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Title: The Story of The Atlantic Cable
Author: Charles Bright
Release Date: June 26, 2014 [EBook #46105]
Language: English
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[Illustration: H.M.S. Agamemnon entering Valentia Bay with first
Atlantic Cable.
_Frontispiece._]
THE STORY OF THE
ATLANTIC CABLE
BY
CHARLES BRIGHT
F. R. S. E., A. M. INST. C. E., M. I. E. E.
AUTHOR OF SUBMARINE TELEGRAPHS, SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA, THE EVOLUTION OF THE
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH, 1837-1897, THE LIFE STORY
OF SIR CHARLES TILSTON BRIGHT
_WITH FIFTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS_
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1903
COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
_Published November, 1903_
PREFATORY NOTE
The jubilee of Submarine Telegraphy having lately been achieved, and
that connected with the Atlantic cable being somewhat close at hand, it
has been thought a suitable moment for the appearance of this little
volume.
In these days when the substitution of submarine cables by wireless
telegraphy systems is a subject of common talk, it may be well to pause
for a moment and contemplate the period of time covered by the gradual
evolution of old and existing methods which at length achieved the
result we now enjoy--a practical commercial telegraphic system between
all the nations of the world, and notably between the United Kingdom and
America.
By a somewhat curious coincidence the engineer of the first Atlantic
cable accomplished his achievement at practically the same youthful age
(twenty-six) as Mr. Marconi when first transmitting signals across the
Atlantic without any intervening wires.
C. B.
21 OLD QUEEN STREET, WESTMINSTER, S. W.,
_October, 1903_.
CONTENTS
_PART I_
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY 13
_PART II_
THE PIONEER LINE
CHAP.
I. EVOLUTION OF ATLANTIC TELEGRAPHY IN AMERICA AND ENGLAND 27
II. THE MANUFACTURE OF THE LINE 46
III. THE FIRST START 61
IV. PREPARATIONS FOR ANOTHER ATTEMPT 74
V. THE TRIAL TRIP 84
VI. THE STORM 89
VII. THE RENEWED EFFORT 105
VIII. "FINIS CORONAT OPUS" 115
IX. THE CELEBRATION 137
X. WORKING THE LINE 144
XI. THE INQUEST 155
_PART III_
INTERMEDIATE KNOWLEDGE AND ADVANCE
XII. OTHER PROPOSED ROUTES 161
XIII. EXPERIENCE, INVESTIGATION, AND PROGRESS 169
_PART IV_
COMMERCIAL SUCCESS
XIV. THE 1865 CABLE AND EXPEDITION 177
XV. SECOND AND SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT 188
XVI. RECOVERY AND COMPLETION OF THE 1865 CABLE 197
XVII. JUBILATIONS 208
XVIII. SUBSEQUENT ATLANTIC LINES 212
XIX. ATLANTIC CABLE SYSTEMS OF TO-DAY 219
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
H.M.S. Agamemnon entering Valentia Bay with
first Atlantic Cable _Frontispiece_
FIG. PAGE
1. Newfoundland Telegraph Station, 1855 29
2. The Brooke "Sounder" 32
3. Specimen of the Ocean Bed 34
4. John Watkins Brett, Charles Tilston Bright, Cyrus
West Field--Projectors 38
5. Manufacture of the Core 49
6. Serving the Core with Hemp-Yarn 50
7. Applying the Iron Sheathing 51
8. The Deep-Sea Cable 52
9. The Shore-End Cable 52
10. Coiling the Finished Cable into the Factory Tanks 54
11. U.S.N.S. Niagara 55
12. The Paying-out Machine, 1857 57
13. Coiling the Cable on Board 58
14. Landing the Irish End of the Cable 63
15. Reshipment of the Cable aboard H.M.S. Agamemnon
and U.S.N.S. Niagara in Keyham
Basin 75
16. The Self-Releasing Brake 77
17. The Principle of the Brake 78
18. Bright's Paying-out Gear, 1858 80
19. The Reflecting Magnet 82
20. Reflecting Galvanometer and Speaker 83
21. Principle of the Reflecting Instrument 83
22. Deck of H.M.S. Agamemnon with Paying-out
Apparatus 84
23. Stowage of the Cable Coil on the Niagara 85
24. The Loading of the Agamemnon 85
25. Experimental Maneuvers in the Bay of Biscay 88
26. H.M.S. Agamemnon in a Storm 96
27. The Agamemnon Storm: Coals Adrift 103
28. In Collision with a Whale while Cable-Laying 123
29. Landing the American End 133
30. Newfoundland Telegraph Station, 1858 135
31. Facsimile of the First Public News Message Received
through the Atlantic Cable 150
32. The North Atlantic Telegraph Project, 1860 162
33. The North Atlantic Exploring Expedition, 1860 167
34. The Main Cable, 1865-'66 180
35. The Great Eastern at Sea 183
36. Cable and Machinery aboard S.S. Great Eastern 185
37. The Picking-up Machine, 1866 191
38. Buoys, Grapnels, Mushrooms--and Men 193
39. "Foul in Tank" while Paying-out 196
40. S.S. Great Eastern Completing the Second Atlantic Cable 199
41. Diagram Illustrative of the Final Tactics Adopted
for Picking up the 1865 Cable 203
42. S.S. Great Eastern with 1865 Cable at Bows 205
43. Anglo-American Atlantic Cable (1894): deep-sea type 217
44. Shore-End of the 1894 "Anglo" Cable 217
45. Atlantic Cable Systems, 1903 221
PART I
INTRODUCTORY
The Electric Telegraph--First Land Telegraphs--First Submarine
Cables: Dover to Calais, 1850-'51--Other Early Cables: England to
Ireland, 1853, etc.
_The Electric Telegraph._--The advances made in electric science are so
bold and rapid that our still comparative ignorance of the precise
nature of electricity must always seem strange. We are not, however,
here directly concerned with electricity as a physical science, but
rather with its practical applications to the still present system of
telegraphy, by way of introduction to the gradual development of
Trans-Atlantic telegraphy. The electric telegraph, together with the
railway-train and the steamship, constitute the three most conspicuous
features of latter-day civilization. Indeed, it may be truly said that
the harnessing of this force of nature (electricity) to the service of
man for human intercourse has effected a change in political,
commercial, and social relations, even more complete than that wrought
by steam locomotion. Like its fellow emblems, the telegraph was the
outcome of many years of persevering effort on the part of numerous
scientific investigators and inventors; like them also, it was perfected
for practical use on both sides of the Atlantic by men of our own race
and speech, such as Cooke, Wheatstone, and Morse.
_The First Land Telegraphs._--The first practical telegraph-line in the
world--namely, that on the Great Western Railway from Paddington to West
Drayton, shortly afterward extended to Slough--was within the year of
Queen Victoria's accession to the throne, and in the same year as the
first trunk line of railway and the first ocean steamer.[1] Improvements
and novelties in telegraphic instruments were rapidly made by inventors
from all the civilized nations--e. g., Morse, Vail, and Henry in
America; Breguet in France; Steinheil and Siemens & Halske in Germany;
and Schilling in Russia; besides Alexander Bain, Bright, and Hughes in
England. Commercial interests were soon formed to work the new
invention, and in England the Electric and International Telegraph
Company, the British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company, and other
large concerns were the means of establishing telegraphic communication
throughout the kingdom--only to be absorbed by Government later on. Our
theme does not include--even in the course of introduction--a study of
the development of land telegraphy. The apparatus and methods employed
are, to a great extent, entirely different; indeed, the only point in
common between the cardinal principles and submarine telegraphy is that
electricity, as generated by a voltaic battery, is the common agent, and
consequently the metal conducting-wire is employed in both.[2] But in
subaqueous (as well as in subterranean) telegraphy the poles and
porcelain insulators require to be substituted by an insulating covering
round the entire conductor; and the point of contact in practise between
land and marine telegraphy is really, therefore, in the matter of
insulation for subterranean or subaqueous wires.
_First Submarine Cables._--A Spaniard named Salva appears to have
suggested the feasibility of submarine telegraphy as far back as 1795,
and in 1811 Sommering and Schilling conducted a series of experiments,
more or less practical, when a soluble material--said to have been
india-rubber--was first used for insulating the wire.
But the earliest records of practical telegraphy under water of which
there are any particulars relate to the experiments conducted by Dr.
O'Shaughnessy (afterward Sir William O'Shaughnessy Brooke, F.R.S.)
across the River Hugli on behalf of the East Indian Company in 1838.[3]
Referring to his practical researches a little later, O'Shaughnessy
remarked: "Insulation, according to my experiments, is best accomplished
by enclosing the wire (previously pitched) in a split rattan, and then
paying the rattan round with tarred yarn; or the wire may--as in some
experiments by Colonel Pasley, R.E., at Chatham--be surrounded by
strands of tarred rope, and this by pitched yarn. An insulated rope of
this kind may be spread across a wet field--nay, even led through a
river--and will still conduct the electrical signals, without any
appreciable loss." In 1840 Professor Wheatstone (afterward Sir Charles
Wheatstone, F.R.S.) explained to a committee of the House of Commons the
methods by which he thought it possible to establish telegraphic
communication between Dover and Calais. He appears to have been unaware
of the prior experiments just alluded to, for his system of insulation,
though more fully developed, was practically the same.
Prof. S. F. B. Morse, the well-known inventor of the telegraph apparatus
bearing his name, also made a study of this problem in 1842, when he
laid down an insulated copper wire across New York harbor, through which
he transmitted electric currents. Hemp soaked in tar and pitch,
surrounded with a layer of india-rubber, constituted the insulation.
Morse was a great letter-writer, and records of his early work are
solely based on his own statements at a time when he noted in his diary:
"I am crushed for want of means. My stockings all want to see my mother,
and my hat is hoary with age." In 1845 Ezra Cornell, who was afterward
the founder of Cornell University, laid a cable, twelve miles long, to
connect Fort Lee with New York, in the Hudson River. The cable consisted
of two cotton-covered copper wires, insulated with india-rubber, and
enclosed in a leaden pipe. It worked well for several months, but was
broken by ice in 1846. In that year Mr. Charles West paid out by hand
an india-rubber insulated wire in Portsmouth harbor, through which he
signaled from a boat to the shore. The experiment was intended as the
forerunner of the establishment of telegraphic communication between
England and France, but for want of the necessary funds was not followed
up.
Subaqueous, or marine, telegraphy owed its institution, however, to the
introduction of gutta-percha, for insulating purposes. The late Dr.
Werner Siemens having invented a machine for applying gutta-percha to a
wire--similar in principle to the machine for making macaroni--considerable
lengths of gutta-percha-covered subterranean wires were laid in Germany
and Prussia between 1846 and 1849; and in 1849 Siemens laid a
gutta-percha insulated conductor in the harbor of Kiel which was used
for firing mines. Following this came the extensive system of
underground lines laid down in England for the Magnetic Telegraph
Company by their engineer, Mr. (afterward Sir Charles) Bright, in
accordance with a patent of his. Short lengths were also laid, mostly
through tunnels, by the Electric Telegraph Company a little later.
On the 10th day of January, 1849, the late Mr. C. V. Walker, F.R.S.,
electrician to the Southeastern Railway, laid a gutta-percha-covered
conductor, two miles long, in the English Channel. The wire was coiled
on a drum on board the laying vessel, from which it was paid out as the
vessel progressed. Starting from the beach at Folkestone, the line was
joined up to an aerial wire, 83 miles in length, along the Southeastern
Railway, and Mr. Walker, on board the Princess Clementine, succeeded in
exchanging telegrams with London.
On the 23d July, 1845, the brothers Jacob and John Watkins Brett
addressed themselves to Sir Robert Peel, as Prime Minister and First
Lord of the Treasury, relative to a proposal of theirs for establishing
a general system of telegraphic communication--oceanic and otherwise.
They were referred to the Admiralty, Foreign Office, etc., and gradually
became involved in a departmental correspondence--more academic than
useful--in which they were passed backward and forward from one
government office to another. After considerable negotiations with both
governments concerned, a concession was at last obtained by the Messrs.
Brett, and a company formed for instituting telegraphy between England
and France by means of a line from Dover to Calais. Twenty-five nautical
miles of No. 14 copper wire covered with 1/2-inch thickness of
gutta-percha was then manufactured, the electrician's tongue being the
only test applied to some of the lengths. The shore ends for about two
miles from each terminus consisted of a No. 16 B.W.G.[4] conductor
covered with cotton soaked in india-rubber solution, the whole being
incased in a very thick lead tube. The rest of the line was composed of
the gutta-percha insulated wire above described, with 30-pound leaden
weights fastened to it at 100-yard intervals,[5] the laying vessel
having to be stopped each time one was put on. The submersion of the
line was successfully effected, but it only lived to speak a few more or
less incoherent words--one being a short complimentary communication to
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, shortly afterward Emperor of the French. It
subsequently transpired that a Boulogne fisherman had hooked up the line
with his trawl, "mistaking it for a new kind of seaweed!" This
enterprise excited little attention at the time. It was, in fact,
regarded as a "mad freak" and even as a "gigantic swindle." When
accomplished, The Times remarked, in the words of Shakespeare, "The jest
of yesterday has become the fact of to-day"; and a few hours later it
might with equal truth have been said that "the fact of yesterday has
become the jest of to-day!" The feasibility of laying such a line and of
transmitting electric signals across the Channel had, however, been
proved. The signals obtained had, moreover, the effect of eradicating
the then very prevalent belief that, even if the line were successfully
submerged, the current would become dissipated in the water.[6] It now
remained to find a satisfactory method of protecting the insulated
conductor from injury during and after laying. The excellence of the
insulating material was recently testified to when some portions were
recovered.
Though the above line was not, practically speaking, turned to any
account, it was by no means abortive, for the signals it had conveyed
were sufficient to "save the concession," which was renewed by the
French Government on December 19, 1850. But the previous failure had
made capitalists distrustful; and only some weeks before the expiration
of the time limit the necessary funds had not been raised.
_Dover-Calais, 1850-'51._--The undertaking was saved by the energy and
talent of one man, Mr. T. R. Crampton, an eminent railway engineer. He
raised the necessary capital (£15,000), putting his own name down for
half this amount and being joined by Lord de Mauley and the late Sir
James Carmichael. He (Mr. Crampton) also settled the type of cable to be
laid--based on the iron pit-rope; this, in one form or another,
practically remains the type of to-day. The cable contained four copper
conducting-wires of No. 16 B.W.G., each one covered with two layers of
gutta-percha to No. 1 gage; these four insulated conductors, or "cores,"
were laid together and the interstices filled up with strands of tarred
Russian hemp. The outer covering consisted of ten galvanized-iron wires
of No. 1 gage wound spirally round the bundle of cores; this armor was
provided "with a view to protecting the insulated conductors from the
strains and chafing which had so seriously interfered with the chances
of the previous line." The completed cable weighed about seven tons to
the mile. It was coiled into the hold of an old pontoon hulk, which was
then taken in tow by two steamers. A third tug to stand by, and a small
man-of-war steamer to act as pilot, accompanied the laying expedition.
The cable was landed at the foot of the South Foreland lighthouse and
paid out toward Cape Sangatte, but the weather was less favorable than
on the previous occasion; moreover, the weight of the cable--in the
absence of efficient holding-back gear--caused it to run out too
rapidly, notwithstanding the slight depth (some 30 fathoms) encountered.
Added to this, the tugs drifted with the wind and tide. Thus when the
vessels arrived within about a mile of the French coast no more cable
was left on board, and a fresh length had to be procured and spliced on
before the line was complete. This cable proved a lasting success: it
underwent numerous and extensive repairs, and it was only quite recently
that its abandonment took place.
_Other Early Cables._--The success of Crampton's line gave considerable
impetus to submarine telegraphy. Similar enterprises sprung up on all
sides; but many failures occurred before these operations came to be
regarded as ordinary industrial undertakings. In the course of the
following year (1852) three unsuccessful attempts were made to establish
telegraphic communication between England and Ireland. In the
first--between Holyhead and Howth--the cable was not heavy enough to
contend with the rough bottom, and strong currents and disturbances from
anchors experienced in these waters; but this undertaking is remarkable
as being the only instance in which an effort was made to do without any
intermediate serving between the insulated conductor and the iron
sheathing. In the second attempt--between Port Patrick (Scotland) and
Donaghadee (Ireland)--the cable consisted of a central copper conductor
covered first with india-rubber, then with gutta-percha, and then hemp
outside all. This cable, being far too light, was actually carried away
by the strong tidal currents and even broken into pieces during laying.
In the third endeavor, between the same two points, the arrangements for
checking the cable while paying out being again inadequate, there was
not sufficient to reach the farther shore. However, in 1853, a heavy
cable, weighing 7 tons per mile, with six conductors, was successfully
laid for the Magnetic Telegraph Company by the late Sir Charles
Bright.[7] This was in upward of 180 fathoms--the deepest water in which
a cable was laid for some time--and proved a permanent success, forming
the first establishment of telegraphic communication with Ireland. Only
a year elapsed before it became evident that another cable was required
to meet the traffic between England and the Continent, and an additional
line was laid from Dover to Ostend. Anglo-Dutch and Anglo-German cables
followed in due course; and in less than ten years from the commencement
of its operations over the first Channel cable, the Submarine Telegraph
Company (since absorbed by the state) was working at least half a dozen
really excellent cables, varying from 25 to 117 miles in length,
connecting England with the rest of Europe. During the next few years
submarine communication was established between Denmark and Sweden, as
well as between Italy, Corsica, and Sardinia; and between Sardinia and
the north coast of Africa; but where successful, the measures adopted
were, in the main, similar to those we have already described in
connection with the preceding lines, though special conditions were, in
some instances, the means of introducing certain modifications and
improvements. Several serious failures were, however, experienced in the
deep water of the Mediterranean which had a detracting effect--in the
public mind--on the chances of the great undertaking which was to
follow.
PART II
THE PIONEER LINE
CHAPTER I
EVOLUTION OF ATLANTIC TELEGRAPHY IN AMERICA AND ENGLAND
Gradual Evolution--The Projectors--Survey of the
Route--Soundings--Nature of the Ocean Bed--Formation of the
Atlantic Telegraph Company--Raising Capital--Critics, "Croakers,"
and Crude Inventors.
As has been shown in the introductory chapter, the efforts of the early
projectors of submarine telegraphy were at first confined to connecting
countries divided only by narrow seas, or establishing communication
between points on the same seaboard. The next step forward, with which
we are here immediately concerned--that of spanning the Atlantic Ocean
between Europe and America--was aptly characterized at the time as "the
great feat of the century." By its means the people of the two great
continents were to speak together in a few moments, though separated by
a vast ocean.
This was the first venture in transoceanic telegraphy. There was no
applicable data to go upon; for the vast difference between laying short
cable-lengths across rivers, bays, etc., in shallow water, and that of
laying a long length of cable in depths of over two miles across an open
ocean will be easily recognized--at any rate, by the sailor and
engineer.
The wires of the Magnetic Telegraph Company had already been carried to
various points on the west and south coast of Ireland; and, in 1852, Mr.
F. N. Gisborne, a very able English engineer, obtained an exclusive
concession for connecting St. Johns, Newfoundland, with Cape Ray, in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, by an overhead telegraph-line. The idea was to
"tap" steamers coming from London to Cape Race at St. Johns, and pass
messages between that point and Cape Breton, on the other side of the
Gulf, by carrier-pigeons. A few miles of cables were made in England,
and laid between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. Mr. Gisborne
then surveyed the route for the land-line across Newfoundland, and had
erected some forty miles of it, when the work was stopped for want of
funds. When in New York in 1854, Gisborne was introduced to Mr. Cyrus
West Field, a retired merchant, who became enthusiastic on the subject,
and formed a small, but strong, syndicate for the practical realization
of Gisborne's scheme. A cable eighty-five miles in length was made in
England, to be laid between Cape Breton and Newfoundland; but after
forty miles had been paid out, rough weather ensued, and the undertaking
had to be abandoned. A fresh instalment was, however, sent out in 1856,
and successfully laid across the Gulf, thus connecting St. Johns with
Canada and the American lines. The conductor of this line instead of
being a single solid wire was, for the first time, composed of several
small wires laid up together in strand form--with a view to avoiding a
flaw in any single wire stopping the conductivity, besides affording
increased mechanical pliability.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Newfoundland Telegraph Station, 1855.]
The feasibility of uniting the two vast systems of telegraphy had
engaged the consideration of some of those most prominently associated
with electric telegraphy on both sides of the Atlantic. It had been
already shown that cables could be successfully laid and maintained in
comparatively moderate depths in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, etc., but
the nearest points between the British Isles and Newfoundland are nearly
2,000 miles apart. The greatest length of submarine line which had
hitherto been effectively submerged--110 miles--formed but an
insignificant portion of such an enormous distance; and that, too,
involving a depth of nearly three miles for a large proportion of the
way, instead of about 300 fathoms.
Apart from the engineering difficulties entailed by this vast distance
and depth, the question was then undetermined as to the possibility of
conveying electric currents through such a length in an unbroken
circuit, and at a speed that would enable messages to be passed rapidly
enough in succession to prove remunerative. Various researches had been
made--by Faraday among others--with a view to determining the law in
relation to the velocity of electricity through a conducting-wire.
The retarding effect of the insulating covering had already been
discovered; but the exact formula for the working speed of cables of
definite proportions and lengths was not correctly arrived at till some
years later. The similarity, in principle, of a cable to a Leyden jar
was first pointed out by Mr. Edward Brailsford Bright in the course of a
paper read before the British Association in 1854. He showed that on
charging a gutta-percha-covered wire, the insulating material tended to
absorb and retain a part of the charge and to hold back, as a static
charge, some of the electricity flowing as current through the
conductor--just as the charge (of opposite potential) induced on the
outside plate of a Leyden jar statically holds the primary charge on the
inner plate, until either are neutralized. The brothers, Edward and
Charles Bright, made a series of extensive experiments on long lengths
of underground wires; and these investigations were supplemented later
by Mr. Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse (formerly a medical
practitioner), who became electrician to the first Atlantic cable. Mr.
Whitehouse was a man of very high intellectual and scientific
attainments, and a most ingenious and painstaking experimenter.
The retardation of the electric current through an insulated wire due to
induction--a phenomenon practically unknown with bare, aerial wires
suspended on posts, and of no consequence with quite short cables--was
overcome by using a succession of opposite currents. By this means the
latter, or retarded, portion of each current was "wiped out" by the
opposite current immediately following it; and thus a series of electric
waves could be made to traverse the cable, one after the other, several
being in the act of passing onward at different points along the
conductor at the same time. The Messrs. Bright devised a special key
(embodied with a patent for signaling through long cables) for
transmitting these alternating currents from the battery; and this was
followed by others to effect the same object--one by Professor Thomson
(now Lord Kelvin), who became electrical adviser to the enterprise.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--The Brooke "Sounder."]
A certain degree of knowledge regarding the nature of the bed of the
Atlantic Ocean was now available; for in the summer of 1856 a series of
soundings had been taken by Lieutenant O. H. Berryman, U.S.N., from
U.S.N. Arctic, and also independently by Commander Joseph Dayman, R.N.
(H.M.S. Cyclops), showing what was called "a gently undulating plateau
extending the whole distance between Ireland and British North America."
These depths (averaging about 2-1/2 miles) compared favorably with those
that had presented themselves farther southward. The ground was found
to shoal gradually on the Newfoundland side, but rose more rapidly
toward the Irish shore. The soundings were taken with the ingenious
apparatus of Lieut. J. M. Brooke, U.S.N. (Fig. 2), which formed the
prototype of all similar deep-sea sounding-tubes of the present day. In
this, at the extremity of the sounding-line a light iron rod, C,
hollowed at its lower end, passed loosely through a hole in the center
of a cannon-ball weight, A, which is fastened to the line by a couple of
links. On the bottom being touched, the links reverse position, owing to
the weight being taken off, and the cannon-ball, or plummet, B, being
set free, remains on the ground, leaving the light tube only to be drawn
up with the line.[8] In the act of grounding, however, the open end of
the tube presses into the bottom, a specimen of which is consequently
obtained--unless it be rock or coral. An oozy bottom was found
throughout the soundings. The specimens brought up to the surface were
shown under the microscope to consist (Fig. 3) of the tiny shells of
_animalculæ_--the indestructible outside skeletons of the animal
organisms known as _diatomaceæ_ and _globigirenæ_ foraminiferæ largely
composed of carbonate of lime.[9] No sand or gravel was found on the
ocean bed, from which it was deduced that no currents, or other
disturbing elements, existed at those depths; for otherwise these frail
shells would have been rubbed to pieces. As it was, they came up
entire--without a sign of abrasion. The plateau or ridge--which was
found to extend for some 400 miles in breadth--was considered a
veritable feather-bed for a cable. Indeed, in his subsequent report to
the United States navy, Lieut. M. F. Maury, U.S.N., spoke of this
"shallow platform or table-land" as having been "apparently placed for
the express purpose of holding the wires of a submarine telegraph and of
keeping them out of harm's way." Lieutenant Maury concluded his report
as follows: "I do not, however, pretend to consider the question as to
the possibility of finding _a time calm enough, the sea smooth enough, a
wire long enough, or a ship big enough_, to lay a coil of wire sixteen
hundred miles in length." These words form amusing reading nowadays, as
do also the suggestions of "telegraph plateaus" furnished by Providence
as a resting-place for the Atlantic cable. The "plateau" idea was only
true to the extent that the bed of the ocean in these regions afforded a
smooth surface as compared with the Alpine character prevailing north
and south of it. These soundings at something like fifty-mile intervals
were not, however, originally undertaken with the Atlantic cable
expressly in view. Indeed, for many years--until experience pointed to
the absolute necessity--no special surveys were made previous to the
laying of a cable.[10]
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Specimen of the Ocean Bed. (Magnified 10,000
times.)]
Formation of the _Atlantic Telegraph Company, 1856._--Cyrus Field,
besides being a man of sanguine temperament and intense business
energy, also possessed shrewdness and foresight. Thus, he immediately
recognized the value of Gisborne's concessions, and determined to turn
them to the fullest account. His extraordinary acumen told him that by
improving on the exclusive landing rights already obtained in America,
he would place himself in the strongest possible position in regard to
the big notion of an Atlantic cable. No sooner had he made up his mind
to this effect than he set to work to accomplish the idea; and very soon
exclusive rights were obtained in his name (Gisborne having entirely
dropped out of the negotiations) for practically every important point
in connection with the landing of an Atlantic cable on British North
American territory. The period for these rights was fifty years, besides
which he obtained various grants of land. Thus it will be seen he had
assured himself a very strong position in connection with any project
for an Atlantic cable without having had (in the words of his brother,
Henry Field) "any experience in the business of laying a submarine
telegraph." Mr. Field's syndicate was about this time registered as the
New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, which was now
capable of debarring competition for a considerable period, at any rate.
Armed with this apparent monopoly, Mr. Field went over to England,
empowered by his associates to deal with the exclusive concession
possessed by the above company for the coast of Newfoundland and other
rights in Nova Scotia, etc. He had already been over before in
connection with the Gulf of St. Lawrence cable. He had, on that
occasion, met Mr. John Watkins Brett, who thereupon interested himself
financially in the "Newfoundland Company." On his second mission (in
July, 1856) he at once put himself into communication with Mr.
(afterward Sir Charles) Bright, who was known to be already making
various preparations with a view to an Atlantic cable in connection with
the Magnetic Telegraph system. On September 26, 1856, an agreement was
entered into between Brett, Bright, and Field in the following terms,
their signatures being reproduced as they appear at the foot of the
document:
"Mutually, and on equal terms we engage to exert ourselves for the
purpose of forming a Company for establishing and working of electric
telegraphic communication between Newfoundland and Ireland, such Company
to be called the Atlantic Telegraph Company, or by such other name as
the parties hereto shall jointly agree upon."
[Illustration: Signatures, from top to bottom: John W. Brett, Charles T.
Bright, Cyrus W. Field]
[Illustration: John Watkins Brett (Projector).
Charles Tilston Bright (Projector and Engineer).
Cyrus West Field (Projector).
FIG. 4.]
Let us see now what the united efforts of these three "projectors" had
before them. The ground had already been to some extent cleared by their
individual exertions when working independently, as well as in other
ways. Bright, and also Whitehouse, had already proved the possibility of
signaling through such a length of insulated wire as that involved by an
Atlantic line. The soundings that had been recently taken showed that
the depth was only unfavorable in the sense of being something far--but
uniformly--greater than that in which any cable had previously been
submerged. Finally, the favorable nature of the landing rights secured
by Field on the other side went a long way toward insuring against
competition, apart from the actual permission. There yet remained, then,
the necessity of obtaining (_a_) Government recognition, and, if
possible, Government subsidies; (_b_) the confidence and pecuniary
support of the moneyed mercantile class; besides which a suitable form
of cable had to be designed and manufactured, as well as all the
necessary apparatus for the laying of the same.
As a result of considerable discussion, the two governments concerned
eventually came to recognize the importance and feasibility of this
undertaking for linking together the two great English-speaking nations,
and the benefits it would confer upon humanity. Both the British and
United States Governments gave a subsidy, in return for free
transmission of their messages, with priority over others.[11] This,
however, only jointly amounted to 8 per cent of the capital, and was
payable only while the cable worked.[12]
The Atlantic Telegraph Company was registered on October 20, 1856, and
the £350,000 decided on as the necessary capital for the work was then
sought and obtained in an absolutely unprecedented fashion. There was no
promotion money, no prospectus was published, no advertisements, no
brokers, and no commissions, neither was there at that time any board of
directors or executive officers. The election of a board was reserved
for a meeting of shareholders, to be held after allotment by the
provisional committee, consisting of the subscribers to the Memorandum
of Association. Any remuneration to the projectors was left wholly
dependent on, and subsequent to, the shareholders' profits being over 10
per cent per annum, after which the projectors were to divide the
surplus.
The campaign was opened in Liverpool, the headquarters of the "Magnetic"
Company, the greater proportion of whose shareholders were business
men--merchants and shipowners--mainly hailing from Liverpool,
Manchester, Glasgow, and London, who appreciated the value of America
being connected telegraphically with Great Britain and Europe through
their Irish lines.
The first meeting of the "Atlantic" Company was convened for November
12, 1856, at the underwriters' rooms in the Liverpool Exchange. This was
called together by means of a small circular on a half-sheet of
note-paper, issued by Mr. E. B. Bright, manager of the "Magnetic"
Company. The result was a crowded gathering composed of the wealth,
enterprise, and influence of Liverpool and other important business and
manufacturing centers. Similar meetings were also held in Manchester and
Glasgow, and a public subscription list was opened at the "Magnetic"
Company's office of each town. In the course of a few days the entire
capital was raised, by the issue of 350 shares of £1,000 each, chiefly
taken up by the shareholders of the "Magnetic" Company. Mr. Cyrus Field
had reserved £75,000 for American subscription, for which he signed, but
his confidence in his compatriots turned out to be greatly misplaced.
