54 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
persons looked upon the whole affair as one of the unfulfilled 
dreams of the romantic life of the sea. 
When Field arrived in New York, more bad news awaited 
him. His troubles had a habit of coming in battalions. The 
panic of 1857 had swept over the country, as the impetus 
from the California gold boom and the Crimean War brought 
reactions. While he was at sea, his mercantile firm had been 
forced to suspend, with debts of six hundred thousand dol- 
lars, although a sum of over half of that amount was due the 
firm from other bankrupt operators. Such unmerited rebuffs 
in business made him seem at times brusque and heartless 
in his mercantile policy. Often such an attitude was merely 
the consequence of his impatience and frustrated hopes. 
He settled with his creditors by giving up goods from his 
store or signing notes at seven percent interest. Before two 
years elapsed, these notes were all retired. Given any kind of 
a chance, Field had quick powers of recuperation, and his 
firm enjoyed much good-will despite the criticism of his 
wasting time on a wild-goose chase across the Atlantic. 
After a visit to Washington to ask the Government for the 
use of the naval vessels for another attempt, Field sailed for 
England early in 1858. Additional funds were raised with 
difficulty; a hundred thousand pounds were required. The 
Atlantic Telegraph Company, recognizing the need for uni- 
fied leadership and for improvements in the apparatus, asked 
Field to act as general manager. Although he agreed to this, 
he declined remuneration. The minutes of the directors’ 
meeting said on this point: “It was unanimously resolved to 
tender him, in respect to such services, the sum of one thou- 
sand pounds over and above his travelling and other expenses 
as remuneration.” 
Field had brought William E. Everett, formerly chief en- 
gineer of the Niagara, to devise less cumbersome machinery 
for laying the cable. With the cooperation of British engi- 
neers, a smaller and more flexible machine was perfected—a 
