by which this New York merchant "brought
+into being an association of Americans and Englishmen, which contributed
+from surplus wealth the capital necessary as a basis for the
+enterprise"; he adds:
+
+     "It remained to engage the consent and the activity of the
+     Governments of Great Britain and the United States. That was
+     all that remained. Such consent and activity on the part of
+     some one great nation of Europe was all that remained needful
+     for Columbus when he stood ready to bring a new continent
+     forward as a theatre of the world's civilization. But in each
+     case that effort was the most difficult of all. Cyrus W. Field,
+     by assiduity and patience, first secured consent and
+     conditional engagement on the part of Great Britain, and then,
+     less than two years ago, he repaired to Washington. The
+     President and Secretary of State individually favored his
+     proposition; but the jealousies of parties and sections in
+     Congress forbade them to lend it their official sanction and
+     patronage. He appealed to me. I drew the necessary bill. With
+     the generous aid of others, Northern Representatives, and the
+     indispensable aid of the late Thomas J. Rusk, a Senator from
+     Texas, that bill, after a severe contest and long delay, was
+     carried through the Senate of the United States by the
+     majority, if I remember rightly, of one vote, and escaped
+     defeat in the House of Representatives with equal difficulty. I
+     have said the aid of Mr. Rusk was indispensable. If any one has
+     wondered why I, an extreme Northern man, loved and lamented
+     Thomas J. Rusk, an equally extreme Southern man, he has here an
+     explanation. There was no good thing which, as it seemed to me,
+     I could not do in Congress with his aid. When he died, it
+     seemed to me that no good thing could be done by any one. Such
+     was the position of Cyrus W. Field at that stage of the great
+     enterprise. But, thus at last fortified with capital derived
+     from New York and London, and with the navies of Great Britain
+     and the United States at his command, he has, after trials that
+     would have discouraged any other than a true discoverer,
+     brought the great work to a felicitous consummation. And now
+     the Queen of Great Britain and the President of the United
+     States stand waiting his permission to speak, and ready to
+     speak at his bidding; and the people of these two great
+     countries await only the signal from him to rush into a
+     fraternal embrace which will prove the oblivion of ages of
+     suspicion, of jealousies and of anger."
+
+Mr. Seward might well refer with pride to the part he took in sustaining
+this enterprise. He was from the beginning its firmest supporter. The
+bill was introduced into the Senate by him, and was carried through
+mainly by his influence, seconded by Mr. Rusk, Mr. Douglas, and one or
+two others. It was introduced on the ninth of January, and came up for
+consideration on the twenty-first. Its friends had hoped that it might
+pass with entire unanimity. But such was the opposition, that the
+discussion lasted two days. The report shows that it was a subject of
+animated and almost angry debate, which brought out the secret of the
+opposition to aid being given by the Government.
+
+Probably no measure was ever introduced in Congress for the help of any
+commercial enterprise, that some member, imagining that it was to
+benefit a particular section, did not object that it was
+"unconstitutional"! This objection was well answered in this case by Mr.
+Benjamin, of Louisiana, who asked:
+
+     "If we have a right to hire a warehouse at Port Mahon, in the
+     Mediterranean, for storing naval stores, have we not a right to
+     hire a company to carry our messages? I should as soon think of
+     questioning the constitutional power of the Government to pay
+     freight to a vessel for carrying its mail-bags across the
+     ocean, as to pay a telegraph company a certain sum per annum
+     for conveying its messages by the use of the electric
+     telegraph."
+
+This touched the precise ground on which the appropriation was asked. In
+their memorial to the President, the Company had said: "Such a contract
+will, we suppose, fall within the provisions of the Constitution in
+regard to postal arrangements, of which this is only a new and improved
+form."
+
+Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, explained in the same terms the nature of the
+proposed agreement:
+
+     "It is a mail operation. It is a Post-Office arrangement. It is
+     for the transmission of intelligence, and that is what I
+     understood to be the function of the Post-Office Department. I
+     hold it, therefore, to be as legitimately within the proper
+     powers of the Government, as the employing of a stage-coach, or
+     a steam-car, or a ship, to transport the mails, either to
+     foreign countries, or to different portions of our own
+     country."
+
+Of course, as in all appropriations of money, the question of expense
+had to be considered, and here there were not wanting some to cry out
+against the extravagance of paying seventy thousand dollars a year! We
+had not then got used to the colossal expenditures of war, when we grew
+familiar with paying three millions a day! Seventy thousand dollars
+seemed a great sum; but Mr. Bayard in reply reminded them that England
+then paid nine hundred thousand dollars a year for the transportation of
+the mails between the United States and England; and argued that it was
+a very small amount for the great service rendered. He said:
+
+     "We have sent out ships to make explorations and observations
+     in the Red Sea and in South America; we sent one or two
+     expensive expeditions to Japan, and published at great cost
+     some elegant books narrating their exploits. The expense even
+     in ships alone, in that instance, was at the rate of twenty to
+     one here, but no cry of economy was then raised." "I look upon
+     this proposition solely as a business measure; in that point of
+     view I believe the Government will obtain more service for the
+     amount of money, than by any other contract that we have ever
+     made, or now can make, for the transmission of intelligence."
+
+As to the expense of furnishing a ship of war to assist in laying the
+cable, Mr. Douglas asked:
+
+     "Will it cost anything to furnish the use of one of our
+     steamships? They are idle. We have no practical use for them at
+     present. They are in commission. They have their coal on board,
+     and their full armament. They will be rendering no service to
+     us if they are not engaged in this work. If there was nothing
+     more than a question of national pride involved, I would gladly
+     furnish the use of an American ship for that purpose. England
+     tenders one of her national vessels, and why should we not
+     tender one also? It costs England nothing, and it costs us
+     nothing."
+
+Mr. Rusk made the same point, in arguing that ships might be sent to
+assist in laying the cable, giving this homely but sufficient reason: "I
+think that is better than to keep them rotting at the navy-yards, with
+the officers frollicking on shore."
+
+Mr. Douglas urged still further:
+
+     "American citizens have commenced this enterprise. The honor
+     and the glory of the achievement, if successful, will be due
+     to American genius and American daring. Why should the American
+     Government be so penurious--I do not know that that is the
+     proper word, for it costs nothing--why should we be actuated by
+     so illiberal a spirit as to refuse the use of one of our
+     steamships to convey the wire when it does not cost one
+     farthing to the Treasury of the United States?"
+
+But behind all these objections of expense and of want of constitutional
+power, was one greater than all, and that was England! The real animus
+of the opposition was a fear of giving some advantage to Great Britain.
+This has always been sufficient to excite the hostility of a certain
+class of politicians. No matter what the subject of the proposed
+cooperation, if it were purely a scientific expedition, they were sure
+England was going to profit by it to our injury. So now there were those
+who felt that in this submarine cable England was literally crawling
+under the sea to get some advantage of the United States!
+
+This jealousy and hostility spoke loudest from the mouths of
+Southerners. It is noteworthy that men who, in less than five years
+after, were figuring abroad, courting foreign influence against their
+own country, were then fiercest in denunciation of England. Mason and
+Slidell voted together against the bill. Butler, of South Carolina, was
+very bitter in his opposition--saying, with a sneer, that "this was
+simply a mail service under the surveillance of Great Britain"--and so
+was Hunter, of Virginia; while Jones, of Tennessee, bursting with
+patriotism, found a sufficient reason for his opposition, in that "he
+did not want anything to do with England or Englishmen!"
+
+But it should be said in justice, that to this general hostility of the
+South there were some exceptions. Benjamin, of Louisiana, gave the bill
+an earnest support; so did Mallory, of Florida, Chairman of the Naval
+Committee; and especially that noble Southerner, Rusk, of Texas, "with
+whose aid," as Mr. Seward said, "it seemed that there was no good thing
+which he could not do in Congress." Mr. Rusk declared that he regarded
+it as "the great enterprise of the age," and expressed his surprise at
+the very moderate subsidy asked for, only seventy thousand dollars a
+year, saying that, "with a reasonable prospect of success in an
+enterprise, calculated to produce such beneficial results, he should be
+willing to vote two hundred thousand dollars."
+
+But with the majority of Southern Senators, there was a repugnance to
+acting in concert with England, which could not be overcome. They argued
+that this was not truly a line between England and the United States,
+but between England and her own colonies--a line of which she alone was
+to reap the benefit. _Both its termini were in the British possessions._
+In the event of war this would give a tremendous advantage to the power
+holding both ends of the line. All the speakers harped on this string;
+and it may be worth a page or two to see how this was met and answered.
+When Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, asked, "What security are we to have that
+in time of war we shall have the use of the telegraph as well as the
+British Government?" Mr. Seward answered:
+
+     "It appears not to have been contemplated by the British
+     Government that there would ever be any interruption of the
+     amicable relations between the two countries. Therefore nothing
+     was proposed in their contract for the contingency of war.
+
+     "That the two termini are both in the British dominions is
+     true; but it is equally true that there is no other terminus on
+     this continent where it is practicable to make that
+     communication except in the British dominions. We have no
+     dominions on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. There is no
+     other route known on which the telegraphic wire could be drawn
+     through the ocean so as to find a proper resting-place or
+     anchorage except this. The distance on this route is seventeen
+     hundred miles. It is not even known that the telegraphic wire
+     will carry the fluid with sufficient strength to communicate
+     across those seventeen hundred miles. That is yet a scientific
+     experiment, and the Company are prepared to make it.
+
+     "In regard to war, all the danger is this: There is a hazard of
+     war at some future time, and whatever arrangements we might
+     make, war would break them up. No treaty would save us. My own
+     hope is, that after the telegraphic wire is once laid, there
+     will be no more war between the United States and Great
+     Britain. I believe that whenever such a connection as this
+     shall be made, we diminish the chances of war, and diminish
+     them in such a degree, that it is not necessary to take them
+     into consideration at the present moment.
+
+     "Let us see where we are. What shall we gain by refusing to
+     enter into this agreement? If we do not make it, the British
+     Government has only to add ten thousand pounds sterling more
+     annually, and they have the whole monopoly of this wire,
+     without any stipulation whatever--not only in war but in peace.
+     If we make this contract with the Company, we at least secure
+     the benefit of it in time of peace, and we postpone and delay
+     the dangers of war. If there shall ever be war, it would
+     abrogate all treaties that can be made in regard to this
+     subject, unless it be true, as the honorable Senator from
+     Virginia thinks, that treaties can be made which will be
+     regarded as obligatory by nations in time of war. If so, we
+     have all the advantages in time of peace, for the purpose of
+     making such treaties hereafter, without the least reason to
+     infer that there would be any reluctance on the part of the
+     British Government to enter into that negotiation with us, if
+     we should desire to do so. The British Government, if it had
+     such a disposition as the honorable Senator supposes, would
+     certainly have proposed to monopolize all this telegraphic
+     line, instead of proposing to divide it."[A]
+
+Mr. Hale spoke in the same strain:
+
+     "It seems to me that the war spirit and the contingencies of
+     war are brought in a little too often upon matters of
+     legislation which have no necessary connection with them. If we
+     are to be governed by considerations of that sort, they would
+     paralyze all improvements; they would stop the great
+     appropriations for commerce; they would at once neutralize that
+     policy which sets our ocean steamers afloat. Nobody pretends
+     that the intercourse which is kept up between Great Britain and
+     this country by our ocean steamers would be continued in time
+     of war; nor the communication with France or other nations.
+
+     "If we are deterred for that reason, we shall be pursuing a
+     policy that will paralyze improvements on those parts of the
+     coast which lie contiguous to the lakes. The city of Detroit
+     will have to be abandoned, beautiful and progressive as it is,
+     because in time of war the mansions of her citizens there lie
+     within the range of British guns.
+
+     "What will the suspension bridge at Niagara be good for in a
+     time of war? If the British cut off their end of it, our end
+     will not be worth much. I believe that among the things which
+     will bind us together in peace, this telegraphic wire will be
+     one of the most potent. It will bind the two countries together
+     literally with cords of iron that will hold us in the bonds of
+     peace. I repudiate entirely the policy which refuses to adopt
+     it, because in time of war it may be interrupted. Such a policy
+     as that would drive us back to a state of barbarism. It would
+     destroy the spirit of progress; it would retard improvement; it
+     would paralyze all the advances which are making us a more
+     civilized, and a more informed and a better people than the one
+     which preceded us."
+
+Mr. Douglas cut the matter short by saying:
+
+     "I am willing to vote for this bill as a peace measure, as a
+     commercial measure--but not as a war measure; and when war
+     comes, let us rely on our power and ability to take this end of
+     the wire, and keep it."
+
+Mr. Benjamin said:
+
+     "The sum of money that this Government proposes to give for the
+     use of this telegraph will amount, in the twenty-five years, to
+     something between L300,000 and L400,000. Now, if this be a
+     matter of such immense importance to Great Britain--if this be
+     the golden opportunity--and if, indeed, her control of this
+     line be such a powerful engine, whether in war or in peace, is
+     it not most extraordinary that she proposes to us a full share
+     in its benefits and in its control, and allows to our
+     Government equal rights with herself in the transmission of
+     communications for the sum of about L300,000, to be paid in
+     annual instalments through twenty-five years? If this be,
+     indeed, a very important instrumentality in behalf of Great
+     Britain for the conduct of her commerce, the government of her
+     possessions, or the efficient action of her troops in time of
+     war, the L300,000 expended upon it are but as a drop in the
+     bucket when compared with the immense resources of that empire.
+     I think, therefore, we may as well discard from our
+     consideration of this subject all these visions about the
+     immense importance of the governmental aid in this matter, to
+     be rendered under the provisions of this bill.
+
+     "Mr. President, let us not always be thinking of war; let us be
+     using means to preserve peace. The amount that would be
+     expended by this Government in six months' war with Great
+     Britain, would far exceed every thing that we shall have to pay
+     for the use of this telegraphic line for the entire twenty-five
+     years of the contract; and do you not believe that this
+     instrumentality will be sufficiently efficient to bind together
+     the peace, the commerce, and the interests of the two
+     countries, so as even to defer a war for six months or twelve
+     months, if one should ever become inevitable, beyond the period
+     at which it would otherwise occur? If it does that, it will in
+     six or eight or nine months repay the expenditures of
+     twenty-five years.
+
+     "Again, Sir, I say, if Great Britain wants it for war, she will
+     put it there at her own expense. It is not three hundred
+     thousand pounds, or four hundred thousand pounds, that will
+     arrest her. If, on the contrary, this be useful to
+     commerce--useful in an eminent degree--useful for the
+     preservation of peace, then I confess I feel some pride that my
+     country should aid in establishing it. I confess I feel a glow
+     of something like pride that I belong to the great human family
+     when I see these triumphs of science, by which mind is brought
+     into instant communication with mind across the intervening
+     oceans, which, to our unenlightened forefathers, seemed placed
+     there by Providence as an eternal barrier to communication
+     between man and man. Now, Sir, we speak from minute to minute.
+     Scarcely can a gun be fired in war on the European shore ere
+     its echoes will reverberate among our own mountains, and be
+     heard by every citizen in the land. All this is a triumph of
+     science--of American genius, and I for one feel proud of it,
+     and feel desirous of sustaining and promoting it."
+
+Mr. Douglas said:
+
+     "Our policy is essentially a policy of peace. We want peace
+     with the whole world, above all other considerations. There
+     never has been a time in the history of this Republic, when
+     peace was more essential to our prosperity, to our advancement,
+     and to our progress, than it is now. We have made great
+     progress in time of peace--an almost inconceivable progress
+     since the last war with Great Britain. Twenty-five years more
+     of peace will put us far in advance of any other nation on
+     earth."
+
+It was fit that Mr. Seward, who introduced the bill, and opened the
+debate, should close in words that now seem prophetic, and show the
+large wisdom, looking before and after, of this eminent statesman:
+
+     "There was an American citizen who, in the year 1770, or
+     thereabout, indicated to this country, to Great Britain, and to
+     the world, the use of the lightning for the purposes of
+     communication of intelligence, and that was Dr. Franklin. I am
+     sure that there is not only no member of the Senate, but no
+     American citizen, however humble, who would be willing to have
+     struck out from the achievements of American invention this
+     great discovery of the lightning as an agent for the uses of
+     human society.
+
+     "The suggestion made by that distinguished and illustrious
+     American was followed up some fifty years afterward by another
+     suggestion and another indication from another American, and
+     that was Mr. Samuel F. B. Morse, who indicated to the American
+     Government the means by which the lightning could be made to
+     write, and by which the telegraphic wires could be made to
+     supply the place of wind and steam for carrying intelligence.
+
+     "We have followed out the suggestions of these eminent
+     Americans hitherto, and I am sure at a very small cost. The
+     Government of the United States appropriated $40,000 to test
+     the practicability of Morse's suggestion; the $40,000 thus
+     expended established its practicability and its use. Now, there
+     is no person on the face of the globe who can measure the price
+     at which, if a reasonable man, he would be willing to strike
+     from the world the use of the magnetic telegraph as a means of
+     communication between different portions of the same country.
+     This great invention is now to be brought into its further,
+     wider, and broader use--the use by the general society of
+     nations, international use, the use of the society of mankind.
+     Its benefits are large--just in proportion to the extent and
+     scope of its operation. They are not merely benefits to the
+     Government, but they are benefits to the citizens and subjects
+     of all nations and of all States.
+
+     "I might enlarge further on this subject, but I forbear to do
+     so, because I know that at some future time I shall come across
+     the record of what I have said to-day. I know that then what I
+     have said to-day, by way of anticipation, will fall so far
+     short of the reality of benefits which individuals, States, and
+     nations will have derived from this great enterprise, that I
+     shall not reflect upon it without disappointment and
+     mortification."
+
+After such arguments, it should seem that there could be but one
+opinion, and yet the bill passed the Senate by only _one_ majority! It
+also had to run the gauntlet of the House of Representatives, where it
+encountered the same hostility. But at length it got through, and was
+signed by President Pierce on the third of March, the day before he went
+out of office. Thus it became a law.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] It is worthy of notice, that when the Bill granting a charter to the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company was offered in the British Parliament, at
+least one nobleman found fault with it on this very ground, that it gave
+away important advantages which properly belonged to England, and which
+she ought to reserve to herself:
+
+"In the House of Lords, on the twentieth of July, 1857, on the motion
+for the third reading of the Telegraph Company's bill,
+
+"Lord Redesdale called attention to the fact that, although the termini
+of the proposed telegraph were both in her Majesty's dominions, namely,
+in Ireland and Newfoundland, the American Government were to enjoy the
+same priority as the British Government with regard to the transmission
+of messages. It was said that this equal right was owing to the fact
+that a joint guarantee had been given by the two Governments. _He
+thought, however, it would have been far better policy on the part of
+her Majesty's Government if they had either undertaken the whole
+guarantee themselves, and thus had obtained free and sole control over
+the connecting line of telegraph, or had invited our own colonies to
+participate in that guarantee, rather than have allowed a foreign
+government to join in making it._ At the same time, if the clause in
+question had the sanction of her Majesty's ministry, it was not his
+intention to object to it.
+
+"Earl Granville said this telegraph was intended to connect two great
+countries, and, as the two Governments had gone hand in hand with regard
+to the guarantee, it seemed only reasonable that both should have the
+same rights as to transmitting messages.
+
+"The bill was then read a third time and passed."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE EXPEDITION OF 1857.
+
+
+Scarcely was the business with the American Government completed, before
+Mr. Field was recalled to England. Once more upon the waves, he forgot
+the long delay and the vexatious opposition which he left behind--the
+fogs of Newfoundland, and the denser fogs of Washington. He was bound
+for England, and there at least the work did not stand still. All winter
+long the wheels of the machinery had kept in motion. The cable was
+uncoiling its mighty folds to a length sufficient to span the Atlantic,
+and at last there was hope of victory.
+
+Although the United States Government had seemed a little ungracious in
+its delay, it yet rendered, this year and the next, most important
+service. Already it had prepared the way, by the deep-sea soundings,
+which it was the first to take across the Atlantic. It now rendered
+additional and substantial aid in lending to this enterprise the two
+finest ships in the American navy--the Niagara and the Susquehanna. The
+former was built some dozen years before by George Steers--a name
+celebrated among our marine architects as the constructor of the famous
+yacht America, that "racehorse of the sea," which had crossed the
+Atlantic, and carried off the prize in the British Channel from the
+yachts of England--and was designed to be a model of naval architecture.
+She was the largest steam-frigate in the world, exceeding in tonnage the
+heaviest line-of-battle ship in the English navy, and yet so finely
+modelled that, propelled only by a screw, she could make ten or twelve
+miles an hour. Notwithstanding her bulk, she was intended to carry but
+twelve guns--being one of the first ships in our navy to substitute a
+few heavy Dahlgrens for half a dozen times as many fifty-six-pounders.
+This was the beginning of that revolution in naval warfare, which was
+carried to such extent in the Monitors and other ironclads introduced in
+our civil war. Each gun weighed fourteen tons--requiring a crew of
+twenty-five men to wield it--and threw a shell of one hundred and thirty
+pounds a distance of three miles. One or two broadsides from such a deck
+would sink an old-fashioned seventy-four, or even a ninety or
+hundred-gun ship.
+
+But as the Niagara was now to go on an errand of peace, this formidable
+armament was not taken on board. She was built with what is known as a
+flush deck, clear from stem to stern, and being without her guns, was
+left free for the more peaceful burden that she was to bear. When the
+orders were received from Washington, she was lying at the Brooklyn
+Navy-Yard, but began immediately to prepare for her expedition.
+Bulkheads were knocked down, above and below, to make room for the huge
+monster of the deep that was to be coiled within her sides. These
+preparations occupied four or five weeks. On the twenty-second of April,
+she made a trial trip down the bay, and two days after sailed for
+England, in command of Captain William L. Hudson, one of the oldest and
+best officers in our navy, who, to his past services to his country, was
+now to add another in the expeditions of this and the following year. He
+had with him as Chief Engineer Mr. William E. Everett, whose mechanical
+genius proved so important in constructing the paying-out machinery.
+
+Besides the regular ship's crew, no one was received on board except Mr.
+Field and Professor Morse, who went as the electrician of the
+Newfoundland Company; and two officers of the Russian navy--Captain
+Schwartz and Lieutenant Kolobnin--who were permitted by our Government,
+as an act of national courtesy, to go out to witness the great
+experiment. The regulations of the navy did not admit correspondents of
+the press; but Professor Morse was permitted to take a secretary, and
+chose Mr. Mullaly, who reported for the New York Herald, and who had
+thus an opportunity to witness all the preparations on land and sea, and
+to furnish those minute and detailed accounts of the several
+expeditions, which contribute some important chapters in the history of
+this enterprise.
+
+The Niagara arrived out on the fourteenth of May, and cast anchor off
+Gravesend, about twenty-five miles below London. As it was the first
+time--at least for many years--that an American ship of war had appeared
+in the Thames, this fact, with her fine proportions and the object for
+which she came, attracted a crowd of visitors. Every day, from morning
+to night, a fleet of boats was around her, and men and women thronged
+over her sides. Everybody was welcome. All were received with the utmost
+courtesy, and allowed access to all parts of the ship. Among these were
+many visitors of distinction. Here came Lady Franklin to thank the
+generous nation that had sent two expeditions to recover her husband
+lost amid Polar seas. She was, of course, the object of general
+attention and respectful sympathy.
+
+While lying in the Thames, the Agamemnon, that was to take the other
+half of the cable, passed up the river. This was a historical ship,
+having borne the flag of the British admiral at the bombardment of
+Sebastopol, and distinguished herself by steaming up within a few
+hundred yards of the guns of the fortress. After passing through the
+fires of that terrible day, she was justly an object of pride to
+Britons, whose hearts swelled as they saw this oak-ribbed leviathan,
+that had come "out of the gates of death, out of the jaws of hell," now
+preparing to take part in achievements of peace, not less glorious than
+those of war. She was under command of Captain Noddal, of the Royal
+Navy.
+
+As the Agamemnon came up the river in grand style, she recognized the
+Niagara lying off Gravesend, and manning her yards, gave her a
+succession of those English hurras so stirring to the blood, when heard
+on land or sea, to which our tars replied with lusty American cheers. It
+was pleasant to observe, from this time, the hearty good-will that
+existed between the officers and crews of the two ships, who in their
+exertions for the common object, were animated only by a generous
+rivalry.
+
+A few days after, the Niagara was joined by the Susquehanna, Captain
+Sands, which had been ordered from the Mediterranean to take part also
+in the expedition. She was a fit companion ship, being the largest
+side-wheel steamer in our navy, as the other was the largest propeller.
+Both together, they were worthy representatives of the American navy.
+
+When the Niagara arrived in the Thames, it was supposed she would take
+on board her half of the cable from the manufactory of Glass, Elliot &
+Co., at Greenwich; but on account of her great length, it was difficult
+to bring her up alongside the wharf in front of the works. This was
+therefore left to the Agamemnon, while the Niagara was ordered around
+to Liverpool, to take the other half from the works of Newall & Co., at
+Birkenhead, opposite that city. Accordingly she left Gravesend on the
+fifth of June, and reached Portsmouth the next day, where she remained a
+fortnight, to have some further alterations to fit her to receive the
+cable. Although she had been already pretty well "scooped out," fore and
+aft, the cry was still for room. Officers had to shift for themselves,
+as their quarters were swept away to make a wider berth for their iron
+guest. But all submitted with excellent grace. Like true sailors, they
+took it gayly as if they were only clearing the decks for battle. Among
+other alterations for safety, was a framework or cage of iron, which was
+put over the stern of the ship, to keep the cable from getting entangled
+in the screw. As soon as these were completed, the Niagara left for
+Liverpool, and on the twenty-second of June cast anchor in the Mersey.
+Here she attracted as much attention as in the Thames, being crowded
+with visitors during the week; and on Sundays, when none were received
+on board, the river-boats sought to gratify public curiosity by sailing
+round her. The officers of the ship were objects of constant
+hospitality, both from private citizens and from the public authorities.
+The Mayor of Liverpool gave them a dinner, the Chamber of Commerce
+another, while the Americans in Liverpool entertained them on the fourth
+of July--the first public celebration of our national anniversary ever
+had in that city.
+
+But while these festivities were kept up on shore, hard work was done on
+board the ship. To coil thirteen hundred miles of cable was an immense
+undertaking. Yet it was all done by the sailors themselves. No
+compulsion was used, and none was needed. No sooner was there a call for
+volunteers, than men stepped forward in greater numbers than could be
+employed. Out of these were chosen one hundred and twenty stalwart
+fellows, who were divided into two gangs of sixty men, and each gang
+into watches of thirty, which relieved each other, and all went to work
+with such enthusiasm, that in three weeks the herculean task was
+completed. The event was celebrated by a final dinner given by the
+shareholders of the Atlantic Telegraph Company in Liverpool to Captain
+Hudson and Captain Sands of the Susquehanna, whose arrival in the Mersey
+enabled them to extend their hospitalities to the officers of both
+ships.
+
+While the Niagara was thus doing her part, the same scene was repeated
+on board the Agamemnon, which was still lying in the Thames. There the
+work was completed about the same day, and the occasion duly honored by
+a scene as unique as it was beautiful. Says the London Times of July
+twenty-fourth:
+
+     "All the details connected with the manufacture and stowage of
+     the cable are now completed, and the conclusion of the arduous
+     labor was celebrated yesterday with high festivity and
+     rejoicing. All the artisans who have been engaged upon the
+     great work, with their wives and families, a large party of the
+     officers, with the sailors from the Agamemnon, and a number of
+     distinguished scientific visitors, were entertained upon this
+     occasion at a kind of _fete champetre_ at Belvidere House, the
+     seat of Sir Culling Eardley, near Erith. The festival was held
+     in the beautiful park which had been obligingly opened by Sir
+     Culling Eardley for the purpose. Although in no way personally
+     interested in the project, the honorable baronet has all along
+     evinced the liveliest sympathy with the undertaking, and
+     himself proposed to have the completion of the work celebrated
+     in his picturesque grounds. The manufacturers, fired with
+     generous emulation, erected spacious tents on the lawn, and
+     provided a magnificent banquet for the guests, and a
+     substantial one for the sailors of the Agamemnon and the
+     artificers who had been employed in the construction of the
+     cable. By an admirable arrangement, the guests were
+     accommodated at a vast semi-circular table, which ran round the
+     whole pavilion, while the sailors and workmen sat at a number
+     of long tables arranged at right angles with the chord, so that
+     the general effect was that all dined together, while at the
+     same time sufficient distinction was preserved to satisfy the
+     most fastidious. The three centre tables were occupied by the
+     crew of the Agamemnon, a fine, active body of young men, who
+     paid the greatest attention to the speeches, and drank all the
+     toasts with an admirable punctuality, at least so long as their
+     three pints of beer per man lasted; but we regret to add that,
+     what with the heat of the day and the enthusiasm of Jack in the
+     cause of science, the mugs were all empty long before the
+     chairman's list of toasts had been gone through. Next in
+     interest to the sailors were the workmen and their wives and
+     babies, all being permitted to assist at the great occasion.
+     The latter, it is true, sometimes squalled at an affecting
+     peroration, but that rather improved the effect than otherwise,
+     and the presence of these little ones only marked the genuine
+     good feeling of the employers, who had thus invited not only
+     their workmen, but their workmen's families to the feast. It
+     was a momentary return to the old patriarchal times, and every
+     one present seemed delighted with the experiment."
+
+Speeches were made by Sir Culling Eardley, by Mr. Cardwell, of the House
+of Commons, Mr. Brooking, one of the Directors, by Professor Morse, and
+others. Mr. Field read a letter from President Buchanan, saying that he
+should feel honored if the first message should be one from Queen
+Victoria to himself, and that he "would endeavor to answer it in a
+spirit and manner becoming a great occasion."
+
+Thus, labor and feasting being ended, the Niagara and the Susquehanna
+left Liverpool the latter part of July and steamed down St. George's
+Channel to Queenstown, which was to be the rendezvous of the telegraphic
+squadron, where they were joined by the Agamemnon and the Leopard, which
+was to be her consort. The former, as she entered the harbor, came to
+anchor about a third of a mile from the Niagara. The presence of the two
+ships which had the cable on board, gave an opportunity which the
+electricians had desired to test its integrity. Accordingly one end of
+each cable was carried to the opposite ship, and so joined as to form a
+continuous length of twenty-five hundred miles, both ends of which were
+on board the Agamemnon. One end was then connected with the apparatus
+for transmitting the electric current, and on a sensitive galvanometer
+being attached to the other end, the whole cable was tested from end to
+end, and found to be perfect. These experiments were continued for two
+days with the same result. This inspired fresh hopes for the success of
+the expedition, and in high spirits they bore away for the harbor of
+Valentia.
+
+It had been for some time a matter of discussion, where they should
+begin to lay the cable, whether from the coast of Ireland, or in
+mid-ocean, the two ships making the junction there, and dropping it to
+the bottom of the sea, and then parting, one to the east and the other
+to the west, till they landed their ends on the opposite shores of the
+Atlantic. This was the plan adopted the following year, and which
+finally proved successful. It was the one preferred by the engineers
+now, but the electricians favored the other course, and their counsel
+prevailed. It was therefore decided to submerge the whole cable in a
+continuous line from Valentia Bay to Newfoundland. The Niagara was to
+lay the first half from Ireland to the middle of the Atlantic; the end
+would then be joined to the other half on board the Agamemnon, which
+would take it on to the coast of Newfoundland. During the whole process
+the four vessels were to remain together and give whatever assistance
+was required. While it was being laid down, messages were to be sent
+back to Valentia, reporting each day of progress.
+
+As might be supposed, the mustering of such a fleet of ships, and the
+busy note of preparation which had been heard for weeks, produced a
+great sensation in this remote part of Ireland. The people from far and
+near, gathered on the hills and looked on in silent wonder.
+
+To add to the dignity of the occasion, the Lord Lieutenant came down
+from Dublin to witness the departure of the expedition. No one could
+have been better fitted to represent his own country, and to command
+audience from ours. The Earl of Carlisle--better known among us as Lord
+Morpeth--had travelled in the United States a few years before, and
+shown himself one of the most intelligent and liberal foreigners that
+have visited America. No representative of England could on that day
+have stood upon the shores of Ireland, and stretched out his hand to his
+kindred beyond the sea with more assurance that his greeting would be
+warmly responded to. And never did one speak more aptly words of wisdom
+and of peace. We read them still with admiration for their beauty and
+their eloquence, and with an interest more tender but more sad, that
+this great and good man--the true friend of his own country and of
+ours--has gone to his grave. To quote his own words is the best tribute
+to his memory, and will do more than any eulogy to keep it fresh and
+green in the hearts of Americans. On his arrival at Valentia, he was
+entertained by the Knight of Kerry at one of those public breakfasts so
+much in fashion in England, at which in response to a toast in his
+honor, after making his personal acknowledgments, he said:
+
+     "I believe, as your worthy chairman has already hinted, that I
+     am probably the first Lieutenant of Ireland who ever appeared
+     upon this lovely strand. At all events, no Lord Lieutenant
+     could have come amongst you on an occasion like the present.
+     Amidst all the pride and the stirring hopes which cluster
+     around the work of this week, we ought still to remember that
+     we must speak with the modesty of those who begin and not of
+     those who close an experiment, and it behooves us to remember
+     that the pathway to great achievements has frequently to be
+     hewn out amidst risks and difficulties, and that preliminary
+     failure is even the law and condition of the ultimate success.
+     Therefore, whatever disappointments may possibly be in store, I
+     must yet insinuate to you that in a cause like this it would be
+     criminal to feel discouragement. In the very design and
+     endeavor to establish the Atlantic Telegraph there is almost
+     enough of glory. It is true if it be only an attempt there
+     would not be quite enough of profit. I hope that will come,
+     too; but there is enough of public spirit, of love for science,
+     for our country, for the human race, almost to suffice in
+     themselves. However, upon this rocky frontlet of Ireland, at
+     all events, to-day we will presume upon success. We are about,
+     either by this sundown or by to-morrow's dawn, to establish a
+     new material link between the Old World and the New. Moral
+     links there have been--links of race, links of commerce, links
+     of friendship, links of literature, links of glory; but this,
+     our new link, instead of superseding and supplanting the old
+     ones, is to give a life and an intensity which they never had
+     before. Highly as I value the reputations of those who have
+     conceived, and those who have contributed to carry out this
+     bright design--and I wish that so many of them had not been
+     unavoidably prevented from being amongst us at this
+     moment[A]--highly as I estimate their reputation, yet I do not
+     compliment them with the idea that they are to efface or dim
+     the glory of that Columbus, who, when the large vessels in the
+     harbor of Cork yesterday weighed their anchors, did so on that
+     very day three hundred and sixty-five years ago--it would have
+     been called in Hebrew writ a year of years--and set sail upon
+     his glorious enterprise of discovery. They, I say, will not dim
+     or efface his glory, but they are now giving the last finish
+     and consummation to his work. Hitherto the inhabitants of the
+     two worlds have associated perhaps in the chilling atmosphere
+     of distance with each other--a sort of bowing distance; but now
+     we can be hand to hand, grasp to grasp, pulse to pulse. The
+     link, which is now to connect us, like the insect in the
+     immortal couplet of our poet:
+
+                                While exquisitely fine,
+          Feels at each thread and lives along the line.
+
+     And we may feel, gentlemen of Ireland, of England, and of
+     America, that we may take our stand here upon the extreme
+     rocky edge of our beloved Ireland; we may, as it were, leave
+     in our rear behind us the wars, the strifes, and the bloodshed
+     of the elder Europe, and of the elder Asia; and we may pledge
+     ourselves, weak as our agency may be, imperfect as our powers
+     may be, inadequate in strict diplomatic form as our credentials
+     may be, yet, in the face of the unparalleled circumstances, of
+     the place and the hour, in the immediate neighborhood of the
+     mighty vessels whose appearance may be beautiful upon the
+     waters, even as are the feet upon the mountains of those who
+     preach the Gospel of peace--as an homage due to that serene
+     science which often affords higher and holier lessons of
+     harmony and good will than the wayward passions of man are
+     always apt to learn--in the face and in the strength of such
+     circumstances, let us pledge ourselves to eternal peace between
+     the Old World and the New."
+
+While these greetings were exchanged on shore, only the smaller vessels
+of the squadron had arrived. But in a few hours the great hulls of the
+Niagara and the Agamemnon, followed by the Leopard and the Susquehanna,
+were seen in the horizon, and soon they all cast anchor in the bay. As
+the sun went down in the west, shining still on the other hemisphere
+which they were going to seek, its last rays fell on an expedition more
+suggestive and hopeful than any since that of Columbus from the shores
+of Spain, and upon navigators not unworthy to be his followers.
+
+The whole squadron was now assembled, and made gallant array. There were
+present in the little harbor of Valentia seven ships--the stately
+Niagara, which was to lay the half of the cable from Ireland, and her
+consort, the Susquehanna, riding by her side; while floating the flag of
+England, were the Agamemnon, which was appointed to lay the cable on the
+American side, and her consort, the Leopard. Beside these high-decked
+ships of war, the steamer Advice had come round to give, not merely
+advice but lusty help in landing the cable at Valentia; and the little
+steamer Willing Mind, with a zeal worthy of her name, was flying back
+and forth between ship and shore, lending a hand wherever there was work
+to be done; and the Cyclops, under the experienced command of Captain
+Dayman, who had made the deep-sea soundings across the Atlantic only the
+month before, here joined the squadron to lead the way across the deep.
+This made five English ships, with but two American; but to keep up our
+part, there were two more steamers on the other side of the sea, the
+Arctic, under Lieutenant Berryman, and the Company's steamer Victoria,
+to watch for the coming of the fleet off the coast of Newfoundland, and
+help in landing the cable on the shores of the New World.
+
+It was now Tuesday evening, the fourth of August, too late to undertake
+the landing that night, but preparations were at once begun for it the
+next morning. Said the correspondent of the Liverpool Post:
+
+     "The ships were visited in the course of the evening by the
+     Directors and others interested in the great undertaking, and
+     arrangements were immediately commenced on board the Niagara
+     for paying out the shore rope for conveyance to the mainland.
+     These arrangements were fully perfected by Wednesday morning;
+     but for some hours the state of the weather rendered it
+     doubtful whether operations could be safely proceeded with.
+     Toward the afternoon the breeze calmed down, and at two o'clock
+     it was decided that an effort should be made to land the cable
+     at once. The process of uncoiling into the small boats
+     commenced at half-past two, and the scene at this period was
+     grand and exciting in the highest degree.
+
+     "Valentia Bay was studded with innumerable small craft, decked
+     with the gayest bunting--small boats flitted hither and
+     thither, their occupants cheering enthusiastically as the work
+     successfully progressed. The cable-boats were managed by the
+     sailors of the Niagara and Susquehanna, and it was a
+     well-designed compliment, and indicative of the future
+     fraternization of the nations, that the shore rope was arranged
+     to be presented at this side the Atlantic to the representative
+     of the Queen, by the officers and men of the United States
+     navy, and that at the other side the British officers and
+     sailors should make a similar presentation to the President of
+     the Great Republic.
+
+     "From the main land the operations were watched with intense
+     interest. For several hours the Lord Lieutenant stood on the
+     beach, surrounded by his staff and the directors of the railway
+     and telegraph companies, waiting the arrival of the cable, and
+     when at length the American sailors jumped through the surge
+     with the hawser to which it was attached, his Excellency was
+     among the first to lay hold of it and pull it lustily to the
+     shore. Indeed every one present seemed desirous of having a
+     hand in the great work; and never before perhaps were there so
+     many willing assistants, at 'the long pull, the strong pull,
+     and the pull all together.'
+
+     "At half-past seven o'clock the cable was hauled on shore, and
+     formal presentation was made of it to the Lord Lieutenant by
+     Captain Pennock, of the Niagara; his Excellency expressing a
+     hope that the work so well begun would be carried to a
+     satisfactory completion."
+
+The wire having been secured to a house on the beach, the Reverend Mr.
+Day, of Kenmore, advanced and offered the following prayer:
+
+     "O Eternal Lord God, who alone spreadest out the heavens, and
+     rulest the raging of the sea; who hast compassed the water with
+     bounds, till day and night come to an end; and whom the winds
+     and the sea obey; look down in mercy, we beseech thee, upon us
+     thy servants, who now approach the throne of grace; and let our
+     prayer ascend before thee with acceptance. Thou hast commanded
+     and encouraged us, in all our ways, to acknowledge thee, and to
+     commit our works to thee; and thou hast graciously promised to
+     direct our paths, and to prosper our handiwork. We desire now
+     to look up to thee; and believing that without thy help and
+     blessing, nothing can prosper or succeed, we humbly commit this
+     work, and all who are engaged in it, to thy care and guidance.
+     Let it please thee to grant to us thy servants wisdom and
+     power, to complete what we have been led by thy Providence to
+     undertake; that being begun and carried on in the spirit of
+     prayer, and in dependence upon thee, it may tend to thy glory:
+     and to the good of all nations, by promoting the increase of
+     unity, peace, and concord.
+
+     "Overrule, we pray thee, every obstacle, and remove every
+     difficulty which would prevent us from succeeding in this
+     important undertaking. Control the winds and the sea by thy
+     Almighty power, and grant us such favorable weather that we may
+     be enabled to lay the Cable safely and effectually. And may thy
+     hand of power and mercy be so acknowledged by all, that the
+     language of every heart may be, 'Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
+     us, but unto thy name give glory,' that so thy name may be
+     hallowed and magnified in us and by us.
+
+     "Finally, we beseech thee to implant within us a spirit of
+     humility and childlike dependence upon thee; and teach us to
+     feel as well as to say, 'If the Lord will, we shall do this or
+     that.'
+
+     "Hear us, O Lord, and answer us in these our petitions,
+     according to thy precious promise, for Jesus Christ's sake.
+     Amen."
+
+The Lord Lieutenant then spoke once more--words that amid such a scene
+and at such an hour, sank into all hearts:
+
+     "My American, English, and Irish friends, I feel at such a
+     moment as this that no language of mine can be becoming except
+     that of prayer and praise. However, it is allowable to any
+     human lips, though they have not been specially qualified for
+     the office, to raise the ascription of 'Glory to God in the
+     highest; on earth peace, good-will to men.' That, I believe, is
+     the spirit in which this great work has been undertaken; and it
+     is this reflection that encourages me to feel confident hopes
+     in its final success. I believe that the great work now so
+     happily begun will accomplish many great and noble purposes of
+     trade, of national policy, and of empire. But there is only
+     one view in which I will present it to those whom I have the
+     pleasure to address. You are aware--you must know, some of you,
+     from your own experience--that many of your dear friends and
+     near relatives have left their native land to receive
+     hospitable shelter in America. Well, then, I do not expect that
+     all of you can understand the wondrous mechanism by which this
+     great undertaking is to be carried on. But this, I think, you
+     all of you understand. If you wished to communicate some piece
+     of intelligence straightway to your relatives across the wide
+     world of waters--if you wished to tell those whom you know it
+     would interest in their heart of hearts, of a birth, or a
+     marriage, or, alas, a death, among you, the little cord, which
+     we have now hauled up to the shore, will impart that tidings
+     quicker than the flash of the lightning. Let us indeed hope,
+     let us pray that the hopes of those who have set on foot this
+     great design, may be rewarded by its entire success; and let us
+     hope, further, that this Atlantic Cable will, in all future
+     time, serve as an emblem of that strong cord of love which I
+     trust will always unite the British islands to the great
+     continent of America. And you will join me in my fervent wish
+     that the Giver of all good, who has enabled some of his
+     servants to discern so much of the working of the mighty laws
+     by which he fills the universe, will further so bless this
+     wonderful work, as to make it even more to serve the high
+     purpose of the good of man, and tend to his great glory. And
+     now, all my friends, as there can be no project or undertaking
+     which ought not to receive the approbation and applause of the
+     people, will you join with me in giving three hearty cheers for
+     it? [Loud cheering.] Three cheers are not enough for me--they
+     are what we give on common occasions--and as it is for the
+     success of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable, I must have at least
+     one dozen cheers. [Loud and protracted cheering.]"
+
+Mr. Brooking, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Atlantic
+Telegraph Company, then expressed the thanks which all felt to the Lord
+Lieutenant for his presence on that occasion.
+
+Then there were loud calls for Mr. Field. He could only answer:
+
+     "I have no words to express the feelings which fill my heart
+     to-night--it beats with love and affection for every man, woman
+     and child who hears me. I may say, however, that, if ever at
+     the other side of the waters now before us, any one of you
+     shall present himself at my door and say that he took hand or
+     part, even by an approving smile, in our work here to-day, he
+     shall have a true American welcome. I cannot bind myself to
+     more, and shall merely say: 'What God has joined together, let
+     not man put asunder.'"
+
+Thus closed this most interesting scene. The Lord Lieutenant was obliged
+to return at once to the capital. He therefore left, and posted that
+night to Killarney, and the next day returned by special train to
+Dublin, leaving the ships to complete the work so happily begun.
+
+The landing of the cable took place on Wednesday, the fifth of August,
+near the hour of sunset. As it was too late to proceed that evening, the
+ships remained at anchor till the morning. They got under weigh at an
+early hour, but were soon checked by an accident which detained them
+another day. Before they had gone five miles, the heavy shore end of the
+cable caught in the machinery and parted. The Niagara put back, and the
+cable was "underrun" the whole distance. At length the end was lifted
+out of the water and spliced to the gigantic coil, and as it dropped
+safely to the bottom of the sea, the mighty ship began to stir. At first
+she moved very slowly, not more than two miles an hour, to avoid the
+danger of accident; but the feeling that they were at last away was
+itself a relief. The ships were all in sight, and so near that they
+could hear each other's bells. The Niagara, as if knowing that she was
+bound for the land out of whose forests she came, bowed her head to the
+waves, as her prow was turned toward her native shores.
+
+Slowly passed the hours of that day. But all went well, and the ships
+were moving out into the broad Atlantic. At length the sun went down in
+the west, and stars came out on the face of the deep. But no man slept.
+A thousand eyes were watching a great experiment as those who have a
+personal interest in the issue. All through that night, and through the
+anxious days and nights that followed, there was a feeling in every soul
+on board, as if some dear friend were at the turning-point of life or
+death, and they were watching beside him. There was a strange, unnatural
+silence in the ship. Men paced the deck with soft and muffled tread,
+speaking only in whispers, as if a loud voice or a heavy footfall might
+snap the vital cord. So much had they grown to feel for the enterprise,
+that the cable seemed to them like a human creature, on whose fate they
+hung, as if it were to decide their own destiny.
+
+There are some who will never forget that first night at sea. Perhaps
+the reaction from the excitement on shore made the impression the
+deeper. There are moments in life when every thing comes back upon us.
+What memories came up in those long night hours! How many on board that
+ship, as they stood on the deck and watched that mysterious cord
+disappearing in the darkness, thought of homes beyond the sea, of absent
+ones, of the distant and the dead!
+
+But no musings turn them from the work in hand. There are vigilant eyes
+on deck. Mr. Bright, the engineer of the Company, is there, and Mr.
+Everett, Mr. De Sauty, the electrician, and Professor Morse. The
+paying-out machinery does its work, and though it makes a constant
+rumble in the ship, that dull, heavy sound is music to their ears, as it
+tells them that all is well. If one should drop to sleep, and wake up at
+night, he has only to hear the sound of "the old coffee-mill," and his
+fears are relieved, and he goes to sleep again.
+
+Saturday was a day of beautiful weather. The ships were getting farther
+away from land, and began to steam ahead at the rate of four and five
+miles an hour. The cable was paid out at a speed a little faster than
+that of the ship, to allow for any inequalities of surface on the bottom
+of the sea. While it was thus going overboard, communication was kept up
+constantly with the land. Every moment the current was passing between
+ship and shore. The communication was as perfect as between Liverpool
+and London, or Boston and New York. Not only did the electricians
+telegraph back to Valentia the progress they were making, but the
+officers on board sent messages to their friends in America, to go out
+by the steamers from Liverpool. The heavens seemed to smile on them that
+day. The coils came up from below the deck without a kink, and unwinding
+themselves easily, passed over the stern into the sea. Once or twice an
+alarm was created by the cable being thrown off the wheels. This was
+owing to the sheaves not being wide enough and deep enough, and being
+filled with tar, which hardened in the air. This was a great defect of
+the machinery which was remedied in the later expeditions. Still it
+worked well, and so long as those terrible brakes kept off their iron
+gripe, it might work through to the end.
+
+All day Sunday the same favoring fortune continued; and when the
+officers, who could be spared from the deck, met in the cabin, and
+Captain Hudson read the service, it was with subdued voices and grateful
+hearts they responded to the prayers to Him who spreadeth out the
+heavens, and ruleth the raging of the sea.
+
+On Monday they were over two hundred miles at sea. They had got far
+beyond the shallow waters off the coast. They had passed over the
+submarine mountain which figures on the charts of Dayman and Berryman,
+and where Mr. Bright's log gives a descent from five hundred and fifty
+to seventeen hundred and fifty fathoms within eight miles! Then they
+came to the deeper waters of the Atlantic, where the cable sank to the
+awful depth of two thousand fathoms. Still the iron cord buried itself
+in the waves, and every instant the flash of light in the darkened
+telegraph room told of the passage of the electric current.
+
+But Monday evening, about nine o'clock, occurred a mysterious
+interruption, which staggered all on board. Suddenly the electrical
+continuity was lost. The cable was not broken, but it ceased to work.
+Here was a mystery. De Sauty tried it, and Professor Morse tried it. But
+neither could make it work. It seemed that all was over. The
+electricians gave it up, and the engineers were preparing to cut the
+cable, and to endeavor to wind it in, when suddenly _the electricity
+came back again_. This made the mystery greater than ever. It had been
+interrupted for two hours and a half. This was a phenomenon which has
+never been explained. Professor Morse was of opinion that the cable, in
+getting off the wheels, had been strained so as to open the
+gutta-percha, and thus destroy the insulation. If this be the true
+explanation, it would seem that on reaching the bottom the seam had
+closed, and thus the continuity had been restored. But it was certainly
+an untoward incident, which "cast ominous conjecture on the whole
+success," as it seemed to indicate that there were at the bottom of the
+sea causes which were wholly unknown and against which it was impossible
+to provide.
