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1
378
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
·
Henry M. Field
128
All
day
Sunday
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
they
responded
to
the
prayers
to
Him
who
spreadeth
out
the
heavens,
and
ruleth
the
raging
of
the
sea.
On
Monday
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
which
figures
on
the
charts
of
Dayman
and
Berryman,
and
where
Mr.
Bright's
log
gives
a
descent
from
five
hundred
and
fifty
to
seventeen
hundred
and
fifty
fathoms
within
eight
miles!
Then
they
came
to
the
deeper
waters
of
the
Atlantic,
where
the
cable
sank
to
the
awful
depth
of
two
thousand
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.
But
Monday
evening,
about
nine
o'clock,
occurred
a
mysterious
interruption,
which
staggered
all
on
board.
Suddenly
the
electrical
continuity
was
lost.
The
cable
was
not
broken,
but
it
ceased
to
work.
Here
was
a
mystery.
De
Sauty
tried
it,
and
Professor
Morse
tried
it.
But
neither
could
make
it
work.
It
seemed
that
all
was
over.
The
electricians
gave
it
up,
and
the
engineers
were
preparing
to
cut
the
cable,
and
to
endeavor
to
wind
it
in,
when
suddenly
the
electricity
came
back
again.
This
made
the
mystery
greater
than
ever.
It
had
been
interrupted
for
two
hours
and
a
half.
This
was
a
phenomenon
which
has
never
been
explained.
Professor
Morse
was
of
opinion
that
the
cable,
in
getting
off
the
wheels,
had
been
strained
so
as
to
open
the
gutta-percha,
and
thus
destroy
the
insulation.
If
this
be
the
true
explanation,
it
would
seem
that
on
reaching
the
bottom
the
seam
had
closed,
and
thus
the
continuity
had
been
restored.
But
it
was
certainly
an
untoward
incident,
which
"cast
ominous
conjecture
on
the
whole
success,"
as
it
seemed
to
indicate
that
there
were
at
the
bottom
of
the
sea
causes
which
were
wholly
unknown
and
against
which
it
was
impossible
to
provide.
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