carefully gauged to ascertain the equality of its dimensions everywhere,
it was ready to be turned into the completed Cable. This final operation
was effected as the core was drawn up through the centre of a
horizontally revolving wheel or table. The table turned with great
rapidity, and carried near its circumference eighteen bobbins or drums.
Each of these drums was filled with a strand of bright charcoal iron
wire, and had two motions, one round its horizontal axis, and one round
an upright pivot, inserted into the revolving table, so that it
delivered its strand always towards the centre of the table as it was
carried swiftly round by the revolution. The iron strand was of the same
diameter as that which was used for the copper core. There were also
seven iron wires in each strand, exactly like those for the copper
strand. Eighteen iron strands were thus firmly twisted round the central
core, as the “closing machine” whirled. The core, acted on by the
rollers of the machinery, rose through the middle of the table, and went
up towards the ceiling. The iron strands danced round it, as it went up,
in a filmy-looking spectre-like cone, which narrowed and grew more
matter-of-fact and distinct as it ascended, until it glittered in a
compact metallic twist, tightly embracing the core. The eighteen strands
of seven-thread wire were used for this metallic envelope in place of
eighteen simple wires of the same size as the strand, because by this
means greater flexibility and strength were obtained for the weight of
material employed.
Each strand machine worked day and night, and in the twenty-four hours
spun ninety-eight miles of wire into fourteen miles of strand. There
were several strand machines at work in the factories, and these every
twenty-four hours made 2,058 miles of wire into 294 miles of strand. As
much as thirty miles of Cable were made in a single day. The entire
length of wire, copper, and iron employed in the manufacture, amounted
to 332,500 miles, enough to girdle the earth thirteen times.
As the closed Cable was completed, it was drawn out from the wall of the
factory, and passed through a cistern containing pitch and tar, and was
then coiled in broad pits in the outer yard (each layer of the coil
having been again brushed over with pitch and tar), and there remained
until embarked on board the vessel which conveyed it to its final home.
At both the Greenwich and Birkenhead works, four Cables, each three
hundred miles long, were simultaneously in process of construction.
These were finally united together into one continuous rope, as the
Cable was stowed away in the vessel which carried it to sea.
Such is a description of the Cable finally adopted, and which when
completed weighed from nineteen hundredweight to one ton per mile, and
bore a direct strain of from four to five tons without breaking.
The next question which arose for consideration was, how the Cable was
to be laid in the ocean. The Great Eastern, then known as the Leviathan,
alone could embrace it within her gigantic hold; but then the vast
fabric had never been tried. She might prove a failure, and in doing so,
involve that of a far greater and a far more important experiment.
It was then determined that the responsibility should be divided, and
the burden be entrusted to two vessels of smaller dimensions. The
British Government placed at the service of the Company the Agamemnon
line-of-battle ship, and the government of the United States of America
sent over the Niagara.
The Agamemnon was considered to be admirably adapted for receiving the
Cable, by reason of her peculiar construction; her engines being
situated near the stern, and there, being amidships a magnificent hold,
forty-five feet square and twenty feet deep between the lower deck and
the keel. In this receptacle one half of the Cable was distributed round
a central core in a compact, single, and nearly circular coil. She lay
moored off the wharf at Greenwich, and the Cable was drawn into her hold
by a small journeyman engine of twelve-horse power, the rope running
over sheaves borne aloft upon the masts of two or three barges, so
moored between the wharf and the ship as to afford intermediate support.
The Niagara, though not by construction well adapted for the Cable, was
rendered so by judicious alterations at Portsmouth. She arrived in the
Mersey on 22nd June, and was regarded with much curiosity and interest
in Liverpool, where Captain Hudson and his officers received every
attention. The Cable was coiled on board her in three weeks. Cork
Harbour was selected as the place where these vessels should rendezvous,
and make all final arrangements; from whence they were to proceed to the
completion of the task, piloted by the U.S. frigate Susquehanna and H.M.
frigate Leopard, both paddle-wheel steamers of great power.
Within the barony of Iveragh, in the county of Kerry, on an island six
miles long by two broad, lies the village of Knightstown and harbour of
Valentia, the most westerly port in Europe. It is at the southern
entrance of the open bay of Dingle towards the sea. Doulas Head on the
east, and Reenadroolan Point on the west, mark the entrance to the
narrows. It can boast of two forts erected by Cromwell. The
Skelligs--two picturesque and rugged pinnacles of slate--pierce the
surface of the sea about eight miles S.W. of the harbour; and one of
these, the “Great Skellig,” crowned with a light-house, towers to a
height of 700 feet.
It was decided by the Company that the Niagara should land the shore end
in Valentia, and pay it out till her cargo was exhausted mid-way, where
the Agamemnon was to take up the tale and carry it on to Newfoundland.
The time best adapted for depositing the Cable in the ocean was
determined after much thought and deliberation. The result of Lieutenant
Maury’s observations was, that in the months of June and July the risk
of storms is very small, unless immediately on the coast of Ireland,
while the records of the Meteorological Departments, both in England and
America, showed that for fifty years no great storm had taken place at
that period. It was finally arranged to adopt Lieutenant Maury’s views,
“that between the 20th July and the 10th of August both sea and air were
in the most favourable condition for laying down the Cable,” and that
the vessels should be dispatched so as to reach the rendezvous in
mid-ocean, where the Cable was to be spliced, as soon after the 20th of
July as possible. It had been ascertained that the distance over which
the Cable was to be laid was 1,834 miles, but 600 additional miles of
Cable were provided, being an allowance of 33 per cent. of “slack.”
Arrangements had been made that when the vessels joined company off Cork
the entire length of the Cable should be temporarily joined up for the
purpose of being tested through its entire length, as also to allow of
some experiments being made to prove the efficiency of the signalling
apparatus. The Cable was arranged so as to come up from the hold of the
ship sweeping round a central block or core planted in the midst, to
prevent any interference of the unrolling strands with one another, or
too sudden turns, which might twist the Cable into kinks; having reached
the open space above the deck, it was to be wound out and in, round four
grooved sheaves, geared together by cogs, and planted so firmly on
girders as to render it impossible that they should be thrown out of the
square. From sheaves accurately grooved the Cable proceeded three or
four feet above the poop-deck, until it passed over a fifth grooved
sheave standing out upon rigid arms over the stern. From this it would
make its plunge into the deep still sea, and as the vessel moved away to
be dragged out by its own weight, and by the hold which it would have
acquired upon the bottom of the sea. The paying-out sheaves were large
grooved drums, five feet in diameter, and set in a vertical plane, one
directly before the other, and having a friction drum geared to them in
such a way that its shaft revolved three times as fast as theirs, the
axis of the drum being encircled by two blocks of hard wood, which could
be gripped close upon its circumference by screw power, so as either to
retard or arrest altogether the movement of the sheaves. The screw was
worked by a crank, at which a trustworthy officer was stationed, to keep
a wary eye upon an indicator near to express the exact amount of strain
thrown upon the Cable at each instant. In the electrician’s department
there were to be signals every second by electrical currents passing
through the entire length of the Cable, from shore-end, or from ship to
ship. At the side of the vessels patent logs hung down into the water,
to measure the velocity of the ship. One of these wheels, in the
immersed log, was arranged to make and break an electric circuit at
every revolution, a gutta percha covered wire running up from the
revolving wheel on to the deck of the ship, that it might carry the
current whenever the circuit was made, and record there, upon a piece of
apparatus provided for the purpose, the speed of the vessel. The
brakesman was to watch the tell-tale which would indicate the strain on
the rope, and work his crank and loosen his grip whenever this seemed
to be too great; or tighten his grip if ever the bell ceased to report
that the electrical way from end to end of the Cable was free and
unimpaired. An external guard had been placed over the screws of the
vessels to defend the Cable from fouling in case any necessity should
arise for backing the vessels. The Agamemnon had been jury-rigged for
the service, her heavy masts and rigging removed, and lighter ropes and
spars substituted. In the event of sudden and unforeseen storm,
arrangements had been made to slip the Cable. On the decks of the
paying-out vessels two large reels were placed, each wound round with
two and a-half miles of a very strong auxiliary Cable composed of
iron-wire only, and capable of resisting a strain of ten to twelve tons.
