SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE. 247 



his first message over it. The matter rested until in 1854 it 

 received an impulse from Newfoundland. Mr. F. N. Gisborne, 

 of that province, had sought to interest Mr. Matthew D. Field, 

 of New York, in a project for connecting the island with the 

 mainland. Several cables connecting Great Britain with Ire- 

 land and with the continent of Europe were then in operation. 

 Mr. Field consulted his brother, Cyrus W. Field, to whom this 

 idea suggested the greater undertaking of crossing the Atlan- 

 tic with a telegraphic line. Strong companies were soon or- 

 ganized on both sides of the ocean to co-operate in the work. 

 The first link in the chain a sixty-mile cable from Nova 

 Scotia to Newfoundland was attempted unsuccessfully in 

 1855, and laid in the next year. In the summer of 1856 Prof. 

 Morse went to England to superintend some of the preparations 

 for the cable across the Atlantic, and in connection with this 

 trip made a tour through France, Germany, Denmark, and 

 Russia. Presentations at royal courts, and honours by men of 

 science and affairs, attended his whole progress. Perhaps the 

 greatest triumph was a public dinner given to him in London, 

 where a very cold shoulder had been his portion eighteen years 

 before. Mr. W. F. Cooke, who had been the partner of his 

 chief English rival, presided at the dinner. 



The preparations having been completed, a fleet of British 

 and American vessels left Valentia Bay, Ireland, early in Au- 

 gust, 1857, laying the cable as they went. When about three 

 hundred miles had been paid out the cable parted. The next 

 June a second attempt was made. This time the two vessels 

 bearing the cable steamed to midocean, and when the two 

 halves of the line had been joined, the vessels set out in oppo- 

 site directions. Only two hundred miles had been laid when 

 another break occurred. A month later the third attempt was 

 made, and on August 5, 1858, both ends of the cable were suc- 

 cessfully landed the American in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, 

 the European at Valentia. Enthusiastic celebrations followed. 

 Mr. Field and Prof. Morse were the lions of the civilized world. 

 The rejoicings over this success had not ceased when, on Sep- 

 tember ist, the cable ceased to work. This last accident 

 caused many persons to lose faith in the project; then the 

 civil war came on and another attempt was not made until the 

 summer of 1865, when the Great Eastern, starting from Va- 

 lentia, laid twelve hundred miles and then the cable parted. 



