This was one of the most harassing days we had yet encountered; but it proved not to be the most trying we were to endure in our short eventful history. All our calculations were falsified. Newfoundland was seen at its true distance, the piano ceased, men discussed various schemes for avoiding the transfer of the Cable from stern to the bow, on every occasion of picking-up. But all our difficulty had been overcome with such certainty, and it was so evident all would go well if no more faults existed in the Cable, that faith, in the ultimate success of the enterprise became, strengthened rather than diminished. Whilst the tests were being made the Cable was running out by its own weight and the drifting of the ship, at a strain varying from 8 cwt. to 20 cwt., giving at every fathom an increase of labour in the subsequent picking up. The sailors regarded the process of cutting the Cable with distrust; but the Cable men, accustomed to it, had no such serious apprehensions. Still the whole system of iron chains, iron rope, stoppers, and bights, is very complicated. The Cable cannot be checked in such cases till an instant before it is cut, and must be let run out for fear of the ship dragging upon it; and to the inexperienced eye it looked as if the Great Eastern were bent on snapping the thin black thread which cut the waves like a knife-blade as she rose and fell on the swell. When the strain increased, the Cable ran with an edge of seething foam frittering before it backwards and forwards in the track of the ship, taut as a bar of steel. It was a relief to see the end cut at last, and splash over, with shackle chain and wire rope, into the water. Then began an orderly tumult of men with stoppers and guy ropes along the bulwarks and in the shrouds, and over the boats, from stern to stem, as length after length of wire rope flew out after the Cable. The men under the command of Mr. Canning were skilful in their work; but as they clamoured and clambered along the sides, and over the boats, and round the paddle-boxes, hauling at hawsers, and slipping bights, and holding on and letting go stoppers, the sense of risk and fear for the Cable could not be got out of one’s head. The chief officer, Mr. Halpin, by personal exertion, made himself conspicuous, and rendered effectual assistance; and Capt. Anderson, on the bridge, watched and directed every movement of the ship with skill and vigilance. But still pitches and foulings would take place for an instant, and it needed all our confidence in Mr. Canning and his staff to tolerate this picking-up system with any temper. Thousands of fathoms down we knew the end of the cable was dragging along the bottom, fiercely tugged at by the Great Eastern through its iron line. If line or Cable parted, down sank the Cable for ever. At last our minds were set at rest by the commencement of the restorative process. The head of the Great Eastern was got round slowly, and pointed eastwards.