Too much praise can not be bestowed upon both the officers and men of the Agamemnon for the hearty way in which they have assisted in the arduous and difficult service they have been engaged in; and the admirable manner in which the ship was navigated by Mr. Moriarty materially reduced the difficulty of the company’s operations.
It will, in all probability, be nearly a fortnight before the instruments are connected at the two termini for the transmission of regular messages.
It is unnecessary here to expatiate upon the magnitude of the undertaking which has just been completed, or{135} upon the great political and social results which are likely to accrue from it; but there can be but one feeling of universal admiration for the courage and perseverance which have been displayed by Mr. Bright, and those who acted under his orders, in encountering the manifold difficulties which arose on their path at every step.[39]
The American End.—In contradistinction to the heavy seas and difficulties the Agamemnon had to contend with, her consort, the Niagara, experienced very quiet weather, and her part of the work was comparatively uneventful, with the exception of a fault near the bottom of the ward-room coil. This was detected during the operations on the night of August 2d, but was removed before it was paid out into the sea. About four o’clock the next morning the continuity and insulation was accordingly restored, and, says Mr. Mullaly (the New York Herald correspondent on board), “all was going on as if nothing had occurred to disturb the confidence we felt in the success of the expedition.”
When nearing the end, various icebergs were met with—some a hundred feet high. Mullaly dilates on their castle-like form and the effective appearance of the sun’s rays thereon. Shortly after entering Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, the Niagara was met by H.M.S. Porcupine, which had been sent out from England at the very beginning of the 1858 expedition to await her arrival and render any assistance which might be required. The Niagara anchored about 1 A.M. on August 5th, having completed her work, and, during the forenoon of that day, the cable was landed in a{137} little bay, Bull Arm,[40] at the head of Trinity Bay, when they “received very strong currents of electricity through the whole cable from the other side of the Atlantic.”[41]