FIELD, CYRUS WEST. 



265 



and tin- bottom of the spa between the two 

 plateau, which seems to have been 

 : tin -re imperially for the purpose of hold- 

 ing the cai>le> of a submarine telegraph, and of 

 keeping them out of harm's way. It is neither 

 too deep nor too shallow, yet it is so deep that 

 the wires hut once landed, will remain forever 

 1 the reach of vessels' anchors, icebergs, 

 and drifts of any kind, and so shallow that the 

 may be readily lodged upon the bottom. 

 . . . l.ieui. Merry man brought up with the 

 Brooke deep-sea-sounding apparatus specimens 

 of the bottom from this plateau. I sent them 

 t<> I'n.f. I '.alley, of West Point, for examination 

 under his microscope. All those specimens are 

 tilled with microscopic shells. These little shells 

 suggest the fact that there are no currents at 

 the hottom of the sea whence they came." 



The reply from Mr. Morse was given verbally, 

 and a lifelong friendship thus began. It was 

 equally encouraging, as Mr. Morse had never 

 changed his opinion since 1843, when he had 

 written to the Secretary of the Treasury, "Tele- 

 graphic communication on the electro-magnetic 

 plan may with certainty be established across 

 the Atlantic Ocean!" 



Mr. Field, with his enthusiasm now wholly 

 rou-ed, addressed himself to the task of forming 

 a company. The first man spoken to was Peter 

 Cooper, his next-door neighbor. His conditional 

 consent being won, Moses Taylor was consulted, 

 then Marshall 0. Roberts, and then Chandler 

 White. To this number was added, a year later, 

 Wilson G. Hunt. The articles were drawn by the 

 first five, and the project set on foot. David 

 Dudley Field was legal adviser, and accompanied 

 his brother on the visit to Newfoundland, during 

 which Mr. Gisborne's charter was surrendered, 

 and a new one was granted to the New York, 

 Newfoundland and London Company. The first 

 work was to build not only a telegraph, but a 

 road across the whole island, a part of the way 

 through unexplored forests and mountains. This, 

 after great suffering and expense, was accom- 

 plished within two years, and a cable laid across 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Mr. Field had already 

 made manyjourneys to Newfoundland, and two 

 or three to Europe, as the personal oversight for 

 the company fell almost wholly upon him. When 

 thus much was done, he had invested in the en- 

 terprise over $200,000, and the others each a lit- 

 tle less. Up to this time the work was an Ameri- 

 can enterprise, but the time had come when British 

 interest and capital must be secured. Mr. Field 

 took up a temporary residence, with his family, in 

 London, and engineers, scientists, statesmen, and 

 capitalists were in turn consulted and influenced 

 to action. After half a year's absence Mr. Field 

 returned to this country, having reserved as the 

 right of his countrymen the ownership of a quar- 

 ter of the stock in the new company. Here he 

 was plunged into a public controversy, and found 

 that Washington was buzzing with objections 

 and questionings. Some of the trials of the time 

 are hinted at in the following extract from a 

 speech by Mr. Seward, in 1858, after the first suc- 

 cessful laying of the cable : 



The two great countries are now ringing with the 

 praises of Cyrus W. Field, who ohiclly has brought 

 about this great enterprise to ita glorious and hencti- 

 cent consummation. You have never heard his story ; 



1. 1 mi- give you H few |H.ints in it, as a lenson that then- 

 i> nc. OOOdittOO <>f life ill which it inuti endowed with 

 native gem'ur., u hem -volent spirit, and a courageous 

 patience, may not become a beoefftOtOT Of Dfttfoi 

 of mankind. . . . It remained to cnt. r au'c 

 and activity of tin <_M,\ crnmcntn >f <i real Hritain and 

 tin United State*. That was all thai remained. Such 

 consent and activity on the part <t\ sonic one great na- 

 tion of Kuropc wan all that remained needful for Co- 

 liimhiiM, when he stood ready to bring a new continent 

 forward as u theatre of the w'orldV civili/ation. Hut in 

 each ca.se that effort was the most dillicultof all. Cyrus 

 \V. Kidd, by assiduity and patience, firs secured con- 

 sent and conditional engagement on the part of(iri-ut 

 Hritain, and then, less than two years ago, he repaired 

 to Washington. The President and Secretary of State- 

 individually favored his proposition; but the jealous- 

 ies of parties and seetions in < 'ongress forbade them 

 to lld it their ollieial sanction and patronage. He 

 appealed to me. I drew the necessary bill. With the 

 generous aid of others, Northern Representatives, and 

 the indispensable aid of the late Thomas J. Rusk, a 

 Senator from Texas, that bill, after a severe contest 

 and long delay, was carried through the Senate of the 

 t'nited States by the majority, if I remember rightly, 

 of one vote, and escaped defeat in the House of Rep- 

 resentatives with equal difficulty. 



President Pierce signed the bill the day before 

 he went out of office, March 8, 1857. immedi- 

 ately on learning that the bill had become a law, 

 Mr. Field went again to England to make ready 

 for the laying of the cable that had been in pro- 

 cess of manufacture there. The lately discovered 

 gutta-percha, and its application to the telegraph 

 as an insulator, were circumstances that assisted 

 the great enterprise. Mr. S. F. B. Morse had 

 watched the progress of the cable construction, 

 and tried many experiments tending to its suc- 

 cessful working. The two American vessels ten- 

 dered by the Government for the work of lay- 

 ingthe li Niagara " and the " Susquehanna " 

 reached England two months later, the former 

 ship having been altered to suit the demands of 

 a carrier of a thousand miles of cable. A like 

 amount was loaded upon the British vessel ' Aga- 

 memnon," and with two or three attending ves- 

 sels the expedition set out on its undertaking. 

 The plan adopted was to begin laying from the 

 Irish coast, splice the cable in midocean, and 

 continue to submerge it until it reached New- 

 foundland. 



On Aug. 5 the squadron sailed. The "Ni- 

 agara" was to lay the first half of the cable. 

 Before she had gone five miles the shore end 

 caught in the machinery and parted. She put 

 back, and the cable was " underrun " that dis- 

 tance. The next day a new start was made, and 

 all that day the slow-moving ship was watched 

 with quiet excitement as she paid out the cord 

 that disappeared in the ocean. Few eyes wen- 

 closed when night came and passed, and still all 

 was going well. On the next two days the sea 

 was calm, and all worked smoothly. They had 

 passed the only danger point laid down upon the 

 submarine charts of the American survey and of 

 the English one that had succeeded it a dip 

 from 550 to 1,750 fathoms within eight miles. 

 They were now over 200 miles off the Irish coast, 

 at a'point where the wire began sinking to the 

 deep-sea level 2,000 fathoms when on Monday 

 evening there came a sudden break in the flow 

 of electricity, which till then had come continu- 

 ously from the land. The cable looked as usual. 

 but "the voice that spoke through it was silent. 



