|+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
| C. V. de Sauty | Chief. |
| H. Saunders | Electrician to the Malta and Alexandria Telegraph. |
| Willoughby Smith | Electrician to the Gutta Percha Company. |
| W. W. Biddulph | Assistant Electrician. |
| H. Donovan | Do. |
| O. Smith | Do. |
| J. Clark | Do. |
| J. T. Smith | Instrument Clerk from Malta and Alexandria Telegraph.|
| J. Gott | Do. Do. Do. |
| L. Schaefer | Mechanician. |
|+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
_The Staff at Valentia was composed of_
|++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
| J. May | Superintendent. |
| T. Brown | Assistant Electrician. |
| W. Crocker | Do. |
| G. Stevenson | Instrument Clerk from Malta and Alexandria Telegraph. |
| E. George | Do. Do. Do. |
| H. Fisher | Do. Do. Do. |
|++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
All the arrangements at Valentia were under the direction of Mr. Glass.
Mr. Varley, chief electrician to the Atlantic Telegraph Company, was
appointed to report on the laying of the Cable, and to see that the
conditions of the contract were complied with. Associated with him was
Professor W. Thomson, LL.D., F.R.S., of Glasgow. His staff was composed
of Mr. Deacon, Mr. Medley, Mr. Trippe, and Mr. Perry.
Several young gentlemen interested in engineering and science were
accommodated with a passage on board.
At noon on July 15th the Great Eastern, in charge of Mr. Moore, Trinity
pilot, drawing 34 ft. 4 in. forward, and 28 ft. 6 in. aft, got up her
anchor, and at midnight on July 16th was off the Lizard. On Monday,
17th, she came up with the screw steamer Caroline, freighted with 27
miles of the Irish shore end of the Cable, weighing 540 tons, and took
her in tow. Then a gale set in, which gave occasion to the Great Eastern
to show her fine qualities as a sea-boat when properly handled. Even
those who were most prejudiced or most diffident, admitted that on that
score no vessel could behave better. This trial gave every one, from
Captain Anderson down, additional reason to be satisfied with the
fitness of the great ship for the task on which she was engaged. Next
day, Tuesday, July 18th, she encountered off the Irish coast a strong
gale with high westerly sea, through which she ran at the rate of six
knots an hour. The Caroline, which rolled so heavily and pitched so
vigorously as to excite serious apprehensions, broke the tow rope in the
course of the day, and ran for Valentia harbour, where she arrived
safely, piloted by the Great Eastern; and the Great Eastern, passing
inside the Skelligs, stood in close to Valentia Lighthouse, and sent a
boat ashore to communicate. H.M.S. Terrible, Captain Napier, and H.M.S.
Sphinx, Captain V. Hamilton, were visible in the offing, having sailed
at the end of the previous week from Queenstown for the rendezvous,
outside Valentia. Captain Anderson having fired a gun to announce his
arrival, steamed for Berehaven, in Bantry Bay, and anchored inside the
island on Wednesday morning, July 19th, in 17 fathoms. Here the Great
Eastern lay, preparing for her great errand--perhaps, as it may prove,
her exclusive “mission,”--on Thursday, 20th, Friday, 21st, and Saturday,
22nd July, whilst the Caroline was landing the shore end of the Cable in
Foilhummerum Bay in Valentia. During her stay in Bantry Bay, many
visitors, high and low, came on board the Great Ship, but it was
believed all over the country that she was going to Foilhummerum. The
greater portion of those anxious to see her made the best of their way
to that secluded spot, to which there was once more attached an interest
of a civilised character; for, if country legends be true, there must
have been some regard paid to Foilhummerum Bay by no less a person than
Oliver Cromwell, testified yet by the grey walls of a ruined fort, and
traces of a moat and outer wall, on the greensward above the point which
forms the northern entrance to the lonely bay. This crisp greensward,
glistening with salt, lies in a thin crust over the cliffs, which rise
sheerly from the sea some three or four hundred feet; and for what
Oliver Cromwell or any one else could have erected a fortalice thereon,
may well baffle conjecture, unless the builder, having a far-reaching
mind, saw the importance of watching the most westerly portion of
Europe, or anticipated the day when Valentia would be recognised as one
of the landmarks created by the necessities of commercial and social
existence. Taking advantage of the shelter afforded by a gradual descent
inland of the soil, a few cabins have been placed by the
natives--half-fishermen, half-husbandmen--Archytas-like, spanning land
and sea, and making but poor subsistence from their efforts on both. The
little bay, which is not much above a mile in length, contracts from a
breadth of half so much, into a watery _cul-de-sac_, terminated by steep
