The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

After passing through such elaborate tests, all will be glad to see the final product of so much care and skill. As the long line begins to reel off from the great wheels and drums, we may examine it in its completed and more perfect form. It is only necessary to compare it with the cable laid in 1858, to show its immense superiority. A glance at the two as they appear on the preceding page will show that the cable had grown since first it was planted in the ocean, as if it were a living product of the sea. This growth had been in every part, from core to circumference.

First, the central copper wire, which was the spinal cord, the nerve along which the centre current was to run, was nearly three times as large as before. Prof. Thomson had long seen that this was a condition of success. While joining heartily in the attempts of 1857-58, he felt that an error was committed in the smallness of the cable; that the copper conductors and the gutta-percha covering should both be much larger. The old conductor was a strand consisting of seven fine wires, six laid round one, and weighed only one hundred and seven pounds to the mile. The new was composed of the same number of wires, but weighed three hundred pounds to the mile. As it was made of the finest copper that could be obtained in the world, it was a perfect conductor. Next, to secure insulation, it was first imbedded for solidity in Chatterton's compound, a preparation impervious to water, and then covered with four layers of gutta-percha, which were laid on alternately with four thin layers of Chatterton's compound. The old cable had but three coatings of gutta-percha, with nothing between. Its entire insulation weighed but two hundred and sixty-one pounds to the mile, while that of the new weighed four hundred pounds.

But a conductor ever so perfect, with insulation complete, was useless without proper external protection, to guard it against the dangers which must attend the long and difficult process of laying it across the ocean. The old cable had broken a number of times. The new must be made stronger. To this end it was incased with ten solid wires of the best iron, or rather, of a soft steel, like that used in the making of Whitworth's cannon. This made the cable much heavier than before. The old cable weighed but twenty cwt. to the mile, while the new one reached thirty-five cwt. and three quarters. But mere size and weight were nothing, except as they indicated increased strength. This was secured, not only by the larger iron wires, but by a further coating of rope. Each wire was surrounded separately with five strands of Manilla yarn, saturated with a preservative compound, and the whole laid spirally round the core, which latter was padded with ordinary hemp, saturated with the same preservative mixture. This rope covering was important in several respects. It kept the wires from coming in contact with the salt water, by which they might be corroded; and while it added greatly to the strength of the cable, it gave it also its own flexibility – so that while it had the strength of an iron chain, it had also the lightness and flexibility of a common ship's rope. This union of two qualities was all-important. The great problem had been to combine strength with flexibility. Mere dead weight was an objection. The new cable, though nearly twice as heavy as the old in air, when immersed in water, weighed but a trifle more; so that it was really much lighter in proportion to its size. This increased lightness was a very important matter in laying the cable, as it caused it to sink slowly. The old cable, though smaller, was heavy almost as a rod of iron, so that, as it ran out, it dropped at an angle which exposed it to great danger in case of a sudden lurch of the ship. Thus in 1857 it was broken by the stern of the Niagara being thrown up on a wave just as the brakes were shut down. Now the cable, being partially buoyed by the rope, would float out to a great distance from the ship, and sink down slowly in the deep waters.

By this combination of rope and iron, a cable was secured two and a half times as strong as the old – the breaking strain of the former having been three tons five cwt., and of the latter seven tons and fifteen cwt. Or, to put it in another form, the contract strain of the former was less than five times its own weight per mile in water; so that if the cable had been laid in some parts of the Atlantic, where the ocean is more than five miles deep, it would have broken under the enormous strain. But the contract strain of the new cable was equal to eleven times its weight per mile in water, which, as the greatest depth of water to be passed was but two and a half miles, rendered the cable more than four times as strong as was required.

