But while these festivities were kept up on shore, hard work was done on board the ship. To coil thirteen hundred miles of cable was an immense undertaking. Yet it was all done by the sailors themselves. No compulsion was used, and none was needed. No sooner was there a call for volunteers, than men stepped forward in greater numbers than could be employed. Out of these were chosen one hundred and twenty stalwart fellows, who were divided into two gangs of sixty men, and each gang into watches of thirty, which relieved each other, and all went to work with such enthusiasm, that in three weeks the herculean task was completed. The event was celebrated by a final dinner given by the shareholders of the Atlantic Telegraph Company in Liverpool to Captain Hudson and Captain Sands of the Susquehanna, whose arrival in the Mersey enabled them to extend their hospitalities to the officers of both ships. While the Niagara was thus doing her part, the same scene was repeated on board the Agamemnon, which was still lying in the Thames. There the work was completed about the same day, and the occasion duly honored by a scene as unique as it was beautiful. Says the London Times of July twenty-fourth: "All the details connected with the manufacture and stowage of the cable are now completed, and the conclusion of the arduous labor was celebrated yesterday with high festivity and rejoicing. All the artisans who have been engaged upon the great work, with their wives and families, a large party of the officers, with the sailors from the Agamemnon, and a number of distinguished scientific visitors, were entertained upon this occasion at a kind of _fête champêtre_ at Belvidere House, the seat of Sir Culling Eardley, near Erith. The festival was held in the beautiful park which had been obligingly opened by Sir Culling Eardley for the purpose. Although in no way personally interested in the project, the honorable baronet has all along evinced the liveliest sympathy with the undertaking, and himself proposed to have the completion of the work celebrated in his picturesque grounds. The manufacturers, fired with generous emulation, erected spacious tents on the lawn, and provided a magnificent banquet for the guests, and a substantial one for the sailors of the Agamemnon and the artificers who had been employed in the construction of the cable. By an admirable arrangement, the guests were accommodated at a vast semi-circular table, which ran round the whole pavilion, while the sailors and workmen sat at a number of long tables arranged at right angles with the chord, so that the general effect was that all dined together, while at the same time sufficient distinction was preserved to satisfy the most fastidious. The three centre tables were occupied by the crew of the Agamemnon, a fine, active body of young men, who