banks of shale, earth, and high cliff, furrowed by watercourses; and on
the southernmost side it is locked in by the projecting ledges of rock
forming the northern entrance to the Port Magee channel. It is so
guarded from wind and sea, that on one side only is it open to their
united action, but as the entrance looks nearly west, the full roll of
the Atlantic may break in upon it when the wind is from that point; and
indeed there is not wanting evidence that the wild ocean swell must
tumble in there with frightful violence. Jagged fragments of masts and
spars are wedged into the rocks immovably by the waves, and the cliffs
are gnawed out by the restless teeth of the hungry water into deep
caves. But then a sea from that point would run parallel with the line
of the Cable, and would sweep along with and not athwart its course, so
that the strands would not be driven to and fro and ground out against
the bottom. Except for a couple of hundred feet near the shore at the
top of this cove, indeed, the bottom is sandy, and the rocks inside the
sand line were calculated to form a protection to the Cable, once
deposited, as the greater part of its course lay through a channel which
had been cleared of the boulders with the intention of rolling them
back again at low water, to cover in the shore end. Lieutenant White,
and the hardy and hard-working sailors of the Coastguard Station at
Valentia, had been indefatigable in sounding and buoying out a channel
from the beach clear out to sea, within which the Caroline was to drop
the Cable. A few yards back from the cliff, at the head of the cove, the
temporary Telegraph Station reared its proportions in imitation of a
dwarf Brompton boiler--a building of wood much beslavered with tar and
pitch, of exceeding plainness, and let us hope of corresponding utility.
Inside were many of the adjuncts of comfort, not to speak of telegraphic
luxury, galvanometers, wires, batteries, magnets, Siemens’s and B. A.
unit cases, and the like, as well as properties which gave the place a
false air of campaigning. A passage led from end to end, with rooms for
living and sleeping in to the right and left, and an instrument room at
the far extremity. Here, on a narrow platform, were the signal and
speaking apparatus connected with the wires from the end of the Cable,
which was secured inside the house. Outside the wires were carried by
posts in the ordinary way to the station at Valentia, whence they were
conveyed to Killarney, and placed in communication with the general
Telegraphic system over the world. The Telegraphic staff and operators
were lodged in primitive apartments like the sections of a Crimean hut,
and did not possess any large personal facility for enjoying social
intercourse with the outer world, although so much intelligence passed
through their fingers. But Foilhummerum may in time become a place with
something more real than a future. If vessels from the westward do not
like to make their number outside, there is nothing to prevent their
running into Valentia for the purpose, at all events. On the plateau
between the station and the cliff, day after day hundreds of the country
people assembled, and remained watching with exemplary patience for the
Big Ship. They came from the mainland across Port Magee, or flocked in
all kinds of boats from points along the coast, dressed in their best,
and inclined to make the most of their holiday, and a few yachts came
round from Cork and Bantry with less rustic visitors. Tents were soon
improvised by the aid of sails, some cloths of canvas, and oars and
boathooks, inside which bucolic refreshment could be obtained. Mighty
pots of potatoes seethed over peat fires outside, and the reek from
within came forth strongly suggestive of whisky and bacon. Flags
fluttered--the Irish green, with harp, crown surmounted; Fitzgerald,
green with its blazon of knight on horse rampant, and motto of “Malahar
aboo”--faint suspicion of Stars and Stripes and Union Jack, and one
temperance banner, audaciously mendacious, as it flaunted over John
Barleycorn. Nor was music wanting. The fiddler and the piper had found
out the island and the festive spot, and seated on a bank, played
planxty and jig to a couple or two in the very limited circle formed in
the soft earth by plastic feet or ponderous shoemasonry, around which,
sitting and standing, was a dense crowd of spell-bound, delighted
spectators. In the bay below danced the light canvas-covered canoe or
coracle in which the native fishermen will face the mountain billows of
the Atlantic when no other boat will venture forth; and large yawls
filled with country people passed to and fro, and the bright groupings
of colour formed on the cliffs and on the waters by the red, scarlet,
and green shawls of the women and girls, lighted up the scene
wonderfully.
