The Story of the Atlantic TelegraphField, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
History
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
Field, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
Transatlantic cables
To complete the narrative of the expedition, it is necessary to include
the voyage of the Agamemnon, the best account of which is given in the
letter of the correspondent of the London Times. We quote from the time
of junction in mid-ocean, just as the ships went sailing eastward and
westward:
"For the first three hours the ships proceeded very slowly,
paying out a great quantity of slack, but after the expiration
of this time, the speed of the Agamemnon was increased to about
five knots per hour, the cable going at about six, without
indicating more than a few hundred pounds of strain upon the
dynamometer. Shortly after six o'clock a very large whale was
seen approaching the starboard bow at a great speed, rolling
and tossing the sea into foam all around and for the first time
we felt the possibility of the supposition that our second
mysterious breakage of the cable might have been caused after
all by one of these animals getting foul of it under water. It
appeared as if it were making direct for the cable, and great
was the relief of all when the ponderous living mass was seen
slowly to pass astern, just grazing the cable where it entered
the water, but fortunately without doing any mischief.
"All seemed to go well up to about eight o'clock; the cable
paid out from the hold with an evenness and regularity which
showed how carefully and perfectly it had been coiled away; and
to guard against accidents which might arise in consequence of
the cable having suffered injury during the storm, the
indicated strain upon the dynamometer was never allowed to go
beyond seventeen hundred pounds, or less than one quarter what
the cable is estimated to bear, and thus far every thing looked
promising of success. But, in such a hazardous work, no one
knows what a few minutes may bring forth, for soon after eight,
an injured portion of the cable was discovered about a mile or
two from the portion paying out. Not a moment was lost by Mr.
Canning, the engineer on duty, in setting men to work to cobble
up the injury as well as time would permit, for the cable was
going out at such a rate that the damaged portion would be paid
overboard in less than twenty minutes, and former experience
had shown us that to check either the speed of the ship, or the
cable, would, in all probability, be attended by the most fatal
results.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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