This great chain which was to bind the sea was to be 2,300 nautical miles long, or nearly 2,700 statute miles! But where could this enormous bulk be stowed? Its weight would sink the Spanish Armada. In 1858, the cable loaded down two of the largest ships of war in the world, the Niagara and the Agamemnon. Yet now one much larger and bulkier was to be taken on board. This might have proved a serious embarrassment, but that a few years before there had been built in England a ship of enormous proportions. The Great Eastern, whose iron walls had been reared by the genius of Brunel, had been for ten years waiting for "a mission." As a specimen of marine architecture she was perfect. She walked the waters in towering pride, scarce bending her imperial head to the waves that broke against her sides, as against the rocks of the shore. But with all her noble qualities, she was too great for the ordinary demands of commerce. Her very size was against her; and while smaller ships, on which she looked down with contempt, were continually flying to and fro across the sea, this leviathan, could find nothing worthy of her greatness. Here then was the vessel to receive the Atlantic cable.

 
Hugest of all God's works
That swim the ocean stream,
 

Seeing her fitness for the purpose, a few of the gentlemen who were active in reviving the Atlantic Telegraph combined to purchase her, as she was about to be sold. One of them went down with all speed to Liverpool, and the next day telegraphed that the big ship was theirs. The new owners at once put her at the service of the Atlantic Company, with the express agreement that any compensation for her use should depend on the success of the expedition.

Next to the good fortune of finding such a ship ready to their hands, was that of finding an officer worthy to command her. Captain James Anderson, of the China, one of the Cunard steamers, had long been known to the travelling public, both of England and America, and no one ever crossed the sea with him without the strongest feeling of respect for his manly and seamanly qualities. A thorough master of his profession, having followed the sea for a quarter of a century, he was also a man of much general intelligence, and of no small scientific attainments. But it was something more than this which inspired such confidence. It was his ceaseless watchfulness. He always carried with him a feeling of religious responsibility for the lives of all on board, and for every interest committed to him. A man of few words, modest in manner, he was yet clear in judgment and prompt in action. This vigilance was especially marked in moments of danger. When a storm was gathering, all who saw that tall figure on the wheel-house, watching with a keen eye every spar in the ship and every cloud in the horizon, felt a new security from being under his care. Such was the man to be put in charge of a great expedition. He was recommended by Mr. Field in the strongest terms, and was chosen unanimously by the Board. The Cunard Company, with great generosity, consented to give up his services, valuable as they were, to forward an enterprise of such public interest. Being thus free, he accepted the trust, and entered upon it with enthusiasm. How well he fulfilled the expectations of all, the sequel will show.²²

The work now went on with speed. The wheels began to hum, and the great drums to reel off that line which, considering the distance it was to span, was hardly to be measured by miles, but rather by degrees of the earth's surface. Mere figures give but a vague impression of vast spaces. But it is a curious fact, ascertained by an exact computation, that if all the wires of copper and of iron, with the layers that made up the core and the outer covering, and the strands of yarn that were twisted into this one knotted sea-cable, were placed end to end, the whole length would reach from the earth to the moon!

As it came from the works in its completed state, it was plunged in water, to make it familiar with the element which was to be its future home. In the yards of the Company stood eight large tanks, which could hold each a hundred and forty miles. Here the cable was coiled to "hibernate," till it should be wanted for use the coming spring.

Seeing the work thus well under way, with no chance of another disastrous check, Mr. Field left England with heart at rest, and returned to America for the winter. But the first days of spring saw him again on the Atlantic. He reached England on the eighteenth of March. His visit was more satisfactory than a year before. The work was now well advanced. It was a goodly sight to go down to Morden Wharf at Greenwich, and see the huge machinery in motion, spinning off the leagues of deep-sea line. The triumph apparently was near at hand. It seemed indeed a predestined thing that the cable should finally be laid in the year of grace 1865 – the end for which he had so faithfully toiled since 1858 – seven weary years – as long as Jacob served for Rachel! But, less fortunate than Jacob, he was doomed to one more disappointment. At present, however, all looked well, and he could not but regard the prospect with satisfaction.

