The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

CHAPTER XVI. VICTORY AT LAST. In these pages we have led our readers through twelve long years, and have had to tell many a tale of disaster and defeat. It is now our privilege to tell of triumphant success. Victory has come at last, but not by the chance of fortune, but by the utmost efforts of man, by the union of science and skill with indomitable perseverance. The failure of the last year was a sad disappointment; but so far from damping the courage of those embarked in the enterprise, it only roused them to a more gigantic effort. They were now to prepare for a fifth expedition. In this they set themselves to anticipate every possible emergency, and to combine the elements of success so as to render failure impossible. The Great Eastern herself, which they had come to regard with a kind of fondness, a feeling of affection and pride, as the ark that was to bear their fortunes across the deep, was made ready for her crowning achievement. For months Captain Anderson and Mr. Halpin, his chief officer, worked day and night to get her into perfect trim. She had become sadly fouled in her many voyages. As she swam the seas, a thousand things clung to her as to a floating island, till her hull was encrusted with mussels and barnacles two feet thick, and long seaweed flaunted from her sides. Like a brave old war-horse, long neglected, she needed a thorough grooming, to have her hair combed and her limbs well rubbed down, to fit her to take the field. But it was not an easy matter to get under the huge creature, to give her such a dressing. Yet Captain Anderson was equal to the emergency. He contrived a simple instrument by which every part of her bottom was raked and scrubbed. Getting rid of this rough, shapeless mass would make her feel easy and comfortable at sea, and add at least a knot an hour to her speed.