CAN THE OCEAN BE SPANNED?
Mr. Gisborne left Halifax and came to New York in January, 1854. Here he
took counsel with his friend Tebbets and others; but they could give him
no relief. It was while in this state of suspense that he met, at the
Astor House, Mr. Matthew D. Field, an engineer who had been engaged in
building railroads and suspension bridges at the South and West. Mr.
Field listened to his story with interest, and engaged to speak of it to
his brother, Cyrus W. Field,[A] a merchant of New York, who had retired
from business the year before, and had spent six months in travelling
over the mountains of South America, from which he had lately returned.
Accordingly, he introduced the subject, but found his brother
disinclined to embark in any new undertaking. Though still a young man,
his life had been for many years one of incessant devotion to business.
He had accumulated an ample fortune, and was not disposed to renew the
cares, the anxieties, and the fatigues of his former life. But listening
to the details of a scheme which had in it much to excite interest, and
which by its very difficulty stimulated the spirit of enterprise, he at
length consented to see Mr. Gisborne, and invited him to his house.
Accordingly he came, and spent an evening describing the route of his
proposed telegraph, and the points it was to connect. After he left, Mr.
Field took the globe which was standing in the library, and began to
turn it over. _It was while thus studying the globe that the idea first
occurred to him, that the telegraph might be carried further still, and
be made to span the Atlantic Ocean._ The idea was not original with him,
though he was to carry it out. It was indeed new _to him_; but it had
long been a matter of speculation with scientific minds, though their
theories had never attracted his attention. But once he had grasped the
idea, it took strong hold of his imagination. Had the Newfoundland
scheme stood alone, he would never have undertaken it. He cared little
about shortening communication with Europe by a day or two, by relays of
boats and carrier-pigeons. But it was the hope of further and grander
results that inspired him to enter on a work of which no man could
foresee the end.
An enterprise of such proportions, that would task to the utmost the
science and the engineering skill of the world, was not to be rashly
undertaken; and before giving a definite reply to Gisborne, Mr. Field
determined to apply to the highest authorities in his own country.
The project of an Atlantic telegraph involved two problems: Could a
cable be stretched across the ocean? and if it were, would it be good
for anything to convey messages? The first was a question of mechanical
difficulties, requiring a careful survey of the ocean itself, fathoming
its depth, finding out the character of its bottom, whether level, or
rough and volcanic; and all the obstacles that might be found in the
winds that agitate the surface above, or the mighty currents that sweep
through the waters below. The second problem was purely scientific,
involving questions as to the laws of electricity, not then fully
understood, and on which the boldest might feel that he was venturing on
uncertain ground.
Such were the two elements or forces of nature to be encountered--the
ocean and the electric current. Could they be controlled by any power of
man? The very proposal was enough to stagger the faith even of an
enthusiast. Who could lay a bridle on the neck of the sea? The attempt
seemed as idle as that of Xerxes to bind it with chains. Was it possible
to combat the fierceness of the winds and waves, and to stretch one long
line from continent to continent? And then, after the work was achieved,
would the lightning run along the ocean-bed from shore to shore? Such
were the questions which had puzzled many an anxious brain, and which
now troubled the one who was to undertake the work.
To get some light in his perplexity, Mr. Field, the very next morning
after his interview with Gisborne, wrote two letters, one to Lieutenant
Maury, then at the head of the National Observatory at Washington, on
the nautical difficulties of the undertaking, asking if the sea were
itself a barrier too great to be overcome; and the other to Professor
Morse, inquiring if it would be possible to telegraph over a distance so
great as that from Europe to America?
The mail soon brought an answer from Lieutenant Maury, which began:
"Singularly enough, just as I received your letter, I was closing one to
the Secretary of the Navy on the same subject." A copy of this he
inclosed to Mr. Field, and it is given here. It shows the conclusions at
which, even at that early day, scientific men were beginning to arrive:
"National Observatory,
Washington, February 22, 1854.
"Sir: The United States brig Dolphin, Lieutenant Commanding O.
H. Berryman, was employed last summer upon especial service
connected with the researches that are carried on at this
office concerning the winds and currents of the sea. Her
observations were confined principally to that part of the
ocean which the merchantmen, as they pass to and fro upon the
business of trade between Europe and the United States, use as
their great thoroughfare. Lieutenant Berryman availed himself
of this opportunity to carry along also a line of deep-sea
soundings, from the shores of Newfoundland to those of Ireland.
The result is highly interesting, in so far as the bottom of
the sea is concerned, upon the question of a submarine
telegraph across the Atlantic; and I therefore beg leave to
make it the subject of a special report.
"This line of deep-sea soundings seems to be decisive of the
question of the practicability of a submarine telegraph between
the two continents, _in so far as the bottom of the deep sea is
concerned_. From Newfoundland to Ireland, the distance between
the nearest points is about sixteen hundred miles;[B] and the
bottom of the sea between the two places is a plateau, which
seems to have been placed there especially for the purpose of
holding the wires of a submarine telegraph, and of keeping them
out of harm's way. It is neither too deep nor too shallow; yet
it is so deep that the wires but once landed, will remain for
ever beyond the reach of vessels' anchors, icebergs, and drifts
of any kind, and so shallow, that the wires may be readily
lodged upon the bottom. The depth of this plateau is quite
regular, gradually increasing from the shores of Newfoundland
to the depth of from fifteen hundred to two thousand fathoms,
as you approach the other side. The distance between Ireland
and Cape St. Charles, or Cape St. Lewis, in Labrador, is
somewhat less than the distance from any point of Ireland to
the nearest point of Newfoundland. But whether it would be
better to lead the wires from Newfoundland or Labrador is not
now the question; nor do I pretend to consider the question as
to the possibility of finding _a time calm enough, the sea
smooth enough, a wire long enough, a ship big enough_, to lay a
coil of wire sixteen hundred miles in length: though I have no
fear but that the enterprise and ingenuity of the age, whenever
called on with these problems, will be ready with a
satisfactory and practical solution of them.
