The Story of the Atlantic TelegraphField, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
History
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
Field, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
Transatlantic cables
News of to-day, telegram from Mr. Glass in reply to
one from Mr. Canning: I congratulate you all most sincerely on
your arrival in one hundred and thirty fathoms. I hope nothing
will interfere to mar the hitherto brilliant success, and that
the cable will be landed to-morrow.'"
As the voyage is about to end, we give the distances run from day to
day, which show a remarkable uniformity of progress:
Distance Run. Cable Paid Out.
Saturday, fourteenth, 108 115
Sunday, fifteenth, 128 139
Monday, sixteenth, 115 137
Tuesday, seventeenth, 117 138
Wednesday, eighteenth, 104 125
Thursday, nineteenth, 112 129
Friday, twentieth, 117 127
Saturday, twenty-first, 121 136
Sunday, twenty-second, 123 133
Monday, twenty-third, 121 138
Tuesday, twenty-fourth, 120 135
Wednesday, twenty-fifth, 119 130
Thursday, twenty-sixth, 128 134
Friday, twenty-seventh. 100 104
From this it appears that the speed of the ship was exactly according
to the running time fixed before she left England. On the last voyage it
was thought that she had once or twice run too fast, and thus exposed
the cable to danger. It was, therefore, decided to go slowly but surely.
Holding her back to this moderate pace, her average speed, from the time
the splice was made till they saw land, was a little less than five
nautical miles an hour, while the cable was paid out at an average of
not quite five and a half miles. Thus the total slack was about eleven
per cent, showing that the cable was laid almost in a straight line,
allowing for the swells and hollows in the bottom of the sea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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