+
+The return of the current was like life from the dead. Says Mullaly:
+
+     "The glad news was soon circulated throughout the ship, and all
+     felt as if they had a new life. A rough, weather-beaten old
+     sailor, who had assisted in coiling many a long mile of it on
+     board the Niagara, and who was among the first to run to the
+     telegraph office to have the news confirmed, said he would have
+     given fifty dollars out of his pay to have saved that cable. 'I
+     have watched nearly every mile of it,' he added, 'as it came
+     over the side, and I would have given fifty dollars, poor as I
+     am, to have saved it, although I don't expect to make any thing
+     by it when it is laid down.' In his own simple way he expressed
+     the feelings of every one on board, for all are as much
+     interested in the success of the enterprise as the largest
+     shareholder in the Company. They talked of the cable as they
+     would of a pet child, and never was child treated with deeper
+     solicitude than that with which the cable is watched by them.
+     You could see the tears standing in the eyes of some as they
+     almost cried for joy, and told their messmates that it was all
+     right."
+
+It was indeed a great relief; and though still anxious, after watching
+till past midnight, a few crept to their couches, to snatch an hour or
+two of broken sleep. But before the morning broke, the hopes thus
+revived were again and finally destroyed.
+
+The cable was running out freely at the rate of six miles an hour, while
+the ship was advancing but about four. This was supposed to be owing to
+a powerful under-current. To check this waste, the engineer applied the
+brakes firmly, which at once stopped the machine. The effect was to
+bring a heavy strain on the cable that was in the water. The stern of
+the ship was down in the trough of the sea, and as it rose upward on the
+swell, the tension was too great, and the cable parted.
+
+Instantly ran through the ship a cry of grief and dismay. She was
+stopped in her onward path, and in a few minutes all gathered on deck
+with feelings which may be imagined. One who was present wrote: "The
+unbidden tear started to many a manly eye. The interest taken in the
+enterprise by all, every one, officers and men, exceeded any thing I
+ever saw, and there is no wonder that there should have been so much
+emotion at our failure." Captain Hudson says: "It made all hands of us
+through the day like a household or family which had lost their dearest
+friend, for officers and men had been deeply interested in the success
+of the enterprise."
+
+There was nothing left but to return to England. The position is very
+clearly stated by Mr. Field in a letter to one of his family, which
+shows how his own courage survived the great disaster:--
+
+                              "H. M. Steamer Leopard,
+                              Thursday, August 13, 1857.
+
+     "The successful laying down of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable is
+     put off for a short time, but its final triumph has been fully
+     proved, by the experience that we have had since we left
+     Valentia. My confidence was never so strong as at the present
+     time, and I feel sure, that with God's blessing, we shall
+     connect Europe and America with the electric cord.
+
+     "After having successfully laid--and part of the time while a
+     heavy sea was running--three hundred and thirty-five miles of
+     the cable, and over one hundred miles of it in water more than
+     two miles in depth, the brakes were applied more firmly, by
+     order of Mr. Bright, the engineer, to prevent the cable from
+     going out so fast, and it parted.
+
+     "I retired to my state-room at a little after midnight Monday,
+     all going on well, and at a quarter before four o'clock on
+     Tuesday morning, the eleventh instant, I was awoke from my
+     sleep by the cry of 'Stop her, back her!' and in a moment Mr.
+     Bright was in my room, with the sad intelligence that the cable
+     was broken. In as short a time as possible I was dressed, and
+     on deck; and Captain Hudson at once signaled the other steamers
+     that the cable had parted, and in a few moments Captain
+     Wainwright, of the Leopard, and Captain Sands, of the
+     Susquehanna, were on board of the Niagara.
+
+     "I requested Captain Wainwright, the commander of the English
+     Telegraph Fleet, to order the Agamemnon to remain with the
+     Niagara and Susquehanna, in this deep part of the Atlantic for
+     a few days, to try certain experiments which will be of great
+     value to us, and then sail with them back to England, and all
+     wait at Plymouth until further orders. I further requested
+     Captain Wainwright to order the Cyclops to sound here where the
+     cable parted, and then steam back to Valentia, with letters
+     from me to Dr. Whitehouse, and Mr. Saward, the secretary of the
+     Atlantic Telegraph Company; and that he should take me in the
+     Leopard as soon as possible to Portsmouth.
+
+     "All of my requests were cheerfully complied with, and in a few
+     hours the Cyclops had sounded, and found the bottom at two
+     thousand fathoms, and was on her way back to Valentia with
+     letters from me; the Niagara and the Agamemnon were connected
+     together by the cable, and engaged in trying experiments; the
+     Susquehanna in attendance, and the Leopard, with your
+     affectionate ---- on board, on her way back to England.
+
+     "In my letter to Dr. Whitehouse I requested him to telegraph to
+     London, and have a special meeting of the Directors called for
+     twelve o'clock on Saturday, to decide whether we should have
+     more cable made at once, and try again this season, or wait
+     until next year.
+
+     "I shall close this letter on board, so as to have it ready to
+     mail the moment we arrive at Portsmouth, as I wish to leave by
+     the very next train for London, so as to be there in time to
+     meet the Directors Saturday noon, and read them my report,
+     which I am busy making up.
+
+     "Do not think that I feel discouraged, or am in low spirits,
+     for I am not; and I think I can see how this accident will be
+     of great advantage to the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
+
+     "All the officers and men on board of the Telegraph Fleet, seem
+     to take the greatest interest in our enterprise, and are very
+     desirous to go out in the ships the next time.
+
+     "Since my arrival, I have received the greatest kindness and
+     attention from all whom I have met, from the Lord Lieutenant of
+     Ireland, down to the cabin-boys and sailors. The inclosed
+     letter from the Knight of Kerry, I received with a basket of
+     hothouse fruit, just as we were getting ready to leave Valentia
+     harbor.
+
+                              Your ----
+                              "Cyrus W. Field."
+
+The day that this was written, Mr. Field landed at Portsmouth, and at
+once hastened to London to meet the Directors. At first it was a
+question if they should renew the expedition this year. But their brief
+experience had shown the need of more ample preparations for their next
+attempt. They required six hundred miles more of cable to make up for
+over three hundred lost in the sea, and to provide a surplus so as to
+run no risk of falling short from other accidents; and most of all they
+needed better machinery to pay out the cable into the ocean. These
+preparations required time, and before they could be made, it would be
+late in the autumn. Hence they reluctantly decided to defer the
+expedition till another year. The Niagara and the Agamemnon therefore
+discharged their cable at Plymouth, whence the Niagara returned home;
+and Mr. Field, after remaining a few weeks in London to complete the
+preparations for the next year, sailed for America.
+
+He returned to find that a commercial hurricane had swept over the
+country, in which a thousand stately fortunes had gone down, and in
+which the wealth he had accumulated by years of toil had nearly suffered
+shipwreck. Such were the tidings that met him on landing. It had been a
+year of disappointments in England and America--of disasters on land and
+sea--and all his high hopes were
+
+     In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Mr. Field was detained by illness at Valentia, and several of the
+ships had not arrived.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE FIRST EXPEDITION OF 1858.
+
+
+The expedition of 1857 was little more than an experiment on a grand
+scale. As such it had its use; but its abrupt ending within three
+hundred miles of the Irish coast was a severe shock to public
+confidence. Up to that time the enterprise had been accepted by the
+people of England and of America, almost without considering its
+magnitude and difficulty. They had taken it for granted as a thing which
+must some day be accomplished by human skill and perseverance. But now
+it had been tried and failed. This first expedition opened their eyes to
+the vastness of the undertaking, and led many to doubt who did not doubt
+before. Some even began to look upon it as a romantic adventure of the
+sea, rather than a serious undertaking. This decline of popular faith
+was felt as soon as there was a call for more money. Men reasoned that
+if the former attempt was but an experiment, it was rather a costly one.
+The loss of three hundred and thirty-five miles of cable, with the
+postponement of the expedition to another year, was equivalent to a loss
+of a hundred thousand pounds. To make this good, the Directors had to
+enlarge the capital of the Company. This new capital was not so readily
+obtained. Those who had subscribed before, thought they had lost enough;
+and the public stood aloof till they could see the result of the next
+experiment. The projectors found that it was easy to go with the current
+of popular enthusiasm, but very hard to stem a growing popular distrust.
+They found how great an element of success in all public enterprises is
+public confidence.
+
+But against this very revulsion of feeling they had been already warned.
+The Earl of Carlisle the year before had cautioned them against being
+too sanguine of immediate results, and reminded them that "preliminary
+failure was even the law and condition of ultimate success." There were
+many who now remembered his words, and on whom the lesson was not lost.
+
+But whatever the depression at the failure of the first attempt to lay a
+telegraph across the ocean, and at the thick-coming disasters on land
+and sea, it did not interfere with renewed and vigorous efforts to
+prepare for a second expedition. The Directors gave orders for the
+manufacture of seven hundred miles of new cable, to make up for the loss
+of the previous year, and to provide a surplus against all
+contingencies. And the Government promised again its powerful aid.
+
+In America, Mr. Field went to Washington to ask a second time the use of
+the ships, which had already represented the country so well. He made
+also a special request for the services of Mr. William E. Everett. This
+gentleman had been the chief-engineer of the Niagara the year before. He
+had watched closely the paying-out machine, as it was put together on
+the deck, and as it worked on the voyage, and with the eye of a
+practised mechanic, he saw that it required great alterations. It was
+too cumbrous, had too many wheels, and especially its brakes shut down
+with a gripe that would snap the strongest chain cable.[A] Mr. Field saw
+that this was the man to remedy the defects of the old machine, and to
+make one that would work more smoothly. He therefore applied especially
+for his services. To the credit of the administration, it granted both
+requests in the most handsome manner. "There," said the Secretary of the
+Navy, handing Mr. Field the official letter, "I have given you all you
+asked."
+
+After such an answer he did not wait long. The letter is dated the
+thirtieth of December, and in just one week, on the sixth of January, he
+sailed in the Persia for England with Mr. Everett. Scarcely had he
+arrived in London before he was made the General Manager of the Company,
+with control of the entire staff, including electricians and engineers.
+The following extract from the minutes of the Board of Directors, dated
+January 27, 1858, explains the new position to which he was invited:
+
+     "The Directors having for several months felt that it would
+     greatly advance the interests of this enterprise, if Mr. Cyrus
+     W. Field, of New York, could be induced to come over to
+     England, for the purpose of undertaking the general management
+     and supervision of all the various arrangements that would be
+     required to be carried out before the sailing of the next
+     expedition; application was made to Mr. Field, with the view of
+     securing his consent to the proposal, and he arrived in this
+     country on the sixteenth instant, when it was ascertained that
+     he would be willing, if unanimously desired by the Directors,
+     to act in behalf of the Company as proposed; and Mr. Field
+     having retired, it was unanimously resolved to tender him, in
+     respect to such services, the sum of L1000 over and above his
+     travelling and other expenses, as remuneration."
+
+This resolution was at once communicated to Mr. Field, who replied that
+he would undertake the duties of General Manager, but declined the offer
+of L1000, preferring to give his services to the Company without
+compensation. Whereupon the Directors immediately passed another
+resolution:
+
+     "That Mr. Field's kind and generous offer be accepted by this
+     Board; and that their best thanks are hereby tendered to him
+     for his devotion to the interests of the undertaking."
+
+The following, passed a few weeks later, March 26, was designed to
+emphasize the authority given over all the employes of the Company:
+
+     "_Resolved_, That Mr. Cyrus W. Field, General Manager of the
+     Company, is hereby authorized and empowered to give such
+     directions and orders to the officers composing the staff of
+     the Company, as he may from time to time deem necessary and
+     expedient with regard to all matters connected with the
+     business proceedings of the Company, subject to the control of
+     the Directors.
+
+     "_Resolved_, That the staff of the Company be notified hereof,
+     and required to observe and follow such directions as may be
+     issued by the General Manager."
+
+As Mr. Field was thus invested with the entire charge of the
+preparations for the next expedition, he was made responsible for it,
+and felt it due alike to himself and to the Company to omit no means to
+insure success. It was therefore his duty to examine into every detail.
+The manufacture of the new cable was already under way, and there was no
+opportunity to make any change in its construction, even if any had been
+desired. But there was another matter which was quite as important to
+success--the construction of the paying-out machines. This had been the
+great defect of the previous year, and, while it continued, would render
+success almost impossible. No matter how many hundreds or thousands of
+miles of cable might be made, if the machinery was not fitted to pay it
+out into the sea, it would be constantly broken. To remedy these defects
+was an object of anxious solicitude, and to this the new manager gave
+his first attention. Hardly was he in London before Mr. Everett was
+installed at the large machine works of Easton and Amos, in Southwark,
+where, surrounded by plans and models, he devoted himself for three
+months to studying out a better invention for this most important work.
+At the end of that time he had a model complete, and invited a number of
+the most eminent engineers of London to witness its operation. Among
+these were Mr. Brunel, and Messrs. Lloyd, Penn, and Field, who had given
+the enterprise the benefit of their counsel for months, refusing all
+compensation; Mr. Charles T. Bright, the engineer of the Company, and
+his two assistants, Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford, and Mr. Follansbee,
+the chief-engineer of the Niagara, in the place Mr. Everett had occupied
+the year before. The machine was set in motion, and all saw its
+operation, while Mr. Everett explained its parts, and the difficulties
+which he had tried to overcome. It was obvious at a glance that it was a
+great improvement on that of the former year. It was much smaller and
+lighter. It would take up only about one-third of the room on the deck,
+and had only one-fourth the weight of the old machine. Its construction
+was much more simple. Instead of four heavy wheels, it had but two, and
+these were made to revolve with ease, and without danger of sudden
+check, by the application of what were known as self-releasing brakes.
+These were the invention of Mr. Appold, of London, a gentleman of
+fortune, but with a strong taste for mechanics, which led him to spend
+his time and wealth in exercising his mechanical ingenuity. These brakes
+were so adjusted as to bear only a certain strain, when they released
+themselves. This ingenious contrivance was applied by Mr. Everett to the
+paying-out machinery. The strength of the cable was such that it would
+not break except under a tension of a little over three tons. The
+machinery was so adjusted that not more than half that strain could
+possibly come upon the cable, when the brakes would relax their grasp,
+the wheels revolve easily, and the cable run out into the sea without a
+jar. The paying-out machine, therefore, we are far from claiming as
+wholly an American invention. This part of the mechanism was English.
+The merit of Mr. Everett lay in the skill with which he adapted it to
+the laying of the Atlantic cable, and in his improvements of other parts
+of the machinery. The whole construction, as it afterwards stood upon
+the decks of the Niagara and the Agamemnon, was the product of English
+and American invention combined. The engineers, who now saw it for the
+first time, were delighted. It seemed to have the intelligence of a
+human being, to know when to hold on, and when to let go. All felt that
+the great difficulty in laying the cable was removed, and that under
+this gentle manipulation it would glide easily and smoothly from the
+ship into the sea.
+
+While these preparations were going on in London, the Niagara, which did
+not leave New York till the ninth of March, arrived at Plymouth, under
+command of Captain Hudson, to take on board her share of the cable. Both
+ships had discharged their burden at Keyham Docks, where the precious
+freight was passed through a composition of tar and pitch and
+linseed-oil and beeswax, to preserve it from injury, and had been coiled
+under cover to be kept safely through the winter. The Agamemnon was
+already at Plymouth, having been designated by the Admiralty again to
+take part in the work, though under a new commander, Captain George W.
+Preedy, an excellent officer. The place of the Leopard was taken by the
+Gorgon, under command of Captain Dayman, who had made the deep-sea
+soundings in the Cyclops the year before.
+
+While the English Government was thus prompt in furnishing its ships,
+news arrived from America that the Company could not have again the
+assistance of the Susquehanna, which had accompanied the Niagara on the
+preceding expedition. She was in the West-Indies, and the yellow fever
+had broken out on board. What should be done? It was late to apply again
+to the American Government, and it was doubtful what would be the
+result of the application. This threatened some embarrassment. Mr. Field
+resolved the difficulty in a way which showed his confidence in the
+great and generous Government on the other side of the water, with which
+he had occasion so often to deal. Without waiting for the action of the
+Company, he called a cab, and drove straight to the Admiralty, and sent
+in his card to Sir John Pakington, then First Lord of the Admiralty.
+This gentleman, like his predecessor, Sir Charles Wood, had shown the
+most friendly interest in the Atlantic Telegraph, and given it his
+warmest support. Mr. Field was received at once, and began with true
+American eagerness: "I am ashamed to come to you, after what the English
+Government has done for us. But here is our case. We are disappointed in
+the Susquehanna. She is in the West-Indies, with the yellow fever on
+board. She cannot come to England to take part in the expedition. Can
+you do anything for us?" Sir John replied that the Government had not
+ships enough for its own use; that it was at that very moment chartering
+vessels to take troops to Malta--"but he would see what he could do." In
+an hour or two he sent word to the office of the Company, that Her
+Majesty's ship Valorous--commanded by Captain W. C. Aldham, an officer
+of great experience--had been ordered to take the place of the
+Susquehanna in the next expedition. We mention this little incident,
+not so much to illustrate Mr. Field's prompt and quick manner of
+deciding and acting, as to show the noble and generous spirit in which
+the English Government responded to every appeal.
+
+The reshipping of the cable at Plymouth occupied the whole month of
+April and part of May. Some changes were made in the mode adopted, it
+being coiled around large cones. The work was done as before, by a
+hundred and sixty men detailed for the purpose, of whom one fourth were
+the workmen of the Company, and the rest sailors who had volunteered for
+the duty. These were divided into gangs of forty, that relieved each
+other, by which the work went on day and night. In this way they coiled
+about thirty miles in the twenty-four hours. Owing to the increased
+length of cable, and the greater care in coiling, it took a longer time
+than the year before. The whole was completed about the middle of May.
+There was then in all, on board the two ships, a little over three
+thousand statute miles. This included, besides seven hundred miles of
+new cable, thirty-nine miles of that lost the year before, which had
+been recovered by the Company, and a few miles of condemned cable from
+Greenwich, which was put on board for experiments. The shipment being
+thus complete, and the paying-out machines in position, the ships were
+ready to make a trial trip, preparatory to their final departure.
+
+For this purpose the telegraphic squadron sailed from Plymouth on
+Saturday, the twenty-ninth of May, and bore southward two or three
+hundred miles, till the green color of the sea changing to a deep blue,
+showed that they had reached the great depths of the ocean. They were
+now in the waters of the Bay of Biscay, where the soundings were over
+twenty-five hundred fathoms. Here the Niagara and the Agamemnon were
+connected by a hawser, being about a quarter of a mile apart. The cable
+was then passed from one to the other, and a series of experiments
+begun, designed to test both the strength of the cable and the working
+of the machinery. Two miles of the cable were paid out, when it parted.
+This would have seemed a bad sign, had it been any other part of the
+cable than that which was known to be imperfect and had long since been
+condemned. The next day three miles were paid out. This, too, was
+broken, but only when they tried to haul it in, and under a pressure of
+several tons.
+
+Other experiments were tried, such as splicing the cable, and lowering
+it to the bottom of the sea--an operation which it was thought might be
+critical in mid-ocean, but which was performed without difficulty--and
+running out the cable at a rapid rate, when the speed of the ship was
+increased to seven knots, without causing the cable to break, or even to
+kink. On the whole, the result of the trip was satisfactory. The
+paying-out machine of Mr. Everett worked well, and the electric
+continuity through the whole cable was perfect. It was on this
+expedition that was used for the first time the marine mirror
+galvanometer of Professor Thomson, by whom it had been invented for
+marine testing within the previous four weeks, and which afterwards
+proved an instrument so important to the success of ocean telegraphy.
+After these experiments the squadron returned to Plymouth.
+
+As it happened, the present writer had just arrived in England, and
+landing at Falmouth, hastened to Plymouth, where the ships were lying in
+the Sound. It was Saturday, the fifth of June, and the next day, by
+invitation of Captain Hudson, he conducted Divine service on the
+Niagara, where an awning was spread over the quarter-deck, round which
+were grouped the officers of the ship, behind whom were crowded four or
+five hundred seamen. If it was a pleasure in such circumstances to speak
+to one's countrymen, it was not less to be received with equal kindness
+on board the Agamemnon. To see these two mighty ships of war, with their
+consorts, lying side by side, not with guns run out, but engaged in a
+mission of peace, seemed indeed an omen of the good time coming, when
+nations shall learn war no more.
+
+Among the matters of personal solicitude and anxiety at this time--next
+to the success of the expedition--was Mr. Field himself. He was working
+with an activity which was unnatural--which could only be kept up by
+great excitement, and which involved the most serious danger. The strain
+on the man was more than the strain on the cable, and we were in fear
+that both would break together. Often he had no sleep, except such as he
+caught flying on the railway. Indeed, when we remonstrated, he said he
+could rest better there than anywhere else, for then he was not
+tormented with the thought of any thing undone. For the time being he
+could do no more; and putting his head in the cushioned corner of the
+carriage, he got an hour or two of broken sleep.
+
+Of this activity we had an instance while in Plymouth. The ships were
+then lying in the Sound, only waiting orders from the Admiralty to go to
+sea; but some business required one of the Directors to go to Paris, and
+as usual, it fell upon Mr. Field. He left on Sunday night and went to
+Bristol, and thence, by the first morning train, to London. Monday he
+was busy all day, and that night went to Paris. Tuesday, another busy
+day, and that night back to London. Wednesday, occupied every minute
+till the departure of the Great Western train. That night back to
+Plymouth. Thursday morning on board the Niagara, and immediately the
+squadron sailed.
+
+It was the tenth day of June that the expedition left England, with fair
+skies and bright prospects. In truth, it was a gallant sight, as these
+four ships stood out to sea together--those old companions, the Niagara
+and the Agamemnon, leading the way, followed by their new attendants,
+the Valorous and the Gorgon. Never did a voyage begin with better omens.
+The day was one of the mildest of June, and the sea so still, that one
+could scarcely perceive, by the motion of the ship, when they passed
+beyond the breakwater off Plymouth harbor into the Channel, or into the
+open sea. At night, it was almost a dead calm. The second day was like
+the first. There was scarcely wind enough to swell the sails. The ships
+were all in sight, and as they kept under easy steam, they seemed bound
+on a voyage of pleasure, gliding over a summer sea to certain success.
+
+It had been supposed that the expedition of this year would have a great
+advantage over the last, from sailing two months earlier, at what was
+considered a more favorable season. So said all the wise men of the sea.
+They had given their opinion that June was the best month for crossing
+the Atlantic. Then they were almost sure of fair weather. The first
+three days of the voyage confirmed these predictions, and they who had
+made them, being found true prophets, shook their heads with great
+satisfaction.
+
+But alas! for the vanity of human expectations, or for those who put
+trust in the treacherous sea. On Sunday it began to blow. The barometer
+fell, and all signs indicated to the eye of a seaman rough weather. From
+this time they had a succession of gales for more than a week. From day
+to day it blew fiercer than before, till Sunday, the twentieth, when the
+gale was at its height, and the spirit of the storm was out on the
+Atlantic. Up to this time the Niagara and the Agamemnon (though they had
+long since parted from the Valorous and the Gorgon) had managed to keep
+in sight of each other; and now from the deck of the former the latter
+was seen a mile and a half distant, rolling heavily in the sea. The
+signals which she made showed that she was struggling with the fury of
+the gale. She was really in great danger of foundering. But this was
+owing, not merely to the severity of the gale, but to the enormous
+weight she carried, and to the way this huge bulk was stowed in the
+ship. Only a few days before we had been on board of her, and Captain
+Preedy showed us, in one coil, thirteen hundred miles of cable! This
+made a dead weight of as many hundred tons, which rendered her in rough
+weather almost unmanageable. To make the matter worse, she had another
+coil of about two hundred and fifty tons on the forward deck, where it
+made the head of the ship heavy. In her tremendous rolls, this coil
+broke loose, and threatened at a time to dash like an avalanche through
+the side of the ship. But at the most fearful moments the gallant seaman
+in command never lost his presence of mind. He was always on deck,
+watching with a vigilant eye the raging of the tempest, and issuing his
+orders with coolness and prompt decision. To this admirable skill was
+due the safety of the ship, and of all on board.[B]
+
+But all things have an end; and this long gale at last blew itself out,
+and the weary ocean rocked itself to rest. Toward the last of the week
+the squadron got together at the appointed rendezvous in mid-ocean. As
+the ships came in sight, the angry sea went down; and on Friday, June
+twenty-fifth, just fifteen days from Plymouth, they were all together,
+as tranquil in the middle of the Atlantic as if in Plymouth Sound. "This
+evening the four vessels lay together, side by side, and there was such
+a stillness in the sea and air, as would have seemed remarkable in an
+inland lake; on the Atlantic, and after what we had all so lately
+witnessed, it seemed almost unnatural." The boats were out, and the
+officers were passing from ship to ship, telling their experiences of
+the voyage, and forming their plans for the morrow. Captains Aldham and
+Dayman said it was the worst weather they had ever experienced in the
+North-Atlantic. But it was the Agamemnon that suffered most. The rough
+sea had shaken not only the ship, but the cable in her. The upper part
+of the main coil had shifted, and become so twisted and tangled, that a
+hundred miles had to be got out and coiled in another part of the ship,
+so that it was not till the afternoon of Saturday, the twenty-sixth,
+that the splice was finally made, and the cable lowered to the bottom of
+the sea. The ships were then got under way, but had not gone three
+miles, before the cable broke, being caught in the machinery on board
+the Niagara. It was fortunate they had gone no farther. Both ships at
+once turned about and spliced again the same afternoon, and made a fresh
+start. Now all went well. The paying-out machines worked smoothly, and
+the cable ran off easily into the sea. Thus each ship had paid out about
+forty miles when suddenly the current ceased!
+
+Says the writer on the Agamemnon: "At half-past three o'clock [Sunday
+morning] forty miles had gone, and nothing could be more perfect and
+regular than the working of every thing, when suddenly Professor Thomson
+came on deck, and reported a total break of continuity; that the cable
+in fact had parted, and, as was believed at the time, from the Niagara.
+In another instant a gun and a blue-light warned the Valorous of what
+had happened, and roused all on board the Agamemnon to a knowledge that
+the machinery was silent, and that the first part of the Atlantic Cable
+had been laid and lost effectually."
+
+This was disheartening, but not so much from the fact of a fresh
+breaking of the cable, as from the mystery as to its cause. The fact, of
+course, was known instantly on both ships, but the cause was unknown.
+Those on each ship supposed it had occurred on the other. With this
+impression they turned about to beat up again toward the rendezvous. It
+was noon of Monday, the twenty-eighth, before the Agamemnon rejoined the
+Niagara; and then, says the writer:
+
+     "While all were waiting with impatience for her explanation of
+     how they broke the cable, she electrified every one by running
+     up the interrogatory: 'How did the cable part?' This was
+     astounding. As soon as the boats could be lowered, Mr. Cyrus
+     Field, with the electricians from the Niagara, came on board,
+     and a comparison of logs showed the painful and mysterious fact
+     that, _at the same second of time_, each vessel discovered that
+     a total fracture had taken place at a distance of certainly not
+     less than ten miles from each ship; in fact, as well as can be
+     judged, at the bottom of the ocean. That of all the many
+     mishaps connected with the Atlantic Telegraph, this is the
+     worst and most disheartening is certain, since it proves that,
+     after all that human skill and science can effect to lay the
+     wire down with safety has been accomplished, there may be some
+     fatal obstacles to success at the bottom of the ocean, which
+     can never be guarded against; for even the nature of the peril
+     must always remain as secret and unknown as the depths in which
+     it is to be encountered."
+
+But it was no time for useless regrets. Once more the cable was joined
+in mid-ocean, and dropped to its silent bed, and the Niagara and the
+Agamemnon began to steam away toward opposite shores of the Atlantic.
+This time the experiment succeeded better than before. The progress of
+the English ship is thus reported:
+
+     "At first, the ship's speed was only two knots, the cable going
+     three and three and a half, with a strain of fifteen hundred
+     pounds. By and by, however, the speed was increased to four
+     knots, the cable going five, at a strain of two thousand
+     pounds. At this rate it was kept, with trifling variations,
+     throughout almost the whole of Monday night, and neither Mr.
+     Bright, Mr. Canning, nor Mr. Clifford ever quitted the machines
+     for an instant. Toward the middle of the night, while the rate
+     of the ship continued the same, the speed at which the cable
+     paid out slackened nearly a knot an hour, while the dynamometer
+     indicated as low as thirteen hundred pounds. This change could
+     only be accounted for on the supposition that the water had
+     shallowed to a considerable extent, and that the vessel was, in
+     fact, passing over some submarine Ben Nevis or Skiddaw. After
+     an interval of about an hour, the strain and rate of progress
+     of the cable again increased, while the increase of the
+     vertical angle seemed to indicate that the wire was sinking
+     down the side of a declivity. Beyond this, there was no
+     variation throughout Monday night, or, indeed, through
+     Tuesday."
+
+On board the Niagara was the same scene of anxious watching every hour
+of the day and night. Engineers and electricians were constantly on
+duty:
+
+     "The scene at night was beautiful. Scarcely a word was spoken;
+     silence was commanded, and no conversation allowed. Nothing
+     was heard but the strange rattling of the machine as the cable
+     was running out. The lights about deck and in the quarter-deck
+     circle added to the singularity of the spectacle; and those who
+     were on board the ship describe the state of anxious suspense
+     in which all were held as exceedingly impressive."
+
+Warned by repeated failures, they hardly dared to hope for success in
+this last experiment. And yet the spirits of all rose, as the distance
+widened between the ships. A hundred miles were laid safely--a hundred
+and fifty--two hundred! Why might they not lay two thousand? So reasoned
+the sanguine and hopeful when, Tuesday night, came the fatal
+announcement that the electric current had ceased to flow. It afterward
+appeared that the cable had broken about twenty feet from the stern of
+the Agamemnon.
+
+As the cable was now useless, it only remained to cut it from the stern
+of the Niagara. Before doing this, it was thought a good opportunity to
+test its strength. For this purpose the brakes were shut down, so that
+the paying-out machine could not move. But still the cable did not
+break, although the whole weight of the Niagara hung upon that slender
+cord, and though several men got upon the brakes. Says Captain Hudson:
+"Although the wind was quite fresh, the cable held the ship for one hour
+and forty minutes before breaking, and notwithstanding a strain of four
+tons."
+
+Though not unexpected, this last breaking of the cable was a sad blow
+to all on board. It was the end of their hopes, at least for the present
+expedition. Before separating, it had been agreed, that if the cable
+should part again before either ship had run a hundred miles, they
+should return and renew the attempt. If they had passed that limit, they
+were all to sail for Ireland. But the Niagara had run out a hundred and
+eleven miles, and knowing that the Agamemnon had done about the same,
+she expected the latter would keep on her course eastward, not stopping
+till she reached Queenstown. The Niagara, therefore, reluctantly bore
+away for the same port.
+
+Of course, the return voyage was "any thing but gay." When soldiers come
+home from the war, they march with a proud step, if they have had a
+victorious campaign. But it is otherwise when they come with a sad tale
+of disaster and defeat. Seldom had an expedition begun with higher
+hopes, or ended in more complete failure. Who could help feeling keenly
+this fresh disappointment? Even with all the courage "that may become a
+man," heightened by a natural buoyancy of spirits, how was it possible
+to resist the impression of the facts they had just witnessed? If--as
+Lord Carlisle had told them the year before--"there was almost enough of
+glory in the very design of an Atlantic telegraph," that glory might
+still be theirs. But apparently they could hope for nothing more. They
+had done all that men could do. But fate seemed against them; and who
+can fight against destiny? No one can blame them if they sometimes had
+sore misgivings, and looked out sadly upon the sea that had baffled
+their utmost skill, and now laughed their efforts to scorn.
+
+In this mood they entered once more the harbor of Queenstown. The
+Niagara was the first to arrive and to bring tidings of the great
+disaster. The Agamemnon came in a few days after. Knowing the fatal
+impression their report was likely to produce, Mr. Field hastened to
+London to meet the Directors. It was high time. The news had reached
+there before him, and had already produced its effect. Under its
+impression the Board was called together. It met in the same room where,
+six weeks before, it had discussed the prospects of the expedition with
+full confidence of success. Now it met, as a council of war is summoned
+after a terrible defeat, to decide whether to surrender or to try once
+more the chances of battle. When the Directors came together, the
+feeling--to call it by the mildest name--was one of extreme
+discouragement. They looked blankly in each other's faces. With some,
+the feeling was one almost of despair. Sir William Brown, of Liverpool,
+the first Chairman, wrote, advising them to sell the cable. Mr.
+Brooking, the Vice-Chairman, who had given more time to it than any
+other Director, when he saw that his colleagues were disposed to make
+still another trial, left the room, and the next day sent in his
+resignation, determined to take no further part in an undertaking which
+had been proved hopeless, and to persist in which seemed mere rashness
+and folly.
+
+But others thought there was still a chance. Like Robert Bruce, who,
+after twelve battles and twelve defeats, yet believed that a thirteenth
+_might_ bring victory, they clung to this bare possibility. Mr. Field
+and Professor Thomson gave the results of their experience, from which
+it appeared that there was no obstacle in the nature of the case which
+might not be overcome. Mr. Bright and Mr. Woodhouse joined with them in
+advising strongly that they should renew the attempt. To be sure, it was
+a forlorn hope. But the ships were there. Though they had lost three
+hundred miles of cable, they had still enough on board to cross the sea.
+These arguments prevailed, and it was voted to make one more trial
+before the project was finally abandoned. Even though the chances were a
+hundred to one against them, that one might bring them success. And so
+it proved. But was it their own wisdom or courage that got them the
+victory, or were they led by that Being whose way is in the sea, and
+whose path is in the great waters?
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] It should be said, however, in justice to Mr. Bright, that most of
+these defects he had himself perceived on seeing it in operation. On his
+return from the expedition of 1857, he sent in a report, pointing out
+the defects of the machinery, and how to remedy them. These suggestions
+were approved by the Scientific Committee, and carried out by Mr.
+Everett. The recognition of this fact, while it takes nothing from the
+practical skill shown by the American engineer, is but just to his
+predecessor, who, as the pioneer in this work, might easily fall into
+mistakes, which it needed only time and experience to correct.
+
+[B] As there is no trouble without a compensation, it is something that
+this voyage, fearful as it was, furnished a subject for a description of
+marvellous power. The letter to the London Times, written by Mr. Woods,
+its correspondent on board the Agamemnon, is one of the finest
+descriptions of a storm at sea we know of in the language. It is a
+wonderful specimen of "word-painting," and brings the scene before us
+with a vividness like that of the marine paintings of Stanfield or
+Turner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE SECOND EXPEDITION SUCCESSFUL.
+
+
+A bold decision needs to be followed by prompt action, lest the spirit
+that inspired it be weakened by delay. When once it had been fixed that
+there was to be another attempt to lay the Atlantic cable, no time was
+lost in carrying the resolve into execution. The telegraphic fleet was
+lying at Queenstown. The Niagara had arrived on the fifth of July, but
+the Agamemnon, which, through some misunderstanding, had returned to the
+rendezvous in mid-ocean, thus crossing the Niagara on her track, did not
+get in till a week later. However, all were now there, safe and sound,
+and Mr. Field and Mr. Samuel Gurney went to the Admiralty, and got an
+order which they telegraphed to the ships to get ready immediately to go
+to sea. Not an hour was lost. They had barely time to take in coal and
+other supplies for the voyage. Mr. Field hastened from England, and
+Prof. Thomson from his home in Scotland, and in five days the squadron
+was under way, bound once more for the middle of the Atlantic.
+
+It was Saturday, the seventeenth of July, that the ships left on their
+second expedition. As they sailed out of the Cove of Cork, it was with
+none of the enthusiasm which attended their departure from Valentia the
+year before, or even from Plymouth on the tenth of June. Nobody cheered;
+nobody bade them God-speed. "As the ships left the harbor, there was
+apparently no notice taken of their departure by those on shore, or in
+the vessels anchored around them; every one seemed impressed with the
+conviction that they were engaged in a hopeless enterprise, and the
+squadron seemed rather to have slunk away on some discreditable mission,
+than to have sailed for the accomplishment of a grand national scheme."
+Many even of those on board felt that they were going on a fool's
+errand; that the Company was possessed by a kind of insanity, of which
+they would soon be cured by another bitter experience.
+
+On leaving this second time, it was agreed that the squadron should not
+try to keep together, but each ship make its way to the given latitude
+and longitude which was the appointed rendezvous in mid-ocean. The
+Niagara, being the largest, and able to carry the most coal, kept under
+steam the whole way, and arrived first, and waited several days for the
+other ships to appear. The Valorous came next, and then the Gorgon, and,
+last of all, the Agamemnon, which had been saving her coal for the
+return voyage, and had been delayed for want of a little of that wind
+which, in the former expedition, she had had in too great abundance.
+Says the English correspondent on board:
+
+     "For several days in succession there was an uninterrupted
+     calm. The moon was just at the full, and for several nights it
+     shone with a brilliancy which turned the sea into one silvery
+     sheet, which brought out the dark hull and white sails of the
+     ship in strong contrast to the sea and sky, as the vessel lay
+     all but motionless on the water, the very impersonation of
+     solitude and repose. Indeed, until the rendezvous was gained,
+     we had such a succession of beautiful sunrises, gorgeous
+     sunsets, and tranquil moonlight nights, as would have excited
+     the most enthusiastic admiration of any one but persons
+     situated as we were. But by us such scenes were regarded only
+     as the annoying indications of the calm, which delayed our
+     progress and wasted our coal. By dint, however, of a judicious
+     expenditure of fuel, and a liberal use of the cheaper motive
+     power of sail, the rendezvous was reached on Wednesday, the
+     twenty-eighth of July, just eleven days after our departure
+     from Queenstown. The rest of the squadron came in sight at
+     nightfall, but at such a distance that it was past ten o'clock
+     on the morning of Thursday, the twenty-ninth, before the
+     Agamemnon joined them.
+
+     "The day was beautifully calm, so no time was to be lost before
+     making the splice; boats were soon lowered from the attendant
+     ships, the two vessels made fast by a hawser, and the Niagara's
+     end of the cable conveyed on board the Agamemnon. About
+     half-past twelve o'clock the splice was effectually made. In
+     hoisting it out from the side of the ship the leaden sinker
+     broke short off and fell overboard; and there being no more
+     convenient weight at hand, a thirty-two pound shot was
+     fastened to the splice instead, and the whole apparatus was
+     quickly dropped into the sea without any formality, and indeed
+     almost without a spectator, for those on board the ship had
+     witnessed so many beginnings to the telegraphic line, that it
+     was evident they despaired of there ever being an end to it.
+     The stipulated two hundred and ten fathoms having been paid
+     out, the signal to start was hoisted, the hawser cast loose,
+     and the Niagara and Agamemnon started for the last time for
+     their opposite destinations."
+
+At this moment the ships were nearly in mid-ocean, but not exactly. Mr.
+Field, who never indulged in poetical descriptions, but always gave the
+figures, stating the precise latitude and longitude, and from what
+quarter the wind blew, and how many fathoms deep the ocean was, and how
+many miles of cable were on board, made the following entry in his
+journal:
+
+     "Thursday, July twenty-ninth, latitude fifty-two degrees nine
+     minutes north, longitude thirty-two degrees twenty-seven
+     minutes west. Telegraph Fleet all in sight; sea smooth; light
+     wind from S.E. to S.S.E.; cloudy. Splice made at one P.M.
+     Signals through the whole length of the cable on board both
+     ships perfect. Depth of water fifteen hundred fathoms; distance
+     to the entrance of Valentia harbor eight hundred and thirteen
+     nautical miles, and from there to the telegraph-house the shore
+     end of the cable is laid. Distance to the entrance of Trinity
+     Bay, Newfoundland, eight hundred and twenty-two nautical miles,
+     and from there to the telegraph-house at the head of the bay of
+     Bull's Arm, sixty miles, making in all eight hundred and
+     eighty-two nautical miles. The Niagara has sixty-nine miles
+     further to run than the Agamemnon. The Niagara and Agamemnon
+     have each eleven hundred nautical miles of cable on board,
+     about the same quantity as last year."
+
+And now, as the ships are fairly apart, and will soon lose sight of each
+other, we will leave the Agamemnon for the present to pursue her course
+toward Ireland, while we follow our own Niagara to the shores of the New
+World. At first of course, while all hoped for success, no one dared to
+expect it. They said afterwards that "Mr. Field was the only man on
+board who kept up his courage through it all." But the chances seemed
+many to one against them; and the warnings were frequent to excite their
+fears. That very evening, about sunset, all again seemed lost. We quote
+from Mr. Field's journal: "At forty-five minutes past seven P.M., ship's
+time, signals from the Agamemnon ceased, and the tests applied by the
+electricians showed that there was a want of continuity in the cable,
+but the insulation was perfect. Kept on paying out from the Niagara very
+slowly, and constantly applying all kinds of electrical tests until ten
+minutes past nine, ship's time, when again commenced receiving perfect
+signals from the Agamemnon." At the same moment the English ship had the
+same relief from anxiety.
+
+The next day there was a fresh cause of alarm. It was found that the
+Niagara had run some miles out of her course. Comparing the distance run
+by observation and by patent log, there was a difference of sixteen
+miles and a third. With such a percentage of loss, the cable would not
+hold out to reach Newfoundland. This was alarming, but it was soon
+explained. The mass of iron in the ship had affected the compass, so
+that it no longer pointed to the right quarter of the heavens. Had the
+Niagara been alone on the ocean, this might have caused serious trouble.
+But now appeared the great advantage of an attendant ship. It was at
+once arranged that the Gorgon should go ahead and lead the way. As she
+had no cable on board, her compasses were subject to no deviation.
+Accordingly she took her position in the advance, keeping the line along
+the great circle arc, which was the prescribed route. From that moment
+there was no variation, or but a very slight one. The two methods of
+computing the distance--by log and by observation--nearly coincided, and
+the ship varied scarcely a mile from her course till she entered Trinity
+Bay.
+
+It is not necessary to follow the whole voyage, for the record is the
+same from day to day. It is the same sleepless watching of the cable as
+it runs out day and night, and the same anxious estimate of the distance
+that still separates them from land. Communication is kept up constantly
+between the ships. Mr. Field's journal contains entries like these:
+
+     "Saturday, July thirty-first. By eleven o'clock had paid out
+     from the Niagara three hundred miles of cable; at forty-five
+     minutes past two received signals from the Agamemnon that they
+     had paid out from her three hundred miles of cable; at
+     thirty-seven minutes past five finished coil on the berth-deck,
+     and commenced paying out from the lower deck."
+
+     "Monday, August second. The Niagara getting light, and rolling
+     very much; it was not considered safe to carry sail to steady
+     ship, for in case of accident it might be necessary to stop the
+     vessel as soon as possible. Passed and signalled the Cunard
+     steamer from Boston to Liverpool." Same day about noon,
+     "imperfect insulation of cable detected in sending and
+     receiving signals from the Agamemnon, which continued until
+     forty minutes past five, when all was right again. The fault
+     was found to be in the ward-room, about sixty miles from the
+     lower end, which was immediately cut out, and taken out of the
+     circuit."
+
+     "Tuesday, August third. At a quarter-past eleven, ship's time,
+     received signals from on board the Agamemnon, that they had
+     paid out from her seven hundred and eighty miles of cable. In
+     the afternoon and evening passed several icebergs. At ten
+     minutes past nine P.M., ship's time, received signal from the
+     Agamemnon that she was in water of two hundred fathoms. At
+     twenty minutes past ten P.M., ship's time, Niagara in water of
+     two hundred fathoms, and informed the Agamemnon of the same.
+
+     "Wednesday, August fourth. Depth of water less than two hundred
+     fathoms. Weather beautiful, perfectly calm. Gorgon in sight.
+     Sixty-four miles from the telegraph-house. Received signal from
+     Agamemnon at noon that they had paid out from her nine hundred
+     and forty miles of cable. Passed this morning several
+     icebergs. Made the land off entrance to Trinity Bay at eight
+     A.M. Entered Trinity Bay at half-past twelve. At half-past two,
+     we stopped sending signals to Agamemnon for fourteen minutes,
+     for the purpose of making splice. At five P.M. saw Her
+     Majesty's steamer Porcupine [which had been sent by the British
+     Government to Newfoundland, to watch for the telegraph ships]
+     coming to us. At half-past seven, Captain Otter, of the
+     Porcupine, came on board of the Niagara to pilot us to the
+     anchorage, near the telegraph-house.[A]
+
+     "Thursday, August fifth. At forty-five minutes past one A.M.,
+     Niagara anchored. Total amount of cable paid out since splice
+     was made, ten hundred and sixteen miles, six hundred fathoms.
+     Total amount of distance, eight hundred and eighty-two miles.
+     Amount of cable paid out over distance run, one hundred and
+     thirty-four miles, six hundred fathoms, being a surplus of
+     about fifteen per cent. At two A.M., I went ashore in a small
+     boat, and awoke persons in charge of the telegraph-house, half
+     a mile from landing, and informed them that the Telegraph Fleet
+     had arrived, and were ready to land the end of the cable. At
+     forty-five minutes past two, received signal from the Agamemnon
+     that she had paid out ten hundred and ten miles of cable. At
+     four A.M., delivered telegraphic despatch for the Associated
+     Press, to be forwarded to New York as early in the morning as
+     the offices of the line were open.
+
+     "At a quarter-past five A.M., telegraph cable landed. At six,
+     end of cable carried into telegraph-house, and received very
+     strong currents of electricity through the whole cable from the
+     other side of the Atlantic. Captain Hudson, of the Niagara,
+     then read prayers, and made some remarks.
+
+     "At one P.M., Her Majesty's steamer Gorgon fired a royal salute
+     of twenty-one guns."
+
+Thus simply was the story told, that in a few hours was to send a thrill
+throughout the continent.
+
+To complete the narrative of the expedition, it is necessary to include
+the voyage of the Agamemnon, the best account of which is given in the
+letter of the correspondent of the London Times. We quote from the time
+of junction in mid-ocean, just as the ships went sailing eastward and
+westward:
+
+     "For the first three hours the ships proceeded very slowly,
+     paying out a great quantity of slack, but after the expiration
+     of this time, the speed of the Agamemnon was increased to about
+     five knots per hour, the cable going at about six, without
+     indicating more than a few hundred pounds of strain upon the
+     dynamometer. Shortly after six o'clock a very large whale was
+     seen approaching the starboard bow at a great speed, rolling
+     and tossing the sea into foam all around and for the first time
+     we felt the possibility of the supposition that our second
+     mysterious breakage of the cable might have been caused after
+     all by one of these animals getting foul of it under water. It
+     appeared as if it were making direct for the cable, and great
+     was the relief of all when the ponderous living mass was seen
+     slowly to pass astern, just grazing the cable where it entered
+     the water, but fortunately without doing any mischief.
+
+     "All seemed to go well up to about eight o'clock; the cable
+     paid out from the hold with an evenness and regularity which
+     showed how carefully and perfectly it had been coiled away; and
+     to guard against accidents which might arise in consequence of
+     the cable having suffered injury during the storm, the
+     indicated strain upon the dynamometer was never allowed to go
+     beyond seventeen hundred pounds, or less than one quarter what
+     the cable is estimated to bear, and thus far every thing looked
+     promising of success. But, in such a hazardous work, no one
+     knows what a few minutes may bring forth, for soon after eight,
+     an injured portion of the cable was discovered about a mile or
+     two from the portion paying out. Not a moment was lost by Mr.
+     Canning, the engineer on duty, in setting men to work to cobble
+     up the injury as well as time would permit, for the cable was
+     going out at such a rate that the damaged portion would be paid
+     overboard in less than twenty minutes, and former experience
+     had shown us that to check either the speed of the ship, or the
+     cable, would, in all probability, be attended by the most fatal
+     results.
+
+     "Just before the lapping was finished, Professor Thomson
+     reported that the electrical continuity of the wire had ceased,
+     but that the insulation was still perfect; attention was
+     naturally directed to the injured piece as the probable source
+     of the stoppage, and not a moment was lost in cutting the cable
+     at that point, with the intention of making a perfect splice.
+     To the consternation of all, the electrical tests applied
+     showed the fault to be overboard, and in all probability some
+     fifty miles from the ship. Not a second was to be lost, for it
+     was evident that the cut portion must be paid overboard in a
+     few minutes, and in the mean time, the tedious and difficult
+     operation of making a splice had to be performed. The ship was
+     immediately stopped, and no more cable paid out than was
+     absolutely necessary to prevent it breaking.
+
+     "As the stern of the ship was lifted by the waves, a scene of
+     the most intense excitement followed. It seemed impossible,
+     even by using the greatest possible speed, and paying out the
+     least possible amount of cable, that the junction could be
+     finished before the part was taken out of the hands of the
+     workmen. The main hold presented an extraordinary scene; nearly
+     all the officers of the ship and of those connected with the
+     expedition, stood in groups about the coil, watching with
+     intense anxiety the cable, as it slowly unwound itself nearer
+     and nearer the joint, while the workmen, directed by Mr.
+     Canning, under whose superintendence the cable was originally
+     manufactured, worked at the splice as only men could work who
+     felt that the life and death of the expedition depended upon
+     their rapidity. But all their speed was to no purpose, as the
+     cable was unwinding within a hundred fathoms, and, as a last
+     and desperate resource, the cable was stopped altogether, and,
+     for a few minutes, the ship hung on by the end. Fortunately,
+     however, it was only for a few minutes, as the strain was
+     continually rising above two tons, and it would not hold on
+     much longer; when the splice was finished, the signal was made
+     to loose the stopper, and it passed overboard safely enough.
+
+     "When the excitement consequent upon having so narrowly saved
+     the cable had passed away, we awoke to the consciousness that
+     the case was still as hopeless as ever, for the electrical
+     continuity was still entirely wanting. Preparations were
+     consequently made to pay out as little rope as possible, and to
+     hold on for six hours, in the hopes that the fault, whatever it
+     might be, might mend itself before cutting the cable and
+     returning to the rendezvous to make another splice. The
+     magnetic needles on the receiving instruments were watched
+     closely for the returning signals; when, in a few minutes, the
+     last hope was extinguished by their suddenly indicating dead
+     earth, which tended to show that the cable had broken from the
+     Niagara, or that the insulation had been completely destroyed.
+
+     "In three minutes, however, every one was agreeably surprised
+     by the intelligence that the stoppage had disappeared, and that
+     the signals had again appeared at their regular intervals from
+     the Niagara. It is needless to say what a load of anxiety this
+     news removed from the minds of every one; but the general
+     confidence in the ultimate success of the operations was much
+     shaken by the occurrence, for all felt that every minute a
+     similar accident might occur. For some time the paying-out
+     continued as usual, but toward the morning another damaged
+     place was discovered in the cable; there was fortunately,
+     however, time to repair it in the hold without in any way
+     interfering with the operations beyond for a time slightly
+     reducing the speed of the ship.
+
+     "During the morning of Friday, the thirtieth, every thing went
+     well; the ship had been kept at the speed of about five knots,
+     the cable paid out at about six, the average angle with the
+     horizon at which it left the ship being about fifteen degrees,
+     while the indicated strain upon the dynamometer seldom showed
+     more than sixteen hundred pounds to seventeen hundred pounds.
+     Observations made at noon showed that we had made good ninety
+     miles from the starting-point since the previous day, with an
+     expenditure, including the loss in lowering the splice and
+     during the subsequent stoppages, of one hundred and thirty-five
+     miles of the cable. During the latter portion of the day the
+     barometer fell considerably, and toward the evening it blew
+     almost a gale of wind from the eastward, dead ahead of course.
+     As the breeze freshened, the speed of the engines was gradually
+     increased, but the wind more than increased in proportion, so
+     that, before the sun went down, the Agamemnon was going full
+     steam against the wind, only making a speed of about four knots
+     an hour. During the evening topmasts were lowered, and spars,
+     yards, sails, and indeed every thing aloft that could offer
+     resistance to the wind, was sent down on deck; but still the
+     ship made but little way, chiefly in consequence of the heavy
+     sea, though the enormous quantity of fuel consumed showed us
+     that, if the wind lasted, we should be reduced to burning the
+     masts, spars, and even the decks, to bring the ship into
+     Valentia.
+
+     "It seemed to be our particular ill-fortune to meet with
+     head-winds whichever way the ship's head was turned. On our
+     journey out we had been delayed, and obliged to consume an
+     undue proportion of coal, for want of an easterly wind, and now
+     all our fuel was wanted because of one. However, during the
+     next day the wind gradually went around to the south-west,
+     which, though it raised a very heavy sea, allowed us to husband
+     our small remaining store of fuel.
+
+     "At noon on Saturday, the thirty-first of July, observations
+     showed us to have made good one hundred and twenty miles of
+     distance since noon of the previous day, with a loss of about
+     twenty-seven per cent of cable. The Niagara, as far as could
+     be judged from the amount of cable she paid out, which, by a
+     previous arrangement, was signalled at every ten miles, kept
+     pace with us, within one or two miles, the whole distance
+     across. During the afternoon of Saturday, the wind again
+     freshened up, and before nightfall it again blew nearly a gale
+     of wind, and a tremendous sea ran before it from the
+     south-west, which made the Agamemnon pitch to such an extent
+     that it was thought impossible the cable could hold on through
+     the night; indeed, had it not been for the constant care and
+     watchfulness exercised by Mr. Bright, and the two energetic
+     engineers, Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford, who acted with him, it
+     could not have been done at all. Men were kept at the wheels of
+     the machine to prevent their stopping as the stern of the ship
+     rose and fell with the sea, for, had they done so, the cable
+     must undoubtedly have parted.
+
+     "During Sunday the sea and wind increased, and before the
+     evening it blew a smart gale. Now, indeed, were the energy and
+     activity of all engaged in the operation tasked to the utmost.
+     Mr. Hoar and Mr. Moore, the two engineers who had the charge of
+     the relieving-wheels of the dynamometer, had to keep watch and
+     watch alternately every four hours, and while on duty durst not
+     let their attention be removed from their occupation for one
+     moment, for on their releasing the brakes every time the stern
+     of the ship fell into the trough of the sea entirely depended
+     the safety of the cable, and the result shows how ably they
+     discharged their duty. Throughout the night, there were few who
+     had the least expectation of the cable holding on till morning,
+     and many remained awake listening for the sound that all most
+     dreaded to hear--namely, the gun which should announce the
+     failure of all our hopes. But still the cable, which, in
+     comparison with the ship from which it was paid out, and the
+     gigantic waves among which it was delivered, was but a mere
+     thread, continued to hold on, only leaving a silvery
+     phosphorous line upon the stupendous seas as they rolled on
+     toward the ship.
+
+     "With Sunday morning came no improvement in the weather; still
+     the sky remained black and stormy to windward, and the constant
+     violent squalls of wind and rain which prevailed during the
+     whole day served to keep up, if not to augment, the height of
+     the waves. But the cable had gone through so much during the
+     night, that our confidence in its continuing to hold was much
+     restored.
+
+     "At noon, observations showed us to have made good one hundred
+     and thirty miles from noon of the previous day, and about three
+     hundred and sixty from our starting-point in mid-ocean. We had
+     passed by the deepest sounding of twenty-four hundred fathoms,
+     and over more than half of the deep water generally, while the
+     amount of cable still remaining in the ship was more than
+     sufficient to carry us to the Irish coast, even supposing the
+     continuance of the bad weather should oblige us to pay out the
+     same amount of slack cable we had been hitherto wasting. Thus
+     far things looked very promising for our ultimate success. But
+     former experience showed us only too plainly that we could
+     never suppose that some accident might not arise until the ends
+     had been fairly landed on the opposite shores.
+
+     "During Sunday night and Monday morning the weather continued
+     as boisterous as ever, and it was only by the most
+     indefatigable exertions of the engineer upon duty that the
+     wheels could be prevented from stopping altogether, as the
+     vessel rose and fell with the sea, and once or twice they did
+     come completely to a standstill, in spite of all that could be
+     done to keep them moving; but fortunately they were again set
+     in motion before the stern of the ship was thrown up by the
+     succeeding wave. No strain could be placed upon the cable, of
+     course; and though the dynamometer occasionally registered
+     seventeen hundred pounds as the ship lifted, it was oftener
+     below one thousand, and was frequently nothing, the cable
+     running out as fast as its own weight and the speed of the ship
+     could draw it. But even with all these forces acting
+     unresistedly upon it, the cable never paid itself out at a
+     greater speed than eight knots an hour at the time the ship was
+     going at the rate of six knots and a half. Subsequently,
+     however, when the speed of the ship even exceeded six knots and
+     a half, the cable never ran out so quick. The average speed
+     maintained by the ship up to this time, and, indeed, for the
+     whole voyage, was about five knots and a half, the cable, with
+     occasional exceptions, running about thirty per cent faster.
+
+     "At noon on Monday, August second, had made good one hundred
+     and twenty-seven and a half miles since noon of the previous
+     day, and completed more than the half way to our ultimate
+     destination.
+
+     "During the afternoon an American three-masted schooner, which
+     afterward proved to be the Chieftain, was seen standing from
+     the eastward toward us. No notice was taken of her at first,
+     but when she was within about half a mile of the Agamemnon she
+     altered her course, and bore right down across our bows. A
+     collision, which might prove fatal to the cable, now seemed
+     inevitable, or could only be avoided by the equally hazardous
+     expedient of altering the Agamemnon's course. The Valorous
+     steamed ahead, and fired a gun for her to heave to, which, as
+     she did not appear to take much notice of, was quickly followed
+     by another from the bows of the Agamemnon, and a second and
+     third from the Valorous, but still the vessel held on her
+     course; and as the only resource left to avoid a collision, the
+     course of the Agamemnon was altered just in time to pass within
+     a few yards of her. It was evident that our proceedings were a
+     source of the greatest possible astonishment to them, for all
+     her crew crowded upon her deck and rigging. At length they
+     evidently discovered who we were, and what we were doing, for
+     the crew manned the rigging, and dipping the ensign several
+     times they gave us three hearty cheers. Though the Agamemnon
+     was obliged to acknowledge these congratulations in due form,
+     the feelings of annoyance with which we regarded the vessel
+     which, either by the stupidity or carelessness of those on
+     board, was so near adding a fatal and unexpected mishap to the
+     long chapter of accidents which had already been encountered,
+     may easily be imagined. To those below, who of course did not
+     see the ship approaching, the sound of the first gun came like
+     a thunderbolt, for all took it as the signal of the breaking of
+     the cable. The dinner-tables were deserted in a moment, and a
+     general rush made up the hatches to the deck; but before
+     reaching it, their fears were quickly banished by the report of
+     the succeeding gun, which all knew well could only be caused by
+     a ship in our way or a man overboard.
+
+     "Throughout the greater portion of Monday morning the
+     electrical signals from the Niagara had been getting gradually
+     weaker, until they ceased altogether for nearly three-quarters
+     of an hour. Our uneasiness, however, was in some degree
+     lessened by the fact that the stoppage appeared to be a want of
+     continuity,[B] and not any defect in insulation, and there was
+     consequently every reason to suppose that it might arise from
+     faulty connection on board the Niagara. Accordingly Professor
+     Thomson sent a message to the effect that the signals were too
+     weak to be read, and, as if they had been awaiting such a
+     signal to increase their battery power, the deflections
+     immediately returned even stronger than they had ever been
+     before. Toward the evening, however, they again declined in
+     force for a short time. With the exception of these little
+     stoppages, the electrical condition of the submerged wire
+     seemed to be much improved. It was evident that the low
+     temperature of the water at the immense depth improved
+     considerably the insulating properties of the gutta-percha,
+     while the enormous pressure to which it must have been
+     subjected probably tended to consolidate its texture, and to
+     fill up any air-bubbles or slight faults in manufacture which
+     may have existed.
+
+     "The weather during Monday night moderated a little, but still
+     there was a very heavy sea on, which endangered the wire every
+     second minute.
+
+     "About three o'clock on Tuesday morning, all on board were
+     startled from their beds by the loud booming of a gun. Every
+     one, without waiting for the performance of the most particular
+     toilet, rushed on deck to ascertain the cause of the
+     disturbance. Contrary to all expectation, the cable was safe,
+     but just in the gray light could be seen the Valorous rounded
+     to in the most warlike attitude, firing gun after gun in quick
+     succession toward a large American bark, which, quite
+     unconscious of our proceeding, was standing right across our
+     stern. Such loud and repeated remonstrances from a large steam
+     frigate were not to be despised, and, evidently without knowing
+     the why or the wherefore, she quickly threw her sails aback and
+     remained hove to. Whether those on board her considered that we
+     were engaged in some filibustering expedition, or regarded our
+     proceedings as another British outrage upon the American flag,
+     it is impossible to say; but certain it is that, apparently in
+     great trepidation, she remained hove to until we had lost sight
+     of her in the distance.
+
+     "Tuesday was a much finer day than any we had experienced for
+     nearly a week, but still there was a considerable sea running,
+     and our dangers were far from passed; yet the hopes of our
+     ultimate success ran high. We had accomplished nearly the whole
+     of the deep-sea portion of the route in safety, and that, too,
+     under the most unfavorable circumstances possible; therefore
+     there was every reason to believe that unless some unforeseen
+     accident should occur, we should accomplish the remainder.
+
+     "About five o'clock in the evening, the steep submarine
+     mountain which divides the telegraphic plateau from the Irish
+     coast was reached, and the sudden shallowing of the water had a
+     very marked effect upon the cable, causing the strain on and
+     the speed of it to lessen every minute. A great deal of slack
+     was paid out to allow for any great inequalities which might
+     exist, though undiscovered by the sounding-line. About ten
+     o'clock the shoal water of two hundred and fifty fathoms was
+     reached; the only remaining anxiety now was the changing from
+     the lower main coil to that upon the upper deck, and this most
+     difficult and dangerous operation was successfully performed
+     between three and four o'clock on Wednesday morning.
+
+     "Wednesday was a beautiful, calm day; indeed, it was the first
+     on which any one would have thought of making a splice since
+     the day we started from the rendezvous. We therefore
+     congratulated ourselves on having saved a week by commencing
+     operations on the Thursday previous. At noon, we were
+     eighty-nine miles distant from the telegraph station at
+     Valentia. The water was shallow, so that there was no
+     difficulty in paying out the wire almost without any loss of
+     slack, and all looked upon the undertaking as virtually
+     accomplished.
+
+     "At about one o'clock in the evening, the second change from
+     the upper-deck coil to that upon the orlop-deck was safely
+     effected, and shortly after the vessels exchanged signals that
+     they were in two hundred fathoms water. As the night advanced
+     the speed of the ship was reduced, as it was known that we were
+     only a short distance from the land, and there would be no
+     advantage in making it before daylight in the morning. About
+     twelve o'clock, however, the Skelligs Light was seen in the
+     distance, and the Valorous steamed on ahead to lead us in to
+     the coast, firing rockets at intervals to direct us, which were
+     answered by us from the Agamemnon, though, according to Mr.
+     Moriarty, the master's wish, the ship, disregarding the
+     Valorous, kept her own course, which proved to be the right one
+     in the end.
+
+     "By daylight on the morning of Thursday, the bold and rocky
+     mountains which entirely surround the wild and picturesque
+     neighborhood of Valentia, rose right before us at a few miles'
+     distance. Never, probably, was the sight of land more welcome,
+     as it brought to a successful termination one of the greatest,
+     but, at the same time, most difficult schemes which was ever
+     undertaken. Had it been the dullest and most melancholy swamp
+     on the face of the earth that lay before us, we should have
+     found it a pleasant prospect; but, as the sun rose from the
+     estuary of Dingle Bay, tinging with a deep, soft purple the
+     lofty summits of the steep mountains which surround its shores,
+     and illuminating the masses of morning vapor which hung upon
+     them, it was a scene which might vie in beauty with any thing
+     that could be produced by the most florid imagination of an
+     artist.
+
+     "No one on shore was apparently conscious of our approach, so
+     the Valorous steamed ahead to the mouth of the harbor and fired
+     a gun. Both ships made straight for Doulus Bay, and about six
+     o'clock came to anchor at the side of Beginish Island, opposite
+     to Valentia. As soon as the inhabitants became aware of our
+     approach, there was a general desertion of the place, and
+     hundreds of boats crowded around us, their passengers in the
+     greatest state of excitement to hear all about our voyage. The
+     Knight of Kerry was absent in Dingle, but a messenger was
+     immediately dispatched for him, and he soon arrived in Her
+     Majesty's gunboat Shamrock. Soon after our arrival, a signal
+     was received from the Niagara that they were preparing to land,
+     having paid out one thousand and thirty nautical miles of
+     cable, while the Agamemnon had accomplished her portion of the
+     distance with an expenditure of one thousand and twenty
+     miles,[C] making the total length of the wire submerged two
+     thousand and fifty geographical miles. Immediately after the
+     ships cast anchor, the paddle-box boats of the Valorous were
+     got ready, and two miles of cable coiled away in them, for the
+     purpose of landing the end; but it was late in the afternoon
+     before the procession of boats left the ship, under a salute of
+     three rounds of small-arms from the detachment of marines on
+     board the Agamemnon, under the command of Lieutenant Morris.
+
+     "The progress of the end to the shore was very slow, in
+     consequence of the very stiff wind which blew at the time, but
+     at about three o'clock the end was safely brought on shore at
+     Knightstown, Valentia, by Mr. Bright and Mr. Canning, the chief
+     and second engineers, to whose exertions the success of the
+     undertaking is attributable, and the Knight of Kerry.[D] The
+     end was immediately laid in the trench which had been dug to
+     receive it, while a royal salute, making the neighboring rocks
+     and mountains reverberate, announced that the communication
+     between the Old and the New World had been completed."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] The spot chosen as the terminus of the Atlantic cable, with the
+views around it--both on the water and on land--is thus described by a
+correspondent:
+
+"All who have visited Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, with one consent allow
+it to be one of the most beautiful sheets of water they ever set eyes
+upon. Its color is very peculiar--an inexpressible mingling of the pure
+blue ocean with the deep evergreen woodlands and the serene blue sky.
+Its extreme length is about eighty miles, its breadth about thirty
+miles, opening boldly into the Atlantic on the northern side of the
+island. At its south-western shore it branches into the Bay of Bull's
+Arm, which is a quiet, safe, and beautiful harbor, about two miles in
+breadth, and nine or ten in length, running in a direction north-west.
+
+"The depth of water is sufficient for the largest vessels. The tide
+rises seven or eight feet, and the bay terminates in a beautiful
+sand-beach. The shore is clothed with dark green fir-trees, which, mixed
+with birch and mountain-ash, present a pleasing contrast. The land rises
+gradually from the water all around, so as to afford one of the most
+agreeable town sites in the island. You ascend only about a quarter of a
+mile from the water, and there are no longer trees, but wild grass like
+an open prairie. Here are found at this season myriads of the upland
+cranberries, upon which unnumbered ptarmigan, or the northern partridge,
+feed.
+
+"The raspberry, bake-apple berry, and the whortleberry are also common.
+Numerous little lakes may be seen in the open, elevated ground, from
+which flow rivulets, affording abundance of fine trout. After ascending
+for about a mile and a half, you are then probably three hundred or four
+hundred feet above the tide, and nothing can exceed the beauty of the
+scene when, at one view, you behold the placid waters of both Trinity
+and Placentia Bays--the latter sprinkled with clusters of verdant
+islands.
+
+"You can now descend westward as gradually as you came up from the
+Telegraph landing, to the shores of Placentia Bay, where there is an
+excellent harbor and admirable fisheries, skirting the shore, and the
+accompanying road of the land Telegraph line leading from St. John's
+westward through the island, to Cape Ray. At this season of the year
+game is very abundant. Reindeer in great numbers, bears, wolves--others
+very numerous, the large northern hare, foxes, wild geese, ducks, etc.
+
+"About four miles southward of the entrance of the bay of Bull's Arm, on
+the shore of Placentia Bay, is situated the extraordinary La Manche lead
+mine, the property of the Telegraph Company, already yielding a rich
+supply of remarkably pure galena. The place where the cable is landed is
+memorable in the history of the island as the naval battle-ground
+between the French and English in their early struggle for the exclusive
+occupancy of the valuable fisheries along the coast."
+
+[B] This is an error, as we learn on the high authority of Professor
+Thomson himself. It was defective insulation, not any "want of
+continuity," that caused the weak signals. Want of continuity would
+have stopped the signals altogether, and given quite different
+indications on the testing instruments from those he observed.
+
+[C] The Niagara had sixty miles farther to run than the Agamemnon, to
+land the cable at the head of Trinity Bay.
+
+[D] A name that occurs several times in this history, and one never to
+be mentioned but with honor. The Knight of Kerry was Lord of the Isles
+on that part of the Irish coast; and from the beginning showed the
+deepest interest in this enterprise; and by his generous hospitality to
+all connected with it made many friends by whom he was gratefully
+remembered on both sides of the Atlantic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+EXCITEMENT IN AMERICA.
+
+
+Whoever shall write the history of popular enthusiasms, must give a
+large space to the Atlantic Telegraph. Never did the tidings of any
+great achievement--whether in peace or war--more truly electrify a
+nation. No doubt, the impression was the greater because it took the
+country by surprise. Had the attempt succeeded in June, it would have
+found a people prepared for it. But the failure of the first expedition,
+added to that of the previous year, settled the fate of the enterprise
+in the minds of the public. It was a hopeless undertaking; and its
+projectors shared the usual lot of those who conceive vast designs, and
+venture on great enterprises, which are not successful, to be regarded
+with a mixture of derision and pity.
+
+Such was the temper of the public mind, when at noon of Thursday, the
+fifth of August, the following despatch was received:
+
+                              "United States Frigate Niagara,
+                              Trinity Bay, Newfoundland,
+                              August 5, 1858.
+
+     "_To the Associated Press, New York_:
+
+     "The Atlantic Telegraph fleet sailed from Queenstown, Ireland,
+     Saturday, July seventeenth, and met in mid-ocean Wednesday,
+     July twenty-eighth. Made the splice at one P.M., Thursday, the
+     twenty-ninth, and separated--the Agamemnon and Valorous, bound
+     to Valentia, Ireland; the Niagara and Gorgon, for this place,
+     where they arrived yesterday, and this morning the end of the
+     cable will be landed.
+
+     "It is one thousand six hundred and ninety-six nautical, or one
+     thousand nine hundred and fifty statute, miles from the
+     Telegraph House at the head of Valentia harbor to the Telegraph
+     House at the Bay of Bulls, Trinity Bay, and for more than two
+     thirds of this distance the water is over two miles in depth.
+     The cable has been paid out from the Agamemnon at about the
+     same speed as from the Niagara. The electric signals sent and
+     received through the whole cable are perfect.
+
+     "The machinery for paying out the cable worked in the most
+     satisfactory manner, and was not stopped for a single moment
+     from the time the splice was made until we arrived here.
+
+     "Captain Hudson, Messrs. Everett and Woodhouse, the engineers,
+     the electricians, the officers of the ship, and in fact, every
+     man on board the telegraph fleet, has exerted himself to the
+     utmost to make the expedition successful, and by the blessing
+     of Divine Providence it has succeeded.
+
+     "After the end of the cable is landed and connected with the
+     land line of telegraph, and the Niagara has discharged some
+     cargo belonging to the Telegraph Company, she will go to St.
+     John's for coal, and then proceed at once to New York.
+
+                              "Cyrus W. Field."
+
+The impression of this simple announcement it is impossible to conceive.
+It was immediately telegraphed to all parts of the United States, and
+everywhere produced the greatest excitement. In some places all business
+was suspended; men rushed into the streets, and flocked to the offices
+where the news was received. At Andover, Massachusetts, the news arrived
+while the Alumni of the Theological Seminary were celebrating their
+semi-centennial anniversary by a dinner. One thousand persons were
+present, all of whom rose to their feet, and gave vent to their excited
+feelings by continued and enthusiastic cheers. When quiet was restored,
+Rev. Dr. Adams, of New York, said his heart was too full for a speech,
+and suggested, as the more fitting utterance of what all felt, that they
+should join in thanksgiving to Almighty God, and the venerable Dr.
+Hawes, of Hartford, led them in fervent prayer, acknowledging the great
+event as from the hand of God, and as calculated to hasten the triumphs
+of civilization and Christianity. Then all standing up together, sang,
+to the tune of Old Hundred, the majestic doxology:
+
+     "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,
+     Praise Him all creatures here below;
+     Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,
+     Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!"
+
+Thus--said Dr. Hawes--"we have now consecrated this new power, so far as
+our agency is concerned, to the building up of the truth."
+
+In New York the news was received at first with some incredulity. But
+as it was confirmed by subsequent despatches, the city broke out into
+tumultuous rejoicing. Never was there such an outburst of popular
+feeling. In Boston a hundred guns were fired on the Common, and the
+bells of the city were rung for an hour to give utterance to the general
+joy. Similar scenes were witnessed in all parts of the United States. I
+have now before me the New York papers of August, 1858, and from the
+memorable fifth, when the landing took place, to the end of the month,
+they contain hardly any thing else than popular demonstrations in honor
+of the Atlantic Telegraph. It was indeed a national jubilee.
+
+It was natural that this overflow of public feeling should express
+itself towards one who was recognized as the author of the great work,
+which inspired such universal joy. Mr. Field, much to his own surprise,
+"awoke and found himself famous." In twenty-four hours his name was on
+millions of tongues. Congratulations poured in from all quarters, from
+mayors of cities and governors of States; from all parts of the Union
+and the British Provinces; from the President of the United States and
+the Governor-General of Canada. Mr. Buchanan telegraphed to Mr. Field,
+at Trinity Bay:
+
+     "My Dear Sir: I congratulate you with all my heart on the
+     success of the great enterprise with which your name is so
+     honorably connected. Under the blessing of Divine Providence I
+     trust it may prove instrumental in promoting perpetual peace
+     and friendship between the kindred nations."
+
+The popular estimate of the achievement and its author went still
+farther. With the natural exaggeration common to masses of men, when
+carried away by a sudden enthusiasm, the Atlantic Telegraph was hailed
+as an immense stride in the onward progress of the race, an event in the
+history of the world hardly inferior to the discovery of America, or to
+the invention of the art of printing; and the name of its projector was
+coupled with those of Franklin and Columbus. He who but yesterday was
+regarded as a visionary, to-day was exalted as a benefactor of his
+country and of mankind.
+
+This avalanche of praise was quite overwhelming. It is always
+embarrassing to be forced into sudden conspicuity, and to find one's
+self the object of general attention and applause. While feeling this
+embarrassment, Mr. Field could not but be gratified to witness the
+public joy at the success of the enterprise, and he was deeply touched
+and grateful for the appreciation of his own services. But probably all
+these public demonstrations did not go to his heart so much as private
+letters received from the other side of the Atlantic, from those who had
+shared the labors of the enterprise--old companions in arms who had
+borne with him the heavy burden, and now were fully entitled to a share
+in the honor which was the reward of their common toil.
+
+As a specimen of the congratulations which came from beyond the sea, we
+quote a single passage from a letter of Mr. George Saward, the Secretary
+of the Company in London, written immediately on receiving the news of
+the success of the enterprise. Under the impression of that event, he
+writes to Mr. Field:
+
+     "At last the great work is successful. I rejoice at it for the
+     sake of humanity at large. I rejoice at it for the sake of our
+     common nationalities, and last but not least, for your personal
+     sake. I most heartily and sincerely rejoice with you, and
+     congratulate you, upon this happy termination to the trouble
+     and anxiety, the continuous and persevering labor, and
+     never-ceasing and sleepless energy, which the successful
+     accomplishment of this vast and noble enterprise has cost you.
+     Never was man more devoted--never did man's energy better
+     deserve success than yours has done. May you in the bosom of
+     your family reap those rewards of repose and affection, which
+     will be doubly sweet from the reflection, that you return to
+     them after having been under Providence the main and leading
+     principal in conferring a vast and enduring benefit on mankind.
+     If the contemplation of fame has a charm for you, you may well
+     indulge in the reflection; for the name of Cyrus W. Field will
+     now go onward to immortality, as long as that of the Atlantic
+     Telegraph shall be known to mankind."
+
+The Directors, whose faith and courage had been so severely tried, now
+felt double joy, for their friend and for themselves, at this glorious
+result of their united labors. Mr. Peabody wrote to Mr. Field that "his
+reflections must be like those of Columbus, after the discovery of
+America." Sir Charles Wood and Sir John Pakington, who, as successive
+First Lords of the Admiralty, had supported the enterprise with the
+constant aid of the British Government, wrote letters of congratulation
+on the great work which had been carried through mainly by his energy
+and unconquerable will. They were above any petty national jealousy, and
+never imagined that it would detract aught from the just honor of
+England, to award full praise to the courage and enterprise of an
+American.
+
+On his part, Mr. Field was equally anxious to acknowledge the invaluable
+aid given by others--aid, without which the efforts of no single
+individual could command success. On his arrival at St. John's, he was
+welcomed with enthusiasm by the whole population. An address was
+presented to him by the Executive Council of Newfoundland, in which they
+offered their hearty congratulations on the success of the undertaking,
+which they recognized as chiefly due to him. "Intimately acquainted as
+we have been"--these are their words--"with the energy and enterprise
+which have distinguished you from the commencement of the great work of
+telegraph connection between the Old and the New Worlds; and feeling
+that under Providence this triumph of science is mainly due to your
+well-directed and indomitable exertions, we desire to express to you our
+high appreciation of your success in the cause of the world's progress,"
+etc.; to which Mr. Field replied, recognizing in turn the cordial
+support which he had always received from the Government of
+Newfoundland. The Chamber of Commerce of St. John's also presented an
+address in similar terms, to which he replied--after acknowledging their
+kind mention of his own labors and sacrifices:
+
+     "But it would not only be ungenerous, but unjust, that I should
+     for a moment forget the services of those who were my
+     co-workers in this enterprise, and without whom any labors of
+     mine would have been unavailing. It would be difficult to
+     enumerate the many gentlemen whose scientific acquirements and
+     skill and energy have been devoted to the advancement of this
+     work, and who have so mainly produced the issue which has
+     called forth this expression of your good wishes on my behalf.
+     But I could not do justice to my own feelings did I fail to
+     acknowledge how much is owing to Captain Hudson and the
+     officers of the Niagara, whose hearts were in the work, and
+     whose toil was unceasing; to Captain Dayman of her Majesty's
+     ship Gorgon, for the soundings so accurately made by him last
+     year, and for the perfect manner in which he led the Niagara
+     over the great-circle arc while laying the cable; to Captain
+     Otter, of the Porcupine, for the careful survey made by him in
+     Trinity Bay, and for the admirable manner in which he piloted
+     the Niagara at night to her anchorage; to Mr. Everett, who has
+     for months devoted his whole time to designing and perfecting
+     the beautiful machinery that has so successfully paid out the
+     cable from the ships--machinery so perfect in every respect,
+     that it was not for one moment stopped on board the Niagara
+     until she reached her destination in Trinity Bay; to Mr.
+     Woodhouse, who superintended the coiling of the cable, and
+     zealously and ably cooperated with his brother engineer during
+     the progress of paying-out; to the electricians for their
+     constant watchfulness; to the men for their almost ceaseless
+     labor (and I feel confident that you will have a good report
+     from the commanders, engineers, electricians, on board the
+     Agamemnon and Valorous, the Irish portion of the fleet); to the
+     Directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company for the time they
+     have devoted to the undertaking without receiving any
+     compensation for their services (and it must be a pleasure to
+     many of you to know that the director, who has devoted more
+     time than any other, was for many years a resident of this
+     place, and well known to all of you--I allude to Mr. Brooking,
+     of London); to Mr. C. M. Lampson, a native of New England, but
+     who has for the last twenty-seven years resided in London, who
+     appreciated the great importance of this enterprise to both
+     countries, and gave it most valuable aid, bringing his sound
+     judgment and great business talent to the service of the
+     Company; to that distinguished American, Mr. George Peabody,
+     and his worthy partner, Mr. Morgan, who not only assisted it
+     most liberally with their means, but to whom I could always go
+     with confidence for advice."
+
+Such acknowledgments, constantly repeated, showed a mind incapable of
+envy or jealousy; that was chiefly anxious to recognize the services of
+others, and that they should receive from the public, both of England
+and America, the honors which they had so nobly earned.
+
+After two or three days' delay at St. John's, which the Niagara was
+obliged to make for coal, but which the people spent in festivity and
+rejoicing, she left for New York, where she arrived on the
+eighteenth--two weeks from the landing of the cable in Trinity Bay.
+These had been weeks of great excitement, yet not unmingled with
+suspense and anxiety. The public, eager for news, devoured every thing
+that concerned the telegraph with impatience, but all was not
+satisfactory. Despatches from Trinity Bay said that signals were
+continually passing over the cable, yet no news reached the public from
+the other side of the Atlantic. This was partially explained by a
+message from Mr. Field, sent from Trinity Bay to the Associated Press as
+early as the seventh:
+
+     "We landed here in the woods, and until the telegraph
+     instruments are perfectly adjusted, no communications can pass
+     between the two continents; but the electric currents are
+     received freely.
+
+     "You shall have the earliest intimation when all is ready, but
+     it may be some days before every thing is perfected. The first
+     through message between Europe and America will be from the
+     Queen of Great Britain to the President of the United States,
+     and the second his reply."
+
+But as the public grew impatient, and friends sent anxious inquiring
+messages, he telegraphed again from St. John's on the eleventh:
+
+     "Before I left London, the Directors of the Atlantic Telegraph
+     Company decided unanimously that, after the cable was laid, and
+     the Queen's and President's messages transmitted, the line
+     should be kept for several weeks for the sole use of Dr.
+     Whitehouse, Professor Thomson, and other electricians, to
+     enable them to test thoroughly their several modes of
+     telegraphing, so that the Directors might decide which was the
+     best and most rapid method for future use: for it was
+     considered that after the line should be once thrown open for
+     business, it would be very difficult to obtain it for
+     experimental purposes, even for a short time.
+
+     "Due notice will be given when the line will be ready for
+     business, and the tariff of prices."
+
+Still the public were not satisfied, and many were beginning to doubt,
+when, on the sixteenth, it was suddenly announced that the Queen's
+message was received. It was as follows:--
+
+     "_To the President of the United States, Washington_:
+
+     "The Queen desires to congratulate the President upon the
+     successful completion of this great international work, in
+     which the Queen has taken the deepest interest.
+
+     "The Queen is convinced that the President will join with her
+     in fervently hoping that the electric cable which now connects
+     Great Britain with the United States will prove an additional
+     link between the nations, whose friendship is founded upon
+     their common interest and reciprocal esteem.
+
+     "The Queen has much pleasure in thus communicating with the
+     President, and renewing to him her wishes for the prosperity of
+     the United States."
+
+To this the President replied:
+
+                              "Washington City, August 16, 1858.
+
+     "_To Her Majesty Victoria, the Queen of Great Britain_:
+
+     "The President cordially reciprocates the congratulations of
+     her Majesty the Queen, on the success of the great
+     international enterprise accomplished by the science, skill,
+     and indomitable energy of the two countries.
+
+     "It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to
+     mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle.
+
+     "May the Atlantic Telegraph, under the blessing of Heaven,
+     prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between
+     the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine
+     Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty, and law
+     throughout the world.
+
+     "In this view, will not all nations of Christendom
+     spontaneously unite in the declaration that it shall be for
+     ever neutral, and that its communications shall be held sacred
+     in passing to their places of destination, even in the midst of
+     hostilities?
+
+                              "James Buchanan."
+
+The arrival of the Queen's message was the signal for a fresh outbreak
+of popular enthusiasm. The next morning, August seventeenth, the city of
+New York was awakened by the thunder of artillery. A hundred guns were
+fired in the City Hall Park at daybreak, and the salute was repeated at
+noon. At this hour, flags were flying from all the public buildings, and
+the bells of the principal churches began to ring, as Christmas bells
+signal the birth of one who came to bring peace and good-will to
+men--chimes that, it was fondly hoped, might usher in a new era, as
+they should
+
+     Ring out the old, ring in the new,
+     Ring out the false, ring in the true.
+
+That night the city was illuminated. Never had it seen so brilliant a
+spectacle. Such was the blaze of light around the City Hall, that the
+cupola caught fire, and was consumed, and the Hall itself narrowly
+escaped destruction. Similar demonstrations took place in other parts of
+the United States. From the Atlantic to the Valley of the Mississippi,
+and to the Gulf of Mexico, in every city was heard the firing of guns
+and the ringing of bells. Nothing seemed too extravagant to give
+expression to the popular rejoicing.
+
+The next morning after this illumination, the Niagara entered the harbor
+of New York, and Mr. Field hastened to his home. The night before
+leaving the ship, he had written to the Directors in London, giving a
+full report of the laying of the cable, which he closed by resigning the
+position which he had held for the last seven months. He wrote:
+
+     "At your unanimous request, but at a very great personal
+     sacrifice to myself, I accepted the office of General Manager
+     of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, for the sole purpose of
+     doing all in my power to aid you to make the enterprise
+     successful; and as that object has been attained, you will
+     please accept my resignation. It will always afford me pleasure
+     to do any thing in my power, consistent with my duties to my
+     family and my own private affairs, to promote the interests of
+     the Atlantic Telegraph Company."
+
+Once more with his family, Mr. Field hoped for a brief interval of rest
+and quiet. But this was impossible. The great event with which his name
+was connected was too fresh in the public mind. He could not escape
+public observation. He was at once thronged with visitors, offering
+their congratulations, and his house surrounded with crowds eager to see
+and hear him. While making all allowance for popular excitement, yet
+none could deny that a service so great demanded some public
+recognition. Even in England, where the enthusiasm did not approach that
+in this country, still the wondrous character of the achievement was
+fully acknowledged. Said the London Times on the morning of the sixth of
+August: "Since the discovery of Columbus, nothing has been done in any
+degree comparable to the vast enlargement which has thus been given to
+the sphere of human activity." "More was done yesterday for the
+consolidation of our empire, than the wisdom of our statesmen, the
+liberality of our Legislature, or the loyalty of our colonists, could
+ever have effected." To mark the public benefit which had been
+conferred, the Chief Engineer of the Expedition, Mr. Charles T. Bright,
+was knighted, and Captains Preedy and Aldham were both made Companions
+of the Bath, and other officers were promoted. Thus England showed her
+appreciation of their services.
+
+But in this country titles and honors come not from the Government, but
+from the people. Popular enthusiasm exhausted itself in eulogies of the
+man who had linked the Old World to the New. It seems strange now to sit
+down in cold blood and read what was published in the papers of that
+day. A collection of American journals issued during that eventful
+month, August, 1858, would be a literary curiosity.[A]
+
+Nor was it merely in such outward demonstrations that the public
+enthusiasm showed itself. The feeling struck deeper, and reached all
+minds. While the people shouted and cannon roared, sober and thoughtful
+men pondered on the change that was being wrought in the earth. Business
+men reasoned how it would affect the commerce of the world, while the
+philanthropic regarded it as the forerunner of an age of universal
+peace. The first message flashed across the sea--even before that of the
+Queen--had been one of religious exultation. It was from the Directors
+in Great Britain to those on this side the Atlantic, and, simply
+reciting the fact that Europe and America were united by telegraph, at
+once broke into a strain of religious rapture, echoing the song of the
+angels over a Saviour's birth: "Glory to God in the highest; on earth,
+peace, good-will toward men." Poetry at once caught up the strain. The
+event became the theme of innumerable odes and hymns, of which it must
+be said that, whatever their merit as poetry, their spirit at least was
+noble, celebrating the event chiefly as promoting the brotherhood of the
+human family. The key-note was struck in such lines as these:
+
+    'Tis done! the angry sea consents,
+      The nations stand no more apart,
+    With clasped hands the continents
+      Feel throbbings of each other's heart.
+
+    Speed, speed the cable; let it run
+      A loving girdle round the earth,
+    Till all the nations 'neath the sun
+      Shall be as brothers of one hearth;
+
+    As brothers pledging, hand in hand,
+      One freedom for the world abroad,
+    One commerce over every land,
+      One language and one God.
+
+The sermons preached on this occasion were literally without number.
+Enough found their way into print to make a large volume. Never had an
+event touched more deeply the spirit of religious enthusiasm. Devout men
+held it as an advance toward that millennial era which was at once the
+object of their faith and hope. Was not this the predicted time when,
+"many should run to and fro, and knowledge should be increased?" So said
+the preachers, taking for their favorite text the vision of the
+Psalmist, "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words
+to the end of the world;" or the question of Job: "Canst thou send forth
+the lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are?" Was
+not this the dawn of that happy age, when all men should be bound
+together in peaceful intercourse, and nations should learn war no more?
+Such was the burden of the discourses that were preached in a thousand
+pulpits from one end of the country to the other. Even the Roman
+Catholic Church, so lofty and inflexible in its claims, soaring into
+the past centuries, and almost disdaining the material progress of the
+present day as compared with the spiritual glories of the Ages of Faith,
+did not ignore the great event; and in laying the foundation of the new
+Cathedral of St. Patrick, the largest temple of religion on the
+continent, Archbishop Hughes placed under the corner-stone an
+inscription, wherein, along with the enduring record of the Christian
+faith and the names of martyrs and confessors, he did not disdain to
+include a brief memorial of this last achievement of science, and the
+name of him who had conferred so great a benefit on mankind.
+
+These public demonstrations culminated on the first of September, when
+the city authorities gave a public ovation to Mr. Field and the officers
+of the expedition. In accepting these honors, Mr. Field had taken good
+care that the British officers should be included with the American. At
+St. John's he had been notified of the intended celebration, and at once
+telegraphed to the British Admiral at Halifax:
+
+"I should consider it a very great personal favor if you would permit
+the Gorgon, Captain Dayman, to accompany the Niagara, Captain Hudson, to
+New York. English officers and English sailors have labored with
+American officers and American sailors to lay the Atlantic cable. They
+were with us in our days of trial, and pray let them, if you can, share
+with us our triumph."
+
+The request was granted so far as this, that the officers were allowed
+leave of absence, and came on to New York to take part in the
+celebration, and in all the honors which followed, the officers of the
+Gorgon were associated with those of the Niagara.
+
+The day arrived, and the celebration surpassed any thing which the city
+had ever witnessed before. It was a mild autumn day--warm, yet with a
+sky softly veiled with clouds, that seemed to invite a whole population
+into the streets. The day commenced with a solemn service at Trinity
+Church, which was attended by the city authorities, the representatives
+of foreign powers, and an immense concourse of people. The vast edifice
+was decorated with evergreens; in the centre hung a cross, with the
+inscription: "Glory to God on high; and on earth, peace, good-will
+towards men." When the audience were assembled, there entered a
+procession of two hundred clergy, headed by Bishop Doane of New Jersey,
+who was to deliver the address. Prayers were offered and Scriptures were
+read, and at intervals the choir gave voice to the general joy in the
+anthems in which for ages the Church has been wont to pour forth its
+exultation: "O come, let us sing unto the Lord," the Gloria in Excelsis,
+and the Te Deum Laudamus.
+
+At noon, Mr. Field and the officers of the ships landed at Castle Garden
+and were received with a national salute. A procession was formed which
+extended for miles from the Battery to the Crystal Palace, which stood
+on the plot of ground now known as Bryant Park, between Fortieth and
+Forty-second streets. In the procession were Lord Napier, the British
+Minister, and officers of the army and navy. For the whole distance the
+streets were crowded. The windows and even the tops of the houses were
+filled with people. Everywhere flags and banners, with every device,
+floated in the air. So dense was the crowd that it was five or six hours
+before the procession could reach the Crystal Palace.
+
+Here its coming was awaited by an assembly that filled all the aisles
+and galleries. An address was delivered, giving the history of the
+Atlantic Telegraph. The Mayor then rose, and presenting Mr. Field to the
+audience, spoke as follows:
+
+     "Sir: History records but few enterprises of such 'pith and
+     moment' as to command the attention and at the same time enlist
+     the sympathies of all mankind. In all ages warlike expeditions
+     have been undertaken on a scale of grandeur sufficient to
+     astonish the world; but the evils which are inseparable from
+     their prosecution have always sent a thrill of horror through
+     the anxious nations. The discovery of the Western continent
+     even, the grandest event of modern times, was made by an
+     insignificant fleet which left the shores of Spain without
+     attracting the notice of the civilized world. Far different has
+     been the history of the daring and difficult enterprise of
+     uniting the Old World and the New by means of the electric
+     telegraph. From the very outset the good, the great and the
+     wise of all lands beneath the sun, have watched with intense
+     anxiety, and even when doubt existed, with warm interest, every
+     step taken toward the accomplishment of what was universally
+     acknowledged to be the most momentous undertaking of an age
+     made marvellous by wonderful scientific and mechanical
+     achievements. The two greatest and freest nations of the globe,
+     by independent constitutional legislation, and by the aid of
+     their finest ships and their ablest officers and engineers,
+     combined together to insure success. Capital was liberally
+     subscribed by private citizens in a spirit which put greed to
+     the blush. The press on both sides of the Atlantic recorded the
+     details of the progress of the undertaking with cordial
+     interest, and secured the generous sympathies of men of all
+     kindreds and tongues and nations in its behalf. You were thus
+     fortunate, sir, in being identified with a project of such
+     magnificent proportions and universal concern. But the
+     enterprise itself was no less fortunate in being projected and
+     carried into execution by a man whom no obstacles could daunt,
+     no disasters discourage, no doubts paralyze, no opposition
+     dishearten. If you, to whom the conduct of this great
+     enterprise was assigned by the will of Providence and the
+     judgment of your fellow-men, had been found wanting in courage,
+     in energy, in determination, and in a faith that was truly
+     sublime, the very grandeur of the undertaking would only have
+     rendered its failure the more conspicuous. But, sir, the
+     incidents of the expedition, and the final result--too familiar
+     to all the world to need repetition here--have demonstrated
+     that you possessed all the qualities essential to achieve a
+     successful issue. It is for this reason that you now stand out
+     from among your fellow-men a mark for their cordial admiration
+     and grateful applause. The city of your home delights to honor
+     you; your fellow-citizens, conscious that the glory of your
+     success is reflected back upon them, are proud that your lot
+     has been cast among them. They have already testified their
+     appreciation of your great services and heroic perseverance by
+     illuminations, processions, serenades, and addresses. And now,
+     sir, the municipal government of this, the first city on the
+     Western continent, instruct me, who have never felt the honor
+     of being its chief magistrate so sensibly as in the presence of
+     this vast assemblage of its fair women and substantial
+     citizens, to present to you a gold box, with the arms of the
+     city engraved thereon, in testimony of the fact that to you
+     mainly, under Divine Providence, the world is indebted for the
+     successful execution of the grandest enterprise of our day and
+     generation; and in behalf of the Mayor, Aldermen, and
+     Commonalty of the City of New York, I now request your
+     acceptance of this token of their approbation. In conclusion,
+     sir, of this, the most agreeable duty of my public life, I
+     sincerely trust that your days may be long in the land, and as
+     prosperous and honorable as your achievement in uniting the two
+     hemispheres by a cord of electric communication has been
+     successful and glorious."
+
+To this flattering address, Mr. Field replied:
+
+     "Sir: This will be a memorable day in my life; not only because
+     it celebrates the success of an achievement with which my name
+     is connected, but because the honor comes from the city of my
+     home--the metropolitan city of the new world. I see here not
+     only the civic authorities and citizens at large, but my own
+     personal friends--men with whom I have been connected in
+     business and friendly intercourse for the greater part of my
+     life. Five weeks ago, this day and hour, I was standing on the
+     deck of the Niagara in mid-ocean, with the Gorgon and Valorous
+     in sight, waiting for the Agamemnon. The day was cold and
+     cheerless, the air was misty, and the wind roughened the sea;
+     and when I thought of all that we had passed through--of the
+     hopes thus far disappointed, of the friends saddened by our
+     reverses, of the few that remained to sustain us--I felt a load
+     at my heart almost too heavy to bear, though my confidence was
+     firm, and my determination fixed. How different is the scene
+     now before me--this vast crowd testifying their sympathy and
+     approval, praises without stint, and friends without number!
+     This occasion, sir, gives me the opportunity to express my
+     thanks for the enthusiastic reception which I have received,
+     and I here make my acknowledgments before this vast concourse
+     of my fellow-citizens. To the ladies I may, perhaps, add, that
+     they have had their appropriate place, for when the cable was
+     laid, the first public message that passed over it came from
+     one of their own sex. This box, sir, which I have the honor to
+     receive from your hand, shall testify to me and to my children
+     what my own city thinks of my acts. For your kindness, sir,
+     expressed in such flattering, too flattering terms, and for the
+     kindness of my fellow-citizens, I repeat my most heartfelt
+     thanks."
+
+The enthusiasm with which this address was received reached its height,
+when at the close, Mr. Field advanced to the edge of the platform, and
+unrolling a despatch, held it up, saying: "Gentlemen, I have just
+received a telegraphic message from a little village, now a suburb of
+New York, which I will read to you:
+
+                              "London, September 1, 1858.
+
+     "To Cyrus W. Field, New York:
+
+     "The directors are on their way to Valentia, to make
+     arrangements for opening the line to the public. They convey,
+     through the cable, to you and your fellow-citizens, their
+     hearty congratulations and good wishes, and cordially
+     sympathize in your joyous celebration of the great
+     international work."[B]
+
+A gold medal was presented to Captain Hudson, with an address, to which
+he made a fitting reply. Similar testimonials were presented to all the
+English captains through Mr. Archibald, the British Consul, who replied
+for his absent countrymen, after which the whole audience rose to their
+feet, as the band played "God save the Queen."
+
+It was long after dark when the exercises closed, and the vast multitude
+dispersed.
+
+The night witnessed one of those displays for which New York surpasses
+all the cities of the world--a firemen's torchlight procession--a
+display such as was afterward given to the Prince of Wales, but which we
+shall probably witness no more, since the Volunteer Fire Department is
+disbanded.
+
+But one day did not exhaust the public enthusiasm. The next evening, a
+grand banquet was given by the city authorities, at which were present a
+great number of distinguished guests. Lord Napier spoke, in language as
+happy as it was eloquent, of the new tie that was formed between kindred
+dwelling on opposite sides of the sea, and awarded the highest praise to
+the one whom he recognized as the author of this great achievement.
+
+While these demonstrations continued, every opposing voice was hushed in
+the chorus of national rejoicing; yet some there were, no doubt, who
+looked on with silent envy or whispered detraction. But who could grudge
+these honors to the hero of the hour--honors so hardly won, and which,
+as it proved, were soon to give place to harsh censures and unjust
+imputations?
+
+Alas for all human glory! Its paths lead but to the grave. Death is the
+end of human ambition. The very day that a whole city rose up to do
+honor to the Atlantic Telegraph and its author, it gave its last throb,
+and that first cable was thenceforth to sleep for ever silent in its
+ocean grave.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Such a curiosity exists, prepared by the industry of a gentleman who
+was one of the most careful collectors of the events of his time--by
+which he gathered up the materials of future history--Mr. John R.
+Bartlett, formerly Secretary of State of Rhode Island. This gentleman
+kept files of all the papers referring to the Atlantic Telegraph, from
+which he compiled a very unique volume. It is in the form of a
+scrap-book, but on a gigantic scale, being of a size equal to Webster's
+large Dictionary. It is made up entirely of newspaper cuttings,
+classified under different heads, and neatly arranged in double columns
+on nearly four hundred folio pages. The matter thus compressed would
+make between three and four octavo volumes of the size of Prescott's
+Histories, if printed in the style of those works. Every thing is
+included that could be gathered from European as well as American
+papers, touching the claims of the inventors and projectors of the
+electric telegraph in general, and of the Atlantic Telegraph in
+particular. The historical sketches are set off by illustrations taken
+from the pictorial papers. Altogether it embraces more of the materials
+of a history of this subject than any other volume with which we are
+acquainted, and well deserves the title prefixed to it by the laborious
+compiler:
+
+"THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.--Its Origin and History, with an Account of the
+Voyages of the Steamers Niagara and Agamemnon, in Laying the Cable, and
+of the Celebration of the Great Event in New York, Philadelphia,
+Brooklyn, Montreal, Dublin, Paris, etc.; together with the Discussions,
+Sermons, Poetry, and Anecdotes relating thereto; also, a History of the
+Invention of the Electric Telegraph. Illustrated with Maps, Plans,
+Views, and Portraits, collected from the Newspapers of the Day, and
+arranged by John Russell Bartlett. 1858."