Should the Telegraph Cable be endangered it would be divided, and the
sea end attached to one of the strong supernumerary cords stored upon
the reel; this being rapidly let out, would place the Cable in a depth
of ocean where its safety would be secured until all danger had passed.
In fine, every possible contrivance that ingenuity could devise or
scientific knowledge could suggest, according to the experience then
attained, had been adopted in order to secure success. Those who had
toiled so long with wearied brain and anxious heart, undismayed by
difficulties--not disheartened by failure, hoping when hope seemed
presumptuous, but not despairing even when despair seemed wisdom, now
felt that their part had been accomplished, that the means of securing
the result had now passed beyond man’s control, and rested solely with a
Higher Power.
On the 29th of July, 1857, the U.S.N. frigate Niagara arrived at
Queenstown, having been preceded by H.M.S. Leopard and H.M.S. Cyclops,
which latter steamer had taken the soundings of the intended bed of the
Cable. The Niagara was accompanied by the U.S.N.S. Susquehanna, to act
as her convoy. H.M.S. Agamemnon had already arrived.
The Earl of Carlisle, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, ever anxious to give
such encouragement as his presence could afford to any undertaking which
promised to do good, came down from Dublin to Valentia, and attended a
_déjeuner_ given by the Knight of Kerry to celebrate an event in which
the keenest interest was evinced, although the heart of the country was
thrilled by the dreadful intelligence of Indian mutinies and revolt. The
country people flocked to the little island, and expressed their joy by
merrymakings, dances, and bonfires. In an eloquent speech Lord Carlisle
declared that though disappointment might be in store for the promoters,
it would be almost criminal to feel discouragement then--“that the
pathway to great achievements has frequently to be hewn out amidst
perils and difficulties, and that preliminary failure is ever the law
and condition of ultimate success.” These were prophetic words; in
others, still to be fulfilled, “Let us hope,” he said. “We are about,
either by this sun-down or by to-morrow’s dawn, to establish a new
material link between the Old World and the New. Moral links there have
been--links of race, links of commerce, links of friendship, links of
literature, links of glory; but this, our new link, instead of
superseding and supplanting the old ones, is to give them a life and
intensity they never had before. The link which is now to connect us,
like the insect in a couplet of our poet,
‘While exquisitely fine,
Feels at each thread and moves along the line.’”
If anything could overcome the tendency of men to vaticinate, it surely
would be the sad history of the last few years in the United States. The
condition of affairs in that lamentable period is illustrated by another
passage of his lordship’s speech, which also points out the inestimable
value of the telegraph as a conservator of peace. “We may as we take our
stand here on the extremest rocky side of our beloved Ireland, leave, as
it were, behind us the wars, the strifes, and the bloodshed of the older
Europe, and pledge ourselves, weak as our agency may be, imperfect as
our powers may be, inadequate in strict diplomatic form as our
credentials may be; yet, in the face of the unparalleled circumstances
of the place and the hour, in the immediate neighbourhood of the mighty
vessels whose appearance may be beautiful upon the waters, even as are
the feet upon mountains of those who preach the Gospel of peace--as a
homage due to that serene science which often affords higher and holier
lessons of harmony and goodwill than the wayward passions of man are
always apt to learn--in the face and in the strength of such
circumstances, let us pledge ourselves to eternal peace between the Old
World and the New. Why, gentlemen, what excuse would there be for
misunderstanding? What justification could there be for war, when the
disarming message, when the full explanation, when the genial and
healing counsel may be wafted even across the mighty Atlantic, quicker
than the sunbeam’s path and the lightning’s flash?” At that moment Great
Britain was just disengaged from a war with Russia and a war with
Persia, and was actively engaged in a war with China, and with mutinies
in India. France was preparing to deal Austria a deadly blow; America
looked pityingly across the Atlantic, and wondered at our folly and our
crimes.
On August the 5th, 1857, the shore end of the Cable was secured in the
little cove selected for the purpose in Valentia, on the cliffs above
which a telegraphic station had been erected, and was hauled up amidst
the greatest enthusiasm, Lord Carlisle participating in the joy and the
labour.
