Birth--Childhood--Fondness for machinery--Early mechanical skill--Constructs a steam engine at the age of nine years--His work-shop--Death of his father--Works his way to St. Louis--Sells apples on the streets--Finds employment and a friend--Efforts to improve--Becomes a clerk on a Mississippi steamer--Undertakes the recovery of wrecked steamboats--Success of his undertaking--Offers to remove the obstacles to the navigation of the Mississippi--Failure of his health--Retires from business--Breaking out of the war--Summoned to Washington--His plan for the defense of the western rivers--Associated with Captain Rodgers in the purchase of gunboats--His first contract with the Government--Undertakes to build seven ironclads in sixty-five days--Magnitude of the undertaking--His promptness--Builds other gunboats during the war--The gunboat fleet at Forts Henry and Donelson the private property of Mr. Eads--Excellence of the vessels built by him--A model contractor--Residence in St. Louis. CHAPTER XII. CYRUS W. FIELD. Birth--Parentage--Early education--Goes to New York in search of employment--Obtains a clerkship in a city house, and in a few years becomes a partner--A rich man at thirty-four--Retires from business--Travels in South America--Meets Mr. Gisborne--Plan of the Newfoundland Telegraph Company--Mr. Field declines to embark in it--Conceives the idea of a telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean--Correspondence with Lieut. Maury and Prof. Morse--The scheme pronounced practicable--Mr. Field secures the co-operation of four New York capitalists--Organization of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company--Building of the line from New York to St. John's--A herculean task--The Governmental ocean surveys of the United States and England--Efforts to secure aid in England--Liberal action of the Government--Organization of the Atlantic Telegraph Company--A hard-won success in America--Passage of the bill by Congress--The first attempt to lay the cable--The expedition of 1857--The telegraph fleet--Scenes on board--Loss of the cable--Failure of the expedition--Difficulties remedied--The new "paying-out" machinery--The expedition of 1858--The second attempt to lay the cable--Dangerous storm--Failures--Loss of the cable--The third attempt--The cable laid successfully--Messages across the Atlantic--Celebrations in England and the United States--The signals cease--The cable a failure--Discouraging state of affairs--Courage of Mr. Field--Generous offer of the British Government--Fresh soundings--Investigations of the Telegraph Board--Efforts of Mr. Field to raise new capital--Purchase of the Great Eastern--The fourth attempt to lay the cable--Expedition of 1865--Voyage of the Great Eastern--Loss of the cable--Efforts to recover it unsuccessful--What the expedition demonstrated--Efforts to raise more capital--They are pronounced illegal--The new company--The fifth attempt to lay the cable--Voyage of