As it came from the works in its completed state, it was plunged in water, to make it familiar with the element which was to be its future home. In the yards of the Company stood eight large tanks, which could hold each a hundred and forty miles. Here the cable was coiled to "hibernate," till it should be wanted for use the coming spring.
Seeing the work thus well under way, with no chance of another disastrous check, Mr. Field left England with heart at rest, and returned to America for the winter. But the first days of spring saw him again on the Atlantic. He reached England on the eighteenth of March. His visit was more satisfactory than a year before. The work was now well advanced. It was a goodly sight to go down to Morden Wharf at Greenwich, and see the huge machinery in motion, spinning off the leagues of deep-sea line. The triumph apparently was near at hand. It seemed indeed a predestined thing that the cable should finally be laid in the year of grace 1865—the end for which he had so faithfully toiled since 1858—seven weary years—as long as Jacob served for Rachel! But, less fortunate than Jacob, he was doomed to one more disappointment. At present, however, all looked well, and he could not but regard the prospect with satisfaction.
Having no more drudgery of raising money, he had now a few weeks' leisure to take a voyage up the Mediterranean. The canal across the Isthmus of Suez, which had been so long in progress, under the supervision of French engineers, was at length so far advanced that the waters of the Mediterranean were about to mingle with those of the Red Sea, and delegates were invited to be present from all parts of the world. An invitation had been sent to the Chamber of Commerce in New York, and Mr. Field, then starting for Europe, was appointed as its representative. The visit was one of extraordinary interest. The occasion brought together a number of eminent engineers from every country of Europe, in company with whom this stranger from the New World visited the most ancient of kingdoms to see the spirit of modern enterprise invading the land of the Pyramids.
He returned to England about the first of May to find the work nearly completed. The cable was almost done, and a large part of it was already coiled on board the ship. This was an operation of much interest, which deserves to be described. The manufacture had begun on the first of September, and had gone on for eight months without ceasing, the works turning out fourteen miles a day even during the short days of winter. As the spring advanced, and the days grew longer, the amount was of course much increased. But by the last of January they had already accumulated about nine hundred miles of completed cable, when began the long and tedious work of transferring it to the Great Eastern. It was thus slow, because it could not be made directly from the yard to the ship. The depth of water at Greenwich was not such as to allow the Great Eastern to be brought up alongside the wharf. She was lying at Sheerness, thirty miles below, and the cable had to be put on board of lighters and taken down to where she lay in the stream. For this purpose the Admiralty had furnished to the Company two old hulks, the Iris and the Amethyst, which took their loads in turn. When the former had taken on board some two hundred and fifty tons of cable, she was towed down to the side of the Great Eastern, and the other took her place.
This was an operation which could not be done with speed. With all the men who could be employed, they coiled on board only about two miles an hour, or twenty miles a day—at which rate it would take some five months. The work began on the nineteenth of January, early in the morning, and continued till June, before all was safely stowed on board. The Great Eastern herself had been fitted up to receive her enormous burden. It was an object to stow the cable in as few coils as possible. Yet it could not be all piled in one mass. Such a dead weight in the centre of the ship would cause her to roll fearfully. If coiled in one circle, it was computed that it would nearly fill Astley's theatre from the floor of the circus to the roof—making a pile fifty-eight feet wide and sixty feet high. To distribute this enormous bulk and weight, it was disposed in three tanks—one aft, one amidships, and one forward. The latter, from the shape of the ship, was a little smaller than the others, and held only six hundred and thirty-three miles of cable, while the two former held a little over eight hundred each. All were made of thick wrought-iron plates, and water-tight, so that the cable could be kept under water till it was immersed in the sea.
