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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un aaul clichA, il eat filmA A partir da i'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en baa, an prenant lu nombre d'images nAcessaira. Lea diagrammes suivanta illuatrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 i.4V-«--s / i k; I i m Of ^\iS ilELO K> j ''^'^^- '"« t(lt»T ftsTEIK UXOCII »,r i- .. ;-u N .\.N ]) s I,. VS. '• " ' ■• !) .V H Av V O R l: 1 t: m TriK STORY OF CVHUS FIELD TlIK PK0.1i:(JT01l OF THi-: ATI. VNTK? TKLKGKAl'jf. •• 111 l."t a Kir>lle roundabout the »o,Kl i„ foriy „„„utcs!- . Sjiakuspfakh, LONDON: T NELSON AND SONS. PATERNOSTEU HOW; eui.vburgh; anij new VOUK. IS77. /-•'' Tk56.. 5fi Tiir r.iri, .. C^Tontcnta. BOOK FIRST. BOOK SECOND. TiiK Work, .. I How it camo to b« Done, il. How It WM At;.mptedl, .. III How the Work Failed a Second Time. IV How the Worlc wa» Done, V Flnl« Coronat Opus, Appendix, 14 U 40 fil 68 100 117 1 dc I ^' THK STORY ()!•' CYIUS W. VIEW. -♦♦- THE LIFK. VKUS W. FIKLD wa.s boni at Stock- bridge, Massachusetts, on the 3()th of Noveinher 18 ID. Stockhridge is one of tlio fairest villa<'es of New England, lying calmly cradled among the green Berkshire Hills ; a region as famous for its picturesque landscapes on the other side of the At- lantic, as among ourselves is the beautiful scenery of the Cund.rian Lakes or the Scottish High- lands. The Berkshire Hills are an extension of the Green Mountain chain, which reaches from Vermont far into Western Massachusel ts, and there forms the boundary-line between that State 6 A PLEASANT VILLAGE. 1 M and the State of New York. The}^ are broken up by many a pleasant sylvan valley, through which wind the bright waters of the Hous°a- tonic, a stream about as large as the Tweed at Abbotsford. In one of its broader intervals lies Stockbridge, encircled by verdurous heights, and combining in its surroundings every variety of natural beauty,- -hill and dale, and meadow and bjrn, mountain declivities hung with for- ests, and tall cliffs which frown over the valley below. Nor is the place without its historical associa- tions. It was once the seat of an Indian tribe, to whom a missionary was sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, while Massa- chusetts wa.s still a British colony; and here, more than a huiidred years ago, the celebrated Calvinist divine, Jonathan Edwards, preached the gospel in the wilderness. Like Professor Morse, whose name is also con- nected with the Atlantic Telegraph, Mr. Field was the son of a country pastor ; a class of men who have done much for the honour of New England, by founding churches and colleges, and establishing schools, and thus making the people of that part of the United States as remc^rkable it A PURITAN FATHER. for intelligence^ as for the religious constancy the^/ have inherited from their Puritan ancestors. His father — the Rev. David D. Field, D.D. — who died a few years ago, in a green old ago, was an admiraljle specimen of the New England pastor. He was a genuine Puritan, of earnest and un- affected piety, and of a devout and blameless life. In accordance with the Puritan custom, which followed the Jewish hours for the Sabbath, he held that the day of rest began on Saturday at sunset, instead of at midnight, and sometimes checked his children in their sports by saying, " My sons, we are on the borders of holy time." But while thus strict and even rigid, in his reli- gious observances, there was in him, neveHheless, a singular gentxeness, which made him an object of universal pffection, just as his saintly character secured him general reverence. In his ripe man- hood he gained a wide reputation as a preacher, havi-ig a masculine intellect, a commanding pres- ence, and the advantage of a clear and powerful voice — a very necessary qualification for a suc- cessful orator. But those who knew him only, or knew him best, in his later years, prefer to think of him as the " beautiful old man." V/hen his head was dignified with its crown of white 8 THE ANGEL OF TIFE HOUSE. hairs, no one could look upon that noblo coun- tenance without a sentiment of tender and affec- tionate veneration. In those days the country parson was not. as ^^j a rule, rich in this world's goods; and Dr. Field did not make the exception. If not quite like Goldsmith's model pastor, " Passing rich on forty pounds a year," his annual stipend never at any time exceeded one hundred and tifty. And yet he contrived to give to no fewer than nine children the liighest educational advantages the country could afford. It is evident that this could never have been effected but for the presence in the parsonage of that " angel of the house," a loving, faithful, and capable wife. Mrs. Field, in her early years, had been the beauty of her native village; throughout her useful life she was known for her sunny temper, and her cheerful, hopeful, vivacious spirit. The husband, grave and sober, as became his profession and was natural to his creed, might sometimes cherish sombre views of the present or the future but they were quickly dis^eUed by the unfailinc^ buoyancy of disposition which made sunshine in his dwelling all the day long. Hers was a spirit A FAilOUS FAMILY, that no troubles could subdue, tliat bore with Nvomaiily heroism all the f)rivations of her lot, that --villingly endured the hardest sacrifices for the sake of her children. And so it came to pass that from the little Stockbridgo pareonage four sons were sent to college, and })repared to enter with credit on a professional career ; while other three sons, and two daughtei*s, received such ad- vantages as could be obtained in the 1 ost schools. The influence of her sanguine and elastic tem- perament may be traced, we think, in the son whose career the following pages are designed to commemorate ; and to his honour, be it said, that the strongest passion of his boyhood was liis love for his mother. And never, of a truth, had the children of any mother greater cause to " rise up and call her blessed." They did not fail to honour her. The family that grew up so happily in that quiet nook of New England have made the=r mark on American history. Of the sons, the one best know^n in England is he whose career we shall trace in the present volume, and whose arduous efforts have linked his country to ours by the magic s.ire. The others, however, arc not unknown on either side of the Atlantic. Of the four college-bred 10 THE FOUR nnOTHRRS. •I sons, the eldest, David Dudley Field, an eminent New York lawyer, has gained a reputation in Great Britain by liis virrcrous advocacy of Law Refonn. He is the author of a sirries of codes, civil, politioa], and criminal, the result of twenty yeai-s' labour, whose benefit will be felt, not by his own country alone, but by every country where the English law })revails and the English tongue is spoken. Another brother is a judge of the Supreme Court of the United Stated A third, now deceased, was a lawyer of large practice in Massachusetts, and for several years tlie President of the Senate of that State. The fourth, and youngest, occupies a distinguisiied position as a journalist in New York, and is the author of several popular books ; among others, of a "History of the Atlantic Telegraph." U) which we shall be largely indebted in the follow- ing pages. In the home and under the happy auspices we have thus briefly described, was born and bred the projector of the Atlantic Telegraph, the pioneer of ocean-telegraphy. His childhood passed, like that of most country boys, with few and simple amusements, duly intermixed with hard study CYRUS FIELD. U and liard work. Tlie New England winters are long and cold, and through the deep snow-drifts young Cyrus had to trudge to school, finding compensation for liis occasional troubles in a slide down-hill or a skate on the ice. In the summer, he rambled in the woods, or breasted the river- current, or managed his little skiff on the nearest " pond." His educational opportunities were such as the village "academy" afforded. From the first, however, unlike his brothers, he showed no very ardent affection for " book-leaminf^" but excelled in all active and athletic pursuits. And he was well fitted to succeed in these, for his frame was lithe and wiry, his physical strength remarkable, his courage undoubted, and his enter- prise indefatigable. Whatever he undertook, he carried through. No obstacles could daunt him ; indeed, they seemed to intensify his steadfastness of purpose. Hp was not allowed, however, to enjoy the pleasures and studies of boyhood for any consider- aole period. At fifteen years old he w^as recalled from school, and transfeiTed from the peaceful village to the busy, noisy, boisterous city. It XTTO a O T-\l<-+/-v^ -TV-. /->w-.£i-.-,i -r.^! T l_i»J. 1 •_ 1 'IT! !)_ TT -.v:.- iv i,-i-_v„i iiiVyiiivyiil/ Vf'iii;ii iiij iUi 1/ xii'a Ciiiiu.JlUUU.i3 home, and parted from the mother he loved so 12 AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LADDEIt. well. He went out alone into tlie world, with neither fortune nor friends to .suj.port him'; but ho lme\n^ refreshed. It is the mysterious inner fire which, like the flame of old that burned on Vesta's altar, must never Im' suffered to wane or die out ; for only so long as it glow ; and warms and kindles may you hoi>e that, in the darkness and the storm of life, your feet will never stumble and your soul never grow afraid. We puri)ose to tell the story of a gr..at work, recently achieved, which was achieved by an en- thusiast ; and which, had it not been stimulated and sustained by a lofty enthusia.sm, could never have been successf.illy wrought. Let us cast one glance back over the stream of Time, and fix it upon the epoch which witnessed the departure of Columbus from the shores of Spain to explore an unknown ocean. It was reserved for that great enthusiast to discover a New World, but we must not forget tliat the ol>ject of his voyage was simply to fTnd a shorter pathway to the East. He sought a western passanre to rich rflfb.nir i^ +v,,. 4. ^i •-■-■ t-ii-^ tiCOoUiCO (471) Till. nisfovKRiEa or roLUMnus. 