On the evening of Friday, August 7th, the squadron sailed, and the
Niagara commenced paying out the Cable very slowly. About four miles of
the shore Cable had been payed out, when it became entangled with the
machinery, by the carelessness of one of the men in charge, and broke;
all hands were engaged in trying to underrun and join the Cable, but it
was too rough, and the Niagara came to anchor for the night. Next day a
splice was mode, the ship resumed her course, and at noon on Sunday,
August 9th, 95 miles had been payed out. The paying-out gear proved to
be defective in the course of the 10th. On the evening of Tuesday, the
11th, all signals suddenly ceased. The Cable had broken in 2000 fathoms
of water, when about 330 nautical miles were laid, at a distance of 280
miles from Valentia. At the time the ship was going from three to four
knots, and was able to pay out 5 to 5¾ miles per hour, the pressure
shown by the indicator being 3000lb., but the strain being no doubt much
greater.
This loss proved fatal to the first attempt to lay the Atlantic Cable,
as on consultation among the officers and engineers it appeared to be
unwise to renew the attempt with only 1,847 miles on board the ships, or
an excess of 12 per cent. on the quantity required by the whole
distance.
Nothing daunted by the failure, Mr. Field started off at once in H.M.S.
Cyclops for England, and, on his arrival, urged the immediate renewal of
the enterprise; but it was resolved by the directors in London to
postpone it to the following year. An addition to the capital of the
Company was proposed and agreed to. The greater part of the autumn was
devoted to preparations for the renewed efforts of the Company. The part
of the Cable which was left was landed at Keyham, 53 miles of the
shore-end were recovered, and the Company again applied to the British
and American Governments for the services of the same vessels which had
been previously lent to them. Messrs. Glass, Elliot, & Co., were
entrusted by the directors of The Atlantic Telegraph Company to
manufacture a further length of 900 miles, to replace that which was
lost or damaged, thus making a total of 3,012 miles of Cable, so as to
guard against accidents by giving an allowance of 40 per cent. of slack.
The paying-out apparatus was also improved, so that the engineer in
charge alone should control the egress of the Cable, instead of using
the hand-wheel, which, upon the former occasion, had caused much danger
in rough weather.
The manufacturers of the machinery were Messrs. Easton & Amos, of
Southwark, under the superintendence of Mr. Penn, Mr. Field, Mr. Lloyd,
Mr. Everett, and Mr. Bright.
The important part of the apparatus consisted of Appold’s
self-regulating brake, so adjusted and constructed as always to exert a
certain amount of resistance, regulated by the revolution of the wheels
to which it was applied. More than this fixed amount of resistance,
whatever it might be, it could not produce, no matter whether the
machine was hot or dry, or covered with sand; neither could it be worked
at less than this amount. It was made of bars of wood laid lengthwise
across the edge of the wheel, over which it lapped down firmly, and to
which it was held with massive weights fixed to the ends of levers,
which regulated the degree of resistance to the revolutions of the
wheel, and which, of course, enabled those in charge of the machine to
fix the pressure of the brake. In the new apparatus the brake was
attached over two drums connected with the two main grooved wheels,
round which the actual Cable passed in running out. The latter were
simply broad, solid, iron wheels, each cut with four very deep grooves
in which the Cable rested, to prevent it flying up or “overriding.” It
passed over these two main wheels, not in a double figure of eight, as
in the old ponderous machine of four wheels, but simply wound over one,
to and round the other, and so on four times, till it was finally payed
down into the water. Thus, the wire was wound up from the hold of the
vessel, passed four times over the double main wheels, connected with
the brake or friction drums, past the register which indicated the rate
of paying out and the strain upon the Cable, and then ran at once into
the deep. The strain at which the Cable would break was 62 cwt., and to
guard against any chance of mishap, not more than half this strain was
put upon it. The brakes, as a rule, were fixed to give a strain of about
16 cwt., and the force required to keep the machine going, or about 8
cwt. more, was the utmost that was allowed to come upon the wire.
The brake of the paying-out machine used on the occasion of the first
attempt was capable, by a movement of the hand, of exerting prodigious
resistance. In the new machine any one could in a moment ease it, until
there was no resistance at all beyond the 8 cwt. strain on the wire.
