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378
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
·
Henry M. Field
154
CHAPTER
X.
THE
SECOND
EXPEDITION
SUCCESSFUL.
A
bold
decision
needs
to
be
followed
by
prompt
action,
lest
the
spirit
that
inspired
it
be
weakened
by
delay.
When
once
it
had
been
fixed
that
there
was
to
be
another
attempt
to
lay
the
Atlantic
cable,
no
time
was
lost
in
carrying
the
resolve
into
execution.
The
telegraphic
fleet
was
lying
at
Queenstown.
The
Niagara
had
arrived
on
the
fifth
of
July,
but
the
Agamemnon,
which,
through
some
misunderstanding,
had
returned
to
the
rendezvous
in
mid-ocean,
thus
crossing
the
Niagara
on
her
track,
did
not
get
in
till
a
week
later.
However,
all
were
now
there,
safe
and
sound,
and
Mr.
Field
and
Mr.
Samuel
Gurney
went
to
the
Admiralty,
and
got
an
order
which
they
telegraphed
to
the
ships
to
get
ready
immediately
to
go
to
sea.
Not
an
hour
was
lost.
They
had
barely
time
to
take
in
coal
and
other
supplies
for
the
voyage.
Mr.
Field
hastened
from
England,
and
Prof.
Thomson
from
his
home
in
Scotland,
and
in
five
days
the
squadron
was
under
way,
bound
once
more
for
the
middle
of
the
Atlantic.
It
was
Saturday,
the
seventeenth
of
July,
that
the
ships
left
on
their
second
expedition.
As
they
sailed
out
of
the
Cove
of
Cork,
it
was
with
none
of
the
enthusiasm
which
attended
their
departure
from
Valentia
the
year
before,
or
even
from
Plymouth
on
the
tenth
of
June.
Nobody
cheered;
nobody
bade
them
God-speed.
"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
they
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."
Many
even
of
those
on
board
felt
that
they
were
going
on
a
fool's
errand;
that
the
Company
was
possessed
by
a
kind
of
insanity,
of
which
they
would
soon
be
cured
by
another
bitter
experience.
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