As I have said, the gale did not in the least affect the ship. She went on through the heavy sea steady as an island, running out the Cable at the rate of 7 knots an hour; and when the wind shifted to N.N.W. our course was altered to N.W. by W. ½ W., through a sea which fell as rapidly as it had risen. The crisis was now at hand. I was aroused about 8 o’clock a.m., Greenwich time (ship’s time being more than two hours earlier), by the slowing of the engines, and on looking out of my port saw, from the foam of the paddles passing ahead, that the ship was moving astern. In a moment afterwards I stood in the Testing-Room, where Mr. de Sauty, the centre of a small group of electricians, among whom was Professor Thomson, was bending over the instruments, surrounded by his anxious staff. The chronometer marked 8·6 a.m., Greenwich time. In reply to my question as to what was wrong, Professor Thomson whispered, “Another bad fault.” This was indeed surprising and distressing. In order to make the history of the day consecutive, I will relate as closely as possible what occurred. Mr. Field went on duty in the tank in the early morning, relieving M. Jules Despescher. Some twenty minutes before the fault was noticed, whilst Mr. Field was watching, a grating noise was heard in the tank as the coil flew out over the flakes. One of the men exclaimed, “There goes a piece of wire.” The word was passed up through the crinoline shaft to the watcher. But he either did not hear what was said, or neglected to give any intimation, as the warning never reached Mr. Temple, who was on duty at the stern at the time. At 8 a.m., Greenwich time, being the beginning of an hour, and therefore the time when in regular series the electricians on board the Great Eastern began to send currents to the shore, the gentleman engaged in watching the galvanometer, saw the unerring index light quiver for an instant and glide off the scale. The fact was established that instead of meeting with the proper resistance, and traversing the whole length of the Cable to the shore, a large portion of the stream was escaping through a breach in the gutta percha into the sea. If the quantity of the current escaping had been uniform, the electricians could calculate very nearly the distance of the spot where the injury had taken place. In the present instance, however, the tests varied greatly, and showed a varying fault. When the current is sent through a wire from one pole it produces an electro-chemical action on the wire, and at the place of the injury, which leads to a deposit of a salt of copper in the breach, and impedes the escape of electricity; and when the opposite current is returned, the deposit is reduced, and hydrogen gas formed, a globule of which may rest in the chink, and, by its non-conducting power, restore the insulation of the Cable for a time. The fault in the present instance was so grave that it was resolved to pick up the Cable once