Cables, Submarine -- History; Field, Cyrus W. (Cyrus West), 1819-1892; Inventors -- United States -- Biography
"From the deck of our ship we can see a small, sandy cove which has
been selected as the place for the landing of the shore end of the
cable, and a hundred yards from which a temporary tent has been
erected for the batteries and other telegraphic instruments. In
front of it is displayed an attempt at the Stars and Stripes; but
it is only an attempt, and it would require one of the most
shrewd-guessing Yankees that ever lived in or came out of
Connecticut to tell what it was intended for. It will soon be
replaced by another of a more unmistakable kind, however, and that
ought to be sufficient to satisfy the most exacting patriot....
"We arrived and anchored in Valentia Bay on the evening of the 4th,
but at too late an hour to commence operations other than I have
described. The work of landing the shore part of the cable was
deferred, therefore, until the following morning at eight
o'clock....
"On the shore there were about two thousand persons, the whole
population of the place and large contributions from miles around,
waiting there from seven in the morning till seven in the evening
for the arrival of the fleet of cable boats whose progress they had
watched with so much anxiety and impatience. It was five o'clock
when we started, and never before was such a scene presented in
Valentia Bay, and the poorest spectator there, though he could not
tell what strange agency it was that lay in the cable, understood
what it was intended to effect, and his face beamed with joy as he
heard his comrades say that it brought them nearer to that great
land that had so generously stretched out the helping hand to their
starving countrymen.... Among those on shore are the Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland; Lord Morpeth, of anti-slavery proclivities;
Lord Hillsborough; the Knight of Kerry; and nearly all the
gentlemen connected with the enterprise. But here comes the cable
in the hands of the crew of the _Niagara's_ boat, who rush up the
beach with it dripping with water, for in their haste to carry it
ashore they have to wade knee-deep through the water. Mr. Cyrus W.
Field is there beside Lord Morpeth, or, as he is now called, Lord
Carlisle, and as Captain Pennock comes up in advance of his men
with the cable he introduces him. There is no time for the passage
of formalities, and the introduction and the meeting are therefore
free from them.
"'I am most happy to see you, captain,' says Lord Morpeth, and the
captain most appropriately replies: 'This, sir, is the betrothal of
England and America, and I hope in twenty days the marriage will be
consummated.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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