162 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
In view of the attitude of some of the British to minimize 
Field’s part in the achievement, it was natural that expressions 
of respect from those qualified to know the whole story pleased 
him most. Sir William Thomson (later to be Lord Kelvin) 
wrote him from Scotland: “I am sorry I had not an opportu- 
nity of saying in public how much I value your energy and 
perseverance in carrying through the great enterprise, and 
how clearly you stand out in its history as its originator and 
its mainspring from beginning to end.” Dr. W. H. Russell, 
the famous correspondent of the Times, had said in his book 
about the expedition which he accompanied: “Mr. Field may 
be likened either to the core, or the external protection, of 
the cable itself. At times he has been its active life; again he 
has been its iron-bound guardian.” 
From the great French engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, 
who built the Suez canal came a cablegram saying: “‘Feélicita- 
tions pour persévérance et grand succés.’’ Captain Anderson 
wrote a long letter from the Great Eastern to Mrs. Field, in 
which he said: “Mr. Field, at least, never gave out. He never 
ceased to say, ‘It would all come right,’ even when his looks 
hardly bore out the assertion. But at last it did.” 
Sir Charles Wheatstone, the veteran authority on electri- 
city, was asked by the Secretary of the Privy Council, prior to 
the conferring of the Queen’s honors, to assist the Govern- 
ment by naming the persons most deserving of reward in the 
work. He named Field, Glass, Canning, Anderson, and Thom- 
son. The paragraph about Field spoke of his “indomitable 
perseverance.” It said further: “Through good and through 
evil report he has pursued his single object undaunted by re- 
peated failures, keeping up the flagging interest of the public 
and the desponding hopes of capitalists, and employing his 
energies to combine all the means which might lead toward 
a successful issue.”’ 
Gladstone, who was soon to be England’s prime minister, 
wrote Field shortly after the landing of the cable. His letter 
