The Story of the Atlantic TelegraphField, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
History
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
Field, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
Transatlantic cables
Stevenson, surveying vessel, steaming out to meet us, the
preärranged pathway all marked with buoys by Mr. J. H. Kerr, R.
N., and a whole fleet of fishing boats fishing at the entrance.
"We could now plainly see that Heart's Content, so far as its
capabilities permitted, was prepared to welcome us. The British
and American flags floated from the church and telegraph
station and other buildings. We had dressed ship, fired a
salute, and given three cheers, and Captain Commerill of H.M.S.
Terrible was soon on board to congratulate us on our success.
At nine o'clock, ship's time, just as we had cut the cable and
made arrangements for the Medway to lay the shore end, a
message arrived giving us the concluding words of a leader in
this morning's Times: 'It is a great work, a glory to our age
and nation, and the men who have achieved it deserve to be
honored among the benefactors of their race.'--'Treaty of peace
signed between Prussia and Austria!' It was now time for the
chief engineer, Mr. Canning, to make the necessary preparations
for splicing on board the Medway. Accompanied by Mr. Gooch,
M.P., Mr. Clifford, Mr. Willoughby Smith, and Messrs. Temple
and Deane, he went on board, the Terrible and Niger having sent
their paddle-box boats and cutters to assist. Shortly afterward
the Great Eastern steamed into the harbor and anchored on the
north-east side, and was quickly surrounded by boats laden with
visitors. Mr. Cyrus Field had come on shore before the Great
Eastern had left the offing, with a view of telegraphing to St.
John's to hire a vessel to repair the cable unhappily broken
between Cape Ray, in Newfoundland, and Cape North, in Breton
Island. Before a couple of hours the shore end will be landed,
and it is impossible to conceive a finer day for effecting this
our final operation. Even here, people can scarcely realize
the fact that the Atlantic Telegraph Cable has been laid.
To-morrow, however, Heart's Content[C] will awaken to the fact
that it is a highly favored place in the world's esteem, the
western landing-place of that marvel of electric communication
with the Eastern hemisphere, which is now happily, and we hope
finally, established."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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