124 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
place, Bay of Bull’s Arm, but had quiet deep waters favorable 
for a cable. ‘The Newfoundlanders took great interest in all 
this. 
There was much more traveling during the summer, in 
order to arrange cooperation with the telegraph lines in Can- 
ada, Newfoundland, and the United States. Field was a fre- 
quent patron of railroads, steamers, stage-coaches, and even 
fishing boats. His activities were designed both to help the 
cable campaign and to further Anglo-American understand- 
ing in regard to the war, which was entering its final stages. 
He was particularly active socially. 
General John A. Dix has recorded (Memoirs of John 
Adams Dix) that in December, 1864, he was a guest, together 
with the British minister, Lord Lyons, at Field’s residence in 
New York when a telegram came that might have caused in- 
ternational trouble had not those two officials talked the mat- 
ter over at once. This is typical of Field’s intermediary services 
during a period of unusual stress in the relations of two great 
countries. Because of his wide acquaintance and amiable 
nature, he acted somewhat like an unofficial ambassador in 
his travels back and forth. 
In February of 1865 Field visited General Grant’s army at 
the front and saw his friends in Washington, having much to 
talk over before departing again for England. The ship on 
which he sailed for Liverpool was commanded by the captain 
whom Field had picked to take charge of the Great Eastern. 
There were many details to be arranged about equipment and 
crew for such an exceptional and temporary engagement. For 
one thing, the Great Eastern was too large to be moored near 
the cable works at East Greenwich, so that the cable had to 
be cut and coiled on pontoons, after a preparatory soaking 
in water to accustom it to the elements. 
While the new cable was being manufactured in England, 
Field, temporarily relieved of old worries, took an ocean 
cruise for a holiday. He was pleased, also, at the impending 