17 and wondci-H of India. His profound nick, (lid not ..nd could not ivnVur. tho va.stn.'ss of thn nsults of that siicc. .s-sful lahour ; dia.'if, of Africa, lio Imd poiu'tratrd as far riortli as tho wint<»r- Kouiid sliuros of lo-Iaiid. Yot wlicii ho canio to (i-oss th<> wide ocran that roUrd towards tlio sun- set, lie had to " ^riopc. },i.s way hhndly " Th«' hitlc knowl«'d^ro that ho ha^fi-e 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. J, a.^ the nearest telegi-aphic point ? It is an Atlantic port, nin^v r may say, m the track of the ocean stenmpr^ • ...a C .„.„i?' i'^mng It as the American telegraphic station, r>ews couTdbe ICOW IT SHOULD BE DONE. 25. coramuuicated to the whole Aiuericau contineut forty-eight hours at lenat sooner than by any other route. Hut how will this be acconiplishec uat look at the map of New- founil'.aud and C.'ape Bret - ,. ^rom St. John's to Cape \Uy there is no difficulty in establishing a line pas.sin;,' near llolyrovxl along the neck of Land connecting Trinity and IMacentia Bays, and thenc^ in a direction due we.st to the Cape. You have then about forty-one to forty-five miles (if sei to St. Paul's Island, with deep soundings uf one hun- dred fathoms, so that the electric cable will be perfectly 3;ife from icebergs. Thence to Cape North, in Cape Breton, is little more than twelve miles. Thus it is not only prac- ticable 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 pre- sents not the least difficulty. Of course, we in Newfound- land will have nothing to do with the erection, working, and maintenance of the telegraph ; but I suppose our Gov- ernment will give every facility to the company, eithei Englich or American, who v/ill undertake it, as it will be an incidculable 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 Woild and the New. J- t. m. "St. John's, Novembers, 1350." Wc next find the idea ripening in the mind of a Mr. i rederick N. Gisborne, a telegraph operator, to whom it may have been suggested by Bishop Mullock's Icitei. Or it is possible that it occurred almost simultaneously to both men. At all events, to Mr. Gisborne is due the merit of having oeen the first to attempt its realization. ilN 26 THE FIRST FAILURE. In the spring of 1851 he vi»itod Newfound- land, and sub., ;tted to its Legislature tl,c pro- ject of an overland line from St John's to Cape Ray, nearly four hundred mile.s in length with a eonnnunieation between Cape Ray and Cane Breton by ateamer and carrier-pige„ns, and, even- tually, a submarine cable across the Gulf of St Lawrence. The Legislature received the proposal with much favour, granted £500 to Mr. Gisbome to make an exploratory survey of the proposed line to l^ape Ray, and passed an act authorizing iu construction. ° The survey was carried out through wood and wilderness, and a company formed to provide funds for the successful prosecution of the under- taking In 1853, however, when ^bout forty miles had been completed, the company failed involving Gisbome and his assistants in severe distress. The energetic engineer was necessarily much discouraged, but plucking up heart, he re- paired to New York, where he was fortunate enough to obtain an introduction to Mr Cyras W. Field, to whom he told his story; ajid reflectin,. upon It, Mr. Field was led to conceive the grander cxtend.hg tlie proposed eommimieation 1 /^i i-v. . Vi CLEARING THE WAY. 27 across the Atlantic. It was while turning over the ^'lobe iu his libraiy that the idea first fhuhed u[)on liis mind, " Why not caiTy it across the ocean ? " This idea, as his brother honestly says, was not original w ith Mr. Field, though he was to be the instrument in the hands of Providence of carrying it out. It was indeed a new idea 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 it, it took strong hold of his imagination, and led him to entertain the Newfoundland scheme, as preliminary to the other. He cared little about shortening communication with Europe merely by a day or two, by relays of boats and carrier- pigeons ! But it was the hope of further and more magnificent results which inspired him, giving him courage to throw hiniself into an enterprise whose end no man could foresee. Such en enterprise, however, was not to be undertaken without careful preparation. And Mr. Field began to clear the way by consulting the highest scientific authorities both in England and the United States. Two Questions were ever present to his mind : — 118 THE TWO QUESTIONS. I 1. Was i. possible to carvy a cable across tho ocean ? i. And if 30, wouM it Ik. al,l,. to c„uv>^y message.,? Il.e hrst relate,! t; ineeha.iieal .lifKci.lties only — »"cl. as tl.e depth of ocean, the nature ,>f the '>cean-l,e,l, the elleet of a heavy ,.res.snre of water the .nlluenees of win.ls an,l currents. The second re '.rre,! to pure science, and the couditions under «l..eh the electric 'luid acts : would the li.rht- imi- (la«h from shor. to shore across an inter- vening waste of sea ? The answer to the first question wa.s supplied by Lieutenant Maury, the eminent physicist and ^'sographer, who pointed out that between Jrelan,i and Newfoundland the bottom of the «ea formed '<■ plateau, or elevated table-land, which, as he «a.d, seemed to have been j.laced there especially for the purpose of supporting the wires of an elec- tnc telegraph, and protecting them from injury Ita slope, he said, was quite regular-gradually increasing from the shores of Newfoundland to the depth of from 1500 to 2000 fathoms as you approach the Irish coast. It was neither too deep nor too shallow: deep enough to protect the cable Irom danger by ships' anchors, icebergs, and cur- rents ; shaiiov, euuugii to secure that the wires TlIK MAN AN?) TIIK KNTFUPRISE. 29 sliouM be readily 1»:".. From Professor Mors<' an ory answer was <.].taiiHMl. Ho (loclan-d liis faith in tlir nn- • it'rtakinrj an a j (radical )Ie oiir ; thac it nn;,dit, could, an„gi, wl.at tlify liav,, passrd. Mr. Fi.-M's first st.p nwis U, s...un. tho co- ;'I-nit.on (.ru.s„t}ici.nt :..nnl..r „f caj.itnli.sts; nn.l 'n N.w York 1... was rortMn;,to .no„;.h t<, ...list 'ho e Company thus qu.etly formed at once adopted Mr. Field's J(loa, and un^l-vtook to cany it out. A Commission wa.s despatched to Newfoun.lland to lay the scheme b.fore its Government, and ob- tain a charter and pecuniary assistance. Success- ful in these preliminary operations, our capitalists adopted the title of the '' New York, Newfound- and, and London Telegi-aph Company ; " and set to work with so much vigour, that tlie portion o^ the hne which traversed Newfoundland, a portion 400 miles in length, was completed by the sum- nier of IS.') (J Jn o n.,r moiiUus i;ii(3 line rUKf.lMINAHY OI'KII.Vl IONS. 81 was laid across ( ajK' Hp'ton IM) milts. Almost >iiiiultam'ously the ocran cul»l«', aftrr souu' mis- liJlps, WJIH HUCCrssfully (lc'j>()sit4-(l Itcuratll tli«r waters aii'l .u'loss fh»' liro.id rstiiary of tin- (jiilf of St i.aw niu'c, kikUt tlu; jtcrsoiial sujMriiitcrKU'ncc of Mr ( 'aiinin;;, tho t'ligiiii-cr. Thus tlic first part of the work was done. The tL'lt'^'rnj)li had Ix'eii carri(!d hcyond tho Unit«'FKi' sea. Company. Tl..- Ar.flc pmr...!...! to St J.,hn\ an.l tlM.,H... v^'nt <.m Iht way acn.ss M,,. a....,., j,,' tlin.. wrrkM naH.i,.^. (}„• coa.st .,f I.vIhikI ; 'ar..| <-learly 'Innoristrntin^. n>. tlr n-sult ..f hn .stirvcy. tl..> rxistoncf of a ;.rivat plateau un.l.Tiu.ath Mm- ocvan. rxtcn.lin- all th,. way fn.,n tl... N,.w WnH.I t.. tlir ()|.l. To iiiako assurance douMy Hiirc, >f- Fi^Id Holicit..! the Hritish Admiralty "to'inak.. wl.at turtlHT sonn.lin-s ,ai-ht !.,> necssary »,ftw.-en Iivlau.l and Newfoundland, and to verify thuic >"^"1*"- ^y Li(>utc.nant li- rrynian." In r^sponHe to tins appeal, tlie Admiralty sei.t out tho Cijc/ops, "nder r.ieutenant Dayman, a very cai>ab]e officer ^vh', executetit (»r .si;^Oit, island, ino'jnUiiii, iiii'l aII ; anov' till) wavt's ! Tlif .si ij^'Io <'Xc«'|)tiori t<» tliis iniifortn (l() fathoms rook ; :ind in 1 .'> ()' \V'., we liav*' 17.jO fatlioins ooz«>. In li'tlf nioiT than trn niih-.s i^f di.stanc*? a ''liaiiLjo <'f d' i»th takes place, amounting; to fully 7200 feet. U was siippo.sed that this tixnie'ulwi. de- elivitv Would hi tlu; cliiei' point of (lan.*^ f»et in a mile; so that the incline on this sup- M M (47J 3 34 LIFE UNDER WATEU. I posc TTUi^^- ^ /"viTT r^i^ .11 tnown as manufacturers of sea-cables ; and the 36 EXPKRIMENTS IN ELECTRO-TELEGRAPHY ! ! celfhrated engineers whose nani'is are associated witli the scientitic Lmrvels of the age — Brett, Bidder, Robert ^tepiienson, and Brunei. Tlie last named was then Ijuilding the colossal ship afterwards called the Great Eastern; and one day, taking Mr. Field down to see her y Messrs. Glass, Hlliot and Company of Lonc!r>n. Botli ships c'uinpleted the arduous work of stowing away their carixo towards the end of Jidv, and each celehrated the event by general lejoicings on Itoard. The Xlarjara and tlie Aaration being completed, sailed from Liver- pool and Gravesend respectively ^or their ren- dezvous at Queenstown, where they arrived in safety, accompanied by their respective consorts, the Susquehanna and the Leopard. The pres- • nce of the two ships with the cable on board L,fave the electricians a much-desired opportunity of testing its integrity. Accordingly, one end of each cable was carried to the opposite vessel, and so joined as to form a continuous length of 2 5 00 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 galvanr)meter being attached to the other end, the whole cable was tested throughout its length, and found, after two days' experiment, to be perfect. The expedition then bore up to Valentia Bay, the European terminus of the cable. Here it 4 42 AT VALENTIA DAY. II If Wfui resolved tiiat the cable sl.oul.l he submerged in a continuous line from Vnlt'ntia Bay to New- foundland. The Niagara was to lay tlie first half from Ireland to the middle of the Atlantic ; the end would then be joined to the other half on board the Ar/amcmnon, which would cany it on to the Newfoundland coa.st. During the operations the four vessels w..uld keep clos^'e to- gether, and render whatever assistance might be required. The electricians on board wer'e also instnicted to send back messages to Valentia, to report the progress made every day. Meantime, three other shii)s had arrived to join the expedition : the steamer Advice; a small de- spatch-boat, appropriately named Willinr; Mind; and the Cyclops, under the command of Captain Dayman, who, as we have seen, was thorouc^hly conversant with the route the squadron was about to take. On Wednesday, the 5th of August, the end of the cable intended to be permanently fixed at Valentia was safely landed, in the presence of the then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, the Earl of Carlisle, and a brilliant assemblage ; and eai-lv on the foUowing morning the squadron departed on Its eiTand of peaceful enterprise. • -••- «iiciiij^ciiiuiim wuitn iiau been made on ARUANf.EMENT OF Tl": CAULE. 43 lioanl tlio Xi'i'jam and A'jamcmnon for paying (.lit the caLle may hero l)e described. It was arranged so as to come up from the h(. Id of tlie ship sweeping round a o-ntral Mock nv core planted in the midst, to prevent any interference of the unroHing strands with one another, or too sudden turns, which might twist the cahle into kinks. Having readied the oi)en space above the deck, it was to be wound out and in, round four grooved sheaves, geared to- gether by cogs, and planted so firmly on girders as to render it impossible that they should be thrown into confusion. From shea,\res accurately grooved, the cable proceeded three or four feet above the poop-deck, until it passed over a fifth gi'ooved sheave stand- ing out upon rigid arms over the bui>vdrk. From this it would make its plunge into the still depths of the great ocean, and as the vessel moved would be dragged out by its own weight, and by the hold which it would necessarily have acquired upon the bottom of the sea. The paying-out sheaves were large grooved drums, five feet in diameter, and set in a vertical l)lane, one directly before the other, and having a friction drum attached to them in such a way u VAUIOL'S rUKfAITIONS. *l I fat .ts shaft revclv..,! tlnv. tinu-s as fast as thnrs, tho axis of (!,<> .In.in In-ing oncircl..! 1 y two Mwn into the water, to measure their velocit/ A curiously devised wlieel, in the suhniercre.l lo.r was arranged to mcd-e and break an elecbic cir- cuit at every revolution, a gutta-percha covered wn-e running up from the revolving wlieel on t<, the deck of the shij,, so as to carry the cuiTent whenever the circuit was made, and recor.l, on a piece of apparatus proviled for the purpose the progress of the vessel. The brakesman wai in- ^i X -I ■ o i/i li C L ■ ■ ■ ' od to ualcii the tell-tale, which would indi- DKSfKirriVF. DFTAIIJI. 46 ('Ht»! tin- strain un tlir lopc, aiul work his ciank aiio t'lo ^qrat ; or tiglit'-M> liis j^'riju' if evtr 'lu' l»»'ll (■••ascd to report that tlir rU'ctric path from ono • xtn'init} )f the cal»lt! to the other was frt'o and uiiimpaircfl. An cxtcriwd ;,Miard had h«"'ii placed over the scniw-propellers of tljc vesstds, to prevent the; cahh." from foulin;^, in case an.' necessity should arise for tlic vessela to move astern. The A(fiimemnon, as well as the Nlajura, had htrn suitahly li^^gfd ".)r this special service; lj«'r heavy masts and shrouds being replaced hy jury- masts and lighter tackle. In the event of a sudden ana unforeseen storm, airangements had heen made for quickly slipping the cahle. On tlie decks of the two ships two large reels w^ere erected, each wound round with two and a half miles of a very strong auxiliary cable composed of iron wire only, and capable of resisting a strain of ten to twelve tons. Should th j telegra})h caiil(! be endangered it would be divided, and the sea-end attached to one of the strong supernum- erary cords stored u})on the reel ; this being rapidly run out, would lower the cable into far ocean-depths, where its safety would effectually Ml I ! ( 4G Tin: SQI- • Ditoju sy.T SAIL, ! 1h' .sr on til.' rv(«nlnf,r of Aii;,ni.st (1... 7th tlui: tl... sqim.lrnn .saile.l ; aiul, acconli,,- u, aimi.-.'in-nt. tlir Xi„i/am at ..ncr \>v^'.in to^pay «»nt tlu. cal.l,> y.-ry slowly. Ihii hdoiv Hv,- milt-s had Irmi a-oo.npli.shed. tl.o heavy shore-end of tho cahlo got .Mian-h-d with the machinery. tlirouf,di th(3 can'h'.ssnesa of one of the uwn in char-.', an.I parted. The Xl.u/am put hack, and tlie cal.Io was " undrrr.... " the whole distance. At length the end was mised from the water and "spl.ce.l" to the gi-antic coil, and as it dropped safely to its resting-place among tlu; "salt sea ooze," the nohle ship once more went on her way. Saturday, w.; are told, was a day of beautiful wcatlier. The scpiadron made good progress, nt a rate of from four to Hve miles an hour, "and tli. cable wa.s paid out at a speed somewhat exceed- ing that of the ship, to allow for any inequalities •i :r-.ma,-^^ :.u tiic iiijiKnu 01 liiu sea Meantime, Arr ooiW wKf.L. 47 a ("M^tuMt (*;^anl tho .nt. rpriso with favour. All wont merrily as a marria^^o-lioll. Without a kink tho coils came up from tho vt'ssers liold, and, unwinding ca-sily, passed over the stern into th(i sea. Onco or twico, however, a momentary alarm was caused hy tho cahle lii'ing thrown otf the wheels ; an accident due to the insufHcient width and do) , »' of the sheaves, arid to the fact that tliey were tilled with tar, which lianh'ned in tlie ai". This defect was remedied in later expeditions. 8iill it worked Well, and so long as tlie terrihlo brakes withl.eM their iron grasp, miglit work through to the en 1. On the following day, Sunday, the course of aH'airs was not less smooth ; an — "Washinoton City, Aug^ist 16. 1858. " To Her Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain. " The Presitleut cordially reciprocates the congratulations of Ilei :>rajesty the Queen on the success of the great inter- national 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, tlian was fc .-?r 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 friend- vxiv rkli-:lll^-L< uu'viuiio, iilivi iili luatl lixiiclii THK PRESIDKNT's ANSWKR. 67 in .I by Divino Pinvi. loner to .lifriise rrli;,'ir>n, civili/.i- tioii, liherty, jui.l l.iw throu^'hout the world. In thia vi.w, will not all iiiitions of Clui.-.lt!iitl(.iu Hj.ontjiiiconHly unit*' in the declaration that it HJiall he for ever neutral, and that itflconiniiinicafions Hhall ho held ;■ .-,.(1 in i.a.s.siti^r to tlieir plaoeH of destination, even i i the 1st of liostilitieH / {Siijned) "Jamkh Hlciianan." On both sidoH of tlic Atlantic the rejoicings at the snccess of Mr. Fi.dd's great enterprise were widespread and sincere ; and it was universally felt that to his energy and persevemnce it was mainly due. What hours <4' lahour and anxiety he had undergone ! Over how niaiiv difficulties had he triuniplied ! A weaker mind, a less patient spirit, a more sor.lid heart, would liave •piailed before tlie succession of ohstacles whicli circumstances had raised in liis path. But he had toiled, and endured, and conquered, as all '^hall conquer who will consent to toil and sutler. In Mr. Field's case his eflbrts were crowned with material success. This is not always the lot of the enthusiast; and yet, be sure that in some shape or other success vnll be the guerdon of his labour. He will feel himself strengthened by it, purified by it, exalted by it ; and if not in tlie present, yet in the hereafter he will enter into tno fulness of his reward ! ^4:^ ^^J^ CIIAITEU IV. )' I HOW TffK WOUK WAS DONE. jN tlio :2otli of Au^^ust it wns announced that "the cable worked .splendidly," and popular entl»usiiu,ni rose to its )u<,diest pitch. But while bjtii the Old World and the New were celel)ratin^r tlie successful completion of an enterprise wliich enabled theuj to speak to one another in a I'aw minutes, a sud.len gloom fell upon them. In the Times of the 7th of September it wa;s ofHcially notified tliat an interruption of the electrical current liad taken place ; soon afterwards tlie signals became unintelligible, and in a day or two tliey wliolly cciised. Scientific inquiry revealed the fact that the fault lay about 270 miles from Valentia, at the mountain range which divides the deep v>aters of the Atlantic from the shallows of the Irish coast. KAILURK or TIIK CAIILF. 50 Dr. Tluasfll Hunirnaii/.'H tho roHuIU of the in- vrsti^mtions instituted \»y the Company a.s followH : Tlio cau.ses of tl.ci fuilur.' wvn\ tirnt, that tho cable had hovn inariufact -red too hastily; f(;condly, tliat a ^'reat and une. hul may rca.^oual)ly bo relied upon to continue for many years in an ' .0. nt state for the transmission of si: formed a new ConipPMy, which ah.sorh. d th(3 old under- takin;,^ an-'-''"V-^-«-ii' ciiUiUbCiV Co, iOl iili:.! l/ttJ-lCu, THE XEW CABLE. G3 ith acquiring ust so much knowled^^e of the subject of their day's lesson as will enable them to answer tho masters questions. They do not trouble themselves to ^et possession of it thoroughly; to examine it on every side; to penetrate, as it were, to the heart of it ; to trace its connection with t] lessor of to-moiTow and the lesson of yesterday. Ali. ! what is ei Ay gained, is easily lost, i^ or lack of thoroughness, days and yeai-s will be wasted ; and the careles^ student will develop into the half-educated man. Let us now examine the cable, on which so much anxious attention was lestowed, and see if we can in any way realize to ourselves what it ivas—ii^ composition, its characteristics, its ap- pearance. In the first place, we notice that it differed in several particulars from the deep-sea cable of 1858. As central copper wire, the spinal cord or groat nerve along which the mysterious lightning was to speak unseen and unheard, was nearly three times larger. The old wir^, or conductor, consisted of seven fine wire^s, six laid round one central, and wei.^hed ^niy iuy lbs. to each mile of cable is Gt now THE CABLE WAS MADE. The new was composed of the same number of wires as the old, — tlie perfect number, according to the fancy of old writers,* — but it weighed 300 lbs. to the mile, and was made of the finest copper tliJit could be obtained. To S3cure complete insulation, this conductor was first imbedded for solidity in a preparation impervious to water, called Chatterton's Com- pound, and then covered with four layers of gutta- percha, whi2h were laid on alternately with four thin coats of the aforesaid compound. The old wire had no external covering but gutta-percha in three coats ; and its entire insula- tion did not wei'^di more than 261 lbs. to the mile, which, as we have seen, was largely exceeded in tlie new wire. IT Figure to yourself this core, or inner cable of seven wires, with its outer covering of eight layers of gutta-percha and Chatteiton's compound, and even then you have not got at the full measure of the Atlantic Cable. For the core of which we have been speaking was incased with ten solid wires of the best iron, or rather of a soft steel, * A peculiar sanctity was supposed to attend the number seven. There were seven planets, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, seven days of the week ; uuu nu uu. UOW THE CABLE WAS MADK. 65 like that used for Whitworth's cannon. These wires added c^-catly to the weitrht and «trPn^T, . for whereas the old cable had weighed but° 20 cwt. to the mile, the new one weighed 35f cwt Thus we have— (1) the wires ; (2) the coat- ing ; (3) the steel wires. But we have not yot done. Outside the iron or steel wires came a furtlier coating of rope. Ecu^h wire was sur- rounded with fiv^o strands of stout ManiUa yam, soaked in a pr .ervative compound; and the whole was laid spirally round the core, which latter was padded with ordinaiy hemp, also soaked in a preservative compound. The usefulness of this rope covering, I must tell you, was very great. It prevented the wires from being rusted or corroded by coming in con- tact with the salt water ; it greatly added to the solidity of the cable; and it also increased its flexi- biHty, so that while it had all the strength of an iron chain, it was as light and flexible as a com- mon ship's-rope. This union of two qualities, we may observe, W-.S all-important. The great problem had been to combine strength with flexibility. There was nothing to be gained from mere weio-ht It is (471) c a nglit ilijii wire capable of ' III II' : J i I i m CO AN INOKNIOUS CONSTRUCTION. Iteariiifij ji^rc^atcr pressure Uian a Iwavy bar of lead. The new caMc, though nearly twice as heavy aa the oM hi (fir, wei^^^hed, when inimerst . in water, hut a trifle more ; so that, in proporticn to its size, it was realiy lighter. This increased light- ness was a very important matter in laying the cahle, as it causcMl it to sink slowly. The old cahle, thougli 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 su'^den lurch of the ship. Thus, in 1857, it was broken hy 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 water. By this combination of rope and iron, the manufacturers had ingeniously constructed a cable two and a half times stronger than the old , the breaking strain of the latter having been 3 tons, 5 cwt., that of the former being 7 tons, 15 cwt. The reader may not clearly understand this somewhat technical language. Well, if the old cable had been laid in water /ive miles deep — the depth in some parts of the Atlantic — it would have snanned under the enormous nreasure : but the WANTKD, A BIO SHIP. t, 67 now cal.lo coul.l bo sunk in water more than ten miles deep, without any fear of its breaking. Such was the result of tlie great care and tliouglit bestowed upon ita nianufaciure. We I.ave described the way in which tli(. cable w s made. As to its length, it measured no le.ss than 2300 nautical, or nearly 2700 statute, miles. Clearly, neither the Niagara nor the Acjamemnon could accommodate so enormous a bulk. Yet to stow one half in each ship had been found to in- crease the lifticulties and dangers c: the enter- prise. Happily, there was one vessel in the worl-^ —and only one— which could take the whole . a board; we mean the Great Eastern, that Lrue leviathan of the deep, constructed by the genius of Brunei — " Hii^^est of all man's works Tliut swim the ocean stream." The Telegraph Company chartered this colossus of ships, mann.d her with a picked crew, and in- trusted her, at the request of Mr. Field, to the charge of Captain James Anderson, who' had ac- quired a distinguished reputation in the Cunard service. He was just such a man as I could wish every boy who reads these pages to become. He 'vao girici with considerable intelligence, and by h 68 TUK "OREAT F.ASTKRN," li his constant industry liad acc^uired a vast fund of various infonnation. His words were few, but al- ways to tlu; |)ur[)ose; liis manner was modest, his judgment clear. He was fertile of resource, and prompt in action. He was a man of a deeply reli- gious spirit, and hence he was a man whose one ob- ject in life was to do his duty. Whatever the ti-ust committed to him, he devoted all liis thoughts, all his energies, all his time to its fulfilment. "Duty!" was the watchword of his life ; as it is the watch- word of every truiy great and noble character. ^ The work of stowing: awav the cable on board the Great Eastern, where it was coiled up in three immense tanks, — one aft, one amidships, and one forward, — began in January, and was not completed till June. It will give the reader an idea of the enormous size and capacity of the Great Eastern, when we tell him that though i/he cable measured 2700 mile.^ a visitor to the mammoth ship was, at first, unaware of its being on board ! Here is the acc' »unt given by a lively writer who went to see the ship and its novel cargo. Its details .ire so interesting, that wc arc sure our readers will excuse "'.le lenfirth of the %j wis-* \ v4-«^;- THE VISITOR OX BOARD. M It 13 time," he says, after a general survey of the wonders of the huge vessel-" it is time wo should look after what we have mainly come to see —the Telegraph Cable. To our intense astonish- ment, we behold it nowhere, although informed that there are nearly two thousand miles of it already on board. an side, into an immense caveni below. This cavern is one of the three "tanks" in which the two-thousand-mile cable is finding a temporaiy 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 dis- cern the human figures through whos' hands the coil passes to its bod. Suddenly, however, the men begin singing. They intone a low, plaintive song of the sea, somcth'ig like Kingsley's — " Three fishers \vc Tit 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 eflltct, and produce an inde- scribable impressitm. " We move on ; Init the song of the sailors who are taking charge of the Atlantic Telegi'aph Cable A ROMANCE OF CIVILIZATION. 71 is hauuting us like a dieuin. lu vain that our guide conducts us all over tlie big shij,, tlirough miles of galleries, passages, staircases, and pro- menades; through gorgeous saloons, lull of Uiirrors, marbles, painting-, and U])holstery, niade ' regard- less of expense ;' and thn.ugh buildings crowded with glittering steam apparatus of gigantic dimen- sions, where the latent power of ccal and water creates the force whicli i)ropels this monster vessel over the seas. In vain .nir attention is directed to all these sights ; we do not admire them ; our imagination is used up. The echo of the sailors- song iu the womb of the Great Easterii will not be banished from our mind. It raises visions of the future of the mystic iron coil under our feet : how it wiU roU fortli again from it« naiTow 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, the offspring of one race and i)ioneers of civihzation, av411 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 civi- lization, this Great Eastern and this Atlantic Telegraph Cable. Even should our age produce I If] 73 THE (iKKAT SHIP SAILS, ^1 'I nothing cls(>, i , ■ c woiild bn t- .anl Mr. Cyrus Field, Mr. Gooch, M.P., Dr. Iluasell (the correspondent of the T'nnc^), Mr. S. Canning (the engineer), Profr.ssor Thomson, Mr. Varley, and Mr. W. Smith (tin- elec- tricians) ; and she was accompanied l»y two steam- ships of war, the Sphinx and the Terrible. She aecompli.shed the voyage to Valentia in safety. The point if departure for the cable was tixed at Foilhommcrum Bay, five or six miles from Valentia Harbour; and here, on the land, the shore-end was successfully laid. The following evening, Sunday — a day regarded as peculiarly au- spicious by seamen — the Great Easteim, attended by the two men-of-war, set out on her westward progress. The sun was setting, and a broad stream of golden light was thrown across the smooth billows towards the bows of the three vessels, as if " to indicate and illumine tlie path marked out by the hand of Heaven ! " But ha}»py as were the auguries, the course of the expedition was not destined to run smooth. On]y a few hours had na.s.sed wlujn the loud roar li TIIK OALVANOHETER I)ESo n,agnet this deflection being indicated by l.e couj.e of the ray of light. Should the ligh^ travel beyond the index, or out of bounds an ^^peo the current is takir.^aee. and what" tcchmcally called "a fault "...« occurred The injury proved not to 1» a fatal one and -gn.Il.ng could still be continueu, but the electric ■jent id not flow freely, aad it was indispe >We that the leak should be stopped. Eijhty- our mdes of cable had been paid'out. and the ^.p wa. seventy-. hree miles from shore. The u the fault d.d not lie n.ore than ten or twelve ■ f miles from the tern .^f the ship. Wliat ('O back that was distance, or whatev to er 71 A UEALTIU'L rHCKKSS. rti()U. It lian eager feeling of relief and delight, after the i^uspense of the i)recediTig four-and-twenty hours On Monday, the miles of cable which had been uauled up, and were coiled in huge heaps upon tlie deck, were closely examined, to discover the oiigm of the mLschiel. This wa^ soon detected ^1 76 WHO MWi TlIK MISCI."'^F} Near the end a piece of wire was tlirust u.rough the very core, as if driven into it The recur- rence of such a mishap actually suggested sus- picions of treachery. It was observed 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 and the wire, asked for an explanatioa. All replied that it must have been done intentionally, and regretted that there was a traitor among them — the un- known traitor, of course, being one of those who thus expressed their sorrow ! It seemed difficult to believe that any person could be base enough to plot in this stealthy way against the sticcess of a beneficent enterprise, but such a thing had been done before in a cable in the North Sea, when the perpetrator of the crime wao discovered and punished. In the present case there were not wanting motives to prompt the commission of such an act. Tha fall in the stock, w^e are told, on the London Exchange, caused by a loss of the cable, could hardly be less than half a million sterling. "^Tere 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 : the instigator and the perpetrator A PROSPEROUS VOVAaiJ. 