Thus with her spacious chambers prepared for the reception of her guest, the Great Eastern opened her doors to take in the Atlantic cable; and long as it was, and wide and high the space it filled, it found ample verge and room within her capacious sides. Indeed, it was the wonder of all who beheld it, how, like a monster of the sea, she devoured all that other ships could bring. The Iris and the Amethyst came up time after time and disgorged their iron contents. Yet this leviathan swallowed ship-load after ship-load, as if she could never be satisfied. A writer who visited her when the cable was nearly all on board, was at a loss to find it. He looked along the deck, from stem to stern, but not a sign of it appeared. How he searched, and how the wonder grew, he tells in a published letter. After describing his approach to the ship, and climbing up her sides and his survey of her deck, he proceeds:
"But it is time that we should look after what we have mainly come to see, the telegraph cable. To our intense astonishment, we behold it nowhere, although informed that there are nearly two thousand miles of it already on board, and the remaining piece—a piece long enough to stretch from Land's End to John O'Groat's—is in course of shipment. We walk up and down on the deck of the Great Eastern without seeing this gigantic chain which is to bind together the Old and the New World; and it is only on having the place pointed out to us that we find where the cable lies and by what process it is taken on board. On the side opposite to where we landed, deep below the deck of our giant, there is moored a vessel surmounted by a timber structure resembling a house, and from this vessel the wonderful telegraph cable is drawn silently into the immense womb of the Great Eastern. The work is done so quietly and noiselessly, by means of a small steam-engine, that we scarcely notice it. Indeed, were it not pointed out to us, we would never think that that little iron cord, about an inch in diameter, which is sliding over a few rollers and through a wooden table, is a thing of world-wide fame—a thing which may influence the life of whole nations; nay, which may affect the march of civilization. Following the direction in which the iron rope goes, we now come to the most marvellous sight yet seen on board the Great Eastern. We find ourselves in a little wooden cabin, and look down, over a railing at the side, into an immense cavern below. This cavern is one of the three 'tanks' in which the two-thousand-mile cable is finding a temporary home. The passive agent of electricity comes creeping in here in a beautiful, silent manner, and is deposited in spiral coils, layer upon layer. It is almost dark at the immense depth below, and we can only dimly discern the human figures through whose hands the coil passes to its bed. Suddenly, however, the men begin singing. They intone a low, plaintive song of the sea; something like Kingsley's
'Three fishers went sailing away to the West,
Away to the West as the sun went down—'the sounds of which rise up from the dark, deep cavern with startling effect, and produce an indescribable impression.
"We proceed on; but the song of the sailors who are taking charge of the Atlantic Telegraph cable is haunting us like a dream. In vain our guide conducts us all over the big ship, through miles of galleries, passages, staircases, and promenades; through gorgeous saloons, full of mirrors, marbles, paintings, and upholstery, made 'regardless of expense;' and through buildings crowded with glittering steam apparatus of gigantic dimensions, where the latent power of coal and water creates the force which propels this monster vessel over the seas. In vain our attention is directed to all these sights; we do not admire them; our imagination is used up. The echo of the sailors' song in the womb of the Great Eastern will not be banished from our mind. It raises visions of the future of the mystic iron coil under our feet—how it will roll forth again from its narrow berth; how it will sink to the bottom of the Atlantic, or hang from mountain to mountain far below the stormy waves; and how two great nations, offsprings of one race and pioneers of civilization, will speak through this wonderful coil, annihilating distance and time. Who can help dreaming here, on the spot where we stand? For it is truly a marvellous romance of civilization, this Great Eastern and this Atlantic Telegraph cable. Even should our age produce nothing else, it alone would be the triumph of our age."
As the work approached completion, public interest revived in the stupendous undertaking, and crowds of wonder-seekers came down from London to see the preparations for the expedition. Even if not admitted on board, they found a satisfaction in sailing round the great ship, in whose mighty bosom was coiled this huge sea-serpent. It had also many distinguished visitors. Among others, the Prince of Wales came to see the ocean girdle which was to link the British islands with his future dominions beyond the sea.
At length, on the twenty-ninth of May, almost the last day of Spring, the manufacture of the cable was finished. The machines which for eight months had been in a constant whirl, made their last round. The tinkling of a bell announced that the machinery was empty, and the mighty work stood completed. It only remained that it should be got on board, and the ship prepared for her voyage. Hundreds of busy hands were at work without ceasing, and yet it was six weeks before she was ready to put to sea.