At a few feet from the paying-out machine, the Cable passed over a
wheel, which registered precisely the strain in pounds at which the coil
was running out. Facing this register was a steering wheel, similar to
that of an ordinary vessel, and connected in the same way with compound
levers, which acted upon the brake. The officer in charge of the
apparatus stood by this wheel, and watched the register of strain or
pitch of the vessel, opening the brakes by the slightest movement of his
hand, and letting the Cable run freely as the stern rose. The same
officer, however, could not by any possible method increase the actual
strain on the Cable, which remained always according to the friction at
which the brake was at first adjusted by the engineer.
All was ready for the expedition before the time indicated, and the
directors and the public looked with confidence to the result. Instead
of landing a shore-end at Valentia, and making a junction of the Cable,
it was decided that the ships should proceed together to a point midway
between Trinity Bay and Valentia, there splice the Cable, and then turn
their bows east and west, and proceed to their destinations.
On Thursday, the 10th of June, 1858, H.M.S. Agamemnon and U.S.N.S.
Niagara, accompanied by H.M.S. Valorous and H.M.S. Gorgon, left
Plymouth, the two former having previously made an experimental cruise
in the Channel with the Cables, which were very satisfactory, in all
respects.
Experienced mariners gazed with apprehension at their depth in water as
they left the shore. It was, however, such glorious weather as to cause
some anxiety lest there should be no wind, and that the stock of coals
might be exhausted before their mission was accomplished. Before
midnight, however, a gradually increasing gale gathered to a storm,
while the barometer marked 29°. For seven consecutive days the tempest,
so eloquently described by Mr. Woods in the _Times_, continued, the
Agamemnon under close-reefed topsails striving to reach the rendezvous,
Lat. 52° 2´, Long. 33° 18´, rolling 45 degrees, and labouring fearfully.
On the 19th and 20th the gale reached its height. The position of the
ship, carrying 2,840 tons of dead-weight, badly stowed, had become most
critical, from her violent lurching as she sunk into the troughs of the
sea, and struggled violently to right herself--the coal bunkers gave
way, and caused alarm and confusion. Were the masts to yield, the ship
would rock still more violently, the Cable would shift, and carry every
one with it to destruction. Captain Preedy had but two courses open in
order to save the ship without sacrificing the Cable--either was fraught
with peril--to wear the ship, or to run before the gale and risk the
chances of being pooped by the monster seas in pursuit.
On the 21st the Agamemnon was enabled to bear up for the rendezvous in
mid-ocean, which she reached on the 25th, after sixteen days of danger
and apprehension, her companion, the Niagara, having passed through the
dreadful ordeal with less danger and difficulty.
At half-past two o’clock on the 26th, the Agamemnon and Niagara first
spliced the Cable; it however became foul of the scraper on the latter
ship, and broke. A second splice was immediately made, and the vessels
started. The Agamemnon had paid out 37½ miles, when suddenly the
continuity of the electric current ceased, and the electricians declared
that the Cable had broken at the bottom. As the Niagara was hauling in
the Cable, of which she had payed out 43 miles, it snapped close to the
ship.
On the 28th, the third and final splice was effected. The Niagara
started N.W. ¾ N. At 4 p.m. on the 29th, when 111 miles had been paid
out, the electricians on board reported that continuity had ceased. The
cause was soon known. The Agamemnon had run 118 miles, and paid out 146
miles of Cable, when the upper deck coil became exhausted. Speed was
slackened, in order to shift the Cable to the lower deck, when suddenly
it snapped, without any perceptible cause, under a strain of only 2200
pounds. The weather was calm; the speed moderate--about five knots; the
strain one-third less than breaking strain; everything favourable; and
yet the Cable parted, silently and suddenly. The Niagara had to cut the
Cable, as she had no means of recovering the portion payed out, and lost
144 miles of it.
On the 12th July, the Agamemnon, after an eventful cruise of
thirty-three days, reached Queenstown, having left the rendezvous on the
6th, whither she had gone in the hope of meeting the Niagara. A special
meeting of the Company was called, and the expedition was ordered to go
to sea. There was still quite sufficient Cable remaining, and it was
determined to make another attempt immediately. The way in which the
Cable parted on the third occasion was the only thing calculated to
create doubt and apprehension. The two other breakages might be
accounted for, and guarded against for the future, but there was
something in the latter not so easy of explanation, and which seemed to
point to some mysterious agency existing in the depths of the ocean,
beyond the perception of science or man’s control.