The failure of this second expedition naturally caused great discouragement, and the general feeling was that the whole enterprise would have to be given up. The chairman of the company recommended that in order to make the best of a bad job the remainder of the cable should be sold, and the proceeds divided amongst the shareholders, but after great efforts on the part of a dauntless few who refused to admit defeat, it was finally decided to make one more effort. No time was lost, and on 17th July 1858 the vessels again sailed from Queenstown. As before, the cables were spliced in mid-ocean, and this time, after many anxious days, many false alarms, and one or two narrow escapes from disaster through faulty pieces of cable discovered almost too late, the cable was landed successfully on both shores of the Atlantic early in August. The Atlantic cable was now an accomplished fact, and dismal forebodings were turned into expressions of extravagant joy. The first messages passed between Queen Victoria and the President of the United States, and amongst the more important communications was one which prevented the sailing from Canada of two British regiments which had been ordered to India during the Mutiny. In the meantime the Indian Mutiny had been suppressed, and therefore these regiments were not required. The dispatch of this message saved a sum of about £50,000. The prospects of the cable company seemed bright, but after a short time the signals began to grow weaker and weaker, and finally, after about seven hundred messages had been transmitted, the cable failed altogether. This was a great blow to the general public, and we can imagine the bitter disappointment of the engineers and electricians who had laboured so hard and so long to bring the cable into being. It was a favourable opportunity for the croakers, and amongst a certain section of the public doubts were expressed as to whether any messages had been transmitted at all. A great consultation of experts took place with the object of determining the cause of the failure, and the unanimous opinion was that the cable had been injured by the use of currents of too great intensity. Some years elapsed before another attempt could be made, but the idea was never abandoned, and a great deal of study was given to the problems involved. Mr. Field, the most energetic of the original projectors, never relaxed his determination that the cable should be made a success, and he worked incessantly to achieve his ambition. It is said that in pursuance of his object he made sixty-four crossings of the Atlantic, and considering that he suffered greatly from sea-sickness every time this shows remarkable pluck and endurance.