The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

Dr. Russell, the brilliant historian of the Expedition of 1865, was not on board the Great Eastern this year. He had left England a few weeks before for the scene of the war in Germany. His place was supplied by Mr. John C. Deane, the Secretary of the Anglo-American Company, whose "Diary of the Expedition" furnishes a faithful record of the incidents of this memorable voyage. If the story be not quite so thrilling as that of the year before, it is because it has not to tell of such fatal accidents. It has the monotony of success. A few pages from this diary, giving its most important portions, will render this narrative complete. The voyage began with good weather and every omen of success. Friday, indeed, was a day of fog and rain. At the very time they were making the splice with the shore end, the rain was pouring on the deck. But in a few hours it cleared off, and Saturday and Sunday, Mr. Field writes in his journal, "Weather fine;" and Monday, "Calm, beautiful day. Signals perfect." Owing to the improved system adopted by the chief electrician, communication with the shore was kept up even while the tests for insulation were going on.[A] Every possible precaution was taken to guard against such accidents as had marred the success of the year before. Remembering how small a thing had sufficed to puncture the cable, the men in the tank were not allowed to wear boots or shoes with nails in their heels, but were cased from head to foot in canvas dresses, drawn over their ordinary sailor costume, and, with slippers on their feet, they glided about softly as ghosts. But we turn to Mr. Deane's diary for a record of the progress from day to day: