There was nothing left but to return to England. The position is very clearly stated by Mr. Field in a letter to one of his family, which shows how his own courage survived the great disaster:—
"H. M. Steamer Leopard,
Thursday, August 13, 1857."The successful laying down of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable is put off for a short time, but its final triumph has been fully proved, by the experience that we have had since we left Valentia. My confidence was never so strong as at the present time, and I feel sure, that with God's blessing, we shall connect Europe and America with the electric cord.
"After having successfully laid—and part of the time while a heavy sea was running—three hundred and thirty-five miles of the cable, and over one hundred miles of it in water more than two miles in depth, the brakes were applied more firmly, by order of Mr. Bright, the engineer, to prevent the cable from going out so fast, and it parted.
"I retired to my state-room at a little after midnight Monday, all going on well, and at a quarter before four o'clock on Tuesday morning, the eleventh instant, I was awoke from my sleep by the cry of 'Stop her, back her!' and in a moment Mr. Bright was in my room, with the sad intelligence that the cable was broken. In as short a time as possible I was dressed, and on deck; and Captain Hudson at once signaled the other steamers that the cable had parted, and in a few moments Captain Wainwright, of the Leopard, and Captain Sands, of the Susquehanna, were on board of the Niagara.
"I requested Captain Wainwright, the commander of the English Telegraph Fleet, to order the Agamemnon to remain with the Niagara and Susquehanna, in this deep part of the Atlantic for a few days, to try certain experiments which will be of great value to us, and then sail with them back to England, and all wait at Plymouth until further orders. I further requested Captain Wainwright to order the Cyclops to sound here where the cable parted, and then steam back to Valentia, with letters from me to Dr. Whitehouse, and Mr. Saward, the secretary of the Atlantic Telegraph Company; and that he should take me in the Leopard as soon as possible to Portsmouth.
"All of my requests were cheerfully complied with, and in a few hours the Cyclops had sounded, and found the bottom at two thousand fathoms, and was on her way back to Valentia with letters from me; the Niagara and the Agamemnon were connected together by the cable, and engaged in trying experiments; the Susquehanna in attendance, and the Leopard, with your affectionate —— on board, on her way back to England.
"In my letter to Dr. Whitehouse I requested him to telegraph to London, and have a special meeting of the Directors called for twelve o'clock on Saturday, to decide whether we should have more cable made at once, and try again this season, or wait until next year.
"I shall close this letter on board, so as to have it ready to mail the moment we arrive at Portsmouth, as I wish to leave by the very next train for London, so as to be there in time to meet the Directors Saturday noon, and read them my report, which I am busy making up.
"Do not think that I feel discouraged, or am in low spirits, for I am not; and I think I can see how this accident will be of great advantage to the Atlantic Telegraph Company.
"All the officers and men on board of the Telegraph Fleet, seem to take the greatest interest in our enterprise, and are very desirous to go out in the ships the next time.
"Since my arrival, I have received the greatest kindness and attention from all whom I have met, from the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, down to the cabin-boys and sailors. The inclosed letter from the Knight of Kerry, I received with a basket of hothouse fruit, just as we were getting ready to leave Valentia harbor.
Your ——
"Cyrus W. Field."
The day that this was written, Mr. Field landed at Portsmouth, and at once hastened to London to meet the Directors. At first it was a question if they should renew the expedition this year. But their brief experience had shown the need of more ample preparations for their next attempt. They required six hundred miles more of cable to make up for over three hundred lost in the sea, and to provide a surplus so as to run no risk of falling short from other accidents; and most of all they needed better machinery to pay out the cable into the ocean. These preparations required time, and before they could be made, it would be late in the autumn. Hence they reluctantly decided to defer the expedition till another year. The Niagara and the Agamemnon therefore discharged their cable at Plymouth, whence the Niagara returned home; and Mr. Field, after remaining a few weeks in London to complete the preparations for the next year, sailed for America.
He returned to find that a commercial hurricane had swept over the country, in which a thousand stately fortunes had gone down, and in which the wealth he had accumulated by years of toil had nearly suffered shipwreck. Such were the tidings that met him on landing. It had been a year of disappointments in England and America—of disasters on land and sea—and all his high hopes were
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Mr. Field was detained by illness at Valentia, and several of the ships had not arrived.