"Taking Stock"--Further Capital--Alterations in Paying-Out Machinery--Improved Testing and Signaling Apparatus. This untoward interruption to the expedition was naturally a cause of great disappointment to all connected with the undertaking; for there was not enough cable left to complete the work, nor was there time to get more made and stowed on board to renew the attempt before the season would be too far advanced. The squadron proceeded to Plymouth to unload the cable into tanks at Keyham (now Devonport) Dockyard, chiefly because some of the ships could not be spared by their respective governments till the following year. In the middle of October (1857), the engineer-in-chief proceeded to Valentia in a small paddle-steamer with the object of picking up some of the lost line from this end. After experiencing a series of gales, over fifty miles of the main cable were recovered, and the shore end buoyed ready for splicing on to in the coming year. The first expedition had opened the eyes of the investing public to the vastness of the undertaking, and led many to doubt who did not doubt before. Some began to look upon it as a romantic adventure of the sea, rather than as a serious commercial undertaking. This decline of popular faith was felt as soon as there was a call for more money. The loss of 335 miles of cable, with the postponement of the expedition to another year, was equivalent to a loss of £100,000. [Illustration: FIG. 15.--Reshipment of the Cable aboard H.M.S. Agamemnon and U.S.N.S. Niagara in Keyham Basin.] _Raising Further Capital._--To make the above sum good, the capital of the company had to be increased, and this new capital was not so readily obtainable. The projectors found that it was easy to go with the current of popular enthusiasm, but very hard to stem a growing tide of popular distrust. And it must also be remembered that, from the very first, the section of the public which looked with distrust upon the idea of an Atlantic telegraph was far in excess of that which did not; indeed, the opposition encountered was much on a par with the great popular prejudice which George Stephenson had to overcome when projecting his great railway schemes. But whatever the depression at the untimely termination of the first expedition, it did not interfere with renewed and vigorous efforts to prepare for a second. In the end the appeal to the shareholders for more money was responded to; and the directors were enabled to give orders for the manufacture of 700 miles of new cable of the same description, to make up for what had been lost, and to provide a surplus against all contingencies. Thus, 3,000 nautical miles in all were shipped this time, instead of 2,500 miles.