[Illustration: T. Picken, lith from a drawing by R. Dudley
London, Day & Sons, Limited, Lith.
FOILHUMMERUM BAY, VALENCIA, LOOKING SEAWARDS FROM THE POINT AT WHICH THE
CABLE REACHES THE SHORE.]
[Illustration: T. Picken, lith from a drawing by R. Dudley London, Day &
Sons, Limited, Lith.
THE CLIFFS FOILHUMMERUM BAY, POINT OF THE LANDING OF THE SHORE END OF
CABLE JULY 22ND.]
It would be gratifying if in such a primitive spot one could shut his
eyes to the painful evidence that the vices of civilisation--if they be
so--had crept in and lapt the souls of the people in dangerous
pleasures. But it could not be denied that the spirit of gambling and
gourmandise were there. Seated in a ditch, with a board on their knees,
four men were playing “Spoil Five” with cards, for discrimination of
which a special gift must have been required; but they were as silent,
eager, and grave, as though they had been Union or Portland champions
contesting last trick and rub. Near them was one who summoned mankind to
tempt capricious Fortune by means of an iron skewer, rotating an axis
above a piece of tarpaulin stretched on a rude table, which was
enlivened by rays of vivid colour. At the end of each ray was an object
of art--the guerdon of success--an old penknife, brass tobacco-box,
tooth-comb, thimble, wooden nutmeg, or the like. A very scarecrow
professor of legerdemain and knavery hid his pea, and challenged
detection, and divided public attention with a wizard who presided over
a wooden circle with a spinning needle in the centre to point to radii,
at end of which were copper moneys deposited by the adventurers, who
generally saw them whisked off into the magician’s grimy pocket. An
ancient woman, spinning, and guarding a basket of most atrabilious
confectionery, and a stall garnished with buttons and gingerbread,
completed the attractions of Foilhummerum during this festive time.
The matter of wonder was, what the people flocked to see, for it must
soon have been known the Great Eastern was not there. The Hawk and the
Caroline, as they went into Valentia, did duty successfully for the Big
Ship, and the steam-yacht Alexandra, belonging to the Dublin Ballast
Board, and H.M. tender Advice, created a sensation as they appeared in
the offing on their way to the same rendezvous. All that related to the
Cable and the laying of it possessed the utmost interest for the country
people, simply because the Cable went westwards across the ocean to the
home of their hopes. Many of the poor people believed that it would
facilitate communications with their friends in the land to which their
thoughts are for ever tending, remembering perhaps the words of Lord
Carlisle when he told them of the advantages the Telegraphic Cable would
confer upon them.
The village of Knightstown witnessed an unusual influx of visitors, and
those whom the hospitable roof of Glenleam could not stretch its willing
eaves over, found something more than shelter in the inn and in the
comfortable houses which acted as its succursales on the occasion. But
there was in the midst of all the pleasurable excitement of the moment a
tinge of dissatisfaction, because the people had persuaded themselves
that if they were not to see the Great Eastern in the harbour, they
would at least have H.M.S.S. Terrible and Sphinx, and the satellites of
the Leviathan in their anchorage, and all they beheld of the men of war
was their smoke and faint outlines on the distant horizon.
The Terrible and Sphinx might have coaled in Valentia, and waited there
for the arrival of the Great Eastern, of which they could have heard by
telegraph, instead of towing colliers to Cork and going into Berehaven,
where there is no telegraph. Now, as to this harbour, let it be admitted
at once that its entrance is only 180 yards broad. But the “Narrows” of
Valentia Harbour is like a very short neck to a bottle, and after less
than a ship’s length, the channel enlarges sufficiently to allow several
vessels to sail abreast in water which is never rough enough to prevent
the passage of boats to Begennis or Renard Point. Indeed, Capt. Wolfe’s
report to the Hydrographer to the Admiralty expresses an opinion that
the Needles’ passage is more intricate and dangerous. The Skelligs on
one side and the Blasketts on the other mark the approach very
distinctly. Inside, there is 600 acres, or more than a square mile, of
harbour, with good holding ground, having a maximum of six furlongs and
a minimum of three furlongs water.
The disappointment caused by the cautious indifference of the Terrible
and Sphinx to the advantages of lying snugly inside Valentia Harbour was
felt acutely. The Knight of Kerry, who has taken such an interest in the
undertaking, and all the inhabitants, regarded it as a mark of distrust
in the safety of the anchorage and in the facility of access to it,
which was without any justification, and some ascribed it to less
creditable influences and objects; but no one could believe that the
officers in command of the ships kept out at sea in such weather,
wearying the crews and wasting coals, without direct orders, or that
they would hesitate to run in, if left to themselves, as soon as it was
evident the point of rendezvous ten miles from shore was not intended as
a permanent station. The harbour had been visited by H.M.S.S. Stromboli,
Hecate, Leopard, Cyclops, the U.S. frigate Susquehanna, and many large
merchantmen, including the Carrier Dove, a vessel of 2,400 tons.
On July 19th a channel was made down the cliff to the beach for the
shore end of the Cable, which was carried down in an outer case through
a culvert of masonry, and deposited in a cut made as far into the sea as
the state of the tide would admit. On the 21st an “earth” Cable, with a
zinc earth, on Mr. Varley’s plan, was carried out into the bay from the
station, and safely deposited outside the channel marked for the Cable.
The Caroline went round from Valentia to Foilhummerum, and on July 22nd
the shore end of the Cable was carried from her over a bridge formed of
twenty-five yawls belonging to the district, amid great cheering, and
hauled up the cliffs to the station. The safe arrival of the terminal
wire in the building, in the presence of a large assemblage, took place
at 12·45, Greenwich time, and as the day was fine, the scene, to which
the fleet of boats in the bay gave unusual animation, was witnessed to
the greatest advantage.
When the excitement caused by the landing of the Cable was abated, the
Knight of Kerry was called on to speak to the people assembled outside
the Instrument Room, and said:--“I feel that in the presence of so many
who have taken an active and a useful part in this undertaking, it may
seem almost presumptuous in me to open my mouth on this occasion; but
from the very beginning I have felt an interest which I am sure the
humblest person here has also felt in the success of this the greatest
undertaking of modern times. I believe there never has been an
undertaking in which, not to speak disparagingly of the commercial
spirit and the great resources and strength of the land, that valuable
spirit has been mixed up with so much that is of a higher nature,
combining all the most noble sentiments of our minds, and the feelings
intended for the most beneficial purpose, which are calculated to cement
one great universe, I may say, with another. I do not think we should be
quite silent when such an undertaking has been inaugurated. It has been
discussed whether this ceremony should be opened with a prayer or not.
Whether that shall be done or not, I am sure there is not a person
present who does not feel the utmost thankfulness to the Giver of all
Good for having enabled those who have taken an active part in it to
bring this great undertaking to what I am sure will have a happy issue.