+
+[B] The history of this despatch is curious. Though dated at London, it
+was sent from a small town in Ireland. The directors were on their way
+from Dublin to Valentia, on the morning of the first of September, when
+Mr. Saward remarked: "This is the day of the celebration in New York--we
+ought to send a despatch to Mr. Field." Accordingly, at the first
+stopping-place (Mallow Station) the message was written, and forwarded
+to Valentia, and thence sent across the Atlantic. It was put into Mr.
+Field's hand as he was getting into his carriage on the Battery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+DID THE FIRST CABLE EVER WORK?
+
+
+The Atlantic cable was dead! That word fell heavy as a stone on the
+hearts of those who had staked so much upon it. What a bitter
+disappointment to their hopes! In all the experience of life there are
+no sadder moments than those in which, after years of anxious toil,
+striving for a great object, and after one glorious hour of triumph, the
+achievement that seemed complete becomes a total wreck. Vain is all
+human toil and endeavor. The years thus spent are fled away; the labor
+that was to have brought such a reward of "riches and honor," is lost;
+and the prolonged tension of the mind by the excitement of hope and
+ambition, and the temporary success, reacts to plunge it into a deeper
+depression. So was it here. Years of labor and millions of capital were
+swept away in an hour into the bosom of the pitiless sea.
+
+Of course the reaction of the public mind was very great. As its elation
+had been so extravagant before, it was now silent and almost sullen.
+People were ashamed of their late enthusiasm, and disposed to revenge
+themselves on those who had been the objects of their idolatry. It is
+instructive to read the papers of the day. As soon as it was evident
+that the Atlantic cable was a dead lion, many hastened to give it a
+parting kick. There was no longer any dispute as to who was the author
+of the great achievement. Rival claimants quietly withdrew from the
+field, content to leave him alone in his glory.
+
+Many explanations were offered of this sudden suspension of life. One
+writer argued that the Telegraphic Plateau was only a myth; that the
+bottom of the ocean was jagged and precipitous; that the cable passed
+over lofty mountain chains, and hung suspended from the peaks of
+submarine Alps, till it broke and fell into the tremendous depths below.
+
+But others found a readier explanation. With the natural tendency of a
+popular excitement to rush from one extreme to the other, many now
+believed that the whole thing was an imposition on public credulity, a
+sort of "Moon hoax." An elaborate article appeared in a Boston paper,
+headed with the alarming question, "Was the Atlantic cable a humbug?"
+wherein the writer argued through several columns that it was a huge
+deception. A writer in an English paper also made merry of the
+celebration in Dublin, where a banquet was given to Sir Charles Bright,
+in an article bearing the ominous title: "Very like a whale!" This
+writer proved not only that the Atlantic cable was never laid, but that
+such a thing was mathematically impossible. But since he turned out to
+be a crazy fellow, whom the police had to take into custody, his
+"demonstrations" did not make much impression on the public. The
+difficulty of finding a motive for the perpetration of such a stupendous
+fraud, did not at all embarrass these ingenious writers. Was it not
+enough to make the world stare? to furnish something to the gaping
+crowd, even though it were but a nine days' wonder? Those who thus
+reasoned seemed not to reflect that such deceptions are always sure to
+be found out; that one who goes up like a rocket comes down like a
+stick; and that if by false means he has made himself an object of
+popular idolatry, he is likely to become the object of popular
+indignation.
+
+But others there were--sharp, shrewd men--who thought they could see
+through a mill-stone farther than their neighbors, who shook their heads
+with a knowing air, and said: "It was all a stock speculation." One
+writer stepped before the public with this solemn inquiry: "Now that the
+great cable glorification is over, we should like to ask one question:
+How many shares of his stock did Mr. Field sell during the month of
+August?" This he evidently thought was a question which could not be
+answered, except by acknowledging a great imposition on the public. If
+this brilliant inquirer after truth really desired to be informed, we
+could have referred him to Messrs. George Peabody & Co., of London, with
+whom was deposited all of Mr. Field's stock at the time, and who,
+during that memorable month of August, sold _just one share_, and that
+at a price below the par value, which had been paid by Mr. Field
+himself. Whether this was an object sufficiently great to set two
+hemispheres in a blaze, we leave him to judge.
+
+To those who have followed this narrative, all these conjectures and
+suspicions will appear very absurd. The personal reflections of course
+deserved and received only the contempt with which a man of character
+always scorns an imputation on his personal honor. But while these
+anonymous scribblers might be despised, many honest people not disposed
+to think evil were sorely perplexed. That the cable should continue to
+work for three or four weeks, _and then stop the very day of the
+celebration_, was certainly a singular, if not a suspicious
+circumstance; and it was not to be wondered at that it should excite a
+painful feeling of doubt. The distrust is quite natural, and ought not
+to be matter either of offence or surprise. On the contrary, those who
+are fully satisfied of the facts, ought rather to be glad of the
+opportunity which such questions afford, to present the amplest
+vindication.
+
+To relieve all doubts, it is only necessary to give a very brief history
+of the working of the Atlantic cable. It was landed on both sides of the
+ocean on the fifth of August. The last recorded message passed over it
+on the first of September, one day short of four weeks. Within that
+time there were sent exactly four hundred messages, of which two hundred
+and seventy-one were from Newfoundland to Ireland, and one hundred and
+twenty-nine from Ireland to Newfoundland. Of these, the greater part
+were merely between the operators themselves, respecting the adjustment
+of instruments, and working the telegraph, which, while they furnished
+decisive evidence _to them_, were of no force to the public. Of course
+an operator, working with a battery on the shore at Valentia, or at
+Trinity Bay, watching his instrument, and seeing the little tongue of
+light reflected from the moving mirror of the galvanometer, needed no
+other evidence of an electric current that had passed through the cable.
+He _saw_ it, and knew, as if he saw the flash of a gun on the coast of
+Ireland, that it was a light which had come from beyond the sea. But
+these private assurances were nothing to the outside world. What they
+needed was _public_ messages, conveying news from one hemisphere to the
+other. Of these, there were not a great number, for obvious reasons. The
+cable, during the four weeks of its existence, never worked
+_perfectly_--that is, as a land line works, transmitting messages freely
+and rapidly, and with perfect accuracy. It was subject to frequent
+interruptions for reasons which may satisfy any one that the wonder is,
+not that it did so little, but that it did so much.
+
+1st. To begin with, the cable was not constructed in the most perfect
+manner. Its makers, though the best then in the world, had had but
+little experience in making deep-sea cables. No line over three hundred
+miles long had ever been laid. 2d. It had been made more than a year
+before. After it was finished, part of it had been coiled out of doors,
+where it was exposed to a burning sun, by which, as was afterward found,
+the gutta-percha had been melted in many places till the insulation was
+nearly destroyed. 3d. It had been put on board the ships in 1857, and
+after the first failure, had been taken out and coiled on the dock at
+Plymouth, and then re-shipped in 1858. Thus it had been twisted and
+untwisted, some portions of it as many as ten times. Then the Agamemnon
+was so shaken in the terrible gale of June, that the cable on board of
+her was seriously injured, and some portions were cut out and condemned.
+Taking all these things together, the wonder is, not that the cable
+failed after a month, but that it ever worked at all!
+
+Owing to this impaired state of the cable, it did _not_ work perfectly.
+Probably it would not have worked at all with ordinary instruments. But
+the galvanometer of Professor Thomson, that instrument of marvellous
+delicacy, drew faint whispers from its muttering lips. Signals came and
+went, which showed that the electric current passed from shore to shore,
+and gave promise that with delicate handling it could be taught to speak
+plainly. But for the present it spoke slowly and with difficulty. It
+often took hours to get through a single despatch of any length. Witness
+the delay in transmitting the Queen's message! These frequent
+interruptions were ascribed to various causes. Sometimes it was
+earth-currents; at others, a thunderstorm was raging. Thus, on the
+morning of Thursday, the twenty-sixth of August, there was a violent
+storm in Newfoundland, heavy rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning.
+At three o'clock, the lightning was so intense that for an hour and a
+half the end of the cable had to be put to the earth for protection.
+After that the storm cleared away, and at seven o'clock the weather was
+reported as very fine. But aside from these local and temporary causes,
+the real difficulty was in the cable itself, whose insulation had been
+fatally impaired, and which was now wearing out its life on the rocks of
+the sea. These causes made its speech difficult and broken. Yet
+sometimes it flashed up with sudden power. In one case, a message was
+sent from the office at Trinity Bay to Ireland and an answer received
+back in two minutes! Such incidents excited the liveliest hopes that all
+difficulties would be speedily overcome, and justified the messages
+which were sent to the New York papers from day to day, that the
+instruments were being adjusted, by which it was expected that the line
+would soon be put in perfect working order, and be thrown open to the
+public. But these flashes of light proved to be only the flickering of
+the flame, that was soon to be extinguished in the eternal darkness of
+the waters.
+
+But the question which perplexed not only skeptics, but the truest
+friends, was not whether the cable worked fast or slow, _but whether it
+ever worked at all_. Happily, this is a question which can easily be
+settled, since it is one simply of facts and dates, which can be
+ascertained by referring to the files of the English and American
+papers. Of course the only proof must be in messages containing _news_.
+Mere congratulations between the Queen and the President, or the Mayor
+of New York and the Mayor of London, prove nothing, for these might have
+been prepared beforehand, if we suppose a design to impose on the
+credulity of the public. But the decisive test is this: Was there at any
+time within that month published in the English or American journals
+_news_ which could not be matter of guess or conjecture, and within a
+time too short for its possible transmission in any other way? If this
+can be proved beyond all doubt, even in a few instances, the question is
+decided, for the argument is just as strong with a dozen cases as with a
+thousand. We give, therefore, a few dates, the accuracy of which can be
+tested by any one who will take the trouble to examine the English and
+American papers:
+
+On Saturday, the fourteenth of August, the steamships Arabia and
+Europa, the former bound for New York and the latter for Liverpool, came
+into collision off Cape Race. The accident was not known in New York
+until Tuesday, the seventeenth, since it could not be telegraphed till
+the Arabia reached Halifax or the Europa St. John's, into which port she
+put for repairs. As soon as the news reached New York, the agent of the
+Company, Mr. Nimmo (Mr. Cunard himself being then in England), at once
+prepared a despatch to be sent to relieve immediate anxiety. This was
+not forwarded to Newfoundland, as peremptory orders had been given not
+to transmit any private business messages to go through the cable until
+the line was fully open to the public. But the next day Mr. Field
+arrived in New York, and Mr. Nimmo applied to him. Seeing the urgency of
+the case, he ordered it to be forwarded. It was accordingly sent, and
+arrived in London on the twentieth, giving the first news that was
+received of the accident. This was repeatedly stated by the late Sir
+Samuel Cunard, of London, and confirmed by his son Mr. Edward Cunard, of
+New York. The message was published in the London papers of the
+twenty-first, as follows:
+
+     "Arabia in collision with Europa, Cape Race, Saturday. Arabia
+     on her way. Head slightly injured. Europa lost bowsprit,
+     cutwater stem sprung. Will remain in St. John's ten days from
+     sixteenth. Persia calls at St. John's for mails and passengers.
+     No loss of life or limb."
+
+This first news message was not only a very decisive one as to the fact
+of telegraphic communication, but one which showed the relief given by
+speedy knowledge in dispelling doubt and fear. Mr. William E. Dodge, of
+New York, says: "I was in Liverpool at the time, and expecting friends
+by the Europa. Any delay in the arrival of the ship would have caused
+great anxiety. But one morning, on going down to the Exchange, we saw
+posted up this despatch received the night before by the Atlantic
+Telegraph. All then said, if the cable never did any thing more, it had
+fully repaid its cost." Well may he add with devout feeling: "It seemed
+as if Divine Providence had permitted the event, to furnish a testimony
+which could not be denied, to the reality and the benefit of this new
+means of communication between the two continents."
+
+Passing over all the messages exchanged between the operators at the
+stations, the congratulations of Queen and President, and of the Mayors
+of New York and London, we come to another news despatch. August
+twenty-fifth, Newfoundland reports to Valentia:
+
+     "Persia takes Europa's passengers and mails. Great rejoicing
+     everywhere at success of cable. Bonfires, fireworks, _feux de
+     joie_, speeches, balls, etc. _Mr. Eddy, the first and best
+     telegrapher in the States, died to-day._ Pray give some news
+     for New York; they are mad for news."
+
+This despatch the writer, who was then in Europe, read first in the
+London Times. The item which arrested his attention was the death of
+Mr. Eddy, as he had some acquaintance with that gentleman.
+
+That the news must have come by cable, is clearly shown by an
+examination of dates. He died suddenly, at Burlington, Vermont, Monday,
+August twenty-third, 1858, at ten o'clock fifteen minutes A.M. The exact
+day and hour we learned from his widow, who after his death lived in
+Brooklyn. The news was telegraphed to New York, and from there sent to
+Trinity Bay, which it reached the following day, and from which it was
+forwarded to Valentia, and appeared in the London Times Wednesday
+morning. Thus not forty-eight hours elapsed after he breathed his last,
+before it was published in England. If any one wishes to see the
+despatch, he will find a file of The Times in the Astor Library.
+
+But here appears a slight discrepancy, that, however, when examined,
+furnishes double proof. The despatch is dated August twenty-fifth, and
+says Mr. Eddy died _to-day_, and yet it is published in the London Times
+of the same date! How is this? It was sent between nine and ten o'clock
+at night of the twenty-fourth, when the operator at Heart's Content
+would say _this day_ of a piece of news just received, but in affixing
+the date, he was governed _by Greenwich time_, which made it more than
+three hours later. Accordingly it was published in The Times, dated
+August twenty-fifth, fifty-three minutes past twelve A.M.!
+
+Those who argued for the theory of collusion and deception, must have
+been embarrassed by this unexpected intelligence appearing in London,
+which could only be explained as a false report, unless (more wonderful
+still!) Mr. Eddy had entered into the plot, and sent the message
+beforehand, and then offered himself as a sacrifice, to prove it
+correct!
+
+To the demand for news in the above despatch, a reply was at once
+returned: "Sent to London for news." And later the same day came the
+following:
+
+     "North American with Canadian, and the Asia with direct Boston
+     mails, leave Liverpool, and Fulton, Southampton, Saturday next.
+     To-day's morning papers have long, interesting reports by
+     Bright. Indian news. Virago arrived at Liverpool to-day; Bombay
+     dates nineteenth July. Mutiny being rapidly quelled."
+
+A despatch of the same date, August twenty-fifth, also announces peace
+with China. The whole was received at Trinity Bay about nine o'clock
+P.M., and would have been sent on at once to New York, but that the land
+lines in Nova Scotia were closed at that hour. It was sent the next
+morning, and appeared in the evening papers of the twenty-sixth.
+
+By referring again to the London Times, the reader will see that the
+news from China was published in London on the twenty-third of August.
+It was there given as _unexpected news_, so that it could not have been
+a shrewd guess on the part of anybody either in England or America. It
+took the public by surprise, both for the news itself and _for the way
+in which it came_--which was not by India and the Red Sea, but by St.
+Petersburg, where it arrived on the twenty-first, having been brought
+overland by a courier to Prince Gortchakoff. From there it was
+telegraphed to the Government at Paris, and thence to London. The Times
+comments on this roundabout way in which intelligence so important
+reached England. Yet this news, so unlooked for, announced in London
+only on the morning of the twenty-third of August, was published in New
+York on the twenty-sixth.
+
+August twenty-seventh, comes a still longer despatch, which we give in
+full:
+
+     "George Saward, Secretary Atlantic Telegraph Company, to
+     Associated Press, New York. News for America by Atlantic cable.
+     Emperor of France returned to Paris, Saturday. King of Prussia
+     too ill to visit Queen Victoria. Her Majesty returns to England
+     thirtieth of August.--St. Petersburg, twenty-first of August.
+     Settlement of Chinese question. Chinese empire opened to trade;
+     Christian religion allowed; foreign diplomatic agents admitted;
+     indemnity to England and France.--Alexandria, August ninth. The
+     Madras arrived at Suez seventh inst. Dates Bombay to the
+     nineteenth; Aden, thirty-first. Gwalior insurgent army broken
+     up. All India becoming tranquil."
+
+This despatch embodies about a dozen distinct items of news, not one of
+which could be known without a telegraphic communication. The whole was
+received in New York, and published in the evening papers _the same
+day_.
+
+Not to be outdone in giving news, the next day, Saturday, August
+twenty-eighth, Newfoundland thus replies to Valentia:
+
+     "To the Directors: Take news first, Saward. Sir William
+     Williams, of Kars, arrived Halifax Tuesday. Enthusiastically
+     received. Immense procession--welcome address--feeling reply.
+     Held levee--large number presented. Niagara sailed for
+     Liverpool at one this morning. The Gorgon arrived at Halifax
+     last night. Yellow fever in New Orleans, sixty to seventy
+     deaths per day. Also declared epidemic, Charleston. Great
+     preparations in New York and other places for celebration, to
+     be held the first and second of September. New Yorkers will
+     make it the greatest gala-day ever known in this country.
+     Hermann sailed for Fraser's River; six hundred passengers.
+     Prince Albert sailed yesterday for Galway. Arabia and Ariel
+     arrived New York; Anglo Saxon, Quebec; Canada, Boston. Europa
+     left St. John's this morning. Splendid aurora Bay of Bulls
+     to-night, extending over eighty-five degrees of the horizon."
+
+Let any one read this despatch, sentence by sentence, noting the
+minuteness of the details--which could not be known or conjectured--such
+as the appearance of yellow fever at New Orleans, with the number of
+deaths a day; the sailing or arrival of seven steamers; the number of
+passengers for Fraser's River, etc.--and then examine the London Times,
+in which all these items appeared Monday morning, August thirtieth, and
+if he does not admit that collusion or deception is out of the question,
+no amount of evidence could convince him.
+
+We will give but one proof more. On the last day of August, the day
+before the cable ceased to work, Valentia sent to Newfoundland two
+messages for the British Government, both signed by "the Military
+Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief, Horse Guards, London," and
+addressed--the first to General Trollope, Halifax, which said, "The
+Sixty-second regiment is not to return to England;" and the other to the
+General Officer commanding at Montreal, saying: "The Thirty-ninth
+regiment is not to return to England." The year before (1857) had
+witnessed the Sepoy Mutiny, which threatened the overthrow of the
+British Empire in India. The fighting was over, but the country was
+still agitated, and the Home Government in fear that the rebellion might
+be renewed, so that it continued to send forward fresh troops. It had
+sent out orders by mail for these two regiments to embark immediately
+for home, to be sent to India. But the mutiny being nearly suppressed,
+this was found not to be necessary, and the prompt countermanding of the
+order by telegraph saved the British Government, in the cost of
+transportation of troops, not less than fifty thousand pounds. The
+despatch to Halifax was received the same day that it was sent from
+London. The sending of this despatch, and its almost immediate
+reception, is attested by an official letter from the War Office in
+London.
+
+This array of proofs of what took place a quarter of a century ago, may
+seem superfluous now that experience has made despatches from the other
+side of the ocean one of the familiar things of our daily life. And yet
+at that date the achievement was so stupendous, and, as some thought, in
+its very nature so incredible, that men of the greatest intelligence
+could not be convinced. The late Mr. Charles O'Conor continued for years
+to quote the fact that some men believed that a message had actually
+passed across the Atlantic as the most amazing illustration of human
+credulity! Happily he lived to see and to appreciate to its full value
+this latest miracle of scientific discovery, applied by human genius and
+skill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+CAST DOWN, BUT NOT IN DESPAIR.
+
+
+It takes a long time to recover from a great disaster. When at last the
+friends of the Atlantic Telegraph were obliged to confess that the cable
+had ceased to work; when all the efforts of the electricians failed to
+draw more than a few faint whispers, a dying gasp, from the depths of
+the sea, there ensued in the public mind a feeling of profound
+discouragement. For a time this paralyzed all effort to revive the
+Company and to renew the enterprise. And yet the feeling, though
+natural, was extreme. If they had not done all they attempted, they had
+accomplished much. They had at least demonstrated the possibility of
+laying a cable across the Atlantic Ocean, and of sending messages
+through it. This alone was no small triumph. So men reasoned when sober
+reflection returned, and at length the tide of public confidence, which
+had ebbed so strongly, began to reflow, and once more to creep up the
+shores of England.
+
+But when a great enterprise has been overthrown, and lies prostrate on
+the earth, the first impulse of its friends is to call on Caesar for
+help. So the first appeal of the Atlantic Telegraph Company was to the
+British Government. It was claimed, and with reason, that the work was
+too great to be undertaken by private capital alone. It was a matter,
+not of private speculation, but of public and national concern. It was,
+therefore, an object which might justly be undertaken by a powerful
+government, in the interest of science and of civilization.
+
+To raise capital for a new cable, it was necessary to have some better
+security than the hazards of a vast and doubtful undertaking. Hence the
+Company asked the Government to guarantee the interest on a certain
+amount of stock, even if the second attempt should not prove a success.
+With such a guarantee, the capital could be raised in London in a day.
+
+In this application they might have been successful, but for an untoward
+event, which dampened the confidence of the public in all submarine
+enterprises--the failure of the Red Sea Telegraph. The British
+Government, anxious to forward communication with India, had given that
+Company an unconditional guarantee, on the strength of which the capital
+was raised, and the cable manufactured and laid. But in a short time it
+ceased to work, a loss which the treasury of Great Britain had to make
+good. To the public, which did not understand the cause of the failure
+to be the imperfect construction of the cable, the effect was to impair
+confidence in all long submarine telegraphs. Of course, after such an
+experience, the Government was not disposed to bind itself by such
+pledges again. It was, however, ready to aid the enterprise by any safe
+means. It therefore increased its subsidy from fourteen thousand pounds
+to twenty thousand pounds; and guaranteed eight per cent on six hundred
+thousand pounds of new capital for twenty-five years, with only one
+condition--_that the cable should work_. This was a liberal grant, and
+under the circumstances, was all that could be expected.
+
+Still further to encourage the undertaking, it ordered new soundings to
+be taken off the coast of Ireland. These were made by Captain Hoskins,
+of the Royal Navy, and dispelled the fears which had been entertained of
+a submarine mountain, which would prove an impassable barrier in the
+path of an ocean telegraph.
+
+But the greatest service which the British Government rendered, was in
+the long course of experiments which it now ordered, to determine all
+the difficult problems of submarine telegraphy. In 1859, the year after
+the failure of the first Atlantic cable, the Board of Trade appointed a
+committee of the most eminent scientific and engineering authorities in
+Great Britain to investigate the whole subject. This was composed of
+Captain Douglas Galton, of the Royal Engineers, then of the War Office,
+who represented the Government; Professor Wheatstone, the celebrated
+electrician; William Fairbairn, President of the British Association
+for the Advancement of Science; George Parker Bidder, whose name ranks
+with those of Stephenson and Brunel; C. F. Varley, who, in the practical
+working of telegraphs, had no superior in England; Latimer Clark and
+Edwin Clark, both engineers, who had had great experience in the
+business of telegraphing; and George Saward, the Secretary of the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company.
+
+This Committee sat for nearly two years, at the end of which it made a
+report to the Government, which fills a very large volume, in which are
+detailed an immense number of experiments, touching the form and size of
+cables, their relative strength and flexibility, the power of
+telegraphing at long distances, the speed at which messages could be
+sent; and in fine, every possible question, either as to the electrical
+or engineering difficulties to be overcome. The result of these manifold
+and laborious experiments is summed up in the following certificate,
+signed by all who had taken part in this memorable investigation:
+
+                              "London, 13th July, 1863.
+
+     "We, the undersigned, members of the Committee, who were
+     appointed by the Board of Trade, in 1859, to investigate the
+     question of submarine telegraphy, and whose investigation
+     continued from that time to April, 1861, do hereby state, as
+     the result of our deliberations, that a well-insulated cable,
+     properly protected, of suitable specific gravity, made with
+     care, and tested under water throughout its progress with the
+     best known apparatus, and paid into the ocean with the most
+     improved machinery, possesses every prospect of not only being
+     successfully laid in the first instance, but may reasonably be
+     relied upon to continue for many years in an efficient state
+     for the transmission of signals.
+
+                              Douglas Galton,
+                              C. Wheatstone,
+                              Wm. Fairbairn,
+                              Geo. P. Bidder,
+                              Cromwell F. Varley,
+                              Latimer Clark,
+                              Edwin Clark,
+                              Geo. Saward."
+
+Thus the years which followed the failure of 1858--though they saw no
+attempt to lay another ocean cable--were not years of idleness. They
+were rather years of experiment and of preparation, clearing the way for
+new efforts and final victory. The Atlantic Telegraph itself had been a
+grand experiment. It had taught many important truths which could be
+learned in no other way. Not only had it demonstrated the possibility of
+telegraphing from continent to continent, but it had been useful even in
+exposing its own defects, as it taught how to avoid them in the future.
+
+For example, in working the first cable, the electricians had thought it
+necessary to use a very strong battery. They did not suppose they could
+reach across the whole breadth of the Atlantic, and touch the Western
+hemisphere, unless they sent an electric current that was almost like a
+stroke of lightning; and that, in fact, endangered the safety of the
+conducting wire. But they soon found that this was unnecessary. God was
+not in the whirlwind, but in the still, small voice. A soft touch could
+send a thrill along that iron nerve. It seemed as if the deep were a
+vast whispering gallery, and that a gentle voice murmured in the ocean
+caves, like a whisper in a sea-shell, might be caught, so wonderful are
+the harmonies of nature, by listening ears on remote continents; a
+miracle of science, that could give a literal meaning to Milton's
+
+     "Airy tongues, that syllable men's names
+     On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses."
+
+These were also years of great progress, not only in the science of
+submarine telegraphy, but in the construction of deep-sea cables. In
+spite of the failure of that in the Red Sea, one was laid down in the
+Mediterranean, 1,535 miles long, from Malta to Alexandria, and another
+in the Persian Gulf, 1,400 miles long, by which telegraphic
+communication was finally opened from England to India. Others were laid
+in different seas and oceans in distant parts of the world. These great
+triumphs, following the scientific experiments which had been made,
+revived public confidence, and prepared the way for a fresh attempt to
+pass the Atlantic.
+
+Yet not much was done to renew the enterprise until 1862. Mr. Field had
+been indefatigable in his efforts to reanimate the Company. He was
+continually going back and forth to the British Provinces and to
+England, urging it wherever his voice could be heard. Yet times were
+adverse. The United States had been suddenly involved in a tremendous
+war, which called into the field hundreds of thousands of men, and
+entailed a burden of many hundreds of millions. While engaged in this
+life-and-death struggle, and rolling up a mountain of debt, our people
+had little thought to bestow on great enterprises by land or sea.
+
+And yet one incident of the war forcibly recalled public attention to
+the necessity of some speedier communication with Europe than by steam.
+The unhappy Trent affair aroused an angry feeling in Great Britain which
+nearly resulted in hostilities, all of which might have been prevented
+by a single word of explanation. As The Times said truly: "We nearly
+went to war with America because we had not a telegraph across the
+Atlantic." After such a warning, it was natural that both countries
+should begin to think seriously of the means of preventing future
+misunderstanding. Mr. Field went to Washington, and found great
+readiness on the part of the President and his Cabinet to encourage the
+enterprise. Mr. Seward wrote to our Minister in London that the American
+Government would be happy to join with that of Great Britain in
+promoting this international work. With this encouragement, Mr. Field
+went to England to urge the Company to renew the undertaking. While in
+London, he endeavored to obtain from some responsible parties an offer
+to construct and lay down a cable. Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co., replied,
+declaring their willingness to undertake the work, without at first
+naming the precise terms. They wrote to him under date of February
+seventeenth:
+
+     "Sir: In reply to your inquiries, we beg to state that we
+     should not be willing to manufacture and lay a Submarine
+     Telegraph Cable across the Atlantic, from Ireland to
+     Newfoundland, assuming the entire risk, as we consider that
+     would be too great a responsibility for any single firm to
+     undertake; but we are so confident that these points can be
+     connected by a good and durable cable, that we are willing to
+     contract to do the work, and stake a large sum upon its
+     successful laying and working.
+
+     "We shall be prepared in a few days, as soon as we can get the
+     necessary information in regard to what price we can charter
+     suitable ships for the service, to make you a definite offer."
+
+Although it is anticipating a few months in time, we may give here the
+"definite offer," which was obtained by Mr. Field, on his return to
+England in the autumn:
+
+                              "London, October 20, 1862.
+
+     "_Cyrus W. Field, Esq., Atlantic Telegraph Company_:
+
+     "Dear Sir: In reply to your inquiries, we beg to state, that we
+     are perfectly confident that a good and durable Submarine Cable
+     can be laid from Ireland to Newfoundland, and are willing to
+     undertake the contract upon the following conditions:
+
+     "First. That we shall be paid each week our actual
+     disbursements for labor and material.
+
+     "Second. That when the cable is laid and in working order, we
+     shall receive for our time, services, and profit twenty per
+     cent on the actual cost of the line, in shares of the Company,
+     deliverable to us, in twelve equal monthly instalments, at the
+     end of each successive month whereat the cable shall be found
+     in working order.
+
+     "We are so confident that this enterprise can be successfully
+     carried out, that we will make a cash subscription for a sum of
+     twenty-five thousand pounds sterling in the ordinary capital of
+     the Company, and pay the calls on the same when made by the
+     Company.
+
+     "Annexed we beg to hand you, for your guidance, a list of all
+     the submarine telegraph cables manufactured and laid by our
+     firm since we commenced this branch of our business, the whole
+     mileage of which, with the exception of the short one between
+     Liverpool and Holyhead, which has been taken up, is at this
+     time in perfect and successful working order. The cable that we
+     had the honor to contract for and lay down for the French
+     Government, connecting France with Algeria, is submerged in
+     water of nearly equal depths to any we should have to encounter
+     between Ireland and Newfoundland.
+
+     "You will permit us to suggest that the shore ends of the
+     Atlantic Cable should be composed of very heavy wires, as from
+     our experience the only accidents that have arisen to any of
+     the cables that we have laid have been caused by ships'
+     anchors, and none of those laid out of anchorage ground have
+     ever cost one shilling for repairs.
+
+     "The cable that we would suggest for the Atlantic will be an
+     improvement on all those yet manufactured, and we firmly
+     believe will be imperishable when once laid.
+
+     "We remain, sir, yours faithfully,
+
+                              "Glass, Elliot & Co."
+
+The summer of this year Mr. Field spent in America, where he applied
+himself vigorously to raise capital for the new enterprise. To this end
+he visited Boston, Providence, Philadelphia, Albany, and Buffalo--to
+address meetings of merchants and others. He used to amuse us with the
+account of his visit to the first city, where he was honored with the
+attendance of a large array of "the solid men of Boston," who listened
+with an attention that was most flattering to the pride of the speaker,
+addressing such an assemblage in the capital of his native State. There
+was no mistaking the interest they felt in the subject. They went still
+farther, they passed a series of resolutions, in which they applauded
+the projected telegraph across the ocean as one of the grandest
+enterprises ever undertaken by man, which they proudly commended to the
+confidence and support of the American public, after which they went
+home, feeling that they had done the generous thing in bestowing upon it
+such a mark of their approbation. _But not a man subscribed a dollar!_
+Yet it is not necessary to charge them with meanness or hypocrisy. No
+doubt they felt just what they said. They could not but admire the
+courage of their countryman. It was inspiring to hear him talk. Yet
+these solid men were never lifted off their feet so far as to forget the
+main chance. What were to be the returns for this magnificent adventure?
+Peering into the future, the prospect of dividends was very remote. In
+fact they looked upon the Atlantic Telegraph as a sort of South Sea
+Bubble, an airy fancy, which would go up like a balloon, never to return
+to earth again. So, like the high priest and the Levite, they passed by
+on the other side.
+
+Other cities were equally gracious, equally complimentary, but equally
+prudent. In New York he succeeded better, but only by indefatigable
+exertions. He addressed the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Brokers,
+and the Corn Exchange, and then he went almost literally from door to
+door, calling on merchants and bankers to enlist their aid. The result
+was, subscriptions amounting to about seventy thousand pounds, the whole
+of which was due to persevering personal solicitation. Even of those who
+subscribed, a large part did so more from sympathy and admiration of his
+indomitable spirit than from confidence in the success of the
+enterprise.
+
+In England, however, the subject was better understood. For obvious
+reasons, the science of submarine telegraphy had made greater advances
+in that country than in ours. As England is an island, she is obliged to
+hold all her telegraphic communication with the continent by cables
+under the sea. She has colonial possessions in all parts of the world. A
+power that rules so large a part of the earth cannot be shut up in her
+island home. No one has depicted the extent of her dominion in nobler
+phrase than our own Webster when he speaks of the imperial sway which
+"has dotted the face of the whole globe with its possessions and
+military posts, whose morning drumbeat, following the sun and keeping
+company with the hours, encircles the whole earth with one continuous
+and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." Was it strange that
+this mother of nations should reach out her long arms to embrace her
+distant children?
+
+Hence it was that the subject of submarine telegraphs was so much better
+understood in England than in America, not only by scientific men, but
+by capitalists. The appeal could be made to them with more assurance of
+intelligent sympathy. And yet so vast was the undertaking, that it
+required ceaseless effort to roll the stone to the top of the mountain,
+and the result was not completely achieved till the beginning of the
+year 1864.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE EXPEDITION OF 1865.
+
+
+It is a long night which has no morning. At last the day is breaking.
+While weary eyes are watching the East, daylight comes over the sea.
+Five years have passed away, and though the time seemed long as an
+Arctic winter, that only made more bright the rising of the sun. Those
+years of patient experiment, when scientific men were applying tests
+without number, and submarine lines were feeling their way along the
+deep-sea floor in all the waters of the world, at last brought forth
+their fruit in that renewed confidence which is the forerunner of
+victory.
+
+So strong was this feeling, that as early as August, 1863, although the
+capital was not raised, the Board advertised for proposals for a cable
+suitable to be laid across the Atlantic Ocean; and in order to leave
+invention entirely unfettered, abstained from any dictation as to the
+form or materials to be adopted, merely stipulating for a working speed
+of eight words a minute.
+
+To this request they received, in the course of a few weeks, seventeen
+different proposals from as many companies, many of them firms of large
+wealth and experience. These different tenders, with the numerous
+specimens of cable and materials, were at once submitted to a Consulting
+Committee composed in part of members of the Committee which had already
+rendered such service by its advice. It consisted of Captain Douglas
+Galton, William Fairbairn, Professor C. Wheatstone, William Whitworth
+and Professor William Thomson. There were no more distinguished
+engineers and electricians in the world. They examined all the
+proposals, and then, taking up one by one the different samples of
+cable, caused them in turn to be subjected to the severest tests. This
+took a long time, as it required a great number of experiments; but the
+result was highly satisfactory. The Committee were all of one mind, and
+recommended unanimously that the Board should accept the tender of
+Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co., and the general principle of their proposed
+cable; but advised that before settling the final specification, every
+portion of the material to be employed should be tested with the
+greatest care, both separately and in combination, so as to ascertain
+what further improvements could be made. To this the manufacturers
+readily consented, feeling a noble ambition to justify the confidence of
+the Committee and the public. They provided abundant materials for fresh
+experiments. New cables were made and tested in different lengths; and
+experiments were also tried upon different qualities of wire and hemp,
+that were to compose its external protection. The result of all these
+investigations was the selection of a model which seemed to combine
+every excellence, and to approach absolute perfection.
+
+Such was the cable which this eminent firm offered to manufacture, and
+to lay across the Atlantic, and that on terms so favorable, that it
+seemed as if it could not be difficult to raise the capital and proceed
+with the work. Indeed, a contract was partially made to that effect. So
+confident was Mr. Field, who was then in London, that an expedition
+would sail the following summer, that he insured his stock, part of it
+only against ordinary sea-risks, but part also to be laid and to work!
+But hardly had he left England before there was some unforeseen hitch in
+the arrangements, the money was not forthcoming, or some of the
+conditions were not complied with, and he had the mortification to
+receive letters, saying that the whole enterprise was postponed for
+another year!
+
+This was indeed discouraging. Yet this sudden dropping of the scheme did
+not imply a loss of interest or of faith on the part of those embarked
+in it. They believed in it as much as ever. But the general public did
+not respond to the call for more capital. Alas that the noblest
+enterprises should so often be delayed or defeated by the want of money!
+Capital is always cautious and timid, and follows slowly in the path of
+great discoveries. If Columbus, instead of the patronage of a Queen full
+of womanly enthusiasm, had depended on a stock company for the means for
+his expedition, he might never have sailed from the shores of Spain.
+Happy was it for mankind that his faith and patience did not wear out,
+while going from court to court, and kingdom to kingdom, and almost
+begging his way from door to door!
+
+But it is not in human nature--least of all in American nature--to
+despond long. Though ten years of constant defeat would seem to have
+wrought a lasting discouragement, yet again and again did the baffled
+spirit of enterprise return to the attempt. In January, 1864, Mr. Field
+was once more on his way to England. He found the Directors, as before,
+deeply interested in the enterprise, and wishing it success. With a
+grateful heart he bore witness to their unfaltering courage. But mere
+courage and good wishes would not lay the Atlantic Telegraph. Yet what
+could they do? They could not be expected to advance all the capital
+themselves. They had already subscribed liberally, and he could not ask
+them to do more. But with all the efforts that had been made in England
+and America, not half the capital was yet raised. The machinery was in a
+dead lock, with little prospect of being able to move. It was the
+misfortune of the enterprise that there was no one man who made it his
+sole and exclusive charge. The Board of Directors contained some of the
+best men in London. But they were, almost without exception, engaged in
+very large affairs of their own, with no leisure to make a public
+enterprise their special care. To insure success, it needed a trial of
+the one-man power--one brain, planning night and day; one agency
+incessantly at work, stirring up directors, contractors, and engineers;
+and one will pushing it forward by main strength. This was the force now
+to be applied.
+
+The first element needed to put life into the old system was an infusion
+of new blood--new capital and new men. While the enterprise was in this
+state of collapse, Mr. Field addressed himself to a gentleman with whom,
+until then, he had no personal acquaintance, but who was well known in
+London as one of the largest capitalists of Great Britain--Mr. Thomas
+Brassey. Their first interview was somewhat remarkable. Referring to it
+a few months after, Mr. Field said:
+
+     "When I arrived in this country, in January last, the Atlantic
+     Telegraph Company trembled in the balance. We were in want of
+     funds, and were in negotiations with the government, and making
+     great exertions to raise the money. At this juncture I was
+     introduced to a gentleman of great integrity and enterprise,
+     who is well known, not only for his wealth, but for his
+     foresight, and in attempting to enlist him in our cause he put
+     me through such a cross-examination as I had never before
+     experienced. I thought I was in the witness-box. He inquired
+     of me the practicability of the scheme--what it would pay, and
+     every thing else connected with it; but before I left him, I
+     had the pleasure of hearing him say that it was a great
+     national enterprise that ought to be carried out, and, he
+     added, I will be one of ten to find the money required for it.
+     From that day to this he has never hesitated about it, and when
+     I mention his name, you will know him as a man whose word is as
+     good as his bond, and as for his bond, there is no better in
+     England."
+
+Having thus secured one powerful ally, Mr. Field took courage in the
+hope to find another. He says:
+
+     "The words spoken by Mr. Brassey in the latter part of January,
+     'Let the Electric Telegraph be laid between England and
+     America,' encouraged us all, and made us believe we should
+     succeed in raising the necessary capital, and I then went to
+     work to find nine other Thomas Brasseys (I did not know whether
+     he was an Englishman, a Scotchman, or an Irishman; but I made
+     up my mind that he combined all the good qualities of every one
+     of them), and after considerable search I met with a rich
+     friend from Manchester, Mr. [now Sir] John Pender, and I asked
+     him if he would second Mr. Brassey, and walked with him from 28
+     Pall Mall to the House of Commons, of which he is a member.
+     Before we reached the House, he expressed his willingness to do
+     so to an equal amount."
+
+This was putting strong arms to the wheel. A few days after, a
+combination was formed to carry on the whole business of making
+Submarine Telegraphs, by a union of the Gutta-Percha Company with the
+firm of Glass, Elliot & Co., the principal manufacturers of sea cables,
+making one grand concern, to be called The Telegraph Construction and
+Maintenance Company. These two great capitalists entered into the new
+organization, of which Mr. Pender was made Chairman. The Gutta-Percha
+Company brought in still further strength to the joint enterprise, in
+the person of Mr. Willoughby Smith, their electrician, and of Mr. John
+Chatterton, the inventor of the insulating material known as
+Chatterton's Compound. The union of all these men made a combination of
+practical skill and financial ability, such as could be found in few
+companies in England or in the world. Mr. R. A. Glass was chosen
+Managing Director--a gentleman who seemed born to be a manager, such
+power had he of gathering about him talent in every department and
+combining all into one organization. Reenforced by such powerful aid,
+the new Company now came forward, and offered at one stroke to take all
+the remaining stock of the Company. This was more than half the whole
+capital. As yet, of the L600,000 required, but L285,000 had been
+subscribed. Now this princely Company offered to take the balance
+themselves--L315,000. They did more, they took L100,000 of bonds; and so
+by one dead lift these stalwart Englishmen took the whole enterprise on
+their broad shoulders. From that hour the problem was solved. Thus after
+a dead lock of six months the wheels were unloosed, and the gigantic
+machinery began to revolve.
+
+This was a triumph worthy to be honored in the way that Englishmen love,
+by a little festivity; and as it chanced to be now ten years since Mr.
+Field had embarked in the enterprise, the pleasant thought occurred to
+him of getting his friends together to celebrate the anniversary.
+Accordingly, on the fifteenth of March, he invited them to dine together
+at the Buckingham Palace Hotel. It was a joyous occasion, and called
+forth the usual amount of toasts and speeches. Of the latter, those of
+Mr. Adams, the American Minister, and of John Bright, were widely copied
+in the United States. The next day was the annual meeting of the
+Atlantic Telegraph Company, when the Chairman, the Right Hon. James
+Stuart Wortley, thus referred to the gathering of the night before:
+
+     "Without saying any thing to detract from my deep gratitude to
+     the other Directors, I cannot help especially alluding to Mr.
+     Cyrus Field, who is present to-day, and who has crossed the
+     Atlantic thirty-one times in the service of this Company,
+     having celebrated at his table yesterday the anniversary of the
+     tenth year of the day when he first left Boston in the service
+     of the Company. Collected round his table last night was a
+     company of distinguished men--members of Parliament, great
+     capitalists, distinguished merchants and manufacturers,
+     engineers and men of science, such as is rarely found together
+     even in the highest house in this great metropolis. It was very
+     agreeable to see an American citizen so surrounded. It was
+     still more gratifying, inasmuch as we were there to celebrate
+     the approaching accomplishment of the Atlantic Telegraph."
+
+This was a congratulation on an escape from death, for their cherished
+scheme had just passed through a critical period of its history. The
+enterprise had been in great danger of abandonment--at least for years,
+a peril from which it had been rescued only by the most prompt and
+vigorous effort.
+
+Thus after infinite toil, the wreck of old disasters was cleared away,
+and the mighty task begun anew. The works of the Telegraph Construction
+and Maintenance Company were the largest in the world, and all their
+resources were now put in requisition. Never did greater care preside
+over a public enterprise. It was a case in which the motive of interest
+was seconded or overborne by pride and ambition. A cable was to be made
+to span the Atlantic Ocean, and to join the hemispheres; and they were
+determined to produce a work that should be as nearly perfect as human
+skill could make it. The Scientific Committee, that had so long
+investigated the subject, had approved a particular form of cable, as
+"the one most calculated to insure success in the present state of our
+experimental knowledge respecting deep-sea cables," but at the same time
+recommended the utmost vigilance at every stage of the manufacture.
+These precautions deserve to be noted, as showing with what jealous care
+science watches over the birth of a great enterprise, and prescribes
+the conditions of success. They recommended:
+
+     That the conductivity of the wire should be fixed at a high
+     standard, certainly not less than eighty-five per cent; that
+     the cable should be at least equal to the best ever made; that
+     the core should be electrically perfect; that it should be
+     tested under hydraulic pressure, and at the highest pressure
+     attainable in the tanks at the Company's works; that after this
+     pressure, the core should be examined again, and before
+     receiving its outer covering, be required to pass the full
+     electrical test under water; that careful and frequent
+     mechanical tests be made upon the iron wire and hemp as to
+     their strength; that special care be given to the joints, where
+     different lengths of cable were spliced together; and that when
+     completed, the whole be tested under water for some length of
+     time, at a temperature of seventy-five degrees.
+
+This was higher by forty degrees than the temperature of the Atlantic.
+The insulation is improved by cold; so that, if it remained perfect in
+this warm water, it could not fail in the icy depths of the ocean.
+
+[Illustration: OLD ATLANTIC CABLE, 1858.]
+
+[Illustration: NEW ATLANTIC CABLE, 1865.]
+
+After passing through such elaborate tests, all will be glad to see the
+final product of so much care and skill. As the long line begins to reel
+off from the great wheels and drums, we may examine it in its completed
+and more perfect form. It is only necessary to compare it with the cable
+laid in 1858, to show its immense superiority. A glance at the two as
+they appear on the preceding page will show that the cable had _grown_
+since first it was planted in the ocean, as if it were a living product
+of the sea. This growth had been in every part, from core to
+circumference.
+
+First, the central copper wire, which was the spinal cord, the nerve
+along which the centre current was to run, was nearly three times as
+large as before. Prof. Thomson had long seen that this was a condition
+of success. While joining heartily in the attempts of 1857-58, he felt
+that an error was committed in the smallness of the cable; that the
+copper conductors and the gutta-percha covering should both be much
+larger. The old conductor was a strand consisting of seven fine wires,
+six laid round one, and weighed only one hundred and seven pounds to the
+mile. The new was composed of the same number of wires, but weighed
+three hundred pounds to the mile. As it was made of the finest copper
+that could be obtained in the world, it was a perfect conductor. Next,
+to secure insulation, it was first imbedded for solidity in Chatterton's
+compound, a preparation impervious to water, and then covered with four
+layers of gutta-percha, which were laid on alternately with four thin
+layers of Chatterton's compound. The old cable had but three coatings of
+gutta-percha, with nothing between. Its entire insulation weighed but
+two hundred and sixty-one pounds to the mile, while that of the new
+weighed four hundred pounds.
+
+But a conductor ever so perfect, with insulation complete, was useless
+without proper external protection, to guard it against the dangers
+which must attend the long and difficult process of laying it across the
+ocean. The old cable had broken a number of times. The new must be made
+stronger. To this end it was incased with ten solid wires of the best
+iron, or rather, of a soft steel, like that used in the making of
+Whitworth's cannon. This made the cable much heavier than before. The
+old cable weighed but twenty cwt. to the mile, while the new one reached
+thirty-five cwt. and three quarters. But mere size and weight were
+nothing, except as they indicated increased strength. This was secured,
+not only by the larger iron wires, but by a further coating of rope.
+Each wire was surrounded separately with five strands of Manilla yarn,
+saturated with a preservative compound, and the whole laid spirally
+round the core, which latter was padded with ordinary hemp, saturated
+with the same preservative mixture. This rope covering was important in
+several respects. It kept the wires from coming in contact with the salt
+water, by which they might be corroded; and while it added greatly to
+the strength of the cable, it gave it also its own flexibility--so that
+while it had the strength of an iron chain, it had also the lightness
+and flexibility of a common ship's rope. This union of two qualities was
+all-important. The great problem had been to combine strength with
+flexibility. Mere dead weight was an objection. The new cable, though
+nearly twice as heavy as the old in air, when immersed in water, weighed
+but a trifle more; so that it was really much lighter in proportion to
+its size. This increased lightness was a very important matter in laying
+the cable, as it caused it to sink slowly. The old cable, though
+smaller, was heavy almost as a rod of iron, so that, as it ran out, it
+dropped at an angle which exposed it to great danger in case of a sudden
+lurch of the ship. Thus in 1857 it was broken by the stern of the
+Niagara being thrown up on a wave just as the brakes were shut down. Now
+the cable, being partially buoyed by the rope, would float out to a
+great distance from the ship, and sink down slowly in the deep waters.
+
+By this combination of rope and iron, a cable was secured two and a
+half times as strong as the old--the breaking strain of the former
+having been three tons five cwt., and of the latter seven tons and
+fifteen cwt. Or, to put it in another form, the contract strain of the
+former was less than five times its own weight per mile in water; so
+that if the cable had been laid in some parts of the Atlantic, where the
+ocean is more than five miles deep, it would have broken under the
+enormous strain. But the contract strain of the new cable was equal to
+_eleven_ times its weight per mile in water, which, as the greatest
+depth of water to be passed was but two and a half miles, rendered the
+cable more than four times as strong as was required.
+
+This great chain which was to bind the sea was to be 2,300 nautical
+miles long, or nearly 2,700 statute miles! But where could this enormous
+bulk be stowed? Its weight would sink the Spanish Armada. In 1858, the
+cable loaded down two of the largest ships of war in the world, the
+Niagara and the Agamemnon. Yet now one much larger and bulkier was to be
+taken on board. This might have proved a serious embarrassment, but that
+a few years before there had been built in England a ship of enormous
+proportions. The Great Eastern, whose iron walls had been reared by the
+genius of Brunel, had been for ten years waiting for "a mission." As a
+specimen of marine architecture she was perfect. She walked the waters
+in towering pride, scarce bending her imperial head to the waves that
+broke against her sides, as against the rocks of the shore. But with all
+her noble qualities, she was too great for the ordinary demands of
+commerce. Her very size was against her; and while smaller ships, on
+which she looked down with contempt, were continually flying to and fro
+across the sea, this leviathan,
+
+     Hugest of all God's works
+     That swim the ocean stream,
+
+could find nothing worthy of her greatness. Here then was the vessel to
+receive the Atlantic cable.
+
+Seeing her fitness for the purpose, a few of the gentlemen who were
+active in reviving the Atlantic Telegraph combined to purchase her, as
+she was about to be sold. One of them went down with all speed to
+Liverpool, and the next day telegraphed that the big ship was theirs.
+The new owners at once put her at the service of the Atlantic Company,
+with the express agreement that any compensation for her use should
+depend on the success of the expedition.
+
+Next to the good fortune of finding such a ship ready to their hands,
+was that of finding an officer worthy to command her. Captain James
+Anderson, of the China, one of the Cunard steamers, had long been known
+to the travelling public, both of England and America, and no one ever
+crossed the sea with him without the strongest feeling of respect for
+his manly and seamanly qualities. A thorough master of his profession,
+having followed the sea for a quarter of a century, he was also a man of
+much general intelligence, and of no small scientific attainments. But
+it was something more than this which inspired such confidence. It was
+his ceaseless watchfulness. He always carried with him a feeling of
+religious responsibility for the lives of all on board, and for every
+interest committed to him. A man of few words, modest in manner, he was
+yet clear in judgment and prompt in action. This vigilance was
+especially marked in moments of danger. When a storm was gathering, all
+who saw that tall figure on the wheel-house, watching with a keen eye
+every spar in the ship and every cloud in the horizon, felt a new
+security from being under his care. Such was the man to be put in charge
+of a great expedition. He was recommended by Mr. Field in the strongest
+terms, and was chosen unanimously by the Board. The Cunard Company, with
+great generosity, consented to give up his services, valuable as they
+were, to forward an enterprise of such public interest. Being thus free,
+he accepted the trust, and entered upon it with enthusiasm. How well he
+fulfilled the expectations of all, the sequel will show.[A]
+
+The work now went on with speed. The wheels began to hum, and the great
+drums to reel off that line which, considering the distance it was to
+span, was hardly to be measured by miles, but rather by degrees of the
+earth's surface. Mere figures give but a vague impression of vast
+spaces. But it is a curious fact, ascertained by an exact computation,
+that if all the wires of copper and of iron, with the layers that made
+up the core and the outer covering, and the strands of yarn that were
+twisted into this one knotted sea-cable, were placed end to end, the
+whole length would reach from the earth to the moon!
+
+As it came from the works in its completed state, it was plunged in
+water, to make it familiar with the element which was to be its future
+home. In the yards of the Company stood eight large tanks, which could
+hold each a hundred and forty miles. Here the cable was coiled to
+"hibernate," till it should be wanted for use the coming spring.
+
+Seeing the work thus well under way, with no chance of another
+disastrous check, Mr. Field left England with heart at rest, and
+returned to America for the winter. But the first days of spring saw him
+again on the Atlantic. He reached England on the eighteenth of March.
+His visit was more satisfactory than a year before. The work was now
+well advanced. It was a goodly sight to go down to Morden Wharf at
+Greenwich, and see the huge machinery in motion, spinning off the
+leagues of deep-sea line. The triumph apparently was near at hand. It
+seemed indeed a predestined thing that the cable should finally be laid
+in the year of grace 1865--the end for which he had so faithfully toiled
+since 1858--seven weary years--as long as Jacob served for Rachel! But,
+less fortunate than Jacob, he was doomed to one more disappointment. At
+present, however, all looked well, and he could not but regard the
+prospect with satisfaction.
+
+Having no more drudgery of raising money, he had now a few weeks'
+leisure to take a voyage up the Mediterranean. The canal across the
+Isthmus of Suez, which had been so long in progress, under the
+supervision of French engineers, was at length so far advanced that the
+waters of the Mediterranean were about to mingle with those of the Red
+Sea, and delegates were invited to be present from all parts of the
+world. An invitation had been sent to the Chamber of Commerce in New
+York, and Mr. Field, then starting for Europe, was appointed as its
+representative. The visit was one of extraordinary interest. The
+occasion brought together a number of eminent engineers from every
+country of Europe, in company with whom this stranger from the New World
+visited the most ancient of kingdoms to see the spirit of modern
+enterprise invading the land of the Pyramids.
+
+He returned to England about the first of May to find the work nearly
+completed. The cable was almost done, and a large part of it was already
+coiled on board the ship. This was an operation of much interest, which
+deserves to be described. The manufacture had begun on the first of
+September, and had gone on for eight months without ceasing, the works
+turning out fourteen miles a day even during the short days of winter.
+As the spring advanced, and the days grew longer, the amount was of
+course much increased. But by the last of January they had already
+accumulated about nine hundred miles of completed cable, when began the
+long and tedious work of transferring it to the Great Eastern. It was
+thus slow, because it could not be made directly from the yard to the
+ship. The depth of water at Greenwich was not such as to allow the Great
+Eastern to be brought up alongside the wharf. She was lying at
+Sheerness, thirty miles below, and the cable had to be put on board of
+lighters and taken down to where she lay in the stream. For this purpose
+the Admiralty had furnished to the Company two old hulks, the Iris and
+the Amethyst, which took their loads in turn. When the former had taken
+on board some two hundred and fifty tons of cable, she was towed down to
+the side of the Great Eastern, and the other took her place.
+
+This was an operation which could not be done with speed. With all the
+men who could be employed, they coiled on board only about two miles an
+hour, or twenty miles a day--at which rate it would take some five
+months. The work began on the nineteenth of January, early in the
+morning, and continued till June, before all was safely stowed on board.
+The Great Eastern herself had been fitted up to receive her enormous
+burden. It was an object to stow the cable in as few coils as possible.
+Yet it could not be all piled in one mass. Such a dead weight in the
+centre of the ship would cause her to roll fearfully. If coiled in one
+circle, it was computed that it would nearly fill Astley's theatre from
+the floor of the circus to the roof--making a pile fifty-eight feet wide
+and sixty feet high. To distribute this enormous bulk and weight, it
+was disposed in three tanks--one aft, one amidships, and one forward.
+The latter, from the shape of the ship, was a little smaller than the
+others, and held only six hundred and thirty-three miles of cable, while
+the two former held a little over eight hundred each. All were made of
+thick wrought-iron plates, and water-tight, so that the cable could be
+kept under water till it was immersed in the sea.
+
+Thus with her spacious chambers prepared for the reception of her guest,
+the Great Eastern opened her doors to take in the Atlantic cable; and
+long as it was, and wide and high the space it filled, it found ample
+verge and room within her capacious sides. Indeed, it was the wonder of
+all who beheld it, how, like a monster of the sea, she devoured all that
+other ships could bring. The Iris and the Amethyst came up time after
+time and disgorged their iron contents. Yet this leviathan swallowed
+ship-load after ship-load, as if she could never be satisfied. A writer
+who visited her when the cable was nearly all on board, was at a loss to
+find it. He looked along the deck, from stem to stern, but not a sign of
+it appeared. How he searched, and how the wonder grew, he tells in a
+published letter. After describing his approach to the ship, and
+climbing up her sides and his survey of her deck, he proceeds:
+
+     "But it is time that we should look after what we have mainly
+     come to see, the telegraph cable. To our intense astonishment,
+     we behold it nowhere, although informed that there are nearly
+     two thousand miles of it already on board, and the remaining
+     piece--a piece long enough to stretch from Land's End to John
+     O'Groat's--is in course of shipment. We walk up and down on the
+     deck of the Great Eastern without seeing this gigantic chain
+     which is to bind together the Old and the New World; and it is
+     only on having the place pointed out to us that we find where
+     the cable lies and by what process it is taken on board. On the
+     side opposite to where we landed, deep below the deck of our
+     giant, there is moored a vessel surmounted by a timber
+     structure resembling a house, and from this vessel the
+     wonderful telegraph cable is drawn silently into the immense
+     womb of the Great Eastern. The work is done so quietly and
+     noiselessly, by means of a small steam-engine, that we scarcely
+     notice it. Indeed, were it not pointed out to us, we would
+     never think that that little iron cord, about an inch in
+     diameter, which is sliding over a few rollers and through a
+     wooden table, is a thing of world-wide fame--a thing which may
+     influence the life of whole nations; nay, which may affect the
+     march of civilization. Following the direction in which the
+     iron rope goes, we now come to the most marvellous sight yet
+     seen on board the Great Eastern. We find ourselves in a little
+     wooden cabin, and look down, over a railing at the side, into
+     an immense cavern below. This cavern is one of the three
+     'tanks' in which the two-thousand-mile cable is finding a
+     temporary home. The passive agent of electricity comes creeping
+     in here in a beautiful, silent manner, and is deposited in
+     spiral coils, layer upon layer. It is almost dark at the
+     immense depth below, and we can only dimly discern the human
+     figures through whose hands the coil passes to its bed.
+     Suddenly, however, the men begin singing. They intone a low,
+     plaintive song of the sea; something like Kingsley's
+
+          'Three fishers went sailing away to the West,
+          Away to the West as the sun went down--'
+
+     the sounds of which rise up from the dark, deep cavern with
+     startling effect, and produce an indescribable impression.
+
+     "We proceed on; but the song of the sailors who are taking
+     charge of the Atlantic Telegraph cable is haunting us like a
+     dream. In vain our guide conducts us all over the big ship,
+     through miles of galleries, passages, staircases, and
+     promenades; through gorgeous saloons, full of mirrors, marbles,
+     paintings, and upholstery, made 'regardless of expense;' and
+     through buildings crowded with glittering steam apparatus of
+     gigantic dimensions, where the latent power of coal and water
+     creates the force which propels this monster vessel over the
+     seas. In vain our attention is directed to all these sights; we
+     do not admire them; our imagination is used up. The echo of the
+     sailors' song in the womb of the Great Eastern will not be
+     banished from our mind. It raises visions of the future of the
+     mystic iron coil under our feet--how it will roll forth again
+     from its narrow berth; how it will sink to the bottom of the
+     Atlantic, or hang from mountain to mountain far below the
+     stormy waves; and how two great nations, offsprings of one race
+     and pioneers of civilization, will speak through this wonderful
+     coil, annihilating distance and time. Who can help dreaming
+     here, on the spot where we stand? For it is truly a marvellous
+     romance of civilization, this Great Eastern and this Atlantic
+     Telegraph cable. Even should our age produce nothing else, it
+     alone would be the triumph of our age."
+
+As the work approached completion, public interest revived in the
+stupendous undertaking, and crowds of wonder-seekers came down from
+London to see the preparations for the expedition. Even if not admitted
+on board, they found a satisfaction in sailing round the great ship, in
+whose mighty bosom was coiled this huge sea-serpent. It had also many
+distinguished visitors. Among others, the Prince of Wales came to see
+the ocean girdle which was to link the British islands with his future
+dominions beyond the sea.
+
+At length, on the twenty-ninth of May, almost the last day of Spring,
+the manufacture of the cable was finished. The machines which for eight
+months had been in a constant whirl, made their last round. The tinkling
+of a bell announced that the machinery was empty, and the mighty work
+stood completed. It only remained that it should be got on board, and
+the ship prepared for her voyage. Hundreds of busy hands were at work
+without ceasing, and yet it was six weeks before she was ready to put to
+sea.
+
+It may well be believed that it was no small affair to equip such an
+expedition. Beside the enormous burden of the cable itself, the Great
+Eastern had to take on board seven or eight thousand tons of coal,
+enough for a fleet, to feed her fires. Then she carried about five
+hundred men, for whom she had to make provision during the weeks they
+might be at sea. The stores laid in were enough for a small army.
+Standing on the wheel-house, and looking down, one might fancy himself
+in some large farm-yard of England. There stood the motherly cow that
+was to give them milk; and a dozen oxen, and twenty pigs, and a hundred
+and twenty sheep, while whole flocks of ducks and geese, and fowls of
+every kind, cackled as in a poultry-yard. Beside all this live stock,
+hundreds of barrels of provisions, of meats and fruits, were stored in
+the well-stocked larder below. Thus laden for her voyage, the Great
+Eastern had in her a weight, including her own machinery, of twenty-one
+thousand tons--a burden almost as great as could have been carried by
+the whole fleet with which Nelson fought the battle of Trafalgar.
+
+As the time of departure drew near, public curiosity was excited, and
+there was an extraordinary desire to witness the approaching attempt.
+The Company was besieged by applications from all quarters for
+permission to accompany the expedition. Had these requests been granted,
+on the scale asked, even the large dimensions of the Great Eastern could
+hardly have been sufficient for the crowds on board. The demand was most
+pressing for places for newspaper correspondents. These came not only
+from England, but from France and America. Almost every journal in
+London claimed the privilege of being represented. The result was what
+might have been expected. As it was impossible to satisfy all, and to
+discriminate in favor of some, and exclude others, would seem partial
+and unjust, they were finally obliged to exclude all. Of course this
+gave great offence. There was an outcry in England and in the United
+States at what was denounced as a selfish and suicidal policy. But it is
+doubtful whether any other possible course would have given better
+satisfaction.
+
+Whether the Managers erred in this or not, it should be said that they
+applied the same inexorable rule to themselves--even Directors of the
+Company being excluded, unless they had some special business on board.
+
+It should be borne in mind that the expedition was not under the control
+of the Atlantic Telegraph Company at all, but of the Telegraph
+Construction and Maintenance Company, which had undertaken the work in
+fulfilment of a contract with the former Company to manufacture and lay
+down a cable across the Atlantic, in which it assumed the whole
+responsibility, not only making the cable, but chartering the ship and
+appointing the officers, and sending its own engineers to lay it down.
+Of course it had an enormous stake in the result. Hence it felt, not
+only authorized, but bound, to organize the expedition solely with
+reference to success. It was not a voyage of pleasure, but for business;
+for the accomplishment of a great and most difficult undertaking. Hence
+it was right that the most strict rules should be adopted. Accordingly
+there was not a man on board who had not some business there. As the
+voyage promised to be one of the utmost practical interest to
+electricians and engineers, several young men were received as
+assistants in the testing-room or in the engineers' department; but
+there was no person who was not in some way engaged on the business of
+one or the other company, or connected with the management of the ship.
+Except Mr. Field, not an Atlantic Telegraph Director accompanied the
+expedition; and he represented also the Newfoundland Company. Mr. Gooch,
+M.P., was at once a Director of the Telegraph Construction and
+Maintenance Company, and Chairman of the Board that owned the Great
+Eastern, and so represented both those companies which had so great a
+stake in the result.
+
+Thus the whole business was in the hands of the Telegraph Construction
+and Maintenance Company. It had its own officers to man the
+expedition--the captain and crew to sail the ship--its engineers to lay
+the cable--and its electricians to test it. Even the eminent
+electricians, Professor Thomson and Mr. Varley, who were on board in the
+service of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, were not allowed to
+interfere, _nor even to give advice_ unless it were asked for in
+writing, and then it was to be given in writing. Their office was only
+to test the cable when laid, to pass messages through it from
+Newfoundland to Ireland, and to report it complete.
+
+So rigorous were the rules which governed this memorable voyage. The
+whole enterprise was organized as completely as a naval expedition.
+Every man had his place. As when a ship is going into battle, everybody
+is sent below that has not some business on deck, so it is not strange
+that in such a critical enterprise they did not want a host of
+supernumeraries on board.
+
+Yet the Company was not unmindful of the anxiety of the public for news,
+and since it could not give a place to many correspondents, it engaged
+one, and that the best--W. H. Russell, LL.D., the well-known
+correspondent of the London Times in the Crimea and in India. This
+brilliant writer was engaged to accompany the expedition--not to praise
+without discrimination, but to report events faithfully from day to day.
+He was accompanied by two artists, Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Dudley, to
+illustrate the scenes of the voyage. Thus the Company made every
+provision to furnish information and even entertainment to the public.
+Several of these gentlemen afterward wrote accounts for different
+magazines--Blackwood, Cornhill, and Macmillan's. Their different
+reports, and especially the volume of Dr. Russell, which combines the
+accuracy and minuteness of a diary kept from day to day, with brilliant
+descriptions, set off by illustrations from drawings of Mr. Dudley,
+furnish the public as full and complete an account as if there had been
+a special correspondent for every journal of England and America.
+
+But if the public at large were very properly excluded, the organization
+on board was perfect and complete. At the head was Captain Anderson, of
+whom we have already spoken. As his duties would be manifold and
+increasing, he had requested the aid of an assistant commander, and
+Captain Moriarty, R. N., who had been in the Agamemnon in 1858, was
+permitted by the Admiralty to accompany the ship, and to give the
+invaluable aid of his experience and skill. The government also
+generously granted two ships of war, the Sphinx and the Terrible, to
+attend the Great Eastern. Thus the whole equipment of the expedition was
+English. Of the five hundred men on board the Great Eastern, there was
+but one American, and that was Mr. Field.
+
+The engineering department was under charge of Mr. (now Sir) Samuel
+Canning, who, as the representative of the Telegraph Construction and
+Maintenance Company, was chief in command of all matters relating to
+laying the cable. For this responsible position no better man could have
+been chosen. Before the voyage was ended, he had ample opportunity to
+show his resources. He was ably seconded by Mr. Henry Clifford. Both
+these gentlemen had been on board the Agamemnon in the two expeditions
+of 1858. They had since had large experience in laying submarine cables
+in the Mediterranean and other seas. It was chiefly by their united
+skill that the paying-out machinery had been brought to such perfection,
+that throughout the voyage it worked without a single hitch or jar. They
+had an invaluable helper in Mr. John Temple.
+
+The electrical department was under charge of Mr. De Sauty, who had had
+long experience in submarine telegraphs, and who was aided by an
+efficient corps of assistants. Professor Thomson and Mr. Varley, as we
+have said, were there to examine and report for the Atlantic Company.
+All these gentlemen had been unceasing in their tests of the cable in
+every form, both while in the process of manufacture and after it was
+coiled in the Great Eastern. The result of their repeated tests was to
+demonstrate that the cable was _many times more perfect than the
+contract required_. With such marvellous delicacy did they test the
+current of electricity sent through it, that it was determined that of
+one thousand parts, over nine hundred and ninety-nine came out at the
+other end!
+
+To complete this organization and equipment caused such delays as
+excited the impatience of all on board. But at length, when midsummer
+had fully come--at noon of Saturday, July fifteenth--the song of the
+sailors sounded the _chant du depart_. The Great Eastern was then lying
+at the Nore, and she seemed to cling to the English soil which she had
+griped with a huge Trotman weighing seven tons, held fast by a chain
+whereof every link weighed seventy pounds! To wrench this ponderous
+anchor from its bed required the united strength of near two hundred
+men. At last the bottom lets go its hold, the anchor swings to the bow,
+the gun is fired, and the voyage is begun. A fleet of yachts and boats
+raise their cheers as the mighty hull begins to move. But mark how
+carefully she feels her way, following the lead of yonder little
+steamer, the Porcupine, the same faithful guide that seven years before
+led the Niagara up Trinity Bay one night when the faint light of stars
+twinkled on all the surrounding hills. Slowly they near the sea. Now the
+cliffs of Dover are in sight, and bidding her escort adieu, the Great
+Eastern glides along by the beautiful Isle of Wight, and then quickening
+her speed, with a royal sweep, she moves down the Channel. Off Falmouth
+she picked up the Caroline, a small steamer, which had left several days
+before with the shore end on board. She was laboring heavily with her
+burden, and made little headway in the rough waves. But the Great
+Eastern took her in tow, and she followed like a ship's boat in the wake
+of the monarch of the seas.
+
+Thus they passed round to the coast of Ireland, to that Valentia Bay
+where, eight years before, the Earl of Carlisle gave his benediction on
+the departure of the Niagara and the Agamemnon, and where, a year
+later, the gallant English ship brought her end of the cable safely to
+the shore.
+
+The point of landing had been changed from Valentia harbor five or six
+miles to Foilhommerum Bay, a wild spot where huge cliffs hang over the
+waves that here come rolling in from the Atlantic. On the top, an old
+tower of the time of Cromwell tells of the bloody days of England's
+great civil war. It is now but a mossy ruin. Here the peasants who
+flocked in from the country pitched their booths on the green sward, and
+looked down from the dizzy heights on the boats dancing in the bay
+below. At the foot of the cliff, a soft, sandy beach forms a bed for the
+cable, and here, as it issues from the sea, it is led up a channel which
+had been cut for it in the rocks.
+
+As the shore end was very massive and unwieldy, it could not be laid
+except in good weather; and as the sea was now rough, the Great Eastern
+withdrew to Bantry Bay, to be out of the way of the storms which
+sometimes break with fury on this rock-bound coast.
+
+On Saturday this preliminary work was completed, the heavy shore end was
+carried from the deck of the Caroline across a bridge of boats to the
+beach, and hauled up the cliffs amid the shouts of the people. When once
+it was made fast to the rocks, the little steamer began to move, and the
+huge coil slowly unwound, and like a giant awakened, stretched out its
+long iron arms. By half-past ten o'clock at night the hold was empty,
+the whole twenty-seven miles having been safely laid, and the end buoyed
+in seventy-five fathoms water. A despatch was at once sent across the
+country to Bantry Bay to the Great Eastern to come around with all
+speed, and early the next morning her smoke was seen in the offing.
+Passing the harbor of Valentia, she proceeded to join the Caroline,
+which she reached about noon, and at once commenced splicing the massive
+shore end to her own deep-sea line. This was a work of several hours, so
+that it was toward evening before all was completed.
+
+Thus, so many had been the delays of the past week, that it had come on
+to Sunday before the Great Eastern was ready to begin her voyage.
+This--which some might count a desecration of the holy day--the sailors
+rather accepted as a good omen. Had the shore end been laid forty-eight
+hours sooner, the voyage might have begun on Friday, which sailors, who
+are proverbially superstitious, would have thought an unlucky beginning.
+But Sunday, in their esteem, is a good day. They like, when a ship is
+moving out of sight of land, that the last sound from the shore should
+be the blessed Sabbath bells. If that sacred chime were not heard
+to-day, at least a Sabbath peace rested on sea and sky. It was a calm
+summer's evening. The sun was just sinking in the waves, as the Great
+Eastern, with the two ships of war which waited on either hand, to
+attend her royal progress, turned their faces to the West, and caught
+the sudden glory. Says Russell: "As the sun set, a broad stream of
+golden light was thrown across the smooth billows toward their bows, as
+if to indicate and illumine the path marked out by the hand of Heaven."
+What a sacred omen! Had it been the fleet of Columbus sailing westward,
+every ship's company would have fallen upon their knees on those decks,
+and burst forth in an Ave Maria to the gentle Mistress of the Seas. But
+in that manly crew there was many an eye that took in the full beauty of
+the scene, and many a reverent heart that invoked a benediction.
+
+In other respects the day was well chosen. It was the twenty-third of
+July. From the beginning, Captain Anderson had wished to sail on the
+twenty-third of June, or the twenty-second of July, so as to have the
+full moon on the American coast. He desired also to take advantage of
+the westerly winds which prevail at that season, for in going against
+the wind the Great Eastern was steady as a rock. Every expectation was
+realized. To the big ship the ocean was as an inland lake. The
+paying-out machinery--the product of so much study and skill--worked
+beautifully, and as the ship increased her speed, the cable glided into
+the water with such ease that it seemed but a holiday affair to carry it
+across to yonder continent. Such were the reflections of all that
+evening as the long summer twilight lingered on the sea. At midnight
+they went to sleep, to dream of an easy triumph.
+
+Yet be not too confident. But a few hours had passed before the booming
+of a gun awoke all on board with the heavy tidings of disaster. The
+morning breaks early in those high latitudes, and by four o'clock all
+were on deck, with anxious looks inquiring for the cause of alarm. The
+ship was lying still, as if her voyage had already come to an end, and
+electricians, with troubled countenances, were passing in and out of the
+testing-room, which, as it was always kept darkened, looked like a
+sick-chamber where some royal patient lay trembling between life and
+death.
+
+The method used by the electricians to discover a fault is one of such
+delicacy and beauty as shows the marvellous perfection of the
+instruments which science employs to learn the secrets of nature. The
+galvanometer is an invention of Professor Thomson, by which "a ray of
+light reflected from a tiny mirror suspended to a magnet travels along a
+scale, and indicates the resistance to the passage of the current
+through the cable by the deflection of the magnet, which is marked by
+the course of this speck of light. If the light of the mirror travels
+beyond the index, or out of bounds, an escape of the current is taking
+place, and what is technically called a fault has occurred." Such was
+the discovery on Monday morning. At a quarter past three o'clock the
+electrician on duty saw the light suddenly glide to the end of the scale
+and vanish.
+
+Fortunately it was not a fatal injury. It did not prevent signalling
+through the cable, and a message was at once sent back to the shore,
+giving notice of the check that had been received. But the electric
+current did not flow freely. There was a leak at some point of the line
+which it would not be prudent to pass over. They were now seventy-three
+miles from shore, having run out eighty-four miles of cable. The tests
+of the electricians indicated the fault to be ten or a dozen miles from
+the stern of the ship. The only safe course was to go back and get this
+on board, and cut out the defective portion. It was a most ungrateful
+operation thus to be undoing their own work, but there was no help for
+it.
+
+Such accidents had been anticipated, and before the Great Eastern left
+England, she had been provided with machinery to be used in case of
+necessity for picking up the cable. But this proved rather an unwieldy
+affair. It was at the bow, and as the paying-out machine was at the
+stern, the ship had to be got round, and the cable, which must first be
+cut, had to be transferred from one end to the other. This was not an
+easy matter. The Great Eastern was an eighth of a mile long, and to
+carry the cable along her sides for this distance, and over her high
+wheel-houses, was an operation at once tedious and difficult.
+
+But at length the ship's head was brought round, and the end of the
+cable lifted over the bow, and grasped by the pulling-in machine, and
+the engine began to puff with the labor of raising the cable from the
+depths of the ocean. Fortunately they were only in four or five hundred
+fathoms water, so that the strain was not great. But the engine worked
+poorly, and the operation was very slow. With the best they could do, it
+was impossible to raise more than a mile an hour! But patience and
+courage, though it should take all day and all night![B] The Great
+Eastern did her duty well, steaming slowly back toward Ireland, while
+the engine pulled, and the cable came up, though reluctantly, from the
+sea, till on Tuesday morning at seven o'clock, when they had hauled in a
+little over ten miles, the cause of offence was brought on board. It was
+found to be a small piece of wire, not longer than a needle, that by
+some accident (for they did not then suspect a design) had been driven
+through the outer cover of the cable till it touched the core. There was
+the source of all the mischief. It was this pin's point which pricked
+the vital cord, opening a minute passage through which the electricity,
+like a jet of blood from a pierced artery, went streaming into the sea.
+It was with an almost angry feeling, as if to punish it for its
+intrusion, that this insignificant and contemptible source of trouble
+was snatched from its place, the wounded piece of cable was cut off, and
+a splice made and the work of paying out renewed. But it was four
+o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday before they were ready to resume the
+voyage. A full day and a half had been lost by this miserable piece of
+wire.
+
+But the vexatious delay was over at last, and the stately ship, once
+more turning to the West, moved ahead with a steady composure, as if no
+petty trouble could vex her tranquil mind. Throughout the voyage the
+behavior of the ship was the admiration of all on board. While her
+consorts on either side were pitched about at the mercy of the waves,
+she moved forward with a grave demeanor, as if conscious of her mission,
+or as if eager to unburden her mighty heart, to throw overboard the
+great mystery that was coiled up within her, and to cast her burden on
+the sea.
+
+The electricians, too, were elated, and with reason, at the perfection
+of the cable as demonstrated by every hour's experience. At intervals of
+thirty minutes, day and night, tests were passed from ship to shore,
+and to the delight of all, instead of finding the insulation weakened,
+it steadily improved as the cable was brought into contact with the cold
+depths of the Atlantic.
+
+All now went well till Saturday, the twenty-ninth, when a little after
+noon there was again a cry from the ship, as if once more the cable were
+wounded and in pain. This time the fault was more serious than before.
+The electricians looked very grave, for they had struck "dead earth,"
+that is, the insulation was completely destroyed, and the electric
+current was escaping into the sea.
+
+As the fault had gone overboard, it was necessary to reverse their
+course, and haul in till the defective part was brought up from the
+bottom. This time it was more difficult, for they were in water two
+miles deep. Still the cable yielded slowly to the iron hands that drew
+it upward; and after working all the afternoon, about ten o'clock at
+night they got the fault on board. The wounded limb was at once
+amputated, and joining the parts that were whole, the cable was made new
+and strong again. Thus ended a day of anxiety. The next morning, which
+was the second Sabbath at sea, was welcomed with a grateful feeling
+after the suspense of the last twenty-four hours.
+
+On Monday, the miles of cable that had been hauled up, and which were
+lying in huge piles upon the deck, were subjected to a rigid
+examination, to find out where the fault lay. This was soon apparent.
+Near the end was found a piece of wire thrust through its very heart, as
+if it had been driven into it. All looked black when this was
+discovered, for at once it excited suspicions of design. It was remarked
+that the same gang of workmen were in the tank as at the time of the
+first fault. Mr. Canning sent for the men, and showing them the cable
+pierced through with the wire, asked them how it occurred. Every man
+replied that _it must have been done by design_, even though they
+accused themselves, as this implied that there was a traitor among them.
+It seemed hard to believe that any one could be guilty of such devilish
+malignity. Yet such a thing had been done before in a cable laid in the
+North Sea, where the insulation was destroyed by a nail driven into it.
+The man was afterward arrested, and confessed that he had been hired to
+do it by a rival company. The matter was the subject of a long
+investigation in the English courts. In the present case there were many
+motives which might prompt to such an act. The fall in the stock on the
+London Exchange, caused by a loss of the cable, could hardly be less
+than half a million sterling. Here was a temptation such as betrays
+bold, bad men into crime. However, as it was impossible to fix the deed
+on any one, nothing was proved, and there only remained a painful
+suspicion of treachery. Against this it was their duty to guard.
+Therefore it was agreed that the gentlemen on board should take turns
+in keeping watch in the tank. It was very unpleasant to Mr. Canning thus
+to set a watch on men, many of whom had been with him in his former
+cable-laying expeditions, but the best of them admitted the necessity of
+it, and were as eager as himself to find out the Judas among them.
+
+But accident or villainy, it was defeated this time, and the Great
+Eastern proudly continued her voyage. Not the slightest check
+interrupted their progress for the next three days, during which they
+passed over five hundred miles of ocean. It was now they enjoyed their
+greatest triumph. They were in the middle of the Atlantic, and thus far
+the voyage had been a complete success. The ship seemed as if made by
+Heaven to accomplish this great work of civilization. The paying-out
+apparatus was a piece of mechanism to excite the enthusiasm of an
+engineer, so smoothly did its well-oiled wheels run. The strain never
+exceeded fourteen hundred-weight, even in the greatest depths of the
+Atlantic. And as for the cable itself, it seemed to come as near
+perfection as it was possible to attain. As before, the insulation was
+greatly improved by submergence in the ocean. With every lengthening
+league it grew better and better. It seems almost beyond belief, yet the
+fact is fully attested that, when in the middle of the ocean, the
+communication was so perfect that they could tell at Valentia every time
+the Great Eastern rolled.[C] With such omens of success, who could but
+feel confident? And when on Monday they passed over a deep valley, where
+lay "the bones of three Atlantic cables," it was with a proud assurance
+that they should not add another to the number.
+
+But Wednesday brought a sudden termination of their hopes. They had run
+out about twelve hundred miles of cable, and were now within six hundred
+miles of Newfoundland. Two days more would have made them safe, as it
+would have brought them into the shallow waters of the coast. Thus it
+was when least expected that disaster came. The record of that fatal day
+may be given in few words. In the morning, while Mr. Field was keeping
+watch in the tank, with the same gang of men who had been there when the
+trouble occurred before, a grating sound was heard, as if a piece of
+wire had caught in the machinery, and word was passed up to the deck to
+look out for it; but the caution seems not to have been heard, and it
+passed over the stern of the ship. Soon after a report came from the
+testing-room of "another fault." It was not a bad one, since it did not
+prevent communication with land; and much anxiety might have been saved
+had a message been sent to Ireland that they were about to cut the
+cable, in order to haul it on board. But small as the fault was, it
+could not be left behind. Down on the deep sea-floor was some minute
+defect, a pin's point in a length measured by thousands of miles. Yet
+that was enough. Of this marvellous product of human skill, it might in
+truth be said, that it was like the law of God in demanding absolute
+perfection. To offend in one point was to be guilty of all.
+
+This new fault, though it was annoying, did not create alarm, for they
+had been accustomed to such things, and regarded them only as the
+natural incidents of the voyage. Had the apparatus for pulling in been
+complete, it could not have delayed them more than a few hours. But this
+had been the weak point of the arrangements from the beginning--the
+_bete noire_ of the expedition. The only motive power was a little
+donkey engine, (rightly named,) which puffed and wheezed as if it had
+the asthma. This was now put in requisition, but soon gave out for want
+of more steam. While waiting for this a breeze sprang up, which caused
+the Great Eastern to drift over the cable, by which it was badly chafed,
+so that when it was hauled in, as the injured part was coming over the
+bows and was almost within grasp, suddenly it broke and plunged into the
+sea!
+
+It came without a moment's warning. So unexpected was such a
+catastrophe, that the gentlemen had gone down to lunch, as it was a
+little past the hour of noon. But Mr. Canning and Mr. Field stood
+watching the cable as it was straining upward from the sea, and saw the
+snapping of that cord, which broke so many hopes. The impression may be
+better imagined than described. Says a writer on board: "Suddenly Mr.
+Canning appeared in the saloon, and in a manner which caused every one
+to start in his seat, said, 'It is all over! It is gone!' then hastened
+onward to his cabin. Ere the thrill of surprise and pain occasioned by
+these words had passed away, Mr. Field came from the companion into the
+saloon, and said, with composure admirable under the circumstances,
+though his lip quivered and his cheek was blanched, 'The cable has
+parted and has gone overboard.' All were on deck in a moment, and there,
+indeed, a glance revealed the truth."
+
+At last it had come--the calamity which all had feared, yet that seemed
+so far away only a few hours before. Yet there it was--the ragged end on
+board, torn and bleeding, the other lying far down in its ocean grave.
+
+In America, of course, nothing could be known of the fate of the
+expedition till its arrival on our shores. But in England its progress
+was reported from day to day, and as the success up to this point had
+raised the hopes of all to the highest pitch, the sudden loss of
+communication with the ship was a heavy blow to public expectation, and
+gave rise to all sorts of conjectures. At first a favorite theory was,
+that communication had been interrupted by a magnetic storm. These are
+among the most mysterious phenomena of nature--so subtle and fleeting as
+to be almost beyond the reach of science. No visible sign do they give
+of their presence. No clouds darken the heavens; no thunder peals along
+the sky. Yet strange influences trouble the air. At this very hour,
+Professor Airy, the Astronomer Royal at the Observatory at Greenwich,
+reported a magnetic storm of unusual violence. Said a London paper:
+
+     "Just when the signals from the Great Eastern ceased, a
+     magnetic storm of singular violence had set in. Unperceived by
+     us, not to be seen in the heavens, nor felt in the atmosphere,
+     the earth's electricity underwent a mysterious disturbance. The
+     recording instruments scattered about the kingdom, everywhere
+     testified to the fury of this voiceless tempest, and there is
+     every reason to suppose that the confusion of signals at midday
+     on Wednesday was due to the strange and unusual earth-currents
+     of magnetism, sweeping wildly across the cable as it lay in
+     apparently untroubled waters at the bottom of the Atlantic."
+
+Said the Times:
+
+     "At Valentia, on Wednesday last, the signals, up to nine A.M.,
+     were coming with wonderful distinctness and regularity, but
+     about that time a violent magnetic storm set in. No insulation
+     of a submarine cable is ever so perfect as to withstand the
+     influence of these electrical phenomena, which correspond in
+     some particulars to storms in the ordinary atmosphere, their
+     direction generally being from east to west. Their action is
+     immediately communicated to all conductors of electricity, and
+     a struggle set up between the natural current and that used
+     artificially in sending messages. This magnetic storm affected
+     every telegraphic station in the kingdom. At some the wires
+     were utterly useless; and between Valentia and Killarney the
+     natural current toward the west was so strong along the land
+     lines that it required an addition of five times the ordinary
+     battery power to overcome it. This magnetic storm, which ceased
+     at two A.M. on Friday, was instantly perceptible in the
+     Atlantic cable."
+
+But these explanations, so consoling to anxious friends on land, did not
+comfort those on board the Great Eastern. They knew, alas! that the
+cable was at the bottom of the ocean, and the only question was, if any
+thing could be done to recover it.
+
+Now began a work of which there had been no example in the annals of the
+sea. The intrepid Canning declared his purpose to grapple for the cable!
+The proposal seemed wild, dictated by the frenzy of despair. Yet he had
+fished in deep waters before. He had laid his hand on the bottom of the
+Mediterranean, but that was a shallow lake compared with the depths into
+which the Atlantic cable had descended. The ocean is here two and a half
+miles deep. It was as if an Alpine hunter stood on the summit of Mont
+Blanc and cast a line into the vale of Chamouni. Yet who shall put
+bounds to human courage? The expedition was not to be abandoned without
+a trial of this forlorn hope. There were on board some five miles of
+wire rope, intended to hold the cable in case it became necessary to cut
+it and lash it to the buoys, to save it from being lost in a storm. This
+was brought on deck for another purpose. "And now came forth the
+grapnels, two five-armed anchors, with flukes sharply curved and tapered
+to a tooth-like end--the hooks with which the Giant Despair was going to
+fish from the Great Eastern for a take worth, with all its belongings,
+more than a million." These huge grappling-irons were firmly shackled to
+the end of the rope, and brought to the bows and thrown overboard. One
+splash, and the whole has disappeared in the bosom of the ocean. Down it
+goes--deeper, deeper, deeper still! For two full hours it continued
+sinking before it struck the earth, and like a pearl-diver, began
+searching for its lost treasure on the bottom of the sea. What did it
+find there? The wrecks of ships that had gone down a hundred years ago,
+with dead men's bones whitening in the deep sea caves? It sought for
+something more precious to the interest of civilization than gems and
+gold.
+
+The ship was now a dozen miles or so from the place of accident. The
+cable had broken a little after noon, when the sun was shining clear, so
+that Captains Anderson and Moriarty had just obtained a perfect
+observation, from which they could tell, within half a mile, the very
+spot where it had gone down. To reach it now, with any chance of
+bringing it up, it would be necessary to hook it a few miles from the
+end. It had been paid out in a line from east to west. To strike it
+broadside, the ship stood off in the afternoon a few miles to the south.
+Here the grapnel was thrown over about three o'clock, and struck bottom
+about five, when the ship began slowly drifting back on her course. All
+night long those iron fingers were raking the bottom of the deep but
+grasping nothing, till toward morning the long rope quivered like a
+fisherman's line when something has seized the end, and the head of the
+Great Eastern began to sway from her course, as if it felt some unseen
+attraction. As they began to haul in, the rapidly increasing strain soon
+rendered it certain that they had got hold of _something_. But what
+could it be? How did they know it was their lost cable? This question
+has often been asked. They did not see it. How did they know that it was
+not the skeleton of a whale, or a mast or spar, the fragment of a
+wrecked ship? The question is easily answered. If it had been any loose
+object which was being drawn up from the sea, its weight would have
+diminished as it came nearer the surface. But on the contrary, the
+strain, as shown by the dynamometer, steadily _increased_. This could
+only be from some object lying prone on the bottom. To an engineer the
+proof was like a mathematical demonstration. Another fact observed by
+Captain Anderson was equally decisive:
+
+     "The grapnel had caught something at the exact hour when by
+     calculation the ship was known to be crossing the line of the
+     cable; nor had the grapnel upon this or any other occasion even
+     for an instant caught any impediment from the time of its being
+     lowered to the bottom, until the hour indicated by calculation,
+     when the cable ought to be hooked."
+
+Having thus caught the cable, they had good hopes of getting it again,
+their confidence increasing with every hundred fathoms brought on board.
+For hours the work went on. They had raised it seven hundred fathoms--or
+three quarters of a mile--from the bottom, when an iron swivel gave way,
+and the cable once more fell back into the sea, carrying with it nearly
+two miles of rope.
+
+The first attempt had failed, but the fact that they had unmistakably
+caught the prize gave them courage for a second. Preparations were at
+once begun, but fogs came on and delayed the attempt till Monday, when
+it was repeated. The grapnel caught again. It was late in the afternoon
+when it got its hold, and the work of pulling in was kept up all night.
+But as the sea was calm and the moon shining brightly, all joined in it
+with spirit, feeling elated with the hope of triumph on the morrow.
+
+That was not to be; but each attempt seemed to come nearer and nearer to
+victory. This time the cable was drawn up a full mile from the bottom,
+and hung suspended a mile and a half below the ship. Had the rope been
+strong enough, it might have been brought on board. But again a swivel
+gave way, and the cable, whose sleep had been a second time disturbed,
+sought its ocean bed.
+
+These experiments were fast using up the wire rope, and every expedient
+had to be resorted to, to piece it out and to give it strength. Each
+shackle and swivel was replaced by new bolts, and the capstan was
+increased four feet in diameter, by being belted with enormous plates of
+iron, to wind the rope around it, if the picking-up machinery should
+fail. This gave full work to all the mechanics on board. The ship was
+turned into a very cave of Vulcan, presenting at night a scene which
+might well take the eye of an artist, and which Russell thus describes:
+
+     "The forge fires glared on her decks, and there, out in the
+     midst of the Atlantic, anvils rang and sparks flew; and the
+     spectator thought of some village far away, where the
+     blacksmith worked, unvexed by cable anxieties and greed of
+     speedy news. As the blaze shot up, ruddy, mellow and strong,
+     and flung arms of light aloft and along the glistening decks,
+     and then died into a red centre, masts, spars, and ropes were
+     for the instant touched with a golden gleaming, and strange
+     figures and faces were called out from the darkness--vanished,
+     glinted out again--rushed suddenly into foreground of bright
+     pictures, which faded soon away--flickered--went out--as they
+     were called to life by its warm breath, or were buried in the
+     outer darkness! Outside all was obscurity, but now and then
+     vast shadows, which moved across the arc of the lighted
+     fog-bank, were projected far away by the flare; and one might
+     well pardon the passing mariner, whose bark drifted him in the
+     night across the track of the great ship, if, crossing himself,
+     and praying with shuddering lips, he fancied he beheld a
+     phantom ship freighted with an evil crew, and ever after told
+     how he had seen the workshops of the Inferno floating on the
+     bosom of the ocean."
+
+While preparing for a third attempt, the ship had been drifting about,
+sometimes to a distance of thirty or forty miles, but it had marked the
+course where the cable lay by two buoys, thrown over about ten miles
+apart, each bearing a flag which might be seen at a distance, and so
+easily came back to the spot. On Thursday morning all was ready, and the
+line was cast as before, but after some hours of drifting, it was
+evident that the ship had passed over the cable without grappling. The
+line was hauled in, and the reason at once appeared. One of the flukes
+had caught in the chain, so that it could not strike its teeth into the
+bottom. This was cleared away, and the rope prepared for a fourth and
+final attempt.
+
+It was at noon of Friday that the grapnel went overboard for the last
+time. By four o'clock it had caught, and the work of hauling-in
+recommenced. Again the cable was brought up nearly eight hundred
+fathoms, when the rope broke, carrying down two miles of its own
+length, and with it the hopes of the Atlantic Telegraph for the present
+year.
+
+Their resources were exhausted. For nine days and nights, for the work
+never stopped for light or darkness, had the great ship kept moving
+round and round like some mighty bird of the sea, with her eye fixed on
+the place where her treasure had gone down, and striving to wrest it
+from the hand of the spoiler. Three times had they grasped the prize,
+and each time failed to recover it, only for want of ropes strong enough
+to bring it on board. _The cable itself never broke._ This proof of its
+strength was a good omen for future success.
+
+But for the present all was over. The attempt must be abandoned for the
+year 1865, but not for ever; and with this purpose in her constant mind,
+the Great Eastern swung sullenly around, and turned her imperial head
+toward England, like a warrior retiring from the field--not victorious,
+nor yet defeated and despairing, but with her battle-flag still flying,
+and resolved once more to attempt the conquest of the sea.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Nearly a year and a half after this, when the cable was safely
+landed in Newfoundland, Captain Anderson, still on board the Great
+Eastern, in a letter to a friend, thus referred to his first connection
+with the Atlantic Telegraph:--
+
+"I cannot tell you how I have felt since our success. It is only
+seventeen months since I first walked up to the top of the paddle-box of
+this ship at Sheerness, upon a dark, rainy night--reviewed my past
+career in my mind, and tried to look into the future, to see what I had
+undertaken, and realize if possible what this new step would develop. I
+cannot say I believed much in cables; I rather think I did not; but I
+did believe Mr. Field was an earnest man, of great force of character,
+and working under a strong conviction that what he was attempting was
+thoroughly practicable; and I knew enough of the names with which he had
+associated himself in the enterprise to feel that it was a real, true,
+honest effort, worthy of all the energy and application of one's
+manhood; and come what might in the future, I resolved to do my very
+utmost, and to do nothing else until it was over. More completely
+however than my resolve foreshadowed, I dropped inch by inch, or step by
+step, into the work, until I had no mind, no soul, no sleep, that was
+not tinged with cable. In a word I accuse Mr. Field of having dragged me
+into a vortex, that I could not get out of, and did not wish to try--and
+the sum total of all this is, to lay a thread across an ocean! Dr.
+Russell compared it to an elephant stretching a cobweb, and there lay
+its very danger: the more you multiply the mechanism, the more you
+increase the risk."
+
+[B] "All during the night the process of picking up was carefully
+carried on, the Big Ship behaving beautifully, and hanging lightly over
+the cable, as if fearful of breaking the slender cord which swayed up
+and down in the ocean. Indeed, so delicately did she answer her
+helm, and coil in the film of thread-like cable over her bows, that
+she put one in mind of an elephant taking up a straw in its
+proboscis."--Russell.
+
+[C] So exquisitely sensitive was the copper strand, that as the Great
+Eastern rolled, and so made the cable pass across the magnetic meridian,
+the induced current of electricity, incomprehensibly faint as it must
+have been, produced nevertheless a perceptible deviation of the ray of
+light on the mirror galvanometer at Foilhommerum.--_London Times._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+PREPARING TO RENEW THE BATTLE.
+
+
+The expedition of 1865, though not an immediate success, had the moral
+effect of a victory, as it confirmed the most sanguine expectations of
+all who embarked in it. The great experiment made during those four
+weeks at sea, had demonstrated many points which were most important
+elements in the problem of Ocean Telegraphy. These are summed up in the
+following paper, which was signed by persons officially engaged on board
+the Great Eastern:
+
+     1. It was proved by the expedition of 1858, that a Submarine
+     Telegraph Cable could be laid between Ireland and Newfoundland,
+     and messages transmitted through the same.
+
+     By the expedition of 1865 it has been fully demonstrated:
+
+     2. That the insulation of a cable improves very much after its
+     submersion in the cold deep water of the Atlantic, and that its
+     conducting power is considerably increased thereby.
+
+     3. That the steamship Great Eastern, from her size and constant
+     steadiness, and from the control over her afforded by the joint
+     use of paddles and screw, renders it safe to lay an Atlantic
+     Cable in any weather.
+
+     4. That in a depth of over two miles four attempts were made
+     to grapple the cable. In three of them the cable was caught by
+     the grapnel, and in the other the grapnel was fouled by the
+     chain attached to it.
+
+     5. That the paying-out machinery used on board the Great
+     Eastern worked perfectly, and can be confidently relied on for
+     laying cables across the Atlantic.
+
+     6. That with the improved telegraphic instruments for long
+     submarine lines, a speed of more than eight words per minute
+     can be obtained through such a cable as the present Atlantic
+     between Ireland and Newfoundland, as the amount of slack
+     actually paid out did not exceed fourteen per cent, which would
+     have made the total cable laid between Valentia and Heart's
+     Content nineteen hundred miles.
+
+     7. That the present Atlantic Cable, though capable of bearing a
+     strain of seven tons, did not experience more than fourteen
+     hundred-weight in being paid out into the deepest water of the
+     Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland.
+
+     8. That there is no difficulty in mooring buoys in the deep
+     water of the Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland, and
+     that two buoys even when moored by a piece of the Atlantic
+     Cable itself, which had been previously lifted from the bottom,
+     have ridden out a gale.
+
+     9. That more than four nautical miles of the Atlantic Cable
+     have been recovered from a depth of over two miles, and that
+     the insulation of the gutta-percha-covered wire was in no way
+     whatever impaired by the depth of water or the strains to which
+     it had been subjected by lifting and passing through the
+     hauling-in apparatus.
+
+     10. That the cable of 1865, owing to the improvements
+     introduced into the manufacture of the gutta-percha core, was
+     more than one hundred times better insulated than cables made
+     in 1858, then considered perfect and still working.
+
+     11. That the electrical testing can be conducted with such
+     unerring accuracy as to enable the electricians to discover the
+     existence of a fault immediately after its production or
+     development, and very quickly to ascertain its position in the
+     cable.
+
+     12. That with a steam-engine attached to the paying-out
+     machinery, should a fault be discovered on board whilst laying
+     the cable, it is possible that it might be recovered before it
+     had reached the bottom of the Atlantic, and repaired at once.
+
+                              S. Canning, Engineer-in-Chief,
+                              Telegraph Construction and Maintenance
+                              Company.
+
+                              James Anderson, Commander of the Great
+                              Eastern.
+
+                              Henry A. Moriarty, Staff Commander, R.
+                              N.
+
+                              Daniel Gooch, M.P., Chairman of "Great
+                              Ship Co."
+
+                              Henry Clifford, Engineer.
+
+                              William Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S., Prof.
+                              of Natural Philosophy in the
+                              University of Glasgow.
+
+                              Cromwell F. Varley, Consulting
+                              Electrician Electric and International
+                              Telegraph Co.
+
+                              Willoughby Smith.
+
+                              Jules Despecher.
+
+This was a grand result to be attained in one short month; and if not
+quite so gratifying as to have the cable laid at once, and the wire in
+full operation, yet as it settled the chief elements of success, the
+moral effect was next to that of an immediate triumph. All who were on
+that voyage felt a confidence such as they had never felt before. They
+came back, not desponding and discouraged, but buoyant with hope, and
+ready at once to renew the attempt.