The result has been thus recounted by his brother: "He (Cyrus Field)
thought that one-fourth of the stock should be held in this country (the
United States), and he did not doubt from the eagerness with which
three-fourths had been taken in England, that the remainder would be at
once subscribed in America." In point of fact, it was only after much
trouble that subscribers were obtained in the States for a total of
twenty-seven shares, or less than one-twelfth of the total capital.
Thus, notwithstanding their professed enthusiasm, the faith of the
Americans in the project proved to be strictly limited. At any rate,
they did not rise to the occasion. Indeed, the undertaking was very much
an affair of the Magnetic Telegraph Company, the officers of which led
the shareholders to take a lively interest from the first in the
Atlantic project as forming the nucleus of a great extension of
business.
The first meeting of shareholders took place on December 9, 1856, when a
board of directors was elected. This included the late George Peabody,
Samuel Gurney, T. H. Brooking, T. A. Hankey, C. M. (afterward Sir
Curtis) Lampson, and Sir William Brown, of Liverpool, no less than nine
(representing the interests of different towns) being also directors of
the "Magnetic" Company, including Mr. J. W. Brett. The first chairman
was Sir William Brown, subsequently succeeded by the Right Hon. James
Stuart-Wortley, M.P. Two names may be further specially referred to as
destined, in different ways, to have the greatest possible influence in
the subsequent development of submarine telegraphy. Mr. (afterward Sir
John) Pender, who was then a "Magnetic" director, afterward took a
leading part in the vast extensions that have followed to the
Mediterranean, India, China, Australasia, the Cape, and Brazil, besides
several of the subsequent Atlantic lines. Up to the time of his death he
was chairman of something like a dozen, more or less allied, cable
companies, representing some £30,000,000 of capital, and mainly
organized through his foresight and business ability. Then, again, Prof.
William Thomson, of Glasgow University, was a tower of scientific
strength on the Board. He had been from the outset an ardent believer in
the Atlantic line. His acquisition as a director was destined to prove
of vast importance in influencing the development of transoceanic
communication, for his subsequent experiments on the cable during
1857-'58 led up to his invention of the mirror galvanometer and
signaling instrument, whereby the most attenuated currents of
electricity, which are incapable of producing visible signals on other
telegraphic apparatus, are so magnified by the use of a reflected beam
of light as to afford signals readily legible. (A full description of
this invention will be found in its proper place--farther on.)
Mr. (afterward Sir Charles) Bright was appointed engineer-in-chief, with
Mr. Wildman Whitehouse (who had become closely associated with the
project) as electrician, while Mr. Cyrus Field became general manager.
* * * * *
It must not be supposed that because the capital was raised without
great difficulty, and because the project had far-seeing supporters,
that there was any lack of "croakers." On the contrary, the prejudice
against the line as a "mad scheme" ran perhaps even higher than in the
case of most great and novel undertakings. The critics were many, and
with our present knowledge it is difficult to recognize that many of the
assertions and suggestions emanated from men of science as well as from
eminent engineers and sailors, who, we should say nowadays, ought to
have known better. For example, the late Prof. Sir G. B. Airy, F.R.S.
(Astronomer Royal), announced to the world: (1) that "it was a
mathematical impossibility to submerge a cable in safety at so great a
depth"; and (2) that "if it were possible, no signals could be
transmitted through so great a length."
From the very outset of the project the engineer-in-chief (as soon as
appointed) had to deal with wild and undeveloped criticisms and
suggestions, partly from "inventors," who desired to reap personal
benefit by the scheme, and amateurs in the art generally, all of which
appear singularly ludicrous nowadays.
The fallacy most frequently introduced was, perhaps, that the cable
would be suspended in the water at a certain depth. Naturally the
pressure increases with the depth on all sides of a cable (or anything
else) in its descent through the sea, but, as practically everything on
earth is more compressible than water, it is obvious that the iron wire,
yarn, gutta-percha, and copper conductor, forming the cable, must be
more and more compressed as they descend. Thus the cable constantly
increases its density, or specific gravity, in going down, while the
equal bulk of the water surrounding it continues to have, practically
speaking, very nearly the same specific gravity as at the surface.
Without this valuable property of water, the hydraulic press would not
exist.
The strange blunder here described was participated in by some of the
most distinguished naval men. As an instance, even at a comparatively
recent period, Captain Marryat, R.N., the famous nautical author, writes
of the sea: "What a mine of wealth must lie buried in its sands. What
riches lie entangled among its rocks, or remain suspended in its
unfathomable gulf, where the compressed fluid is equal in gravity to
that which it encircles."[13]
To obviate this non-existent difficulty, it was gravely proposed to
festoon the cable across, at a given maximum depth between buoys and
floats, or even parachutes--at which ships might call, hook on, and talk
telegraphically to shore!
Others again proposed to apply _gummed cotton_ to the outside of the
cable in connection with the above burying system. The idea was that the
gum (or glue) would gradually dissolve and so let the cable down
"quietly"!
As an example of the crude notions prevailing in the mind of one
gentleman with a proposed invention, to whom was shown an inch specimen
of the cable, he remarked: "Now I understand how you stow it away on
board. You cut it up into bits beforehand, and then join up the pieces
as you lay."
Some again absolutely went so far as to take out patents for converting
the laying vessel into a huge factory, with a view to making the cable
on board in one continuous length, and submerging it during the process!
Finally, one naval expert assured the company that "no other machinery
for paying out was necessary than a _handspike_ to stop the egress of
the cable."
CHAPTER II
THE MANUFACTURE OF THE LINE
Design and Construction--Ships--Testing, Shipment, and
Stowage--Paying-out Machinery--Staff--Preparations for the
Expedition.
The construction of the cable was taken in hand the following February
(1857).
The distance from Valentia, on the western Irish coast, to Trinity Bay,
Newfoundland--the two landing-points selected[14]--being 1,640 nautical
miles, it was estimated that a length of 2,500 N.M.[15] would be
sufficient to meet all requirements. This would provide sufficient
margin for a considerable amount of "slack" cable for accommodating the
irregularities of the bottom. The Gutta-Percha Company of London were
entrusted with the manufacture of the "core," consisting of a strand of
seven No. 22 B.W.G. copper wires (total diameter No. 14 gage) weighing
107 pounds per N.M. insulated, with three coatings of gutta-percha (to
3/8-inch diameter) weighing 261 pounds per N.M., the conductor being, in
fact, covered to No. 00 B.W.G.
This formed a far heavier core than had been previously adopted, and on
this account the difficulties of manufacture were proportionately
increased. The enormous pressure of the ocean at such depths involved
also a much severer test for the core.
On the other hand, as we now know, the conductor--and consequently also
the insulator--should have been still larger, to a material degree. The
engineer of the line strongly urged a conductor weighing 392 pounds per
N.M., with the same weight for the insulator;[16] but his fellow
projectors (the business element of the undertaking) were all for
getting the work done, while the weather permitted, that year; and they
were perhaps overquick to recognize the difference in the capital
required. Moreover, they were here supported technically by the views of
the responsible electrician, as well as by such high authorities as
Michael Faraday and Morse. The latter reported that "large coated wires
used beneath the water or the earth are worse conductors--so far as
velocity of transmission is concerned--than small ones; and, therefore,
are not so well suited as small ones for the purposes of submarine
transmission of telegraphic signals." Faraday had stated: "The larger
the wire, the more electricity was required to charge it; and the
greater was the retardation of that electric impulse which should be
occupied in sending that charge forward."[17]
Thus it will be seen that although Faraday laid the foundations of a
large proportion of the electrical engineering of to-day, his views in
this instance did not prove to be correct. The theoretical resemblance
of a cable to a Leyden jar--in reference to the effect of charging
either--seems to have been prominently in mind, without proper regard to
the _resistance_ offered by the wire to the electric current--a
resistance which becomes less the greater the bulk of the wire. Besides
the engineer being overridden in this matter, the word of the electrical
adviser on the Board (Professor Thomson) regarding the carrying capacity
or working speed that would be obtained with such a core as that decided
on--in view of the length involved--was also unavailing.
While no one can fail to appreciate the businesslike manner in which
this undertaking was pushed through from the moment of inception--comparing
only too favorably with some experiences of to-day--it was, without
doubt, a vast pity that more time was not devoted to a fuller
consideration of some of the problems, such as that involved over the
dimensions of the conductor and insulator. No serious fault could,
however, be detected with its actual manufacture, though the methods of
those days were primitive as compared with present practise, and a
system of efficient electrical testing altogether wanting.
After various experiments had been made with sample lengths of different
iron wires made up into cable, the contract for the outer sheathings
was, in order to get through the work quickly, divided equally between
Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co., of Greenwich, and Messrs. R. S. Newall &
Co., of Birkenhead--both originally pit-rope makers.
The insulated core was first surrounded with a serving of hemp
saturated with a mixture of tar, pitch, linseed-oil, and wax; and then
sheathed spirally with an armor of eighteen strands, each containing
seven iron wires of No. 22 B.W.G., the completed strand being No. 14
gage in diameter.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Manufacture of the Core.]
The cable (Fig. 8) was then finally drawn through another mixture of
tar. Its weight in air was 1 ton per N.M., and in water only 13.4
hundredweight, bearing a strain of 3 tons 5 hundredweight before
breaking--equivalent to nearly five miles of its weight in water.
For each end approaching the shore, the sheathing (see Fig. 9) consisted
of twelve wires of No. 0 gauge, making a total weight of about nine tons
to the mile. This type was adopted for the first ten miles from the
Irish coast, and for fifteen miles from the landing at Newfoundland, at
both of which localities rocks had been found to abound plentifully--so
much so that the armor was insufficient, and present practise provides
double the weight under similar conditions.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Serving the Core with Hemp-Yarn.]
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Applying the Iron Sheathing.]
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--The Deep Sea Cable.]
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--The Shore-End Cable.]
Only four months was allowed for the manufacture of this 2,500 miles of
cable, which had to be delivered in June of that year (1857). This
involved the preparation and drawing of 20,500 miles of copper wire
(providing for the lay) and stranding into the 2,500 miles of conductor.
For the insulation nearly 300 tons of gutta-percha required to be
prepared, and the three separate layers of gutta-percha required to be
applied to the wire, subsequently followed by the spiral serving of
yarn. Finally--and with a due allowance for lay--367,500 miles of wire
had to be drawn, from 1,687 tons of charcoal iron, and laid up into
50,000 miles of strand for the outer sheathing. The entire length of
copper and iron wire employed was, therefore, 340,500 miles--enough to
engirdle the earth thirteen times, and considerably more than enough to
extend from the earth to the moon. The work was enormously increased, of
course, on account of the sheathing being composed of a number of
strands instead of several single wires. While having certain mechanical
advantages at the outset, this stranded sheathing is not a durable type
of cable--besides being somewhat costly--and is never adopted nowadays.
The contract price for the entire cable was £225,000, the core costing
£40 and the armor £50 per mile.[18]
As fast as the cable was made at the respective factories, it was coiled
into iron tanks ready for shipment.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Coiling the Finished Cable into the Factory
Tanks.]
_Ships and Paying-out Machinery._--The race against time--resulting from
an unfortunate arrangement with American interests--was truly appalling;
for, besides the manufacture of the line itself, ships had to be
selected and prepared for receiving the cable, and machinery for paying
out the line had to be designed and made. So far as the manufacture
went, the machinery for that was already in existence, in view of the
cables that had previously been laid--apart from the fact that the
sheathing machinery was practically the same as had already been used
for making ropes with. But this being the first _ocean_ line, special
apparatus had to be worked out for submerging a cable satisfactorily in
deep water. So far as ships were concerned, the British and United
States Governments had already expressed willingness to furnish these.
The former undertaking took shape by the Admiralty placing H.M.S.
Agamemnon (a screw-propelled line-of-battle ship and one of the finest
in the British navy) at the company's disposal for the expedition. She
had been Admiral Lyons's flagship during the bombardment of Sebastopol a
couple of years before; but, in her coming mission, was to do more to
bring about the reign of peace--by drawing together in closer commune
the several nations of the earth--than any man-of-war was ever called to
do, before or after. With a somewhat peculiar construction, she was
admirably adapted for her work. Her engines were quite near the stern,
while amidships she had a magnificent hold, forty-five feet square and
about twenty feet deep. In this capacious receptacle nearly half the
cable was stowed from the works at Greenwich. The American Government
sent over the largest and finest ship of their navy, the U.S. frigate
Niagara (Fig. 11), a screw-corvette of 5,200 tons. As a consort, the
U.S. paddle frigate Susquehanna was also detailed for the expedition,
while H.M.S. Leopard and H.M. sounding-vessel Cyclops were similarly
provided by the British Government. The latter was to precede the
fleet--nicknamed the Wire Squadron--to show the way.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--U.S.N.S. Niagara.]
The paying-out apparatus for the two laying vessels H.M.S. Agamemnon and
U.S.N.S. Niagara had to be somewhat hurriedly put together; consequently
not as much attention was paid to its design as the novelty of the
undertaking really demanded. The previous, and somewhat primitive, gear
hitherto used had proved to possess too little strength, the cable--when
being laid in anything but quite shallow water--having more than once
obtained the mastery, through meeting insufficient restraining force. In
the new machine (Fig. 12) there was certainly no lack of holding-back
power. It erred, indeed, the other way, being so heavy and powerful that
it was liable to break the cable under any material strain. The degree
of retardation was regulated by a hand-wheel actuating a frame-clutch
surrounding the outside of a brake-wheel. The details of this machine
were worked out by Messrs. C. de Bergue & Co., the manufacturers. The
engineer-in-chief also furnished external guards to the propelling
screws of each laying vessel to prevent a foul with the cable in the
case of going "astern." This cage was nicknamed a "crinoline" (then in
fashion with ladies), which, indeed, it somewhat resembled. The above
screw-guard may be seen in several of the illustrations of either ships
farther on. Were it not for the necessity of sounding operations, it
would be applied to all telegraph-ships to-day.
_Preparations for Starting._--By the third week in July (within the
course of as many weeks) the great ships had absorbed all their precious
cargo--the Agamemnon in the Thames and the Niagara in the Mersey. The
process of coiling the cable on board the Agamemnon is illustrated in
Fig. 13.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--The Paying-out Machine, 1857.]
_Staff._--For such an undertaking the staff had, of course, to be
considerable. Besides the engineer-in-chief (Mr. Bright), the
engineering department was composed as follows: Mr. (afterward Sir
Samuel) Canning, formerly a railway engineer, who had laid the Gulf of
St. Lawrence and other cables; Mr. William Henry Woodhouse, who had laid
some of the cables in the Mediterranean; Mr. F. C. Webb, with much
experience in early cable work; and, finally, Mr. Henry Clifford, a
mechanical engineer, destined to be responsibly associated with a large
proportion of the cables since laid.
Besides Mr. Whitehouse (whose health, however, did not permit him to
accompany the expedition) there were on the electrical staff Mr. C. V.
de Sauty, Mr. J. C. Laws, Mr. F. Lambert, Mr. H. A. C. Saunders, Mr.
Benjamin Smith, Mr. Richard Collett, and Mr. Charles Gerhardi, all of
whom were afterward prominently connected with subsequent submarine
cable undertakings. Their respective energies were divided up between
the two laying ships.[19] The expedition was to be further strengthened
by a representative of The Times, as well as of the Daily News and New
York Herald.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Coiling the Cable on Board.]
On the vessels being fully loaded ready for the start, "send-off"
festivities occurred, in which all classes of those engaged on the work
took part. The Times recounted the function on board the Agamemnon as
follows:
The three central tables were occupied by the crew of the
Agamemnon, a fine, active body of men, who paid the greatest
attention to the speeches, and drank all the toasts with an
admirable punctuality--at least, so long as their three pints of
beer per man lasted. But we regret to add that with the heat of the
day and the enthusiasm of Jack in the cause of science, the mugs
were all empty long before the chairman's list of toasts had been
gone through. Next in interest to the sailors were the workmen and
their wives and babies, all being permitted to assist. The latter,
it is true, sometimes squalled at an affecting peroration, but that
rather improved the effect than otherwise, and the presence of
their little ones only marked the genuine good feeling of the
employers, who had thus invited not only their workmen, but their
workmen's families to the feast. It was a momentary return to the
old patriarchal times.
This function having come to an end, the Agamemnon set out for
Sheerness. When leaving her moorings, opposite Glass & Elliot's works,
the scene was one of considerable interest. It is recorded that many
thousands of persons thronged the riverside as far as Greenwich
Hospital. In the immediate neighborhood of the factory a salute was
fired as the proud vessel moved away, and a deafening cheer was raised
by the assembled crowds. The crew of H.M.S. Agamemnon manned the
gunwales, and returned the cheer with lusty lungs, while from the stern
gallery, ladies waved their handkerchiefs, and _savants_ forgot for a
while the mysteries of electricity and submarine-cable work, as they
returned the hearty cheers which reached them from the shore.
Similar proceedings took place on board the Niagara, and the two ships
met at Queenstown, County Cork, on July 30, 1857. They were moored about
three-quarters of a mile apart, and a piece of cable run between the two
to enable the entire length of line (2,500 N.M.) to be tested and worked
through. The result was all that could be desired, and the Wire Squadron
set sail for the rendezvous at Valentia Bay on Monday, August 3d.
Besides the vessels already named, there were H.M. tender Advice and the
steam-tug Willing Mind to assist in landing the cable at Valentia, as
well as the U.S. screw-steamer Arctic and the paddle-steamer Victoria
(Newfoundland Telegraph Company) on duty in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland,
to await the arrival of the fleet and assist in landing the cable at
that end.
On arrival in harbor the following day, the ships were hospitably
welcomed by his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (the Earl of
Carlisle), who had journeyed from Dublin Castle for the purpose. A
_déjeuner_ banquet was given by the Knight of Kerry (Sir Peter
Fitzgerald), the lord of the manor for many miles round, and this little
corner of Ireland--"the next parish to America"--was quite _en fête_ for
the occasion.
CHAPTER III
THE FIRST START
Landing the End--"Godspeed"--A Bad Beginning--Return Home.
_Landing the Cable at Valentia, Ireland._--The following day was
occupied in landing the massive shore end, which--weighing nearly ten
tons to the mile, as already described--was calculated to withstand
damage from any anchorage in the bay, besides being proof against
disturbance and damage from surf or currents. The landing-place which
had been finally selected was a little cove known as Ballycarberry,
about three miles from Cahirciveen, in Valentia harbor (Fig. 14). The
two small assistant steamers--Willing Mind, a tug with a zeal worthy of
her name, and Advice, ready not merely with advice but most lusty
help--with several other launches and boats, were employed in the
operation, which was thus described in one of the many newspaper
reports:
"Valentia Bay was studded with innumerable small craft decked with the
gayest bunting. Small boats flitted hither and thither, their occupants
cheering enthusiastically as the work successfully progressed. The
cable-boats were managed by the sailors of the Niagara and the
Susquehanna. It was a well-designed compliment, and indicative of the
future fraternization of the nations, that the shore rope was arranged
to be presented on the English side of the Atlantic to the
representative of the Queen by the officers and men of the United States
navy, and that on the American side the British officers and sailors
should make a similar presentation to the President of the great
republic.
"From the mainland the operations were watched with intense interest.
For several hours the Lord-Lieutenant stood on the beach, surrounded by
his staff and the directors of the railway and telegraph companies,
waiting the arrival of the cable. When at length the American sailors
jumped through the surge with the hawser to which it was attached, his
Excellency was among the first to lay hold of it and pull it lustily to
the shore. Indeed, every one present seemed desirous of having a hand in
the great work."
At half past seven that evening (August 5, 1857) the cable was hauled on
shore at Ballycarberry Strand, and formal presentation was made of it by
the officer in command of the Niagara to the Lord-Lieutenant, his
Excellency expressing a hope that the work so well begun would be
carried to a satisfactory completion. The vicar of the parish then
offered a prayer for the success of the undertaking.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Landing the Irish End of the Cable.]
The work connected with the landing of the shore end was not actually
completed till sunset; so, as it was too late then to set out and
start cable-laying, the ships remained at anchor in the bay till
daybreak. That night there was a grand ball at the little village of
Kingstown, and the day dawn caught the merrymakers still engaged in
their festivities.
_Laying the First Ocean Cable, 1857._--Owing to the fact that the cable
had had to be divided between two ships it was obvious that a mid-ocean
splice between the two lengths was involved. The engineer-in-chief (Mr.
Bright) was anxious both ships should start laying toward their
respective shores from mid-ocean, as by that plan favorable weather for
the splice could be waited for, besides halving the time occupied in
laying the line, thereby reducing chances of bad-weather experience and
getting over the most difficult (deep-water) part of the work first.
The electricians, however, made much of the importance of being in
continuous communication with shore during laying operations; and this
view appealed to the Board--partly, no doubt, on account of the novelty
of being able from headquarters to speak to a ship as she proceeded
across the Atlantic. It had, therefore, been arranged for the laying of
the cable to be started by the Niagara from the Irish coast, the
Agamemnon laying the remaining half from mid-ocean.
The ships got under weigh at an early hour on the morning following the
landing of the shore end. Paying out commenced from the Niagara's
forepart; and as the distance from there to the stern was considerable,
a number of men were stationed at intervals, like sentries, to see that
every foot of the line reached its destination in safety. The machinery
did not seem at first to take kindly to its work, giving vent to many
ominous groans. After five miles had been disgorged, the line caught in
some of the apparatus and parted. The good ship at once put back and the
cable was underrun by the Willing Mind, with boats, the whole distance
from the shore--a tedious and hard task, as may be imagined. At length
the end was lifted out of the water and spliced to the coil on board;
and as the bight of the cable dropped safely to the bottom of the sea,
the mighty ship steamed ahead once more.
At first she moved very slowly, not more than two miles an hour, to
avoid the danger of another accident, but the feeling that they were at
last away was in itself a relief. The ships were all in sight, and so
near that they could hear each other's bells. The Niagara, as if knowing
she was bound for the land out of whose forests she came, bowed her head
proudly to the waves.
"Slowly passed the hours of that day," in Mr. Henry Field's words, "but
all went well, and the ships were moving out into the broad Atlantic. At
length the sun went down in the west, and stars came out on the face of
the deep. But no man slept. A thousand eyes were watching a great
experiment, including those who had a personal interest in the issue.
"All through that night, and through the anxious days and nights that
followed, there was a feeling in the heart of every soul on board, as if
some dear friend were at the turning-point of death, and they were
watching beside him. There was a strange, unnatural silence in the ship.
Men paced the deck with soft and muffled tread, speaking only in
whispers, as if a loud or heavy footfall might snap the vital cord. So
much had they grown to feel for the enterprise, that the cable seemed to
them like a human creature, on whose fate they themselves hung, as if it
were to decide their own destiny.
"There are some who will never forget that first night at sea. Perhaps
the reaction from the excitement on shore made the impression the
deeper. There are moments in life when everything comes back to us. What
memories cropped up in those long night hours! How many on board that
ship, as they stood on the deck and watched that mysterious cord
disappearing in the darkness, thought of homes beyond the sea, of absent
ones, of the distant and of the dead.
"But no musings turned them from the work in hand. There were vigilant
eyes on deck--Mr. Bright, the engineer-in-chief, was there; also, in
turn, Mr. Woodhouse and Mr. Canning, his chief assistants.... The
paying-out machinery did its work, and though it made a constant rumble
in the ship, that dull, heavy sound was music in their ears, as it told
them that all was well. If one should drop asleep, and wake up at night,
he had only to hear the sound of 'the old coffee-mill' and, his fears
being relieved, he would go to sleep again."
The next was a day of beautiful weather. The ships were getting farther
away from land, and began to steam ahead at the rate of four and five
knots. The cable was paid out at a speed a little faster than the ship,
to allow for inequalities of surface on the bottom of the sea. While it
was thus going overboard, communication was kept up constantly with the
land, partly by what are known as "continuity signals"--i. e.,
electrical signals at definite time intervals from ship to shore, as a
test of the continuity of the line.
To quote Mr. Field again: "Every moment the current was passing between
ship and shore. The communication was as perfect as between Liverpool
and London, or Boston and New York. Not only did the electricians
telegraph back to Valentia the progress they were making, but the
officers on board sent messages to their friends in America to go out by
the steamers from Liverpool. The heavens seemed to smile on them that
day. The coils came up from below the deck without a kink, and,
unwinding themselves easily, passed over the stern into the sea.
"All Sunday (9th inst.) the same favoring fortune continued; and when
the officers who could be spared from the deck met in the cabin, and
Captain Hudson read the service, it was with subdued voices and grateful
hearts that they responded to the prayers to 'Him who spreadeth out the
heavens and ruleth the raging of the sea.'
"On Monday (10th) they were over two hundred miles at sea. They had got
far beyond the shallow waters off the coast. They had passed over the
submarine mountain that figures on the charts of Dayman and Berryman,
and where Mr. Bright's log gives a descent from 550 to 1,750 fathoms
within eight miles. Then they came to the deeper waters of the Atlantic
where the cable sank to the awful depths of 2,000 fathoms. Still the
iron cord buried itself in the waves, and every instant the flash of
light in the darkened telegraph room told of the passage of the electric
current.
"Everything went well till 3.45 P.M. on the fourth day out (Tuesday,
August 11th), when the cable snapped, after 380 miles had been laid,
owing to mismanagement on the part of the mechanic at the brakes."
Thus the familiar thin line which had been streaming out from the
Niagara for six days was no longer to be seen by the accompanying
vessels.
One who was present wrote:
"The unbidden tear started to many a manly eye. The interest taken in
the enterprise by officers and men alike exceeded anything ever seen,
and there is no wonder that there should have been so much emotion on
the occasion of the accident."
The following report from Bright gives the details of the expedition up
to the time of this regrettable occurrence:
REPORT TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH
COMPANY, AUGUST, 1857
After leaving Valentia on the evening of the 7th inst, the paying
out of the cable from the Niagara progressed most satisfactorily
until immediately before the mishap.
At the junction between the shore and the smaller cable, about
eight miles from the starting-point, it was necessary to stop to
renew the splice. This was successfully effected, and the end of
the heavier cable lowered by a hawser until it reached the bottom,
two buoys being attached at a short distance apart to mark the
place of union.
By noon of the 8th we had paid out 40 miles of cable, including the
heavy shore end. Our exact position at the time was in lat. 50° 59´
36´´ N., long. 11° 19´ 15´´ W., and the depth of the water
according to the soundings taken by the Cyclops--whose course we
nearly followed--ninety fathoms. Up to 4 P. M. on that day the
egress of the cable had been regulated by the power necessary to
keep the machinery in motion at a slightly higher rate than that of
the ship; but as the water deepened it was necessary to place some
further restraint upon the cable by applying pressure to the
friction-drums in connection with the paying-out sheaves. By
midnight 85 miles had been safely laid, the depth of the water
being then a little more than 200 fathoms.
At eight o'clock on the morning of the 9th we had exhausted the
deck coil in the after part of the ship, having paid out 120 miles.
The change to the coil between decks forward was safely made. By
noon we had laid 136 miles of cable, the Niagara having reached
lat. 52°, 11´ 40´´ N., long. 13° 0´ 20´´ W., and the depth of the
water having increased to 410 fathoms. In the evening the speed of
the vessel was raised to five knots. I had previously kept down the
rate at from three to four knots for the small cable, and two for
the heavy end next the shore, wishing to get the men and machinery
well at work prior to attaining the speed which I had intended
making. By midnight 189 miles of cable had been laid.
At four o'clock on the morning of the 10th the depth began to
increase rapidly from 550 to 1,750 fathoms in a distance of eight
miles. Up to this time a strain of 7 cwt. sufficed to keep the rate
of the cable near enough to that of the ship; but as the water
deepened the proportionate speed of the cable advanced, and it was
necessary to augment the pressure by degrees until at a depth of
1,700 fathoms the indicator showed a strain of 15 cwt., while the
cable and the ship were running five and a half and five knots
respectively.
At noon on the 10th we had paid out 255 miles of cable--the vessel
having made 214 miles from the shore--being then in lat. 52° 27´
50´´ N., long. 16° 15´ W. At this time we experienced an increasing
swell, followed later in the day by a strong breeze.
From this period, having reached 2,000 fathoms of water, it was
necessary to increase the strain by a ton, by which the rate of the
cable was maintained in due proportion to that of the ship. At six
o'clock in the evening some difficulty arose through the cable
getting out of the sheaves of the paying-out machine, owing to the
pitch and tar hardening in the groove,[20] and a splice of large
dimensions passing over them. This was rectified by fixing
additional guards and softening the tar with oil. It was necessary
to bring up the ship, holding the cable by stoppers until it was
again properly disposed around the pulleys. Some importance is due
to this event, as showing that it is possible to "lay to" in deep
water without continuing to pay out the cable, a point upon which
doubts have frequently been expressed.
Shortly after this the speed of the cable gained considerably on
that of the ship, and up to nine o'clock, while the rate of the
latter was about three knots, by the log, the cable was running out
from five and a half to five and three-quarter knots.
The strain was then raised to 25 cwt., but the wind and the sea
increasing, and a current at the same time carrying the cable at an
angle from the direct line of the ship's course, it was found
insufficient to check the cable, which was at midnight making two
and a half knots above the speed of the ship, and sometimes
imperiling the safe uncoiling in the hold.
The retarding force was therefore increased at two o'clock to an
amount equivalent to 30 cwt., and then again--in consequence of the
speed continuing to be more than it would be prudent to permit--to
35 cwt. By this the rate of the cable was brought to a little short
of five knots, at which it continued steadily until 3.45 A.M., when
it parted, the length paid out at the time being 380 miles.
I had up to this attended personally to the regulation of the
brakes, but finding that all was going on well, and it being
necessary that I should be temporarily away from the machine--to
ascertain the rate of the ship, to see how the cable was coming out
of the hold, and also to visit the electrician's room--the machine
was for the moment left in charge of a mechanic who had been
engaged from the first in its construction and fitting, and was
acquainted with its operation.
In proceeding toward the fore part of the ship I heard the machine
stop. I immediately called out to relieve the brakes, but when I
reached the spot the cable was broken. On examining the
machine--which was otherwise in perfect order--I found that the
brakes had _not_ been released, and to this, or to the hand-wheel
of the brake being turned the wrong way, may be attributed the
stoppage and consequent fracture of the cable.
