32 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
special sounding apparatus had shown only an ooze of minute 
shells with no abrading sand or gravel. Maury considered 
these exceptional conditions to be unusually inviting for a 
deep-sea telegraph line—almost a sign from God favoring 
such a cable. He suggested, however, that there might be tre- 
mendous practical difficulties in getting a large ship to lay 
such a long wire in the heavy seas customary there. This 
“beautiful plateau” of the ocean bottom, ‘where the waters 
of the sea appear to be as quiet and as completely at rest as at 
the bottom of a mill-pond,” was known to underlie a turbu- 
lent and dangerous sea, where ships passed with difficulty 
amid fogs, storms, and icebergs. The word “plateau” meant 
that the ocean bottom at that place was not jagged or moun- 
tainous and was only moderately deep. 
Encouraged by such favorable comments to believe that he 
could achieve a really great service for mankind, Field in- 
duced several of his well-to-do acquaintances to assist in form- 
ing a company. After winning over the benevolent man of 
affairs, Peter Cooper and his own shrewd brother David, he 
persuaded Moses Taylor, Marshall O. Roberts, and Chandler 
White to join the group. Later Wilson G. Hunt also came in. 
‘Taylor and Roberts were well-known capitalists; Cooper was 
New York’s leading citizen. 
At first sight, as Cooper afterward explained, it seemed 
“a wild and visionary scheme” more suited for the inmates of 
a lunatic asylum than for practical New York financiers. From 
the very start, it was Field’s enthusiasm as a promoter that 
won support for the project, which was so unusual and chi- 
merical that a man of exceptionally winning address was re- 
quired to advance it. 
Field little realized what he was getting into. His brother 
Henry, in his Story of the Atlantic Telegraph, wrote: “He 
thought little of a few thousands risked in an uncertain ven- 
ture; but never imagined that he might yet be drawn on to 
stake upon its success the whole fortune he had accumulated; 