+
+This confidence appeared at the first meeting of directors. The feeling
+was very different from that after the return of the first expedition of
+1858. So animated were they with hope, and so sure of success the next
+time, that all felt that one cable was not enough, they must have two,
+and so it was decided to take measures not only to raise the broken end
+of the cable and to complete it to Newfoundland, but also to construct
+and lay an entirely new one, so as to have a double line in operation
+the following summer.
+
+The contractors, partaking the general confidence, came forward promptly
+with a new offer even more liberal than that made before. They proposed
+to construct a new line, and to lay it across the Atlantic for half a
+million sterling, which was estimated to be the actual cost to them,
+reserving all compensation to themselves to depend on success. If
+successful, they were to receive twenty per cent. on the cost, or one
+hundred thousand pounds, to be paid in shares of the Company. They would
+engage, also, to go to sea fully prepared to raise the broken end of the
+cable now in mid-ocean, and with a sufficient length, including that on
+board the Great Eastern, to complete the line to Newfoundland. Thus the
+company would have two cables instead of one.
+
+In this offer the contractors assumed a very large risk. They now went a
+step further, and in the contingency of the capital not being raised
+otherwise, they offered _to take it all themselves_--to lay the line at
+their own risk, and to be paid only in the stock of the Company, which,
+of course, must depend for its value on the success of the next
+expedition. It was finally resolved to raise six hundred thousand pounds
+of new capital by the issue of a hundred and twenty thousand shares of
+five pounds each, which should be preferential shares, entitled to a
+dividend of twelve per cent. before the eight per cent. dividend to be
+paid on the former preference shares, and the four per cent. on the
+ordinary stock. This was offering a substantial inducement to the public
+to take part in the enterprise, and it was thought with reason that this
+fresh issue of stock, though it increased the capital of the Company,
+yet as it was all to be employed in forwarding the great work, would not
+only create new property, but give value to the old. The proposal of the
+manufacturers was therefore at once accepted by the Directors, and the
+work was instantly begun. Thus hopeful was the state of affairs when Mr.
+Field returned to America in September.
+
+But he was never easy to be long out of sight of his beloved cable, and
+so three months after he went back to England, reaching London on the
+twenty-fourth of December. He came at just the right moment, for the
+Atlantic Telegraph was once more in extremity. Only two days before the
+Attorney-General of England had given a written opinion that the Company
+_had no legal right_ to issue new twelve per cent. preference shares,
+and that such issue could only be authorized by an express act of
+Parliament. This was a fatal decree to the Company. It was the more
+unexpected, as, before offering the twelve per cent. capital, they had
+been fortified by the opinions of several eminent lawyers and solicitors
+in favor of the legality of their proceedings. It invalidated not only
+what they were going to do, but what they had done already. Hence, as
+the effect of this decision, all the works were stopped, and the money
+which had been paid in was returned to the subscribers.
+
+This was a new dilemma, out of which it was not easy to find a way of
+relief. Parliament was not in session, Lords and Commons being away in
+the country keeping the Christmas holidays. Even if it had been, the
+time for applying to it had passed, as a notice of any private bill to
+be introduced must be given before the thirtieth of November, which was
+gone a month ago. To wait for an act of Parliament, therefore, would
+inevitably postpone the laying of the cable for another year. So
+disheartening was the prospect at the close of 1865.
+
+But they had seen dark days before, and were not to give it up without
+a new effort. Happily, the cause had strong friends to stand by it even
+in this crisis of suspended animation.
+
+One of these to whom Mr. Field now went for counsel, was Mr. (afterward
+Sir) Daniel Gooch, M.P., a gentleman well known in London, as one of the
+class of engineers formed in the school of Stephenson and Brunel, who
+had risen to the position of great capitalists, and who, by their
+enterprise and wealth, had done so much to develop the resources of
+England. He was Chairman of the Great Western Railway, and had more
+faith in enterprises on the land than on the sea. It was a long time
+before he could believe in the possibility of an Atlantic Telegraph.
+Though a man of large fortune, and a personal friend of Mr. Field, the
+latter had never prevailed on him to subscribe a single pound. But he
+went out on the expedition of '65, as chairman of the company that owned
+the Great Eastern; and what he then saw convinced him. He came back
+fully satisfied; he knew it could be done, and was ready to prove his
+faith by his works. Consulting on the present difficulty, he suggested
+that the only relief was to organize a new Company, which should assume
+the work, and which could issue its own shares and raise its own
+capital. This opinion was confirmed by the eminent legal authority of
+Mr. John Horatio Lloyd. To such a Company Mr. Gooch said he would
+subscribe L20,000; Mr. Field put down L10,000.
+
+Next, he betook himself to that prince of English capitalists, Mr.
+Thomas Brassey, who heard from his lips for the first time, that the
+affairs of the Atlantic Telegraph Company had suddenly come to a
+standstill. At this he was much surprised, but instantly cheered his
+informer by saying: "Don't be discouraged; go down to the Company, and
+tell them to go ahead, and whatever the cost, I will bear one tenth of
+the whole." Who _could_ be discouraged with such a Richard the
+Lion-hearted to cheer him on?
+
+Meetings were called of the Directors of both the Atlantic Company and
+the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company; and frequent
+conferences were held between them. The result was the formation of a
+new company called the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, with a capital
+of L600,000, which contracted with the Atlantic Company to manufacture
+and lay down a cable in the summer of 1866, for doing which it was to be
+entitled to what virtually amounted to a preference dividend of
+twenty-five per cent: as a first claim was secured to them by the latter
+company upon the revenue of the cable or cables (after the working
+expenses had been provided for) to the extent of L125,000 per annum; and
+the New-York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company undertook to
+contribute from its revenue a further annual sum of L25,000, on
+condition that a cable should be at work during 1866; an agreement to
+this effect having been signed by Mr. Field, subject to ratification by
+the Company in New York, which was obtained as soon as the steamer could
+cross the ocean and bring back the reply.
+
+The terms being settled, it remained only to raise the capital. The
+Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company led off with a
+subscription of L100,000. This was followed by the names of ten
+gentlemen, who put down L10,000 apiece. Of these Mr. Gooch declared his
+willingness to increase his subscription of L10,000 to L20,000, while
+Mr. Brassey would put down L60,000, if it were needed. Mr. Henry Bewley,
+of Dublin also, who was already a large owner of the Atlantic stock,
+declared his readiness to add L20,000 more. But this was not necessary:
+and so they all stood at L10,000. The names of these ten subscribers
+deserve to be given, as showing who stood forward to save the cause in
+this crisis of its fate. They were: Henry Ford Barclay, Henry Bewley,
+Thomas Brassey, A. H. Campbell, M.P., George Elliot, Cyrus W. Field,
+Richard Atwood Glass, Daniel Gooch, M.P., John Pender, M.P., and John
+Smith. There were four subscriptions of L5,000: by Thomas Bolton and
+Sons, James Horsfall, A Friend of Mr. Daniel Gooch, M.P., and John and
+Edwin Wright; one of L2,500 by John Wilkes and Sons; three of L2,000 by
+C. M. Lampson, J. Morison, and Ebenezer Pike; and two of L1,000 by
+Edward Cropper, and Joseph Robinson,--making in all L230,500.
+
+These were all private subscriptions made before even the prospectus was
+issued, or the books opened to the public. After such a manifestation of
+confidence, the whole capital was secured within fourteen days. This was
+a great triumph, especially at a time of general depression in
+commercial affairs in England.
+
+And now once more the work began. No time was to be lost. It was already
+the first of March, and but four months remained to manufacture sixteen
+hundred and sixty nautical miles of cable, and to prepare for sea. But
+the obstacles once cleared away, all sprang to their work with new hope
+and vigor.
+
+In the cable to be made for the new line, there was but little change
+from that of the last year, which had proved nearly perfect. Experience,
+however, was constantly suggesting some improvement; and while the
+general form and size were retained, a slight change in the outer
+covering was found to make the cable both lighter and stronger. The iron
+wires were _galvanized_, which secured them perfectly from rust or
+corrosion by salt water. Thus protected, they could dispense with the
+preservative mixture of the former year. This left the cable much
+cleaner and whiter. Instead of its black coat, it had the fresh, bright
+appearance of new rope. It had another advantage. As the tarry coating
+was sticky, slight fragments of wire might adhere to it, and do injury,
+a danger to which the new cable was not exposed. At the same time,
+galvanizing the wires gave them greater ductility, so that in the case
+of a heavy strain the cable would stretch longer without breaking. By
+this alteration it was rendered more than four hundred-weight lighter
+per mile, and would bear a strain of nearly half a ton more than the one
+laid the year before.
+
+The machinery also was perfected in every part, to withstand the great
+strain which might be brought upon it in grappling and lifting the cable
+from the great depths of the Atlantic. This necessitated almost a
+reconstruction of the machinery, together with engines of greater power,
+applied both to the gear for hauling in forward and that for paying out
+aft. Thus, in case of a fault, the motion of the ship could be easily
+reversed, and the cable hauled back by the paying-out machinery, without
+waiting for the long and tedious process of bringing the cable round
+from the stern to the bow of the ship.
+
+But the most marvellous improvement had been in the method of testing
+the cable for the discovery of faults. In the last expedition, a grave
+omission had been in the long intervals during which the cable was left
+without a test of its insulation. Thus, from thirty to thirty-five
+minutes in each hour it was occupied with tests of minor importance,
+which would not indicate the existence of a fault, so that, if a fault
+occurred on ship-board, it might pass over the stern, and be miles away
+before it was discovered. But now a new and ingenious method was devised
+by Mr. Willoughby Smith, by which the cable will be tested _every
+instant_. The current will not cease to flow any more than the blood
+ceases to flow in human veins. The cord is vital in every part, and if
+touched at any point it reveals the wound as instinctively as the nerves
+of a living man flash to the brain a wound in any part of the human
+frame.
+
+The process of detecting faults is too scientific to be detailed in
+these pages. We can only stand in silent wonder at the result, when we
+hear it stated by Mr. Varley, that the system of testing is brought to
+such a degree of perfection, that skilful electricians can point out
+minute faults with an unerring accuracy "even when they are so small
+that they would not weaken the signals through the Atlantic cable one
+millionth part!"
+
+Another marvellous result of science was the exact report obtained of
+the state of that portion of the cable now lying in the sea. The
+electricians at Valentia were daily experimenting on the line which lay
+stretched twelve hundred and thirteen miles on the bottom of the deep,
+and pronounced it intact. Not a fault could be found from one end to the
+other. As when a master of the organ runs his hands over the keys, and
+tells in an instant if it be in perfect tune, so did these skilful
+manipulators, fingering at the end of this mightier instrument, declare
+it to be in perfect tone, ready to whisper its harmonies through the
+seas. At the same time, the ten hundred and seventy miles of cable left
+on board the Great Eastern were pronounced as faultless as the day they
+had been shipped on board.
+
+With such conclusions of science to animate and inspire them, the great
+task of manufacturing nearly seventeen hundred miles of cable once more
+began. And while this work went on, the Great Eastern, that had done her
+part so well before, again opened her sides, and the mysterious cord was
+drawn into her vast, dark, silent womb, from which it was to issue only
+into the darker and more silent bosom of the deep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+VICTORY AT LAST.
+
+
+In these pages we have led our readers through twelve long years, and
+have had to tell many a tale of disaster and defeat. It is now our
+privilege to tell of triumphant success. Victory has come at last, but
+not by the chance of fortune, but by the utmost efforts of man, by the
+union of science and skill with indomitable perseverance. The failure of
+the last year was a sad disappointment; but so far from damping the
+courage of those embarked in the enterprise, it only roused them to a
+more gigantic effort. They were now to prepare for a fifth expedition.
+In this they set themselves to anticipate every possible emergency, and
+to combine the elements of success so as to render failure impossible.
+
+The Great Eastern herself, which they had come to regard with a kind of
+fondness, a feeling of affection and pride, as the ark that was to bear
+their fortunes across the deep, was made ready for her crowning
+achievement. For months Captain Anderson and Mr. Halpin, his chief
+officer, worked day and night to get her into perfect trim. She had
+become sadly fouled in her many voyages. As she swam the seas, a
+thousand things clung to her as to a floating island, till her hull was
+encrusted with mussels and barnacles two feet thick, and long seaweed
+flaunted from her sides. Like a brave old war-horse, long neglected, she
+needed a thorough grooming, to have her hair combed and her limbs well
+rubbed down, to fit her to take the field. But it was not an easy matter
+to get under the huge creature, to give her such a dressing. Yet Captain
+Anderson was equal to the emergency. He contrived a simple instrument by
+which every part of her bottom was raked and scrubbed. Getting rid of
+this rough, shapeless mass would make her feel easy and comfortable at
+sea, and add at least a knot an hour to her speed.
+
+The boilers too were thoroughly cleansed and repaired in every part, and
+the paddle-engines were so arranged that in five minutes they could be
+disconnected, so that by going ahead with one and backing with the
+other, the ship could be held perfectly at rest or be turned around in
+her own length, a very important matter when they should come to fish in
+deep waters for the broken end of the cable. To prepare for this, she
+was armed with chains and ropes and irons of the most formidable kind.
+For grappling the cable, she took on board twenty miles of rope, which
+would bear a strain of thirty tons, probably the largest fishing-line
+used since the days of Noah!
+
+The cable was manufactured at the rate of twenty miles a day, and as
+fast as delivered and found perfect, was coiled on board. And now the
+electricians tried their skill to outdo all that they had done before.
+As Captain Anderson observed, it seemed as if never had so much brain
+power been concentrated on the problem of success. The cable itself
+furnished the grandest subject of experiment. As every week added more
+than a hundred miles to its length, there was constant opportunity to
+try the electric current on longer distances and with new conditions.
+The results obtained showed the rapid and marvellous progress of
+electrical science. Said The Times:
+
+     "The science of making, testing, and laying cables has so much
+     improved that an undetected fault in an insulated wire has now
+     become literally impossible, while so much are the instruments
+     for signalling improved, that not only can a slight fault be
+     disregarded if necessary, but it is even easy _to work through
+     a submarine wire with a foot of its copper conductor stripped
+     and bare to the water_. This latter result, astonishing as it
+     may appear, has actually been achieved for some days past with
+     the whole Atlantic cable on board the Great Eastern. Out of a
+     length of more than one thousand seven hundred miles, a coil
+     has been taken from the centre, the copper conductor stripped
+     clean of its insulation for a foot in length, and in this
+     condition lowered over the vessel's side till it rested on the
+     ground. Yet through this the clearest signals have been
+     sent--so clear, indeed, as at one time to raise the question
+     whether it would not be worth while to grapple for the first
+     old Atlantic cable ever laid, and with these new instruments
+     working gently through it for a year or so, at least make it
+     pay cost."
+
+As other things were on the same gigantic scale, by the time the big
+ship had her cargo and stores on board, she was well laden. Of the cable
+alone there were two thousand four hundred miles, coiled in three
+immense tanks as the year before. Of this seven hundred and forty-eight
+miles were a part of the cable of the last expedition. The tanks alone,
+with the water in them, weighed over a thousand tons; and the cable
+which they held, four thousand tons more; besides which she had to carry
+eight thousand five hundred tons of coal and five hundred tons of
+telegraph stores, making fourteen thousand tons, besides engines,
+rigging, etc., which made nearly as much more. So enormous was the
+burden, that it was thought prudent not to take on board all her coal
+before she left the Medway, especially as the channel was winding and
+shallow. It was therefore arranged that about a third of her coal should
+be taken in at Berehaven, on the south-west coast of Ireland. With this
+exception, her lading was complete.
+
+The time for departure had been fixed for the last day of June, and so
+admirable had been the arrangements, and such the diligence of all
+concerned, that exactly at the hour of noon, she loosened from her
+moorings, and began to move. It was well that she had not on board her
+whole cargo; for as it was, she drew nearly thirty-two feet. Never had
+any keel pressed so deep in those waters. It required skilful handling
+to get her safely to the sea. Gently and softly she floated down, over
+bars where she almost grazed the sand, where but a few inches lifted her
+enormous hull above the river's bed. But at length the rising tide bears
+her safely over, and she is afloat in the deeper waters of the Channel.
+At first the sea did not give her a very gracious welcome. The wind was
+dead ahead, and the waves dashed furiously against her; but she kept
+steadily on, tossing their spray on high, as if they had struck against
+the rocks of Eddystone lighthouse. In four or five days she had passed
+down the Irish coast, and was quietly anchored in the harbor at
+Berehaven, where she was soon joined by the other vessels of the
+squadron.
+
+The Telegraph fleet was not the same as that of the last year. The
+Government could spare but a single ship; but the Terrible, which had
+accompanied the Great Eastern on the former expedition, was still there
+to represent the majesty of England. The William Corry, a vessel of two
+thousand tons, bore the ponderous shore end, which was to be laid out
+thirty miles from the Irish coast, while the Albany and the Medway were
+ships chartered by the Company. The latter carried several hundred miles
+of the last year's cable, besides one of heavier proportions, ninety
+miles long, to be stretched across the mouth of the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence.
+
+[Illustration: SHORE END--EXACT SIZE.]
+
+While the Great Eastern remained at Berehaven, to take in her final
+stores of coal, the William Corry proceeded around the coast to Valentia
+to lay the shore end. She arrived off the harbor on the morning of
+Saturday, the seventh of July, and immediately began to prepare for her
+heavy task. This shore end was of tremendous size, weighing twenty tons
+to the mile. It was by far the strongest wire cable ever made, and in
+short lengths was stiff as an iron bar. As the year before, the cable
+was to be brought off on a bridge of boats reaching from the ship to the
+foot of the cliff. All the fishermen's boats were gathered from along
+the shore, while H. M. S. Raccoon, which was guarding that part of the
+coast, sent up her boats to help, so that, as they all mustered in line,
+there were forty of them, making a long pontoon-bridge; and Irish
+boatmen with eager looks and strong hands were standing along the line,
+to grasp the ponderous chain. All went well, and by one o'clock the
+cable was landed, and its end brought up the cliff to the station. The
+signals were found to be perfect, and the William Corry then slowly drew
+off to sea, unlimbering her stiff shore end, till she had cast over the
+whole thirty miles. At three o'clock next morning she telegraphed
+through the cable that her work was done, and she had buoyed the end in
+water a hundred fathoms deep. Describing the scene, the correspondent of
+the London News says:
+
+     "In its leading features it presented a striking difference to
+     the ceremony of last year. Earnest gravity and a deep-seated
+     determination to repress all show of the enthusiasm of which
+     everybody was full, was very manifest. The excitement was
+     below, instead of above, the surface. Speech-making, hurrahing,
+     public congratulations, and vaunts of confidence were, as it
+     seemed, avoided as if on purpose. There was something far more
+     touching in the quiet and reverent solemnity of the spectators
+     yesterday than in the slightly boisterous joviality of the
+     peasantry last year. Nothing could prevent the scene being
+     intensely dramatic, but the prevailing tone of the drama was
+     serious instead of comic and triumphant. The old crones in
+     tattered garments who cowered together, dudheen in mouth,
+     their gaudy colored shawls tightly drawn over head and under
+     the chin--the barefooted boys and girls, who by long practice
+     walked over sharp and jagged rocks, which cut up boots and
+     shoes, with perfect impunity--the men at work uncovering the
+     trench, and winding in single file up and down the hazardous
+     path cut by the cablemen in the otherwise inaccessible
+     rock--the patches of bright color furnished by the red
+     petticoats and cloaks--the ragged garments, only kept from
+     falling to pieces by bits of string and tape--the good old
+     parish priest, who exercises mild and gentle spiritual sway
+     over the loving subjects of whom the ever-popular Knight of
+     Kerry is the temporal head, looking on benignly from his
+     car--the bright eyes, supple figures, and innocent faces of the
+     peasant lasses, and the earnestly hopeful expression of
+     all--made up a picture impossible to describe with justice. Add
+     to this, the startling abruptness with which the tremendous
+     cliffs stand flush out of the water, the alternations of bright
+     wild flowers and patches of verdure with the most desolate
+     barrenness, the mountain sheep indifferently cropping the
+     short, sweet grass, and the undercurrent of consciousness of
+     the mighty interests at stake, and few scenes will seem more
+     important and interesting than that of yesterday."
+
+As the ships are now ready for sea, and all who are to embark have come
+on board, we may look about us at the personnel of the expedition. Who
+are here? We recognize many old familiar faces, that we have seen in
+former campaigns--gallant men who have had many a sea-fight in this
+peaceful war. First, the eye seeks the tall form of Captain Anderson.
+There he is, modest and grave, of few words, but seeing every thing,
+watching every thing, and ruling every thing with a quiet power. And
+there is his second officer, Mr. Halpin, who keeps a sharp lookout after
+the crew, to see that every man does his duty. While he thus keeps watch
+of all on board, Staff Commander Moriarty, R. N., comes on deck, with
+instruments in hand, to look after the heavenly bodies, and reckon the
+ship's latitude and longitude. This is an old veteran in the service,
+who has been in all the expeditions, and it would be quite "improper,"
+even if it were possible, for a cable to be laid across the Atlantic
+without his presence and aid. And here comes Mr. Canning, the engineer,
+whose deep-sea soundings, the last year, were on a scale of such
+magnitude, and who, if he cannot well dive deeper, means to pull
+stronger the next time. That slight form yonder is Professor Thomson, of
+Glasgow, a man who in his knowledge of the subtle element to be brought
+into play, and the enthusiasm he brings to its study, is the very genius
+of electrical science; and this is Mr. Varley, who seems to have the
+lightning in his fingers, and to whom the world owes some marvellous
+discoveries of the laws of electricity. Mr. Willoughby Smith, a worthy
+associate in these studies and discoveries, goes out on the ship as
+electrician.
+
+And here is Mr. Glass, the managing director of the Telegraph
+Construction and Maintenance Company, which has undertaken by contract
+to manufacture this cable and lay it safely across the ocean; and Mr.
+Gooch, chairman of the company that owns the Great Eastern--two
+gentlemen to whom the Atlantic Telegraph is under the greatest
+obligation, since it was they who, six months before, when the project
+seemed in danger of being given up or postponed for years, took Mr.
+Field by the hand, and cheered him on to a last effort. Blessings on
+their hearts of oak! Mr. Gooch accompanies the ship, while Mr. Glass,
+keeping Mr. Varley at his side as electrician, remains on shore, to
+receive reports of the daily progress of the expedition, and to issue
+his orders. What a post of observation was that telegraph house on the
+cliffs of Valentia! It commanded a far broader horizon than the top of
+Fiesole, from which Galileo looked down on the valley of the Arno, and
+up at the stars. Was there ever a naval commander favored with a power
+of vision that could sweep the boundless sea? What would Nelson have
+said, if he had had a spy-glass with which he could watch ships in
+action two thousand miles away, and issue his orders to a fleet on the
+other side of the ocean? With such a long range, he might almost have
+fought the Battle of the Nile from his home in England.
+
+Standing on such a spot, and surrounded by such men, representing the
+capital, the science, and the skill of England, with all those gallant
+ships in sight, one's heart might well beat high. But there were other
+reflections that saddened the hour, and caused some at least to look
+once more on the rocks of Valentia with deep emotion. Some of their old
+companions-in-arms had fallen out of the ranks, while the battle was not
+yet won. Brett, Mr. Field's first friend in England, was in his grave.
+Beyond the Atlantic, Captains Hudson and Berryman slept the sleep that
+knows no waking. They were not forgotten by their survivors, who mourned
+that those who had toiled with them in former days, were not here to
+share their triumph.
+
+The feeling, therefore, of many on this occasion, was not one elate with
+pride and hope, but subdued by serious thoughts and tender memories. In
+harmony with this feeling, and with the great work which they were about
+to undertake, it was proposed that before the expedition sailed they
+should hold a solemn religious service.
+
+Was there ever a fitter place or a fitter hour for prayer than here, in
+the presence of the great sea to which they were about to commit their
+lives and their precious trust? The first expedition ever sent forth had
+been consecrated by prayer. On that very spot, nine years before, all
+heads were uncovered and all forms bent low, at the solemn words of
+supplication; and there had the Earl of Carlisle--since gone to his
+honored grave--cheered them on with high religious hopes, describing
+the ships which were sent forth on such a mission, as "beautiful upon
+the waters as were the feet upon the mountains of them that publish the
+gospel of peace."
+
+In such a spirit two of the directors--Mr. Bevan, of London, and Mr.
+Bewley, of Dublin--sent invitations to a number of persons to meet at
+Valentia, as the expedition was about to sail, and commend it to the
+favor of Almighty God. Captain Anderson had greatly desired to be with
+them at this parting service, but the ships were at Berehaven, and they
+were just embarking for sea. But though the officers could not be
+present, a large company came together. Said an Irish paper: "Men of
+different religious denomination, and of various professions in
+life--Irishmen, Englishmen, and Scotchmen--joined in such a service as
+has never been held in this island." It was a scene long to be
+remembered, as they bowed together before the God and Father of all.
+Their brethren, who were about to go down to the sea in ships, felt
+their dependence on a Higher Power. Their preparations were complete.
+All that man could do was done. They had exhausted every resource of
+science and skill. The issue now remained with Him who controls the
+winds and waves. Therefore was it most fit that, at the very moment of
+embarking, those who remained behind should, as it were, kneel upon the
+cliff, and, with outstretched hands, commit them to Him who alone
+spreadeth out the heavens and ruleth the raging of the sea.
+
+In all this there is something of antique stamp, something which makes
+us think of the sublime men of an earlier and better time; of the
+Pilgrim Fathers kneeling on the deck of their little ship at Leyden, as
+they were about to seek a refuge and a home in the forests of the New
+World; and of Columbus and his companions celebrating a solemn service
+before their departure from Spain. And so with labor and with prayer did
+this great expedition go forth once more from the shores of Ireland,
+bearing the hopes of science and of civilization--with courage and skill
+looking out from the bow across the stormy waters, and a religious
+faith, like that of Columbus, standing at the helm.
+
+On Friday morning, the thirteenth of July, the fleet finally bade adieu
+to the land. Was Friday an unlucky day? Some of the sailors thought so,
+and would have been glad to leave a day before or after. But Columbus
+sailed on Friday, and discovered the New World on Friday; and so this
+expedition put to sea on Friday, and, as a good Providence would have
+it, reached land on the other side of the Atlantic on the same day of
+the week! As the ships disappeared below the horizon, Mr. Glass and Mr.
+Varley went up on their watch-tower--not to look, but to listen for the
+first voice from the sea. The ships bore away for the buoy where lay the
+end of the shore line; but the weather was thick and foggy, with
+frequent bursts of rain, and they could not see far on the water. For an
+hour or two they went sailing round and round, like sea-gulls in search
+of prey. At length the Albany caught sight of the buoy tossing on the
+waves, and, firing a signal gun, bore down straight upon it. The cable
+was soon hauled up from its bed, a hundred fathoms deep, and brought
+over the stern of the Great Eastern; and the watchers on shore, who had
+been waiting with some impatience, saw the first flash, and Varley read,
+"Got the shore end--all right--going to make the splice." Then all was
+still, and they knew that that delicate operation was going on. Quick,
+nimble hands tore off the covering from some yards of the shore end of
+the main cable, till they came to the core; then, swiftly unwinding the
+copper wires, they laid them together, twining them as closely and
+carefully as a silken braid. Thus stripped and bare this new-born child
+of the sea was wrapped in swaddling-clothes, covered up with many
+coatings of gutta-percha, and hempen rope, and strong iron wires, the
+whole bound round and round with heavy bands, and the splicing was
+complete. Signals were now sent through the whole cable on board the
+Great Eastern and back to the telegraph-house at Valentia, and the whole
+length, two thousand four hundred and forty nautical miles, was reported
+perfect. And so with light hearts they bore away. It was a little after
+three o'clock. As they turned to the west, the following was the "order
+of battle": the Terrible went ahead, standing off on the starboard bow,
+to keep other vessels out of the course; the Medway was on the port, and
+the Albany on the starboard quarter, ready to pick up or let go a buoy,
+or to do other work that might be required. All these ships were to keep
+their allotted positions, within signalling distance of the Great
+Eastern, and at any time that she was heard firing guns, they were to
+close in with her to render assistance. Their course lay thirty miles to
+the south of that of the last year, so that there could be no danger, in
+fishing for the old cable, of disturbing the new.
+
+Dr. Russell, the brilliant historian of the Expedition of 1865, was not
+on board the Great Eastern this year. He had left England a few weeks
+before for the scene of the war in Germany. His place was supplied by
+Mr. John C. Deane, the Secretary of the Anglo-American Company, whose
+"Diary of the Expedition" furnishes a faithful record of the incidents
+of this memorable voyage. If the story be not quite so thrilling as that
+of the year before, it is because it has not to tell of such fatal
+accidents. It has the monotony of success. A few pages from this diary,
+giving its most important portions, will render this narrative complete.
+
+The voyage began with good weather and every omen of success. Friday,
+indeed, was a day of fog and rain. At the very time they were making
+the splice with the shore end, the rain was pouring on the deck. But in
+a few hours it cleared off, and Saturday and Sunday, Mr. Field writes in
+his journal, "Weather fine;" and Monday, "Calm, beautiful day. Signals
+perfect." Owing to the improved system adopted by the chief electrician,
+communication with the shore was kept up even while the tests for
+insulation were going on.[A]
+
+Every possible precaution was taken to guard against such accidents as
+had marred the success of the year before. Remembering how small a thing
+had sufficed to puncture the cable, the men in the tank were not allowed
+to wear boots or shoes with nails in their heels, but were cased from
+head to foot in canvas dresses, drawn over their ordinary sailor
+costume, and, with slippers on their feet, they glided about softly as
+ghosts. But we turn to Mr. Deane's diary for a record of the progress
+from day to day:
+
+     "Sunday, July 15.--All through yesterday the paying-out
+     machinery worked so smoothly--the electrical tests were so
+     perfect--the weather was so fine, that fresh confidence in the
+     ultimate result has been naturally inspired. The recollection,
+     however, of the reverses of the expedition of 1865 is always
+     before those who have the greatest reliance on success; and
+     there is a quiet repose about the manner of the chief practical
+     men on board, which is an earnest that they will not allow
+     themselves to be carried away by the smoothness of twenty-four
+     hours' events. The convoy kept their position accurately during
+     the day. The Terrible signalled that a man had fallen
+     overboard. Her cutter was speedily lowered. The sailor had,
+     however, laid hold of a rope thrown to him from the frigate,
+     before the boat reached him.
+
+     "Monday.--Still everything going on well. The sea like a
+     mill-pond. The paying out of the cable from the after tank
+     progressing with uniformity and steadiness, and the electrical
+     tests perfect.
+
+     "Our track is about thirty miles to the south of that of last
+     year, and at that distance we passed parallel to where the
+     telegraph cable parted in August, 1857. Our average speed has
+     been about five knots. We were obliged to stop the screw
+     engines in order to bring down to that speed, and, moreover, to
+     reduce the paddle boiler power. Captain Anderson's ingenious
+     mode of cleaning the ship's bottom, which he carried out last
+     winter at Sheerness, has proved to have effected this very
+     desirable object. Mr. Beckwith, the engineer, is now enabled to
+     regulate and adjust her speed, and get more out of the ship
+     than he could last year, when her bottom was one incrusted mass
+     of mussels.
+
+     "Tuesday.--Another twenty-four hours of uninterrupted success.
+     All day yesterday it was so calm that the masts of our convoy
+     were reflected in the ocean, an unusual thing to see. A large
+     shoal of porpoises gambolled about us for half an hour. A
+     glorious sunset, and later, a crescent moon, which we hope to
+     see in the brightness of her full, lighting our way into
+     Trinity Bay before the days of this July shall have ended."
+
+But the whole night did not pass away so tranquilly. By midnight the
+rain fell fast, and the wind blew fiercely, and then occurred the only
+real alarm of the voyage. The scene is thus described by Mr. Deane:
+
+     "All went on well until twenty minutes past twelve A.M.,
+     Greenwich time, when the first real shock was given to the
+     success which has hitherto attended us, and this time we had
+     real cause to be alarmed. A foul flake took place in the after
+     tank. The engines were immediately turned astern, and the
+     paying out of the cable stopped. We were all soon on deck, and
+     learned that the running or paying-out part of the coil had
+     caught three turns of the flake immediately under it, carried
+     them into the eye of the coil, fouling the lay out, and hauling
+     up one and a half turns from the outside, and five turns in the
+     eye of the under flake. This was stopped, fortunately, before
+     entering the paying out machinery. Stoppers of hemp also were
+     put on near the V-wheel astern, and Mr. Canning gave orders to
+     stand by to let go the buoy. This was not very cheering to
+     hear, but his calm and collected manner gave us all confidence
+     that his skill and experience would extricate the cable from
+     the obvious danger in which it was placed. No fishing line was
+     ever entangled worse than the rope was when thrust up in
+     apparently hopeless knots from the eye of the coil to the deck.
+     There at least five hundred feet of rope lay in this state, in
+     the midst of thick rain and increasing wind. The cable crew set
+     to work under their chief engineer's instructions to
+     disentangle it. Mr. Halpin was there too, patiently following
+     the bights as they showed themselves; the crew now passing them
+     forward, now aft, until at last the character of the tangle was
+     seen, and soon it became apparent that ere long the cable would
+     be cleared. All this time Captain Anderson was at the taffrail
+     anxiously watching the strain on the rope, which he could
+     scarcely make out, the night was so dark, and endeavoring to
+     keep it up and down, going on and reversing with paddle and
+     screw. When one reflects for a moment upon the size of the
+     ship, and the enormous mass she presents to the wind, the
+     difficulty of keeping her stern, under the circumstances, over
+     the cable, can be appreciated. The port paddle-wheel was
+     disconnected; but shortly afterward there was a shift of wind,
+     and the vessel canted the wrong way. Welcome voices were now
+     heard passing the word aft from the tank that the bights were
+     cleared, and to pay out. Then the huge stoppers were gently
+     loosened, and at five minutes past two A.M., to the joy of all,
+     we were once more discharging the cable. They veered it away in
+     the tank to clear away the foul flake until three A.M., when
+     the screw and paddle engines were slowed so as to reduce the
+     speed of the ship to four and a half knots. During all this
+     critical time there was an entire absence of noise and
+     confusion. Every order was silently obeyed, and the cable men
+     and crew worked with hearty good-will. Mr. Canning has had
+     experience of foul flakes before, and showed that he knew what
+     to do in the emergency. But what of the electrical condition of
+     the cable during this period? Simply, that through its entire
+     length it was perfect."
+
+Thus, after three anxious hours, the danger was past, and the next
+morning the report of the ship is, "A fresh breeze from the southward, a
+dull gray sky, with occasional rain, and a moderate sea."
+
+     "Thursday.--There was a fresh breeze in the afternoon
+     yesterday, increasing toward evening. It brought a heavy swell
+     on the port quarter, which caused the ship to roll. The paying
+     out from the after tank went on steadily. Two of the large
+     buoys were lifted by derrick from the deck near the bows of the
+     ship, and placed in position on the port and starboard side of
+     the forward pick-up machinery, ready for letting go if
+     necessary. The sun went down with an angry look, and the scud
+     came rapidly from the eastward, the sea rising. A wind dead aft
+     is not the best for cable laying, particularly if any accident
+     should take place. By half-past eleven to-night we shall have
+     exhausted the contents of the after tank, and the cable will
+     then be paid out from the fore tank along the trough to the
+     stern, the distance from the centre of the tank to the
+     paying-out machinery being four hundred and ninety-four feet.
+     Last night the swell was very heavy, to which the Great Eastern
+     proved herself not insensible. Her rolling, like everything
+     else appertaining to her, is done on a grand scale. We see the
+     liveliness with which that operation is performed on board the
+     Albany and Medway, and we are not at all disposed to be too
+     critical in our observations on our own movements. The speed of
+     the ship was kept at four and a half during the night--the
+     slower the better, is the opinion of all on board--_festina
+     lente_. We are consuming about one hundred tons a day of the
+     seven thousand tons of coal which we had on board when we left
+     Berehaven, and Mr. Beckwith, who has been engineer of the Great
+     Eastern from her first voyage to the present moment, says her
+     engines were never in better order; and their appearance and
+     working do him and his able staff of assistant engineers the
+     greatest credit.
+
+     "Friday.--Yesterday was a day of complete success, the paying
+     out in every respect satisfactory. The wind still from the
+     eastward, but inclined to draw to the northward, the sea
+     entirely gone down. As Mr. Canning told us we should see the
+     after tank emptied at eleven o'clock, ship's time, we were all
+     collected there about ten o'clock, by which time the cable was
+     down to the last flake. Next to having daylight for changing
+     from the after to the fore tank, we could not have had a more
+     favorable time--clear starlight, no wind, and a smooth sea.
+     Looking down into the tank, the scene was highly picturesque.
+     The cable-watch, whose figures were lighted up by the lamps
+     suspended from above, slowly and cautiously lifted the turns of
+     the coil to ease their path to the eye. As each found its way
+     to the drum, the wooden floor of the tank showed itself, and
+     then we saw more floor, and as its area increased the cable
+     swept along its surface with a low, subdued noise, until, with
+     a graceful curve, it mounted to the outlet, where it was soon
+     to join a fresh supply; and now we hear the word passed that
+     they have arrived at the last turn, and the men who stood on
+     the stages of the platform of the eye with the bight, watch the
+     arrival of the cable and pass it up with tender caution, until
+     it reaches the summit; then it rushes down a wooden incline to
+     meet the spliced rope, which had by this time come down along
+     the trough leading from the forward tank. This operation was
+     conducted with great skill by Mr. Canning and his experienced
+     assistants, Messrs. Clifford and Temple. At eleven minutes past
+     one A.M. (Greenwich time), the fresh rope was going over the
+     stern, and the screw engines going ahead at thirteen minutes
+     past one. A watch of four men is now stationed, fore and aft,
+     all along the trough, which is illuminated by many lamps at
+     short distances from each other. A lamp with a green light
+     indicates the mile-mark as it comes up from the tank, and this
+     signal is repeated until it reaches the stern, where it is
+     recorded by the clerk who keeps the cable-log, in an office
+     adjoining the paying-out machinery. A red lamp indicates
+     danger. During the daytime red and blue flags are used. All
+     through the night the sea was smooth as glass, and by this
+     morning we saw that a sensible impression had been made on the
+     contents of the fore tank. The ship begins to lighten at the
+     bows, and by this time to-morrow will come up more as the
+     cable passes out of the tank.
+
+     "Saturday.--Yesterday was our seventh day of paying out cable,
+     and so far we have been more fortunate than the expedition of
+     last year. During the same period of 1865, two faults had
+     occurred--one on the twenty-fourth July, the other on the
+     twenty-ninth--causing a detention of fifty-six hours. At three
+     P.M. we were half-way, and passed where the Atlantic Cable of
+     1858 parted twice, on the twenty-sixth and twenty-eighth of
+     June--sad memories to many! We feel, however, that every hour
+     is increasing our chance of effecting this great work. 'I
+     believe we shall do it this time, Jack,' I heard one of our
+     crew say to another last night. 'I believe so too, Bill,' was
+     the reply; 'and if we don't, we deserve to do it, and that's
+     all.' It blew very hard from two o'clock yesterday, up to 10
+     P.M., by which time the wind gradually found its way from
+     south-west to north-west, which is right ahead, just what we
+     want for cable-laying. The Terrible and the two other ships
+     plunged into the very heavy sea which the southwester raised,
+     and we made up our minds, from what we saw, that the Great
+     Eastern is the right ship to be in, in a gale of wind. During
+     the night heavy showers of rain. This morning the sea was
+     comparatively smooth, and the sky showed welcome patches of
+     bright blue. If all goes well, we shall be up to-morrow evening
+     at the place where last year's cable parted. A couple of days
+     would bring us to shallower water, and then we may fairly look
+     out for our 'Heart's Content.' Messages come from England, with
+     the news, regularly and speedily--excellent practice for the
+     clerks on shore and on board ship--great comfort to us, and the
+     best evidence to those who will read this journal, of the great
+     fact that, up to this time, the cable is doing its electric
+     work efficiently."
+
+The interest of the voyage was greatly increased by the news daily
+received from Europe. Though in the middle of the Atlantic, they were
+still joined with the Old World, and messages came to the "Great Eastern
+Telegraph" as regularly as to the Times in London; reporting the
+quotations of the Stock Exchange, the debates in Parliament, and all the
+news of home. But what was far more exciting, was the tidings of the
+great events transpiring on the Continent. While the expedition had been
+preparing in England, a war had broken out of tremendous magnitude.
+Austria, Prussia, and Italy had rushed into the field. Armies, such as
+had not met since the fatal day of Leipsic, stood in battle array, and
+the thunder of war was echoing and reechoing among the mountains of
+Bohemia. Amid these convulsions the fleet set sail; but it was still
+linked with the nations which it left behind, and received tidings from
+day to day. What great events were thus heralded to them in mid-ocean
+may be seen by a few items gleaned from the numerous despatches:
+
+     "Saturday evening, July 14th.--General Cialdini is moving upon
+     Rovigo with an army of one hundred thousand men and two hundred
+     guns. The Austrians have evacuated the whole country between
+     the Mincio and Adige."
+
+A day or two later:
+
+     "Cialdini has occupied Padua, twenty-three miles from Venice,
+     on the railway connecting that city with the Quadrilateral, and
+     the Austrians are shut up in Venice."
+
+     "Tuesday, 17th.--Prussians had successful engagement before
+     Olmuetz yesterday; captured six guns. Further fighting expected
+     to-day. Austrians withdrawing from Moldavia toward
+     Vienna."----"Conflict between Prussians and Federals. Prussians
+     completely victorious. Federals evacuating Frankfort, and
+     Prussians marching there."
+
+     "Thursday, 19th.--Prussians repeating victories, and gaining
+     adhesions from small States. The main army within fifty miles
+     of Vienna--have cut the railway to Vienna. Austrian army
+     between Prussians and Vienna, under Archduke, one hundred and
+     sixty thousand men. Money and archives removed from Vienna to
+     Comorn."
+
+     "20th.--Frankfort occupied by the Prussians, who are marching
+     on Vienna. Yesterday, Italian fleet, consisting of iron-clad
+     vessels and several steamers, opened attack on Island of Lissa
+     on the coast of Dalmatia--result not known."
+
+The next day it is reported thus:
+
+     "Severe naval engagement off Lissa. Austrians claim the
+     victory. Sunk one Italian iron-clad, run down another, blew up
+     a third."
+
+     "July 21st.--Prussians crossed river; march near Holitzon,
+     Hungary. Austria accepted proposal of armistice. Prussia will
+     abstain from hostilities for five days, during which Austria
+     will have to notify acceptance of preliminaries. A long letter
+     published from the King of Prussia to the Queen, giving account
+     of battle of Koeniggraetz."
+
+The interest excited by such news may be imagined, coming while the
+events were yet fresh. Twice a day was the bulletin set up on the deck,
+and was surrounded by an eager crowd reading what had transpired on the
+Continent but a few hours before. Nor was the intelligence confined to
+the Great Eastern. By an arrangement of signals, more complete than ever
+was used in a squadron before, the news was telegraphed to the convoy.
+All the ships had been furnished with experienced signal-men by the
+Admiralty. The system adopted was that known as Colomb's Flash Signals,
+by which, even in the darkest night, messages could easily be flashed to
+a distance of several miles. Thus all the ships were supplied with news
+twice a day, and the great military events in Europe were discussed in
+every cabin as eagerly as in the clubs of London. Again Deane's Diary
+reports:
+
+     "Sunday, July 22d.--Still success to record. A bright clear
+     day, with a fresh and invigorating breeze from the north-west.
+     Cable going out with unerring smoothness, at the rate of six
+     miles an hour. There has been great improvement in the
+     insulation. This remarkable improvement is attributable to the
+     greatly decreased temperature of, and pressure on, the cable in
+     the sea. This is a very satisfactory result to Mr. Willoughby
+     Smith. Signals, too, come every hour more distinctly. This
+     morning the breeze freshened. We are now about thirty miles to
+     the southward of the place where the cable parted on the second
+     of August, 1865, having then paid out one thousand two hundred
+     and thirteen miles. Captain Anderson read divine service in the
+     dining saloon.
+
+     "Monday.--Between six and seven P.M. yesterday, we passed over
+     the deepest part of our course. There was no additional strain
+     on the dynamometer, which indicated from ten to fourteen
+     hundred, the cable going out with its accustomed regularity.
+     The wind still fresh from the north-west. During the night it
+     went round to the southwest, and this morning there is a long
+     roll from the southward.
+
+     "At forty-six minutes past eleven A.M., Mr. Cyrus Field sent a
+     message to Valentia, requesting Mr. Glass to obtain the latest
+     news from Egypt, India, and China, and other distant countries,
+     so that on our arrival at Heart's Content we shall be able to
+     transmit it to the principal cities of the United States. In
+     just eight minutes he had a reply in these words: 'Your message
+     received, and is in London by this.' Outside the telegraph room
+     there is a placard put up, on which is posted the news shortly
+     after its arrival, and groups of the crew may be seen reading
+     it, just as we see a crowd at a newspaper office in London. Mr.
+     Dudley, the artist, has made a very spirited sketch of 'Jack'
+     reading the morning news, for he is supplied with the latest
+     intelligence from the seat of war twice a day![B] How he will
+     grumble when he gets ashore! He is not going to pay a pound a
+     word for news, but his newspapers will supply it to him, and he
+     does not know or care what it costs. But what a sum has been
+     spent in Atlantic telegraphs! It cannot now fall short of two
+     millions and a half of pounds, or over twelve millions of
+     dollars. More millions will be found if it shall be practically
+     proved that America can permanently talk to England, and
+     through her to the eastern hemisphere, and England to America
+     by this ocean wire. At a quarter to twelve to-day but two
+     hundred and fifteen miles of cable remained to be paid out of
+     the fore tank. To-morrow night we hope to see it empty--then,
+     for a small supply from the main tank, and then----but, hopeful
+     though we are, let us not anticipate.
+
+     "Tuesday.--Breakfast at eight. Lunch at one. Dinner at six. Tea
+     at eight. Five hundred and two souls who live on board this
+     huge ship following their prescribed occupations. Cable going
+     out merrily. Electrical tests and signals perfect, and this is
+     the history of what has taken place from noon yesterday to noon
+     to-day. May we have three days more of such delightful
+     monotony! It rained very hard during yesterday evening, and as
+     we approach the Banks of Newfoundland we get thick and hazy
+     weather."
+
+The latter part of the voyage did not fulfil in all respects the promise
+of the first. The bright skies were gone; and instead perpetual fog hung
+over the water, while often the clouds poured down their floods. Thus
+the diary continues:
+
+     "Wednesday.--Fog and thick rain--just the weather to expect on
+     approaching the Banks of Newfoundland. The convoy keep their
+     position, and though sometimes the fog hides the ships from our
+     view, yet we know where they are by their signal-whistles--two
+     from the Terrible, three from the Medway, and four from the
+     Albany, which are replied to by the prolonged single shriek
+     from our whistle. At fifty-two minutes past one, Greenwich time
+     (ship's time, forty-five minutes past ten P.M., last night),
+     the fore tank being nearly empty, preparations were made for
+     passing the bight of the cable into the main tank. At fifteen
+     minutes past two all the jockey-wheels of the paying-out
+     machinery were up, and the brakes released. Twenty-three
+     minutes past two the bight was passed steadily and cautiously
+     by the cable hands outside of the trough to the main tank, and
+     at thirty-five minutes past two the splice went over the stern
+     in 1542.8 fathoms. By arrangement with Sir James Hope, the
+     admiral of the North-American station, who has received
+     instructions from the Admiralty to give the present expedition
+     every assistance in his power, a frigate or sloop will be
+     placed in longitude 48 deg., 25', 52", which is just thirty
+     miles from the entrance of Trinity Bay, and sixty from Heart's
+     Content. She will probably hang on by a kedge in that position,
+     which shows the 'fair way' right up the bay; and if it be
+     clear, we ought to see her about daybreak on Friday morning.
+     The fog was very thick this morning, but occasionally lifts; as
+     long as the wind is from south-west we cannot expect clear
+     weather."
+
+As the week drew on, it was evident that they were approaching the end
+of their voyage. By Thursday they had passed the great depths of the
+Atlantic, and were off soundings. Besides their daily observations,
+there were many signs, well known to mariners, that they were near the
+coast. There were the sea-birds, and they could almost snuff the smell
+of the land, such as once greeted the sharp senses of Columbus, and made
+him sure that he was floating to some undiscovered shore. Captain
+Anderson had timed his departure so that he should approach the American
+coast at the full moon; but for the last two or three nights, as the
+round orb rose behind them, banks of cloud hung so heavily upon the
+water, that the moonlight only gleamed faintly through the vaporous air,
+and the fleet seemed like the phantom ships of the Ancient Mariner,
+drifting on through fog and mist.
+
+     "Thursday.--All day yesterday it was as 'thick as mustard.' We
+     have had now forty-eight hours of fog. Though it lifted a
+     little this morning, at five A.M., it still looks like more of
+     it. Captain Anderson signalled to the Albany, at fifteen
+     minutes past ten last night, to start at daybreak, and proceed
+     to discover the station ship, and report us at hand. Should she
+     fail to find her, then to try and make the land and guide us up
+     Trinity Bay. Another signal was sent at half-past twelve to the
+     effect that the Terrible and Medway would be sent ahead to meet
+     the Albany and establish a line to lead us in even with a fog.
+     The Albany started at half-past three. At forty-five minutes
+     past four, Greenwich time, the cable engineer in charge took
+     one weight off each brake of the paying-out machinery. At forty
+     minutes past seven all weights taken off, the assumed depth
+     being three hundred fathoms. The indicated strain on the
+     dynamometer gradually decreasing. Speed of ship five knots. We
+     are going to try and pick up the cable of 1865 in two thousand
+     five hundred fathoms (and we mean to succeed too); therefore
+     should the cable we are now paying out part, it can be
+     understood how easy it would be to raise it from a depth of
+     three hundred fathoms. At fifty-five minutes past eight we
+     signalled to the Terrible to sound, and received a reply, one
+     hundred and sixty fathoms. At half-past eleven we informed her
+     that when at the buoy off Heart's Content she should have her
+     paddle-box boat and two cutters ready to be alongside
+     immediately, for holding the bight of the cable during the
+     splice and laying the shore end. The Medway was told at the
+     same time to prepare two five-inch ropes, and two large
+     mushroom anchors, with fifty fathoms of chain, for anchoring
+     during the splice in one hundred and seventy fathoms of water,
+     and we intimated to her that when inside of Trinity Bay we
+     should signal for two boats to take hands on board her for
+     shore end. News of to-day, telegram from Mr. Glass in reply to
+     one from Mr. Canning: I congratulate you all most sincerely on
+     your arrival in one hundred and thirty fathoms. I hope nothing
+     will interfere to mar the hitherto brilliant success, and that
+     the cable will be landed to-morrow.'"