When the rate of the wheels grew slower, as the ship dropped her
stern in the swell, the brake should have been eased. This had been
done regularly whenever an unusually sudden descent of the ship
temporarily withdrew the pressure from the cable in the sea. But
owing to our entering the deep water the previous morning, and
having all hands ready for any emergency that might occur there,
the chief part of my staff had been compelled to give in at night
through sheer exhaustion, and hence, being short-handed, I was
obliged for the time to leave the machine without, as it proved,
sufficient intelligence to control it.
I perceive that on the next occasion it will be needful, from the
wearing and anxious nature of the work, to have three separate
relays of staff, and to employ for attention to the brakes a higher
degree of mechanical skill.
The origin of the accident was, no doubt, the amount of retarding
strain put upon the cable, but had the machine been properly
manipulated at the time, it could not possibly have taken place.
For three days in shallow and deep water, as well as in rapid
transitions from one to the other, nothing could be more perfect
than the working of the cable machinery. It had been made extra
heavy with a view to recovery work. It, however, performed its duty
so smoothly and efficiently in the smaller depths--where the weight
of the cable had less ability to overcome its friction and
resistance--that it can scarcely be said to be too heavy for
paying out in deep water, where it was necessary, from the
increased weight of cable, to restrain its rapid motion, by
applying to it a considerable degree of additional friction. Its
action was most complete, and all parts worked well together.
I see how the gear can be improved by a modification in the form of
sheave, by an addition to the arrangement for adjusting the brakes,
and some other alterations; but with proper management, without any
change whatever, I am confident that the whole length of cable
might have been safely laid by it. And it must be remembered, as a
test of the work which it has done, that unfortunate as this
termination to the expedition is, the longest length of cable ever
laid has been paid out by it, and that in the deepest water yet
passed over.
After the accident had occurred, soundings were taken by Lieutenant
Dayman from the Cyclops, and the depth found to be 2,000 fathoms.
It will be remembered that some importance was attached to the
cable on board the Niagara and Agamemnon being manufactured in
opposite lays.[21] I thought this a favorable opportunity to show
that practically the difference was not of consequence in effecting
the junction in mid-ocean. We therefore made a splice between the
two vessels. This was then lowered in a heavy sea, after which
several miles were paid out without difficulty.
I requested the commanders of the several vessels to proceed to
Plymouth, as the docks there afford better facilities than any
other port for landing the cable should it be necessary to do so.
The whole of the cable remaining on board has been carefully tested
and inspected, and found to be in as perfect condition as when it
left the works at Greenwich and Birkenhead respectively.
One important point presses for your consideration at an early
period. A large portion of cable already laid may be recovered at a
comparatively small expense. I append an estimate of the cost, and
shall be glad to receive your authority to proceed with this work.
I do not perceive in our present position any reason for
discouragement; but I have, on the contrary, a greater confidence
than ever in the undertaking.
It has been proved beyond a doubt that no obstacle exists to
prevent our ultimate success; and I see clearly how every
difficulty which has presented itself in this voyage can be
effectually dealt with in the next.
The cable has been laid at the expected rate in the great depths;
its electric working through the entire length has been
satisfactorily accomplished, while the portion laid, actually
improved in efficiency by being submerged--from the low temperature
of the water and the increased close texture of gutta-percha
thereby effected.
Mechanically speaking, the structure of the cable has answered
every expectation that I had formed of it. Its weight in water is
so adjusted to the depth that strain is within a manageable scope;
while the effects of the undercurrents upon its surface prove how
dangerous it would be to lay a much lighter rope, which would, by
the greater time occupied in sinking, expose an increased surface
to their power, besides its descent being at an angle such as would
not provide for good laying at the bottom.
On the other hand, in regard to any further length made, I would
take this opportunity of again strongly urging the desirability of
a much larger conductor and corresponding increase in the weight of
insulation, in accordance with my original recommendation.--I have
the honor to remain, gentlemen, yours very faithfully,
CHARLES T. BRIGHT,
_Engineer-in-Chief._
_To the Directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company._
CHAPTER IV
PREPARATIONS FOR ANOTHER ATTEMPT
"Taking Stock"--Further Capital--Alterations in Paying-Out
Machinery--Improved Testing and Signaling Apparatus.
This untoward interruption to the expedition was naturally a cause of
great disappointment to all connected with the undertaking; for there
was not enough cable left to complete the work, nor was there time to
get more made and stowed on board to renew the attempt before the season
would be too far advanced.
The squadron proceeded to Plymouth to unload the cable into tanks at
Keyham (now Devonport) Dockyard, chiefly because some of the ships could
not be spared by their respective governments till the following year.
In the middle of October (1857), the engineer-in-chief proceeded to
Valentia in a small paddle-steamer with the object of picking up some of
the lost line from this end. After experiencing a series of gales, over
fifty miles of the main cable were recovered, and the shore end buoyed
ready for splicing on to in the coming year.
The first expedition had opened the eyes of the investing public to the
vastness of the undertaking, and led many to doubt who did not doubt
before. Some began to look upon it as a romantic adventure of the sea,
rather than as a serious commercial undertaking. This decline of
popular faith was felt as soon as there was a call for more money. The
loss of 335 miles of cable, with the postponement of the expedition to
another year, was equivalent to a loss of £100,000.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Reshipment of the Cable aboard H.M.S. Agamemnon
and U.S.N.S. Niagara in Keyham Basin.]
_Raising Further Capital._--To make the above sum good, the capital of
the company had to be increased, and this new capital was not so readily
obtainable. The projectors found that it was easy to go with the current
of popular enthusiasm, but very hard to stem a growing tide of popular
distrust. And it must also be remembered that, from the very first, the
section of the public which looked with distrust upon the idea of an
Atlantic telegraph was far in excess of that which did not; indeed, the
opposition encountered was much on a par with the great popular
prejudice which George Stephenson had to overcome when projecting his
great railway schemes. But whatever the depression at the untimely
termination of the first expedition, it did not interfere with renewed
and vigorous efforts to prepare for a second. In the end the appeal to
the shareholders for more money was responded to; and the directors were
enabled to give orders for the manufacture of 700 miles of new cable of
the same description, to make up for what had been lost, and to provide
a surplus against all contingencies. Thus, 3,000 nautical miles in all
were shipped this time, instead of 2,500 miles.
_Alterations in the Paying-Out Gear._--New paying-out machinery was
devised with a view to obviating the possibility of a recurrence of the
accident on the first expedition. In the new apparatus the brake (Fig.
16) was so arranged that a lever exercised a uniform holding power in
exact proportion to the weights attached to it (Fig. 17); and while
capable of being _released_ by a hand-wheel, it could not be tightened.
The general idea of this clever appliance had been originally introduced
by Mr. J. G. Appold in connection with the crank apparatus in jails; and
it was now especially adapted to the exigencies of cable work by the
engineer (Mr. Bright) and Mr. C. E. Amos, a member of the famous
engineering firm, Easton & Amos, who constructed the entire machinery.
The great future of the apparatus was that it provided for automatic
brake-release, upon the strain exceeding that intended. Thus, only a
maximum agreed strain could be applied, this being regulated from time
to time by weights, according to the depth of water and consequent
weight of cable being paid out. In passing from the hold to the stern of
the laying vessel, the cable is taken round a drum, or drums. Fig. 18
gives a general view of the apparatus. Attached to the axle of the drum
is a wheel fitted with an iron friction-strap (to which are fixed blocks
of hard wood) capable of exerting a given retarding power, varying with
the weights hung on to the lever which tightens the strap. When the
friction becomes great, the wheels have an increased tendency to carry
the wooden blocks round with them; thus the lever-bars are deflected
from the vertical line and the iron band opened sufficiently to lessen
the brake-power.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--The Self-Releasing Brake.]
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--The Principle of the Brake.]
Bright also introduced a dynamometer apparatus for indicating and
controlling the strain during paying out--a vast improvement on that
embodied in the previous machines. The working of the entire machine was
as follows:
"Between the two brake-drums and the stern of the vessel, the cable was
led under the grooved wheel, O, of the dynamometer. This wheel had a
weight attached to it, and could be moved up or down in an iron frame.
If the strain upon the cable was small, the wheel would bend the cable
downward, and its index would show a low degree of pressure; but
whenever the strain increased, the cable, in straightening itself, would
at once lift the dynamometer-wheel with the indicator attached to it,
which showed the pressure in hundredweights and tons. The amount of
strain with a given weight upon the wheel, G, was determined by
experiments, and a hand-wheel in connection with the levers of the
paying-out machine was placed immediately opposite the dynamometer; so
that, directly the indicator showed strain increasing, the person in
charge could at once, by turning the hand-wheel, lift up the weights
that tightened the friction-straps, and so let the cable run freely
through the paying-out machine. Although, therefore, the strain could be
_reduced_--or entirely withdrawn--in a moment, it could not be
_increased_ by the man at the wheel. The cable in coming from the tanks,
passed under a lightly weighted 'jockey,'[22] J, pulley. This
arrangement, while leading the line on to the drums, at the same time
checked it slightly. From here it was guided by a grooved pulley, or
V-sheave,[23] L, along the tops of both drums, at B, then three times
round them, and hence over another V-sheave, F, and on to the
dynamometer. From this the cable was led over a second pulley, and so
into the sea by the stern-sheaves."[24]
This entire apparatus--simplified as regards the brake--has since been
universally adopted for submarine-cable work,[25] with the exception
that a single-flanged drum, fitted with a sort of plow, skid, or
knife-edge--to guide or "fleet" the incoming turn of cable correctly on
to the drum--is now used in place of the grooved sheave, or sheaves.
As soon as the new machinery was constructed, all the engineering staff
gathered together for the purpose of thoroughly acquainting themselves
with its working. Mr. F. C. Webb, having engagements elsewhere, had been
replaced by Mr. W. E. Everett, U.S.A., who had been chief marine
engineer of the Niagara. Mr. Everett was to have charge of the machinery
on the laying vessel, while Mr. Woodhouse controlled the cable
operations.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Bright's Paying-out Gear, 1858.]
_Alterations in the Electrical Apparatus._--Since the manufacture of the
cable in 1857, Professor Thomson had become impressed with the
conviction that the electric conductivity of copper varied greatly with
its degree of purity. As a result of the professor's further
investigations, the extra length of cable made for the coming expedition
was subjected to systematic and searching tests for the purity and
conductivity of the copper. Every hank of wire was tested, and all whose
conducting power fell below a certain value rejected. Here, then, we
have the first instance of an organized system of testing for
conductivity at the cable factory--a system which has ever since been
rigorously insisted on.
_Professor Thomson's Mirror Instrument._--And now, in the spring of
1858, an invention was perfected that was destined to have a remarkable
effect on submarine-cable enterprise. For Professor Thomson (now Lord
Kelvin) devised and perfected the mirror-speaking instrument, then often
described as the marine galvanometer,[26] of which it may be fairly said
that it entirely revolutionized long-distance signaling and electrical
testing aboard ship.
This most ingenious apparatus consists of a small and exceedingly light
steel magnet (_a_) (Fig. 19) with a tiny reflector or mirror fixed to
it, both together weighing but a single grain or thereabouts. This
delicate magnet is suspended from its center by a filament of silk and
surrounded by a coil (_b_) of the thinnest insulated copper wire.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--The Reflecting Magnet.]
A very weak current is sufficient to produce a slight, though nearly
imperceptible, movement of the suspended magnet when electricity passes
through the surrounding coil. A fine ray of light from a shaded lamp,
behind a screen (Figs. 20 and 21) at a short distance, is directed
through a slot in the screen, thence to the open center of the coil
(_c_) upon the mirror. It is then reflected back to a graduated scale
(_f_). As may be seen from Fig. 21, an exceedingly slight angle of
motion on the part of the magnet (_a_) is thus made to magnify the
movement of the spot of light upon the scale (_f_), and to render it so
considerable as to be readily noted by the eye of the operating clerk.
The ray is brought to a focus by passing through a lens. By combinations
of these movements of the speck of light (in length and direction) upon
the index, an alphabet is readily formed. The magnet is artificially
brought back to zero with great precision after each signal by the
earth's magnetism, and also both by the natural torsion of the fiber and
the controlling action of the adjusting magnet (_e_) (Fig. 20), with
the help of the thumb-screw (_d_) for regulation purposes.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Reflecting Galvanometer and Speaker.]
In a word, Professor Thomson's combined mirror-telegraph and marine
galvanometer transmitted messages by multiplying and magnifying the
signals through a cable by the agency of imponderable light.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.]
It is only to be regretted that the electrician responsible for the
subsequent working through operations did not sooner appreciate the
great beauties of the above apparatus, and the advantage of a small
generating force such as it alone required.
CHAPTER V
THE TRIAL TRIP
Rehearsal of Cable Operations--Successful Experiments and Performances.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Deck of H.M.S. Agamemnon with Paying-out
Apparatus.]
The engineer-in-chief (Mr. Bright) arranged that this time an
experimental expedition should be first made, during which a complete
rehearsal was to be gone through of the various operations to be
performed during cable maneuvers. These operations were to consist of
making splices, picking up and buoying (besides laying) in deep water,
and exercising all hands in their work generally. It was on this
occasion also agreed that paying out should start from mid-ocean
instead of from either shore. It was further arranged that the main
cable should be buoyed at each end, and the connection to it by the
heavy cable from shore effected at the earliest opportunity.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Stowage of the Cable Coils on the Niagara.]
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--The Loading of the Agamemnon.]
All the 3,000 miles of cable was coiled into the two large ships by the
end of May. Fig. 22 gives a general idea of the paying-out apparatus
mounted on the deck of the Agamemnon, and Fig. 23 a view in section of
the fore-tanks of the Niagara when loaded with her cargo of cable. The
engineer had this time fitted cast-iron cones in the middle of each
cable-coil to meet the requirements of safe paying out, besides
providing a large margin of space to the hatchway above. Fig. 24 shows
the loading of the Agamemnon. The rest of the telegraph squadron was on
this occasion made up by H.M. Gorgon, H.M. paddle-steamer Valorous, and
H.M. surveying-steamer Porcupine.
The fleet set forth on their second cruise on May 29, 1858--this time
without any show of public enthusiasm. Mr. Bright was again assisted by
the same engineering staff, but Professor Thomson had agreed to take a
more active part in the electrical work. The Bay of Biscay was to be the
scene of the experiments--the actual site being about 120 miles
northwest of Corunna, where the Gorgon obtained soundings of 2,530
fathoms or nearly three statute miles.
The Agamemnon and Niagara were then backed close together, stern on, and
a strong hawser was passed between them. Each ship had on board some
defective cable for the experiments about to be conducted. The
proceedings may perhaps best be described by extracts from the
engineer's diary:
Monday, May 31st, 10 A.M., hove to, lat. 47° 11´, long. 9° 37´. Up
to midday engaged in making splice between experimental cable in
fore coil and that in main hold, besides other minor operations. In
afternoon getting hawser from Niagara and her portion of cable to
make joint and splice. 4 P.M., commenced splice; 5.15 splice
completed; 5.25, let go splice-frame (weight 3 cwt.) over gangway,
amidships, starboard side.[27] 5.30, after getting splice-frame
(containing the splice) clear of the ship and lowering it to the
bottom, each vessel (then about a quarter of a mile apart)
commenced paying out in opposite directions.
9 P.M., got on board Niagara's warp and her end of cable to make
another splice for second experiment.
June 1st.--1 A.M. (night), electrical continuity gone, the cable
having parted after two miles in all had been paid out.[28]
Since 1 A.M., engaged in hauling in our cable. Recovered all our
portion, and even managed to heave up the splice-frame (in perfect
condition), besides 100 fathoms of Niagara's cable, which she had
parted. Fastened splice to stern of vessel and ceased operations.
9.23 A.M., second experiment. Started paying-out again. Weather
very misty.
9.40, one mile paid out at strain 16 cwt.; angle of cable 16° with
the horizon: running out straight; rate of ship 2, cable 3.
9.45, changed to lower hold. 9.56, two miles out; last mile in
16-1/2 minutes; strain 17 to 20 cwt.; angle of cable 20°. 10.10,
last of the three miles out in 14 minutes.
10.32 A. M., four and a half miles out. Third experiment--stopped
ship, lowered guard, stoppered cable.
10.50, buoy let go, strain 16 cwt. when let go, the cable being
nearly up and down.
11.6, running at rate of 5-1/2 knots paying out, strain 21 to 23
cwt., varying. Cable shortly afterward parted through getting
jammed in the machinery.
The subsequent experiments were mainly in the direction of buoying,
picking up, and passing the cable from the stern to the bow sheave for
picking up. All of these operations were in turn successfully performed;
and finally, in paying out a speed of seven knots was attained without
difficulty. During all this time electrical communication had been
maintained between the ships; and it is somewhat remarkable that,
through this more or less damaged cable, the electricians were able to
work a needle-instrument and obtain a deflection on it of 70 degrees.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Experimental Maneuvers in the Bay of Biscay.]
And now, the program being exhausted, the ships returned to Plymouth. On
the whole, the trip had proved eminently satisfactory. The paying-out
machinery had worked well, the various engineering operations had been
successfully performed, and the electrical working through the whole
cable was perfect.
CHAPTER VI
THE STORM
The "wire ships" thus additionally experienced arrived at Plymouth on
June 3d, and some further arrangements were made, principally connected
with the electrical department.
A week later--i. e., on Thursday, June 10th--having taken in a fresh
supply of coal, the expedition again left England "with fair skies and
bright prospects." The barometer standing at 30.64, it was an auspicious
start in what was declared by a consensus of nautical authorities to be
the best time of the year for the Atlantic.
This prognostication was doomed to a terrible disappointment, for the
voyage nearly ended in the Agamemnon "turning turtle." She was
repeatedly almost on her beam ends, the cable was partly shifted, and a
large number of those on board were more or less seriously injured. The
load of cable made all the difference when brought into comparison with
an ordinary ship, under stress of weather. It was bad enough to cruise
with a dead weight forward of some 250 tons--a weight under which her
planks gaped an inch apart, and her beams threatened daily to give way.
But when to these evils were added the fear that in some of her heavy
rolls the whole mass would slip and take the vessel's side out, it will
be seen that this precious coil was justly regarded as a standing
danger--the millstone about the necks of all on board.[29] Oddly enough,
owing to the fact that the Agamemnon had scant accommodation left for
fuel, every one at the start was bemoaning the entire absence of breeze.
There were some even, who, never having been at sea before, muttered
rash hopes about meeting an Atlantic gale. Their wishes were soon to be
completely realized.
In order that laying operations should be started by the two ships in
mid-ocean, it was arranged that the entire fleet should meet in latitude
53° 2´ and longitude 33° 18´ as a rendezvous. As it is impossible to
follow the movements of more than one ship at a time, and as the
Agamemnon had the more exciting experience, we will confine our
attention to her up to the date of the rendezvous.
The day after starting there was no wind; but on Saturday, June 12th, a
breeze sprung up, and, with screw hoisted and fires raked out, the
Agamemnon bowled along at a rare pace under "royals" and
studding-sails. The barometer fell fast, and squally weather coming on
with the boisterous premonitory symptoms of an Atlantic gale, even those
least versed in such matters could see at a glance that they were "in
for it." The following day the sky wore a wretched mist--half rain, half
vapor--through which the attendant vessels loomed faintly like shadows.
The gale increased; till at four in the afternoon the good ship was
rushed through the foam under close-reefed topsails and foresail. That
night the storm got worse, and most of the squadron gradually parted
company. The ocean resembled one vast snowdrift, the whitish glare from
which--reflected from the dark clouds that almost rested on the sea--had
a tremendous and unnatural effect, as if the ordinary laws of nature had
been reversed.
Very heavy weather continued till the following Sunday (June 20th),
which ushered in as fierce a storm as ever swept over the Atlantic. The
narrative of this fight of nautical science with the elements may best
be continued in the words of the representative of The Times, especially
as it is probably the most intensely realistic description of a storm
that has ever been written by an eye-witness:
The Niagara, which had hitherto kept close, while the other smaller
vessels had dropped out of sight, began to give us a very wide
berth, and as darkness increased it was a case of every one for
himself.
Our ship, the Agamemnon, rolling many degrees--not every one can
imagine how she went at it that night--was laboring so heavily that
she looked like breaking up.
The massive beams under her upper-deck coil cracked and snapped
with a noise resembling that of small artillery, almost drowning
the hideous roar of the wind as it moaned and howled through the
rigging, jerking and straining the little storm-sails as though it
meant to tear them from the yards. Those in the impoverished cabins
on the main deck had little sleep that night, for the upper-deck
planks above them were "working themselves free," as sailors say;
and beyond a doubt they were infinitely more free than easy, for
they groaned under the pressure of the coil with a dreadful uproar,
and availed themselves of the opportunity to let in a little light,
with a good deal of water, at every roll. The sea, too, kept
striking with dull, heavy violence against the vessel's bows,
forcing its way through hawse-holes and ill-closed ports with a
heavy slush; and thence, hissing and winding aft, it roused the
occupants of the cabins aforesaid to a knowledge that their floors
were under water, and that the flotsam and jetsam noises they heard
beneath were only caused by their outfit for the voyage taking a
cruise of its own in some five or six inches of dirty bilge. Such
was Sunday night, and such was a fair average of all the nights
throughout the week, varying only from bad to worse. On Monday
things became desperate.
The barometer was lower--and, as a matter of course, the wind and
sea were infinitely higher--than the day before. It was singular,
but at twelve o'clock the sun pierced through the pall of clouds
and shone brilliantly for half an hour, and during that brief time
it blew as it had not often blown before. So fierce was this gust
that its roar drowned every other sound, and it was almost
impossible to give the watch the necessary orders for taking in the
close-reefer foresail, which, when furled, almost left the
Agamemnon under bare poles, though still surging through the water
at speed. This gust passed, the usual gale set in, now blowing
steadily from the southwest, and taking us more and more out of our
course each minute. Every hour the storm got worse, till toward
five in the afternoon, when it seemed at its height--and raged with
such a violence of wind and sea--that matters really looked
"desperate" even for such a strong and large ship as the
Agamemnon. The upper-deck coil had strained her decks throughout
excessively, and though this mass in theory was supposed to prevent
her rolling so quickly and heavily as she would have done without
it, yet still she heeled over to such an alarming extent that fears
of the coil itself shifting again occupied every mind, and it was
accordingly strengthened with additional shores bolted down to the
deck. The space occupied by the main coil below had deprived the
Agamemnon of several of her coal-bunkers, and in order to make up
for this deficiency, as well as to endeavor to counterbalance the
immense mass which weighed her down by the head, a large quantity
of coals had been stowed on the deck aft. On each side of her main
deck were thirty-five tons, secured in a mass, while on the lower
deck ninety tons were stowed away in the same manner. The
precautions taken to secure these huge masses also required
attention as the great ship surged from side to side. But these
coals seemed secure, and were so, in fact, unless the vessel should
almost capsize--an unpleasant alternative which no one certainly
anticipated then. Everything, therefore, was made "snug," as
sailors call it, though their efforts by no means resulted in the
comfort which might have been expected from the term. The night,
however, passed over without any mischance beyond the smashing of
all things incautiously left loose and capable of rolling, and one
or two attempts which the Agamemnon made in the middle watch to
turn bottom upward. In all other matters it was the mere ditto of
Sunday night, except, perhaps, a little worse, and certainly much
more wet below. Tuesday the gale continued with almost unabated
force, though the barometer had risen to 29.30, and there was
sufficient sun to take a clear observation, which showed our
distance from the rendezvous to be 563 miles. During this afternoon
the Niagara joined company, and the wind going more ahead, the
Agamemnon took to violent pitching, plunging steadily into the
trough of the sea as if she meant to break her back and lay the
Atlantic cable in a heap. This change in her motion strained and
taxed every inch of timber near the coils to the very utmost. It
was curious to see how they worked and bent as the Agamemnon went
at everything she met head first. One time she pitched so heavily
as to break one of the main beams of the lower deck, which had to
be shored with screw-jacks forthwith. Saturday, the 19th of June,
things looked a little better. The barometer seemed inclined to go
up and the sea to go down; and for the first time that morning
since the gale began, some six days previous, the decks could be
walked with tolerable comfort and security. But alas! appearances
are as deceitful in the Atlantic as elsewhere; and during a
comparative calm that afternoon the glass fell lower, while a thin
line of black haze to windward seemed to grow up into the sky,
until it covered the heavens with a somber darkness, and warned us
that, after all, the worst was yet to come. There was much heavy
rain that evening, and then the wind began, not violently, nor in
gusts, but with a steadily increasing force, as if the gale was
determined to do its work slowly but do it well. The sea was
"ready-built to hand," as sailors say, so at first the storm did
little more than urge on the ponderous masses of water with
redoubled force, and fill the air with the foam and spray it tore
from their rugged crests. By and by, however, it grew more
dangerous, and Captain Preedy himself remained on deck throughout
the middle watch, for the wind was hourly getting worse and worse,
and the Agamemnon, rolling thirty degrees each way, was straining
to a dangerous extent.
[Illustration: FIG. 26.--H.M.S. Agamemnon in a Storm.]
At 4 A.M. sail was shortened to close-reefer fore and main topsails
and reefed foresail--a long and tedious job, for the wind so roared
and howled and the hiss of the boiling sea was so deafening that
words of command were useless, and the men aloft, holding on with
all their might to the yards as the ship rolled over and over
almost to the water, were quite incapable of struggling with the
masses of wet canvas that flapped and plunged as if men and yards
and everything were going away together. The ship was almost as wet
inside as out, and so things wore on till eight or nine o'clock,
everything getting adrift and being smashed, and every one on board
jamming themselves up in corners or holding on to beams to prevent
their going adrift likewise. At ten o'clock the Agamemnon was
rolling and laboring fearfully, with the sky getting darker, and
both wind and sea increasing every minute. At about half-past ten
o'clock three or four gigantic waves were seen approaching the
ship, coming slowly on through the mist nearer and nearer, rolling
on like hills of green water, with a crown of foam that seemed to
double their height. The Agamemnon rose heavily to the first, and
then went down quickly into the deep trough of the sea, falling
over as she did so, so as almost to capsize completely on the port
side. There was a fearful crashing as she lay over this way, for
everything broke adrift, whether secured or not, and the uproar and
confusion were terrific for a minute, then back she came again on
the starboard beam in the same manner, only quicker, and still
deeper than before. Again there was the same noise and crashing,
and the officers in the ward-room, who knew the danger of the ship,
struggled to their feet and opened the door leading to the main
deck. Here, for an instant, the scene almost defies description.
Amid loud shouts and efforts to save themselves, a confused mass of
sailors, boys, and marines, with deck-buckets, ropes, ladders, and
everything that could get loose, and which had fallen back again to
the port side, were being hurled again in a mass across the ship to
starboard. Dimly, and only for an instant, could this be seen, with
groups of men clinging to the beams with all their might, with a
mass of water, which had forced its way in through ports and decks,
surging about, and then, with a tremendous crash, as the ship fell
still deeper over, the coals stowed on the main deck broke loose,
and smashing everything before them, went over among the rest to
leeward. The coal-dust hid everything on the main deck in an
instant, but the crashing could still be heard going on in all
directions, as the lumps and sacks of coal, with stanchions,
ladders, and mess-tins, went leaping about the decks, pouring down
the hatchways, and crashing through the glass skylights into the
engine-room below. Still it was not done, and, surging again over
another tremendous wave, the Agamemnon dropped down still more to
port, and the coals on the starboard side of the lower deck gave
way also, and carried everything before them. Matters now became
serious, for it was evident that two or three more lurches and the
masts would go like reeds, while half the crew might be maimed or
killed below. Captain Preedy was already on the poop, with
Lieutenant Gibson, and it was "Hands, wear ship," at once, while
Mr. Brown, the indefatigable chief engineer, was ordered to get up
steam immediately. The crew gained the deck with difficulty, and
not till after a lapse of some minutes, for all the ladders had
been broken away; the men were grimed with coal-dust, and many bore
still more serious marks upon their faces of how they had been
knocked about below. There was some confusion at first, for the
storm was fearful. The officers were quite inaudible, and a wild,
dangerous sea, running mountains high, heeled the great ship
backward and forward, so that the crew were unable to keep their
feet for an instant, and in some cases were thrown across the decks
in a fearful manner. Two marines went with a rush head foremost
into the paying-out machine, as if they meant to butt it over the
side, yet, strange to say, neither the men nor the machine
suffered. What made matters worse, the ship's barge, though lashed
down to the deck, had partly broken loose, and dropping from side
to side as the vessel lurched, it threatened to crush any who
ventured to pass it. The regular discipline of the ship, however,
soon prevailed, and the crew set to work to wear round the ship on
the starboard tack, while Lieutenants Robinson and Murray went
below to see after those who had been hurt, and about the number of
whom extravagant rumors prevailed among the men. There were,
however, unfortunately but too many. The marine sentry outside the
ward-room door on the main deck had not had time to escape, and was
completely buried under the coals. Some time elapsed before he
could be got out, for one of the beams used to shore up the sacks,
which had crushed his arm very badly, still lay across the mangled
limb, jamming it in such a manner that it was found impossible to
remove it without risking the man's life. Saws, therefore, had to
be sent for, and the timber sawn away before the poor fellow could
be extricated. Another marine on the lower deck endeavored to save
himself by catching hold of what seemed a ledge in the planks, but,
unfortunately, it was only caused by the beams straining apart,
and, of course, as the Agamemnon righted they closed again, and
crushed his fingers flat. One of the assistant engineers was also
buried among the coals on the lower deck, and sustained some severe
internal injuries. _The lurch of the ship was calculated at
forty-five degrees each way for five times in rapid succession._
The galley-coppers were only half filled with soup; nevertheless,
it nearly all poured out, and scalded some of the poor fellows who
were extended on the decks, holding on to anything in reach. These,
with a dislocation, were the chief casualties, but there were
others of bruises and contusions, more or less severe, and, of
course, a long list of escapes more marvelous than any injury. One
poor fellow went head first from the main deck into the hold
without being hurt, and one on the orlop-deck was "chevied" about
for some ten minutes by three large casks of oil which had got
adrift, and any one of which would have flattened him like a
pancake had it overtaken him.
As soon as the Agamemnon had gone round on the other tack the
Niagara wore also, and bore down as if to render assistance. She
had witnessed our danger, and, as we afterward learned, imagined
that the upper-deck coil had broken loose, and that we were
sinking. Things, however, were not so bad as that, though they were
bad enough, heaven knows, for everything seemed to go wrong that
day. The upper-deck coil had strained the ship to the very utmost,
but still held on fast. But not so the coil in the main hold, which
had begun to get adrift, and the top kept working and shifting over
from side to side, as the ship lurched, until some forty or fifty
miles were in a hopeless state of tangle, resembling nothing so
much as a cargo of live eels, and there was every prospect of the
tangle spreading deeper and deeper as the bad weather continued.
