The First Atlantic Cables 



in pitch-soaked hemp yarn, the shore ends 

 specially protected by thirty-six wires girdling 

 the whole. Here was a combination of the 

 tenacity of steel with much of the flexibility of 

 rope. The insulation of the copper was so 

 excellent as to exceed by a hundredfold that of 

 the core of 1858 which, faulty though it was, 

 had, nevertheless, sufficed for signals. So much 

 inconvenience and risk had been encountered 

 in dividing the task of cable-laying between two 

 ships that this time it was decided to charter a 

 single vessel, the Great Eastern, which, fortu- 

 nately, was large enough to accommodate the 

 cable in an unbroken length. Foilhommerum 

 Bay, about six miles from Valentia, was selected 

 as the new Irish terminus by the company. Al- 

 though the most anxious care was exercised in 

 every detail, yet, when 1,186 miles had been laid, 

 the cable parted in 11,000 feet of water, and 

 although thrice it was grappled and brought 

 toward the surface, thrice it slipped off the 

 grappling hooks and escaped to the ocean floor. 

 Mr. Field was obliged to return to England 

 and face as best he might the men whose capital 

 lay at the bottom of the sea perchance as 

 worthless as so much Atlantic ooze. With 

 heroic persistence he argued that all difficulties 

 would yield to a renewed attack. There must 

 be redoubled precautions and vigilance never 

 for a moment relaxed. Everything that deep- 

 sea telegraphy has since accomplished was at 

 that moment daylight clear to his prophetic 

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