FOOTNOTES:

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 outwhere 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 thatit 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 thegentlemen 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 theGreat 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 amessage 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—thebête noireof 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 hadgone 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 blowto 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 ninea.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 correspondin 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 twoa.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 expeditionwas 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 amile, 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 ofsomething. 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, steadilyincreased. 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 thecable 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 warmbreath, 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 itsown 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.

[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."

"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.

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.

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 moraleffect 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 theline 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 offeredto 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 backto 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 Companyhad no legal rightto 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 saidhe 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." Whocouldbe 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 annualsum 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 weregalvanized, 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 indicatethe 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 testedevery 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 thekeys, 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.

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 fouledin 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 easyto 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 wouldnot 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 shehad 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 mileslong, to be stretched across the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

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