Going round upon the starboard tack had eased the ship to a certain
extent, but with such a wind and such a sea--both of which were
getting worse than better--it was impossible to effect much for the
Agamemnon's relief, and so by twelve o'clock she was rolling almost
as badly as ever. The crew, who had been at work since nearly four
in the morning, were set to clear up the decks from the masses of
coal that covered them; and while this was going forward a heavy
sea struck the stern, and smashed the large iron guard-frame which
had been fixed there to prevent the cable fouling the screw in
paying out. Now that one side had broken, it was expected every
moment that other parts would go, and the pieces hanging down
either smash the screw or foul the rudder-post. It is not
overestimating the danger to say that had the latter accident
occurred in such a sea, and with a vessel so overladen the chances
would have been sadly against the Agamemnon ever appearing at the
rendezvous. Fortunately it was found possible to secure the broken
frame temporarily with hawsers so as to prevent it dropping
farther, though nothing could hinder the fractured end from
striking against the vessel's side with such force as to lead to
serious apprehensions that it would establish a dangerous leak
under water. It was near three in the afternoon before this was
quite secured, the gale still continuing, and the sea running even
worse. The condition of the masts, too, at this time was a source
of much anxiety both to Captain Preedy and Mr. Moriarty, the
master. The heavy rolling had strained and slackened the wire
shrouds to such an extent that they had become perfectly useless as
supports. The lower masts bent visibly at every roll, and once or
twice it seemed as if they must go by the board. Unfortunately
nothing whatever could be done to relieve this strain by sending
down any of the upper spars, since it was only her masts which
prevented the ship rolling still more and quicker; and so every one
knew that if once they were carried away it might soon be all over
with the ship, as then the deck coil could not help going after
them. So there was nothing for it but to watch in anxious silence
the way they bent and strained, and trust in Providence for the
result. About six in the evening it was thought better to "wear
ship" again and stand for the rendezvous under easy steam, and her
head accordingly was put about and once more faced the storm. As
she went round she, of course, fell into the trough of the sea
again, and rolled so awfully as to break her waste-steampipe,
filling her engine-room with steam, and depriving her of the
services of one boiler when it was sorely needed. The sun set upon
as wild and wicked a night as ever taxed the courage and coolness
of a sailor. There were, of course, men on board who were familiar
with gales and storms in all parts of the world; and there were
some who had witnessed the tremendous hurricane which swept the
Black Sea on the memorable 14th of November, when scores of vessels
were lost and seamen perished by the thousands. But of all on board
none had ever seen a fiercer or more dangerous sea than raged
throughout that night and the following morning, tossing the
Agamemnon from side to side like a mere plaything among the waters.
The night was thick and very dark, the low black clouds almost
hemming the vessel in; now and then a fiercer blast than usual
drove the great masses slowly aside and showed the moon, a dim,
greasy blotch upon the sky, with the ocean, white as driven snow,
boiling and seething like a caldron. But these were only glimpses,
which were soon lost, and again it was all darkness, through which
the waves, suddenly upheaving, rushed upon the ship as though they
must overwhelm it, and dealing it one staggering blow, went hissing
and surging past into the darkness again. The grandeur of the scene
was almost lost in its dangers and terrors, for of all the many
forms in which death approaches man there is none so easy, in fact,
so terrific in appearance, as death by shipwreck.
Sleeping was impossible that night on board the Agamemnon. Even
those in cots were thrown out, from their striking against the
vessel's side as she pitched. The berths of wood fixed athwartships
in the cabins on the main deck had worked to pieces. Chairs and
tables were broken, chests of drawers capsized, and a little surf
was running over the floors of the cabins themselves, pouring
miniature seas into portmanteaus, and breaking over carpetbags of
clean linen. Fast as it flowed off by the scuppers it came in
faster by the hawse-holes and ports, while the beams and knees
strained with a doleful noise, as though it was impossible they
could hold together much longer, and on the whole it was as
miserable and even anxious a night as ever was passed on board any
line-of-battle ship in her Majesty's service. Captain Preedy never
left the poop all night, though it was hard work to remain there,
even holding on to the poop-rail with both hands. Morning brought
no change, save that the storm was as fierce as ever, and though
the sea could not be higher or wilder, yet the additional amount of
broken water made it still more dangerous to the ship. Very dimly,
and only now and then through the thick scud, the Niagara could be
seen--one moment on a monstrous hill of water, and the next quite
lost to view, as the Agamemnon went down between the waves. But
even these glimpses showed us that our transatlantic consort was
plunging heavily, shipping seas, and evidently having a bad time of
it, though she got through it better than the Agamemnon, as, of
course, she could, having only the same load, though 2,000 tons
larger. Suddenly it came on darker and thicker, and we lost sight
of her in the thick spray, and had only ourselves to look after.
This was quite enough, for every minute made matters worse, and the
aspect of affairs began to excite most serious misgivings in the
minds of those in charge. The Agamemnon is one of the finest
line-of-battle ships in the whole navy, but in such a storm, and so
heavily overladen, what could she do but make bad weather worse,
and strain and labor and fall into the trough of the sea, as if she
were going down head foremost. Three or four hours more and the
vessel had borne all she could bear with safety. The masts were
rapidly getting worse, the deck coil worked more and more with each
tremendous plunge, and, even if both these held, it was evident
that the ship itself would soon strain to pieces if the weather
continued so. The sea, forcing its way through ports and
hawse-holes, had accumulated on the lower deck to such an extent
that it flooded the stoke-hole, so that the men could scarcely
remain at their posts. Everything went smashing and rolling about.
One plunge put all the electrical instruments _hors de combat_ at a
blow, and staved some barrels of strong solution of sulphate of
copper, which went cruising about, turning all it touched to a
light pea-green. By and by she began to ship seas. Water came down
the ventilators near the funnel into the engine-room.
[Illustration: FIG. 27.--The Agamemnon Storm: Coals Adrift.]
Then a tremendous sea struck her forward, drenching those on deck,
and leaving them up to their knees in water, and the least versed
on board could see that things were fast going to the bad unless a
change took place in the weather or the condition of the ship. Of
the first there seemed little chance. The weather certainly showed
no disposition to clear--on the contrary, livid-looking black
clouds seemed to be closing round the vessel faster and faster than
ever. For the relief of the ship three courses were open to Captain
Preedy--one, to wear round and try her on the starboard tack, as he
had been compelled to do the day before; another, to fairly run for
it before the wind; and, third and last, to endeavor to lighten the
vessel by getting some of the cable overboard. Of course the latter
would not have been thought of till the first two had been tried
and failed--in fact, not till it was evident that nothing else
could save the ship. Against wearing round there was the danger of
her again falling off into the trough of the sea, losing her masts,
shifting her upper-deck coil, and so finding her way to the bottom
in ten minutes, while to attempt running before the storm with such
a sea on was to risk her stern being stove in, and a hundred tons
of water added to her burden with each wave that came up afterward,
till the poor Agamemnon went under them all for ever. A little
after ten o'clock on Monday, the 21st, the aspect of affairs was so
alarming that Captain Preedy resolved at all risks to try wearing
the ship round on the other tack. It was hard enough to make the
words of command audible, but to execute them seemed almost
impossible. The ship's head went round enough to leave her
broadside on to the seas, and then for a time it seemed as if
nothing could be done. All the rolls which she had ever given on
the previous day seemed mere trifles compared with her performances
then. Of more than 200 men on deck, at least 150 were thrown down,
and falling over from side to side in heaps, while others, holding
on to the ropes, swung to and fro with every heave. It really
appeared as if the last hour of the stout ship had come, and to
this minute it seems almost miraculous that her masts held on. Each
time she fell over her main chains went deep under water. The lower
decks were flooded, and those above could hear by the fearful
crashing--audible amid the hoarse roar of the storm--that the coals
had got loose again below, and had broken into the engine-room, and
were carrying all before them. During these rolls the main-deck
coil shifted over to such a degree as quite to envelop four men,
who, sitting on the top, were trying to wedge it down with beams.
One of them was so much jammed by the mass which came over him that
he was seriously contused. He had to be removed to the sick-bay,
making up the sick-list to forty-five, of which ten were from
injuries caused by the rolling of the ship, and very many of the
rest from continual fatigue and exposure during the gale. Once
round on the starboard tack, and it was seen in an instant that the
ship was in no degree relieved by the change. Another heavy sea
struck her forward, sweeping clean over the fore part of the vessel
and carrying away the woodwork and platforms which had been placed
there round the machinery for underrunning. This and a few more
plunges were quite sufficient to settle the matter, and at last,
reluctantly, Captain Preedy succumbed to the storm he could neither
conquer nor contend against. Full steam was got on, and with a
foresail and a fore-topsail to lift her head the Agamemnon ran
before the storm, rolling and tumbling over the huge waves at a
tremendous pace. It was well for all that the wind gave this much
way on her, or her stern would infallibly have been stove in. As it
was, a wave partly struck her on the starboard quarter, smashing
the quarter-galley and ward-room windows on that side, and sending
such a sea into the ward-room itself as to literally wash two
officers off a sofa on which they were resting on that side of the
ship. This was a kind of parting blow; for the glass began to rise,
and the storm was evidently beginning to moderate, and although the
sea still ran as high as ever there was less broken water, and
altogether, toward midday, affairs assumed a better and more
cheerful aspect. The ward-room that afternoon was a study for an
artist, with its windows halfdarkened and smashed, the sea-water
still slushing about in odd corners, with everything that was
capable of being broken strewn over the floor in pieces, and some
fifteen or twenty officers, seated amid the ruins, holding on to
the deck or table with one hand, while with the other they
contended at a disadvantage with a tough meal--the first which most
had eaten for twenty-four hours. Little sleep had been indulged in
though much "lolloping about." Those, however, who prepared
themselves for a night's rest in their berths rather than at the
ocean bottom, had great difficulty in finding their day-garments of
a morning. The boots especially went astray, and got so hopelessly
mixed that the man who could "show up" with both pairs of his own
was, indeed, a man to be congratulated.
But all things have an end, and this long gale--of over a week's
duration--at last blew itself out, and the weary ocean rocked
itself to rest.
Throughout the whole of Monday the Agamemnon ran before the wind,
which moderated so much that at 4 A.M. on Tuesday her head was
again put about, and for the second time she commenced beating up
for the rendezvous, then some 200 miles farther from us than when
the storm was at its height on Sunday morning. So little was gained
against this wind that Friday the 25th--sixteen days after leaving
Plymouth--still found us some fifty miles from the rendezvous. So
it was determined to get up steam and run down on it at once. As we
approached the place of meeting the angry sea went down. The
Valorous hove in sight at noon; in the afternoon the Niagara came
in from the north; and at even the Gorgon from the south: and then,
almost for the first time since starting, the squadron was reunited
near the spot where the great work was to have commenced fifteen
days previously--as tranquil in the middle of the Atlantic as if in
Plymouth Sound.
CHAPTER VII
THE RENEWED EFFORT
That evening the four vessels lay together side by side, and there was
such a stillness in the sea and air as would have seemed remarkable even
on an inland lake. On the Atlantic, and after what had been so lately
experienced, it seemed almost unnatural.
The boats were out, and the officers were passing from ship to ship,
telling their experiences of the voyage, and forming plans for the
morrow. The captain of the Agamemnon had a sorry tale to tell. The
strain to which she had been subjected had opened her "waterways."[30]
Then, again, one of the crew, a marine, had been literally frightened
out of his wits, and remained crazy for some days. One man had his arm
fractured in two places, and another his leg broken.
The Niagara, on the other hand, had weathered the gale splendidly,
though it had been a hard and anxious time with her, as well as with the
smaller craft. She had lost her jib-boom, and the buoys she carried for
suspending the cable had been washed from her sides--no man knew where.
After taking stock of things generally, a start was made to repair the
various damages; but the shifting of the upper part of the main coil on
the Agamemnon into a hopeless tangle entailed recoiling a considerable
length of cable, a no light task, occupying several days.
On the morning of Saturday, June 26th, all the preparations were
completed for making the splice and once more commencing the great
undertaking.
In the words of The Times representative:
The end of the Niagara's cable was sent on board the Agamemnon, the
splice was made, a bent sixpence put in for luck, and at 2.50
Greenwich time it was slowly lowered over the side and disappeared
forever. The weather was cold and foggy, with a stiff breeze and
dismal sort of sleet, and as there was no cheering or manifestation
of enthusiasm of any kind, the whole ceremony had a most funereal
effect, and seemed as solemn as if we were burying a marine, or
some other mortuary task of the kind equally cheerful and
enlivening. As it turned out, however, it was just as well that no
display took place, as every one would have looked uncommonly silly
when the same operation came to be repeated, as it had to be, an
hour or so afterward. It is needless making a long story longer, so
I may state at once that when each ship had paid out three miles or
so, and they were getting well apart, the cable, which had been
allowed to run too slack, broke on board the Niagara owing to its
overriding and getting off the pulley leading on to the machine.
The break was of course known instantly, both vessels put about and
returned, a fresh splice was made, and again lowered over at half
past seven. According to arrangement, 150 fathoms were veered out
from each ship, and then all stood away on their course, at first
at two miles an hour, and afterward at four. Everything then went
well, the machine working beautifully, at thirty-two revolutions
per minute, the screw at twenty-six, the cable running out easily
at five and five and a half miles an hour, the ship going four. The
greatest strain upon the dynamometer was 2,500 lbs., and this was
only for a few minutes, the average giving only 2,000 lbs. and
2,100 lbs. At midnight twenty-one nautical miles had been paid out,
and the angle of the cable with the horizon had been reduced
considerably. At about half past three forty miles had gone, and
nothing could be more perfect and regular than the working of
everything, when suddenly, at 3.40 A.M. on Sunday, the 27th,
Professor Thomson came on deck and reported a total break of
continuity; that the cable, in fact, had parted, and as was
believed at the time, from the Niagara. The Agamemnon was instantly
stopped and the brakes applied to the machinery, in order that the
cable paid out might be severed from the mass in the hold, and so
enable Professor Thomson to discover by electrical tests at about
what distance from the ship the fracture had taken place.[31]
Unfortunately, however, there was a strong breeze on at the time,
with rather a heavy swell, which told severely upon the cable, and
before any means could be taken to ease entirely the motion on the
ship, it parted a few fathoms below the stern-wheel, the
dynamometer indicating a strain of nearly 4,000 lbs. In another
instant a gun and a blue light warned the Valorous of what had
happened, and roused all on board the Agamemnon to a knowledge that
the machinery was silent, and that the first part of the Atlantic
cable had been laid and effectually lost.
The great length of cable on board both ships allowed a large
margin for such mishaps as these, and the arrangement made before
leaving England was that the splices might be renewed and the work
recommenced till each ship had lost 250 miles of wire, after which
they were to discontinue their efforts and return to Queenstown.
Accordingly, after the breakage on Sunday morning, the ships' heads
were put about, and for the fourth time the Agamemnon again began
the weary work of beating up against the wind for that everlasting
rendezvous which we seemed destined to be always seeking. Apart
from the regret with which all regarded the loss of the cable,
there were other reasons for not wishing the cruise to be thus
indefinitely prolonged, since there had been a break in the
continuity of the fresh provisions; and for some days previously in
the ward-room the _pièces de résistance_ had been
inflammatory-looking _morceaux_, salted to an astonishing pitch,
and otherwise uneatable, for it was beef which had been kept three
years beyond its warranty for soundness, and to which all were then
reduced.
It was hard work beating up against the wind; so hard, indeed, that
it was not till the noon of Monday, the 28th, that we again met the
Niagara; and while all were waiting with impatience for her
explanation of how she broke the cable, she electrified every one
by running up the interrogatory, "How did the cable part?" This
_was_ astounding. As soon as the boats could be lowered, Mr. Cyrus
Field, with the electricians from the Niagara, came on board, and a
comparison of logs showed the painful and mysterious fact that at
the same second of time each vessel discovered that a total
fracture had taken place at a distance of certainly not less than
ten miles from each ship, as well as could be judged, at the bottom
of the ocean. The logs on both sides were so clear as to the minute
of time, and as to the electrical tests showing not merely leakage
or defective insulations of the wire, but a total fracture, that
there was no room left on which to rest a moment's doubt of the
certainty of this most disheartening fact. That of all the many
mishaps connected with the Atlantic telegraph, this was the worst
and most disheartening, since it proved that after all that human
skill and science can effect to lay the wire down with safety has
been accomplished, there may be some fatal obstacles to success at
the bottom of the ocean which can never be guarded against, for
even the nature of the peril must always remain as secret and
unknown as the depths in which it is to be encountered. Was the
bottom covered with a soft coating of ooze, in which it had been
said the cable might rest undisturbed for years as on a bed of
down? or were there, after all, sharp-pointed rocks lying on that
supposed plateau of Maury, Berryman, and Dayman? These were the
questions that some of those on board were asking.
But there was no use in further conjecture or in repining over what
_had_ already happened. Though the prospect of success appeared to
be considerably impaired it was generally considered that there was
but one course left, and that was to splice again and make
another--and what was fondly hoped would be a final--attempt.
Accordingly no time was lost in making the third splice, which was
lowered over into 2,000 fathoms of water at seven o'clock by ship's
time the same night. Before steaming away, as the Agamemnon was now
getting very short of coal, and the two vessels had some 100 miles
of surplus cable between them, it was agreed that if the wire
parted again before the ships had gone each 100 miles from the
rendezvous they were to return and make another splice; and as the
Agamemnon was to sail back, the Niagara, it was decided, was to
wait eight days for her appearance. If, on the other hand, the 100
miles had been exceeded, the ships were not to return, but each
make the best of its way to Queenstown. With this understanding the
ships again parted, and, with the wire dropping steadily down
between them, the Niagara and Agamemnon steamed away, and were soon
lost in the cold, raw fog, which had hung over the rendezvous ever
since the operations had commenced.
The cable, as before, paid out beautifully, and nothing could have
been more regular and more easy than the working of every part of
the apparatus. At first the ship's speed was only two knots, the
cable going three and three and a half with a strain of 1,500 lbs.,
the horizontal angle averaging as low as seven and the vertical
about sixteen. By and by, however, the speed was increased to four
knots, the cable going five, at a strain of 2,000 lbs., and an
angle of from twelve to fifteen. At this rate it was kept with
trifling variations throughout the whole of Monday night, and
neither Mr. Bright, Mr. Canning, nor Mr. Clifford ever quitted the
machines for an instant. Toward the middle of the night, while the
rate of the ship continued the same, the speed at which the cable
paid out slackened nearly a knot, while the dynamometer indicated
as low as 1,300 lbs. This change could only be accounted for on the
supposition that the water had shallowed to a considerable extent,
and that the vessel was in fact passing over some submarine Ben
Nevis or Skiddaw. After an interval of about an hour the strain and
rate of progress of the cable again increased, while the increase
of the vertical angle seemed to indicate that the wire was sinking
down the side of a declivity. Beyond this there was no variation
throughout Monday night, or indeed through Tuesday. The upper-deck
coil, which had weighed so heavily upon the ship--and still more
heavily upon the minds of all during the past storms--was fast
disappearing, and by twelve at midday on Tuesday, the 29th,
seventy-six miles had been paid out to something like sixty miles'
progress of the ship. Warned by repeated failures, many of those
on board scarcely dared hope for success. Still the spirits of all
rose as the distance widened between the ships. Things were going
in splendid style--in such splendid style that "stock had gone up
nearly 100 per cent." Those who had leisure for sleep were able to
dream about cable-laying and the terrible effects of too great a
strain. The first question which such as these ask on awakening is
about the cable, and on being informed that it is all right,
satisfaction ensues until the appearance of breakfast, when it is
presumed this feeling is intensified. For those who do not derive
any particular pleasure from the mere asking of questions, the
harmonious music made by the paying-out machine during its
revolutions supplies the information.
Then again, the electrical continuity--after all, the most
important item--was perfect, and the electricians reported that the
signals passing between the ships were eminently satisfactory. The
door of the testing-room is almost always shut, and the
electricians pursue their work undisturbed; but it is impossible to
exclude that spirit of scientific inquiry which will satiate its
thirst for information even through a keyhole.
Further, the weather was all that could be wished for. Indeed, had
the poet who was so anxious for "life on the ocean wave and a home
on the rolling deep" been aboard, he would have been absolutely
happy, and perhaps even more desirous for a fixed habitation.
The only cause that warranted anxiety was that it was evident the
upper-deck coil would be finished by about eleven o'clock at night,
when the men would have to pass along in darkness the great loop
which formed the communication between that and the coil in the
main hold. This was most unfortunate; but the operation had been
successfully performed in daylight during the experimental trip in
the Bay of Biscay, and every precaution was now taken that no
accident should occur. At nine o'clock by ship's time, when 146
miles had been paid out and about 112 miles' distance from the
rendezvous accomplished, the last flake but one of the upper-deck
coil came in turn to be used. In order to make it easier in
passing to the main coil the revolutions of the screw were reduced
gradually, by two revolutions at a time from thirty to twenty,
while the paying-out machine went slowly from thirty-six to
twenty-two. At this rate the vessel going three knots and the cable
three and a half, the operation was continued with perfect
regularity, the dynamometer indicating a strain of 2,100 lbs.
Suddenly without an instant's warning, or the occurrence of any
single incident that could account for it, the cable parted when
subjected to a strain of less than a ton.[32] The gun that again
told the Valorous of this fatal mishap brought all on board the
Agamemnon rushing to the deck, for none could believe the rumor
that had spread like wildfire about the ship. But there stood the
machinery, silent and motionless, while the fractured end of the
wire hung over the stern-wheel, swinging loosely to and fro. It
seemed almost impossible to realize the fact that an accident so
instantaneous and irremediable should have occurred, and at a time
when all seemed to be going on so well. Of course a variety of
ingenious suggestions were soon afloat, showing most satisfactorily
how the cable must and ought to have broken. There was a regular
gloom that night on board the Agamemnon, for from first to last the
success of the expedition had been uppermost in the thoughts of
all, and all had labored for it early and late, contending with
every danger and overcoming every obstacle and disaster that had
marked each day, with an earnestness and devotion of purpose that
is really beyond all praise.
Immediately after the mishap, a brief consultation was held by
those in charge on board the Agamemnon, and as it was shown that
they had only exceeded the distance from the rendezvous by fourteen
miles, and that there was still more cable on board the two vessels
than the amount with which the original expedition last year was
commenced, it was determined to try for another chance and return
to the rendezvous, sailing there, of course; for Mr. Brown, the
chief engineer, as ultrazealous in the cause as a board of
directors, guarded the coal-bunkers like a very dragon, lest, if in
coming to paying out the cable again, steam should run short,
thereby endangering the success of the whole undertaking.
For the fifth time, therefore, the Agamemnon's head went about, and
after twenty days at sea she again began beating up against the
wind for the rendezvous to try, if possible, to recommence her
labors. The following day the wind was blowing from the southwest,
with mist and rain, and Thursday, July 1st, gave every one the most
unfavorable opinion of July weather in the Atlantic. The wind and
sea were both high--the wet fog so dense that one could scarcely
see the mastheads, while the damp cold was really biting.
Altogether it was an atmosphere of which a Londoner would have been
ashamed even in November. Later in the day a heavy sea got on; the
wind increased without dissipating the fog, and it was
double-reefed topsails and pitching and rolling as before. However,
the upper-deck coil of 250 tons being gone, the Agamemnon was as
buoyant as a lifeboat, and no one cared how much she took to
kicking about, though the cold wet fog was a miserable nuisance,
penetrating everywhere and making the ship as wet inside as out.
What made the matter worse was that in such weather there seemed no
chance of meeting the Niagara unless she ran into us, when
cable-laying would have gone on wholesale. In order to avoid such a
contretemps, and also to inform the Valorous of our whereabouts,
guns were fired, fog-bells rung, and the bugler stationed forward
to warn the other vessels of our vicinity. Friday was the ditto of
Thursday and Saturday, worse than both together, for it almost blew
a gale and there was a heavy sea on. On Sunday, the 4th, it
cleared, and the Agamemnon for the first time during the whole
cruise, reached the actual rendezvous and fell in with the
Valorous, which had been there since Friday, the 2d, but the fog
must have been even thicker there than elsewhere, for she had
scarcely seen herself, much less anything else till Sunday.
During the remainder of that day and Monday, when the weather was
very clear, both ships cruised over the place of meeting, but
neither the Niagara nor Gorgon was there, though day and night the
lookout for them was constant and incessant. It was evident then
that the Niagara had rigidly, but most unfortunately, adhered to
the mere letter of the agreement regarding the 100 miles, and after
the last fracture had at once turned back for Queenstown. On
Tuesday, the 6th, therefore, as the dense fogs and winds set in
again it was agreed between the Valorous and Agamemnon to return
once more to the rendezvous. But as usual the fog was so thick that
the whole American navy might have been cruising there unobserved;
so the search was given up, and at eight o'clock that night the
ship's head was turned for Cork, and, under all sail, the Agamemnon
at last stood homeward. The voyage home was made with ease and
swiftness considering the lightness of the wind, the trim of the
ship, and that she only steamed three days, and at midday on
Tuesday, July 12th, the Agamemnon cast anchor in Queenstown harbor,
having met with more dangerous weather, and encountered more
mishaps than often falls to the lot of any ship in a cruise of
thirty-three days.
Thus ends the most arduous and dangerous expedition that had ever been
experienced in connection with cable-work. It, at any rate, had the
advantage of supplying the public with some exciting reading in the
columns of The Times, whose graphic descriptions were much appreciated.
The Niagara had reached Queenstown as far back as July 5th. Having found
that they had run out 109 miles when "continuity" ceased, those in
charge considered that, in order to carry out their instructions, they
should return at once to the above port, which they did.
On the two ships meeting at Queenstown, discussion immediately took
place (1) as to the cause of the cessation of "continuity"; and (2)
regarding the course taken by the Niagara in returning home so promptly.
The non-arrival of the Agamemnon till nearly a week later had been the
cause of much alarm regarding her safety.
CHAPTER VIII
"FINIS CORONAT OPUS"
Renewed "Stock-Taking"--The Last Start--Successful Termination--General
Surprise and Applause
The sad tale of disaster commenced to spread abroad immediately on the
Niagara's arrival in Queenstown; and when Mr. Field hastened to London
to meet the other directors of the company, he found that the news had
not only preceded him, but had already had its effect.
The Board was soon called together. It met as a council of war summoned
after a terrific defeat to decide whether to surrender or to try once
more the chances of battle. Says Field: "Most of the directors looked
blankly in one another's faces." With some the feeling was one akin to
despair. It was thought by many that there was nothing left on which to
found an expectation of future success, or to encourage the expenditure
of further capital upon an adventure so "completely visionary." The
chairman (Sir William Brown), while recommending entire abandonment of
the undertaking, suggested "a sale of the cable remaining on board the
ships, and a distribution of the proceeds among the shareholders."
Bolder counsels were, however, destined to prevail. There were those who
thought there was still a chance, like Robert Bruce, who, after twelve
battles and twelve defeats, yet believed that a thirteenth _might_ bring
victory, notwithstanding the prejudice held by some against that number.
The projectors made a firm stand for immediate action, as did also
Professor Thomson and Mr. Curtis Lampson, who succeeded Mr. Brooking as
deputy chairman, at the same time that Mr. Stuart Wortley took the chair
in place of Sir W. Brown, on the latter's resignation. These advocates
of non-surrender succeeded at length in carrying an order for the
immediate sailing of the expedition for a final effort. It was this
effort which proved to the world the possibility of telegraphing from
one hemisphere to the other.
The order to advance having been given, the ships forthwith took in coal
and other necessaries.
When everything and everybody had been shipped, the squadron left
Queenstown once more on Saturday, July 17, 1858. As the ships sailed out
of the harbor of Cork, it was with none of the enthusiasm which attended
their departure from Valentia the year before, or even the small amount
excited when leaving Plymouth on June 10th. Nobody so much as cheered.
In fact, their mission was by this time spoken of as a "mad freak of
stubborn ignorance," and "was regarded with mixed feelings of derision
and pity."[33]
The squadron was the same as on the last occasion. It was agreed that
the ships should not attempt to keep together this time, but that each
should make its way to the given latitude and longitude. The staffs were
composed and berthed as before. Moreover, the expedition was again
accompanied by the same literary talent.
_The Last Start._--Let us now turn to The Times narrative, as given at
the conclusion of this final expedition:
As the ships left the harbor there was apparently no notice taken
of their departure by those on shore or in the vessels anchored
around them. Every one seemed impressed with the conviction that we
were engaged in a hopeless enterprise; and the squadron seemed
rather to have slunk away on some discreditable mission than to
have sailed for the accomplishment of a grand national scheme. It
was just dawn when the Agamemnon got clear of Queenstown harbor,
but, as the wind blew stiff from the southwest, it was nearly ten
o'clock before she rounded the Old Head of Kinsale, a distance of
only a few miles. The weather remained fine during the day; and as
the Agamemnon skirted along the wild and rocky shore of the
southwest coast of Ireland, those on board had an excellent
opportunity of seeing the stupendous rocks which rise from the
water in the most grotesque and fantastic shapes. About five
o'clock in the afternoon Cape Clear was passed, and though the
coast gradually edged away to the northward of our course, yet it
was nearly dark before we lost sight of the rocky mountains which
surround Bantry Bay and the shores of the Kenmare River. By Monday,
the 19th, we had left the land far behind us, and thence fell into
the usual dull monotony of sea life.
Of the voyage out there is little to be said. It was not checkered
by the excitement of continual storms or the tedium of perpetual
calms, but we had a sufficient admixture of both to render our
passage to the rendezvous a very ordinary and uninteresting one.
For the first week the barometer remained unusually low, and the
numbers of those natural barometers--Mother Carey's chickens--that
kept in our wake kept us in continual expectation of heavy weather.
With very little breeze or wind, the screw was got up and sail
made, so as to husband our coals as much as possible; but it
generally soon fell calm, and obliged Captain Preedy reluctantly to
get up steam again. In consequence of continued delays and changes
from steam to sail, and from sail to steam again, much fuel was
expended, and not more than eighty miles of distance made good each
day. On Sunday, the 25th, however, the weather changed, and for
several days in succession there was an uninterrupted calm. The
moon was just at the full, and for several nights it shone with a
brilliancy which turned the smooth sea into one silvery sheet,
which brought out the dark hull and white sails of the ship in
strong contrast to the sea and sky as the vessel lay all but
motionless on the water, the very impersonation of solitude and
repose. Indeed, until the rendezvous was gained, we had such a
succession of beautiful sunrises, gorgeous sunsets, and tranquil
moonlight nights as would have excited the most enthusiastic
admiration of any one but persons situated as we were. But by us
such scenes were regarded only as the annoying indications of the
calm which delayed our progress and wasted our coals. To say that
it was calm is not doing full justice to it; there was not a breath
in the air, and the water was as smooth as a mill-pond. Even the
wake of the ship scarce ruffled the surface; and the gulls which
had visited us almost daily, and to which our benevolent liberality
had dispensed innumerable pieces of pork, threw an almost unbroken
shadow upon it as they stooped in their flight to pick up the
largest and most tempting. It was generally remarked that
cable-laying under such circumstances would be mere child's play.
In spite of the unusual calmness of the weather in general, there
were days on which our former unpleasant experiences of the
Atlantic were brought forcibly to our recollection, when it blew
hard and the sea ran sufficiently high to reproduce on a minor
scale some of the discomforts of which the previous cruise had
been so fruitful. Those days, however, were the exception and not
the rule, and served to show how much more pleasant was the
inconvenient calm than the weather which had previously prevailed.
The precise point of the rendezvous--marked by a dot on the
chart--was reached on the evening of Wednesday, July 28th, just
eleven days after our departure from Queenstown. The voyage out was
a lazy one. Now things are different, and we no longer hear of the
prospects of the heroes and heroines of the romances and novels
which have formed the staple food for animated discussion for some
days past. The rest of the squadron were in sight at nightfall, but
at such a considerable distance that it was past ten o'clock on the
morning of Thursday the 29th, before the Agamemnon joined them.
Some time previous to reaching the rendezvous the engineer-in-chief
(Mr. Bright) went up in the shrouds on the lookout for the other
ships, and accordingly had to "pay his footing"--much to the
amusement of his staff. Most of them being more advanced in years
would not probably have been so equal to the task in an athletic
sense.
After the ordinary laconic conversation which characterize code
flag-signals, we were as usual greeted by a perfect storm of
questions as to what had kept us so much behind our time, and
learned that all had come to the conclusion that the ship must have
got on shore on leaving Queenstown harbor. The Niagara, it
appeared, had arrived at the rendezvous on Friday night, the 23d,
the Valorous on Sunday, the 25th, and the Gorgon on the afternoon
of Tuesday, the 27th.
The day was beautifully calm, so no time was to be lost before
making the splice in lat. 52° 9´ N., long. 32° 27´ W., and
soundings of 1,500 fathoms. Boats were soon lowered from the
attendant ships; the two vessels made fast by a hawser, and the
Niagara's end of the cable conveyed on board the Agamemnon. About
half-past twelve o'clock the splice was effectually made, but with
a very different frame from the carefully rounded semi-circular
boards which had been used to enclose the junctions on previous
occasions. It consisted merely of two straight boards hauled over
the joint and splice, with the iron rod and leaden plummet attached
to the center. In hoisting it out from the side of the ship,
however, the leaden sinker broke short off and fell overboard.
There being no more convenient weight at hand a 32-lb. shot was
fastened to the splice instead, and the whole apparatus was quickly
dropped into the sea without any formality--and, indeed, almost
without a spectator--for those on board the ship had witnessed so
many beginnings to the telegraphic line that it was evident they
despaired of there ever being an end to it.
The stipulated 210 fathoms of cable having been paid out to allow
the splice to sink well below the surface, the signal to start was
hoisted, the hawser cut loose, and the Niagara and Agamemnon start
for the last time at about 1 P.M. for their opposite destinations.
The announcement comes from the electrician's testing-room that the
continuity is perfect, and with this assurance the engineers go on
more boldly with the work. In point of fact the engineers may be
said to be very much under the control of the electricians during
paying out; for if the latter report anything wrong with the cable,
the engineers are brought to a stand until they are allowed to go
on with their operations by the announcement of the electricians
that the insulation is perfect and the continuity all right. The
testing-room is where the subtle current which flows along the
conductor is generated, and where the mysterious apparatus by which
electricity is weighed and measured--as a marketable commodity--is
fitted up. The system of testing and of transmitting and receiving
signals through the cable from ship to ship during the process of
paying out must now be briefly referred to. It consists of an
exchange of currents sent alternately every ten minutes by each
ship. These not only serve to give an accurate test of the
continuity and insulation of the conducting-wire from end to end,
but also to give certain signals which it is desirable to send for
information purposes. For instance, every ten miles of cable paid
out is signalized from ship to ship, as also the approach to land
or momentary stoppage for splicing, shifting to a fresh coil, etc.
The current in its passage is made to pass through an
electromagnetometer,[34] an instrument invented by Mr. Whitehouse.
It is also conveyed in its passage at each end of the cable through
the reflecting-galvanometer and speaking-instrument just invented
by Professor Thomson; and it is this latter which is so invaluable,
not only for the interchange of signals, but also for testing
purposes. The deflections read on the galvanometer, as also the
degree of charge and discharge indicated by the magnetometer, are
carefully recorded. Thus, if a defect of continuity or insulation
occurs it is brought to light by comparison with those received
before.
For the first three hours the ships proceeded very slowly, paying
out a great quantity of slack, but after the expiration of this
time the speed of the Agamemnon was increased to about five knots,
the cable going at about six, without indicating more than a few
hundred pounds of strain upon the dynamometer.
Shortly after four o'clock a very large whale was seen approaching
the starboard bow at a great speed (Fig. 28), rolling and tossing
the sea into foam all round; and for the first time we felt a
possibility for the supposition that our second mysterious breakage
of the cable might have been caused, after all, by one of these
animals getting foul of it under water. It appeared as if it were
making direct for the cable; and great was the relief of all when
the ponderous living mass was seen slowly to pass astern, just
grazing the cable where it entered the water--but fortunately
without doing any mischief. All seemed to go well up to about eight
o'clock; the cable paid out from the hold with an evenness and
regularity which showed how carefully and perfectly it had been
coiled away. The paying-out machine also worked so smoothly that it
left nothing to be desired. The brakes are properly called
self-releasing; and although they can, by means of additional
weights, be made to increase the pressure or strain upon the cable,
yet, until these weights are still further increased (at the
engineer's instructions), it is impossible to augment the strain in
any other way. To guard against accidents which might arise in
consequence of the cable having suffered injury during the storm,
the indicated strain upon the dynamometer was never allowed to go
beyond 1,700 lbs. or less than one-quarter what the cable is
estimated to bear. Thus far everything looked promising.
But in such a hazardous work no one knows what a few minutes may
bring forth, for soon after eight o'clock an injured portion of the
cable[35] was discovered about a mile or two from the portion
paying out. Not a moment was lost by Mr. Canning, the engineer on
duty, in setting men to work to cobble up the injury as well as
time would permit, for the cable was going out at such a rate that
the damaged portion would be paid overboard in less than twenty
minutes, and former experience had shown us that to check either
the speed of the ship or the cable would, in all probability, be
attended by the most fatal results. Just before the lapping was
finished, Professor Thomson reported that the electrical continuity
of the wire had ceased, but that the insulation was still perfect.
Attention was naturally directed to the injured piece as the
probable source of the stoppage, and not a moment was lost in
cutting the cable at that point with the intention of making a
perfect splice.
To the consternation of all, the electrical tests applied showed
the fault to be overboard, and in all probability some fifty miles
from the ship.
[Illustration: FIG. 28.--In Collision with a Whale while
Cable-Laying.]
Not a second was to be lost, for it was evident that the cut
portion must be paid overboard in a few minutes; and in the
meantime the tedious and difficult operation of making a splice
had to be performed. The ship was immediately stopped, and no more
cable paid out than was absolutely necessary to prevent it
breaking. As the stern of the ship was lifted by the waves a scene
of the most intense excitement followed. It seemed impossible, even
by using the greatest possible speed and paying out the least
possible amount of cable, that the junction could be finished
before the part was taken out of the hands of the workmen. The main
hold presented an extraordinary scene. Nearly all the officers of
the ship and of those connected with the expedition stood in groups
about the coil, watching with intense anxiety the cable as it
slowly unwound itself nearer and nearer the joint, while the
workmen worked at the splice as only men could work who felt that
the life and death of the expedition depended upon their rapidity.
But all their speed was to no purpose, as the cable was unwinding
within a hundred fathoms; and, as a last and desperate resource,
the cable was stopped altogether, and for a few minutes the ship
hung on by the end. Fortunately, however, it was only for a few
minutes, as the strain was continually rising above two tons and it
would not hold on much longer. When the splice was finished the
signal was made to loose the stoppers, and it passed overboard in
safety.
When the excitement, consequent upon having so narrowly saved the
cable, had passed away, we awoke to the consciousness that the case
was yet as hopeless as ever, for the electrical continuity was
still entirely wanting.
Preparations were consequently made to pay out as little rope as
possible, and to hold on for six hours in the hope that the fault,
whatever it was, might mend itself, before cutting the cable and
returning to the rendezvous to make another splice. The magnetic
needles on the receiving-instruments were watched closely for the
returning signals, when, in a few minutes, the last hope was
extinguished by their suddenly indicating dead earth, which tended
to show that the cable had broken from the Niagara, or that the
insulation had been completely destroyed.
Nothing, however, could be done. The only course was to wait until
the current should return or take its final departure. And it _did_
return--with greater strength than ever--for in three minutes every
one was agreeably surprised by the intelligence that the stoppage
had disappeared and that the signals had again appeared at their
regular intervals from the Niagara[36] It is needless to say what a
load of anxiety this news removed from the minds of every one, but
the general confidence in the ultimate success of the operations
was much shaken by the occurrence, for all felt that every minute a
similar accident might occur.
For some time the paying out continued as usual, but toward the
morning another damaged place was discovered in the cable. There
was fortunately time, however, to repair it in the hold without in
any way interfering with the operations, beyond for a time reducing
slightly the speed of the ship. During the morning of Friday, the
30th, everything went well. The ship had been kept at the speed of
about five knots, the cable going out at six, the average angle
with the horizon at which it left the ship being about 15°, while
the indicated strain upon the dynamometer seldom showed more than
1,600 lbs. to 1,700 lbs.
Observations made at noon showed that we had made good ninety miles
from the starting-point since the previous day, with an
expenditure--including the loss in lowering the splice, and during
the subsequent stoppages--of 135 miles of cable. During the latter
portion of the day the barometer fell considerably, and toward the
evening it blew almost a gale of wind from the eastward, dead ahead
of our course. As the breeze freshened the speed of the engines was
gradually increased, but the wind more than increased in
proportion, so that before the sun went down the Agamemnon was
going full steam against the wind, only making a speed of about
four knots.
During the evening, topmasts were lowered, and spars, yards, sails,
and indeed everything aloft that could offer resistance to the
wind, were sent down on deck. Still the ship made but little way,
chiefly in consequence of the heavy sea, though the enormous
quantity of fuel consumed showed us that if the wind lasted, we
should be reduced to burning the masts, spars, and even the decks,
to bring the ship into Valentia. It seemed to be our particular
ill-fortune to meet with head-winds whichever way the ship's head
was turned. On our journey out we had been delayed and obliged to
consume an undue proportion of coal for want of an easterly wind,
and now all our fuel was wanted _because_ of one. However, during
the next day the wind gradually went round to the southwest, which,
though it raised a very heavy sea, allowed us to husband our small
remaining store of fuel.
At noon on Saturday, July 31st, observations showed us to be in
lat. 52° 23´ N., and long. 26° 44´ W., having made good 120 miles
of distance since noon of the previous day, with a loss of about 27
per cent of cable. The Niagara, as far as could be judged from the
amount of cable she paid out--which by a previous arrangement was
signaled at every ten miles--kept pace with us, within one or two
miles, the whole distance across.
During the afternoon of Saturday, the wind again freshened up, and
before nightfall it blew nearly a gale of wind, and a tremendous
sea ran before it from the southwest, which made the Agamemnon
pitch and toss to such an extent that it was thought impossible the
cable could hold through the night. Indeed, had it not been for the
constant care and watchfulness exercised by Mr. Bright and the two
energetic engineers, Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford, who acted with
him, it could not have been done at all. Men were kept at the
wheels of the machine to prevent their stopping (as the stern of
the ship rose and fell with the sea), for had they done so, the
cable must undoubtedly have parted. During Sunday the sea and wind
increased, and before the evening it blew a smart gale.
Now, indeed, were the energy and activity of all engaged in the
operation tasked to the utmost. Mr. Hoar and Mr. Moore--the two
engineers who had the charge of the relieving-wheels of the
dynamometer--had to keep watch and watch alternately every four
hours, and while on duty durst not let their attention be removed
from their occupation for one moment; for on their releasing the
brakes every time the stern of the ship fell into the trough of the
sea entirely depended the safety of the cable, and the result shows
how ably they discharged their duty.
Throughout the night there were few who had the least expectation
of the cable holding on till morning, and many lay awake listening
for the sound that all most dreaded to hear, viz., the gun which
should announce the failure of all our hopes. But still the
cable--which in comparison with the ship from which it was paid
out, and the gigantic waves among which it was delivered, was but a
mere thread--continued to hold on, only leaving a silvery
phosphorescent line upon the stupendous seas as they rolled on
toward the ship.
With Sunday morning came no improvement in the weather, still the
sky remained black and stormy to windward, and the constant violent
squalls of wind and rain which prevailed during the whole day
served to keep up, if not to augment, the height of the waves.
But the cable had gone through so much during the night that our
confidence in its continuing to hold was much restored. At noon
observation showed us to be in lat. 52° 26´ N., and long. 23° 16´
W., having made good 130 miles from noon of the previous day, and
about 350 from our starting-point in mid-ocean. We had passed by
the deepest soundings of 2,400 fathoms, and over more than half of
the deep water generally, while the amount of cable still remaining
in the ship was more than sufficient to carry us to the Irish
coast, even supposing the continuance of the bad weather, should
oblige us to pay out nearly the same amount of slack cable as
hitherto.
Thus far things looked promising for our ultimate success. But
former experience showed us only too plainly that we could never
suppose that some accident might not arise until the ends had been
fairly landed on the opposite shores.
During Sunday night and Monday morning the weather continued as
boisterous as ever. It was only by the most indefatigable exertions
of the engineer upon duty that the wheels could be prevented from
stopping altogether as the vessel rose and fell with the sea; and
once or twice they did come completely to a standstill in spite of
all that could be done to keep them moving. Fortunately, however,
they were again set in motion before the stern of the ship was
thrown up by the succeeding wave. No strain could be placed upon
the cable, of course, and though the dynamometer occasionally
registered 1,700 lbs., as the ship lifted, it was oftener below
1,000 lbs., and was frequently nothing, the cable running out as
fast as its own weight and the speed of the ship could draw it. But
even with all these forces acting unresistingly upon it, the cable
never paid itself out at a greater speed than eight knots at the
time the ship was going at the rate of six knots and a half.
Subsequently, however, when the speed of the ship even exceeded six
knots and a half, the cable never ran out so quickly. The average
speed maintained by the ship up to this time, and, indeed, for the
whole voyage, was about five knots and a half, the cable, with
occasional exceptions, running some 30 per cent faster.
At noon on Monday, August 2d, observations showed us to be in lat.
52° 35´ N., long. 19° 48´ W. Thus we had made good 127-1/2 miles
since noon of the previous day and had completed more than half-way
to our ultimate destination.
During the afternoon, an American three-masted schooner, which
afterward proved to be the Chieftain, was seen standing from the
eastward toward us. No notice was taken of her at first, but when
she was within about half a mile of the Agamemnon, she altered her
course and bore right down across our bows. A collision which might
prove fatal to the cable now seemed inevitable; or could only be
avoided by the equally hazardous expedient of altering the
Agamemnon's course. The Valorous steamed ahead and fired a gun for
her to heave to, which as she did not appear to take much notice
of, was quickly followed by another from the bows of the Agamemnon,
and a second and third from the Valorous. But still the vessel held
on her course; and, as the only resource left to avoid a collision,
the course of the Agamemnon was altered just in time to pass within
a few yards of her. It was evident that our proceedings were a
source of the greatest possible astonishment to them, for all her
crew crowded upon her deck and rigging. At length they evidently
discovered who we were and what we were doing, for the crew manned
the rigging, and, dipping the ensign several times, they gave us
three hearty cheers. Though the Agamemnon was obliged to
acknowledge these congratulations in due form, the feeling of
annoyance with which we regarded the vessel--which (either by the
stupidity or carelessness of those on board) was so near adding a
fatal and unexpected mishap to the long chapter of accidents which
had already been encountered--may easily be imagined.
To those below--who, of course, did not see the ship
approaching--the sound of the first gun came like a thunderbolt,
for all took it as a signal of the breaking of the cable. The
dinner-tables were deserted in a moment, and a general rush made up
the hatches to the deck; but before reaching it their fears were
quickly banished by the report of the succeeding gun, which all
knew well could only be caused by a ship in our way or a man
overboard.
Throughout the greater part of Monday morning the electrical
signals from the Niagara had been getting gradually weaker, until
they ceased altogether for nearly three-quarters of an hour. Then
Professor Thomson sent a message to the effect that the signals
were too weak to be read; and, in a little while, the deflections
returned even stronger than they had ever been before. Toward the
evening, however, they again declined in force for a few
minutes.[37]
With the exception of these little stoppages, the electrical
condition of the submerged wire seemed to be much improved. It was
evident that the low temperature of the water at the immense depth
improved considerably the insulating properties of the
gutta-percha, while the enormous pressure to which it must have
been subjected probably tended to consolidate its texture, and to
fill up any air-bubbles or slight faults in manufacture which may
have existed.
The weather during Monday night moderated a little; but still there
was a very heavy sea on, which endangered the wire every second
minute.
About three o'clock on Tuesday morning all on board were startled
from their beds by the loud booming of a gun. Every one--without
waiting for the performance of the most particular toilet--rushed
on deck to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. Contrary to all
expectation, the cable was safe; but just in the gray light could
be seen the Valorous--rounded to in the most warlike
attitude--firing gun after gun in quick succession toward a large
American bark, which, quite unconscious of our proceedings, was
standing right across our stern. Such loud and repeated
remonstrances from a large steam-frigate were not to be despised;
and evidently without knowing the why or the wherefore she quickly
threw her sails aback, and remained hove to. Whether those on board
her considered that we were engaged in some filibustering
expedition, or regarded our proceedings as another outrage upon the
American flag, it is impossible to say; but certain it is
that--apparently in great trepidation--she remained hove to until
we had lost sight of her in the distance.
Tuesday was a much finer day than any we had experienced for nearly
a week, but still there was a considerable sea running, and our
dangers were far from past; yet the hopes of our ultimate success
ran high. We had accomplished nearly the whole of the deep portions
of the route in safety, and that, too, under the most unfavorable
circumstances possible; therefore there was every reason to believe
that--unless some unforeseen accident should occur--we should
accomplish the remainder. Observations at noon placed us in lat. 5°
26´ N., long. 16° 7´ 40´´ W., having run 134 miles since the
previous day.
About five o'clock in the evening the steep submarine mountain
which divides the steep telegraphic plateau from the Irish coast
was reached, and the sudden shallowing of water had a very marked
effect upon the cable, causing the strain and the speed to lessen
every minute. A great deal of slack was paid out,[38] to allow for
any greater inequalities which might exist, though undiscovered by
the sounding-line.
About ten o'clock the shoal water of 250 fathoms was reached. The
only remaining anxiety now was the changing from the lower main
coil to that upon the upper deck; and this most dangerous operation
was successfully performed between three and four o'clock on
Wednesday morning.
Wednesday was a beautiful, calm day; indeed, it was the first on
which any one would have thought of making a splice since the day
we started from the rendezvous. We therefore congratulated
ourselves on having saved a week by commencing operations on the
Thursday previous.
At noon we were in lat. 52° 11´; long. 12° 40´ 2´´ W., eighty-nine
miles distant from the telegraph station at Valentia. The water was
shallow, so that there was no difficulty in paying out the wire
almost without any loss by slack; and all looked upon the
undertaking as virtually accomplished.
At about one o'clock in the evening the second change from the
upper-deck coil to that upon the orlop-deck was safely effected;
and shortly after the vessels exchanged signals that they were in
200 fathoms water.
As night advanced the speed of the ship was reduced, as it was
known that we were only a short distance from the land, and there
would be no advantage in making it before daylight in the morning.
At about twelve o'clock, however, the Skelligs Light was seen in
the distance, and the Valorous steamed on ahead to lead us in to
the coast, firing rockets at intervals to direct us, which were
answered by us from the Agamemnon, though--according to Mr.
Moriarty, the master's, wish--the ship, disregarding the Valorous,
kept her own course, which proved to be the right one in the end.
By daylight on the morning of Thursday, the 5th, the bold rocky
mountains which entirely surround the wild and picturesque
neighborhood of Valentia rose right before us at a few miles
distance. Never, probably, was the sight of land more welcome, as
it brought to a successful termination one of the greatest, but at
the same time most difficult, schemes which was ever undertaken.
Had it been the dullest and most melancholy swamp on the face of
the earth that lay before us, we should have found it a pleasant
prospect; but as the sun rose behind the estuary of Dingle Bay,
tingeing with a deep, soft purple the lofty summits of the steep
mountains which surround its shores, illuminating the masses of
morning vapor which hung upon them, it was a scene which might vie
in beauty with anything that could be produced by the most florid
imagination of an artist.
_Successful Termination._--No one on shore was apparently conscious
of our approach, so the Valorous went ahead to the mouth of the
harbor and fired a gun. Both ships made straight for Doulas Bay,
the Agamemnon steaming into the harbor (see Frontispiece) with a
feeling that she had done something, and about 6 A.M. came to
anchor at the side of Beginish Island, opposite to Valentia.
As soon as the inhabitants became aware of our approach, there was
a general desertion of the place, and hundreds of boats crowded
round us--their passengers in the greatest state of excitement to
hear all about our voyage. The Knight of Kerry was absent in
Dingle, but a messenger was immediately despatched for him, and he
soon arrived in her Majesty's gunboat Shamrock.
[Illustration: FIG. 29.--Landing the American End.]
Soon after our arrival a signal was received from the Niagara
that they were preparing to land, having paid out 1,030 nautical
miles of cable, while the Agamemnon had accomplished her portion of
the distance with an expenditure of 1,020 miles, making the total
length of the wire submerged 2,050 geographical miles.
Immediately after the ships cast anchor, the paddle-box boats of
the Valorous were got ready, and two miles of cable coiled away in
them, for the purpose of landing the end. But it was late in the
afternoon before the procession of boats left the ship, under a
salute of three rounds of small arms from the detachment of marines
on board the Agamemnon, under the command of Lieutenant Morris.
The progress of the end to the shore was very slow, in consequence
of the stiff wind which blew at the time; but at about 3 P.M. the
end was safely brought on shore at Knight's Town, Valentia, by Mr.
Bright, to whose exertions the success of the undertaking is
attributable. Mr. Bright was accompanied by Mr. Canning and the
Knight of Kerry. The end was immediately laid in the trench which
had been dug to receive it; while a royal salute, making the
neighboring rocks and mountains reverberate, announced that the
communication between the Old and New World had been completed.
The cable was taken into the electrical room by Mr. Whitehouse, and
attached to a galvanometer, and the first message was received
through the entire length now lying on the bed of the sea.
Too much praise can not be bestowed upon both the officers and men
of the Agamemnon for the hearty way in which they have assisted in
the arduous and difficult service they have been engaged in; and
the admirable manner in which the ship was navigated by Mr.
Moriarty materially reduced the difficulty of the company's
operations.
It will, in all probability, be nearly a fortnight before the
instruments are connected at the two termini for the transmission
of regular messages.
[Illustration: FIG. 30.--Newfoundland Telegraph Station, 1858.]
It is unnecessary here to expatiate upon the magnitude of the
undertaking which has just been completed, or upon the great
political and social results which are likely to accrue from it;
but there can be but one feeling of universal admiration for the
courage and perseverance which have been displayed by Mr. Bright,
and those who acted under his orders, in encountering the manifold
difficulties which arose on their path at every step.[39]
_The American End._--In contradistinction to the heavy seas and
difficulties the Agamemnon had to contend with, her consort, the
Niagara, experienced very quiet weather, and her part of the work was
comparatively uneventful, with the exception of a fault near the bottom
of the ward-room coil. This was detected during the operations on the
night of August 2d, but was removed before it was paid out into the sea.
About four o'clock the next morning the continuity and insulation was
accordingly restored, and, says Mr. Mullaly (the New York Herald
correspondent on board), "all was going on as if nothing had occurred to
disturb the confidence we felt in the success of the expedition."
When nearing the end, various icebergs were met with--some a hundred
feet high. Mullaly dilates on their castle-like form and the effective
appearance of the sun's rays thereon. Shortly after entering Trinity
Bay, Newfoundland, the Niagara was met by H.M.S. Porcupine, which had
been sent out from England at the very beginning of the 1858 expedition
to await her arrival and render any assistance which might be required.
The Niagara anchored about 1 A.M. on August 5th, having completed her
work, and, during the forenoon of that day, the cable was landed in a
little bay, Bull Arm,[40] at the head of Trinity Bay, when they
"received very strong currents of electricity through the whole cable
from the other side of the Atlantic."[41]
The telegraph-house at the Newfoundland end was some two miles from the
beach, and connected to the cable by a land-line.
CHAPTER IX
THE CELEBRATION
Engineer's Report--Jubilations--Banquets--Speeches--Honor to the
Engineer-in-Chief.
On landing at Valentia, the engineer-in-chief at once sent the following
startling but welcome message to his Board, which was at once passed on
to the press:
Charles Bright, to the Directors of the Atlantic
Telegraph Company.
VALENTIA, _August 5th_.
The Agamemnon has arrived at Valentia, and we are about to land the
end of the cable.
The Niagara is in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. There are good signals
between the ships.
We reached the rendezvous on the night of the 28th, and the splice
with the Niagara cable was made on board the Agamemnon the
following morning.
By noon on the 30th, 265 nautical miles were laid between the
ships; on the 31st, 540; on the 1st August, 884; on the 2d, 1,256;
on the 4th, 1,854; on anchoring at six in the morning in Doulas
Bay, 2,022.
The speed of the Niagara during the whole time has been nearly the
same as ours, the length of cable paid out from the two ships being
generally within ten miles of each other.
With the exception of yesterday, the weather has been very
unfavorable.[42]
On the afternoon of Thursday, August 5th--as already described in The
Times report--Bright and his staff brought to shore the end of the
cable, at White Strand Bay, near Knight's Town, Valentia, in the boats
of the Valorous, welcomed by the united cheers of the small crowd
assembled.
Taken entirely by surprise, all England applauded the triumph of such
undaunted perseverance and the engineering and nautical skill displayed
in this victory over the elements. The Atlantic Telegraph had been
justly characterized as the "great feat of the century," and this was
reechoed by all the press on its realization. The following extracts
from the leading article of The Times the day after completion is an
example of the comments upon the achievement:
Mr. Bright, having landed the end of the Atlantic cable at
Valentia, has brought to a successful termination his anxious and
difficult task of linking the Old World with the New, thereby
annihilating space. Since the discovery of Columbus, nothing has
been done in any degree comparable to the vast enlargement which
has thus been given to the sphere of human activity.
The rejoicing in America, both in public and private, knew no
bounds. The astounding news of the success of this unparalleled
enterprise, after such combats with storm and sea, "created
universal enthusiasm, exultation, and joy, such as was, perhaps,
never before produced by any event, not even the discovery of the
Western Hemisphere. Many had predicted its failure, some from
ignorance, others simply because they were anti-progressives by
nature. Philanthropists everywhere hailed it as the greatest event
of modern times, heralding the good time coming of universal peace
and brotherhood."
In Newfoundland, Mr. Field, together with Mr. Bright's assistant
engineers, Messrs. Everett and Woodhouse, and the electricians,
Messrs, de Sauty and Laws, received the heartiest congratulations
and welcome from the Governor and Legislative Council of the
colony. While acknowledging these congratulations, Mr. Field
remarked. "We have had many difficulties to surmount, many
discouragements to bear, and some enemies to overcome, whose very
opposition has stimulated us to greater exertion."[43]
It was a curious coincidence that the cable was successfully completed
to Valentia on the same day in 1858 on which the shore end had been
landed the year before. Moreover, it was exactly one hundred and eleven
years since Dr. (afterward Sir William) Watson had astonished the
scientific world by sending an electric current through a wire two miles
long, using the earth as a return circuit. It is also worthy of note
that the first feat of telegraphy was executed by order of King
"Agamemnon" to his queen, announcing the fall of Troy, 1,084 years
before the birth of Christ, and that the great feat which we have
narrated was carried out by the great ship Agamemnon, as has been here
shown.
Mr. Bright and Messrs. Canning and Clifford and the rest of the staff,
as well as Professor Thomson and the electricians, were absolutely
exhausted with the incessant watching and almost unbearable anxiety
attending their arduous travail. Valentia proved a haven of rest indeed
for these "toilers of the deep"--completely knocked up with their
experiences on the Atlantic, not to mention their previous trials and
disappointments.
Then came a series of banquets, which had to be gone through. Soon after
his duties at Valentia were over, Bright made his way to Dublin. Here he
was entertained by the Lord Mayor and civic authorities of that capital
on Wednesday, September 1st. On this occasion Cardinal Wiseman, who was
present, made an eloquent speech; and the following account of the
proceedings from the Morning Post may be suitably quoted:
The banquet given on Wednesday, the 1st, by the Lord Mayor of
Dublin, to Mr. C. T. Bright, Engineer-in-Chief to the Atlantic
Telegraph Company, was a great success. The assemblage embraced the
highest names in the metropolis--civil, military, and official.
Cardinal Wiseman was present in full cardinalite costume. The usual
toasts were given, and received with all honors.
The Lord Mayor, in proposing the toast of the evening, "The health
of Mr. Bright," dwelt with much eloquence on the achievements of
science, and paid a marked and merited compliment to the genius and
perseverance which, in the face of discouragement from the
scientific world, had succeeded in bringing about the
accomplishment of the great undertaking of the laying of the
Atlantic telegraph. His lordship's speech was most eloquent, and
highly complimentary to the distinguished guest, Mr. C. T. Bright.
Mr. Bright rose, amid loud cheers, to respond. He thanked the
assemblage for their hearty welcome, and said he was deeply
sensible of the honor of having his name associated with the great
work of the Atlantic Telegraph. He next commented upon the value of
this means of communication for the prevention of misunderstanding
between the Governments of the great powers, and then referred to
the services of the gentlemen who had been associated with him in
laying the cable, with whom he shared the honors done him that
night. (Mr. Bright was warmly cheered throughout his eloquent
speech.)
