148 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
it went over the bow of the ship and could tell by its quiver 
that it was dragging on the bottom more than two miles be- 
neath him. 
As had been the case a year before, it was not so difficult to 
hook the deep-lying cable as it was to lift the long stretch up 
to the steamer. On several occasions the cable was hooked and 
raised nearly to the steamer but something interfered and it 
fell back. On one attempt the slippery “sea-serpent’’ (as 
Henry Field called it) had been brought above the water, so 
that the crew gave a “hearty English cheer.” But after being 
in sight for five minutes, it broke under the strain and, twist- 
ing like a great eel, sank back to the bottom, to the disgust of 
the frantic seamen who were trying to land it. 
The look of this cable was peculiar. The official record- 
keeper, Deane, wrote: “On the appearance of the cable, we 
were all struck with the fact that one half of it was covered 
with ooze, staining it a muddy white, while the other half 
was in just the state in which it left the tank, with its tarred 
surface and strands unchanged, which showed that it lay in 
the sand only half embedded. The strain on the cable gave 
it a twist, and it looked as if it had been painted spirally 
black and white. This disposes of the oft-repeated assertion, 
that we should not be able to pull it up from the bottom, be- 
cause it would be embedded in ooze.” 
Some days were too rough for progress, and strong winds 
drove the ships off their course. They lost valuable portions 
of the wire rope used for grappling; every delay was reducing 
the short season available for work. Cyrus Field’s diary shows 
that some days were too calm, when the sea was like glass. A 
little wind was necessary to make the ship drift over the cable 
for the hooking process. ‘Trial after trial was made under the 
varied conditions as the days went by. 
On one occasion the Albany went off on a trial of its own. 
During the night, Cyrus Field was awakened by the firing of 
