PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE 131 
nothing, till toward morning the long rope quivered like a 
fisherman’s line.” The hauling-in began and went on for 
several hours. The cable was raised three-quarters of a mile 
from the bottom when a swivel broke; the cable sank back, 
carrying with it a large piece of the fishing-rope. 
After delays and fogs, another attempt was made, and this 
time the cable was raised a mile from the bottom when an- 
other swivel broke. The rope was getting short, and repairs 
were necessary. Blacksmith fires were started on deck and 
glowed weirdly in the fog. Russell wrote: “One might well 
pardon the passing mariner, whose bark drifted him in the 
night across the track of the great ship, if, crossing himself, 
and praying with shuddering lips, he fancied he beheld a 
phantom ship freighted with an evil crew, and ever after told 
how he had seen the workshops of the Inferno floating on the 
bosom of the ocean.” 
Two more attempts were made, but both failed; the rope 
was nearly gone. The cable itself had not broken during 
these fishing trials; it was the grappling apparatus that was at 
fault. ‘The date was now August 12. The season’s work was 
over, and the ships parted company. Henry Field wrote: “The 
Great Eastern swung sullenly around, and turned her im- 
perial head toward England, like a warrior retiring from the 
field—not victorious, nor yet defeated and despairing, but 
with her battle-flag still flying, and resolved once more to 
attempt the conquest of the sea.” 
There was great need for what Blackwood’s Magazine 
called Field’s “unswerving resolution”. It referred to him as 
“full of hope and confidence, and never betraying anxiety or 
despair even at the most serious disaster—a man whose rest- 
less energy is best shown in his spare yet strong frame.” ‘This 
was from a source not inclined to praise promiscuously. 
Blackwood’s usually discriminated rather sharply, especially 
against Americans. 