Having no more drudgery of raising money, he had now a few weeks' leisure to take a voyage up the Mediterranean. The canal across the Isthmus of Suez, which had been so long in progress, under the supervision of French engineers, was at length so far advanced that the waters of the Mediterranean were about to mingle with those of the Red Sea, and delegates were invited to be present from all parts of the world. An invitation had been sent to the Chamber of Commerce in New York, and Mr. Field, then starting for Europe, was appointed as its representative. The visit was one of extraordinary interest. The occasion brought together a number of eminent engineers from every country of Europe, in company with whom this stranger from the New World visited the most ancient of kingdoms to see the spirit of modern enterprise invading the land of the Pyramids.

He returned to England about the first of May to find the work nearly completed. The cable was almost done, and a large part of it was already coiled on board the ship. This was an operation of much interest, which deserves to be described. The manufacture had begun on the first of September, and had gone on for eight months without ceasing, the works turning out fourteen miles a day even during the short days of winter. As the spring advanced, and the days grew longer, the amount was of course much increased. But by the last of January they had already accumulated about nine hundred miles of completed cable, when began the long and tedious work of transferring it to the Great Eastern. It was thus slow, because it could not be made directly from the yard to the ship. The depth of water at Greenwich was not such as to allow the Great Eastern to be brought up alongside the wharf. She was lying at Sheerness, thirty miles below, and the cable had to be put on board of lighters and taken down to where she lay in the stream. For this purpose the Admiralty had furnished to the Company two old hulks, the Iris and the Amethyst, which took their loads in turn. When the former had taken on board some two hundred and fifty tons of cable, she was towed down to the side of the Great Eastern, and the other took her place.

This was an operation which could not be done with speed. With all the men who could be employed, they coiled on board only about two miles an hour, or twenty miles a day – at which rate it would take some five months. The work began on the nineteenth of January, early in the morning, and continued till June, before all was safely stowed on board. The Great Eastern herself had been fitted up to receive her enormous burden. It was an object to stow the cable in as few coils as possible. Yet it could not be all piled in one mass. Such a dead weight in the centre of the ship would cause her to roll fearfully. If coiled in one circle, it was computed that it would nearly fill Astley's theatre from the floor of the circus to the roof – making a pile fifty-eight feet wide and sixty feet high. To distribute this enormous bulk and weight, it was disposed in three tanks – one aft, one amidships, and one forward. The latter, from the shape of the ship, was a little smaller than the others, and held only six hundred and thirty-three miles of cable, while the two former held a little over eight hundred each. All were made of thick wrought-iron plates, and water-tight, so that the cable could be kept under water till it was immersed in the sea.

Thus with her spacious chambers prepared for the reception of her guest, the Great Eastern opened her doors to take in the Atlantic cable; and long as it was, and wide and high the space it filled, it found ample verge and room within her capacious sides. Indeed, it was the wonder of all who beheld it, how, like a monster of the sea, she devoured all that other ships could bring. The Iris and the Amethyst came up time after time and disgorged their iron contents. Yet this leviathan swallowed ship-load after ship-load, as if she could never be satisfied. A writer who visited her when the cable was nearly all on board, was at a loss to find it. He looked along the deck, from stem to stern, but not a sign of it appeared. How he searched, and how the wonder grew, he tells in a published letter. After describing his approach to the ship, and climbing up her sides and his survey of her deck, he proceeds:

"But it is time that we should look after what we have mainly come to see, the telegraph cable. To our intense astonishment, we behold it nowhere, although informed that there are nearly two thousand miles of it already on board, and the remaining piece – a piece long enough to stretch from Land's End to John O'Groat's – is in course of shipment. We walk up and down on the deck of the Great Eastern without seeing this gigantic chain which is to bind together the Old and the New World; and it is only on having the place pointed out to us that we find where the cable lies and by what process it is taken on board. On the side opposite to where we landed, deep below the deck of our giant, there is moored a vessel surmounted by a timber structure resembling a house, and from this vessel the wonderful telegraph cable is drawn silently into the immense womb of the Great Eastern. The work is done so quietly and noiselessly, by means of a small steam-engine, that we scarcely notice it. Indeed, were it not pointed out to us, we would never think that that little iron cord, about an inch in diameter, which is sliding over a few rollers and through a wooden table, is a thing of world-wide fame – a thing which may influence the life of whole nations; nay, which may affect the march of civilization. Following the direction in which the iron rope goes, we now come to the most marvellous sight yet seen on board the Great Eastern. We find ourselves in a little wooden cabin, and look down, over a railing at the side, into an immense cavern below. This cavern is one of the three 'tanks' in which the two-thousand-mile cable is finding a temporary home. The passive agent of electricity comes creeping in here in a beautiful, silent manner, and is deposited in spiral coils, layer upon layer. It is almost dark at the immense depth below, and we can only dimly discern the human figures through whose hands the coil passes to its bed. Suddenly, however, the men begin singing. They intone a low, plaintive song of the sea; something like Kingsley's

 
'Three fishers went sailing away to the West,
Away to the West as the sun went down – '
 

the sounds of which rise up from the dark, deep cavern with startling effect, and produce an indescribable impression.

"We proceed on; but the song of the sailors who are taking charge of the Atlantic Telegraph cable is haunting us like a dream. In vain our guide conducts us all over the big ship, through miles of galleries, passages, staircases, and promenades; through gorgeous saloons, full of mirrors, marbles, paintings, and upholstery, made 'regardless of expense;' and through buildings crowded with glittering steam apparatus of gigantic dimensions, where the latent power of coal and water creates the force which propels this monster vessel over the seas. In vain our attention is directed to all these sights; we do not admire them; our imagination is used up. The echo of the sailors' song in the womb of the Great Eastern will not be banished from our mind. It raises visions of the future of the mystic iron coil under our feet – how it will roll forth again from its narrow berth; how it will sink to the bottom of the Atlantic, or hang from mountain to mountain far below the stormy waves; and how two great nations, offsprings of one race and pioneers of civilization, will speak through this wonderful coil, annihilating distance and time. Who can help dreaming here, on the spot where we stand? For it is truly a marvellous romance of civilization, this Great Eastern and this Atlantic Telegraph cable. Even should our age produce nothing else, it alone would be the triumph of our age."

As the work approached completion, public interest revived in the stupendous undertaking, and crowds of wonder-seekers came down from London to see the preparations for the expedition. Even if not admitted on board, they found a satisfaction in sailing round the great ship, in whose mighty bosom was coiled this huge sea-serpent. It had also many distinguished visitors. Among others, the Prince of Wales came to see the ocean girdle which was to link the British islands with his future dominions beyond the sea.

At length, on the twenty-ninth of May, almost the last day of Spring, the manufacture of the cable was finished. The machines which for eight months had been in a constant whirl, made their last round. The tinkling of a bell announced that the machinery was empty, and the mighty work stood completed. It only remained that it should be got on board, and the ship prepared for her voyage. Hundreds of busy hands were at work without ceasing, and yet it was six weeks before she was ready to put to sea.

It may well be believed that it was no small affair to equip such an expedition. Beside the enormous burden of the cable itself, the Great Eastern had to take on board seven or eight thousand tons of coal, enough for a fleet, to feed her fires. Then she carried about five hundred men, for whom she had to make provision during the weeks they might be at sea. The stores laid in were enough for a small army. Standing on the wheel-house, and looking down, one might fancy himself in some large farm-yard of England. There stood the motherly cow that was to give them milk; and a dozen oxen, and twenty pigs, and a hundred and twenty sheep, while whole flocks of ducks and geese, and fowls of every kind, cackled as in a poultry-yard. Beside all this live stock, hundreds of barrels of provisions, of meats and fruits, were stored in the well-stocked larder below. Thus laden for her voyage, the Great Eastern had in her a weight, including her own machinery, of twenty-one thousand tons – a burden almost as great as could have been carried by the whole fleet with which Nelson fought the battle of Trafalgar.

