The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

"We could now plainly see that Heart's Content, so far as its capabilities permitted, was prepared to welcome us. The British and American flags floated from the church and telegraph station and other buildings. We had dressed ship, fired a salute, and given three cheers, and Captain Commerill of H.M.S. Terrible was soon on board to congratulate us on our success. At nine o'clock, ship's time, just as we had cut the cable and made arrangements for the Medway to lay the shore end, a message arrived giving us the concluding words of a leader in this morning's Times: 'It is a great work, a glory to our age and nation, and the men who have achieved it deserve to be honored among the benefactors of their race.'--'Treaty of peace signed between Prussia and Austria!' It was now time for the chief engineer, Mr. Canning, to make the necessary preparations for splicing on board the Medway. Accompanied by Mr. Gooch, M.P., Mr. Clifford, Mr. Willoughby Smith, and Messrs. Temple and Deane, he went on board, the Terrible and Niger having sent their paddle-box boats and cutters to assist. Shortly afterward the Great Eastern steamed into the harbor and anchored on the north-east side, and was quickly surrounded by boats laden with visitors. Mr. Cyrus Field had come on shore before the Great Eastern had left the offing, with a view of telegraphing to St. John's to hire a vessel to repair the cable unhappily broken between Cape Ray, in Newfoundland, and Cape North, in Breton Island. Before a couple of hours the shore end will be landed, and it is impossible to conceive a finer day for effecting this our final operation. Even here, people can scarcely realize the fact that the Atlantic Telegraph Cable has been laid. To-morrow, however, Heart's Content[C] will awaken to the fact that it is a highly favored place in the world's esteem, the western landing-place of that marvel of electric communication with the Eastern hemisphere, which is now happily, and we hope finally, established."