"Slowly passed the hours of that day," in Mr. Henry Field's words, "but all went well, and the ships were moving out into the broad Atlantic. At length the sun went down in the west, and stars came out on the face of the deep. But no man slept. A thousand eyes were watching a great experiment, including those who had a personal interest in the issue. "All through that night, and through the anxious days and nights that followed, there was a feeling in the heart of every soul on board, as if some dear friend were at the turning-point of death, and they were watching beside him. There was a strange, unnatural silence in the ship. Men paced the deck with soft and muffled tread, speaking only in whispers, as if a loud or heavy footfall might snap the vital cord. So much had they grown to feel for the enterprise, that the cable seemed to them like a human creature, on whose fate they themselves hung, as if it were to decide their own destiny. "There are some who will never forget that first night at sea. Perhaps the reaction from the excitement on shore made the impression the deeper. There are moments in life when everything comes back to us. What memories cropped up in those long night hours! How many on board that ship, as they stood on the deck and watched that mysterious cord disappearing in the darkness, thought of homes beyond the sea, of absent ones, of the distant and of the dead. "But no musings turned them from the work in hand. There were vigilant eyes on deck--Mr. Bright, the engineer-in-chief, was there; also, in turn, Mr. Woodhouse and Mr. Canning, his chief assistants.... The paying-out machinery did its work, and though it made a constant rumble in the ship, that dull, heavy sound was music in their ears, as it told them that all was well. If one should drop asleep, and wake up at night, he had only to hear the sound of 'the old coffee-mill' and, his fears being relieved, he would go to sleep again." The next was a day of beautiful weather. The ships were getting farther away from land, and began to steam ahead at the rate of four and five knots. The cable was paid out at a speed a little faster than the ship, to allow for inequalities of surface on the bottom of the sea. While it was thus going overboard, communication was kept up constantly with the land, partly by what are known as "continuity signals"--i. e., electrical signals at definite time intervals from ship to shore, as a test of the continuity of the line.