The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

As the work approached completion, public interest revived in the stupendous undertaking, and crowds of wonder-seekers came down from London to see the preparations for the expedition. Even if not admitted on board, they found a satisfaction in sailing round the great ship, in whose mighty bosom was coiled this huge sea-serpent. It had also many distinguished visitors. Among others, the Prince of Wales came to see the ocean girdle which was to link the British islands with his future dominions beyond the sea. At length, on the twenty-ninth of May, almost the last day of Spring, the manufacture of the cable was finished. The machines which for eight months had been in a constant whirl, made their last round. The tinkling of a bell announced that the machinery was empty, and the mighty work stood completed. It only remained that it should be got on board, and the ship prepared for her voyage. Hundreds of busy hands were at work without ceasing, and yet it was six weeks before she was ready to put to sea. It may well be believed that it was no small affair to equip such an expedition. Beside the enormous burden of the cable itself, the Great Eastern had to take on board seven or eight thousand tons of coal, enough for a fleet, to feed her fires. Then she carried about five hundred men, for whom she had to make provision during the weeks they might be at sea. The stores laid in were enough for a small army. Standing on the wheel-house, and looking down, one might fancy himself in some large farm-yard of England. There stood the motherly cow that was to give them milk; and a dozen oxen, and twenty pigs, and a hundred and twenty sheep, while whole flocks of ducks and geese, and fowls of every kind, cackled as in a poultry-yard. Beside all this live stock, hundreds of barrels of provisions, of meats and fruits, were stored in the well-stocked larder below. Thus laden for her voyage, the Great Eastern had in her a weight, including her own machinery, of twenty-one thousand tons--a burden almost as great as could have been carried by the whole fleet with which Nelson fought the battle of Trafalgar.