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Story of the Atlantic Cable

<h3>CHAPTER XIV THE 1865 CABLE AND EXPEDITION</h3> <div class="blockquot">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. </div> 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{178} 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: <div class="blockquot">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. </div> 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{179} 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{180} exhaustive Government inquiry to which allusion has been made. <div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG class="enlargeimage" src="images/enlarge-image.jpg" alt="" width-obs="18" height-obs="14" /> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_pg_180a_sml.jpg" width-obs="98" height-obs="101" alt="Fig. 34.—The Main Cable, 1865-’66." /></div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG class="enlargeimage" src="images/enlarge-image.jpg" alt="" width-obs="18" height-obs="14" /> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_pg_180b_sml.jpg" width-obs="98" height-obs="101" alt="Fig. 34.—The Main Cable, 1865-’66." /> Fig. 34.—The Main Cable, 1865-’66.</div> 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{181} 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{182} 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. <ANTIMG class="enlargeimage" src="images/enlarge-image.jpg" alt="" width-obs="18" height-obs="14" /> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_pg_183_sml.jpg" width-obs="407" height-obs="258" alt="Fig. 35.—The Great Eastern at Sea." /> Fig. 35.—The Great Eastern at Sea. Landing the Irish End.—At length all the{183} 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. <ANTIMG class="enlargeimage" src="images/enlarge-image.jpg" alt="" width-obs="18" height-obs="14" /> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_pg_185_sml.jpg" width-obs="419" height-obs="229" alt="Fig. 36.—Cable and Machinery aboard S.S. Great Eastern." /> 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{185} 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{187} 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!{188} <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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