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Story of the Atlantic Cable

<h3>CHAPTER XV SECOND AND SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT</h3> <div class="blockquot">Further Funds—Fresh Provisions—New Picking-up Machine—Staff—Cable-Laying again—Success. </div> 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{189} 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.{190} 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. <ANTIMG class="enlargeimage" src="images/enlarge-image.jpg" alt="" width-obs="18" height-obs="14" /> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_pg_191_sml.jpg" width-obs="364" height-obs="234" alt="Fig. 37.—The Picking-up Machine, 1866." /> 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{191} 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,{193} 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. <ANTIMG class="enlargeimage" src="images/enlarge-image.jpg" alt="" width-obs="18" height-obs="14" /> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_pg_193_sml.jpg" width-obs="246" height-obs="321" alt="Fig. 38.—Buoys, Grapnels, Mushrooms—and Men." /> 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,{194} 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{195} 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{196} 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. <ANTIMG class="enlargeimage" src="images/enlarge-image.jpg" alt="" width-obs="18" height-obs="14" /> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_pg_196_sml.jpg" width-obs="249" height-obs="176" alt="Fig. 39.—“Foul in Tank” while Paying out." /> 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{197} 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. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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