The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

At half-past eleven we informed her that when at the buoy off Heart's Content she should have her paddle-box boat and two cutters ready to be alongside immediately, for holding the bight of the cable during the splice and laying the shore end. The Medway was told at the same time to prepare two five-inch ropes, and two large mushroom anchors, with fifty fathoms of chain, for anchoring during the splice in one hundred and seventy fathoms of water, and we intimated to her that when inside of Trinity Bay we should signal for two boats to take hands on board her for shore end. News of to-day, telegram from Mr. Glass in reply to one from Mr. Canning: I congratulate you all most sincerely on your arrival in one hundred and thirty fathoms. I hope nothing will interfere to mar the hitherto brilliant success, and that the cable will be landed to-morrow.'" As the voyage is about to end, we give the distances run from day to day, which show a remarkable uniformity of progress: Distance Run. Cable Paid Out. Saturday, fourteenth, 108 115 Sunday, fifteenth, 128 139 Monday, sixteenth, 115 137 Tuesday, seventeenth, 117 138 Wednesday, eighteenth, 104 125 Thursday, nineteenth, 112 129 Friday, twentieth, 117 127 Saturday, twenty-first, 121 136 Sunday, twenty-second, 123 133 Monday, twenty-third, 121 138 Tuesday, twenty-fourth, 120 135 Wednesday, twenty-fifth, 119 130 Thursday, twenty-sixth, 128 134 Friday, twenty-seventh. 100 104 From this it appears that the speed of the ship was exactly according to the running time fixed before she left England. On the last voyage it was thought that she had once or twice run too fast, and thus exposed the cable to danger. It was, therefore, decided to go slowly but surely. Holding her back to this moderate pace, her average speed, from the time the splice was made till they saw land, was a little less than five nautical miles an hour, while the cable was paid out at an average of not quite five and a half miles. Thus the total slack was about eleven per cent, showing that the cable was laid almost in a straight line, allowing for the swells and hollows in the bottom of the sea.