77 both remain,.! unknown ; but. of course, a pain- ful feol.ng of suspicion wa, left in the minds of Mr. F.eld an.l his coUeagues. They saw that they must be on their guard ; and it wa. agreed here ore, that the gentlemen on board Luld take turn m keeping watch in the tank l^je 0,-eat Eastern continued her voyage, and fo.- three days, during which they accomplished five hundred n.iles, no further trouble occurred. Mr, Field, as well as his associates, now enjoyed a sense of coming triumph. Eve.ything looked avourable ; Heaven seemed to smik, on the under- taking. The ship, apparently, had been destined h- Providence to accomplish thi., special mission, ihe paymg-out apparatus might have moved the enl.us.asm of ihe most stolid engineer, so smoothly did Its oiled wheels run. x\ever, even in the greatest depths of the Atlantic, did the strain upon the cable exceed fourteen hundredweight And as for the cable itself, everybody was pre- pared to avow that it was perfection. Its insula- .on was improved by .submergence in the ocean. With every lengthening league, better it grew and better The fact may seem almost incredible I'Ut IS most satisfactorily attested, that when in mid-ocean the communication w»., .. ,,.,*,„* .... 78 A NEW MISFORTUNE. the officials at Valentia co.ild tell cv^ry time the great ship rolled. With such omens of success, one might be pardoned for feeling confident. And when on ^londay they sailed over the deep dark Atlantic valley, where lay the remains of three deep-sea telegraphic cables, all rejoiced in the thought that they, at least, would not be fated to add another to their number i But on Wednesday " a change came o'er the spirit of the scene." About twelve hundred miles of cable had been run out, and the ship was within two hundred leagues of her wished-for goal. Five days more, and the long suspense would be at an end. Every heart was hopeful ; the most timorous had put aside their fears. Alas, we are often most confident when we are nearest to some sudden misfortune ! And so it proved on board the Great Eastern. In the morning:, while the indefatigable Mr. Field was mounting guard in the tank, with the same gang of men who had been working there on the occa- sion of the previous accident, a grating sound struck upon his ear, just as if a piece of wire had become entangled in the machinery. Word w^as immediately passed up to the deck to look out for it ; but the caution seems not to have been I THE CABLE SNAPS ! 79 hear.1. an.l the defective caLle passed over the ship's stern. Shortly afterwards the unerring galvanometer revealed the existence of a fault, and that, instead of traversing the whole length of the cable to the shore, a portion of the electric fluid was escaping through the gutta-percha into the sea. The mishap was not only serious, hut it was necessary to remedy it ; and arrangements were made %• hauling in the cable. Unfortunately the "picking-up" machinery was not sufficiently powerful, and the " donkey-engine" which set it in motion soon gave out for want of steam While waiting for this, a fresh breeze sprang up, causing the Great Eastern to drift a little. In driftin-r she tugged at the cable, which chafed against her bows with considerable friction; so that when the hauling-in process recommenced, the injured portion proved unable to bear the strain, and in commg up over th' wheels, snapped right asunder t With one bou..l the cable flew through the stoppers, leaped over the intervening space, and plunged ( p into the sea! The shock of the instant, says Dr. Russell was as sharp as the snapping of the cable itsolx ! ^Vords cannot describe the bitterness of thP rll.. 1 « 80 A TERRIBLE DISAPPOINTMENT. appointment. The cable gone ! gone for ever down in that f(>arful deptli ! It was enough to move one to tears ; and wlien a man came with the piece of the end lashed still to the chain, and showed the tortured strands, the torn wires, the lacerated core, it is no exaggeration to say that a feeling of pity — as if it were some living creature which had been thus mutilated and torn asunder by brutal force — awoke in the heart of every spectator. The ship was then 10G2 miles from Valentia, and GOG miles from Heart's Content (in New- foundland) ; lat. 51° 25' N., long. 39° G' W. What was to be done ? It was useless to stand looking on with folded arms and sad coun- tenances. No danger or difficulty is made less by tliinkimj over it; help or relief is to be found only in action. Action ! yes. Eut in what direction ? After a brief consultation between Mr. Field, Mr. Canning, and others, it was determined on making an attempt to recover the cable. To most persons on board the idea seemed as Quixotic as to attempt to search out the ser-ret of the philosopher's stone or the mystery of perpet- ual motion, but still it was felt to be the right IN SEARCU OF THE CAIJLE. 81 thing to do. What would tliey say in England, if they returned without a single eltort to reimir the mischief that had been done ? It was settled therefore, that the Great EasUni should steam to windward and eastward of the position she occu- pied when the cable went down, lower a grapnel. and slowly drift across the track in whlh the lost treasure was supposed to be lying. So the big ship stood away some thirteen or fourteen miles, and there lay-to in smooth water. Thv. grapnel, two five-armed anchors, with flukes sharply curved, and tapering to an ubli(iue tooth-like end—" the hool- . with which the giant Despair wa^ going to fish from the Greid Eastern for a take worth, with aU its belongings, more than a million sterling"— were brought up to the bou s. One of thcFo, weighing three hundredweight, sliackled and secured to wire rope, of which there were five miles on board, was thrown over, and, whistling as it went, leaped down into the sea. At fii-st, says Dr. RusseU, the iron sunk slowly; but soon the momentum of descent increased, so as to lay great stress on the picking-up machinery, ^vhich was rendered available in lowering the uovel messenger with warrant of search for the fugitive hidden in mysterious caverns beneatL ' i- 82 THE SEARCH BEGUN. " Length flew after length, over way- wheel and • Iriim, till the iron, warming with work, heated so as to convert the water thrown ui)on the machiiuM-y into clouds of steam. The time passed heavily The drums beat no more; their long reveille ended in the muffled roll of death ; that which had been broken could give no tnjuble to break, and man shunned the region where all these mute witnesses were testifying to the vanity of human wishes. All life died out in the vessel, and no noise was heard except the dull gi'ating of the wire-rope over the wheels at the bows. The most apathetic would have thought the rumble of the cable the most grateful music in the world." Away slipped the rope, yard after yard, fathom after fathom; Ocean, like the horse-leech's dauiih- ters, still crying for "more," and "more" still descending into tlie black waste of waters. One thousand fathoms — still more ! One thousand five hundred fathoms — more, still more ! Two thousand fathoms — more, still more ! Two thou- sand five hundred fathoms (15,000 feet) — ay, that will do ; the grapnel has reached the bed of the Atlantic ; the search has begun. And all night long it continued. THE SEARCH SUCCESSFUL. 83 Men had begun to lose heart ; to shake their was heads and mutter, when, towards morning, the long ropo quivered hko an angler's line when a fish ha.s seized his cunningly-baited hook, and the giant bows of the Great Eastern swerved from their direct course, us if compelled by some unseen attrac- tion ! All hands to haul in ! And a^ they hauled, they became aware, from the rapidly increasing strain, that the grapnel had certainly got hold of something. What can it be? How can ^' y teU that it is the lost ca})le ? May it no, be some mast or spar, s-.me enormous skeleton of ocean-monster, some one or other of those count- less waifs and strays with which Fancy loves to picture the bed of Ocean as i^lentifully strewn ? The question is easily answered. Were it any loose object coming up from those silent incom- municable depths, its weight would diminish ^ It rises. But, on the contrary, the dynamometer shows that the strain steadily increases, and this must necessarily be due to some object lyinc prone on the bottom. * At noon nearly half a mile of rope was gathered in, and with every length of cable drawn up from the sea, the spirits of all on board grew lighter : 84 ANOTHER MISADVENTURE. and thoufrh thoy still talked of risks and diffi- culties, there was an inward confidence that, hav- ing caught up the cabh) in so extraordinary a manner, they were fated to haul it in successfully, and accomplish their mission by landing it triu» 'phantly at Heart's Cimtent. And so for hours th(>y toiled 'Hi mcriily. But when tliey had raisfD YET ANOTIIKK ! 85 It wa^ lato in the afternoon when it seized upon the treasure, and the work of hauling in went on all night. The sea. however, was a.s tranquil aa a woodland pool, the moon shone down from a clou.Uess heaven, and all join.^% K^ <* '^"^^<> ^^.^ '^i 88 ALL HANDS TO WORK. I| lilt with far hotter apphance^, liad, it ia tnie, proved unHUCcessfuI ; the roniaining tackle was "a thing of shreds and patches ;" hut these men felt it was their duty to hazard another attempt, and under whatever discouragement duty must be done! It was regarded as satisfactory that the ship was then in 1950 fathoms of water only. A grapnel with a shorter shank was selected for the coming trial. The cablemen were set to work to coil down the new rope and hawsers within a circular inclosuro, formed by uprights on the deck behind the capstan. The rope which had been already used was examined, and repaired. Bolts and shacldes were tested : in a word, nothing was left undone that skill and experience could sug- gest. The line now employed consisted of 1600 fathoms of wire-rope, 220 fathoms of hemp, and 510 fathoms of Manilla hawser — in all, 2330 fathoms; of which, however, only 1760 fathoms could be trusted. The rest was "suspicious." At about 2 P.M., the ship having regained her original position, the grapnel was again let go, and socn reached the bottom. At 3.30 P.M., a considerable strain on the line was apparent, and the Great Eastern, by the A TIME OP SUSPENSE. 