52 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
connected with the manufacture and storage of the cable are 
now completed, and the conclusion of the arduous labor was 
celebrated yesterday with high festivity and rejoicing. .. . 
The festival was held in the beautiful park which had been 
obligingly opened by Sir Culling Eardley, near Erith... . 
The honorable baronet has all along evinced the liveliest sym- 
pathy with the undertaking. . . . The three centre tables 
were occupied by the crew of the Agamemnon, a fine, active 
body of young men, who paid the greatest attention to the 
speeches, and drank all the toasts with an admirable punctual- 
ity, at least so long as their three pints of beer per man lasted; 
but we regret to add that, what with the heat of the day and 
the enthusiasm of Jack in the cause of science, the mugs were 
all empty long before the chairman’s list of toasts had been 
gone through. Next in interest to the sailors were the work- 
men and their wives and babies. The latter, it is true, some- 
times squalled at an affecting peroration, but rather improved 
the effect. . . . It was a momentary return to the old pa- 
triarchal times.’’ A later number of the Times reported satis- 
factory tests of the cable-laying machinery off the Isle of 
Wight on the way to Ireland. 
Early on the morning of August 6, 1857, the squadron of 
ships sailed with flying flags out of the rocky bay. Before they 
had gone five miles the cable caught in the machinery and 
parted. The Niagara returned, repaired the damage, and re- 
sumed her course more slowly. ‘The paying-out machinery, to 
which many anxious thoughts had been devoted, rumbled 
like “an old coffee-mill,”’ as Henry Field said, but the miles 
ticked off as a thousand eyes watched the process carefully. 
“Stars came out on the face of the deep, but no man slept,” 
continued this commentator. 
Cyrus Field was on board with Professor Morse, the electri- 
cian of the American company. The United States navy regu- 
lations did not permit newspaper correspondents, but a New 
York Herald reporter, John Mullaly, was there in the capacity 
