The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

But while these festivities were kept up on shore, hard work was done on board the ship. To coil thirteen hundred miles of cable was an immense undertaking. Yet it was all done by the sailors themselves. No compulsion was used, and none was needed. No sooner was there a call for volunteers, than men stepped forward in greater numbers than could be employed. Out of these were chosen one hundred and twenty stalwart fellows, who were divided into two gangs of sixty men, and each gang into watches of thirty, which relieved each other, and all went to work with such enthusiasm, that in three weeks the herculean task was completed. The event was celebrated by a final dinner given by the shareholders of the Atlantic Telegraph Company in Liverpool to Captain Hudson and Captain Sands of the Susquehanna, whose arrival in the Mersey enabled them to extend their hospitalities to the officers of both ships. While the Niagara was thus doing her part, the same scene was repeated on board the Agamemnon, which was still lying in the Thames. There the work was completed about the same day, and the occasion duly honored by a scene as unique as it was beautiful. Says the London Times of July twenty-fourth: