The Story of the Atlantic TelegraphField, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
History
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
Field, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
Transatlantic cables
I cannot take leave of the name of this gallant officer, who rendered
such services to science and to his country, without a word of tribute
to his memory. Lieutenant Berryman is in his grave. He died in the navy
of his country, worn out by his devotion to her service. When the great
civil war broke out, he was placed in a position most painful to a man
of large heart, who loved at once his country and the state in which he
was born. He was a Southerner, a native of Winchester, Va., and was
assigned to duty in the South. At the first attack on Southern forts and
arsenals, he was in command of the Wyandotte, in the harbor of
Pensacola, in Florida. His officers, who were nearly all Southerners,
were in secret sympathy with the rebellion. All the influences around
him, both on ship and on shore, were such as might have seduced a weaker
man from his loyalty. But, to his honor, he never hesitated for a
moment. He stood firm and loyal to his flag. Not knowing whom to trust,
he had to keep watch day and night against surprise and treachery. It
was the testimony of Lieutenant Slemmer, then in command of Fort
Pickens, that but for the ceaseless exertions of Lieutenant Berryman not
only the ship but the fort would have been lost. But this service to his
country cost him his life. His constant exertions brought on a brain
fever, of which he died. His wife, also a native of Winchester, when the
war came near her early home, removed to Baltimore, saying that "she
would not live under any other flag than that under which her husband
had lived and died."
It was to the honor of the American navy, to have led the way in these
deep-sea soundings. But after this second voyage of exploration, Mr.
Field applied to the British Admiralty, "to make what further soundings
might be necessary between Ireland and Newfoundland, and to verify those
made by Lieutenant Berryman." It was in response to this application
that the Government sent out the following year a vessel to make still
another survey of the same ocean-path. This was the steamer Cyclops,
which was placed under Lieutenant Commander Joseph Dayman, of the
British navy, an officer who had been with Captain Sir James Ross when
he made his deep-sea soundings in the South Atlantic in 1840, where he
attained a depth of twenty-six hundred and sixty-seven fathoms; and who
by his intelligence and zeal, was admirably fitted for the work. To
speak now of this _third_ survey, is anticipating in time. But it will
serve the purpose of unity and clearness in the narrative, to include
all these deep-sea soundings in one chapter. He was directed to proceed
to the harbor of Valentia in Ireland, and thence to follow, as nearly as
possible, along the arc of a great circle to Newfoundland. "The
soundings for the first few miles from the coast should be frequent,
decreasing as you draw off shore."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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