Ships and Paying-out Machinery.—The race against time—resulting from an unfortunate arrangement with American interests—was truly appalling; for, besides the manufacture of the line itself, ships had to be selected and prepared for receiving the cable, and machinery for paying out the line had to be designed and made. So far as the manufacture went, the machinery for that was already in existence, in view of the cables that had previously been laid—apart from the fact that the sheathing machinery was practically the same as had already been used for making ropes with. But this being the first ocean line, special apparatus had to be worked out for submerging a cable satisfactorily in deep water. So far as ships were concerned, the British and United States Governments had already expressed willingness to furnish these. The former undertaking took shape by the Admiralty placing H.M.S. Agamemnon (a screw-propelled line-of-battle ship and one of the finest in the British navy) at the company’s disposal for the expedition. She had been Admiral Lyons’s flagship during the bombardment of Sebastopol a couple of years before; but, in her coming mission,{54} was to do more to bring about the reign of peace—by drawing together in closer commune the several nations of the earth—than any man-of-war was ever called to do, before or after. With a somewhat peculiar construction, she was admirably adapted for her work. Her engines were quite near the stern, while amidships she had a magnificent hold, forty-five feet square and about twenty feet deep. In this capacious receptacle nearly half the cable was stowed from the works at Greenwich. The American Government sent over the largest and finest ship of their navy, the U.S. frigate Niagara (Fig. 11), a screw-corvette of 5,200 tons. As a consort, the U.S. paddle frigate Susquehanna was also de{55}tailed for the expedition, while H.M.S. Leopard and H.M. sounding-vessel Cyclops were similarly provided by the British Government. The latter was to precede the fleet—nicknamed the Wire Squadron—to show the way.