His Eminence the Cardinal descanted in glowing terms on the new
achievement of science, brought to a successful issue under the
able superintendence of Mr. Bright. He warmly eulogized that
gentleman's modest appreciation of his services to the world of
commerce and to international communication in general.
Charles Bright was honored with a knighthood within a few days of
landing. As this was considered a special occasion, and as Queen
Victoria was at that time abroad, the ceremony was performed there and
then by his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland on behalf of her
Majesty. Bright was but twenty-six years of age at the time, being the
youngest man who had received the distinction for generations past, and
no similar instance has since occurred. Moreover, it was the first title
conferred on the telegraphic or electrical profession, and remained so
for many years.
With Professor Thomson and other colleagues, Sir Charles Bright was
right royally entertained in Dublin, Killarney, and elsewhere, the
Lord-Lieutenant taking a prominent part in the celebrations. On the
occasion of the Killarney banquet, his Excellency made the following
remarks _à propos_ of the cable and its engineers:[44]
When we consider the extraordinary undertaking that has been
accomplished within the last few weeks; when we consider that a
cable of about 2,000 miles has been extended beneath the ocean--a
length which, if multiplied ten times, would reach our farthest
colonies and nearly surround the earth; when we consider it is
stretched along the bed of shingles and shells, which appeared
destined for it as a foundation by Providence, and stretching from
the points which human enterprise would look to; and when we
consider the great results that will flow from the enterprise, we
are at a loss here how sufficiently to admire the genius and energy
of those who planned it, or how to be sufficiently thankful to the
Almighty for having delegated such a power to the human race, for
whose benefit it is to be put in force. (Cheers.) And let us look
at the career which this telegraph has passed since it was first
discovered. At first it was rapidly laid over the land, uniting
states, communities, and countries, extending over hills and
valleys, roads and railways; but the sea appeared to present an
impenetrable barrier. It could not stop here, however; submarine
telegraphy was but a question of time, and the first enterprise by
which it was introduced was in connection with an old foe--and at
present our best friend--Imperial France. (Hear, hear.) The next
attempt which was successful was the junction of England and our
island, and which was, I believe, carried out by the same
distinguished engineer (Sir Charles Bright), whose name is now in
the mouth of every man. (Hear, hear.) Other submarine attempts
followed: the telegraph paused before the great Atlantic, like
another Alexander, weeping as if it had no more worlds to conquer;
but it has found another world, and it has gained it--not bringing
strife or conquest, but carrying with it peace and good-will.
(Applause.) I feel I should be wanting if I did not allude in terms
of admiration to the genius and skill of the engineer, Sir Charles
Bright, who has carried out this enterprise, and to the zeal and
courage of those who brought it to a successful termination.
(Applause.) It is not necessary, I am certain, to call attention to
the diligence and attention shown by the crew of the
Agamemnon--(cheers)--because I am sure there is no one here who has
not read the description of the voyage in the newspapers. The zeal
and enterprise were only to be equaled by the skill with which it
was carried out. I believe there was only a difference of twelve
miles between the two ends of the cable when it came to the shore.
There are some questions with regard to the date at which the work
was carried out to which I wish to call attention. It was on the
5th August, 1857, that this enterprise was first commenced under
the auspices of my distinguished predecessor, who I wish was here
now to rejoice in its success--I mean only in a private capacity.
(Cheers and laughter.) It was on the 5th August, 1858, it was
completed, and it was on the 5th August, more than three hundred
years ago, that Columbus left the shores of Spain to proceed on his
ever-memorable voyage to America. It was on the 5th of August,
1583, that Sir Hugh Gilbert, a worthy countryman of Raleigh and
Drake, steered his good ship the Squirrel to the shores of
Newfoundland and first unfurled the flag of England in the very bay
where this triumph has now taken place--(applause)--and it was on
the same 5th of August that your sovereign was received by her
imperial friend amid the fortifications of Cherbourg, and thereby
put an end to the ridiculous nonsense about strife and dissension.
(Applause.) Let the 5th August be a day ever memorable among
nations. Let it be, if I may so term it, the birthday of England.
(Applause.) Among the many points which must have given every one
satisfaction was the manner in which this great success was
received in America. (Hear.) There appears to have been but one
feeling of rejoicing predominant among them; and I can not but
think that that was not only owing to their commercial
enterprise--which they shared along with us--but also, I trust,
more to the feelings of consanguinity and affection which I am sure
we share, though occasionally disturbed by international disputes,
and by differences caused by misrepresentations or hastiness. It
must still burn as brightly in their breasts as in ours.
(Applause.) I trust that, not only with our friends across the
Atlantic, but with every civilized nation, this great triumph of
science will prove the harbinger of peace, good-will, and
friendship; and that England and America will not verify the first
line of the stanza,
Lands intersected by a narrow firth
Abhor each other,
but that they will, by mutual intercourse, arrive at the last line
of that stanza, and "like kindred drops, be mingled into one."
(Warm applause.)
CHAPTER X
WORKING THE LINE
Tests--Apparatus--First Messages--Gradual Failing--The "Last
Gasp"--Engineering Success--Electrical Failure.
_Continuity Tests during Laying._--As previously mentioned, two
descriptions of instruments were used on board the ships for testing and
working through while laying the cable. These were the "detector" of Mr.
Whitehouse and Professor Thomson's reflecting-apparatus.
The process of testing consisted in sending from one to the other vessel
alternately, during a period of ten minutes, first a reversal every
minute for five minutes, and then a current in one direction for five
minutes. The results of these signals to test the continuity of the line
were observed and recorded on board both ships. There was also a special
signal for each ten miles of cable paid out between the vessels.
When the splice was made on July 29th, 72 degrees deflection were
obtained on the Agamemnon, from seventy-five cells of a sawdust
(Daniell's) battery on board the Niagara, which had previously given 83
degrees. On arrival at Valentia at 6.30 A.M., on August 5th, the
deflection on the same instruments (detector and marine galvanometer
being both in circuit as before) was 68 degrees, while the
sending-battery power on the Niagara had fallen off at entry to 62-1/2
degrees through the marine galvanometer on board that vessel. These
figures show that the insulation of the cable had considerably improved
by submersion, and when the engineers had accomplished their part of the
undertaking, on August 5th, the cable was handed over in perfect
condition to Mr. Whitehouse and his electrical assistant.
_Apparatus Used in Working._--Unfortunately for the life of the cable,
Mr. Whitehouse was imbued with a belief that currents of very high
intensity, or potential, were the best for signaling; and he had
enormous induction-coils, _five feet long_, excited by a series of very
large cells, yielding electricity estimated at about 2,000 volts
potential. The insulation was unable to bear the strain, and thus the
signals began to gradually fail.[45]
For something like a week the efforts to work through the cable with
the above apparatus proved ineffectual, the power being constantly
increased to no purpose. Professor Thomson's reflecting galvanometer,
which had worked so well during the voyage, was then used again with
ordinary Daniell cells.
_Messages._--In this way communication was resumed, the first clear
message being received from Newfoundland on August 13, 1858, and--after
considerable delay in getting the American receiving-apparatus ready--on
the 16th the following was got through from the directors in England to
those in United States:
Europe and America are united by telegraphy. Glory to God in the
highest, on earth peace, good-will toward men!
Then followed:
From her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain to his Excellency the
President of the United States:
The Queen desires to congratulate the President upon the successful
completion of this great international work, in which the Queen has
taken the greatest interest.
The Queen is convinced that the President will join with her in
fervently hoping that the electric cable, which now already
connects Great Britain with the United States, will prove an
additional link between the two nations, whose friendship is
founded upon their common interest and reciprocal esteem.
The Queen has much pleasure in thus directly communicating with the
President, and in renewing to him her best wishes for the
prosperity of the United States.
This message was shortly afterward responded to as follows:
WASHINGTON CITY.
The President of the United States to her Majesty
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain:
The President cordially reciprocates the congratulations of her
Majesty the Queen on the success of the great international
enterprise accomplished by the skill, science, and indomitable
energy of the two countries.
It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind
than was ever won by a conqueror on the field of battle.
May the Atlantic Telegraph, under the blessing of Heaven, prove to
be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred
nations, and an instrument destined by Divine Providence to diffuse
religion, civilization, liberty, and law throughout the world.
In this view will not all the nations of Christendom spontaneously
unite in the declaration that it shall be forever neutral and that
its communications shall be held sacred in passing to the place of
their destination, even in the midst of hostilities?
JAMES BUCHANAN.
Throughout the United States the arrival of the Queen's message was the
signal for a fresh outburst of popular enthusiasm.
Says Field:
The next morning, August 17th, the city of New York was awakened by
the thunder of artillery. A hundred guns were fired in the City
Hall Park at daybreak, and the salute was repeated at noon. At this
hour flags were flying from all the public buildings, and the bells
of the principal churches began to ring, as Christmas bells signal
the birthday of One who came to bring peace and good-will to
men--chimes that, it was fondly hoped, might usher in, as they
should, a new era.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
That night the city was illuminated. Never had it seen so brilliant
a spectacle. Such was the blaze of light around the City Hall that
the cupola caught fire and was consumed, and the hall itself
narrowly escaped destruction. But one night did not exhaust the
public enthusiasm, for the following evening witnessed one of those
displays for which New York surpasses all the cities of the
world--a firemen's torchlight procession. Moreover, several
wagon-loads (each containing about twelve miles) of the cable left
on board the Niagara were drawn through the principal streets of
the city.
Similar demonstrations took place in other parts of the United
States. From the Atlantic to the Valley of the Mississippi, and to
the Gulf of Mexico, in every city was heard the firing of guns and
the ringing of bells. Nothing seemed too extravagant to give
expression to the popular rejoicing.
The English press were warm in their recognition of those to whom the
nation were "indebted for bringing into action the greatest invention of
the age," expressing belief that "the effect of bringing the three
kingdoms and the United States into instantaneous communication with
each other will be to render hostilities between the two nations almost
impossible for the future." And further, "more was done yesterday for
the consideration of our empire than the wisdom of our statesmen, the
liberality of our legislature, or the loyalty of our colonists could
ever have effected."[46]
The sermons preached on the subject, both in England and America, were
literally without number. Enough found their way into print to fill over
one volume. Never had an event more deeply touched the spirit of
religious enthusiasm.
With further reference to the active life of the cable, the following
communications have some interest:
First of all three long congratulatory messages were transmitted, one on
August 18th from Mr. Peter Cooper, president of the New York,
Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, to the directors of the
Atlantic Telegraph Company; another from the Mayor of New York to the
Lord Mayor of London, his reply in acknowledgment following. Then two of
the great Cunard mail-steamers, the Europa and Arabia, had come into
collision on August 14th. Neither the news nor the injured vessels could
reach those concerned on either side of the Atlantic for some days; but
as soon as it became known in New York a message was sent by the cable,
a facsimile of the original of which is shown on p. 150. This first
public _news_ message showed the relief given by speedy knowledge in
dispelling doubt and fear.
Subsequently messages giving the news on both continents were
transmitted and published daily. Among others, on August 27th, a
despatch was sent by the secretary of the Atlantic Telegraph Company
that was remarkable for the amount of important information contained in
comparatively few words. It read as follows:
To Associated Press, New York.--News for America by Atlantic
cable:--Emperor of France returned to Paris, Saturday. King of
Prussia too ill to visit Queen Victoria. Her Majesty returns to
England, August 30th. St. Petersburg, August 21st--Settlement of
Chinese Question: Chinese Empire opened to trade; Christian
religion allowed; foreign diplomatic agents admitted; indemnity to
England and France.
[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Facsimile of the First Public News Message
Received through the Atlantic Cable.]
Alexandria, August 9th.--The Madras arrived at Suez 7th inst. Dates
Bombay to the 19th, Aden 31st. Gwalior insurgent army broken up.
All India becoming tranquil.
The above was published in the American papers the same day.
Further, as exemplifying the aid the cable afforded to the British
Government, mention may be made of two messages sent from the
commander-in-chief at the Horse Guards, on August 31st. Following the
quelling of the Indian mutiny, they were despatched for the purpose of
canceling previous orders which had already gone by mail to Canada.
The first, to General Trollope, Halifax, ran as follows: "The
Sixty-second Regiment is not to return to England." The other, to the
officer in command at Montreal: "The Thirty-ninth Regiment is not to
return to England." From £50,000 to £60,000 was estimated by the
authorities to have been saved, in the unnecessary transportation of
troops, by these two cable communications.
But the insulation of the precious wire had, unhappily, been giving way.
The high-potential currents from Mr. Whitehouse's enormous
induction-coils were too much for it; and the diminished flashes of
light proved to be only the flickering of the flame that was soon to be
extinguished in the external darkness of the waters. After a period of
confused signals, the line ultimately breathed its last on October 20th,
after 732 messages in all had been conveyed during a period of three
months.[47] The last word uttered--and which may be said to have come
from beyond the sea--was "forward."
The line had been subject to frequent interruptions throughout. The
wonder is that it did so much, when we consider the lack of experience
at that period in the manufacture of deep-sea cables, the short time
allowed, and, more than all, the treatment received after being laid.
It is, indeed, extremely doubtful whether any cable, even of the present
day, would long stand a trial with currents so generated, and of such
intensity.[48] An unusually violent lightning-storm occurred at
Newfoundland shortly after the cable had been laid. This was considered
a part cause of the actual failure of the line.
When all the efforts of the electricians failed to draw more than a few
faint whispers--a dying gasp from the depths of the sea--there ensued,
in the public mind, a feeling of profound discouragement. But what a
bitter disappointment for those officially concerned in the enterprise!
In all the experience of life there are no sadder moments than those in
which, after much anxious toil in striving for a great object, and after
a glorious triumph, the achievement that seemed complete becomes a
wreck.
_Engineering Demonstration._--Still the engineer of this great
undertaking had the satisfaction of knowing that he had demonstrated (1)
the possibility of laying over 2,000 miles of cable in one continuous
length across a by no means calm ocean at depths of two to three miles;
and (2) that, by the agency of an electric current, distinct and regular
signals could be transmitted and received throughout an insulated
conductor, even when at such a depth beneath the sea, across this vast
distance. The feasibility of either of these had been scouted at on all
sides.[49]
Of course the gutta-percha coverings as then applied can not be compared
with the methods and materials of later days, though a great advance on
that of previous cables. It was a pity that--owing to the precipitation
with which the undertaking was rushed through, and the fear of failure
for want of capital--more time was not given to the consideration of
Bright's recommendation for a conductor four times larger, with a
corresponding increase in the gutta-percha insulator. Under such
conditions, it is highly improbable that high potentials would have ever
been applied to the line. Unhappily--besides Faraday and
Whitehouse--Professor Morse (when advising the Board in this matter)
promulgated views directly opposed to the above, as has already been
shown. In the course of his report Morse had said:
That by the use of comparatively small-coated wires, and of
electro-magnetic induction-coils for the exciting-magnets,
telegraphic signals can be transmitted through two thousand miles,
with a speed amply sufficient for all commercial and economical
purposes.
Still the cable, inadequately constructed as it was from an electrical
point of view, would probably have worked for years--though slowly, of
course--had the fairly reasonable battery-power employed between the
ships and up to the successful termination of the expeditions been
continued in connection with Professor Thomson's delicate
reflecting-apparatus. The electrician, however, not only used much
higher power immediately he took the cable in hand--for working his
specially devised relay and Morse electromagnetic recording-instrument
in connection with his enormous induction-coils--but actually increased
the power from time to time up to nearly 500 cells, till the five-foot
coils yielded a current urged by a potential of something like 2,000
volts. Hence, when signaling was resumed, as shown by the comparatively
mild voltaic currents, for actuating the Thomson apparatus, a fault (or
faults) had been already developed, necessitating a far higher
battery-power than had been employed during the continuous communication
between the ships while paying out.
The wounds opened farther under the various stimulating doses; the
insulation was unable to bear the strain, and the circulation gradually
ceased through a cable already in a state of dissolution.
CHAPTER XI
THE INQUEST
Expert Trials--Expert Evidence
The great historical sea-line having collapsed, some of the foremost of
the electrical profession were called in--first to determine the nature
of the interruption with a view to possible remedy, next to elicit _the
cause_.
_Expert Opinions on the Failure._--Mr. Cromwell Fleetwood Varley, the
electrician to the Electric Telegraph Company, Mr. E. B. Bright, the
chief of the "Magnetic" Company; and Mr. W. T. Henley, the well-known
telegraph inventor, were severally requested by the "Atlantic" Company
to report on the subject in conjunction with Sir Charles Bright and
Professor Thomson.
First of all the dead line was subjected to a series of tests. For this,
resistance-coils and Messrs. Bright's apparatus for ascertaining the
position of a fault were employed. There was every evidence of a serious
electrical leakage about 300 miles from Valentia, but there did not
appear to be any fracture in the conductor, as exceedingly weak currents
still came through fitfully. According to the above location, the main
leak through the gutta-percha envelope was in water of a depth of about
two miles. At that time means were not devised for grappling and
lifting a cable from such depths. But from independent tests by Thomson
and Bright, it appeared likely that the Valentia shore end was also
especially faulty. Accordingly, it was underrun from the catamaran-raft
(previously used in 1857) for some three miles, but, on being cut at the
farthest point at which it was found possible to raise the cable, the
fault still appeared on the seaward side. The idea of repairs had,
therefore, to be abandoned, and the cable was spliced up again.
The conductor being again intact, efforts were made to renew signals
with the curb-key recently invented by Messrs. Bright. By means of this,
currents of opposite character were transmitted so that each signaling
current was followed instantly by one of opposite polarity, which
neutralized, by a proportionate strength and duration, all that remained
of its predecessor. Though this was the right principle on which to
work, the "patient" was too far gone, and all efforts proved unavailing;
for signaling purposes the poor cable was defunct.
Having dealt with the nature of the interruption, we now come to the
_cause_. It was first of all abundantly clear from the station-diaries
kept by the electricians at Valentia and Newfoundland, and by other
irrefragable evidence, that when the laying was completed, and the cable
ends were handed over to them from the ships on August 5th, all was in
good working order.
The authorities were unanimous in their opinion. Mr. C. F. Varley
declared that "had a more moderate power been used, the cable would
still have been capable of transmitting messages." In giving extra force
to the above opinion, Mr. Varley described an experiment he had made on
the cable in conjunction with Mr. E. B. Bright:
We attached to the cable a piece of gutta-percha-covered wire,
having first made a slight incision, by a needle-prick, in the
gutta-percha to let the water reach the conductor. The wire was
then bent, so as to close up the defect. The defective wire was
then placed in a jar of sea-water, and the latter connected with
the earth. After a few momentary signals had been sent from the
five-foot induction-coils into the cable, and, consequently into
the test-wire, the intense current burst through the excessively
minute perforation, rapidly burning a hole nearly one-tenth of an
inch in diameter, afterward increased to half an inch in length
when passing the current through the faulty branch only. The burned
gutta-percha then came floating up to the surface of the water,
while the jar was one complete glow of light.
Professor Hughes, the inventor of the type-printing telegraph, and,
subsequently, of the microphone, considered that "the cable was injured
by the induction-coils, and that the intense currents developed by them
were strong enough to burst through gutta-percha." Professor Wheatstone
gave a similar opinion.
Some one inquired of the electrician whether, if any one touched the
cable at the time when the current was discharged from the
induction-coil, he would receive a shock sufficiently strong to cause
him to faint. It was admitted in reply that "those who touched the bare
wire would suffer for their carelessness, though not if discretion be
exercised by grasping the gutta-percha only."
The chairman of the company (the Right Honorable J. Stuart Wortley,
M.P.), in the course of a deputation to Lord Palmerston later on,
stated that "far too high charges of electricity were forced into the
conductor. It was evidently thought at that time by certain electricians
that you could not charge a cable of this sort too highly. Thus they
proceeded somewhat like the man who bores a hole with a poker in a deal
board; he gets the hole, to be sure, _but the board is burned in the
operation_."
Professor Thomson (now Lord Kelvin), writing in 1860, expressed the
following opinion:
It is quite certain that, with a properly adjusted
mirror-galvanometer as receiving-instrument at each end, twenty
cells of Daniell's battery would have done the work required, and
at even a higher speed if worked by a key devised for diminishing
inductive embarrassment; and the writer--with the knowledge derived
from disastrous experience--has now little doubt but that, if such
had been the arrangement from the beginning, if no induction-coils
and no battery-power exceeding twenty Daniell cells had ever been
applied to the cable since the landing of its ends, imperfect as it
then was, _it would be now in full work day and night, with no
prospect or probability of failure_.[50]
Summing up the _cause_ of the untimely ending to the ill-used cable,
perhaps the concisest verdict would be, in mechanical-engineering
_parlance_, that "high-pressure steam had been got up in a low-pressure
boiler."
PART III
INTERMEDIATE KNOWLEDGE AND ADVANCE
CHAPTER XII
OTHER PROPOSED ROUTES
North Atlantic Telegraph Project--Exploring Expedition--Ice
Troubles--South Atlantic Telegraph Project.
The gradual failure of the 1858 cable after a short period of working,
and the slow rate at which messages were capable of being transmitted,
naturally deterred capitalists from providing the means for another
cable of such length in deep water.
Several schemes, however, for a fresh line on other routes were brought
forward; and there was an alternative route between Great Britain and
America by which the transmission of the electric current could be
subdivided into four comparatively short sections. This was known in
1860 as the North Atlantic Telegraph project, in which the route was
from the extreme north of Scotland to the Faroe Islands, thence to
Iceland; from there to the southern point of Greenland, and so on to
Labrador or Newfoundland. The distances were (varying a little according
to landing-places selected) approximately:
Miles
From the north of Scotland to Faroe Islands 225
From the Faroe Islands to Iceland 280
From Iceland to Greenland, S. W. Harbor 700
From Greenland to Labrador 550
----
Total 1755
[Illustration: FIG. 32.--The North Atlantic Telegraph Project, 1860.]
From the electrician's point of view, these subdivisions were extremely
favorable as compared with the long continuous length entailed by an
Atlantic cable between Ireland and Newfoundland. Then, again, the
soundings (except for a section between Greenland and Labrador) did not
yield anything approaching the more southern depths. But against these
obvious advantages there was the engineering objection--which at first
seemed insurmountable--that the Greenland coast was bound up by ice for
a great part of the year, in addition to the risk of injury to the cable
from the grounding of icebergs. This latter was of less moment, for it
could be provided against by keeping the cable when approaching shore in
the middle of any inlet, and thus away from the shallow sides where the
icebergs "ground." There was also the probable difficulty of obtaining a
trained staff to work a line when laid to such inhospitable regions.
However, having regard to the anxiety exhibited by many to get to the
North Pole, this did not present an insuperable obstacle.
This bold project, with a route across the coldest and iciest regions of
the Atlantic, was originally brought to the notice of the Danish
Government by Mr. Wyld, the geographer, even before the Atlantic
Telegraph Company had been established. It was again introduced in a
different form by Colonel T. P. Shaffner, an American electrician of
some note. Colonel Shaffner made a strong case of the series of short
stages geographically afforded by the North Atlantic deviation. After
the 1858 cable had ceased working, to back up his belief in the
advantages of the route, which he characterized as having "natural
stepping-stones which Providence had placed across the ocean in the
north," he actually chartered a small sailing vessel, and, with his
family on board, put forth from Boston on August 29th, 1859, for the
purpose of making the preliminary survey. He landed in Glasgow in
November of that year, and presented to the public the results of his
voyage. During the voyage, Colonel Shaffner sounded the deep seas to be
traversed between Labrador and Greenland and between Greenland and
Iceland. His first object was to convince the public that there were no
insuperable difficulties in the way. He found a warm supporter in Mr. J.
Rodney Croskey, of London, who advanced the "caution" money to the
Danish Government for the concessions requisite in the Faroes, Iceland,
and Greenland.[51]
On May 15th, Lord Palmerston granted an audience to an influential
deputation, headed by the Right Honorable Milner Gibson, M.P., and four
other members of the House of Commons, to solicit the assistance of
Government in sending out ships and officers to make the necessary
official survey for ascertaining the practicability of the proposed
route. The Premier appeared fully to appreciate the advantages of the
north-about scheme, and in a very short time the Admiralty were directed
to send out an expedition for the purpose of making the required survey.
The Admiralty selected for this duty Captain M'Clintock, R. N.,[52] an
officer of great experience in the navigation of the Arctic seas, and
H.M.S. Bulldog was placed under his command. This distinguished officer
was directed to take the deep-sea soundings, and he sailed from
Portsmouth on his mission in June, 1860. In the meantime, the promoters
of the enterprise purchased the Fox, the steam-yacht formerly employed
in the successful search for the remains of the Franklin expedition, and
fitted her out for the purpose of making surveys of the landing-places
of the respective cables. The Fox was placed under the command of
Captain Young,[53] of the mercantile marine, an officer well known for
his distinguished labors under M'Clintock in the Franklin search. At the
same time, Dr. John Rae, F.R.G.S., an intrepid Arctic explorer,
volunteered his services to join the Fox, and take charge of the
overland expeditions in the Faroe Isles, Iceland, and Greenland. Colonel
Shaffner, as concessionaire--besides two delegates on the part of the
Danish Government, Lieutenant von Zeilau and Arnljot Olafsson--also
accompanied the Fox expedition, to take part in the necessary surveys.
Before the departure of the Fox, which sailed on July 18, 1860, her
Majesty Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort, and other members of the
royal family, honored the enterprise by a visit to that vessel, while
lying off Osborne, and showed a lively interest in the details of the
expedition.
On the return of the expedition, Sir Leopold M'Clintock wrote a full
report to Sir Charles Bright, the consulting engineer of the project.
In this, Sir Leopold favored the route as perfectly practicable,
pointing out that the ice would not really prove a difficulty, and
strongly approving of the original intention of a land-line across
Iceland to Faxe Bay, "as by so doing you will avoid the only part of the
sea where submarine volcanic disturbances may be suspected."
The results of the voyages of H.M.S. Bulldog and the steam-yacht Fox
were brought before a crowded meeting of the Royal Geographical Society
on January 28, 1861. Sir Leopold M'Clintock then gave the first public
account of his numerous and careful soundings along, and in the vicinity
of, the proposed course of the cable, interspersed with many useful
remarks and hints as to ice, the best time for laying the line, etc., as
well as the probable sphere of volcanic action in and off the south of
Iceland. The above was followed by an exhaustive paper by Sir Charles
Bright, giving a synopsis of Captain Young's report on his voyage in the
Fox, including the examination of various estuaries and harbors, so as
to enable a decision to be arrived at as to the best landing-places, the
climatic conditions, etc.
From both sets of soundings it was shown that, as a rule, the bottom was
of ooze. Dr. Wallich, the naturalist of the expedition, had brought up
brightly colored starfish from depths of over a mile, whereas it had
previously been believed that nothing could possibly live under such an
enormous pressure of water.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--The North Atlantic Exploring Expedition, 1860.]
Then came a highly instructive paper by Dr. Rae. He gave a number of
interesting particulars of his land surveys, the population, price of
food, wages, etc. He also described the ride of the Fox party across
Iceland, while making important suggestions as to the route for the
land-line with a view to avoiding the geysers.
Captain R. B. Beechey, R.N., afterward made a beautiful oil-painting of
the party, including some of the Eskimos on the occasion of landing to
explore the inland ice at Igaliko Fiord (see Fig. 33).[54]
At this time, however (1861), there was still too much discouragement
owing to the stoppage in working of the first Atlantic cable, and to
other causes with which we are about to deal. Moreover, there were those
who still feared the ice-floes; and in the end the public did not
respond sufficiently. Thus, after all, the "Grand North Atlantic
Telegraph" project, which had been worked out with so much trouble and
expense, was never actually realized.
* * * * *
Another scheme which attracted some attention about the same time was
described as the "South Atlantic Telegraph." This was for a long length
of cable between the south of Spain and the coast of Brazil, touching at
Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape de Verde Isles, Don Pedro, and
Fernando de Noronha Isles on the way, and stretching out to the West
Indies and the United States. Then there was a project for a cable on an
intermediate route from Portugal to the Azores, and thence to America,
via Bermuda and the Southern States. Being, however, to a great extent
foreign in their scope, these latter schemes found little favor in this
country at the time. They have, however, since been realized in some
shape or form.
CHAPTER XIII
EXPERIENCE, INVESTIGATION, AND PROGRESS
The Red Sea Line--Government Inquiry--Electrical Standards and
Units--Further Cables--Improvements in Manufacture, Testing, and
Working--Completion of Pioneer Stage.
_The Red Sea Line._--Mr. Lionel Gisborne had obtained powers from the
Turkish Government to carry a telegraph-line across Egypt and lay a
cable down the Red Sea. The importance of this line to Great Britain led
the Government to give definite assistance.
The first portion of the proposed cable--from Suez to Aden, with
intermediate landings--was laid in 1859. The different sections broke
down one by one. They were all laid very taut, the slack in some cases
being less than one per cent, though the bottom was in certain parts
very uneven. The second portion of the line, from Aden to Kurrachee,
with intermediate stations, was laid during 1860, the slack working out
at 0.1 per cent only. Faults developed very quickly in all the sections
of both portions of the line. Apart from the small allowance for slack,
the type of cable adopted was of far too fragile a nature for some of
its rough, reef-like resting-spots; indeed, the undertaking was spoken
of as "like running a donkey for the Leger"! The promoters of this
enterprise, having neither specially qualified men nor the necessary
materials for carrying out repairs, were obliged to abandon it before
any commercial work had been effected. This was a most unfortunate line
in every way, for a complete message was never got through the entire
length, but only through each section separately. Nevertheless, until
quite recently, it cost Great Britain £36,000 per annum.
_Inquiry on the Construction of Submarine Telegraphs._--Aroused more
especially by the above failure, the Government, in 1859, before
undertaking further responsibility, resolved to thoroughly investigate
the construction of cables. It was also felt that the ultimate failure
of the Atlantic line was possibly due, in part, to weak joints and
general defects in the manufacture of the insulating envelope. This
committee--under the direction of the Board of Trade, with Captain,
afterward Sir Douglas, Galton, R.E., in the chair--devoted twenty-two
sittings (covering a considerable period of time) to questioning
engineers, electricians, professors, physicists, manufacturers, and
seamen, who had taken part in the various branches of cable-work and
whose knowledge or experience might throw light on the subject.
Investigations were instituted concerning the structure of all cables
previously made, and the quality of the different materials used, as to
special points arising during manufacture and laying, on the routes
taken, electrical testing, and on sending and receiving instruments,
speed of signaling, etc. Actual experiments were also made in connection
with this inquiry, to ascertain (1) the electrical and mechanical
qualities of copper, pure and alloyed; also of gutta-percha and other
insulating substances; (2) the chemical change in their condition when
submerged; (3) the effects of temperature and pressure on the insulating
substances employed; (4) the elongation and breaking strain of copper
wires; of iron, steel, and tarred hemp separately and combined; (5) the
phenomena connected with electrically charging and discharging
conductors; (6) methods of testing conductors and of locating faults;
besides the whole science and practise of cable-making and laying.
The report of the committee was not published till some time afterward.
It expressed a conviction that submarine telegraphy might be made sure
and remunerative in the future, based on the evidence adduced regarding
the proper manufacture and working of submarine telegraphs.
_Formulation of Electrical Standards and Units._--This inquiry was
shortly followed by an important paper before the British Association
for the advancement of science by Sir Charles Bright and Mr. Latimer
Clark (then in partnership), which put the practise of electrical
testing on a systematic basis, thereby considerably forwarding all
electrical work connected with submarine telegraphy. A committee was
formed shortly afterward, which gave the suggestions then brought
forward the seal of universal officialdom.
_Further Cables._--About this time a number of other cable enterprises
were set afoot, some in shallow water and others in comparatively great
depths. Though few of them were able to benefit by the information
obtained in the inquiry, they were, in the main, more or less
successful. These projects included cables between Malta and Alexandria,
besides others in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Sir Charles Bright,
Mr. (afterward Sir C. W.) Siemens, Mr. Lionel Gisborne, and Mr. H. C.
Forde were mainly associated with them as engineers and electricians.
The line which met, however, with the most complete and lasting success
was the first cable to India, laid (by Sir Charles Bright) in several
sections along the Persian Gulf in 1863-'64. In this undertaking Messrs.
Bright & Clark (engineers to the Government) introduced a complete
system of electrical and mechanical testing. Every joint was, for the
first time, efficiently tested, and the insulated core submitted to a
hydraulic pressure representative of that which it would experience when
laid.[55] A formula was also arrived at by an elaborate series of
experiments for the effect of temperature on the insulation, which
showed how enormously the resistance of gutta-percha increased by
consolidation when submitted to the low temperatures of the bottom of
the ocean. Chatterton's compound had been already introduced for
adhering the gutta-percha envelope to the wires, as well as for
cementing together the different insulating coats; but Bright & Clark's
preservative composition for the iron armor was first used in this
enterprise. This mixture not only evades the oxidation that iron wires,
even when galvanized, are subject to, but resists the attacks of the
teredo and other objectionable animal life. Moreover, besides the type
of cable being eminently suitable, the manufacture was carried out with
extreme care and with all the advantage of experience and improved
methods.[56]
_Completion of Pioneer Stage._--With the successful termination of the
above enterprise, forming the first telegraphic connection between the
United Kingdom, Europe, and India, the science of constructing and
laying submarine telegraphs was pretty definitely worked out, and no
very striking departure has since been introduced. The pioneer stage
may, indeed, at this juncture, be said to have reached completion.
For this reason the rest of our narrative on the Atlantic cable will be
told more briefly--though at greater length than the contents of this
chapter, recounting only the stepping-stones to what was to follow.
PART IV
COMMERCIAL SUCCESS
CHAPTER XIV
THE 1865 CABLE AND EXPEDITION
Fresh Efforts and Funds--The Contractors' Share--Design and
Construction--Provisions for Laying--S.S. Great Eastern--Sailing
Staff--Landing the Irish End--Another Bad Start.
_Fresh Efforts and Funds._--Though their cable had ceased to work, the
Atlantic Telegraph Company was kept alive by the promoters.
In 1862 the Government was prevailed on to despatch H.M.S. Porcupine to
further examine the ocean floor 300 miles out from the coasts of Ireland
and Newfoundland, respectively.
It took a considerable time to raise the full amount of capital required
for another Atlantic cable, for this could only be done gradually. The
great civil war in America stimulated capitalists to renew the
undertaking. One of the main advantages adduced was, on this occasion as
before, the avoidance of misunderstandings between the two countries.
Another--intended by Mr. Cyrus Field as a special inducement to his
fellow countrymen--was the improvement of the agricultural position of
the United States, by extending to it the facilities already enjoyed by
France of commanding the foreign grain-markets.[57] On this account the
project was warmly supported by John Bright and other eminent
free-traders.
Mr. Field, however, met with as little success in obtaining pecuniary
support in the States as he had in connection with the previous line.
His brother, Mr. H. M. Field, writes:
The summer of this year (1862) Mr. Field spent in America, where he
applied himself vigorously to raising capital for the new
enterprise. To this end he visited Boston, Providence,
Philadelphia, Albany, and Buffalo, to address meetings of merchants
and others. He used to amuse us with the account of his visit to
the first city, where he was honored with the attendance of a large
array of "the solid men of Boston," who listened with an attention
that was most flattering to the pride of the speaker addressing
such an assemblage in the capital of his native State. There was no
mistaking the interest they felt in the subject. They went still
further; they passed a series of resolutions, in which they
applauded the projected telegraph across the ocean as one of the
grandest enterprises ever undertaken by man, which they proudly
commended to the confidence and support of the American public.
After this they went home feeling that they had done the generous
thing in bestowing upon it such a mark of their approbation. _But
not a man subscribed a dollar._
In point of fact, as before, the cable of 1865--as well as that of
1866--was provided for out of English pockets. Let us now substantiate
this statement by a glance at events. The late Mr. Thomas Brassey was
the first to be appealed to in England, and he supported the venture
nobly. Then Mr. Pender[58] was applied to, and here also substantial aid
was forthcoming. Both these gentlemen had joined the board of the
Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, which had just been
formed (in April, 1864) as the result of an amalgamation of the
Gutta-Percha Company and Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co. Mr. Pender, who had
been largely instrumental in effecting this combination, became the
first chairman.
_The Contractors' Share._--Shortly after the first Atlantic cable was
laid, Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co. availed themselves of the services of
Mr. Canning and Mr. Clifford, whose engagements on Sir Charles Bright's
staff for the "Atlantic" Company had terminated. Thus, with an
additional staff of electricians, they had placed themselves in a
position to undertake direct contracts for laying, as well as
manufacturing, submarine telegraphs. They had, indeed, carried out work
of this character in the Mediterranean during the year 1860; and on the
amalgamation of the two businesses above mentioned into a limited
liability company, their position was still further strengthened.
The capital raised for the new cable by the Atlantic Telegraph Company
was £600,000; and, by agreeing to take a considerable proportion of
their payment in "Atlantic" shares, the contractors practically found
more than half of this amount. In the result, the undertaking became a
contractors' affair from first to last.
_Design and Construction._--It will be seen that the new cable was to be
an expensive one as compared with that of 1857-'58. It was the outcome
of six years' further experience, during which several important lines,
referred to in the last chapter, had been laid. It also followed upon
the exhaustive Government inquiry to which allusion has been made.
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--The Main Cable, 1865-'66.]
The actual type adopted (Fig. 34), on the recommendation of Sir Charles
Bright and other engineers who were additionally consulted, was much the
same in respect to the conductor and insulator--300 pounds copper to 400
pounds gutta-percha per nautical mile--as that which the former had
suggested for the previous Atlantic line. This combination for the
length involved was based on Professor Thomson's law for the working
speed of a cable, as depending inversely on the resistance of the
conductor as well as on the electrostatic capacity of the core. The
armor consisted of a combination of iron and hemp, each wire being
enveloped in manila yarns. The object of incasing the separate wires in
hemp was (1) to protect them from rust due to exposure to air and water,
and (2) to reduce the specific gravity of the cable, with a view to
rendering it more capable of supporting its own weight in water. This
form of cable, bearing a stress of about eight tons,[59] and suspending
eleven miles of itself, was considered by most of the authorities at
that period to perfectly fulfil the conditions required for deep-sea
lines.[60] The claims of light hempen cables, without any iron, had been
urged for meeting the difficulty of lay and recovery in deep water; and
this type formed a sort of compromise, its total diameter being 1.1
inch, weighing 1 ton 16 hundredweight in air, and only 14 hundredweight
in water. The shore end was to have a further outer sheathing of twelve
strands, each strand containing three stout galvanized-iron wires of No.
2 B.W.G., bringing the weight up to 20 tons per mile. This was to be
joined on to the main deep-sea type by a gradually tapering length of
twenty-five fathoms.
_Arrangements for Laying._--It was determined that this time the cable
must be laid in one length, with the exception of the shore ends, by a
single vessel. There was but one ship that could carry such a cargo.
This ship was the Great Eastern, the conception of that distinguished
engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. She was in course of construction by
the late Mr. Scott Russell at the time of the first cable, and it was a
subject for regret that she was not then available. An enormous craft of
22,500 tons, she did not prove suitable at that time as a cargo-boat;
and the laying of the second Atlantic cable was the first piece of
useful work she did, after lying more or less idle for nearly ten
years.[61] It is sad to think of the way this poor old ship was
metaphorically passed from hand to hand. Even at this period three
separate companies had already been formed one after another to work
her. As promoter and chairman of one of these, Mr. (afterward Sir
Daniel) Gooch took an active part in arranging for her charter on this
undertaking, and it was in this way that he became a prominent party in
the enterprise.
All the cable machinery was fitted to the Great Eastern, on behalf of
the Telegraph Construction Company, by Mr. Henry Clifford to the designs
of Mr. Canning and himself. It was constructed and set up by the famous
firm of engineers, Messrs. John Penn & Son, of Greenwich. In the main
principles the apparatus employed was similar to that previously adopted
in 1858 on the Agamemnon and Niagara. There were, however, several
modifications introduced, as the result of the extra experience gained
during the seven years' interval. The main point of difference was the
further application of jockeys to the paying-out gear in a more complete
form.
As it was not practicable to moor so enormous a vessel off the works at
East Greenwich, the cable had to be cut into lengths and coiled on two
pontoons, and thence transferred to the big ship.
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--The Great Eastern at Sea.]
_Landing the Irish End._--At length all the cable having been
manufactured and shipped from the Greenwich works, the Great Eastern,
under the command of Captain (later Sir James) Anderson,[62] left the
Thames on July 23, 1865, with a total dead weight of 21,000 tons, and
proceeded to Foilhommerun Bay, Valentia. Here she joined up her cable to
the shore end, which had been laid a day earlier by S.S. Caroline, a
small vessel chartered and fitted up for the purpose. The great ship
then started paying out as she steamed away on her journey to America,
escorted by two British men-of-war, the Terrible and the Sphinx.
_The Sailing Staff._--On behalf of the contractors, Mr. (afterward Sir
Samuel) Canning was the engineer in charge of the expedition, with Mr.
Henry Clifford as his chief assistant. As we have seen, both these
gentlemen had been engaged with Sir Charles Bright on the first line,
besides having much experience in mechanical engineering as well as in
cable work. On the contractors' engineering staff there were also Mr.
John Temple and Mr. Robert London. Mr. C. V. de Sauty served as chief
electrician, assisted by Mr. H. A. C. Saunders and several others. By
arrangement with the Admiralty, Staff-Commander H. A. Moriarty, R.N.,
acted as the navigator of the expedition. Captain Moriarty was possessed
of great skill in this direction, a fact which had been made clear in
the previous undertaking.
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--Cable and Machinery aboard S.S. Great Eastern.]
The Atlantic Telegraph Company was represented on board by Professor
Thomson and Mr. C. F. Varley as electricians, the former acting mainly
as scientific expert in a consultative sense. Mr. Willoughby Smith, the
electrician to the Gutta-Percha Works, was also on board at the request
of the contractors, though holding no exact official position. Both Mr.
Field and Mr. Gooch accompanied the expedition, the former as the
initial promoter of the enterprise, and the latter on behalf of the
Great Eastern Company. Representing the press there were also on board
Dr. (afterward Sir W. H.) Russell, the well-known correspondent of The
Times, as the historian of the enterprise, and Mr. Robert Dudley, an
artist of repute, who produced several excellent sketches of the work in
its different stages for the Illustrated London News.
_A Bad Start._--Unfortunately trouble soon arose. The first fault
declared itself the day after starting, when eighty-four miles had been
paid out. It was decided to pick up back to the fault, which was
discovered after ten and a half miles had been brought on board. A piece
of iron wire was found to have pierced the cable diametrically, so as to
make contact between the sea and the conductor. The faulty portion was
cut out, and the paying out resumed as soon as the cable was spliced up
again. On July 29th, when 716 miles had been laid, another and more
serious fault appeared. The arduous operation of picking up again
commenced. After nine hours' work the fault was safe inboard, and the
necessary repair effected. On stripping the cable another piece of iron
wire was discovered sticking right through the core. Anxiety and
misgivings were now felt by all on board, for it seemed that such
reverses could only be attributed to malevolence. On August 2d yet a
further fault was reported; they were now two-thirds of the way across,
1,186 miles of cable being already laid. Again they had to pick up, and
this time in a depth of 2,000 fathoms. One mile only had been recovered,
when an accident of some kind happened to the machinery. The great ship,
having stopped, was at the mercy of the wind and swell, and heavy
strains were brought on the cable, which consequently suffered badly in
two places. Before the two injured portions could be secured on board
the cable parted and sank. Mr. Canning at once decided to endeavor to
recover the cable, notwithstanding the fact that it lay in 2,000
fathoms. After maneuvering in this way for about fifteen hours, 700
fathoms of rope had been hove in, when one of the connecting links gave
way, and all beyond it sank to the bottom. The work was recommenced with
hempen ropes, two miles farther west, in a depth of 2,300 fathoms, and
on August 8th the cable was again hooked; but when raised to within
1,500 fathoms of the surface, yet another connecting link parted, the
strain being about nine tons. Two more attempts were made, but both were
doomed to end in failure. The store of rope being now quite exhausted,
the work had to be abandoned, and on August 11, 1865, the fleet of ships
parted company to return home--shattered in hopes as well as in ropes!
CHAPTER XV
SECOND AND SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT
Further Funds--Fresh Provisions--New Picking-up
Machine--Staff--Cable-Laying again--Success.
The results of the last expedition, disastrous as they were from a
financial point of view, in no wise abated the courage of the promoters
of the enterprise. During the heaviest weather the Great Eastern had
shown exceptional "stiffness," while her great size and her maneuvering
power (afforded by the screw and paddles combined) seemed to show her to
be the very type of vessel for this kind of work. The picking-up gear,
it was true, had proved insufficient, but with the paying-out machinery
no serious fault was to be found. The feasibility of grappling in
mid-Atlantic had been demonstrated, and they had gone far toward proving
the possibility of recovering the cable from similar depths.
_Further Funds._--To overcome financial difficulties, the Atlantic
Telegraph Company was amalgamated with a new concern, the Anglo-American
Telegraph Company, which was formed, mainly by those interested in the
older business, with the object of raising fresh capital for the new and
double ventures of 1866. The ultimate capital of this company amounted
(as before) to £600,000. In raising this, Mr. Field first secured the
support of the late Sir Daniel Gooch, M.P., then chairman, and
previously locomotive superintendent of the Great Western Railway
Company, who, after what he had seen on the previous expedition,
promised, if necessary, to subscribe as much as £20,000. On the same
conditions, Mr. Brassey expressed his willingness to bear one-tenth of
the total cost of the undertaking. Ultimately, the Telegraph
Construction Company led off with £100,000, this amount being followed
by the signatures of ten directors interested in the contract (as
guarantors) at £10,000 apiece. Then there were four subscriptions of
£5,000, and some of £2,500 to £1,000, principally from firms
participating in the subcontracts. These sums were all subscribed before
even the prospectus was issued or the books opened to the public. The
remaining capital then quickly followed.
The Telegraph Construction Company, in undertaking the entire work, were
to receive £500,000 for the new cable in any case; and, if it succeeded,
an extra £100,000. If both cables came into successful operation, the
total amount payable to them was to be £737,140. In fact, it was, if
possible, even more of a contractor's enterprise than that of 1865.
It was now proposed not only to lay a new cable between Ireland and
Newfoundland, but also to repair and complete the one lying at the
bottom of the sea. A length of 1,600 miles of cable was ordered from the
contractors. Thus, with the unexpended cable from the last expedition,
the total length available when the expedition started would be 2,730
miles, of which 1,960 miles were allotted to the new cable, and 697 to
complete the old one, leaving 113 miles as a reserve.
_Fresh Provisions._--The new main cable was similar to that of the year
before, but the shore-end cable determined on in this case was of a
different description. It had only one sheathing, consisting of twelve
contiguous iron wires of great individual surface and weight; and
outside all a covering of tarred hemp and compound. That part of the
line which was intended for shallow depths was composed of three
different types. Starting from the coast of Ireland, eight miles of the
heaviest was to be laid, then eight miles of an intermediate type, and
lastly fourteen miles of a lighter type, making thirty miles of
shoal-water cable on the Irish side. Five miles of shallow-water cable,
of the different types named, were considered sufficient on the
Newfoundland coast.
The previous paying-out machinery on board the Great Eastern was altered
to some extent by Messrs. Penn to the instructions of Messrs. Canning &
Clifford. Though different in detail, the main improvement over the 1865
gear consisted in the fact that a 70-horse-power steam-engine was fitted
to drive the two large drums in such a way that the paying-out
machinery, as in 1858, could be used to pick up cable during the laying,
if necessary, thereby avoiding the risk incurred by changing the cable
from the stern to the bows. This addition of Penn trunk-engines, as well
as the general strengthening of the entire machinery, was made in
accordance with the designs of Mr. Henry Clifford.
[Illustration: FIG. 37.--The Picking-up Machine, 1866.]
The picking-up machinery forward (Fig. 37) after the previous expedition
was considerably strengthened and improved with spur-wheels and
pinion-gearing. It had two drums worked by a similar pair of
70-horse-power engines. This formed an exceedingly powerful machine, and
reflected great credit on those who devised and constructed it.
Similar gear was fitted up on board the two vessels--S.S. Medway and
S.S. Albany--chartered to assist the Great Eastern.
For the purpose of grappling the 1865 cable, twenty miles of rope were
manufactured, which was constituted by forty-nine iron wires, separately
covered with manila hemp. Six wires so served were laid up strandwise
round a seventh, which formed the heart, or core, of the rope. This rope
would stand a longitudinal stress of 30 tons before breaking.
In addition, five miles of buoy-rope were provided, besides buoys of
different shapes and sizes, the largest of which (Fig. 38) would support
a weight of twenty tons. As on the previous expedition, several kinds of
grapnels were put on board, some of the ordinary sort, and some with
springs to prevent the cable surging, and thus escaping while the
grapnel was still dragging on the bottom; others, again, were fashioned
like pincers, to hold (or jam) the cable when raised to a required
height, or else to cut it only, and so take off a large proportion of
the strain previous to picking up. Most of this apparatus was furnished
by Messrs. Brown, Lenox & Co., the famous chain, cable, anchor, and buoy
engineers, several of the grapnels being to their design, as well as the
"connections."
The propelling machinery of the Great Eastern had similarly received
alteration and improvement in the intervals of the two expeditions.
Moreover, the screw propeller was surrounded with an iron cage, to keep
the cable and ropes from fouling it, as had been provided for the
Agamemnon and Niagara in 1857.
[Illustration: FIG. 38.--Buoys, Grapnels, Mushrooms--and Men.]
The testing arrangements had been perfected by Mr. Willoughby Smith in
such a way that insulation readings could be continuously observed,
even while measuring the copper resistance, or while exchanging signals
with Valentia. Thus there was no longer any danger of a fault being paid
overboard without instant detection. On this occasion also condensers
were applied to the receiving-end of the cable, having the effect of
very materially increasing--indeed, sometimes almost doubling--the
working speed.
On June 30, 1866, the Great Eastern, steaming from the Thames--followed
by the Medway and Albany--arrived at Valentia, where H.M.S. Terrible and
Racoon were found, under orders to accompany the expedition. The Medway
had on board forty-five miles of deep-sea cable in addition to the
American shore end.
The principal members of the staff acting on behalf of the contractors
in this expedition were the same as in that of the previous year. Mr.
Canning was again in charge, with Mr. Clifford and Mr. Temple as his
chief assistants. In the electrical department, however, the Telegraph
Construction Company had since secured the services of Mr. Willoughby
Smith as their chief electrician, while he still acted in that capacity
at the Wharf Road Gutta-Percha Works. Mr. Smith, therefore, accompanied
the expedition as chief electrician to the contractors. Captain James
Anderson and Staff-Commander H. A. Moriarty, R.N., were once more to be
seen on board the great ship, the former as her captain, and the latter
as navigating officer. Professor Thomson was aboard as consulting
electrical adviser to the Atlantic Telegraph Company, while Mr. C. F.
Varley was ashore at Valentia as their electrician. Sir Charles Bright
(then M.P. for Greenwich) was at this period serving on various
committees of the House of Commons;[63] but his partner, Mr. Latimer
Clark, took up quarters at Valentia to personally represent the firm as
consulting engineers to the Anglo-American Telegraph Company. Mr. J. C.
Laws and Mr. Richard Collett[64] being respectively aboard and ashore at
the Newfoundland end in the same interests. Mr. Glass, the managing
director of the Telegraph Construction Company, was ashore at Valentia
for the purpose of giving any instructions to his (the contractor's)
staff on board, while Mr. Gooch and Mr. Field were aboard the Great
Eastern as onlookers and watchers of their individual interests.
_Cable-Laying again._--On July 7th the William Cory--commonly known as
the Dirty Billy--landed the shore end in Foilhommerum Bay, and afterward
laid twenty-seven miles of the intermediate cable. On the 13th, the
Great Eastern took the end on board, and having spliced on to her cable
on board, started paying out. The track followed was parallel to that
taken the year before, but about twenty-seven miles farther north. There
were two instances of fouls in the tank, due to broken wires catching
neighboring turns and flakes, and thus drawing up a whole bundle of
cable in an apparently inextricable mass of kinks and twists quite close
to the brake-drum. In each case the ship was promptly got to a
standstill and all hands set to unraveling the tangle. With a certain
amount of luck, coupled with much care, neither accident ended fatally;
and, after straightening out the wire as far as possible, paying out was
resumed.
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--"Foul in Tank" while Paying out.]
_Successful Completion._--Fourteen days after starting the Great Eastern
arrived off Heart's Content,[65] Trinity Bay, where the Medway joined on
and landed the shore end partly by boats, thus bringing to a successful
conclusion this part of the expedition. The total length of cable laid
was 1,852 nautical miles; average depth, 1,400 fathoms. Rejoicings then
took place during the coaling of the Great Eastern--to provide for
which as many as six coal-laden steamers had left Cardiff some weeks
before. The rejoicings were somewhat damped by the fact that the cable
between Newfoundland and Cape Breton (Nova Scotia) still remained
interrupted, and that consequently the entire telegraphic system was not
even now completed. However, in the course of a few days this line was
repaired, and New York and the east of the United States and Canada were
once more put into telegraphic communication with Europe.
The telegraphic fleet put to sea again on August 9th.
CHAPTER XVI
RECOVERY AND COMPLETION OF THE 1865 CABLE
Prospects and Plans--Setting to Work--Repeated Failures--Ultimate
Triumph--Electricians
Ashore--"Spot-watching"--"Putting-through"--Pioneering--Working the
Lines.
_Prospects and Plans._--It now remained to find the end of the cable
lost on August 2, 1865, situated about 604 miles from Newfoundland, to
pick it up, splice on to the cable remaining on board, and finish the
work so unfortunately interrupted the year before. The difficulties to
be overcome can be readily imagined, the cable lying 2,000 fathoms
without mark of any kind to indicate its position. The buoys put down
after the accident had long since disappeared, either their moorings
having dragged during various gales of wind, or the wire ropes which
held them having chafed through, owing to incessant rise and fall at the
bottom. The position of the lost end had to be determined by
astronomical observations. These necessitate clear weather, and can then
only give approximate results on account of the variable ocean currents,
which sometimes flow at the rate of three knots. Moreover, for grappling
and raising the cable to the bows, the sea must be tolerably smooth; and
in that part where the work lay a succession of fine days is rare, even
in the month of August. However, they still had on board Captain
Moriarty, one of the ablest navigators in the world. Added to this, the
greater portion of the cable in deep water had been paid out with about
15 per cent slack.
The chiefs of the expedition, fully confident of success, hastened their
preparations, and on August 9, 1866, the Great Eastern again put to sea,
accompanied by S.S. Medway. On the 12th the vessels arrived on the scene
of action, and joined company with H.M.S. Terrible and S.S. Albany,
these vessels having left Heart's Content Bay a week in advance to buoy
the line of the 1865 cable and commence grappling.
The plan decided on was to drag for the cable near the end with all
three ships at once. The cable when raised to a certain height, was to
be cut by the Medway stationed to the westward of the Great Eastern, so
as to enable the latter vessel to lift the Valentia end on board. This
was, of course, before the days of cutting and holding grapnels as we
now have them, which render it possible for a single ship to effect
repairs--even where it is out of the question to recover the cable in
one bight.
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--S.S. Great Eastern Completing the Second
Atlantic Cable.]
_Setting to Work: Repeated Failures._--When the Great Eastern arrived on
the grappling ground, the Albany (with Mr. Temple in engineering charge)
had already hooked and buoyed the cable, but the buoy-chain having been
carried away, they not only lost the cable, but 2,000 fathoms of wire
rope besides. On August 13th the Great Eastern made her first drag,
about fifteen miles from the end, and, after several vain attempts, the
cable was finally hooked and lifted about 1,300 fathoms. During the
operation of buoying the grappling rope, a mistake occurred which
resulted in the rope slipping overboard and going to the bottom.
The Great Eastern now proceeded six miles to the eastward, and commenced
a new drag, for raking the ocean bed with 2,400 fathoms of wire rope.
About eleven o'clock at night the grapnel came to the surface with the
cable caught on two of the prongs. Boats were quickly in position
alongside the grapnel. Shortly afterward they were endeavoring to secure
the cable to the strong wire rope, by means of a nipper, when the
grapnel canted, allowing the line to slip away from the prongs--like a
great eel--and disappear into the sea. On the 19th the cable was once
more hooked, and raised about a mile from the bottom, but the sea was
too rough for buoying it. During the following week all three vessels
dragged for the cable at different points, according to the plan
previously arranged, but the weather was unfavorable, and the cable was
not hooked--or, if hooked, had managed to slip away from the grapnels.
The ship's company about this time became discouraged--in fact, more and
more convinced of the futility of their efforts.
On the 27th the Albany signaled that they had got the cable on board
with a strain of only three tons, and had buoyed the end, but it was
soon discovered that her buoy was thirteen miles from the track of the
cable, and that she had recovered a length of three miles which had been
purposely paid overboard a few days before. Shifting ground to the
eastward about fifteen miles, the vessels were now working in a depth of
2,500 fathoms. As the store of grappling rope was diminishing day by
day, and the fine season rapidly coming to an end, it was decided to
proceed at once eighty miles farther east, where the depth was not
expected to exceed 1,900 fathoms, and there try a last chance.
_Ultimate Triumph._--After the above repeated failures, the cable was
hooked on August 31st by the Great Eastern (when the grapnel had been
lowered for the thirtieth time), and picking up commenced in very calm
weather. The monster vessel did her work admirably. To quote the words
of an eye-witness: "So delicately did she answer her helm, and coil in
the film of thread-like cable, that she put one in mind of an elephant
taking up a straw in its proboscis." When the bight of cable was about
900 fathoms from the surface, the grappling-rope was buoyed. The big
ship then proceeded to grapple three miles west of the buoy (Fig. 41),
and the Medway (with Mr. London on board) another two miles or so west
of her again. The cable was soon once more hooked by both ships, and
when the Medway had raised her bight to within 300 fathoms of the
surface she was ordered to break it. The Great Eastern having stopped
picking up when the bight was 800 fathoms from the surface, proceeded to
resume the operation as soon as the intentional rupture of the cable had
eased the strain, which, with a loose end of about two nautical miles,
at once fell from 10 or 11 tons to 5 tons. Slowly, but surely, and amid
breathless silence, the long-lost cable made its appearance at last (see
opposite), for the third time above water, a little before one o'clock
(early morn) of September 2d.[66]
Two hours afterward the precious end was on board, and signals were
immediately exchanged with Valentia. This was at once led into the
testing-room, where Mr. Willoughby Smith, in the presence of all the
leaders on board, applied the tests which were to determine the
important question regarding the condition of the cable, and whether it
was entirely continuous to each end. In a few minutes all suspense was
relieved, the tests showed the cable to be healthy and complete, and
immediately afterward (in response to the ship's call) the answering
signals were received from the Valentia end, which were received with
loud cheers that echoed and reechoed throughout the great ship.
_Electricians Ashore: "Spot-watching."_--Let us now look at those
patiently watching day after day, night after night, in the wooden
telegraph cabin on shore, the experience of whom may be taken as a fair
sample of that of the electrician ashore during repairing operations in
the present day.
[Illustration: FIG. 41.--Diagram Illustrative of the Final Tactics
Adopted for Picking up the 1865 Cable.
_A_--Point where cable was buoyed by the Great Eastern.
_B_--Point where cable was broken by the Medway.
_C_--Bight of cable ultimately brought to surface by Great Eastern.
]
Such a length of time had elapsed since the expedition left Newfoundland
that the staff at Foilhommerum, under the superintendence of Mr. James
Graves, felt they were almost hoping against hope. Suddenly, on a Sunday
morning at a quarter to six, while the tiny ray of light from the
reflecting instrument was being watched, the operator observed it moving
to and fro upon the scale. A few minutes later the unsteady flickering
was changed to coherency. The long-speechless cable began to talk, and
the welcome assurance arrived, "Ship to shore; I have much pleasure in
speaking to you through the 1865 cable. Just going to make splice." Glad
tidings were also sent from the ship via Valentia to London, and, by
means of the 1866 cable, to Newfoundland and New York. Thus it happened
that those being tossed about in a stormy sea held conversation with
Europe and America at one and the same time.[67]
"_Putting Through._"--The recovered end was spliced on without delay to
the cable on board, and the same morning at seven o'clock the Great
Eastern started paying out about 680 nautical miles of cable toward
Newfoundland. On September 8th, when only thirteen miles from the Bay of
Heart's Content, just after receiving a summary of the news in The Times
of that morning, the tests showed a fault in the cable. The mischief was
soon found to be on board the ship, and caused by the end of a broken
wire, which, bending at right angles under the weight of the men
employed in the tanks, had been forced into the core. This occurrence
explained the probable cause of the faults (of same character) which had
shown themselves during paying out the year before, tending to remove
all suspicion of malicious intent. The faulty portion having been cut
out, and the splice made without delay, paying out again proceeded,
finishing the same day at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. The Medway
immediately set to work laying the shore end, and that evening a second
line of communication across the Atlantic was completed. The total
length of this cable, commenced in 1865, was 1,896 miles; average depth,
1,900 fathoms.