"I simply address myself at this time to the question in so far
as _the bottom of the sea_ is concerned, and as far as that,
the greatest practical difficulties will, I apprehend, be found
after reaching soundings at either end of the line, and not in
the deep sea....
"A wire laid across from either of the above-named places on
this side will pass to the north of the Grand Banks, and rest
on that beautiful plateau to which I have alluded, where the
waters of the sea appear to be as quiet and as completely at
rest as at the bottom of a mill-pond. It is proper that the
reasons should be stated for the inference that there are no
perceptible currents, and no abrading agents at work at the
bottom of the sea upon this telegraphic plateau. I derive this
inference from a study of a physical fact, which I little
deemed, when I sought it, had any such bearings.
"Lieutenant Berryman brought up with Brooke's deep-sea sounding
apparatus specimens of the bottom from this plateau. I sent
them to Professor Bailey, of West Point, for examination under
his microscope. This he kindly gave, and that eminent
microscopist was quite as much surprised to find, as I was to
learn, that all those specimens of deep-sea soundings are
filled with microscopic shells; to use his own words, _not a
particle of sand or gravel exists in them_. These little
shells, therefore, suggest the fact that there are no currents
at the bottom of the sea whence they came; that Brooke's lead
found them where they were deposited in their burial-place
after having lived and died on the surface, and by gradually
sinking were lodged on the bottom. Had there been currents at
the bottom, these would have swept and abraded and mingled up
with these microscopic remains the _debris_ of the bottom of
the sea, such as ooze, sand, gravel, and other matter; but not
a particle of sand or gravel was found among them. Hence the
inference that these depths of the sea are not disturbed either
by waves or currents. Consequently, a telegraphic wire once
laid there, there it would remain, as completely beyond the
reach of accident as it would be if buried in air-tight cases.
Therefore, so far as the bottom of the deep sea between
Newfoundland, or the North Cape, at the mouth of the St.
Lawrence, and Ireland, is concerned, the practicability of a
submarine telegraph across the Atlantic is proved....
"In this view of the subject, and for the purpose of hastening
the completion of such a line, I take the liberty of suggesting
for your consideration the propriety of an offer from the
proper source, of a prize to the company through whose
telegraphic wire the first message shall be passed across the
Atlantic.
"I have the honor to be respectfully yours.
"M. F. Maury,
"Lieutenant United States Navy.
"Hon. J. C. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy."
The reply of Professor Morse showed equal interest in the subject, in
proof of which he wrote that he would come down to New York to see Mr.
Field about it. A few days after he came, and saw Mr. Field at his
house. This was the beginning of an acquaintance which soon ripened into
friendship, and which henceforth united these gentlemen together in this
great achievement. Professor Morse, in conversation, entered at length
into the laws of electricity as applied to the business of telegraphing,
and concluded by declaring his entire faith in the undertaking as
practical; as one that might, could, and would, be achieved. Indeed,
this faith he had avowed years before. In a letter written as early as
August tenth, 1843, to John C. Spencer, then Secretary of the Treasury,
Professor Morse had detailed the results of certain experiments made in
the harbor of New York to show the power of electricity to communicate
at great distances, at the close of which he says--in words that now
seem prophetic:
"The practical inference from this law is, that a telegraphic
communication on the electro-magnetic plan may with certainty
be established across the Atlantic Ocean! Startling as this may
now seem, I am confident the time will come when this project
will be realized."
It was the good fortune of Mr. Field--at that time and ever since--to
have at hand an adviser in whose judgment he had implicit confidence.
This was his eldest brother, David Dudley Field. They lived side by side
on Gramercy Park, and were in daily communication. To the prudent
counsels, wise judgment and unfaltering courage of the elder brother,
the Atlantic Telegraph is more indebted than the world will ever know,
for its first impulse and for the spirit which sustained it through long
years of discouragement and disaster, when its friends were few. To
this, his nearest and best counsellor, Mr. Field opened the project
which had taken possession of his mind; and being strengthened by that
maturer judgment, he finally resolved that, if he could get a sufficient
number of capitalists to join him, he would embark in an enterprise
which, beginning with the line to Newfoundland, involved in the end
nothing less than an attempt to link this New World which Columbus had
discovered, to that Old World which had been for ages the home of empire
and of civilization. How the scheme advanced through the next twelve
years, it will be our province to relate.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Born November 30, 1819, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the son of a
Congregational minister, of whom three sons are still living: Mr. David
Dudley Field, of New York; Mr. Justice Stephen J. Field, of the Supreme
Court of the United States; and the writer of the present volume.
[B] From Cape Freels, Newfoundland, to Erris Head, Ireland, the distance
is sixteen hundred and eleven miles; from Cape Charles, or Cape St.
Lewis, Labrador, to the same point, the distance is sixteen hundred and
one miles.