The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

Having no more drudgery of raising money, he had now a few weeks' leisure to take a voyage up the Mediterranean. The canal across the Isthmus of Suez, which had been so long in progress, under the supervision of French engineers, was at length so far advanced that the waters of the Mediterranean were about to mingle with those of the Red Sea, and delegates were invited to be present from all parts of the world. An invitation had been sent to the Chamber of Commerce in New York, and Mr. Field, then starting for Europe, was appointed as its representative. The visit was one of extraordinary interest. The occasion brought together a number of eminent engineers from every country of Europe, in company with whom this stranger from the New World visited the most ancient of kingdoms to see the spirit of modern enterprise invading the land of the Pyramids. He returned to England about the first of May to find the work nearly completed. The cable was almost done, and a large part of it was already coiled on board the ship. This was an operation of much interest, which deserves to be described. The manufacture had begun on the first of September, and had gone on for eight months without ceasing, the works turning out fourteen miles a day even during the short days of winter. As the spring advanced, and the days grew longer, the amount was of course much increased. But by the last of January they had already accumulated about nine hundred miles of completed cable, when began the long and tedious work of transferring it to the Great Eastern. It was thus slow, because it could not be made directly from the yard to the ship. The depth of water at Greenwich was not such as to allow the Great Eastern to be brought up alongside the wharf. She was lying at Sheerness, thirty miles below, and the cable had to be put on board of lighters and taken down to where she lay in the stream. For this purpose the Admiralty had furnished to the Company two old hulks, the Iris and the Amethyst, which took their loads in turn. When the former had taken on board some two hundred and fifty tons of cable, she was towed down to the side of the Great Eastern, and the other took her place.