THE results of the last expedition, disastrous as they were from a financial point of view, in no wise abated the courage of the promoters of the enterprise. During the heaviest weather the Great Eastern had shown exceptional “stiffness,” while her great size and her maneuvering power (afforded by the screw and paddles combined) seemed to show her to be the very type of vessel for this kind of work. The picking-up gear, it was true, had proved insufficient, but with the paying-out machinery no serious fault was to be found. The feasibility of grappling in mid-Atlantic had been demonstrated, and they had gone far toward proving the possibility of recovering the cable from similar depths.
Further Funds.—To overcome financial difficulties, the Atlantic Telegraph Company was amalgamated with a new concern, the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, which was formed, mainly by those interested in the older business, with the object of raising fresh capital for the new and double ventures of 1866. The ultimate capital of this company amounted (as before) to £600,000. In raising this, Mr. Field first secured the support of the late Sir Daniel{189} Gooch, M.P., then chairman, and previously locomotive superintendent of the Great Western Railway Company, who, after what he had seen on the previous expedition, promised, if necessary, to subscribe as much as £20,000. On the same conditions, Mr. Brassey expressed his willingness to bear one-tenth of the total cost of the undertaking. Ultimately, the Telegraph Construction Company led off with £100,000, this amount being followed by the signatures of ten directors interested in the contract (as guarantors) at £10,000 apiece. Then there were four subscriptions of £5,000, and some of £2,500 to £1,000, principally from firms participating in the subcontracts. These sums were all subscribed before even the prospectus was issued or the books opened to the public. The remaining capital then quickly followed.
The Telegraph Construction Company, in undertaking the entire work, were to receive £500,000 for the new cable in any case; and, if it succeeded, an extra £100,000. If both cables came into successful operation, the total amount payable to them was to be £737,140. In fact, it was, if possible, even more of a contractor’s enterprise than that of 1865.
It was now proposed not only to lay a new cable between Ireland and Newfoundland, but also to repair and complete the one lying at the bottom of the sea. A length of 1,600 miles of cable was ordered from the contractors. Thus, with the unexpended cable from the last expedition, the total length available when the expedition started would be 2,730 miles, of which 1,960 miles were allotted to the new cable, and 697 to complete the old one, leaving 113 miles as a reserve.{190}
Fresh Provisions.—The new main cable was similar to that of the year before, but the shore-end cable determined on in this case was of a different description. It had only one sheathing, consisting of twelve contiguous iron wires of great individual surface and weight; and outside all a covering of tarred hemp and compound. That part of the line which was intended for shallow depths was composed of three different types. Starting from the coast of Ireland, eight miles of the heaviest was to be laid, then eight miles of an intermediate type, and lastly fourteen miles of a lighter type, making thirty miles of shoal-water cable on the Irish side. Five miles of shallow-water cable, of the different types named, were considered sufficient on the Newfoundland coast.
The previous paying-out machinery on board the Great Eastern was altered to some extent by Messrs. Penn to the instructions of Messrs. Canning & Clifford. Though different in detail, the main improvement over the 1865 gear consisted in the fact that a 70-horse-power steam-engine was fitted to drive the two large drums in such a way that the paying-out machinery, as in 1858, could be used to pick up cable during the laying, if necessary, thereby avoiding the risk incurred by changing the cable from the stern to the bows. This addition of Penn trunk-engines, as well as the general strengthening of the entire machinery, was made in accordance with the designs of Mr. Henry Clifford.
