At 2 o’clock in the afternoon the Caroline, towed by the Hawk, and attended by the Princess Alexandra and Advice, proceeded to sea, veering out the shore end of the Cable in the channel marked by Lieutenant White, and at 10·30 p.m. buoyed the end 26 miles W.N.W. of Valentia, in 75 fathoms of water. A message was sent through the Cable to Foilhummerum, and a dispatch was forwarded to the Great Eastern, in Bantry Bay, to come round with all speed. This order was obeyed with such diligence that her appearance off the harbour of Valentia was reported in Knightstown soon after 7 o’clock next morning, July 23. H.M.S. Terrible and H.M.S. Sphinx were in company. The Hawk, which returned from the Caroline in the course of the night, got up steam and left Valentia Harbour about 10 o’clock a.m., July 23, with a party of visitors and passengers for the Great Eastern, among the former being Sir R. Peel, the Knight of Kerry, and Captain Lord John Hay. By 3 p.m. the Hawk had reached the flotilla, which lay around the buoy, preparing for the great enterprise. She was just in time; the end of the shore Cable was about to be spliced and joined with the landward end of the main Cable from the after tank of the Great Eastern, and the boats of the Great Ship and of the two men-of-war, were engaged in carrying the end of the main Cable to the Caroline. Sir R. Peel, the Knight of Kerry, Lord John Hay, Mr. Canning, and others, got on board the Great Eastern in successive trips of the Hawk’s boats; but the ladies, who had come so far and had suffered too in order to see the famous vessel, could not venture, as there was a swell on which made it difficult to embark or approach the gangway ladders. After an hour’s enjoyment of the almost terrestrial steadiness of the Great Eastern, the visitors departed, amid loud cheers, to the Hawk, and at 5·10 p.m. it was reported by the electricians that the tests of the splice between the main Cable and the shore end were complete, and that the shore end was much improved in its electrical condition by its immersion in the water. The boats were hoisted in by the men-of-war and by the Great Eastern, adieux and good wishes were exchanged, and, with hearts full of confidence, all on board set about the work before them.