89 uneasy shifting of her head, showed signs of fecl- ing a restraint on her motions from below. At iMt, it wa5 evident that the cable had been caught, and the excitement on board the great ship became intense ; men watching eveiy move- ment of the line with aa much anxiety as they could have watched the life and death struggles of their dearest relatives ! What alternations of hope and fear, says one who was an eye-witness of the scene, what doubts, what sanguine dreams, dispeUed by a moment's thought, only to revive again ! What need to say how intense was the general agitation? There was in eyery breast that deep yet repressed emo- tion with which we all await the utterance of some supreme decree, final and irrevocable ! The ways were various in which men strove to dis- guise and subdue their excitement. We are told thao some remained below in the cabins with their eyes fixed upon books of which they did not read a word, or their fingers listlessly employed in extracting fitful snatches of melody from piano or violin. Others went aft to the vast wilderness of deck, where all was lifeless and silent, and whence the iron oasis had departed. Many walked to and fro in the saloon; others paced the deck 1 M 90 WAITING AND WATCHINO, amidships, their measured march hy no means in accordance with th 'ir feverisli restlessness and mental tu-iiult ! None dared to venture forward, for every jar of the machinery, every shackle that passed the drum, every clash oi clank, smote upon their hearts like the death- .shriek. Mr. Field' j emotions it is vain to attempt to describe. He had been, as wc know, the heart and soul of the cntcr[)7-ise : it was owing to liis perseverance that it had been carried out thus far ; and now he waited, in voiceless anxiety, to see whether a further demand would be made upon his patient energy, or whether, after many trials, his efforts would be crowned with a full and consummate .success. So it came to pass that about noon 500 fathoms of wire-rope had been hauled in, and men felt as if they might dare to hope. Once more the words "Heart's Content" and "Newfoundland" passed from lip to lip. And still the work went on, and up from the black depths of the waters came fathom after fathom of line. A few hours more, and The eveninec was dark and chill. • Dr. Russell telLs us that at G.30 he left the saloon, and walked up and down the deck, under the shelter of the paddle-box, glancing forward now and then to the THE BATTLE OVER. 91 bow. to look at the busy crowd of engineers, sailors, and cableinen gathered round the rcpe coming in over the drum, whidi just rose clear of one of the foremasts, and listening to the warning shouts as the shackles came inboard and hurtled through the machinery tiU they floundered on the hurricane-deck. " About twenty minutes had elapsed," says Dr. Russell, when I heard the whistle sound on the bridge, and at the same time mw one of the men running aft anxiously. ' There's a heavy strain on now, sir,' he said. I was going forward when the whistle blew again, and I heard cries of ' Stop it!' or 'Stop her!' in the bows, shouts of 'Look out !' and agitated exclamations. Then there was silence. I knew at once all was over. The machinery stood stiU in the bows, and for a moment every ma^i was fixed, as if turned to stone. There, standing blank and mute, were the hardy constiint toilers, whose toil was ended at la^t. Our last uolt -v-as sped The battle was over ! Nigh two miles more of iron coils and wire and rope were added to the entanglement of the great labyrinth made by the Great Eastern in the bed of the ocean." For nine days the struggle had been heroically (fS ENCOURAOEMENT IN DEFEAT. continuetl, and now there wa.s no more to be done. The attempt, so far as the year I8G0 was concerned, must be given over. Yet the defeated retired from the battle-field with something of the exultation of conc^uerors ; for in all their protracted labours the cabl^ had never broken, and it was more and more evident that Mr. Field's enterprise was no poetic dream, but a reali.y, which under fairer circumstances could not fail to be success- fully developed. [It waa proved by the expedition of 1858 that a submarine telegrai)h ciible could be laid between Ireland and New- foundland, and niessagt's transmitted through the same. By the expedition of 1865 it waa proved that the insula- tion of a cable is greatly improved by submersion in the cold deep water of the Atlantic, and that its conducting power is also con.siderably increased. That the steam-ship Great Eastern, from her magnitude and steadiness, and from the control over her which the joint use of paddles and screw afforded, rendeied it safe to lay down an Atlantic cable in any weather. That in a depth of over two miles four attempts were made to pick up the cable. In three of them the cable waa caught by the grapnel, and in the other the grapnel waa fouled by the chain attached to it. That the paying- out machinery used on board the Great Eastern worked perfectly, and could be confidently relied ou foi' laying cables across the Atlantic. That with the improved telegraphic instruments for long submarine lines, a speed of more than eight words per minute could be obtained through such a cable as the then Sf WHAT HAD DEKN I'HOVKU. Atbntic })eiwvvii Irvhiiul niul Nc^wfoun.ll; 93 th » 1, c h w„u ,1 ,,>v„ ,ua.l„ U,e tuUl cable I.,,! I^twccu Vallua' «... Hcirfs C.nteut „i,„.toon hun.lral milox. i a 8tMm of «, eu to,,,, ,i,a i,ot ei|H.Ti«,ce more than fuurteeu ."...IreJwcg ,t iu being ,.,,i.l „,„ i,„„ i,,,, ,1 .,, ; ^"^^ ,T„ ' ;.^ . ,"■" '"'"■>'■• ••■'■""' *l""' "■""'■"'l I'y a piece bo, L 1 ',""V;'"" "*'f'»'-'' •-' •-" liflo/fronZ Dottom, Jiad ridden out a gale. Tl.at a length of cable exceeding four nautical miles had been recovered from a depth of over two miles, and 1 1 t^ in.nlation of the gutta-percha covered wire ha< prov d to bl umnjured b, the depth of water or the strain-^ to whi h i^ That the cable of 18G5-this is a notewoKhy fact-ow.ng n.tK JT'"'"^'"'' '^'^'^^ ''^ '^' manufacture of thf gi.tta-percha core, wa^ more than o^ie hundred umes better insulated than cables made in 1858, then c.u.dered perfect and still in operation. JJeriect, That it was possible to conduct the electrical testiut? with Mca delicate accuracy as to discover the existence of f fault numeaiately after its production or development, and very qwickly to ascertain its position in the cable. ^ That With a steam-engino attached to the payin'r-out ^7'^U "-,^°-^^^' ^^-"Jcl a fault be discovered la e the cable was ben, laid, to recover it [the cable] before These may seem "dry" details to the young r^-ader, but they are absolutely needful if he would i» m 'J I HOPE NOT ADANDONED. 11 11 I J iiv. andorstand Uio vast progn-ss wliich Mr Field's enterpriso had iimd.; hIiico 1»o liad first conceived its idea. It had pa.ss"d out of the rcjaoii of possibility into tliat of fact. It was no longer the dream of an enthusiast ; it was a reality. It had been proved that tlie electrie. wire could bo laid " fathoms deep," and carried under water for hundreds of mih's, without any inauy to its con- ductive ])roperties. And everybody looked tin- ward with confidence, )iotwithstanding th.o mis- adventures which had occurred, to th;^ day when communication between the Old World pnd the New would be simply a matter of minutes. To what was due this astonishing measure of success ? After paying all honour to the i-wentive skill of such nun as Ci^nning, and Varley, an.l Sir William Thomson, and to the manufacturing skill of Glass and Elliot; after acknowledging the liberal and ready co-operation of such men as Brassey, and Pender, and Gurney, — it must be owned that the final triumph of the Atlantic Tele- graph was won by the energy and enthusiasm of Cyrus Field. Twelve of the best years of his life, the whole of his private fortune, his best mental and physical faculties, had all been generously devoted to the accomplishment of this TIIK WORK, AM) ITS LFSSONS. C^r^ great w,„k. No UuU,,, ,,„,, ,,^,„,^^,,^ _^^^ ^j.||._ cullic, ,li.seo„rn« ,i:,, „„ ,,„, ,,.,^.„ ^ „^. ^_. ^^^ fortune ; en.!, fresl, trial 1,„,I „ ,.:,„.,| t<. e,.,low hi„, witl, new strength. Jt wo„l,l l.e dilliclt to .in,l a ...ore Bt.iking exai„,,lo <,f r,..,l„te ,,e>^evo,ance HU,.porte.l l,y a l,„oya„t e,.,..i,|..„ee an.l „a„.„in ' '-l>o(..l..e«., ; it woul.l l.e .limc.lt to fi„,l a ro Ht,-,k,n,; exmnple of what ,s„ch i,o,-»evora.,ec ,„ay ach,eve. If the r,.a,k.r is ever cast .lown l,y any '-■'l|o.-aO^ t.-oul,l,, or oppress.,! Uy any s;„i,le„ loud ; ,f he feels his hea.t giving way within I'uu, because the fair pion.ise of his youth see„.s never to be realize,!; if he shri„l, . •, cor*nbutedcach£l(),0()(); nam.Iy.-, IlE.VRT Fonn IUrclav. Hknky I?ewi,ev. Thomas Biushky.* A. H. CAMPBKrr, M.p, CfEORGE Elliot <'VKUH \V. KiK/.„. HkHAUI) AT\V(,(,r) r.LAHS. I>V.NIKL (JooCH, M.I». John Pkndkk, M.p. .Jf>H.v Smith. There w,.re f.,„r subscnptior.s „f i:,„„o_ namely Thcna, B„It,>n and So„s. Jan.es Horsfall a Edw,„ WrigLt ; one of £,,00, l,y John W.Ikes and Sons; three of £2noo, l/c. M 98 THY, TRY, IltV AOAIN. ii * il 1 ,,f£l(M)0.1.y K.Uvanl(:rop|MTiiii'lJ«»s K"l'ms..u. TlniM, £'J :{(),.'.(»() wrvr M«i)>.scrilMMl j.i iv;it«ly, l--- f,,n; rv.ii II jTosprctus was issu.Ml. Is It liny wun.l.r tlwit. wl.^'ii tl,.- hooks wnv il.rown (.(.m t., tl.o i.ul.lic. ill.' ivii.Jiin.lor of thr cainUl wiw furnl.Hl»<'t of March th.