As the time of departure drew near, public curiosity was excited, and there was an extraordinary desire to witness the approaching attempt. The Company was besieged by applications from all quarters for permission to accompany the expedition. Had these requests been granted, on the scale asked, even the large dimensions of the Great Eastern could hardly have been sufficient for the crowds on board. The demand was most pressing for places for newspaper correspondents. These came not only from England, but from France and America. Almost every journal in London claimed the privilege of being represented. The result was what might have been expected. As it was impossible to satisfy all, and to discriminate in favor of some, and exclude others, would seem partial and unjust, they were finally obliged to exclude all. Of course this gave great offence. There was an outcry in England and in the United States at what was denounced as a selfish and suicidal policy. But it is doubtful whether any other possible course would have given better satisfaction.

Whether the Managers erred in this or not, it should be said that they applied the same inexorable rule to themselves – even Directors of the Company being excluded, unless they had some special business on board.

It should be borne in mind that the expedition was not under the control of the Atlantic Telegraph Company at all, but of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, which had undertaken the work in fulfilment of a contract with the former Company to manufacture and lay down a cable across the Atlantic, in which it assumed the whole responsibility, not only making the cable, but chartering the ship and appointing the officers, and sending its own engineers to lay it down. Of course it had an enormous stake in the result. Hence it felt, not only authorized, but bound, to organize the expedition solely with reference to success. It was not a voyage of pleasure, but for business; for the accomplishment of a great and most difficult undertaking. Hence it was right that the most strict rules should be adopted. Accordingly there was not a man on board who had not some business there. As the voyage promised to be one of the utmost practical interest to electricians and engineers, several young men were received as assistants in the testing-room or in the engineers' department; but there was no person who was not in some way engaged on the business of one or the other company, or connected with the management of the ship. Except Mr. Field, not an Atlantic Telegraph Director accompanied the expedition; and he represented also the Newfoundland Company. Mr. Gooch, M.P., was at once a Director of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, and Chairman of the Board that owned the Great Eastern, and so represented both those companies which had so great a stake in the result.

Thus the whole business was in the hands of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company. It had its own officers to man the expedition – the captain and crew to sail the ship – its engineers to lay the cable – and its electricians to test it. Even the eminent electricians, Professor Thomson and Mr. Varley, who were on board in the service of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, were not allowed to interfere, nor even to give advice unless it were asked for in writing, and then it was to be given in writing. Their office was only to test the cable when laid, to pass messages through it from Newfoundland to Ireland, and to report it complete.

So rigorous were the rules which governed this memorable voyage. The whole enterprise was organized as completely as a naval expedition. Every man had his place. As when a ship is going into battle, everybody is sent below that has not some business on deck, so it is not strange that in such a critical enterprise they did not want a host of supernumeraries on board.

Yet the Company was not unmindful of the anxiety of the public for news, and since it could not give a place to many correspondents, it engaged one, and that the best – W. H. Russell, LL.D., the well-known correspondent of the London Times in the Crimea and in India. This brilliant writer was engaged to accompany the expedition – not to praise without discrimination, but to report events faithfully from day to day. He was accompanied by two artists, Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Dudley, to illustrate the scenes of the voyage. Thus the Company made every provision to furnish information and even entertainment to the public. Several of these gentlemen afterward wrote accounts for different magazines – Blackwood, Cornhill, and Macmillan's. Their different reports, and especially the volume of Dr. Russell, which combines the accuracy and minuteness of a diary kept from day to day, with brilliant descriptions, set off by illustrations from drawings of Mr. Dudley, furnish the public as full and complete an account as if there had been a special correspondent for every journal of England and America.

