18 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



not a ' meny Christmas' to rae. But it was an incxpressiblo 

 comfort to have the counsel of such men as Sir Daniel Gooch and 

 Sir Richard A. Glass ; and to hear stouthearted Mr. Brassey t(ill 

 us to go ahead, and, if need wei'c, he Avould put down £00,000 

 more ! It was linally concluded that the best course was to 

 organize a new company, which should assume the work, and so 

 originated the Anglo-American Telegraph Compan}'. It was 

 formed b\' ten gentlemen who met around a table in London, and 

 ])ut down £10,000 apiece. The great Telegraph Construction 

 and Maintenance Company, umlaunted by tlw failure of last 

 year, answered us with a subscription of £100,000. Soon after 

 the books were opened to the public, through tlie banking-house 

 of J. S. Morgan & Co., and in fourteen days we had raised the 

 whole £600,000. Then the work began again, and went on with 

 speed. Never was greater energy infused into any enteiprise. 

 It was only the 1st day of March tliat the new company was 

 formed, and was registered as a company the next day ; and yet 

 such was the vigor and dispatch that in five months from that day 

 the cable had been manufactured, sliii)ped on the ' Great East- 

 ern,' stretched across the Atlantic, and was sending messages, 

 literally swift as lightning, from continent to continent. 



" Yet this was not a ' lucky hit ' — a fine run across the ocean in 

 calm weatlier. It was the worst weather I ever knew at that 

 season of the year. We had fogs and storms almost the whole 

 way. Our success was the result of tiie highest science com- 

 bined with practical experience. Everything was perfectly or- 

 ganized, to tiie minutest detail. We had on board an admirable 

 staff of officei'S ; sueh men as Ilalpin and Beckwith ; and engineers 

 long used to this business, such as Canning, and Clifford, and 

 Temple ; and electricians, such as Prof. Thomson, of Glasgow, 

 and Willoughby Smith, and Laws; while Mr. C. F. Varley, our 

 companion of the year before, who stands among the first in 

 knowledge, in practical skill, remained with Sir Richard Glass at 

 Valentia, to keep watch at that end of the line ; and Mr. Latimer 

 Clark, who was to test the cable when done. Of these gentlemen, 

 Prof. Thomson, as one of the eai'liest and most eminent electri- 

 cians of England, has received the distinction of knighthood. 

 England honors herself when she thus pays honor to science ; and 

 it is fit that the government which honored chemistry in Sir 

 Humpln-y Davy, should honor electrical science in Su* William 

 Thomson. 



"But our work was not over. After landing the cable safely at 

 Newfoundland, we had another task — to return to mid-ocean and 

 recover that lost in the expedition of last year. This achievement 

 has perhaps excited more surprise than the other. Many even 

 now ' don't understand it,' and every day I am asked ' how it 

 was done ? ' Well, it does seem rather difficult to fish for a jewel 

 at the bottom of the ocean, two and a half miles deep. But it is 

 not so vei-y difficult — when you know how. You may be sure 

 we did not go a-fishing at random, nor was our success mere 

 ' luck ; ' it was the triumph of the highest nautical and engineer- 

 ing skill, W^e had four ships, and on boai'd of them some of the 



