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1
378
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
·
Henry M. Field
264
The
ship
was
now
a
dozen
miles
or
so
from
the
place
of
accident.
The
cable
had
broken
a
little
after
noon,
when
the
sun
was
shining
clear,
so
that
Captains
Anderson
and
Moriarty
had
just
obtained
a
perfect
observation,
from
which
they
could
tell,
within
half
a
mile,
the
very
spot
where
it
had
gone
down.
To
reach
it
now,
with
any
chance
of
bringing
it
up,
it
would
be
necessary
to
hook
it
a
few
miles
from
the
end.
It
had
been
paid
out
in
a
line
from
east
to
west.
To
strike
it
broadside,
the
ship
stood
off
in
the
afternoon
a
few
miles
to
the
south.
Here
the
grapnel
was
thrown
over
about
three
o'clock,
and
struck
bottom
about
five,
when
the
ship
began
slowly
drifting
back
on
her
course.
All
night
long
those
iron
fingers
were
raking
the
bottom
of
the
deep
but
grasping
nothing,
till
toward
morning
the
long
rope
quivered
like
a
fisherman's
line
when
something
has
seized
the
end,
and
the
head
of
the
Great
Eastern
began
to
sway
from
her
course,
as
if
it
felt
some
unseen
attraction.
As
they
began
to
haul
in,
the
rapidly
increasing
strain
soon
rendered
it
certain
that
they
had
got
hold
of
something.
But
what
could
it
be?
How
did
they
know
it
was
their
lost
cable?
This
question
has
often
been
asked.
They
did
not
see
it.
How
did
they
know
that
it
was
not
the
skeleton
of
a
whale,
or
a
mast
or
spar,
the
fragment
of
a
wrecked
ship?
The
question
is
easily
answered.
If
it
had
been
any
loose
object
which
was
being
drawn
up
from
the
sea,
its
weight
would
have
diminished
as
it
came
nearer
the
surface.
But
on
the
contrary,
the
strain,
as
shown
by
the
dynamometer,
steadily
increased.
This
could
only
be
from
some
object
lying
prone
on
the
bottom.
To
an
engineer
the
proof
was
like
a
mathematical
demonstration.
Another
fact
observed
by
Captain
Anderson
was
equally
decisive:
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