+
+As the voyage is about to end, we give the distances run from day to
+day, which show a remarkable uniformity of progress:
+
+                               Distance Run. Cable Paid Out.
+
+     Saturday, fourteenth,           108          115
+     Sunday, fifteenth,              128          139
+     Monday, sixteenth,              115          137
+     Tuesday, seventeenth,           117          138
+     Wednesday, eighteenth,          104          125
+     Thursday, nineteenth,           112          129
+     Friday, twentieth,              117          127
+     Saturday, twenty-first,         121          136
+     Sunday, twenty-second,          123          133
+     Monday, twenty-third,           121          138
+     Tuesday, twenty-fourth,         120          135
+     Wednesday, twenty-fifth,        119          130
+     Thursday, twenty-sixth,         128          134
+     Friday, twenty-seventh.         100          104
+
+From this it appears that the speed of the ship was exactly according
+to the running time fixed before she left England. On the last voyage it
+was thought that she had once or twice run too fast, and thus exposed
+the cable to danger. It was, therefore, decided to go slowly but surely.
+Holding her back to this moderate pace, her average speed, from the time
+the splice was made till they saw land, was a little less than five
+nautical miles an hour, while the cable was paid out at an average of
+not quite five and a half miles. Thus the total slack was about eleven
+per cent, showing that the cable was laid almost in a straight line,
+allowing for the swells and hollows in the bottom of the sea.
+
+     "Friday, July 27th.--Shortly after two P.M., yesterday, two
+     ships, which were soon made out to be steamers, were seen to
+     the westward; and the Terrible, steaming on ahead, in about an
+     hour signalled to us that H.M.S. Niger was one of them,
+     accompanied by the Albany. The Niger, Captain Bruce, sent a
+     boat to the Terrible as soon as he came up with her. The Albany
+     shortly afterward took up her position on our starboard
+     quarter, and signalled that she spoke the Niger at noon,
+     bearing E. by N., and that the Lily was anchored at the station
+     in the entrance of Trinity Bay, as arranged with the Admiral.
+     The Albany also reported that she had passed an iceberg about
+     sixty feet high. At twenty minutes after four P.M., the Niger
+     came on our port side, quite close, and Captain Bruce, sending
+     the crew to the rigging and manning the yards, gave us three
+     cheers, which were heartily returned by the Great Eastern. She
+     then steamed ahead toward Trinity Bay. The Albany was signalled
+     to go on immediately to Heart's Content, clear the northeast
+     side of the harbor of shipping, and place a boat with a red
+     flag for Captain Anderson to steer to, for anchorage. Just
+     before dinner we saw on the southern horizon, distant about ten
+     miles, an iceberg, probably the one which the Albany met with.
+     It was apparently about fifty or sixty feet in height. The fog
+     came on very thick about eight P.M., and between that and ten
+     we were constantly exchanging guns and burning blue lights with
+     the Terrible, which, with the Niger, went in search of the
+     Lily, station ship. The Terrible being signalled to come up and
+     take her position, informed us they had made the Lily out, and
+     that she bore then about E.N.E. distant four miles. Later in
+     the night Captain Commerill said that if Captain Anderson would
+     stop the Great Eastern, he would send the surveyor Mr.
+     Robinson, R. N., who came out in the Niger, on board of us, and
+     about three the engines were slowed, and the Terrible shortly
+     afterwards came alongside with that officer. Catalina light, at
+     the entrance of Trinity Bay, had been made out three hours
+     before this, and the loom of the coast had also been seen. Fog
+     still prevailing! According to Mr. Robinson's account, if they
+     got one clear day in seven at the entrance of Trinity Bay, they
+     considered themselves fortunate. Here we are now (six A.M.),
+     within ten miles of Heart's Content, and we can scarcely see
+     more than a ship's length. The Niger, however, is ahead, and
+     her repeated guns tell us where we are with accuracy. Good
+     fortune follows us, and scarcely has eight o'clock arrived when
+     the massive curtain of fog raises itself gradually from both
+     shores of Trinity Bay, disclosing to us the entrance of Heart's
+     Content, the Albany making for the harbor, the Margaretta
+     Stevenson, surveying vessel, steaming out to meet us, the
+     preaerranged pathway all marked with buoys by Mr. J. H. Kerr, R.
+     N., and a whole fleet of fishing boats fishing at the entrance.
+
+     "We could now plainly see that Heart's Content, so far as its
+     capabilities permitted, was prepared to welcome us. The British
+     and American flags floated from the church and telegraph
+     station and other buildings. We had dressed ship, fired a
+     salute, and given three cheers, and Captain Commerill of H.M.S.
+     Terrible was soon on board to congratulate us on our success.
+     At nine o'clock, ship's time, just as we had cut the cable and
+     made arrangements for the Medway to lay the shore end, a
+     message arrived giving us the concluding words of a leader in
+     this morning's Times: 'It is a great work, a glory to our age
+     and nation, and the men who have achieved it deserve to be
+     honored among the benefactors of their race.'--'Treaty of peace
+     signed between Prussia and Austria!' It was now time for the
+     chief engineer, Mr. Canning, to make the necessary preparations
+     for splicing on board the Medway. Accompanied by Mr. Gooch,
+     M.P., Mr. Clifford, Mr. Willoughby Smith, and Messrs. Temple
+     and Deane, he went on board, the Terrible and Niger having sent
+     their paddle-box boats and cutters to assist. Shortly afterward
+     the Great Eastern steamed into the harbor and anchored on the
+     north-east side, and was quickly surrounded by boats laden with
+     visitors. Mr. Cyrus Field had come on shore before the Great
+     Eastern had left the offing, with a view of telegraphing to St.
+     John's to hire a vessel to repair the cable unhappily broken
+     between Cape Ray, in Newfoundland, and Cape North, in Breton
+     Island. Before a couple of hours the shore end will be landed,
+     and it is impossible to conceive a finer day for effecting this
+     our final operation. Even here, people can scarcely realize
+     the fact that the Atlantic Telegraph Cable has been laid.
+     To-morrow, however, Heart's Content[C] will awaken to the fact
+     that it is a highly favored place in the world's esteem, the
+     western landing-place of that marvel of electric communication
+     with the Eastern hemisphere, which is now happily, and we hope
+     finally, established."
+
+This simple record, so modestly termed the Diary of the Expedition,
+tells the story of this memorable voyage in a way that needs no
+embellishment. But if from the ship's deck we transfer ourselves to the
+shore, we may get a new impression of the closing scene. We can well
+believe the sensation of wonder and almost of awe, on the morning when
+the ships entered that little harbor of Newfoundland. In England the
+progress of the expedition was known from day to day, but on this side
+of the ocean all was uncertainty. Some had gone to Heart's Content,
+hoping to witness the arrival of the fleet, but not so many as the year
+before, for the memory of the last failure was too fresh, and they
+feared another disappointment. But still a faithful few were there, who
+kept their daily watch. The correspondents of the American papers report
+only a long and anxious suspense, till the morning when the first ship
+was seen in the offing. As they looked toward her, she came nearer--and
+see, there is another and another! And now the hull of the Great Eastern
+loomed up all glorious in the morning sky. They were coming! Instantly
+all was wild excitement on shore. Boats put off to row toward the fleet.
+The Albany was the first to round the point and enter the bay. The
+Terrible was close behind. The Medway stopped an hour or two to join on
+the heavy shore end, while the Great Eastern, gliding calmly in as if
+she had done nothing remarkable, dropped her anchor in front of the
+telegraph house, having trailed behind her a chain of two thousand
+miles, to bind the Old World to the New.
+
+That same afternoon, as soon as the shore end was landed, Captain
+Anderson and the officers of the fleet went in a body to the little
+church in Heart's Content, to render thanks for the success of the
+expedition. A sermon was preached on the text, "There shall be no more
+sea," and all joined in the sublime prayers and thanksgivings of the
+Church of England. Thus the voyage ended as it began. It left the shores
+of Ireland with prayers wafted after it as a benediction. And now,
+safely landed on the shores of the New World, this gallant company, like
+Columbus and his companions, made it their first thought to render
+homage to the Being who had borne them safely across the deep.
+
+But though their voyage was ended, there was still a work to be done.
+Having crossed the Atlantic, the first thing was to open communication
+with the cities of the United States. And now Mr. Field was extremely
+mortified to find that there was a large gap in the line this side of
+the ocean. His first question to the Superintendent, who came out in a
+boat to meet him, was in regard to the cable across the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence, which had been interrupted the year before; and it was a
+bitter pang to hear that it lay still broken, so that a message which
+came from Ireland in a moment of time, was delayed twenty-four hours in
+its way to New York. Of course the public grew impatient, and there were
+many sneers at the want of foresight which had failed to provide against
+such a contingency; and, as he was the one chiefly known in connection
+with the enterprise, these reproaches fell upon him. He did not tell the
+public, what was the truth, that he had anticipated this very trouble
+long ago, and entreated his associates to be prepared for it. Months
+before he left for England, he urged upon the Company in New York the
+necessity of rebuilding their lines in Newfoundland, which had been
+standing over ten years, and of repairing the old cable, and also laying
+a new one across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. But this would cost a large
+sum of money, and as their faith and purses had been sorely tried by
+repeated disasters, they were not willing to spend more in the
+uncertainty of the future. They wished to see the result of this new
+expedition, before advancing further capital. We do not blame them, but
+only mention the fact to show that Mr. Field had foreseen this very
+thing, and endeavored to guard against it.
+
+But regrets were idle. What could he do to repair the injury? "Is there
+a steamer," he asked, "to be had in these waters?" "The Bloodhound is at
+St. John's." "Telegraph instantly to charter her to go around to the
+Gulf of St. Lawrence, and fish up the old cable and repair it. But that
+may take several weeks. Is there nothing else that can serve in the mean
+time to carry despatches across the Gulf?" "There is a little steamer,
+called the Dauntless." "Well, telegraph for her too. Secure her at all
+hazards; only see that the work is done." All this was the work of a few
+minutes. The answers came back quickly, and in a day or two came the
+steamers themselves. The arrangement was immediately carried out. The
+Dauntless took her place in the Gulf, where she made her regular trips
+from Port au Basque, in Newfoundland, to Aspee Bay, in Cape Breton,
+keeping up daily communication with the States. The Bloodhound, which
+had a more difficult task, first took on board eleven miles of cable
+from the Great Eastern, to repair that which was broken. The expedition
+was put in charge of Mr. A. M. Mackay, the indefatigable Superintendent
+of the Company in Newfoundland, who had had the care of their lines for
+ten years. He sailed for Aspee Bay, and made short work of the business,
+dragging the Gulf and raising the cable, which he found had been broken
+by an anchor, in water seventy fathoms deep, a few miles from shore.
+This was spliced out with a portion of the new cable, and the whole was
+as perfect as ever, giving a fresh proof that cables well made are
+likely to be permanent, if not indestructible.
+
+Meanwhile, owing to this interruption of the cable across the Gulf of
+St. Lawrence, the news of the success of the expedition, which reached
+Newfoundland on Friday, the twenty-seventh, did not reach New York till
+the twenty-ninth. It was early Sunday morning, before the Sabbath bells
+had rung their call to prayer, that the tidings came. The first
+announcement was brief: "Heart's Content, July 27.--We arrived here at
+nine o'clock this morning. All well. Thank God, the cable is laid, and
+is in perfect working order.
+
+                              Cyrus W. Field."
+
+Soon followed the despatch to the Associated Press, giving the details
+of the voyage, and ending with a just tribute to the skill and devotion
+of all who had contributed to its success. Said Mr. Field: "I cannot
+find words suitable to convey my admiration for the men who have so ably
+conducted the nautical, engineering, and electrical departments of this
+enterprise, amidst difficulties which must be seen to be appreciated. In
+fact, all on board of the telegraph fleet, and all connected with the
+enterprise, have done their best to have the cable made and laid in a
+perfect condition; and He who rules the winds and the waves has crowned
+their united efforts with perfect success."
+
+Other despatches followed in quick succession, giving the latest events
+of the war in Europe, which startled the public just reading news a
+fortnight old. All this confirmed the great triumph, and filled every
+heart with wonder and gratitude on the Sunday morning, as they went
+again to the little church and rendered thanks to Him who is Lord of the
+earth and sea.
+
+While the Great Eastern was lying in the harbor of Heart's Content, she
+was overrun with visitors. The news of her arrival had spread over the
+island, and from far and near the people flocked to see her. Over the
+hills they came on foot and on horseback, and in wagons and carts of
+every description; and from along the shore in boats and fishing-smacks,
+and sloops and schooners. They came from the most remote parts of the
+island--a distance of three hundred miles--and even from the province of
+New Brunswick. Several parties made the excursion in steamers from St.
+John's. The wondering country folk climbed up the sides of the ship, and
+wandered for hours through its spacious rooms and long passages. All
+were welcomed with hearty sailor courtesy.
+
+As soon as communication was opened with New York, and other cities,
+congratulations poured in from every quarter. Friendly messages were
+exchanged--as eight years before--between the sovereign of England and
+the head of the Great Republic. The President also, and Mr. Seward,
+Secretary of State, sent their congratulations to Mr. Field--greetings
+that were repeated from the most distant States. Among others was a
+message from San Francisco, which was put into his hand almost at the
+same moment with one from M. de Lesseps, dated at Alexandria in Egypt!
+What a meeting and mingling of voices was this, when a winged salutation
+flying over the tops of the Rocky Mountains, reached the same ear with a
+message which had been whispered along the Mediterranean and under the
+Atlantic: when the farthest East touched the farthest West--the most
+ancient of kingdoms answering to the new-born empire of the Pacific.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] The new method is thus explained by Mr. Deane:
+
+"The fundamental difference between last year's system of testing and
+that of the present expedition is, that now all the ordinary tests for
+continuity may be made simultaneously with the test for insulation,
+which is not interrupted at all; whereas, last year, during half the
+time spent in laying the cable, the insulation test was wholly
+neglected.
+
+"Last year, each hour was divided into four parts. The first half of the
+hour was spent in testing for insulation. During the second half, which
+was divided into three periods of ten minutes each, tests were made to
+ascertain the resistance of the conductor and to prove the continuity of
+the same. All these tests were of such a nature as to afford no
+criterion whatever of the state of the insulation during their
+continuance, so that during the half of each hour, or, in other words,
+during half the time spent in laying the cable, the insulation test was
+neglected. Also, while the insulation test was being made, there was no
+means of communicating with the shore, as the observations were taken on
+board only. This year, a test for insulation is constantly kept on, and,
+by Mr. Willoughby Smith's arrangement, corresponding observations are
+made both on ship and shore. At stated times during the hour, the
+continuity test is made at the shore station by means of a condenser
+applied to the conductor of the cable. The effect of this is to increase
+the deflection on the ship's insulation galvanometer, thus serving as a
+continuity test. Communications from shore to ship are also made by
+these means. The ship can send signals to the shore by simply reversing
+the current for certain lengths of time, answering to some understood
+code, or by increasing and diminishing the tension of the line,
+according to a preaerranged plan. All these operations may be performed
+without interrupting the insulation test, except for a few seconds while
+the current is being reversed. So far for the new system in the
+electrical room as compared with last year."
+
+[B] Mr. Dudley made a number of sketches for Mr. Field, with several
+large paintings, which have furnished the illustrations for this volume.
+
+[C] The little harbor that bears this gentle name, is a sheltered nook
+where ships may ride at anchor, safe from the storms of the ocean. It is
+but an inlet from the great arm of the sea known as Trinity Bay, which
+is sixty or seventy miles long, and twenty miles broad. On the beach is
+a small village of some sixty houses, most of which are the humble
+dwellings of those hardy men who vex the northern seas with their
+fisheries. The place was never heard of outside of Newfoundland till
+1864, when Mr. Field, sailing up Trinity Bay in the surveying steamer
+Margaretta Stevenson, Captain Orlebar, R. N., in search of a place for
+the landing of the ocean cable, fixed upon this secluded spot. The old
+landing of 1858 was at the Bay of Bull's Arm, at the head of Trinity
+Bay, twenty miles above. Heart's Content was chosen now because its
+waters are still and deep, so that a cable skirting the north side of
+the Banks of Newfoundland can be brought in deep water almost till it
+touches the shore. All around the land rises to pine-crested heights;
+and here the telegraphic fleet, after its memorable voyage, lay in
+quiet, under the shadow of the encircling hills.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+RECOVERY OF THE LOST CABLE.
+
+
+Though the Great Eastern was still lying in the little harbor of Heart's
+Content, casting her mighty shadow on its tranquil waters, she was not
+"content" with her amazing victory, but sighed for another greater
+still. Though she had done enough to be laid up for a year, still she
+had one more test of her prowess--to recover the cable of 1865, which
+had been lost in the middle of the Atlantic. So eager were all for this
+second trial of their strength, that in less than five days two of the
+ships--the Albany and the Terrible--the vanguard of the telegraphic
+fleet, were on their way back to mid-ocean. Though it was only Friday,
+the 27th of July, that they reached land, they left early Wednesday
+morning, the first day of August. The Great Eastern was detained a week
+longer. She had to lay in immense supplies of coal. Anticipating this
+want, six ships had been despatched from Cardiff, in Wales, weeks
+before, to await the arrival of the fleet. One of these foundered at
+sea; the others arrived out safely, and hardly had the Great Eastern
+cast anchor before they were alongside, ready to fill her bunkers. So
+ample was the provision, that, when she went to sea a few days after,
+she had nearly eight thousand tons of coal on board.
+
+At the same time she had to receive some six hundred miles of the cable
+of 1865, which had been shipped from England in the Medway. The latter
+was now brought alongside, and the whole was transferred into the main
+tank of the Great Eastern, from which it was to be paid out in case the
+lost end were recovered.
+
+At length all these preparations were completed, and on Thursday, the
+9th of August, the Great Eastern and the Medway put to sea. The Governor
+of Newfoundland, who had come around from St. John's and been received
+with the honors due his rank, accompanied them in the Lily down the
+broad expanse of Trinity Bay, and then bore away for St. John's while
+the Great Eastern and Medway kept on their course to join their
+companions in the middle of the Atlantic. They had a little over six
+hundred miles to run to the "fishing ground," and made it in three days.
+On Sunday noon they came in sight of the appointed rendezvous, and soon
+with glasses made out the Albany and the Terrible, which had arrived a
+week before and placed buoys to mark the line of the cable, and then,
+like giant sea-birds with folded wings, sat watching their prey. The sea
+was running high, so that boats could not come off, but the Albany
+signalled that she had not toiled for nothing; that she had once hooked
+the cable, but lost it in rough weather. The history of this first
+attempt, though brief, was cheering.
+
+When the Albany left Heart's Content, Captain Moriarty went in her. He
+had been in the Great Eastern the year before, and saw where the cable
+went down, and had had his eye on the spot ever since. He claimed, with
+Captain Anderson, that he could go straight to it and place the ship
+within half a mile of where it disappeared. At this old sailors shook
+their heads, and said, "They'd like to see him do it;" "No man could
+come within two or three miles of any given place in the ocean." Yet the
+result proved the exactness of his observations. With unerring eye he
+went straight to the spot, and set his buoys as exactly as a fisherman
+sets his nets.
+
+In the Albany, also, had gone Mr. Temple, of Mr. Canning's staff. The
+ship had been fitted up with a complete set of buoys and apparatus for
+grappling; and he was full of ambition to recover the cable before the
+Great Eastern should come up. In this he had nearly proved successful.
+They had caught it once, and raised it a few hundred fathoms from the
+bottom, and buoyed it, but rough weather came on and tore away the buoy,
+so that the cable went down again, carrying two miles of rope.
+
+This was a disappointment, but still, as their first attempt was only a
+"feeler," the result was encouraging. It showed that they had found the
+right place; that the cable was there; that it had not run away nor been
+floated off by those under-currents that exist in the imagination of
+some wise men of the sea; nor that it was so imbedded in the ooze of the
+deep as to be beyond reach or recovery. All this was cheering, but as it
+promised to be a more difficult job than they had supposed, they were
+glad when the Great Eastern hove in sight that Sunday noon.
+
+The next morning Captain Moriarty and Mr. Temple came on board, and
+after reporting their experience, the chief officers of the Expedition
+held a council of war before opening the campaign. The fleet was all
+together, the weather was favorable, and it was determined at once to
+proceed to business.
+
+As the attempt is now to be renewed on a grand scale, the reader may
+wish some further details of the means employed to insure success. As
+nothing in this whole enterprise has excited such astonishment, nothing
+merits a more careful history. When it was first proposed to drag the
+bottom of the Atlantic for a cable lost in waters two and a half miles
+deep, the project was so daring that it seemed to be almost a war of the
+Titans upon the gods. Yet never was anything undertaken less in the
+spirit of reckless desperation. The cable was recovered, as a city is
+taken by siege--by slow approaches, and the sure and inevitable result
+of mathematical calculation. Every point was studied beforehand--the
+position of the broken end, the depth of the ocean, the length of rope
+needed to reach the bottom, and the strength required to lift the
+enormous weight. To find the place was a simple question of nautical
+astronomy--a calculation of latitude and longitude. It seemed
+providential that, when the cable broke on the second of August, 1865,
+it was a few minutes after noon; the sun was shining brightly, and they
+had just taken a perfect observation. This made it much easier to go
+back to the place again. The waters were very deep, but that they could
+touch bottom, and even grapple the cable, was proved by the experiments
+of the year before. But could any power be applied which should lift it
+without breaking, and bring it safely on board? This was a simple
+question of mechanics. Prof. Thomson had made a calculation that in
+raising the cable from a depth of two and a half miles, there would be
+about ten miles of its length suspended in the water. Of course, it was
+a very nice matter to graduate the strain so as not to break the cable.
+For this it had been suggested that two or three ships should grapple it
+at once, and lifting it together, ease the strain on any one point--a
+method of meeting the danger that was finally adopted with success.
+
+With such preparations, let us see how all this science and seamanship
+and engineering are applied. The ships are now all together in the
+middle of the Atlantic. The first point is achieved. They have found
+the place where the broken cable lies--they have laid their hands on the
+bottom of the ocean and "felt of it," and know that it is there. The
+next thing is to draw a line over it, to mark its course, for in fogs
+and dark nights it cannot be traced by observations. The watery line is
+therefore marked by a series of buoys a few miles apart, which are held
+in position by heavy mushroom-anchors, let down to the bottom by a huge
+buoy-rope, which is fastened at the top by a heavy chain. Each buoy is
+numbered, and has on the top a long staff with a flag, and a black ball
+over it, which can be seen at a distance. Thus the ships, ranging around
+in a circuit of many miles, can keep in sight this chain of sentinels.
+The buoy which marks the spot where they wish to grapple has also a
+lantern placed upon it at night, which gleams afar upon the ocean.
+Having thus fixed their bearings, the Great Eastern stands off, north or
+south according to the wind or current, three or four miles from where
+the cable lies, and then, casting over the grapnel, drifts slowly down
+upon the line, as ships going into action reef their sails, and drift
+under the enemy's guns.
+
+The "fishing-tackle" is on a gigantic scale. The "hooks," or grapnels,
+are huge weapons armed with teeth, like Titanic harpoons to be plunged
+into this submarine monster. The "fishing-line" is a rope six and a
+half inches round, and made of twisted hemp and iron, consisting of
+forty-nine galvanized wires, each bound with manilla, the whole capable
+of bearing a strain of thirty tons. Of this heavy rope there are twenty
+miles on board the ships, the Albany carrying five, and the Great
+Eastern and the Medway seven and a half miles each. Of course it is not
+the easiest thing in the world to handle such a rope. But it is paid out
+by machinery, passing over a drum; and the engine works so smoothly,
+that it runs out as easily as ever a fisherman's line was reeled off
+into the sea. As it goes out freely, the strain increases every moment.
+The rope is so ponderous, that the weight mounts up very fast, so that
+by the time it is two thousand fathoms down, the strain is equal to six
+or seven tons. The tension of course is very great, and not unattended
+with danger. What if the rope should break? If it should snap on board,
+it would go into the sea like a cannon-shot. Such was the tension on the
+long line, that once when the splice between the grapnel-rope and the
+buoy-rope "drew," the end passed along the wheels with terrific
+velocity, and flying in the air over the bow, plunged into the sea. But
+the rope is well made, and holds firmly an enormous weight. It takes
+about two hours for the grapnel to reach the bottom, but they can tell
+when it strikes. The strain eases up, and then, as the ship drifts, it
+is easy to see that it is not dragging through the water, but over the
+ground. "I often went to the bow," says Mr. Field, "and sat on the
+rope, and could tell by the quiver that the grapnel was dragging on the
+bottom two miles under us."
+
+And thus, with its fishing line set, the great ship moves slowly down
+over where the cable lies. As the grapnel drags on the bottom, one of
+the engineer's staff stands at the dynamometer to watch for the moment
+of increasing strain. A few hours pass, and the index rises to eight,
+ten, or twelve tons, sure token that there is something at the end of
+the line--it may be the lost cable, or a sunken mast or spar, the
+fragment of a wreck that went down in a storm that swept the Atlantic a
+hundred years ago. And now the engine is set in motion to haul in. As
+the rope comes up, it passes over a five-foot drum, every revolution
+bringing up three fathoms. Thus it takes some hours to haul in over two
+miles' length, perhaps at last to find nothing at the end!
+
+Success in hooking the cable depends on the accuracy of their
+observations. These were sometimes verified in a remarkable manner. When
+the nights were very dark and thick with fog, so that they could not see
+the stars above nor their lights on the ocean, they had to go almost by
+the sense of feeling. Yet so exactly had they taken their bearings, that
+they could almost grope over the ground with their hands. A singular
+proof of this was given one night, when, just as the line began to
+quiver, showing that the cable had been hooked, one of the buoys--which
+had not been seen in the darkness--thumped against the side of the ship.
+So exactly had it been placed over the prescribed line, that the ship
+struck the buoy just as the grapnel struck the cable! The accident,
+which startled them at first, when it occurred in the gloom of night,
+furnished the strongest proof of the accuracy of their observations; and
+the officers were very proud of it, as they well might be, as a victory
+in nautical astronomy!
+
+These different experiments revealed some secrets of the ocean. Its
+bottom proved to be generally ooze, a soft slime. When the rope went
+down, one or two hundred fathoms at the end would trail on the sea
+floor; and when it came up, this was found coated with mud, "very fine
+and soft like putty, and full of minute shells." But it was not _all_
+ooze at the bottom of the sea, even on this telegraphic plateau. There
+were hidden rocks--perhaps not cliffs and ledges, but at least scattered
+boulders, lying on that mighty plain. Sometimes the strain on the
+dynamometer would suddenly go up three or four tons, and then back
+again, as if the grapnel had been caught and broken away. Once it came
+up with two of its hooks bent, as if it had come in contact with a huge
+rock. At one time it brought up in the mud a small stone half the size
+of an almond; and at another a fragment as large as a brick. This was a
+piece of granite.
+
+Friday, August 17th, was a memorable day in the expedition, for the
+cable was not only caught, but brought to the surface, where it was in
+full sight of the whole ship, and yet finally escaped. The day before
+the line had been cast over, at about two o'clock, and struck the ground
+a little before five. After dragging a couple of hours, the increasing
+strain showed that they had grappled the prize, and they began to haul
+in, but soon ceased, and held on till morning. Then the engine was set
+in motion again, and slowly but steadily the ponderous rope came up from
+the deep. By half-past ten o'clock, Friday morning, twenty-three hundred
+fathoms had come on board, and but fifteen or twenty remained. Then was
+the critical moment, and they paused before giving a last pull. Such was
+the eagerness of all, that the diver of the ship, Clark, begged to be
+allowed to plunge down twenty fathoms, to lay his hand on the prize, and
+be sure that it was there. But patience yet a few minutes! A few more
+strokes of the engine, and the sea-serpent shows himself--a long black
+snake with a white belly. "On the appearance of the cable," says Deane,
+in his Diary of the Expedition, "we were all struck with the fact that
+one half of it was covered with ooze, staining it a muddy white, while
+the other half was in just the state in which it left the tank, with its
+tarred surface and strands unchanged, which showed that it lay in the
+sand only half embedded. The strain on the cable gave it a twist, and
+it looked as if it had been painted spirally black and white. This
+disposes of the oft-repeated assertion, that we should not be able to
+pull it up from the bottom, because it would be embedded in the ooze."
+
+The appearance of the cable woke a tremendous hurrah from all on board.
+They cheered as English sailors are apt to cheer when the flag of an
+enemy is struck in battle. But their exultation came too soon. The
+strain on the cable was already mounting up to a dangerous point. Capt.
+Anderson and Mr. Canning were standing on the bow, and saw that the
+strands were going. They hastened men to its relief, but it was too
+late. Before they could put stoppers on it to hold it, it broke close to
+the grapnel, and sunk to the bottom. It had been in sight but just five
+minutes, and was gone. Instantly the feeling of exultation was turned to
+one of disappointment, and almost of rage, at the treacherous monster,
+that lifted up its snaky head from the sea, as if to mock its captors,
+and instantly dived to the silence and darkness below.
+
+It was a cruel disappointment. Yet when they came to think soberly,
+there was no cause for despair, but rather for new confidence and hope.
+They had proved what they could do. But this detained them in the middle
+of the Atlantic for two weeks more.
+
+It were idle to relate all the attempts of those two weeks. Every day
+brought its excitement. Whenever the grapnel caught, there was a
+suspense of many hours till it was brought on board. Several times they
+seemed on the point of success. Two days after that fatal Friday, on
+Sunday, August 19th, they caught the cable again, and brought it up
+within a thousand fathoms of the ship, and buoyed it. But Monday and
+Tuesday were too rough for work, and all their labor was in vain. Thus
+it was a constant battle with the elements. Sometimes the wind blew
+fiercely and drove them off their course. Sometimes the buoys broke
+adrift and had to be pursued and taken. Once or twice the boatswain's
+mate--a brave fellow, by the name of Thornton--was lowered in ropes over
+the bow of the ship and let down astride of a buoy; and though it spun
+round with him like a top, and his life was in danger, he held on and
+fastened a chain to it, by which it was swung on board.
+
+The continued bad weather was the chief obstacle to success. Engineers
+had often grappled for cables in the North Sea and the Mediterranean;
+but there they could look for at least a few days when the sea would be
+at rest; but in the Atlantic it was impossible to calculate on good
+weather for twenty-four hours. For nearly four weeks that they were at
+sea, they had hardly four days of clear sunshine, without wind. Often
+the ocean was covered with a driving mist, and the ships, groping about
+like blind giants, kept blowing their shrill fog-trumpets, or firing
+guns, as signals to their companions that they were still there.
+Occasionally the sun shone out from the clouds, and gave them hope of
+better success. Once or twice we find in the private journal kept by Mr.
+Field, that it was "too calm;" there was not wind enough to drift the
+ship over the cable, so that the rope hung up and down from the bow,
+without dragging. One Sunday night he remembered, when the deep was
+hushed to a Sabbath stillness, the moon was shining brightly, and the
+ships floating over a "sea of glass," that suggested thoughts of a
+better world than this. Such times gave them fresh hopes, that might be
+disappointed on the morrow.
+
+Once, however, the Albany, which had been off a few miles fishing on its
+own hook, suddenly appeared in the night, reporting a victory. All on
+board the Great Eastern were startled by the firing of guns. It was a
+little after midnight, and Mr. Field had gone below, worn out with the
+long suspense and anxiety, when Captain Anderson came rushing to his
+stateroom with tidings that the cable was recovered! Both hurried on
+deck, and sure enough there was the Albany bearing down upon them, with
+her crew cheering in the wildest manner. The gallant Temple had
+conquered at last. But the next morning brought a fresh disappointment.
+They had indeed got hold of the cable, and brought its end on board, and
+afterward buoyed it, but when the Great Eastern went for it, it proved
+to be only a fragment some two miles long, which had been broken off in
+one of the previous grapplings. However, they hauled it in, and kept it
+with pride, as their first trophy from the sea.
+
+And so the days and weeks wore on; it was near the end of August, and
+still the prize was not taken. The courage of the men did not fail, but
+they were becoming worn out. The tension on their nerves of this long
+suspense was terrible. On Tuesday, August 28th, Mr. Temple was brought
+on board from the Albany, very ill. He was worn out with constant
+watching. Their resources, too, must in time be exhausted. On the
+evening of the 29th, Captain Commerill, of the Terrible, came on board,
+and reported the condition of his ship. He was one of the very best
+officers in the fleet, full of zeal, courage, and activity (having a
+good right hand in his first officer, Mr. Curtis), and always kept up a
+brave heart, even in the darkest days.[A] But his supplies were nearly
+exhausted. He had been out four weeks, and his coal was almost gone,
+and his men were on half rations. So he must leave the fishing ground
+for fresh supplies. It was a painful necessity. He mourned his fate,
+like a brave officer who is ordered away in the midst of a battle. But
+he submitted only with a determination to take in ammunition, and to
+come back in a few days to renew the struggle. Accordingly the Terrible
+left the same evening for St. John's.
+
+At the same time it was decided that the three other ships should leave
+their present cruising ground, and try a new spot. As an old fisherman,
+who has cast his line in one place so often as to scare the fish away,
+sometimes has better luck in other waters, so they proposed to go east
+a hundred miles, to a place where the ocean was not quite so deep.
+Deane, in his Diary, calls it "the sixteen hundred fathom patch," but
+they found it nineteen hundred fathoms, or about two miles! So the next
+morning the Great Eastern, the Medway, and the Albany "pulled up
+stakes," that is, took in their buoys, and bore away to the east. In a
+few hours they reached the appointed rendezvous, and had set their
+buoys. The last day of August had come, and all seemed favorable for a
+final attempt. It was a clear day, with no wind. The sea had gone down,
+so that at noon it was a dead calm, as the three ships took their
+position in line, about two miles apart, ready to open their broadsides
+at once. The grapnel went over for _the thirtieth time_. Kind heaven
+favored its search, and at ten minutes before midnight it had found the
+cable, and fastened its teeth never to let go. Feeling something at the
+end of the rope, they began to haul in, but slowly at first, as an
+expert angler decoys a big fish by pulling gently on the line. Watching
+the dynamometer, they saw with delight the strain increase with every
+hundred fathoms. Up it went to eight, nine, ten tons! They had caught
+it, and no mistake. In about five hours they had drawn it up to within a
+thousand fathoms of the top of the water, where it hung suspended from
+the ship. But now came the critical point, for as it approached the
+surface the danger of breaking increased every moment. It required
+delicate handling. To make sure this time, the Great Eastern buoyed the
+cable, and moved off two or three miles to take a fresh gripe in a new
+place; and having got a double hold, the Medway, which was two miles
+further to the west, was ordered to grapple for it also; and having
+caught it, to heave up with all force, till she should bring it on board
+or break it. This was done, and the old cable brought up within three
+hundred fathoms, and there broken. This at once lightened the strain and
+gave them an end to pull upon, whereupon the Great Eastern, having a
+lighter weight on the rope, drew up again, but still gently, watching
+the strain, lest the cable should break. These operations were very
+slow, and lasted many weary hours. It was a little before midnight on
+Friday night that the cable was caught, and it was after midnight Sunday
+morning that it was brought on board. How long that day seemed! Night
+turned to morning, and morning to noon, and noon to night again, and
+still the work was not done; still the great ship hung over the spot
+where its treasure was suspended in the deep. The sun went down, and the
+moon looked forth from driving clouds upon a scene such as the ocean
+never saw before. At a distance could be discerned the black hulls of
+the attendant ships, the Albany and the Medway. But why were they thus
+silent and motionless in the midst of the sea? Some mysterious errand
+brought them here, and as their boats approached with measured sweep,
+at this midnight hour, it seemed as if they came with muffled oars to an
+ocean burial. It was still calm, but the sea began to moan with unrest,
+as if troubled in its sleep. As midnight drew on, the interest gathered
+about the bows of the Great Eastern. The bulwarks were crowded with
+anxious watchers, peering into the darkness below. Still not a word was
+spoken. Not a voice was heard, save that of Captain Anderson, or Mr.
+Halpin, or Mr. Canning, giving orders. As it approached the surface, two
+men, who were tried hands, were lashed with ropes and lowered over the
+bows, to make fast to the cable when it should appear. This was a
+perilous service, and the boats were there to pick up the brave fellows,
+if they should drop into the water. As soon as it showed itself, they
+dived upon it, and seizing it with their hands, fastened it with large
+hempen stoppers, which were quickly attached to five-inch ropes.
+
+     "It was then found, that the bight was so firmly caught in the
+     springs of the grapnel, that one of the brave hands who put on
+     the stoppers, was sent lower down to the grapnel, and with
+     hammer and marlinspike, the rope was ultimately freed from the
+     tenacious gripe of the flukes. The signal being given to haul
+     up, the western end of the bight was cut with a saw, and
+     grandly and majestically the cable rose up the frowning bows of
+     the Great Eastern, slowly passing round the sheave at the bow,
+     and then over the wheels on to the fore part of the deck. The
+     greatest possible care had to be taken by Mr. Canning and his
+     assistants, to secure the cable by putting on stoppers, and to
+     watch the progress of the grapnel, rope, and shackles, round
+     the drum, before it received the cable itself."
+
+When once it was made fast, all took a long breath. The cable was
+recovered. They had the sea-serpent at last. There the monster lay, its
+neck firmly in their gripe, and its black head lying on the deck. But
+even then there was no cheering, as when they caught it two weeks
+before. Men are sometimes stunned by a sudden success, and hardly know
+if it be not all a dream. So now they looked at the cable with eager
+eyes, but without a word, and some crept toward it to take it in their
+hands, to be sure that they were not deceived. Yes--it was the same that
+they paid out into the sea thirteen months before!
+
+But their anxiety was not over. Now that they had regained the lost
+cable of 1865, was it good for any thing? It had been lying more than a
+year at the bottom of the deep. What if it should prove to have been
+broken somewhere in the eleven hundred miles between the ship and
+Ireland? What if some sharp rock had worn it away, or some marine insect
+had eaten into its heart? If there were but a pin's point, anywhere in
+its covering of flesh, the vital current might escape through it into
+the sea. Fears like these restrained their exultation. It was yet too
+soon to proclaim their victory. So, as the cable was passed along the
+deck to the testing room, where the chief electrician was to operate
+upon it, to see whether it was alive or dead, it was followed by an
+anxious group, who stood around him as he sat down at the instrument,
+watching his countenance as friends watch the face of a physician, when
+he feels the pulse of a patient to see if the heart is still beating.
+The scene is thus described by Mr. Robert Dudley, the artist of the
+expedition, whose spirited sketches in the London Illustrated News have
+made known to the world many incidents of this memorable voyage:
+
+     "I made my way with others, in accordance with an invitation
+     from Willoughby Smith, to the electricians' room. Here, after
+     another hour's preparation, during which time the cable had
+     been carefully passed round the drums of the picking-up
+     machinery, and a sufficient length drawn in on board, the
+     severed end was received. And now, in their mysterious,
+     darkened haunt, the wizards are ready to work their spells upon
+     the tamed lightning. Not 'unholy spells' are these, or secret;
+     for, though the wizards' den is but of limited dimensions, they
+     have not been averse to the presence of a few visitors. Mr.
+     Gooch is looking on; Professor Thomson, be sure, is here, a
+     worthy 'Wizard of the North;' Cyrus Field could no more be
+     absent than the cable itself; I think, too, Canning, hard at
+     work as he is forward in the ship, _must_ have dropped in just
+     for a moment; Clifford, Laws, Captain Hamilton, Deane,
+     Dudley--all have, in their several ways, a great interest in
+     every movement of Willoughby Smith and his brother (and able
+     assistant) Oliver; and, when the core of the cable is stripped
+     and the heart itself--the conducting wire--fixed in the
+     instrument, and these two electricians bend over the
+     galvanometer in patient watching for some message from that
+     far-off land of home to which the great news has just been
+     signalled, then the accustomed stillness of the test-room is
+     deepened; the ticking of the chronometer becomes monotonous.
+     Nearly a quarter of an hour has passed, and still no sign!
+     Suddenly Willoughby Smith's hat is off, and the British hurrah
+     bursts from his lips, echoed by all on board with a volley of
+     cheers, evidently none the worse for having been 'bottled up'
+     during the last three hours. Along the deck outside, over the
+     ship, throughout the ship, the pent-up enthusiasm overflowed;
+     and even before the test-room was cleared, the roaring bravos
+     of our guns drowned the huzzas of the crew, and the whiz of
+     rockets was heard rushing high into the clear morning sky to
+     greet our consort-ships with the glad intelligence."
+
+While this scene is going on on board ship, we may turn to the other end
+of the line. It may be well supposed that the result of this attempt was
+watched with deep interest at Valentia. How they looked for the first
+signal from the deep, and how the tidings came, is thus told in the
+London Spectator:
+
+     "Night and day, for a whole year, an electrician has always
+     been on duty, watching the tiny ray of light through which
+     signals are given, and twice every day the whole length of
+     wire--one thousand two hundred and forty miles--has been tested
+     for conductivity and insulation.... The object of observing the
+     ray of light was of course not any expectation of a message,
+     but simply to keep an accurate record of the condition of the
+     wire. Sometimes, indeed, wild, incoherent messages from the
+     deep did come, but these were merely the results of magnetic
+     storms and earth-currents, which deflected the galvanometer
+     rapidly, and _spelt the most extraordinary words, and sometimes
+     even sentences of nonsense_. Suddenly, last Sunday morning, at
+     a quarter to six o'clock, while the light was being watched by
+     Mr. May,[B] he observed a peculiar indication about it, which
+     showed at once to his experienced eye that a message was at
+     hand. In a few minutes afterward the unsteady flickering was
+     changed to coherency, if we may use such a term, and at once
+     the cable began to speak, to transmit, that is, at regular
+     intervals, the appointed signals which indicated human purpose
+     and method at the other end, instead of the hurried signs,
+     broken speech, and inarticulate cries of the illiterate
+     Atlantic. After the long interval in which it had brought us
+     nothing but the moody and often delirious mutterings of the
+     sea, stammering over its alphabet in vain, the words 'Canning
+     to Glass' must have seemed like the first rational word uttered
+     by a high-fevered patient, when the ravings have ceased and his
+     consciousness returns."
+
+The telegraphic fleet remained together but a few hours after this
+recovery of the lost cable. The battle was gained, and the three ships
+were no longer needed. The Albany, therefore, parted company to pick up
+the buoys, and at once sailed for England, while the Great Eastern,
+attended by the faithful Medway, turned to the west. It was about nine
+o'clock that the ship began to pay out the cable. Up to that time it
+had continued calm, but the morning was raw and chill, and the sea began
+to rise as if in anger at those who had torn from it its prey. Captain
+Anderson looked anxiously at the signs of the coming storm. It seemed as
+if Heaven had kept back the winds during the critical day and night when
+they were lifting the cable! But now the tempest was upon them, and for
+thirty-six hours it swept the ocean. All trembled lest they should not
+be able to hold on. But little incidents sometimes turn the current of
+one's thoughts, and give a feeling of peace even in the midst of
+anxiety. Says Mr. Field:
+
+     "In the very height and fury of the gale, as I sat in the
+     electrician's room, a flash of light came up from the deep,
+     which having crossed to Ireland, came back to me in mid-ocean,
+     telling that those so dear to me, whom I had left on the banks
+     of the Hudson, were well, and following us with their wishes
+     and their prayers. This was like a whisper of God from the sea,
+     bidding me keep heart and hope. The Great Eastern bore herself
+     proudly through the storm, as if she knew that the vital cord
+     which was to join two hemispheres, hung at her stern; and so on
+     Saturday, the seventh of September, we brought our second cable
+     safely to the shore."
+
+The scene at Heart's Content, when the fleet appeared the second time,
+was one that beggars description. Its arrival was not unexpected, for
+the success on Sunday morning, that had been telegraphed to Ireland,
+was at once flashed across the Atlantic, and the people were watching
+for its coming. As the ships came up the harbor it was covered with
+boats, and all were wild with excitement; and when the big shore-end was
+got out of the Medway, and dragged to land, the sailors hugged it and
+almost kissed it in their extravagance of joy; and no sooner was it
+safely landed than they seized Mr. Field, Mr. Canning, and Mr. Clifford
+in their arms, and raised them over their heads, while the crowd cheered
+with tumultuous enthusiasm.
+
+The voyage of the Great Eastern was ended. Twice had she been victorious
+over the sea; twice had she laid the spoils of victory on the shores of
+the New World, and her mission was accomplished. All on board, who had
+been detained weeks beyond the expected time, were impatient to return;
+and accordingly she prepared to sail the very next day on her homeward
+voyage. The Medway, which had on board the cable for the Gulf of St.
+Lawrence, remained two or three weeks longer, and with the Terrible,
+whose gallant officers had volunteered for the service, successfully
+accomplished that work. But the Great Eastern was bound for England, and
+Mr. Field had now to part from his friends on board. It was a trying
+moment. Rejoiced as he was at the successful termination of the voyage,
+yet when he came to leave the ship, where he had spent so many anxious
+days and weeks, both this year and the year before; and to part from
+men to whom he was bound by the strong ties that unite those embarked in
+a common enterprise--brave companions in arms--he could not repress a
+feeling of sadness. It was with deep emotion that Captain Anderson took
+him by the hand, as he said, "The time is come that we must part." As he
+went over the side of the ship, the commander cried, "Give him three
+cheers!" "And now three more for his family!" The ringing hurrahs of
+that gallant crew were the last sounds he heard as he sunk back in the
+boat that took him to the Medway, while the wheels of the Great Eastern
+began to move, and the noble ship, with her noble company, bore away for
+England.
+
+Our story is told. We have followed the history of the Atlantic
+Telegraph from the beginning to the end; from the hour that the idea
+first occurred to its projector, turning over the globe in his library,
+till the cable was stretched from continent to continent. Between these
+two points of time many years have passed, and many struggles
+intervened. Never did an enterprise pass through more vicissitudes;
+never was courage tried by more reverses and disappointments, the
+constant repetition of which gives to this narrative an almost painful
+interest. Yet that background of disaster only sets in brighter relief
+the spirit that bore up under all, the faith that never despaired, and
+the patience that was never weary. It was a pathetic as well as heroic
+story which Mr. Field had to tell when it was all over. He said:
+
+     "It has been a long, hard struggle. Nearly thirteen years of
+     anxious watching and ceaseless toil. Often my heart has been
+     ready to sink. Many times, when wandering in the forests of
+     Newfoundland, in the pelting rain, or on the deck of ships, on
+     dark, stormy nights--alone, far from home--I have almost
+     accused myself of madness and folly to sacrifice the peace of
+     my family, and all the hopes of life, for what might prove
+     after all but a dream. I have seen my companions one and
+     another falling by my side, and feared that I too might not
+     live to see the end. And yet one hope has led me on, and I have
+     prayed that I might not taste of death till this work was
+     accomplished. That prayer is answered; and now, beyond all
+     acknowledgments to men, is the feeling of gratitude to Almighty
+     God."[C]
+
+"Long and hard" indeed had been the way, but in the end what a triumph
+was gained: an achievement that was one of the most marvellous in all
+history, as a proof of man's dominion over the forces of nature. When it
+was first proposed to span the Atlantic, it seemed but a beautiful
+dream, fascinating indeed to the imagination, but beyond all human
+power; and men listened to the picture of what might be with delighted
+amazement and wondering incredulity. In an oration at the opening of the
+Dudley Observatory at Albany, in 1857, Edward Everett spoke thus of the
+projected Atlantic Telegraph:
+
+     "I hold in my hand a portion of the identical electrical cable,
+     given me by my friend Mr. Peabody, which is now in progress of
+     manufacture to connect America with Europe. Does it seem all
+     but incredible to you that intelligence should travel for two
+     thousand miles, along those slender copper wires, far down in
+     the all but fathomless Atlantic, never before penetrated by
+     aught pertaining to humanity, save when some foundering vessel
+     has plunged with her hapless company to the eternal silence and
+     darkness of the abyss? Does it seem, I say, all but a miracle
+     of art, that the thoughts of living men--the thoughts that we
+     think up here on the earth's surface, in the cheerful light of
+     day--about the markets and the exchanges, and the seasons, and
+     the elections, and the treaties, and the wars, and all the fond
+     nothings of daily life, should clothe themselves with elemental
+     sparks, and shoot with fiery speed, in a moment, in the
+     twinkling of an eye, from hemisphere to hemisphere, far down
+     among the uncouth monsters that wallow in the nether seas,
+     along the wreck-paved floor, through the oozy dungeons of the
+     rayless deep; that the latest intelligence of the crops, whose
+     dancing tassels will, in a few months, be coquetting with the
+     west wind on those boundless prairies, should go flashing along
+     the slimy decks of old sunken galleons, which have been rotting
+     for ages; that messages of friendship and love, from warm,
+     living bosoms, should burn over the cold, green bones of men
+     and women, whose hearts, once as warm as ours, burst as the
+     eternal gulfs closed and roared over them centuries ago!"
+
+But a few years passed, and the vision became a reality. The heart of
+the world beat under the sea.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Captain Anderson, in a letter published after the return to England,
+says: "Every officer and man of the expedition will have pleasant
+recollection of the cheerful zeal of Captain Commerill, V.C., and the
+officers of Her Majesty's ship Terrible. Captain Commerill frequently
+visited us in his boats, both in high seas and in calms, and his cheery
+way of saying, 'You'll do it yet,' 'What can I do?' and 'I'll do it,'
+was truly characteristic of him. The officers of the Terrible would do
+any thing for their captain, and entered heartily into the object of the
+voyage."
