The next step was the formation of the Atlantic Telegraph Company and the sounding the way for the cable which was undertaken by both the British and American Governments separately. The British Government gave every encouragement to the projectors by promising £14,000 a year for the transmission of its messages and the use of the ships of its navy to lay the cable.
£350,000 was asked for and in a short time subscribed, Mr. Field taking 80 shares of £1,000 each.
In 1857 the first attempt to lay the cable proved a failure, but in the following year (1858) a second attempt was made, but a terrific storm met the vessels in the middle of the Atlantic, the cable broke again and the expedition returned to England once more. A third effort met with better success, and on the 5th of August, 1858, the two ends were safely landed, one in Valentia Bay, Ireland, the other in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland.
The first message sent from the Old World to the New was worthy the occasion.
“Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good-will to men.”
A few weeks later the cable ceased to act, but a new cable was prepared and the “Great Eastern” was sent out with it, only, however, to lose it also when 1,200 miles from Ireland.
It seemed a hopeless dream to bind the two worlds by electric wire, but Mr. Field did not despair. A better cable was once more made; another company was formed with a capital of £600,000.
In 1866 the “Great Eastern” again sailed, and this time carried the thin thread triumphantly from shore to shore, not only so, but fished up the broken cable from the abysses of the ocean, united it and joined England and America by two telegraphic wires.
The moving spirit throughout was Mr. Field, who spent some thirteen years of his life and made forty trips across the Atlantic, imperilling his health and means in pursuit of this great enterprise before his efforts were crowned with success.
He died on the 12th day of July, 1892.