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378
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
·
Henry M. Field
259
But
Wednesday
brought
a
sudden
termination
of
their
hopes.
They
had
run
out
about
twelve
hundred
miles
of
cable,
and
were
now
within
six
hundred
miles
of
Newfoundland.
Two
days
more
would
have
made
them
safe,
as
it
would
have
brought
them
into
the
shallow
waters
of
the
coast.
Thus
it
was
when
least
expected
that
disaster
came.
The
record
of
that
fatal
day
may
be
given
in
few
words.
In
the
morning,
while
Mr.
Field
was
keeping
watch
in
the
tank,
with
the
same
gang
of
men
who
had
been
there
when
the
trouble
occurred
before,
a
grating
sound
was
heard,
as
if
a
piece
of
wire
had
caught
in
the
machinery,
and
word
was
passed
up
to
the
deck
to
look
out
for
it;
but
the
caution
seems
not
to
have
been
heard,
and
it
passed
over
the
stern
of
the
ship.
Soon
after
a
report
came
from
the
testing-room
of
"another
fault."
It
was
not
a
bad
one,
since
it
did
not
prevent
communication
with
land;
and
much
anxiety
might
have
been
saved
had
a
message
been
sent
to
Ireland
that
they
were
about
to
cut
the
cable,
in
order
to
haul
it
on
board.
But
small
as
the
fault
was,
it
could
not
be
left
behind.
Down
on
the
deep
sea-floor
was
some
minute
defect,
a
pin's
point
in
a
length
measured
by
thousands
of
miles.
Yet
that
was
enough.
Of
this
marvellous
product
of
human
skill,
it
might
in
truth
be
said,
that
it
was
like
the
law
of
God
in
demanding
absolute
perfection.
To
offend
in
one
point
was
to
be
guilty
of
all.
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