Successful Completion.—Fourteen days after starting the Great Eastern arrived off Heart’s Content,[65] Trinity Bay, where the Medway joined on and landed the shore end partly by boats, thus bringing to a successful conclusion this part of the expedition. The total length of cable laid was 1,852 nautical miles; average depth, 1,400 fathoms. Rejoicings then took place during the{197} coaling of the Great Eastern—to provide for which as many as six coal-laden steamers had left Cardiff some weeks before. The rejoicings were somewhat damped by the fact that the cable between Newfoundland and Cape Breton (Nova Scotia) still remained interrupted, and that consequently the entire telegraphic system was not even now completed. However, in the course of a few days this line was repaired, and New York and the east of the United States and Canada were once more put into telegraphic communication with Europe.
The telegraphic fleet put to sea again on August 9th.
CHAPTER XVI
RECOVERY AND COMPLETION OF THE 1865 CABLE
Prospects and Plans—Setting to Work—Repeated Failures—Ultimate Triumph—Electricians Ashore—“Spot-watching”—“Putting-through”—Pioneering—Working the Lines.
Prospects and Plans.—It now remained to find the end of the cable lost on August 2, 1865, situated about 604 miles from Newfoundland, to pick it up, splice on to the cable remaining on board, and finish the work so unfortunately interrupted the year before. The difficulties to be overcome can be readily imagined, the cable lying 2,000 fathoms without mark of any kind to indicate its position. The buoys put down after the accident{198} had long since disappeared, either their moorings having dragged during various gales of wind, or the wire ropes which held them having chafed through, owing to incessant rise and fall at the bottom. The position of the lost end had to be determined by astronomical observations. These necessitate clear weather, and can then only give approximate results on account of the variable ocean currents, which sometimes flow at the rate of three knots. Moreover, for grappling and raising the cable to the bows, the sea must be tolerably smooth; and in that part where the work lay a succession of fine days is rare, even in the month of August. However, they still had on board Captain Moriarty, one of the ablest navigators in the world. Added to this, the greater portion of the cable in deep water had been paid out with about 15 per cent slack.
The chiefs of the expedition, fully confident of success, hastened their preparations, and on August 9, 1866, the Great Eastern again put to sea, accompanied by S.S. Medway. On the 12th the vessels arrived on the scene of action, and joined company with H.M.S. Terrible and S.S. Albany, these vessels having left Heart’s Content Bay a week in advance to buoy the line of the 1865 cable and commence grappling.
The plan decided on was to drag for the cable near the end with all three ships at once. The cable when raised to a certain height, was to be cut by the Medway stationed to the westward of the Great Eastern, so as to enable the latter vessel to lift the Valentia end on board. This was, of course, before the days of cutting and holding grapnels as we now have them, which render it{199} possible for a single ship to effect repairs—even where it is out of the question to recover the cable in one bight.
