The shore end was successfully laid and made fast to the cable on board the “Great Eastern,” and on Friday morning, the 13th of July, 1866, the huge ship set sail for Newfoundland, accompanied by her consorts of the telegraph fleet. The voyage occupied fourteen days, the ship making an average run of about one hundred and eighteen miles per day, and paying out about one hundred and thirty-one miles of cable in the same period of time. The weather was fair during the whole voyage, but the anxiety of the officers in charge was none the less on that account. There were accidents to be dreaded more than unfavorable weather. The ship was run at moderate speed all the way, as it was thought …
Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made
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.
It was now placed beyond the possibility of a doubt that the cable would be laid within the next year. More than this, it was determined not only to lay a new cable between the two continents, but to fish up the cable of 1865, splice it and continue it to Newfoundland, thus giving the company two working lines.
It was necessary, however, to raise more capital, and in this effort Mr. Field again put forth his restless and indomitable energies. As the public confidence …
Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made
Mr. Canning, the engineer in charge, was dismayed, but not disheartened. For nine days the ship hung around the spot grappling for the cable, in the hope of raising it, and sinking its grapnels for this purpose to a depth of two miles. The cable was caught several times, but the rope which held the grapnel broke each time, and the precious coil fell back again into the deep. At length, having marked the place where the cable was lost with buoys, the ship put back for England, and the enterprise was abandoned for that year.
Though unsuccessful in carrying the cable across the ocean, this expedition was by no means a failure. Its results are thus summed up by the officers in charge of it:
1. …
Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made
This was not all, however. The Government caused further soundings to be made off the coast of Ireland, which effectually dispelled all the fears which had been entertained of a submarine mountain which would prove an impassable barrier in the path of an ocean telegraph. In addition to this, it caused the organization of a board of distinguished scientific men for the purpose of determining all the difficult problems of submarine telegraphy. This board met in 1859, and sat two years. The result of its experiments and investigations was a declaration, signed by the members, that a cable properly made, “and paid into the ocean with the most improved machinery, possesses every prospect of not only being successfully laid in the first instance, but may …
Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made
This second failure greatly disheartened the directors, and it required all Mr. Field’s persuasiveness to induce them to sanction another attempt. Yet he prevailed, and, hastening from London to Queenstown, sailed with the telegraph fleet on the third attempt to lay the cable, leaving Queenstown on the 17th of July. The rendezvous was reached on the 28th, and on the 29th the splice was made; and the “Niagara” and “Agamemnon” parted company. This time the undertaking was successful. The cable was laid across the Atlantic, the “Niagara” reaching Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, on the 5th of August, and the “Agamemnon” arriving at Valentia, Ireland, a few hours later on the same day. Signals were sent across the entire length of the line, from shore to shore, …
Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made
