The grappling tackle was not sufficiently strong. The cable was three times partially raised, and each time lost; and the expedition returned to England defeated, but with the knowledge that ultimate success was certain.
The engineers and scientific men on board the ‘Great Eastern’ drew up a memorandum as to the results of this expedition, and, among other things, stated—‘That the steam-ship “Great Eastern,” from her size and constant steadiness, and from the control over her afforded by the joint use of paddles and screw, renders it safe to lay an Atlantic cable in any weather.’[176]
Sufficient additional cable was made to lay a second one and to finish the old cable when it should be recovered. The ship started again on July 13, 1866, and laid the cable across the Atlantic without the slightest mishap. She then returned, and after three weeks of hard work, the end of the cable which had been lost the year before was picked up, and completed to Newfoundland.
On her return to England there did not seem to be any immediate employment for her in cable laying, and the tanks were taken out. In the following year a company was formed in France to charter the ship, and to work her between New York and Brest during the French Exhibition. She made one voyage from Liverpool to New York and back to Brest and Liverpool; but the undertaking was a commercial failure.
She remained at Liverpool till October 1868, when it was proposed to lay a cable from France to America; and she came round to her former berth at Sheerness. Tanks were made in the fore and aft cargo spaces, and a very large tank, 75 feet in diameter, was placed amidships. The bulkheads were cut partially away to make room for it, the ship being strengthened above and below. She started on this expedition from Brest under the command of Captain Robert Halpin, and encountered very heavy weather. The cable was laid successfully.
The ship then returned to England, and was fitted out for the greatest adventure she has yet undertaken. She was to proceed with a full cargo of cable round the Cape of Good Hope to Bombay, to lay it thence to Aden, and from Aden a portion of the way up the Red Sea. With her cable and coals, on leaving England, she drew 34 feet 6 inches, with the enormous displacement of 32,724 tons. She laid the cable with perfect success, and returned to England.
Throughout all these cable-laying expeditions, and especially in the work of picking up the Atlantic cable of 1865, the good qualities of the ship have been fully exhibited.
The later voyages of the ‘Great Eastern’ were undertaken for the accomplishment of a work in which Mr. Brunel had felt a great interest.
In 1856, Mr. Cyrus Field came over to this country in order to consult English engineers and scientific men upon his project of an Atlantic cable. It is stated in a work written by Dr. Field,[177] that—
From the beginning Mr. Brunel showed the warmest interest in the undertaking, and made many suggestions in regard to the form of the cable and the manner in which it should be laid. He was then building the ‘Great Eastern,’ and one day he took Mr. Field down to Blackwall to see it, and said, ‘There is the ship to lay the Atlantic cable.’