Cables, Submarine -- History; Field, Cyrus W. (Cyrus West), 1819-1892; Inventors -- United States -- Biography
"At 5 P.M. commenced heaving up; found the cable to be hooked."
"Sunday, September 2d.
"12.50 A.M.--Cable above the surface.
"2.16.--Bight of 1865 cable on board.
"3.11.--End brought into testing-room.
"3.50.--Message received. 'Cable of 1866 and Gulf cable both O. K.'
"3.52.--Cable taken from test-room to make splice.
"6.50.--Shipped from bow to stern.
"7.01.--Commenced paying out cable.
"At 9.28 A.M. I sent the following telegram 720 miles east of
Newfoundland:
"'Mrs. CYRUS W. FIELD, Newburg, New York:
"'The cable of 1865 was recovered early this morning, and we are
now in perfect telegraphic communication with Valentia, and on our
way back to Heart's Content, where we expect to arrive next
Saturday. God be praised. Please telegraph me in full at Heart's
Content. I am in good health and spirits. Captain Anderson wishes
to be kindly remembered to you.
CYRUS W. FIELD.'"
"_Saturday, September 8th._
"Landed cable at Heart's Content.
"Position of ships entering Trinity Bay:
_Lily_, _Great Eastern_, _Terrible_,
_Medway_, _Margaretta Stevenson_."
Of his own feeling, as he stood waiting on the _Great Eastern_ at dawn
on Sunday morning, September 2d, Mr. Field told in a speech made in
London on March 10, 1868:
"One of the most interesting scenes that I ever witnessed ... was
the moment when, after the cable had been recovered on the _Great
Eastern_, it had been brought into the electrician's room, and the
test was applied to see whether it was alive or dead. Never shall I
forget that eventful moment when, in answer to our question to
Valentia, whether the cable of 1866, which we had a few weeks
previously laid, was in good working order, and the cable across
the Gulf of St. Lawrence had been repaired, in an instant came back
those six memorable letters, 'Both O. K.' I left the room, I went
to my cabin, I locked the door; I could no longer restrain my
tears--crying like a child, and full of gratitude to God that I had
been permitted to live to witness the recovery of the cable we had
lost from the _Great Eastern_ just thirteen mouths previous."
(From the London _Times_ of Wednesday, September 5th.)
"The recovery of the cable of 1865 from the very lowest depths of the
Atlantic seems to have taken the world by surprise. It is not, however,
too much to say that no class of the community has felt more
astonishment than those who are best acquainted with the difficulties of
the task--the electricians....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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