But if the public at large were very properly excluded, the organization on board was perfect and complete. At the head was Captain Anderson, of whom we have already spoken. As his duties would be manifold and increasing, he had requested the aid of an assistant commander, and Captain Moriarty, R. N., who had been in the Agamemnon in 1858, was permitted by the Admiralty to accompany the ship, and to give the invaluable aid of his experience and skill. The government also generously granted two ships of war, the Sphinx and the Terrible, to attend the Great Eastern. Thus the whole equipment of the expedition was English. Of the five hundred men on board the Great Eastern, there was but one American, and that was Mr. Field.

The engineering department was under charge of Mr. (now Sir) Samuel Canning, who, as the representative of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, was chief in command of all matters relating to laying the cable. For this responsible position no better man could have been chosen. Before the voyage was ended, he had ample opportunity to show his resources. He was ably seconded by Mr. Henry Clifford. Both these gentlemen had been on board the Agamemnon in the two expeditions of 1858. They had since had large experience in laying submarine cables in the Mediterranean and other seas. It was chiefly by their united skill that the paying-out machinery had been brought to such perfection, that throughout the voyage it worked without a single hitch or jar. They had an invaluable helper in Mr. John Temple.

The electrical department was under charge of Mr. De Sauty, who had had long experience in submarine telegraphs, and who was aided by an efficient corps of assistants. Professor Thomson and Mr. Varley, as we have said, were there to examine and report for the Atlantic Company. All these gentlemen had been unceasing in their tests of the cable in every form, both while in the process of manufacture and after it was coiled in the Great Eastern. The result of their repeated tests was to demonstrate that the cable was many times more perfect than the contract required. With such marvellous delicacy did they test the current of electricity sent through it, that it was determined that of one thousand parts, over nine hundred and ninety-nine came out at the other end!

To complete this organization and equipment caused such delays as excited the impatience of all on board. But at length, when midsummer had fully come – at noon of Saturday, July fifteenth – the song of the sailors sounded the chant du départ. The Great Eastern was then lying at the Nore, and she seemed to cling to the English soil which she had griped with a huge Trotman weighing seven tons, held fast by a chain whereof every link weighed seventy pounds! To wrench this ponderous anchor from its bed required the united strength of near two hundred men. At last the bottom lets go its hold, the anchor swings to the bow, the gun is fired, and the voyage is begun. A fleet of yachts and boats raise their cheers as the mighty hull begins to move. But mark how carefully she feels her way, following the lead of yonder little steamer, the Porcupine, the same faithful guide that seven years before led the Niagara up Trinity Bay one night when the faint light of stars twinkled on all the surrounding hills. Slowly they near the sea. Now the cliffs of Dover are in sight, and bidding her escort adieu, the Great Eastern glides along by the beautiful Isle of Wight, and then quickening her speed, with a royal sweep, she moves down the Channel. Off Falmouth she picked up the Caroline, a small steamer, which had left several days before with the shore end on board. She was laboring heavily with her burden, and made little headway in the rough waves. But the Great Eastern took her in tow, and she followed like a ship's boat in the wake of the monarch of the seas.

Thus they passed round to the coast of Ireland, to that Valentia Bay where, eight years before, the Earl of Carlisle gave his benediction on the departure of the Niagara and the Agamemnon, and where, a year later, the gallant English ship brought her end of the cable safely to the shore.

The point of landing had been changed from Valentia harbor five or six miles to Foilhommerum Bay, a wild spot where huge cliffs hang over the waves that here come rolling in from the Atlantic. On the top, an old tower of the time of Cromwell tells of the bloody days of England's great civil war. It is now but a mossy ruin. Here the peasants who flocked in from the country pitched their booths on the green sward, and looked down from the dizzy heights on the boats dancing in the bay below. At the foot of the cliff, a soft, sandy beach forms a bed for the cable, and here, as it issues from the sea, it is led up a channel which had been cut for it in the rocks.

As the shore end was very massive and unwieldy, it could not be laid except in good weather; and as the sea was now rough, the Great Eastern withdrew to Bantry Bay, to be out of the way of the storms which sometimes break with fury on this rock-bound coast.