> n.aimtiict'.Jiv of tl»t^ UeNV cahl.' was 1k';;um, an.l in luur nx-ntl-.s it was rea.ly. Sonu' minor hut, lu.t uirnnportant ini- provcnu'nts Nvr.v intnMluctMl. Tho iron wiivs wrre ijuJraulzM; which piotcctca tlicni tVoni rust, an.l cnahlr.l thmi t<. dispense with tho proscrvativo mixture tormcily cinployc.l. The prorc^s^at tlic same time. icn.hTed them more ductile, much li-hter. an.on. was thoroughly clrans.-.i an.l reirMreil. She was also e'^°--°"* machinery worked so smoothly, the electrica tes s were so perfect, the weather was so fin., that everybody felt sanguine of the ultimate result. Tlie lecol- lection, however, of the reverses of the expedition of 1865 M- >s always present to those who had the greatest reliance on success; and there was a quiet repose about the m.^^ncr of the chief practical men on board, which showed tliey would not a Jow themselves to be carried away by the smoothness of twenty-four hours' events Monday.~^m everything went well. The sea was as smooth as a mill-pond. The paying-out of the cable pro- gressed with uniformity and steadiness, .uid all the electrical tests worked perfectly. The average speed of the Great J^astem mea&vived about five knots per hour. Tucsdy.~.Qxxi journalist records another twenty-four hours of uninterrupted success. All day yesterday, he Ht2 ruoouEss or the expkdition. P 1: wiites, it w;i.s so calm that :he inaHta of tlic convoy were jctlected iu the oceaii, .'is ;f it« surface were jih Riuooth aud jrlassy as that of a setpastered iiiouutiiin-taru. A huge shoal of por[)oise8 .".-.-uused the voyagers with their gambols. A clorioua sunset wrs followed by the rising of the cresceu* moon, unclouded. A striking change, however, was at hand. Smldenly the tranciuil blue of the heavens was overcast ; heavy clouds gathered uj) rapidly from the horizon ; the breeze swelled mto a furious gale. Then occurred the only serious inri.ient of the voyage. While the rain fell iu to.rents, and the ♦^.erce wind whistled through the riggiug, the conduotoi-s of the enter})rise were frightened out of their composure by what proved to be a very sufficient cause of alarm. A foul flake took ])lace iu the after-tan^'. Immediately the engines were turned astern, and the p.iying-out of the cal»le stopped. All were soon on deck, to learn that the running or paying-out part of the coil had caught three turns of the flake immediately beneath it, had carried them into the eye or centre of the coil, aud produced a considerable and dangerous entanglement. Fortunately, the coil was ])revented from interfering with the paying-out machinery. The buoy was let go, to mark the ])0siti(m of the cable, if uecessiiry, and Mr. Canning then proceeded t^) superintend the disentanglement of the confused heap. In the midst of thick rain and increasing wind, to unthread, as it wei-e, a coil of 500 feet of rope, was no ear.y task. How- ever, with immense patience, care, and labour, it w^a^ accom- l.lished successfully, and soon after two A.M. the paying-out process was resumed. Wednesday.— A fresh Lireeze blew from tlie southward; the sky was dull and gray ; the sea slightly perturbed ; and some rain fell occasionally. Thursday.— In the afternoon a fresh breeze blew, which in- creased toward evening. The heavy swell on the port-quarter Ciiused the ship to roll Still the pay- ^-out went on steadily. f PHOGRESS OK THE L.XPEDITKjN. I 03 ll.e 8un sank v.th au anpy look, an.l the scu.l ca.no rapully ro.u the oaHtward, aoco,n,.anied by a rising .ea he swell .as ^...•y h..,vy, and the GW.t ^Eu.teru ,'ov"i hen^elf not msen.s.hle to it. Her rolling, like everything elsa aM.M-ta.n.ng to her, wan done on a grand «oale. *= Yesterday wxs a day of comf>l..u. .urr,^, the pavin.^-ont 11. every respect satisfactory. Th.- wiuwn to the last flake Next to having daylight for changing from the after to the fore t.ank we could not have had a m by the an.ps suspended from above, slowly and cautiou.Ily liftec the turns of the coil to ease their motion. As each found us way to the drum, the wooden floor ol the tankWm visible -and more and more floor,-and .^ its area widened the cable swept along its surface with a low, subdued noise' imtil, witli a graceful curve, it mounted to the outlet where' 1";?1 T%\" ^t ' ^'"'' '"'''^'^y- ^^^' "^- the ;ord is peated until it readied tlic stern, where it w;iH duly reeordi'd Ly tlio clerk who kept the cable-log, — the current history, so to sjx'ak, of the electric wire. A red la!np w;m the signal for danger. During the day-time red and blue flags were used instead of lamj>H. Suturddi/. -Dn^ morning the sea was comi)arativcly Kuiooth, and blue rifts of sky l)roke through the dispersing ch)ud.s. The great ship steadily coutiu-ied her westward march, and mile after mile of cable was safely deposited in the depths of ocean. Savdai/, Juhi 5^/?^/.— Still all weut well. Tlie day was bri'dit and clear, with a fresh breeze from the north-west. Tlie cable ran oyt with unerring snioothuess, at the rate of six miles an hour. Signals from Valeutia came reg.ilarly and distinctly, so that the voyagers in the Great Eastern were fully supplied with intelligence of all that transpired 111 Enghind or on the Continent,— then convulsed by the sharp, brief war in which Prussia humbled the military pride of Austria. Between six and seven p.m. the Great Easttrn crossed the deepest part of her course, but the cable continued to run out with ita accustomed regularity. Monday.— At a (piarter to twelve a.m. only 215 miles of cable remain. ' in tlie fore-tank. Tliirty houid would see this paid out ; then for a small supply from the main-tank, and then — but we must not anticipate. Tucxday—TXiQ weather grew thick and hazy as the monster vessel approached the banks of Newfoundland, but no inter- ruption took place in the paying- out procesa. Wednesday. — A deep fog brooded on the waters, and the expedition steered cautiously towards its goal. At fifty-two minutes past one, Greenwich time, or forty-five minuses past ten P.M., Tuesday, according to ship's time,— the ditiference arising from the difTerence in longitude, — the fore-tank being of its cable to the end of the section in the main-tank. In DAILY VOYAGE OF THE OREAT SHIP. 105 «<'ven or eight n.iuute« these were cnn.leted u.,! -,f t) . live mmuten ,Kt«t two the i..ivin.r-out „ n ^ ^" I Here we n.ay present the rea,ier with a Uble I, ^I.ow,„g the nu,„ber of n.ile. whieh the Great Usicrn accomplished daily duri„g thi.s n.en.orable voyage, a^d the length of cable pai.l out daily I 13 interesting, because it points to a ren.ark- ably uniform rate of progress, and to a sin-adar regularity of work. •■ Frou. day to day," s:ems w J'"!, -^ , .' "■ '"' "^ '"' <'°«''Sed; continuous, well-ordered labour, and not fitful and exhaustin.- efforts, followed by unprofitable pauses DatOb Saturday, July 14, Sunday, July 16, Monday, July 16, Tuesday, July 17^ Wednesday, July 18, Thursday, July 10, Friday, July 20, Saturday, July 21, Sunday, July 22 Monday, July 23, Tuesday, July 24, Wednesdaj', July 25, Thursday, July 26, ' . Friday, July 27, Distance Run in Miles. 108 128 115 117 104 112 11/ 121 123 121 120 li9 128 100 C.ible Paid Out (Miles). 115 139 137 138 125 129 127 136 133 138 335 130 134 104 1633 1820 lOG KM) OF TIIK VOVA(iE. Oil Friilay, July t>7th, ti.e Great Kadern reached Heart's Content in safi-ty. and the vrobleni of teU'graphic C(,nnnunication between Europe and America was hai.pily solved. It was a great w..rk .lone; a glory to onr age and nation; an immortal honour to the men who did it —men thenceftnth to occui>y a higli rank among the most illustrious benefactors of their race. That same nfternoon, we are told, as soon aa the sliore-end was securely landed, Mr. Field and the officers of the expey offering up their thanks to the God of Peace, iitly to solemnize a work planned in the interests of peace, international unity, and good- will. A sermon was preached on the text.—" And there was no more sea" (Rev. xxi. 1); and all jomed in the noble prayers and thanksgivings of the English Liturgy. So the voyage ended as it had begun. The little armada of science and civi- lization sailed from the shores of Ireland with prayers vvafted after it,— prayers for its quick and complete success in its struggle against the ele- ments. And now, on the shores of the New World, the stru.i^gle liappily concluded in victory. Mr. Field and his companions, like Columbus, 1^/lt it WOKK IK I'KAYER. 107 their first duty to olfrr uj, ,,raye.- and praise to that Ahn^glity Being who holds the waters in the hollow of liis hand, and wlio liad coinvyed them safely across tlie nii^lity deep. All work, all honourable work, which is worth doing at all, is wortli doing witli prayer; prayer when it is begun, prayer during its progress, and prayer when it is ended. For so shall it receive the blessing of cur Fatlier who is in heaven; and 80 shall we receive the strength necessary for its proper accomplishment; and so shall we know that it is a good work, which shall never be weighed in the balance and found wanting. You know, perchance, the old monkish adage, Labomre est omre— Work is prayer. It would read better if we wrote it, Labora et 07-a— Work and j^ray. Be sure of this, that the work on which we fear to invite God's blessing,— the work in which we fear to supplicate His assistance, — is work which it were best we should never undertake. And hence we may carry with us through life as one unchanging and ever appropriate principle. Never do aught which we cannot first commend to the blessing of God. The Atlantic Telegraph was laid. The Old 108 A MIKACI.K OF SCIENCK, World and tho New weru })rou«,d»t into ek'cf>ric communication. Spaco and time wcro virtually annihilated, and the magic wire flashed the words with which it was intrusted across 2000 miles of sea almost as swift as th-.iight could fly. Adopt- ing tlu; eloquent words (.f Edward Everett, the American statesman, we may ask : Docs it not seem all but incredible that man should thus chain the lightning to his will, and comj)el it to travel in the track lu; marks out for it, and to register the intelligence he chooses to communicate to it ? Docs it not seem all but incredible that this in- telligence should travel for 2000 miles, along those slender coj^per wires, far down in the all but fathomless Atlantic, never before penetrated by aught appertaining to humanity, save when some foundering vessel has plunged with her hap- less company into the eternn^ silence and darkness of its depths ? Does it not seem a miracle of science that the thoughts of living men, the thouf'hts that we think up here on the earth's surface, in the cheerful light of day — about the mai-kets, and the exchanges, and the seasons, and the elections, and the treaties, and the wars, and all the commonplaces of daily life — should clothe themselves with elemental sparks, and shoot with TIIK woiiK ASI, TIIK HoliKKIl. lOU fi'-O- H,K.,.,|, i„ „ ,„„„,„t i„ ,|,„,„i„kli„^-of an T- :: '"""■"'''"■"• ' '-^i''-. <■- ,iow,. a.""nj; tl,. „„,,„„u, „„„,t.,, u„.t wull.w i,. tl,„ n.. la... .s,.as, ,U„„, tl,o w.