93 THE SEA. 



CHAPTER IX. 



DAVY JONES'S LOCKEK. SUBMARINE CABLES. 



The First Channel Cable -Nowadays 50,000 Miles of Submarine Wire A Noble New Englander The First Idea of the 

 Atlantic Cable Its Practicability Admitted Maury's Notes on the Atlantic Bottom Deep Sea Soundings Ooze, 

 formed of Myriads of Shells English Co-operation with Field The First Cable of 1857 Paying Out 2,000 Fathoms down 

 The Cable Parted Bitter Disappointment The Cable Laid and Working Another Failure The Employment of the 

 Great Eastern Stowing Away the Great Wire Rope Departure Another Accident A Traitor on Board Cable 

 Fished up from the Bottom Failure Inauguration of the 1866 Expedition Prayer for Success A Lucky Friday- 

 Splicing to the Shore Cable The Start Each Day's Run- Approaching Trinity Bay Success at Last The Old ani 

 the New World Bound Together. 



IN the year 1850 a copper wire, insulated with gutta-percha, was submerged between England 

 and France, and that connecting- link between the two greatest countries of Europe was 

 the first considerable success of its kind. To-day Great Britain is connected with the 

 European continent by a dozen cables, and there are over 50,000 miles of submerged wires 

 silently conveying their messages over the face of the globe. Thirty years of practical 

 scientific labour has united the whole world. You can telegraph or " wire " your commands to 

 distant China or Japan; you can ask the market rates of wheat in the farthest west of the 

 New World; you can correspond with your wife in_ England if you are at the Antipodes. 

 Puck's idea of putting the "girdle round the earth," has been more than accomplished. 

 The story of the successes won at the very bottom of the ocean would take long to tell ; 

 here we can only follow the story of one of the grandest that of the Atlantic cable. 



In the month of November, 1819, a noble American, whose career deserves to be put 

 on record, first saw the light. Cyrus W. Field has deservedly earned an honourable and 

 honoured name in two worlds for indomitable perseverance and pluck.* 



The New Englander has to-day, and has always had, many of the best qualities of the 

 Old Englander. In Field they were conspicuously displayed. In his " bright lexicon 3> 



there was 



"No such word as fail," 



for the worst disappointment only stirred him to fresh exertion. 



" "Tis not in mortals to command success ; 

 But we'll do more, Sempronius we'll deserve it." 



Field was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a rural village nook which lies calmly and 

 peacefully cradled among the green Berkshire hills, a spot which would delight the eyes of a 

 true artist. He was the son of a country pastor, who, in spite of a paltry stipend of a hundred 

 and fifty pounds a year, and thanks to the scholastic advantages offered to every one in the 

 United States, gave nine children a superior education. Several of these children distinguished 

 themselves in after life, but none more than the subject of this sketch. 



*This account is mainly derived from the "History of the Atlantic Telegraph," by Dr. Henry M. Field; 

 " The Story of Cyrus Field ; " and Dr. Russell's letters in the Times. 



