178 A SAGA OF THE SEAS 
a cable that connected England and the United States by a 
more “direct” but longer route. Both this company and the 
French company, however, were soon absorbed into a financial 
combination with the Anglo-American Company. This lat- 
ter company laid two additional Newfoundland cables in 
1873 and 1874, to replace the pioneer cables that were wear- 
ing out. The laying of the 1874 cable was the last telegraph 
work done by the Great Eastern, which was soon to enter upon 
evil days and to be dismantled because unprofitable. This 
big ship was ahead of the times. 
Later, other Atlantic cables were laid by British, French, 
and American companies. That ubiquitous financier, Jay 
Gould, for example, promoted the laying of two cables in 
1881 and 1882, and linked them with the Western Union lines 
in America. Two other American capitalists, John W. Mack- 
ay and James Gordon Bennett (owner of the New York 
Herald) combined a little later to lay two cables from Ireland 
to Nova Scotia—a similar route to Gould’s. The sole rights 
for landing cables in Newfoundland were held for fifty years 
by Field’s original promotion, the New York, Newfoundland 
& London Telegraph Company. Other Atlantic lines were 
laid by way of the Azores, despite the deep, jagged bottom in 
the ocean there. By 1900 thirteen cables crossed the North 
Atlantic, but usually one or two were out of order. 
Later cables were heavier than the early ones. The copper 
wires in the core became larger and more numerous in the 
newer designs. The protecting armor was also heavier and 
more durable against rocks, ice, and general abrasion. The 
speed at which messages could be sent was increased steadily 
from the rather slow rate of the early cables; by the duplex 
system of 1875, messages could be sent in both directions at 
the same time. 
The rates charged for messages were gradually reduced. In 
the earliest schedules the rate was as high as twenty pounds 
(nearly a hundred dollars) for a minimum of twenty words, 