I do not think anything could be fitly added to the sentiment of the
first message which was conveyed, namely--‘Glory to God in the highest,
on earth peace, good will toward men.’ I shall not detain you with
another word, but will only ask you all to give the heartiest cheers for
the success of the undertaking. I will also take the liberty of asking
you, when you have done that, to give three cheers for a gentleman who
has come here at great inconvenience, and has done us very great honour
in doing so, and who deserves them, not only from his position and
character, but also from the interest which he has always shown in this
undertaking. I call upon you to give three hearty cheers for Sir Robert
Peel.”
[Illustration: G. McCulloch, lith from a drawing by R. Dudley London,
Day & Sons, Limited, Lith.
FOILHUMMERUM BAY, VALENCIA FROM “CROMWELL FORT” THE CAROLINE AND BOATS
LAYING THE EARTH WIRE JULY 21ST.]
[Illustration: T. Picken, lith from a drawing by R. Dudley
THE GREAT EASTERN UNDER WEIGH JULY 23RD. (ESCORT AND OTHER SHIPS
INTRODUCED BEING THE TERRIBLE, THE SPHINX, THE HAWK & THE CAROLINE)]
The meeting responded very heartily to the call, and when silence was
restored, Sir Robert Peel said: “Gentlemen, as the Knight of Kerry has
well observed, this is one of the most important works that this country
could have been engaged in, inasmuch as it tends to draw us together in
a link of amity and friendship with a mighty continent on the other side
of the Atlantic. I trust, as the Knight of Kerry has so justly observed,
that it may tend not only to promote the peace and commerce of the
world, but that it may also lead to a union of feeling and to good
fellowship between those two great countries; and I trust that as it has
been so happily inaugurated to-day, so it may be successful under the
exertions of those who have taken part in it to-day and for some time
past. Gentlemen, I think the progress of this undertaking deserves that
we should pay the highest compliment to those who have been actively
engaged in carrying it out to the stage at which it has arrived. We are
about to lay down, at the very bottom of the mighty Atlantic, which
beats against your shores with everlasting pulsations, this silver-toned
zone, to join the United Kingdom and America. Along that silver-toned
zone, I trust, may pass words which will tend to promote the commerce
and the interest of the two countries; and I am sure we will offer up
prayers for the success of an undertaking, to the accomplishment of
which persevering industry and all the mechanical skill of the age have
been brought to bear. Nothing has been wanting in human skill, and
therefore for the future, as now, let us trust the hand of Divine
Providence will be upon it; and that as the great vessel is about to
steam across the Atlantic no mishaps or misfortune may occur to imperil
or obstruct the success of the work which has now been so happily
commenced. I ask you all to give a cheer in honour of my noble friend
here, the Knight of Kerry, who has just begun the work.”
The demand was enthusiastically complied with, for the Knight is an
immense favourite with all the dwellers in his little dominion.
Sir Robert Peel then said: “Now, gentlemen, probably one of the first
messages that will be sent by this Cable will be a communication from
the Sovereign of this great country to the great ruler of the mighty
continent at the other side of the Atlantic. I will ask you to give
three cheers for her Majesty the Queen.” (Cheers.) Sir Robert Peel in
conclusion, said: “I give you, with hearty good will, health and
happiness to the ruler of the United States, President Johnson.” (The
toast was received with loud cheers.)
Mr. Glass, who was called on to acknowledge the hearty reception given
to his name and the Company’s, said: “On behalf of myself and those
connected with me in this undertaking, I beg to return you thanks. I am
glad that our labours have been appreciated by those around us. I assure
you that the work that has been so far completed has been a source of
great anxiety to us all; but that anxiety has been relieved very much by
the fact that we have now landed a Cable which we one and all believe to
be perfect. I believe that nothing can interfere with the successful
laying of the Cable but the hand of the Almighty, who rules the winds
and waves. So far as human skill has gone, I believe we have produced
all that can be desired. We now offer up our prayers to the Almighty
that He will grant success to our undertaking.”
The Doxology was then sung, with which this part of the proceedings
closed, and the electricians busied themselves with securing the shore
end confided to their charge in its new home.