+
+Such a tribute from one brave commander to another, is most honorable to
+both. In the same letter he recognizes, also, the services rendered by
+the captains of the other ships: "I shall do but scant justice to
+Commanders Prowse and Batt, R. N., and Captains Eddington and Harris,
+Mercantile Marine, of the Medway and Albany, if I recall the three weeks
+spent upon the 'grappling ground,' where we were often separated by fog,
+gale, or darkness; yet whenever day dawned, or the fog cleared, there
+the squadron were to be seen, converging from different points towards
+the Mark Buoy, a small spot looking no bigger than a man's hat on the
+surface of the ocean. Unless all had concentrated their minds, and
+watched their ships and compasses night and day, no such beautiful
+illustration of nautical science could have been possible. The vessels
+of the squadron keeping always together, and commanded by men who knew
+the importance of keeping close enough to begin work whenever it was
+possible, and yet to avoid collision in fog, was of the greatest
+importance; and we owe much to that invaluable system of signalling by
+night and day, invented by Captain Colomb, R. N., which enabled us, even
+in dark nights, when two or three miles apart, to communicate or
+ascertain anything we desired."
+
+[B] This is an error. Mr. Crocker, an operator in the Telegraph House at
+Valentia, was the fortunate one on watch at that hour, on whose eye the
+first ray fell, as a spark of life from the dead.
+
+[C] Speech at the Chamber of Commerce Dinner, Nov. 15, 1866.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE AFTERGLOW.
+
+
+It is the clear shining after rain. The storms that swept the sea, have
+blown themselves out, and all is tranquil on the face of the deep. The
+cable is lying in its ocean bed uniting the two hemispheres, nevermore
+to be separated. And now comes the public recognition on both sides the
+Atlantic, though in different form. The event had produced a profound
+impression throughout the civilized world. Yet it was a singular
+illustration of the changes in public interest, that, whereas in 1858 a
+temporary success had kindled the wildest enthusiasm in the United
+States, while in England it was regarded almost with indifference, now
+the state of feeling in the two countries was completely reversed. In
+Great Britain it was the theme of boundless congratulation, while in
+America the public mind--dulled perhaps by the excitements of four years
+of war--received the news with composure. The reason was, in part, that
+England had had a larger share in the later than in the earlier
+expeditions. Certainly none could deny the inestimable services rendered
+by her men of science, her seamen, her engineers, and her great
+capitalists; and it was most fit that the country which they had honored
+should do them honor in its turn. Scarcely had the Great Eastern
+recrossed the sea before those to whom the empire owed so much, were
+duly recognized in the following letter from the Earl of Derby, then
+Prime Minister, addressed to Sir Stafford Northcote, who was to preside
+at a dinner given in Liverpool, to celebrate the great achievement:
+
+                              "Balmoral,
+                              Saturday, Sept. 29, 1866.
+
+     "Dear Sir Stafford: As I understand you are to have the honor
+     of taking the chair at the entertainment which is to be given
+     on Monday next, in Liverpool, to celebrate the double success
+     which has attended the great undertaking of laying the cable of
+     1866, and recovering that of 1865, by which the two continents
+     of Europe and America are happily connected, I am commanded by
+     the Queen to make known to you, and through you to those over
+     whom you are to preside, the deep interest with which Her
+     Majesty has regarded the progress of this noble work; and to
+     tender Her Majesty's cordial congratulations to all of those
+     whose energy and perseverance, whose skill and science have
+     triumphed over all difficulties, and accomplished a success
+     alike honorable to themselves and to their country, and
+     beneficial to the world at large. Her Majesty, desirous of
+     testifying her sense of the various merits which have been
+     displayed in this great enterprise, has commanded me to submit
+     to her, for special marks of her royal favor, the names of
+     those who, having had assigned to them prominent positions, may
+     be considered as representing the different departments, whose
+     united labors have contributed to the final result; and Her
+     Majesty has accordingly been pleased to direct that the honor
+     of knighthood should be conferred upon Captain Anderson, the
+     able and zealous commander of the Great Eastern; Professor
+     Thomson, whose distinguished science has been brought to bear
+     with eminent success upon the improvement of submarine
+     telegraphy; and on Messrs. Glass and Canning, the manager and
+     engineer respectively of the Telegraph Maintenance Company,
+     whose skill and experience have mainly contributed to the
+     admirable construction and successful laying of the cable. Her
+     Majesty is further pleased to mark her approval of the public
+     spirit and energy of the two companies who have had
+     successively the conduct of the undertaking, by offering the
+     dignity of a baronetcy of the United Kingdom to Mr. Lampson,
+     the Deputy Chairman of the original company, to whose resolute
+     support of the project in spite of all discouragements it was
+     in a great measure owing that it was not at one time abandoned
+     in despair; and to Mr. Gooch, M.P., the Chairman of the company
+     which has finally completed the design. If among the names thus
+     submitted to and approved by Her Majesty, that of Mr. Cyrus
+     Field does not appear, the omission must not be attributed to
+     any disregard of the eminent services which, from the first, he
+     has rendered to the cause of transatlantic telegraphy, and the
+     zeal and resolution with which he has adhered to the
+     prosecution of his object, but to an apprehension lest it might
+     appear to encroach on the province of his own Government, if
+     Her Majesty were advised to offer a citizen of the United
+     States, for a service rendered alike to both countries, British
+     marks of honor, which, following the example of another highly
+     distinguished citizen, he might feel himself unable to accept."
+
+The reason assigned by Lord Derby for the omission of Mr. Field's name
+in the distribution of honors, was perfectly understood and entirely
+satisfactory. The British Government had once before offered a baronetcy
+to Mr. George Peabody in recognition of his princely benefactions to the
+poor of London, but while he appreciated the honor, he felt that as a
+citizen of the United States, he could not accept it, and the same
+reason would apply in the present case. But while this alone prevented
+official recognition, it could not prevent the hearty expression of
+Englishmen who knew the history of the great enterprise from the
+beginning. At this very dinner, the Chairman gave, as the first toast,
+"The Original Projectors of the Atlantic Cable," which he proposed early
+in order to give Mr. Cyrus Field (who was very near to them, although he
+happened to be in America!) a chance of responding! The allusion is
+explained by the remark of one present who had said:--
+
+     "You will be pleased to hear that Mr. Bright has kindly brought
+     the telegraph wire into the room in which we are sitting, and
+     no sooner will the toast involving the mention of Mr. Field's
+     name be given from the chair, than it will be flashed with
+     lightning speed to Valentia, thence to Newfoundland, and if Mr.
+     Field is at home, it is quite possible that he himself will
+     receive it, ere the echo of your ringing cheers has died away
+     in Liverpool."
+
+A message was at once sent from the room to Newfoundland, and a reply
+received back that Mr. Field had left for New York. In continuing his
+speech, Sir Stafford Northcote said: "I think there can be no doubt in
+the minds of those who have carefully examined the history of these
+transactions, that it is to Mr. Cyrus Field that we owe the practical
+carrying out of the idea which has borne such glorious fruit. I am sure
+there is none to whom we owe more, or whose name stands in prouder
+connection with this great undertaking, than the name of Mr. Cyrus
+Field."
+
+He called upon Sir Charles Bright to reply, who detailed somewhat the
+history of the enterprise from the very beginning in 1856, when "Mr.
+Cyrus Field, to whom the world was more indebted than to any other
+person for the establishment of the line, came to England upon the
+completion of the telegraph between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland."
+
+To the same effect is the testimony of a distinguished writer, W. H.
+Russell, LL.D., who was on board of the Great Eastern in 1865, as the
+correspondent of The Times, and wrote a very graphic History of the
+Expedition (p. 10):
+
+     "It has been said that the greatest boons conferred on mankind,
+     have been due to men of one idea. If the laying of the Atlantic
+     cable be among those benefits, its consummation may certainly
+     be attributed to the man who, having many ideas, devoted
+     himself to work out one idea, with a gentle force and patient
+     vigor which converted opposition and overcame indifference.
+     Mr. Field may be likened either to the core, or the external
+     protection, of the cable itself. At times he has been its
+     active life; again he has been its iron-bound guardian. Let who
+     will claim the merit of having first said the Atlantic cable
+     was possible; to Mr. Field is due the inalienable merit of
+     having made it possible, and of giving to an abortive
+     conception all the attributes of healthy existence."
+
+Sir William Thomson, on the final triumph, wrote:
+
+     "My dear Field, I cannot refrain from putting down in black and
+     white my hearty congratulations on your great success. Few know
+     better than I do how well you deserve it."
+
+Eight months after he wrote from Scotland:
+
+     "I am sorry I had not an opportunity of saying in public how
+     much I value your energy and perseverance in carrying through
+     the great enterprise, and how clearly you stand out in its
+     history as its originator and its mainspring from beginning to
+     end."
+
+Next to Sir William Thomson was Mr. C. F. Varley, who was associated in
+the work from an early day, and did much to solve the difficult problems
+of ocean telegraphy, and who wrote to Mr. Field, speaking from his
+personal knowledge: "You did more than any other to float the concern,
+and single-handed saved the whole scheme from collapse more than once."
+
+Captain Sir James Anderson repeated the same conviction in numberless
+forms. He had seen how the presence of Mr. Field in London instantly
+revived the languid enthusiasm of others, and infused his own energy
+into the enterprise, and declared again and again that but for these
+heroic and incessant efforts the whole scheme would have broken down,
+and been delayed for many years.
+
+Such expressions from English associates in the great work might be
+multiplied to any extent. They are much stronger than any language used
+by the author of this volume, who has purposely kept back such
+testimonies, lest it should seem that he wished to exalt an individual,
+when he sought to do justice to all, on both sides of the Atlantic.
+
+Nor was such recognition confined to England. The King of Italy
+conferred on Mr. Field the cross of the order of St. Mauritius, as an
+acknowledgment from the country of Columbus to one who had done so much
+to unite to the Old World that New World which Columbus discovered.
+
+A still higher honor was paid by the Great Exposition in Paris, in 1867,
+which, gathering the products of the genius and skill and industry of
+all nations, recognized the labors of men of all countries, who, by
+their discoveries or great enterprises, had rendered eminent services to
+the cause of civilization. It awarded the GRAND PRIZE, the highest
+distinction it had to bestow, to Mr. Field by name, jointly with the
+Anglo-American and Atlantic Telegraph Companies, thus recognizing, as
+was most due, the splendid exhibition of the science and the capital of
+England, which were never more directly employed for the benefit of the
+human race, than in the uniting of the two Hemispheres, while it gave
+the first place in the grand design to its American leader.
+
+But to an American no praise is so dear as that which comes from his own
+countrymen. First of all to Mr. Field, was that which came from the
+faithful few who had stood by him and witnessed his exertions for twelve
+long years. At the first annual meeting of the stockholders of the New
+York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, the following
+resolution was, on motion of Mr. Moses Taylor, seconded by Mr. Wilson G.
+Hunt, unanimously adopted:
+
+     Whereas, This Company was the first ever formed for the
+     establishment of an Atlantic Telegraph; an enterprise upon
+     which it started in the beginning of 1854, at the instance of
+     Mr. Cyrus W. Field, and which, through his wise and unwearied
+     energy, acting upon this Company, and others afterwards formed
+     in connection with it, has been successfully accomplished:
+     Therefore the stockholders of this Company, at this their first
+     meeting since the completion of the enterprise, desiring to
+     testify their sense of Mr. Field's services:
+
+     Resolve: First--That to him more than any other man, the world
+     is indebted for this magnificent instrument of good; and but
+     for him it would not, in all probability, be now in existence;
+
+     Second--That the thanks of the stockholders of this Company are
+     hereby given to Mr. Field for these services, which, though so
+     great in themselves, and so valuable to this Company, were
+     rendered without any remuneration; and
+
+     Third--That a copy of this resolution, certified by the
+     Chairman and Secretary of this meeting, be delivered to Mr.
+     Field as a recognition, by those who best know, of his just
+     right to be always regarded as the first projector, and most
+     persistent and efficient promoter, of the Atlantic Telegraph.
+
+                              Peter Cooper, _Chairman_.
+                              Wilson G. Hunt, _Secretary_.
+
+To testify the public appreciation of this great achievement, and of his
+part in it, the Chamber of Commerce of New York invited Mr. Field to a
+public banquet, which was given on the fifteenth of November. It was
+attended by about three hundred gentlemen--not only merchants and
+bankers, but men of all professions--lawyers and judges, clergymen and
+presidents of colleges, members of the Government and foreign ministers,
+and officers of the army and navy. The President of the Chamber of
+Commerce, Mr. A. A. Low, presided, and, at the close of his opening
+speech, said:
+
+     "We may fairly claim that, from first to last, Cyrus W. Field
+     has been more closely identified with the Atlantic Telegraph
+     than any other living man; and his name and his fame, which the
+     Queen of Great Britain has justly left to the care of the
+     American government and people, will be proudly cherished and
+     gratefully honored. We are in daily use of the fruits of his
+     labors; and it is meet that the men of commerce, of literature
+     and of law, of science and art--of all the professions that
+     impart dignity and worth to our nature--should come together
+     and give a hearty, joyous, and generous welcome to this truly
+     chivalrous son of America."
+
+He proposed the health of their guest:
+
+     "Cyrus W. Field, the projector and mainspring of the Atlantic
+     Telegraph: while the British government justly honors those who
+     have taken part with him in this great work of the age, _his_
+     fame belongs to us, and will be cherished and guarded by his
+     countrymen."
+
+In his reply, Mr. Field told the story with the utmost simplicity,
+passing rapidly over the nearly thirteen years, through which the
+enterprise had struggled with such doubtful fortunes, and taking pains
+to do full justice to all who shared in its labors, its disappointments
+and its triumphs. Especially did he award the highest praise to the
+government of England for its liberal and constant support; to her men
+of science and her great capitalists, and to the officers of ships,
+electricians and engineers, who had taken part in this undertaking. In
+closing, he said:
+
+     "Of the results of this enterprise--commercially and
+     politically--it is for others to speak. To one effect only do I
+     refer as the wish of my heart--that, as it brings us into
+     closer relations with England, it may produce a better
+     understanding between the two countries. Let who will speak
+     against England--words of censure must come from other lips
+     than mine. I have received too much kindness from Englishmen to
+     join in this language. I have eaten of their bread and drunk
+     of their cup, and I have received from them, in the darkest
+     hours of this enterprise, words of cheer which I shall never
+     forget; and if any words of mine can tend to peace and good
+     will, they shall not be wanting. I beg my countrymen to
+     remember the ties of kindred. Blood is thicker than water.
+     America with all her greatness has come out of the loins of
+     England; and though there have been sometimes family
+     quarrels--bitter as family quarrels are apt to be--still in our
+     hearts there is a yearning for the old home, the land of our
+     fathers; and he is an enemy of his country and of the human
+     race, who would stir up strife between two nations that are one
+     in race, in language and in religion. I close with this
+     sentiment: ENGLAND AND AMERICA--CLASPING HANDS ACROSS THE SEA,
+     MAY THIS FIRM GRASP BE A PLEDGE OF FRIENDSHIP TO ALL
+     GENERATIONS!" (To which the whole assembly responded by rising,
+     and by prolonged and tumultuous cheers.)
+
+In the brilliant array of guests was recognized the tall form of General
+Meade, who was loudly called for as "the hero of Gettysburg," to which
+he replied that there was but one hero on this occasion, and he had
+travelled a hundred miles to be there that night to do him honor. He
+said: "I have watched with eagerness the struggle through which he has
+passed and the disasters which attended his early efforts; and I have
+admired and applauded, from the bottom of my heart, the tenacity of
+purpose with which that man has continued to hold on to his original
+idea, with a firm faith to carry to completion one of the greatest works
+the world has ever seen."
+
+The heartiness of this soldierly reply was echoed by the bluff old
+warrior, Admiral Farragut, who had been so often through the smoke and
+flame of battle, that he knew how to appreciate not only common courage,
+but the desperate tenacity which holds on in spite of disaster, that has
+gained many a victory.
+
+Letters were read from the President of the United States, from Chief
+Justice Chase, from General Grant, from Sir Frederick Bruce, the British
+Minister, from Senators Morgan and Sumner, from General Dix, Minister to
+France, and others. The Chief Justice of the United States wrote:
+
+     "I am very sorry that I cannot leave Washington this week, and
+     so cannot avail myself of your kind invitation to join you in
+     congratulations to Mr. Field upon the success of his grand
+     undertaking. It is the most wonderful achievement of
+     civilization; and to his sagacity, patience, perseverance,
+     courage, and faith, is civilization indebted for it.
+
+     "Such works entitle their authors to distinguished rank among
+     public benefactors. You will write the name of your honored
+     guest high upon that illustrious roll, and there it will remain
+     in honor, while oceans divide and telegraphs unite mankind."
+
+There was a telegraph instrument in the room, and despatches were
+received during the evening from Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, and
+other members of the Cabinet at Washington, from Lord Monck,
+Governor-General of Canada, from the Governor of Newfoundland, and
+others. One, from Captain Sir James Anderson, was dated at London the
+same day. John Bright also wrote a despatch and sent it to London, but
+by an oversight it was not forwarded. He afterward wrote a letter,
+giving the message. It was as follows:
+
+     "It is fitting you should honor the man to whom the whole world
+     is debtor. He brought capital and science together to do his
+     bidding, and Europe and America are forever united. I cannot
+     sit at your table, but I can join in doing honor to Cyrus W.
+     Field. My hearty thanks to him may mingle with yours."
+
+He adds that he regarded what had been done as the most marvellous thing
+in human history; as more marvellous than the invention of the art of
+printing, or, he was almost ready to say, than the voyages of the
+Genoese; and of Mr. Field, he says, "The world does not yet know what it
+owes to him, and this generation will never know it."
+
+About the same time, in a speech at a great Reform Meeting in Leeds, he
+bore this proud testimony:
+
+     "A friend of mine, Cyrus Field, of New York, is the Columbus of
+     our time, for after no less than forty voyages across the
+     Atlantic, in pursuit of the great aim of his life, he has at
+     length, by his cable, moored the New World close alongside the
+     Old."
+
+Nor was this mere rhetoric, a burst of extravagance, to which an orator
+might give way in the excitement of a public occasion; it was a
+comparison which he repeated on many occasions, though slightly varied
+in expression. Mr. G. W. Smalley, the well-known correspondent of the
+New York Tribune, in writing from London, on the very day that Mr. Field
+was carried to his grave, recalls how he heard it from Mr. Bright's own
+lips. He says:
+
+     "The great orator spoke of the great American in terms which he
+     did not bestow lavishly, and never bestowed carelessly. His
+     respect for Mr. Field's public work was sufficiently shown in
+     the splendid eulogy which he passed upon him. To be called by
+     such a man as Mr. Bright the Columbus of the Nineteenth Century
+     is renown enough for any man. The epithet is imperishable. It
+     is, as Thackeray said of a similar tribute to Fielding in
+     Gibbon, like having your name written on the dome of St.
+     Peter's. The world knows it and the world remembers. I heard
+     Mr. Bright use the phrase, and he adorned and emphasized it in
+     his noblest tones."
+
+America has no official honors to bestow, no knighthoods or baronetcies
+to confer. But one honor it has, the thanks of Congress, which, like the
+thanks of Parliament, is the more highly prized in that it is so rarely
+bestowed, being reserved generally for distinguished officers in the
+army or navy, like Generals Grant, Sherman or Sheridan, or Admiral
+Farragut, who have won great victories. Yet such was the feeling on this
+occasion, that when Senator Morgan, of New York, moved a vote of thanks
+in the name of the country, it met with an immediate response. It was at
+once referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations, which reported
+unanimously in its favor; and when, some weeks after, giving time for
+due deliberation, it was brought up for action, it passed with entire
+unanimity. In the House of Representatives it was preceded by many
+bills, so that there was danger that it might not be reached before the
+end of the session, yet on the very last day Speaker Colfax requested
+unanimous consent of the House to take it up out of its order, which was
+granted, and the resolution was then read three times, and passed
+unanimously. It is as follows:
+
+     "_Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
+     United States of America, in Congress assembled_, That the
+     thanks of Congress be, and they hereby are, presented to Cyrus
+     W. Field of New York, for his foresight, courage, and
+     determination in establishing telegraphic communication by
+     means of the Atlantic cable, traversing mid-ocean and
+     connecting the Old World with the New; and that the President
+     of the United States be requested to cause a gold medal to be
+     struck, with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be
+     presented to Mr. Field.
+
+     "_And be it further resolved_, That when the medal shall have
+     been struck, the President shall cause a copy of this joint
+     resolution to be engrossed on parchment, and shall transmit the
+     same, together with the medal, to Mr. Field, to be presented to
+     him in the name of the people of the United States of America.
+
+     "Approved March 2, 1867.
+
+                              "Andrew Johnson."
+
+This action of Congress reached Mr. Field in England. As he was about
+returning to America, Lord Derby, still at the head of the government,
+addressed to him a letter in which he repeated what he had said before
+"in the Queen's name," "how much of the success of the great undertaking
+of laying the Atlantic Cable was due to the energy and perseverance with
+which, from the very first, in spite of all discouragements, you adhered
+to and supported the project;" and adding, "Your signal services in
+carrying out this great undertaking have been already fully recognized
+by Congress; and it would have been very satisfactory to the Queen to
+have included your name among those on whom, in commemoration of this
+great event, her Majesty was pleased to bestow British honors, if it had
+not been felt that, as a citizen of the United States, it would hardly
+have been competent to you to accept them. As long, however, as the
+telegraphic communication between the two Continents lasts, your name
+cannot fail to be honorably associated with it."
+
+This surely was all that could be expected from the government, but some
+there were in England who felt that there was still a debt of honor to
+be paid, which required some public testimonial. Accordingly, on Mr.
+Field's return to London, in 1868, they prepared for him an imposing
+demonstration in the form of a banquet, given at Willis's Rooms, on the
+first of July, at which was assembled one of the most distinguished
+companies that ever met to do honor to a private citizen of any country.
+It embraced over four hundred gentlemen of all ranks: ministers of
+state, members of parliament, both Lords and Commons; officers of the
+army and navy; great capitalists--merchants and bankers; men of science
+and of letters; inventors, electricians, and engineers--men eminent in
+every walk of life. The Duke of Argyll presided, and speeches were made
+by three members of the government--Sir John Pakington, Secretary of
+State for War; Sir Stafford Northcote, Secretary of State for India; and
+Sir Alexander Milne, First Sea Lord of the Admiralty; by John Bright; by
+the venerable Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, so long the British Minister
+at Constantinople; and by M. de Lesseps, the projector of the Suez
+Canal, who had come from Egypt expressly to be present. It was a tribute
+such as is rarely paid to any man while living--such tributes being
+reserved for the dead--and is still more honorable in this case, alike
+to the givers and the receiver, in that it was paid by the people of one
+country to a citizen of another, who was regarded in both as their
+common benefactor.
+
+But enough of praise that can fall only on the dull, cold ear of death.
+A few words on the after years of this busy life, and I have done. These
+years brought a rich reward for all the sacrifices of the past. The
+first feeling was one of infinite relief that at last the victory was
+won. The terrible strain was taken off, and to him who had borne it so
+long, the change to the quiet of his own happy home was inexpressibly
+grateful after his many and long separations. He was now in his own
+country and under his own roof, but with a name that was known on both
+sides of the sea. The complete success of the Atlantic Telegraph had
+given him an immense reputation at home and abroad. It seemed as if the
+struggles of life were all over, leaving only its honors to be enjoyed.
+What more could he ask to make life worth living than the respect of his
+countrymen for his courage, energy and perseverance, and a name honored
+all over the civilized world as one of the world's benefactors?
+
+The practical results of the cable were even greater than he had dared
+to anticipate. In the space of a few months it wrought a commercial
+revolution in America. It was a new sensation to have the Old World
+brought so near, that it entered into one's daily life. Every morning,
+as Mr. Field went to his office, he found laid on his desk at nine
+o'clock the quotations on the Royal Exchange at twelve! Lombard Street
+and Wall Street talked with each other as two neighbors across the way.
+This soon made an end of the tribe of speculators who calculated on the
+fact that nobody knew at a particular moment the state of the market on
+the other side of the sea, an universal ignorance by which they
+profited by getting the earliest advices. But now everybody got them as
+soon as they, for the news came with the rising of each day's sun, and
+the occupation of a class that did much to demoralize trade on both
+sides of the ocean was gone.
+
+The same restoration of order was seen in the business of importations,
+which had been hitherto almost a matter of guess-work. A merchant who
+wished to buy silks in Lyons, sent out his orders months in advance, and
+of course somewhat at random, not knowing how the market might turn, so
+that when the costly fabrics arrived, he might find that he had ordered
+too many or too few. A China merchant sent his ship round the world for
+a cargo of tea, which returned after a year's absence, bringing not
+enough to supply the public demand, leaving him in vexation at the
+thought of what he might have made, "if he had known," or, what was
+still worse, bringing twice too much, in which case the unsold half
+remained on his hands. This was a risk against which he had to be
+insured, as much as against fire or shipwreck. And the only insurance he
+could have was to take reprisals by an increased charge on his
+unfortunate customers.
+
+This double risk was now greatly reduced, if not entirely removed. The
+merchant need no longer send out orders a year beforehand, nor order a
+whole ship-load of tea when he needed only a hundred chests, since he
+could telegraph to his agent for what he wanted and no more. With this
+opportunity for getting the latest intelligence, the element of
+uncertainty was eliminated, and the importer no longer did business at a
+venture. Buying from time to time, so as to take advantage of low
+markets, he was able to buy cheaper, and of course to sell cheaper. It
+would be a curious study to trace the effect of the cable upon the
+prices of all foreign goods. A New York merchant, who has been himself
+an importer for forty years, tells me that the saving to the American
+people cannot be less than many millions every year.
+
+But the slender cord beneath the sea had finer uses than to be a
+reporter of markets, giving quotations of prices to counting rooms and
+banking houses; it was a link between hearts and homes on opposite sides
+of the ocean, bearing messages of life and death, of joy and sorrow, of
+hopes and fears. One of its happiest uses was the relief of anxiety. A
+ship sailed for England with hundreds of passengers, but did not arrive
+at her destination on the appointed day. Instantly a thousand hearts
+were tortured with fear, lest their loved ones had gone to the bottom of
+the sea, when the cable reported that the delay was due simply to an
+accident to her machinery, that would keep her back for a day or two,
+but that the good ship was safe with all on board. What arithmetic can
+compute the value of a single message that relieves so much anguish?
+Thus the submarine telegraph stretched out its long arms under the sea,
+to lay a friendly hand on two peoples, and give assurance to both.
+
+Such a triumph of commercial enterprise was enough to satisfy the pride
+and ambition of any man; but it was not in Mr. Field's nature to rest
+content with any success, however great, and he was always reaching out
+for some new undertaking to give scope to his restless activity. Such an
+opportunity he found in giving rapid transit to New York, a city which,
+though it has one of the finest harbors in the world, with approaches
+from the sea that afford every possible advantage for commerce, is not
+so favorably situated landward, as it is built on a long and narrow
+island, between two broad rivers, which confine it on either side, so
+that it is stretched out to such distances that it is no easy matter to
+pass from one end to the other. From the Battery to the Harlem river is
+ten miles, so that working men, who lived so far away, were an hour or
+more in getting from their homes to their place of work, and as long in
+getting back again, a large inroad upon their hours of rest or domestic
+comfort. The only means of transportation was by street cars, which
+moved slowly, and in winter, whenever the streets were blocked with
+snow, were crowded to suffocation, and dragged at a snail's pace to the
+upper end of the island.
+
+This was the great barrier to the city's growth, and must be removed if
+it was not to be stunted and dwarfed by these limitations. To furnish
+some relief, an elevated railroad, built on stilts, had been attempted
+on a small scale, but soon broke down, when Mr. Field bought the control
+of the whole concern, and took it in his own strong arms. It was no easy
+matter to galvanize it into life, for though it had a charter, it was
+still obstructed in the legislature, and in the courts, so that it was a
+long time before he could get full possession. But once master of the
+situation, he undertook the work on a grand scale, and pushed it with
+such vigor that in less than two years the road was in operation. It has
+since been extended with the public demand, until now (in 1892) there
+are thirty-six miles of road, over which the trains sweep incessantly
+from the bay to the river, and from the river to the bay.
+
+The structures are not indeed the most graceful in the world, as they
+bestride the long avenues of the city. But these tall iron pillars, that
+line our streets for miles, are the long legs of civilization, and have
+a somewhat imposing effect as they stretch away into the distance, with
+the fire-drawn cars flying swiftly over them. Dean Stanley glorified
+them by a historical parallel which could occur only to one full of the
+wonders of ancient times, that started into life under the touch of his
+imagination. Going with him one day on an excursion, he stepped briskly
+(for his frame was so light as to offer little impediment to motion),
+and as he mounted the long stairway, and stood on the platform above the
+crowded street below, he exclaimed, "This is Babylonian! Four chariots
+driving abreast on the walls of the city!"
+
+But Babylonian or American, the success was enormous. As soon as the
+public became familiar with these elevated roads, and felt that they
+were safe as well as swift, the people swarmed upon them, in numbers
+constantly increasing, till now they carry over seven hundred thousand
+passengers a day! On the day of the Columbus celebration (October 12th)
+it was a million and seventy-five thousand! Indeed, if we are not
+staggered by numbers, we may sum up the whole in the amazing statement
+demonstrated by figures, that since these roads were opened, they have
+carried over eighteen hundred millions of passengers, more than the
+whole population of the globe!
+
+Nor should it be forgotten that, not only is the facility they afford
+the greatest, but the fares the lowest, for, thanks to Mr. Field, they
+were reduced years ago to five cents at all hours and for the longest
+distance, the ten miles from the Battery to the Harlem river.
+
+The effect was immediate in the appreciation of real estate in the city,
+the assessed value of which has already advanced by the sum of five
+hundred millions of dollars! The increased taxation is enough to pay for
+all the cost, while as a relief to the congested parts of the city, and
+as furnishing a means for that easy circulation, which is as necessary
+to a great city as a free circulation of the blood is to the human body,
+it is not too much to say that the construction of the elevated
+railroads is the greatest material benefit that has ever been conferred
+on the city of New York.
+
+But busy as Mr. Field was through all these years, much of his life was
+spent abroad. He had interests on both sides of the Atlantic, but
+stronger than his interests were his friendships to attract him across
+the sea. He had come to feel as much at home in England as in his own
+country: and his visits were so frequent that his sudden appearances and
+disappearances were a subject of amused comment to his English friends.
+When Dean Stanley was in America, a reception was given to him at the
+Century Club, where in a very happy address, he referred to the ties
+between the two countries, among which was "the wonderful cable, on
+which it is popularly believed in England, that my friend and host, Mr.
+Cyrus Field, passes his mysterious existence, appearing and reappearing
+at one and the same moment in London and in New York!"
+
+As Mr. Field was thus brought near to his English friends, they in turn
+were brought near to him, for as no man in America was better known
+abroad, no house received more foreign guests, many of whom he had not
+met before, but who brought letters to him, and there was no end to his
+hospitality. John Bright he could not persuade to cross the sea; but he
+had the pleasure to welcome his co-laborer in the repeal of the
+Corn-laws, Richard Cobden. The house in Gramercy Park became famous for
+its receptions. Many will recall that given to the Marquis of Ripon and
+the other High Commissioners, who came a year or two after the war, as
+representatives of the British government, and negotiated at Washington
+the treaty which settled the Alabama claims; and those to Dean Stanley
+and Archdeacon Farrar; and to many others. If the strangers happened to
+arrive in the summer time, they were entertained at his beautiful
+country seat on the Hudson, to which he had given the name of "Ardsley,"
+from the seat of John Field the astronomer, who lived in the West Riding
+of Yorkshire more than three centuries ago, and introduced the
+Copernican astronomy into England, and from whom the family are
+descended.
+
+In some cases when he went abroad, England was but the starting point
+for excursions on the Continent, in which he visited almost every
+European country. In 1874, in company with two well-known Americans,
+Bayard Taylor and Murat Halstead, he made a voyage to Iceland, as ten
+years before he had been to Egypt, as a delegate from the New York
+Chamber of Commerce, to witness the opening of the Suez Canal.
+
+In 1880-81 he took a still longer flight around the world. Waiting till
+after the Presidential election, that he might cast his vote for his
+friend General Garfield, the very next day he left with his wife in a
+special car for San Francisco, where after a few days, they took ship
+for Japan, from which they passed through the Inland Sea to Shanghai,
+and from China to Singapore, and up the Bay of Bengal to Calcutta, where
+he found the same English nobleman whom he had entertained in New York,
+the Marquis of Ripon, Governor-General of India. Going up the country,
+the travellers visited Agra and Delhi, where the wonders of architecture
+showed the magnificence of the old Mogul Empire. The whole journey was
+one of infinite pleasure and instruction, and they were never weary of
+talking of the strange manners and customs of the people of Asia.
+
+When they returned to America, General Garfield was President of the
+United States, who, though a Western man by birth, had been educated in
+New England, at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he had been
+graduated twenty-five years before, and which he had a desire to
+revisit; and it was arranged that he should leave Washington in the
+morning of July 2d, with as many of his cabinet as could be spared from
+the seat of government, and come on to New York and all be entertained
+at "Ardsley," and the next day proceed up the Hudson and across the
+country to Williamstown; a programme which was interrupted by the
+terrible news that on arriving at the station in Washington he had been
+shot, an event that instantly recalled the assassination of Lincoln. At
+once there rose a cry of horror from one end of the land to the other,
+and for weeks the whole country was watching by the bedside of the
+illustrious sufferer.
+
+Of course, the sympathy for the wife and children was universal, but Mr.
+Field was the first to give this sympathy a practical direction. With
+his quick eye he saw the condition in which they would be left by the
+death of the President, as for them the law makes no provision. His
+salary stops at the very day and hour that he ceases to live, nor is
+there a pension settled upon his family, nor can anything be paid from
+the national treasury except by special act of Congress. In this
+extremity it occurred to Mr. Field that what the Government failed to do
+should be made up by private generosity; and even before General
+Garfield's death he started a subscription, heading it with five
+thousand dollars, and taking it in person to his rich friends. The self
+imposed task occupied him several months, in which he raised a fund of
+over three hundred and sixty thousand dollars, which was put into United
+States four per cent. bonds, yielding an interest of over twelve
+thousand dollars a year, to be paid quarterly during the life of Mrs.
+Garfield, and then to go to her children. It was a great satisfaction to
+have thus provided for those who bore the name of a President of the
+United States, so that they should be able to live in the comfort and
+dignity that befitted the family of one who had occupied the most
+exalted station in the government.
+
+Not content with this, Mr. Field went to Washington, and urged upon his
+friends in Congress, and finally succeeded in getting passed, a bill
+giving to the widows of all Presidents a pension of $5,000, which, it
+added to his gratification to know, would apply to the venerable Mrs.
+Polk: and that still goes, and will go during her lifetime, to the wife
+of General Grant, as the slight expression of a nation's gratitude.
+
+Next to the interest he felt in his own country, his heart was in
+England. While he was an intense American, and perhaps, for that very
+reason, because he was an American, he claimed kindred with the people
+from whom we are not only descended, but have received such an
+inheritance of glory. In his own words: "America, with all her
+greatness, has come out of the loins of England." When he was in India
+he was proud of the mighty English race that from its little island
+governed an empire of two hundred and fifty millions on the other side
+of the globe. Some might have said that he inherited no small portion of
+its unconquerable spirit.
+
+And not only did he admire Old England, but he loved Englishmen. He knew
+all that was said of English reserve and English pride, but long
+familiarity had taught him that underneath this cold exterior were many
+of the noblest qualities--courage, heroism and fidelity--so that it had
+become a part of his creed that an Englishman, when once you have won
+his confidence, will go farther and fight harder for a friend or for a
+cause than any other man on the face of the earth. Among such a people
+Mr. Field was proud to number many of his dearest friends.
+
+A touching proof of their regard for him was given but a few months
+before his death. On the 2d of December, 1890, he and his wife
+celebrated their golden wedding. For fifty years they had travelled on
+the course of life together. Children and grandchildren had been born to
+them, so that at the close of half a century a large and happy family
+was gathered round those to whom they looked up with the tenderest
+affection.
+
+Among the congratulations of that day was a large scroll, signed by Mr.
+Gladstone, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Monck, and some eighty others whose
+names are widely known. It was a graceful tribute from England to a son
+of America, who had done perhaps more than any other living man to bring
+the two countries and the two peoples together.
+
+That golden wedding was the fit coronation of a life of wonderful
+activity, and all the kindred who met under that roof were grateful for
+the past, and full of hopes for the future.
+
+But God's ways are not as our ways. Before many months the clouds began
+to gather. The next summer, when the family were all at their country
+home, sickness cast its shadow over their dwelling, which grew more
+grave till November 23d, when the leaves were falling from the trees
+before their door, the mother of this large household breathed her last.
+Two months later the eldest daughter, who was also the eldest child of
+the family, followed. These repeated blows fell heavy on the
+affectionate heart of the bereaved husband and father, and when to these
+were added other sorrows still, it seemed as if the clouds were piled
+one upon another till they darkened all the horizon. The winter was a
+gloomy one, from its loneliness and its many causes of sadness. But with
+the returning spring the grass grew green again, and the trees put forth
+their leaves, and it seemed as if the new life of nature must put life
+into the heart of man: and when he removed to the country, and began to
+drive about as of old among the familiar haunts, the beautiful scenery
+for a time delighted his eye, and the change of air brought a touch of
+the old spirit, as if perchance his strength were about to return. But
+it was only a momentary flush, and he soon took to his room, where, as
+he looked from his windows, and saw the sun going down over the hills
+beyond the Hudson, it could only remind him that for him the sun of life
+was about to set forever. Fair was the world without but desolate was
+the home within, since she who had made its brightness was gone; and
+here on the 12th of July 1892, the end came.
+
+It was a beautiful morning, and the windows were open, through which
+the soft summer air floated into the chamber of death, where his three
+brothers, all that were left of his father's family, with those of his
+own household, were round his bed, watching the dear pale face. Thus
+surrounded and beloved to the last, he ceased to breathe.
+
+Two days later a large company from the country round and from the city
+gathered at Ardsley, and stood on the lawn and the slopes that lead up
+to the noble trees that shade the dwelling, as Bishop Potter read the
+blessed words, "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord: he
+that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."
+
+The next day we bore him away from his home, and from the great city
+where he had passed his busy life, back to the quiet valley where he was
+born, and laid him down in the shadow of the encircling hills.[A] "Bury
+me there," he had said, "by the side of my beloved wife and by my father
+and mother." The earth closed over him, and all his struggles and his
+sorrows were buried in the grave.
+
+The man is gone, but the work remains, a work that multiplies itself,
+for when once a leader and explorer had opened the way, others were
+swift to follow, so that now there are no less than ten cables stretched
+across the Atlantic, and every hour of day or night, "when men wake and
+when they sleep" (for even in the hours of silence the heart is still
+beating, only a little more slowly), the pulse of life is kept moving to
+and fro. The morning news comes after a night's repose, and we are
+wakened gently to the new day that has dawned upon the world. That which
+serves to such an end; which is a connecting link between countries and
+races of men; is not a mere material thing, an iron chain, lying cold
+and dead in the icy depths of the Atlantic. It is a living, fleshly bond
+between severed portions of the human family, thrilling with life, along
+which every human impulse runs swift as the current in human veins, and
+will run for ever. Free intercourse between nations, as between
+individuals, leads to mutual kindly offices, that make those who at once
+give and receive, feel that they are not only neighbors but friends.
+Hence the "mission" of submarine telegraphy is to be the minister of
+peace. The first message across the deep was "Glory to God in the
+highest; peace on earth, good will to men," and the first news it
+brought was that of peace in China. And when again the sea had found a
+tongue, its first glad intelligence was that the great war between
+Austria and Prussia was ended. Thus at its very birth was this new
+messenger baptized in the name of Peace, and consecrated to a service
+worthy of its name.
+
+     "Man marks the earth with ruin: his control
+     Stops with the shore: upon the watery plain
+     The wrecks are all thy deed."
+
+Not all! The wrath of man adds to the fury of the elements. To strew
+the sea with wrecks is the work of lightning and tempest: man's nobler
+office is to restore what nature may destroy.
+
+It was the chief desire of him who has gone to the grave, that the link
+which unites England and America might bind the countries that he loved
+the most in indissoluble union. Though the two nations dwell apart, on
+opposite shores of the same great and wide sea, they are now brought
+almost within the sound of each other's voice and the touch of each
+other's hand: they can look into each other's eyes, and exchange their
+morning and evening congratulations with the rising and setting of each
+day's sun. May the instrument through which they look and speak never
+startle them with rude alarms, but continue to whisper peace in tones as
+gentle as the murmur of the sea, as long as the winds blow and the
+waters roll.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] The Berkshire Hills, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+INSTRUMENTS FOR SIGNALLING ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.
+
+
+If the project of an Atlantic Telegraph be justly ascribed to the daring
+of an American, and its success to his courage and perseverance through
+years of struggle and disappointment; the solution of the scientific
+problem involved in it, is due to the genius of a Scotchman, whom the
+writer of this volume first knew (and it is a pleasant memory to have
+known such a man in the beginning of his splendid career) as Professor
+Thomson of the University of Glasgow, where his father had been
+professor before him, whom the son succeeded in the Department of
+Physics, which included the then little known science of Electricity, to
+which the young professor devoted himself with all the eagerness of
+scientific genius. The project of a telegraph across the ocean suggested
+new problems and new difficulties, to which he applied himself with
+characteristic ardor, the result of which is here given. When the second
+expedition of the Great Eastern (in 1866) was successful, the British
+Government at once recognized his eminent services; and the name of Sir
+William Thomson has since been recognized, among the leaders in
+scientific discovery, not only in England but all over the scientific
+world. The government has recently added a further dignity in making him
+a peer of the realm, an honor hitherto reserved generally for the
+leaders of armies, like Wellington. To confer it on a simple professor
+shows an advance of civilization in the respect paid to intellectual
+greatness. In conferring such a title, the government does not honor the
+man more than it honors itself. It is to the glory of England that such
+an honor should be paid to science in the person of Lord Kelvin, as was
+paid to literature in the person of Lord Tennyson.
+
+The following, taken in substance from an English scientific review,
+will indicate briefly, but with sufficient clearness, the problem to be
+solved in signalling to great distances under the sea, and the
+instruments by which this is accomplished:--
+
+The speed of signalling through a submarine cable depends upon its
+electrostatic capacity, which, unless it be very small, gives rise to
+"retardation."
+
+In the Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1855, Sir William Thomson
+showed how the effect at the distant end of a cable, caused by the
+application of a battery at one end, could be calculated and represented
+graphically in what is called the "curve of arrival." After contact is
+first made at the sending end between the cable and one pole of the
+battery (the other pole being to earth), a certain interval of time
+elapses before any effect is felt at the distant end. This interval of
+time is denoted by the letter _a_. After the interval of time _a_ has
+passed, a current begins to issue from the cable at the receiving end,
+and increases in strength very rapidly. After a further interval of 4_a_
+or after a period of 5_a_ from the first application of the battery, it
+attains about half its maximum strength, and there is very little
+sensible increase in strength after a time equal to 10_a_ has elapsed.
+The curve of arrival is drawn by taking distances along O X to represent
+intervals of time, and distances along O Y to represent strengths of
+current. Curve No. I. shows the gradual increase in strength of the
+received current at one end of a cable when the battery is applied to
+and kept in contact with the other end. For a distance corresponding to
+the interval of time _a_, the curve does not sensibly deviate from the
+straight line O X; in other words, no effect is observable at the
+receiving end during this time.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+If now, instead of being continuously applied to the battery at the
+sending end, the cable had been applied to it during a short interval of
+time, and then disconnected from the battery and connected to earth, the
+curve of arrival would be of the form shown by curve No. II. Curve No.
+II. shows the effect of applying the battery during a length of time
+equal to 4_a_, and then putting the cable to earth. It will be seen that
+a current gradually diminishing in strength continues to flow out of the
+cable at the distant end for a considerable time after the battery has
+been disconnected. This continued discharge is what gives rise to the
+difficulty experienced in reading the signals sent through long cables.
+
+The instrument first used for receiving signals through a long submarine
+cable (the short-lived 1858 Atlantic cable) was the Mirror Galvanometer,
+which consisted of a small mirror with four light magnets attached to
+its back (weighing, in all, less than half-a-grain), suspended by means
+of a single silk fibre, in a proper position within the hollow of a
+bobbin of fine wire: a suitable controlling magnet being placed adjacent
+to the apparatus. The action of this instrument is as follows. On the
+passage of a current of electricity through the fine wire coil, the
+suspended magnets with the mirror attached, tend to take up a position
+at right angles to the plane of the coil, and are deflected to one side
+or the other according as the current is in one direction or the other.
+
+Of various other forms of _receiving_ instruments devised by Sir William
+Thomson, the next to be noticed is the Spark Recorder, both on account
+of the principles involved in its construction, and because it in some
+respects foreshadowed the more perfect instrument, the Siphon Recorder,
+which he introduced some years later. The action of the Spark Recorder
+was as follows. An indicator, suitably supported, was caused to take a
+to-and-fro motion, by means of the electro-magnetic action due to the
+electric currents constituting the signals. This indicator was connected
+to a Ruhmkorff coil or other equivalent apparatus, designed to cause a
+continual succession of sparks to pass between the indicator, and a
+metal plate situated beneath it and having a plane surface parallel to
+its line of motion. Over the surface of this plate and between it and
+the indicator, there was passed, at a regularly uniform speed in a
+direction perpendicular to the line of motion of the indicator, a
+material capable of being acted on physically by the sparks, either
+through their chemical action, their heat, or their perforating force.
+The record of the signals given by this instrument was an undulating
+line of fine perforations or spots, and the character and succession of
+the undulations were used to interpret the signals desired to be sent.
+
+The latest form of _receiving_ instrument for long submarine cables, is
+that of the Siphon Recorder, for which Sir William Thomson obtained his
+first patent in 1867. Within the three succeeding years he effected
+great improvements on it, and the instrument has, since that date, been
+exclusively employed in working most of the more important submarine
+cables of the world--indeed all except those on which the
+Mirror-Galvanometer method is still in use.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
+
+In the Siphon Recorder (a view of which is shown in Fig. 1), the
+indicator consists of a light rectangular signal-coil of fine wire,
+suspended between the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, so as to be
+free to move about its longer axis which is vertical, and so joined up
+that the electric currents constituting the signals through the cable,
+pass through it. A fine glass siphon-tube is suitably suspended, so as
+to have only one degree of freedom to move, and is connected to the
+signal-coil so as to move with it. The short leg of the siphon-tube dips
+into an insulated ink-bottle, which permits of the ink contained by it
+being electrified, while the long leg is situated so that its open end
+is at a very small distance from a brass table, placed with its surface
+parallel to the plane in which the mouth of this leg moves, and over
+which a slip of paper may be passed at a uniform rate as in the Spark
+Recorder. The effect of electrifying the ink is to cause it to be
+projected in very minute drops from the open end of the siphon-tube,
+towards the brass table or on the paper-slip passing over it. Thus when
+the signal-coil moves in obedience to the electric signal currents
+passed through it, the motion then communicated to the siphon, is
+recorded on the moving slip of paper by a wavy line of ink marks very
+close together. The interpretation of the signals is according to the
+Morse code; the dot and dash being represented by deflections of the
+line to one side or the other of the centre line of the paper.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
+
+Perfect as this instrument seemed, yet after further years of study and
+experiment, Sir William Thomson was able, at the close of 1883, to
+present to the world the Siphon Recorder, greatly improved, because in a
+very much simpler form. In this form of the instrument, instead of the
+electro-magnets, he used two bundles of long bar-magnets of square
+section and made up of square bars of glass-hard steel. The two bundles
+are supported vertically on a cast-iron socket, and on the upper end of
+each is fitted a soft iron shoe, so shaped as to concentrate the lines
+of force and thus produce a strong magnetic field in the space within
+which the signal-coil is suspended. He made instruments of this kind to
+work both with and without electrification of the ink. Without
+electrification the instrument, as shown in Fig. 2, is exceedingly
+simple and compact, and in this form is capable of doing good work on
+cables of lengths up to 500 or 600 miles. When constructed for
+electrification of the ink, as shown in Fig. 3, it is of course
+available for much longer lengths of cable, but for cables such as the
+Atlantic cables, the original form of the Siphon Recorder is that still
+chiefly used. The strongest magnetic field hitherto obtained by
+permanent magnets (of glass-hard steel) is about 3000 C. G. S. With the
+electro-magnets of the original form of Siphon Recorder as in ordinary
+use a magnetic field of about or over 5000 C. G. S. is easily attained.
+In Fig. 4 is shown a _fac simile_ of part of a message received and
+recorded by a Siphon Recorder, such as is shown in Fig. 1, from one of
+the Eastern Telegraph Co.'s Cables of about 830 miles length.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4.]
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+
+Spelling variants where there was no obviously preferred choice were
+left as is. Since there are numerous quotations in this work, this is
+partly due to spelling choices of different authors. Variants include:
+"dispatched" and "despatched;" "embedded" and "imbedded;" "encrusted"
+and "incrusted;" "hurras" and "hurrahs;" "northeast" and "north-east,"
+and similar hyphenation in directions; "per cent." and "per cent"
+(inconsistent use of period); "recrossing" and "re-crossing;"
+"rockbound" and "rock-bound;" "signaled" and "signalled;" "stateroom"
+and "state-room;" "undercurrent" and "under-current."
+
+Removed extra comma after "heart" on page 26: "the heart of a prince."
+
+Changed "abunance" to "abundance" on page 167: "too great abundance."
+
+Changed "Knigthstown" to "Knightstown" on page 187: "at Knightstown,
+Valentia."
+
+Changed "announcment" to "announcement" on page 189: "this simple
+announcement."
+
+Changed "develope" to "develop" on page 299: "develop the resources."
+
+Changed "grip" to "gripe" on page 363, for consistency with spelling
+throughout: "a fresh gripe."
+
+Changed "Hemipheres" to "Hemispheres" on page 381: "the two
+Hemispheres."
+
+Changed "mitror" to "mirror" on page 410: "with the mirror attached."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC
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