-.k-st,..,, ,„.,.„,..u„l, tl.a tl,o i,.t.,..,t i„t,.||i.,„e, „f „,„.., ,,,,.,,,,,,'J fiol,l.s of gol,l.„ ,„,.i„ ,„„,, „,„^..„^, .,_ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ __^ w.n, „,„1 ,,, „i„,, ,„„,^,^ ^ ^„^^^,_.__ ^ ^^^^^^^^^^ fe.ents of tl,e nineteentl, century tl.e Atlantic Teleg,a,,b. tbo precursor of those' '"i.nercu3 deep-sea cables which now bind all the shores of earth together, will always hold a fore- most place. And while we do justice to the sur- pa-ssnigskdl and seemingly inexhaustible Invention of the men of science who realized the idea, let .,s l^c honest, and remember that that idea sprang fron, tl.e large sympathies of Cyrus Field, and that it became a fact because he never failed in l.;= i,„„„ never wavered from his faith, and never rested I tVom his srir una.rtuk.u toil! It is liUii.-. say« J<,].n Hri-l.t. you sl.ouM honour th.' man to whom Lhr whol.. wuiM is .hhtor. \W hrou-ht mpital ai.a sc-i.nce to^r.-tlHT t.. .lo his h.a.hn- an-l Kuropo an.l AuMTica aro for rv.r uint.a. His is a i.uivr an.l inoio histin- ta.no than that of an Ahxan.hT or a Napoleon ! It shoul.l Ik. ivnuMuh.'re(l that tlir Unnt Easin-n, in this hust c.xi.rrts. the Albany tinA the Terrible, were on their way hack to n»i.l-ocean as early a.s the 1st of August. On Thursday, the i)th, the Great Kastern an.l the Meduxuj put to s.>a. They reache.1 the ap^.-int.-d ren.lezvous on Sun.lay and soon joined onq.any 'Aith the Albany an.l Terrible, whu-h ha.l heen enga-^ed in placing huoys along the line of the suhnierged cahl.'. AUthe shii»s then cast overhoard their grapnels, and began to .Irag the ocean-he.l in .litterent .h- rections^ On Friday, the cahle was caught uy TIIK .11,11 CAIll.r. KKtolKUKi). Ill the r,„,,, /„„,,,,.„ ,__^, „,t,„.|ly l„„u..l,t ,„ i|„, «mfac.,. showin;, iuHf „,-„i„st 1,,. ,.,„„™M „.,„., <»» tlH. ui>|..amn<-,. of tl„,. ,.al,l...' says .\|,- •>•■."..■, we w,.,. all M,u.k «i,l, U„. laH U.at """ '■;" "' '" "- — •■'' -tl „, .„,,„„,, i, ;'-»"'l'ly«l.it,., wl,il,Hl,c.„tl„.,.l,all w«.si„ i,„, tho slat,. i„ «,,lch it l..a ti.e Unk, with it. tanvl Hurlaee an.l stran.ls nn.l.aMK,.,], wlmh ,sh„w,.,l that 't Liy .., the .sa,„l , -ly i„.|,- ,.,„|„,,j,,,, .,,,,„ ^^_.^^.__ |m tl„. cahle ^-avo it a twist, a.ul it h,„k,.,| as if it ha.1 l,c..n paint,.,! spirally Mack an,l whit,. " The anival „f the cal.l,, waH .sah.tcl l,y tl„. cow with a tre,„,.„,l„„.s IJ.itisl, ehcer ; l,„t th.-ir exultatmu was |,roi„atu>-e. The stmii. am,|i,.,l 'y the machinery ,,r„vea to l,o t<,o gr,.,t. a„.I helor,, the caMu cuhl he hauled en l„,ard its Btran,ls grave way ; it hr„ke cleso to the grapnc-l nn,l sunk to the bottom ! » i . Keen was the dlsappointm,.nt ; hut there was '"> help for it. The sear,.), „,ust he ree,>n,nu.nee,l. 1 wo days later u was ouu^ht again, hrought up "itlrni a thousan,! fathoms, an,l huoyed Th,.n for two days more the wind rage,l so" violently that "Oth.ng couKl be done. In fact, for a wl,„l,. «„., "'ght the weather pro..,l .so ".-.favourable, with ill 1' *-_ ll'J AHrrrr«sioN or nisAProiM mknt9. mi.), a succvssi..i» <.f (•..ntm.y ^;al.-M an.l .l.'tiii .nists that all tl.. pors.vvrin- HlorUs of olh.. n* a,ul mm ou l.mnl th. aitlVnut ships w.m C3n- sUntlv ham..l. On tW 2!)th. th. YVrn/./. -- ,..„ ..n,.l ,., ,nak.. lor St. JohuH, her supply of p. .visions having faih-.l. Th. thn-e otluT cnns- in.r s]r,i.s ilrs t<. th.' ost, nvIht. u.o depth <>t wat.r was not so great. In a few hours they reache.l tho app..inte the waters. Every eye wa.s on the vatch f..r some in.lication of success. An.l, h.ap- pily just heforo midnight it foun.l the nus.su.g trea.sure. anld Of all comSS enterp^eJ which have ever been undertaken, this one on the part of Mr (?^a Field represents the noblest and purest motives by which comS nil "*^i;P"'' ^^1 ^'T ^" '"''P''-^^- I believe it ^vL the ver? gSat- ness ot the project-the great results which were certain to iL5e-I beheve it was this, and this alone, which supported hTmwWi that disanno'ln'tm^nf'^'^''''"'^ which through many difficultiJ^and many (lisappomtments, has earned him at last to the triumphant couclu- sion of this great project Let me also say this-and tWs 2 » point which I have ascertained from other lources-I believe so great was the confidence of Mr. Field in the triumph of th s ^eat undertaking, that he risked every farthing of his own private for- tune m promoting its success. On these grounds, ladiS and gent°e- f'r^i ^ "^"^ ^^"•*? ^""^ ^}^ ^^^Ith. But on one other g^^oun^d also I ask you to drink it^and that is this, that he is n^rsoS" -* 'f the most genial and kmdly hearted of men. At' a time wh^eThls TlelTtW h".f '"* ^i!^'^"^*/' ""^ ^^^" many Americans though? at ieaot they had somethmg to complaiu of in the tone of EngUah 118 AIM' KM) IX. Rocicty, I WHS in the cnjist.iiit li:i!>it of tncftii!;^' Mr. I'i- !•!, .'iml I never xaw bin tt iiipti rnfHcd for a iin>!nciit - I iitvcr liturd jiiiy wiirils f:ill frinii liiiii Imt words of jh-jmc I •". tlic twr) coimtrits ; aiiresident. Most sincerely do T wish that I had the jMiwer to express to you all that 1 have it in my heart to say, and to make my voice respoml to the gratitude I feel for all the k'ndnesa I have received in this country I will not detain you wi ;h ai^y lengthened remarks in regard to the Atlantic Telegraph, with its inor-i than fourteen years of varying fortunes ; nor w ith any account of the anxious days and sleepless niglits wliii h have been pas.sed by those who were engaged in bringing the under- taking to its final consummation ; nor with any narrative of what has been done to realize apparent impossibilities by so many who are now seated around this board. The laborious scientitii! investi- gations in the closet, the laboratory, the workshop, upon and beneath the sea ; the accurate souiulings of the Atlantic ; the careful and increasing!;- perf'jct manufacture of the cables; the wonderfully effective mechanical apiiliances used to lay them, and to recover and complete the one that wle fact that two cables are iu perfect working order across the most stormy ocean in the world. AI'I'ENKIX. Ill) a d.« Hu.-eof n,:ir y '..'(HK) n,il.,.«, more than tw,. thinl.. ..f uhi.h i» <. v.r two „u .•. ,n .!;.,.t .. a.ul that ..ussa^av. arc p^.^sin^ uith 1 <\ ..n,K' HIMM-.. froM. ...ntinent t,. (-....tinent. ...I n,.lt fervently tluank J y>; that I hav,. ...n ,,.,.nnitt...i to live to «.. thin .nt.r . -,. Sch un.ls I 1(1 witl th..m to rejouv „vor its siucss. I r.-joice h-Ans.. ^ ofie wo ill "ShSii h'r"" ""'"" ^''^^ ^^^:' '^"i" An^io-^a^:.:;. nX;: f tm. i , . n . ' '' '!""""": ""^'"'. '"l"''t the name KloriouH ^ 1 1 u ) ' if" '.r '";"'"^ to^'.■tht■r that if one were to rer.-iv,. a rem: n 1 ".i';'''lr"f"'' ^""'' '^'^^ •'^''•'^•'''- '' ^'" An>eri.-an, feel .ri,i; re emhenng that my aneestors were English rUwm.Und ivJd i tV f ; f VI ^r""" * •>'• ^^"'' •'" ""* •'^•1 true K,„.iishn.en ] orv n. the fact that the mnall ex,.e,lition.s u hi.h saile.l hum thene «h S ..me^2.) years n,.,. .n.I nettled at TMyn.onth arul o the a k', nJ "'uu.^i:'i:;r:H" "V rf'''^'"l^ -d replenished that ^Ih; Z.1..V^.V ul ;^ V'^^lf..^!';'''!-'':!^:"- t >« ..n^inal handful had inere-is.d t,, { rxxi rww» V •m-'-'Y"^'; '^V*' ""^;i"*" nandtul tia I mm) •^'^^'^'^^ *'/ people ; wlule, in less than a century th .MMX},(MK) have ^,Town int.. a nati.-n of 35,n^ -'^^^-^"^ t d ,i, ?:f I' V V^"-' mV"*VV";"'^ a'"l ">ihrokcn strain of the mar- Ivorv one of !' ," • ^" *'"■^^ ^"""•"' ^'''^ *''^' ''<'I'^'' f'-'^t ere long 'est?d o .o el {v^ i"r'%t"^^ ''^\''^'^ 'lepen lencies, which su,^ r.^W.l ^^•''"•'' ;\^'''«ter the n..hle fi^Mir. America Inus en^hiiutd n her classics will he united to the mother country hy the elec Vc h.nd and that t m.,y l,e in the j.ower of the So v.rJi.' a 1 -r .n":^"'::^fif^'r''^'''fj:'' '^''''-^-'' t- J-^J instantane. V, 1 f.l r . 17 '"'••; /'^ ^^"'' ^'■'^■^■^ nations, and trihes ^hich a'ay :;j' heJ^^f;'.' " "''''/ ''^'^'''' "^*^"^ ^'"'"^ ^^"-» Victoria I Hay that heieafter n,. jealousies :,..iy be allowed to create a wall of jparation between England an.l America; that all the iU- ee , ' that ha:-: been engendered },etween the two countries may be bur ,1 r ':;!;;: r,^:'f"J^f,f^f themgenuity of man.haUn^r l^n .1 ,iapp,e f<> 'ling It to the surface; ami that the only rivilry l,e ■r hidu'sS?"^?/^' '■""^'•^•^/ •"'■^■^'^'^-^ - effortTto promote ,h o?: ""'y- V>: '^^'jl Cfii. niercial intercourse, and to extend the blessings of civil and religious liberf • throughout the world." Mr. Jolm Bright, M.P., in the course of ,.n interest- 120 APPENDIX. ing Hpooch, bore noblo tostiinony to the high (lu.ilitioa of the hero of the evening. Ho said : — •• I rejoice very iimch at this haiKjuet, becaurte w« arc met to do honour to a man of r iif (jualitifH, who hart .onf.-rn-il uponuH _ and I heUevo uiK)n mankni.l -rare BcrviccH. I have known Mr. 1" icld for a good many yars, an.l alUu.UKh, I dare .,..y, to any sailor who may be here it ih not much, to me it Hcema a good deal, that Mr. f'yniH Field, in tlie t.ro«ecution of this great work (not iM-mg a -ailor -always bear that in mind) has crossed the Atlantic mor« than forty times ; and he hii8, iw y.-ii know, by an ener-y almoKt without example, by a courage nothing covdd daunt, Ijy a fai^h thtt nothing could make to falter, and by sacriticca beyond eslimalion- for there are sacritices that he has made I wouhl not m his j)resence n-laie to this meeting-aided by discovery :in.l by science and by capiUl, he haa accomplished the grandest tnumpli which the science and the ir'tellect of man have ever achieve