The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

To get some light in his perplexity, Mr. Field, the very next morning after his interview with Gisborne, wrote two letters, one to Lieutenant Maury, then at the head of the National Observatory at Washington, on the nautical difficulties of the undertaking, asking if the sea were itself a barrier too great to be overcome; and the other to Professor Morse, inquiring if it would be possible to telegraph over a distance so great as that from Europe to America? The mail soon brought an answer from Lieutenant Maury, which began: "Singularly enough, just as I received your letter, I was closing one to the Secretary of the Navy on the same subject." A copy of this he inclosed to Mr. Field, and it is given here. It shows the conclusions at which, even at that early day, scientific men were beginning to arrive: "National Observatory, Washington, February 22, 1854. "Sir: The United States brig Dolphin, Lieutenant Commanding O. H. Berryman, was employed last summer upon especial service connected with the researches that are carried on at this office concerning the winds and currents of the sea. Her observations were confined principally to that part of the ocean which the merchantmen, as they pass to and fro upon the business of trade between Europe and the United States, use as their great thoroughfare. Lieutenant Berryman availed himself of this opportunity to carry along also a line of deep-sea soundings, from the shores of Newfoundland to those of Ireland. The result is highly interesting, in so far as the bottom of the sea is concerned, upon the question of a submarine telegraph across the Atlantic; and I therefore beg leave to make it the subject of a special report.