The Story of the Atlantic TelegraphField, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
History
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
Field, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
Transatlantic cables
The point of landing had been changed from Valentia harbor five or six
miles to Foilhommerum Bay, a wild spot where huge cliffs hang over the
waves that here come rolling in from the Atlantic. On the top, an old
tower of the time of Cromwell tells of the bloody days of England's
great civil war. It is now but a mossy ruin. Here the peasants who
flocked in from the country pitched their booths on the green sward, and
looked down from the dizzy heights on the boats dancing in the bay
below. At the foot of the cliff, a soft, sandy beach forms a bed for the
cable, and here, as it issues from the sea, it is led up a channel which
had been cut for it in the rocks.
As the shore end was very massive and unwieldy, it could not be laid
except in good weather; and as the sea was now rough, the Great Eastern
withdrew to Bantry Bay, to be out of the way of the storms which
sometimes break with fury on this rock-bound coast.
On Saturday this preliminary work was completed, the heavy shore end was
carried from the deck of the Caroline across a bridge of boats to the
beach, and hauled up the cliffs amid the shouts of the people. When once
it was made fast to the rocks, the little steamer began to move, and the
huge coil slowly unwound, and like a giant awakened, stretched out its
long iron arms. By half-past ten o'clock at night the hold was empty,
the whole twenty-seven miles having been safely laid, and the end buoyed
in seventy-five fathoms water. A despatch was at once sent across the
country to Bantry Bay to the Great Eastern to come around with all
speed, and early the next morning her smoke was seen in the offing.
Passing the harbor of Valentia, she proceeded to join the Caroline,
which she reached about noon, and at once commenced splicing the massive
shore end to her own deep-sea line. This was a work of several hours, so
that it was toward evening before all was completed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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