[Illustration: FIG. 42.--S.S. Great Eastern with 1865 Cable at Bows;
Depth, 2 Miles.]
_Pioneering._--The main feature and accomplishment in connection with
the second and third Atlantic cables of 1865 and 1866 was, without
doubt, the recovery of the former in deeper water than had ever been
before effected, and in the open ocean; just as in the first 1858 line
it was the demonstration of the fact that a cable could be successfully
laid in such a depth and worked through electrically. In the interval
between the two undertakings cable repairs had certainly been carried
out in the Mediterranean in 1,400 fathoms. Moreover, the recovery and
repair of a cable from the depths of the open ocean are now matters of
ordinary every-day occurrence, forming part and parcel of cable
operations generally. These facts should not, however, in any way
detract from the greatness of the achievement at that time in so vast
and boisterous an ocean.
_Working the Two Lines._--Professor Thomson's reflecting-apparatus for
testing and signaling had been considerably improved since the first
cable. In illustration of the degree of sensibility and perfection
attained at this period in the appliances for working the line, the
following experiment is of striking interest: Mr. Latimer Clark, who
went to Valentia to test the cable for the "Atlantic" Company, had the
conductor of the two lines joined together at the Newfoundland end, thus
forming an unbroken length of 3,700 miles in circuit. He then placed
some pure sulfuric acid in a silver thimble,[68] with a fragment of zinc
weighing a grain or two. By this primitive agency he succeeded in
conveying signals twice through the breadth of the Atlantic Ocean in
little more than a second of time after making contact. The deflections
were not of a dubious character, but full and strong, the spot of light
traversing freely over a space of twelve inches or more, from which it
was manifest that an even smaller battery would suffice to produce
somewhat similar effects. Again, in testing these cables it was found
that if either was disconnected from the earth and charged with
electricity, it required more than an hour for half of the charge to
escape through the insulating material to the earth. This speaks well
for the electrical components assigned to the two lines, and for the
arrangements adopted in working them. It also shows the benefit derived
from seven years' extra experience in manufacture, backed up by the
previously mentioned exhaustive Government inquiry thereon.
Notwithstanding the dimensions of the core, these cables were worked
slowly at first, and at a rate of about eight words per minute. This,
however, soon improved as the staff became more accustomed to the
apparatus, and steadily increased up to fifteen--and even
seventeen--words per minute on each line, with the application of
condensers.
Unfortunately both these cables broke down a few months later, and one
of them again during the following year. The faults were localized with
great accuracy from Heart's Content by Mr. F. Lambert on behalf of
Messrs. Bright & Clark, engineers to the "Anglo-American" Company.
Unlike the 1858 line, however, these last cables had not been killed
electrically, and, being worthy of repairs, they were maintained for a
considerable time.
CHAPTER XVII
JUBILATIONS
Banquets--Speeches--Honors
On the return of the 1866 Expedition a banquet was given to the
cable-layers by the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, as soon as the Great
Eastern was safely moored in the Mersey.
The following from The Times will be of some interest here:
The chair was occupied by the Rt. Hon. Sir Stafford Northcote,
Bart.,[69] President of the Board of Trade. The following were
among the invited guests: the Rt. Hon. Lord Stanley, M.P.,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; the Rt. Hon. Lord
Carnarvon; the Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop of Chester; the Rt. Hon. W.
E. Gladstone, M.P.; Sir Charles Bright, M.P., original projector of
the Atlantic cable, and Engineer to the Anglo-American Telegraph
Company; Prof. W. Thomson, electrical adviser to the Atlantic
Telegraph Company; Mr. Latimer Clark, coengineer with Sir Charles
Bright; Mr. R. A. Glass, managing director to the Telegraph
Construction Company (contractors); Mr. Samuel Canning, engineer to
the contractors; Mr. Henry Clifford, assistant engineer to the
contractors; Mr. Willoughby Smith, electrician to the contractors;
Captain James Anderson, commander of the Great Eastern; Mr. William
Barber, chairman of the Great Ship Company; Mr. John Chatterton,
manager of the Gutta-Percha Works; Mr. E. B. Bright, Magnetic
Telegraph Company; Mr. T. B. Horsfall, M.P.; and Mr. John Laird,
M.P.
After proposing toasts to Her Majesty the Queen, to the President
of the United States, and to the Prince of Wales, the chairman (Sir
S. Northcote) again rose amid applause, and said it was a maxim of
a great Roman poet that a great work should be begun by plunging
into the middle of the subject. He would therefore do so by
proposing a toast to the projectors of the Atlantic Telegraph--Sir
Charles Bright and Mr. Cyrus Field, Mr. J. W. Brett having since
unfortunately died. When they came in after years to relate the
history of this cable, they would find many who had contributed to
it, but it would be as impossible to say who were the originators
of the great invention as it was to say who were the first
inventors of steam. He begged to couple with the toast the name of
Sir Charles Bright, as, perhaps, the foremost representative from
all points of view up to the present time (applause). The greatest
honor is due to the indomitable perseverance and energy of Sir
Charles Bright that the original cable was successfully laid,
though, through no fault of his, it had but a short useful
existence (great cheering).
Sir Charles Bright, M.P., after acknowledging the compliment paid
to the "original projectors" and to himself personally, said that
the idea of laying a cable across the Atlantic was the natural
outcome of the success which was attained in carrying short lines
under the English and Irish Channels, and was a common subject of
discussion among those concerned in telegraph extension prior to
the formation of the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
About ten years ago the science had sufficiently advanced to permit
of the notion assuming a practical form. Soundings taken in the
Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland proved that the bottom
was soft, and that no serious currents or abrading agencies
existed, for the minute and fragile shells brought up by the
sounding-line were perfect and uninjured.
There only remained the proof that electricity could be employed
through so vast a length of conductor. Upon this point and the best
mode of working such a line, he had been experimenting for several
years. He had carried on a series of investigations which resulted
in establishing the fact that messages could be practically passed
through an unbroken circuit of more than 2,000 miles of insulated
wire, a notion derided at that time by many distinguished
authorities. Mr. Wildman Whitehouse, who subsequently became
electrician to the company, had been likewise engaged. On comparing
notes later, it was discovered that we had arrived at similar
results, though holding somewhat different views, for his (Sir C.
Bright's) calculations, using other instruments, led him to believe
that a conductor nearly four times the size of that adopted would
be desirable with a slightly thicker insulator. It was this type
which the new cables just laid had been furnished with.
In 1856, Mr. Cyrus Field--to whom the world was as much indebted
for the establishment of the line as to any man--came over to
England upon the completion of the telegraph between Nova Scotia
and Newfoundland. He then joined with the late Mr. Brett and
himself (Sir C. Bright) with the view of extending this system to
Europe, and they mutually agreed, as also did Mr. Whitehouse later,
to carry out the undertaking. A meeting was first held in
Liverpool, and in the course of a few days their friends had
subscribed the necessary capital. So that in greeting those who had
just returned from the last expedition--Mr. Canning, Mr. Clifford,
Captain Anderson, and other guests of the evening--Liverpool was
fitly welcoming those who had accomplished the crowning success of
an enterprise to which at the outset she had so largely contributed
(applause).
The circumstances connected with the first cable would be in the
recollection of every one, and, although the loss was considerable,
the experience gained was of no small moment. A few months after
the old line had ceased to work, their chairman (Sir S. Northcote)
consulted him on behalf of the Government as to the best form of
cable for connecting us telegraphically with Gibraltar, and he
(Sir C. Bright) did not hesitate to recommend the same type of
conductor and insulator which he had himself before suggested for
the Atlantic line--a higher speed being desirable. This class of
conductor in the newly laid Atlantic cable appeared likely to give
every satisfaction, he was happy to say, and the mechanical
construction of the cable, also the same as that he had previously
specified for the Gibraltar line, appeared to have admirably met
some of the difficulties experienced in cable operations.
The credit attached to these second and third Atlantic cables must
mainly rest with the Telegraph Construction Company (formerly
Messrs. Glass, Elliot & Co.) and their staff, inasmuch as in this
case the responsibility rested with them throughout. The
directors--including Mr. Glass, Mr Elliot, Mr. Gooch, Mr. Pender,
Mr. Barclay, and Mr. Brassey--deserved the reward which they and
the shareholders would no doubt reap. To Mr. Glass, upon whom the
principal responsibility of the manufacture devolved, the greatest
praise was due for his indomitable perseverance in the enterprise.
Then the art of insulating the conducting-wire had been so
wonderfully improved by Mr. Chatterton and Mr. Willoughby Smith,
that, nowadays, a very feeble electrical current was sufficient to
work the longest circuits, an enormous advance on the state of
affairs nine years previously. Again, they must not forget how much
of the success now attained was due to Professor Thomson and his
delicate signaling-apparatus, the advantages of which have since
1858 been more firmly established. Mr. Varley had also done most
useful work since becoming electrician to the "Atlantic" Company.
Moreover, he (Sir C. Bright) hoped the active personal services of
his partner, Mr. Latimer Clark, would not be forgotten.
It was satisfactory to find that the cables were already being
worked at a very large profit. This system would doubtless be
quadrupled within a short period, when the land-lines on the
American side were improved (hear, hear, and applause). With this
commercial success--combined with the improvements introduced into
submarine cables, and the power of picking up and repairing them
from vast depths--there was a future for submarine telegraphy to
which scarcely any bounds could be imagined. A certain amount had
already been done, but China and Japan, Australia and New Zealand,
South America and the West India Islands, must all be placed within
speaking-distance of England. When this last has been accomplished,
but not till then, telegraphic engineers might take a short rest
from their labors and ask with some little pride:
Quoe regio in terris nostri non plena laboris? (loud applause).
Then followed speeches from Lord Stanley, the American Consul (on behalf
of Mr. Cyrus Field), and others.
Honors were subsequently bestowed on some of the various gentlemen most
immediately concerned in these--at last--wholly successful undertakings
of 1865 and 1866, which left their results behind in complete and
lasting form.
CHAPTER XVIII
SUBSEQUENT ATLANTIC LINES
As a natural sequence other Atlantic cables followed in course of time.
Thus in 1869 France was put into direct telegraphic communication with
America by means of a cable from Brest to the island of St. Pierre, and
another from St. Pierre to Sydney, U.S.A.[70] The former length was
manufactured by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, and
the latter by Mr. W. T. Henley. The Telegraph Construction Company were
the contractors for laying the whole cable on behalf of the French
Atlantic Cable Company (Société du Câble Trans-Atlantique Français).[71]
This work was successfully accomplished from the Great Eastern (Captain
Robert Halpin) by the same staff as had laid the 1866 cable. Owing to
the route, this line was materially longer than the previous Atlantic
cables, its length (from Brest to St. Pierre) being as much as 2,685
nautical miles. The working-speed attained on the French Atlantic cable
was ten and a half words per minute. The conductor of the Brest-St.
Pierre section was composed of seven copper wires stranded together,
weighing 400 pounds per nautical mile, covered with a gutta-percha
insulator of the same weight. The core of the St. Pierre-Sydney section
was made up as follows: Copper = 107 pounds per nautical mile;
gutta-percha = 150 pounds per nautical mile. Like the previous lines,
this cable has been "down," electrically speaking, for some years. It
proved a very costly one in repairs, one expedition alone having run
into as much as £95,000.
In 1873 the Direct United States Cable Company was formed, being the
first competitor--from this country--with the "Anglo-American"
Company.[72] Messrs. Siemens Brothers, who had taken an active part in
the promotion of the scheme, were the contractors, both for manufacture
and for submersion. It was, indeed, the first really important length
with which this firm had been concerned as manufacturers. The laying was
attended with complete success, and the line opened to the public in
1875. Later on, in 1877, the "Direct United States" Company was
reconstructed, their system entering into the "pool" or "joint purse."
The latter was established shortly after the 1869 Atlantic cable had
been laid, constituting one great financial combination.
In 1879 another French company was formed to establish independent
communication between France and the rest of the European Continent on
the one hand, and the United States of America on the other. The, to
English ears and lips, somewhat cumbersome title of this concern was La
Compagnie Française du Télégraphe de Paris à New York, but it soon
became styled in England the "P. Q. Company," after M. Pouyer-Quertier,
its presiding genius. The cable was made and laid in the same year by
Messrs. Siemens Brothers, though the scheme had taken three years to
reach contract point. The "P. Q." Company in 1894 amalgamated with La
Société Française des Télégraphes Sous-marins, under the title of La
Compagnie Française des Câbles Télégraphiques.
In 1881 an American company was formed, under the guidance of the late
Mr. Jay Gould, entitled The American Telegraph and Cable Company, with a
view to partaking in the profits of transatlantic telegraphy by
establishing another line of communication between the United States and
Great Britain, and thence to the rest of Europe. This cable was also
constructed and laid (in the course of that year) by Messrs. Siemens
Brothers, who were part promoters of the enterprise, as well as another
cable for the same system in the following year, 1882. This company's
cables are leased by the Western Union Telegraph Company, which was
practically Jay Gould's property, and remained so up to close on the
time of his death, a few years ago. In 1883 the above system entered the
"Pool"--the happy destination for which, maybe, it was originally
launched into existence.
A fresh competitor arrived in 1884 in the person of the Commercial Cable
Company. Two cables were laid across the Atlantic for this company in
the same year, its promoters wisely foreseeing that, in view of the
continual chance of a breakdown, this was the only way in which they
could safely attempt to compete with their more firmly established
rivals. The "Commercial" Company was mainly promoted by two American
millionaires, Mr. J. W. Mackay, the celebrated New York financier, and
Mr. Gordon Bennett, the proprietor of the New York Herald; with them
were associated Messrs. Siemens Brothers, who afterward became the
contractors for the enterprise. These cables, like the Jay Gould lines,
stretch from the extreme southwest point of Ireland (which is connected
by special cable with England) to Nova Scotia, and thence to the United
States, one of them direct to New York. The system is directly connected
with that of the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company, thus affording ready
communication with the Dominion.
Neither the "Commercial" Company's system nor that of the Compagnie
Française des Câbles Télégraphiques is at present in the "Atlantic
Pool."
In 1894 yet two more additions were made to the list of Atlantic
cables--one on behalf of the Commercial Cable Company, and the other for
the "Anglo-American" Company. The new "Commercial" line was constructed
and laid by Messrs. Siemens Brothers, and the "Anglo" cable by the
Telegraph Construction Company. Fig. 43 shows the type adopted for the
deepest water of the latter, and Fig. 44 that for the shore ends. Here
the wires, besides being of a very large gauge, are applied with an
extremely short lay (hence the elliptic appearance, though circular in
reality), in order to increase the weight of iron, and thereby avoid
shifting and abrasion. This type is now in constant use where rocks,
ice-floes, strong currents, or rough weather are experienced. Special
arrangements were made in the design of both these cables to meet the
requirements of increased speed. Since the successful application to
submarine cables of various modifications of Wheatstone's automatic
transmitter, the limit to the speed attainable only depends, practically
speaking, upon the type of cable employed. On these principles the core
of the new "Commercial" cable was composed of a copper conductor
weighing 500 pounds per nautical mile, covered with a gutta-percha
insulating-sheath weighing 320 pounds per nautical mile, while the new
"Anglo" has a core with conductor weighing 650 pounds per nautical mile,
and gutta-percha insulator 400 pounds per nautical mile, involving a
completed cable (main type) nearly double the weight of previous
corresponding lines.
[Illustration: FIG. 43.--Anglo-American Atlantic Cable (1894): deep-sea
type.]
[Illustration: FIG. 44.--Shore-end of the 1894 "Anglo" Cable. Reduced
size.]
The actual speed obtained by automatic transmission with the latter
cable is as high as forty-seven (or even up to fifty) five-letter words
per minute. On the previous, lighter, Atlantic cores twenty-five to
twenty-eight words per minute was the usual maximum speed attainable;
the former, say, by average transmission and average receiving, and the
latter by automatic transmission--other circumstances corresponding.
Practically all submarine cables between important points--and certainly
all those across the Atlantic--are now "duplexed"--a system of
electrical working (instituted by Messrs. Muirhead in 1875) which
enables messages to be sent in both directions at the same time. The
result of this is nowadays to practically double the carrying capacity
and earning power of the line, the effective speed in either direction
remaining virtually the same as in "simplex" working, provided the cable
is in good condition.[73] The armor of this cable (Fig. 43) is also a
good example of present-day practise, each wire (usually covered with
compounded tape) butting against the next; this is found to be the most
durable form for a deep-sea cable.
In 1898 another French Atlantic line of a similar type to the above was
laid. This involved the longest Atlantic cable-section in existence,
i.e., 3,174 nautical miles, from Brest to Cape Cod, and was the first
Atlantic line made and laid by Frenchmen, with the active assistance, as
regards laying, of the Silvertown Company.
Recently, too, a German Atlantic cable has been laid by the Telegraph
Construction Company from Emden to the Azores, and hence to New York.
* * * * *
The various proprietary companies here named have had duplicating lines
laid for them from time to time, but these it is not necessary to
further allude to.
Neither has it been thought necessary to give particulars regarding the
methods of construction, laying, testing or working of any of these
later lines following on the pioneer undertakings, except where special
novelties were introduced. For similar reasons--and seeing that the
responsibility of these later lines rested with contractors--the names
of their permanent staff acting for them have not been introduced.
CHAPTER XIX
ATLANTIC CABLE SYSTEMS OF TO-DAY
Connecting Links--Tariff--Revenue
As a part of the union between the old world and the new, there are
altogether fifteen cables now working across the North Atlantic Ocean
(see Fig. 45), such as are usually termed "Atlantic cables." Some of the
Atlantic companies have special cables of their own from the landing
place on the coast of Ireland to points on the Continental coasts. The
figure on page 221 suggests one of the difficulties any wireless system
would have to contend with in attempting at transatlantic telegraphy on
a commercial basis.[74] Some of these cables at each end of the
corresponding main section contain more than one insulated conductor.
_Tariff._--In the early pioneer days of ocean telegraphy the Atlantic
Telegraph Company started with a minimum tariff of £20 for twenty words,
and £1 for each additional word. This was first reduced to £10 for
twenty words, and was further altered later on to £5 for ten words.
After this it stood for a long time at a minimum of 30s. for ten words
of five letters each. Subsequently, in 1867, the Anglo-American Company
tried a word-rate of £1 for the 1865 and 1866 Atlantic cables; but it
was not until 1872 that Mr. Henry Weaver, their able manager, first
instituted a regular word-rate system (without any minimum) of 4s. per
word. At the present time (1903), thanks to competition, to technical
improvements in the plant, and increased traffic--bringing in its train
those economies in the working which are always possible in a larger
scale of operation--the rate stands at 1s. a word with all the Atlantic
companies. Some day we may, perhaps, see a sixpenny transatlantic tariff
in permanent force.
[Illustration: FIG. 45.--Atlantic Cable Systems, 1903.]
_Revenue._--The fifteen Atlantic cables now in use represent a total
capital of well over £20,000,000 sterling. A knowledge of the profits
derived from each system is not readily arrived at; but from a
comparison of the traffic receipts or "money returns" of the oldest
existing Atlantic company at different periods, we are bound to conclude
that the "takings" are, roughly speaking, very much the same now as they
were twenty-five years ago. This is explainable by the fact that,
although the number of messages now passing is much greater, the
reduction of the rate (with the ever-increasing competition of rival
lines) just about cancels the advantage, so far as receipts are
concerned. Roughly speaking, however, the annual gross traffic on
transatlantic telegraphy stands at about £1,200,000, divided among two
English companies, two American, one French, and one German company.
Both the two latter are materially subsidized by their respective
Governments, who now foresee the desirability of being independent of
cables under English control.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For particulars regarding preelectrical telegraphy and previous
researches in electrotelegraphy, the reader is referred to A History
of Telegraphy to the year 1837, by J. J. Fahie, M.I.E.E. (E. and F. N.
Spon, 1884).
[2] A certain knowledge regarding electric and magnetic science has
to be assumed here; and, for further particulars on this subject, the
reader is referred to another volume of this series, The Story of
Electricity, by John Munro.
[3] Submarine Telegraphs: Their History, Construction, and Working, by
Charles Bright, F.R.S.E., A.M. Inst. C.E., M.I.E.E. (London: Crosby
Lockwood & Son, 1898.)
[4] B.W.G.--Birmingham Wire Gage.
[5] It was gravely suggested by a prominent naval officer to thread
the line through old cannonades lying idle, at Portsmouth harbor.
This notion was not taken up; but a light chain twined round the
insulated conductor throughout its length would certainly have served
the purpose better than the leaden weights, inasmuch as it would have
protected the line from chafing, besides being less liable to damage
the core.
[6] Some critics had actually supposed that the method of signaling
was that of _pulling_ the wire after the manner of mechanical
house-bells; and were at pains to point out that the bottom of the
channel was too rough for that.
[7] For further particulars, see the Life Story of Sir Charles Tilston
Bright. (London: Archibald Constable & Co., 1898.)
[8] It will be readily understood that without this weight, the line
would not for certain descend to the bottom--and certainly not in
a straight line--in any considerable depths. On the other hand, it
would be impossible to recover an effective weight without great risk
of breaking the line. For this reason the weight is abandoned, and a
considerable number may be found at the bottom of the sea in every
quarter of the globe.
[9] These live near the surface of the ocean in myriads upon myriads,
incessantly sinking to the bottom as their short life is ended. Thus,
in the course of ages, there grows constantly upward a formation
similar to the chalk cliffs of England, which contain the identical
shells, deposited when this country was submerged far below sea-level
thousands of years ago.
[10] In the present day, however, soundings are taken at intervals
of about ten miles along the proposed route, and even then submarine
hills and valleys are frequently encountered. This is effected by
means of the Thomson steam sounding-apparatus, the great feature of
which is a fine steel wire (the same as that in the treble notes of a
piano) in place of a hempen line of enormous bulk. Nowadays, taking a
sounding in the Atlantic occupies well under an hour of time, where by
the old method it took at least six hours.
[11] The full particulars of the agreement with the English Government
were embodied in a letter from the Treasury (see Life Story of Sir
Charles Bright) and form instructive reading even at the present time.
[12] Submarine Telegraphs.
[13] The Pirate, p. 2.
[14] Valentia is the Irish terminus of several of the present Atlantic
lines.
[15] N.M.--Nautical miles.
[16] Though such a core would have been a great novelty at the time,
it closely approximates to present-day practise.
[17] Mins. Proc. Inst. C. E., vol. xvi.
[18] An Atlantic cable of the present day runs into about half a
million sterling. Gutta-percha was, in those days, less scarce; on
the other hand, its manufacture was more of a novelty, and there was
comparatively little competition in cable-making.
[19] Professor Morse (who held a sort of watching brief for the United
States Government) also took passage, but had to retire to his berth
as soon as the elements asserted themselves, and was scarcely visible
again till all was over.
[20] The sheaves had several grooves which the cable fitted into in
its passage. Though possessing some merits, this plan was never again
adopted, owing partly to the above risk.
[21] This was owing to the two halves of the cable being made at
different factories, without any communication passing between them on
the subject.
[22] This apparatus first gained its name from the nature of the part
it plays in machinery, being similar to that of a human jockey.
[23] So called on account of the form of grooving adopted for taking
the under side of the table.
[24] Submarine Telegraphs.
[25] It is partly for this reason that so full an account is given
here.
[26] In those days all such instruments were spoken of as
galvanometers, no matter for what purpose they were employed.
Moreover, this instrument was also used sometimes for testing. That
which goes by the name of the marine galvanometer in the present day
was not invented by Lord Kelvin till some years later.
[27] This splice-frame was an ingenious arrangement for neutralizing
the untwisting tendency of two opposite lays when spliced together,
but is never required in present-day practise.
[28] This, of course, did not in any way come as a surprise, for the
length of cable employed for these experiments had long since been
condemned as imperfect.
[29] And so it is sometimes with telegraph-ships--as regards the dead
weight of cable--even in the present day, when compared with the risks
run by ordinary seagoing vessels.
[30] When these part to any extent a ship is always considered in a
dangerous condition.
[31] By subsequent tests it was clear that at any rate the cable
remaining on board was perfect. But after com paring notes with the
Niagara, a strong belief was held that the cable probably parted at
the bottom.
[32] This was from the last turn in the coil, and subsequently it was
discovered that owing to the disturbance in the flooring of the tank
during the storm, the cable had been damaged here.
[33] Life-Story of Sir Charles Bright.
[34] Though bearing this somewhat cumbersome and elaborate title, this
instrument was practically nothing more nor less than an ordinary
"detector," its capacity for actually measuring the electric current
being of an extremely limited character.
[35] This was some of the cable damaged during the storm, like that
which had been broken at the end of the previous attempt. The bottom
of the hold here was found afterward to be in a very disordered state.
[36] Later on it was made clear that this mysterious temporary want of
continuity, accompanied by an apparent variation in the insulation,
was due to a defect in the more or less inconstant sand-battery used
aboard the latter vessel.
[37] It subsequently transpired that the trouble had been due to a
fault in the Niagara's ward-room coil. As soon as the electricians
discovered this, and had it cut out, all went smoothly again.
[38] The amount of slack paid out had already been almost ruinous.
Luckily its continuance was not necessary, or it would have been
impossible to reach Ireland with the cable on board.
[39] The Times, Wednesday, August 11, 1858.
[40] This spot had been selected on account of its seclusion from
prevailing winds, and owing to the shelter it afforded from drifting
icebergs.
[41] Engineer's log, U.S.N.S. Niagara.
[42] The Times, second edition, August 5th, 1858.
[43] The Times, August 6, 1858.
[44] Daily News, August 20, 1858.
[45] "The Life-Story of Sir Charles Bright," _ibid._
[46] The Times, August 6, 1858.
[47] Submarine Telegraphs.
[48] In his work on the Electric Telegraph, the late Mr. Robert Sabine
said: "At the date of the first Atlantic cable, the engineering
department was far ahead of the electrical. The cable was successfully
laid--mechanically good, but electrically bad." Its electrical failure
was, of course, bound to spell commercial failure, no matter how great
its success as an engineering feat.
[49] In his presidential address to the Institution of Electrical
Engineers in 1889, Lord Kelvin (the Professor Thomson referred to in
these pages) said: "The first Atlantic cable gave me the happiness
and privilege of meeting and working with the late Sir Charles
Bright. He was the engineer of this great undertaking--full of
vigor, full of enthusiasm. We were shipmates on the Agamemnon on the
ever-memorable expedition of 1858, during which we were out of sight
of land for thirty-three days. To Sir C. Bright's vigor, earnestness,
and enthusiasm was due the successful laying of the cable. We must
always feel deeply indebted to our late colleague as a pioneer in that
great work, when other engineers would not look at it, and thought it
absolutely impracticable."
[50] Encyclopædia Britannica, 8th edition, 1860. Article on The
Electric Telegraph, by Prof. W. Thomson, F.R.S.
[51] Mr. Croskey also subsequently found the bulk of the capital for
the exploring expeditions.
[52] Later Admiral Sir Leopold M'Clintock, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S.
[53] Now Sir Allen Young, C. B.
[54] The reproduction given here is from a photograph kindly lent by
Sir Allen Young.
[55] In consolidating the texture of the gutta-percha, pressure
increases its electrical resistance, unless a flaw exists such as
would then be immediately brought to light.
[56] See Submarine Telegraphs.
[57] Mr. Field compassed land and sea incessantly for the purpose
of agitating the subject. He is said to have crossed the Atlantic
altogether sixty-four times--suffering from sea sickness on each
occasion--in connection with this great enterprise in which he formed
so prominent a figure.
[58] Afterward Sir John Pender, G.C.M.G., M.P.
[59] The increased breaking strain here afforded over that of the
first Atlantic line was partly due to the great improvement made in
the manufacture of iron wire during the interval.
[60] Experience has since taught us, however, that such a type lacks
durability, owing to the rapid decay of the hemp between the iron
wires and the sea.
[61] The Great Eastern, in point of size, was only a little before her
time. In the present day, with improved engines, she could be usefully
and profitably employed, had she not been broken up.
[62] Afterward the able manager of the Eastern Telegraph Company.
[63] Life-Story of Sir C. T. Bright.
[64] At a later period--after both the 1865 and 1866 cables were
in working order--Mr. Collett sent a message from Newfoundland to
Valentia with a battery composed of a copper percussion-cap and a
small strip of zinc, which were excited by a drop of acidulated
water--the bulk of a tear only.
[65] This is situated on the opposite side of Trinity Bay to Bull
Arm, where the 1858 cable had been landed, and not so far up. It was
supposed to be even more protected than Bull Arm, from which it is
some eighteen miles distant.
[66] Submarine Telegraphs.
[67] This is, of course, nowadays quite an ordinary occurrence, and
by means of wireless telegraphy likely to become still more so. Then,
however, it was a complete novelty.
[68] Mr. Clark borrowed the thimble--which was a very small one--from
Miss Fitzgerald, the daughter of the Knight of Kerry, living at
Valentia.
[69] Afterward the first Earl of Iddesleigh, G.C.B.
[70] This enterprise, although mainly on behalf of France and the rest
of the European continent, was principally advanced by financiers
in England; the working of the cable was also chiefly under British
direction and management.
[71] Afterward, in 1873, merged with its cable into the Anglo-American
Telegraph Company and its system.
[72] This company had just had two fresh cables laid for them (1873
and 1874) by the Telegraph Construction Company with some of their
usual staff. The laying of the 1874 Atlantic was the last piece of
telegraph work performed by the Great Eastern. She has since been
broken up, after being employed, among other things, as a sort of
variety show. New cables were first rendered necessary--according
to the joint-purse agreement previously referred to--by the final
breakdown, after several repairs, of the 1866 cable in 1872. Later
on (in 1877) the 1865 also succumbed, and another "Anglo" cable was
laid by the same contractors in 1880. The Telegraph Construction and
Maintenance Company laid this 1880 cable without any hitch or stoppage
within the surprisingly short space of twelve days, the record up to
date in Atlantic cable-laying.
[73] Thus the Atlantic cable of to-day may be credited with an
"output" of 100 words a minute as compared with a single word in the
same period, such as was at first obtained in the pioneer days of one
cable worked by one company.
[74] Wireless telegraphy is at present a comparatively slow working
affair; and if it is to successfully compete with our Atlantic
cables, this means a great multiplication of transatlantic circuits
all more or less close together, and, in consequence, all more or
less liable to interfere with each other under existing conditions.
Probably, however, any new company formed for the purposes of
telegraphic communication between different countries would not
confine itself--either in name or practise--to cables, but would also
cultivate the "wireless" system of telegraphy.
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