



Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images available at The Internet Archive)







[Illustration: THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH

BY W H RUSSELL, LLD

ILLUSTRATED BY ROBERT DUDLEY

DEDICATED BY SPECIAL PERMISSION TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

ALBERT EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES

DAY & SON LIMITED 6 GATE STREET LONDON

R. Dudley]




THE ATLANTIC

TELEGRAPH

(1865)




THE ATLANTIC
TELEGRAPH
(1865)

by
W. H. RUSSELL

NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS




International Standard Book Number 0-87021-806-9

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-184620

First published in 1865

Published and Distributed in the
United States of America by the
Naval Institute Press

Printed in Great Britain




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


Weighing anchor off the Maplin Sands, Nore, July 15, 1865      ii

                                                    OPPOSITE PAGE

The reels of gutta-percha-covered conducting-wire conveyed
into tanks at the works at Greenwich                           14

Valentia in 1857-1858 at the time of the laying of the former
cable                                                          15

Trinity Bay, Newfoundland: Exterior view of Telegraph House
in 1857-1858                                                   26

Telegraph House, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland: Interior of
messroom, 1858                                                 27

H.M.S. Agamemnon laying the Atlantic telegraph cable in 1858:
A whale crosses the line                                       30

Coiling the cable in the large tanks at the works at Greenwich 31

The cable passed from the works into the hulk lying in the
Thames at Greenwich                                            38

The old frigate with her freight of cable alongside the Great
Eastern at Sheerness                                           39

Paying-out machinery                                           40

Coiling the cable in the after-tank on board the Great Eastern
at Sheerness: Visit of H.R.H. The Prince of Wales on May 24    41

Foilhummerum Bay, Valentia, looking seawards from the point
at which the cable reaches the shore                           44

The cliffs, Foilhummerum Bay: Point of the landing of the
shore end of cable, July 22                                    45

Foilhummerum Bay, Valentia, from Cromwell Fort: The
Caroline and boats laying the earth-wire, July 21              48

The Great Eastern under weigh, July 23: Escort and other
ships introduced being the Terrible, the Sphinx, the Hawk,
and the Caroline                                               49

Chart, showing the track of the steamship Great Eastern on
her voyage from Valentia to Newfoundland                       56

Splicing the cable (after the first accident) on board the Great
Eastern, July 25                                               57

View (looking aft) from the port paddle-box of Great Eastern:
Showing the trough for cable, etc.                             62

The forge on deck; Night of August 9: Preparing the iron
plating for capstan                                            63

Searching for fault after recovery of the cable from the bed of
the Atlantic, July 31                                          72

In the bows, August 2: The cable broken and lost: Preparing
to grapple                                                     73

Getting out one of the large buoys for launching, August 2     80

General view of Port Magee, &c., from the heights below Cora
Beg: The Caroline laying the shore end of the cable, July 22   81

Interior of one of the tanks on board the Great Eastern:
Cable passing out                                              86

Launching buoy on August 8, in lat. 51° 25' 30''; long. 30° 56'
(marking spot where cable had been grappled)                   87

Forward deck cleared for the final attempt at grappling,
August 11                                                      92




THE

ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.


I shall not detain the readers of this brief narrative with any sketch
of the progress of electrical science. There are text-books,
cyclopædias, and treatises full of information concerning the men who
worked in early days, and recording the labours of those who still toil
on, investigating the laws and developing the applications of the subtle
agency which has long attracted the attention of the most acute,
ingenious, and successful students of natural philosophy. For the last
two centuries the greater number of those whose names are known in
science have made electrical experiments a favourite pursuit, or turned
to them as an agreeable recreation from severer studies. The rapidity
with which electricity travels for considerable distances through
insulated conductors soon suggested its use as a means of transmitting
intelligence