The Atlantic Telegraph (1865)

by Sir William Howard Russell

Monday, July 31st.—We have been passing over the valley in the Atlantic which is more than two miles deep. With the morning came the news that all had gone well during the night. Some had got up an hour after midnight to watch the transfer of the coil from the after to the fore tank, which was looked forward to with interest, as it was supposed to be attended with some little difficulty. But they were agreeably disappointed; the operation was effected with the utmost facility. At 3·30 o’clock a.m. the ship was stopped, to permit the transfer to be made. At 3·50 a.m. the Cable was running out of the fore hold, passing down the trough, and going out over the stern as she steamed ahead again. The Great Eastern was now near a fatal spot—somewhere below us lay the bones of three Atlantic Cables.

But all during the forenoon, engineers and electricians, agreed in the most favourable statements respecting the Cable and its progress. At 9 a.m. (Greenwich time) 868 miles had been run out, and 770 miles made from land. In the forenoon Mr. Canning brought to trial the coils in which the peccant part that had wrought such mischief existed. The Court was held at the door of the Testing-Room. Mr. de Sauty acted as judge. The jury consisted of cells, wires, and galvanometers. The accused cable, cut in junks, was subjected to a silent examination, and many fathoms were pronounced not guilty, flake by flake, till at last the criminal was detected and at once carried off by Mr. Canning. The process of examination was conducted in Mr. Clifford’s cabin, to which a few anxious spectators were admitted. The core was laid bare by untwisting the strands of Manilla covered with iron, and before a foot of it was uncovered an exclamation literally of horror escaped our lips! There, driven right through the centre of the coil so as to touch the inner wires, was a piece of iron wire, bright as if cut with nippers at one end and broken off short at the other. It was tried with the gauge, and found to be of the same thickness as the wire used in making the protecting cover of the Cable. On examining the strands a mark of a cut was perceived on the Manilla where the wire had entered, but it did not come through on the other side. In fact, it corresponded in length exactly with the diameter of the Cable, so that the ends did not project beyond the outer surface of the covering. Now here was at once, we thought, demonstration of a villanous design. No man who saw it could doubt that the wire had been driven in by a skilful hand. And as that was so, was it not likely that the former fault had been caused in a similar manner, and that it was not the result of accident? Then, again, it was curious that the former fault occurred when the same gang of men were at work in the tank. It was known there were enemies to the manufacturers of the Cable; whispers went about that one of the cablemen had expressed gratification when the first fault occurred. It was a very solicitous moment, and Mr. Canning felt a great responsibility. He could not tell who was guilty, and in trying to punish them or him he might disgust the good men on whom so much depended. He at once accepted an offer made by the gentlemen on board the ship to take turn about in doing duty in the tank and superintending the men engaged in paying-out the Cable. Then he caused the cablemen to be summoned at the bows, and showed them the coil and the wire. After they had examined it curiously, he asked the men what they thought of the injury, and they one and all, without hesitation, expressed their opinion that it must have been done on purpose by some one in the tanks. Lynch law was talked of, and if the man could have been pounced upon, and left to the mercy of his fellows, he would have fared ill that day. Nor was the feeling of anger and indignation diminished by the knowledge that the punishment awarded by law for offences of such a character was a paltry fine and short imprisonment. The men who were engaged in the tank at the time of the occurrence were transferred to other duties, and the volunteer inspectors established a roster, and began their course of duty—one going on for two hours at a time, and being relieved in order, so that night and day the men engaged in paying-out the Cable were under the eyes of very vigilant watchmen. It was a painful thing to have to do, but the men admitted it was not only justifiable but necessary, and declared they were very glad the measure was adopted. It was fondly hoped that this surveillance would save us from a recurrence of the delay to which the expedition had been subjected, and ulterior steps were postponed till the shore was reached, when it was intended to institute a rigid inquiry. At noon our position was, Lat. 52° 9´ 20´´, Long. 31° 53´. Length of Cable payed-out since yesterday 134 miles: total length paid out, 903 miles. Distance, from Valentia, 793 miles; from Heart’s Content, 871·9 miles. We had crossed the centre of the arc of the great circle.

Tuesday, August 1st.—The Great Eastern continued on her way without let or hindrance all night and early morning, increasing her speed to 7 knots an hour, although there was a strong breeze at times. The sea continued to favour us greatly, and the ship’s deck scarcely ever varied from a horizontal plane. At noon our position was, Lat. 51° 52´ 30´´, Long. 36° 3´ 30´´: making 155 miles run since yesterday. Cable paid out 1081·55 miles. Distance from Valentia, 948 miles: distance from Heart’s Content, 717 miles. We were without soundings; but it was supposed we were passing over the line on the chart where they varied from 1975 to 2250 fathoms. The Terrible was at her usual station, about two miles away; but we gave up all hopes of seeing the Sphinx till we reached Heart’s Content. It was calculated that at our present rate we would see land on Friday evening, or first thing on Saturday morning. In preparation for our arrival the crew were employed in transferring the shore end of the Cable from the main to the after tank. It would be painful to dwell on the tenour of our conversation. The wisest men forgot the lessons of the past few days. It seemed quite certain that the right step had been taken, and that the man, or men, who had caused the previous mishaps had been effectually checkmated. The praises of the Great Eastern were on every tongue. Had no fault occurred, our task would have been nearly ended by this time. Her mission is undoubtedly the laying of Atlantic Cables, and she did it nobly as far as in her lay on this occasion.

Wednesday, August 2nd.—In the course of the night the wind, accompanied by a dense fog, rose from the westward. Then it suddenly shifted to N.N.W.; but although the sea was high, there was no rolling or pitching, and none of the sleepers were aroused from slumber, which was favoured by the ceaseless rumble of the machinery. They were, however, awakened but too speedily. Again the great enterprise on which so much depended, and on which so many hearts and eyes were fixed, was rudely checked.

As I have said, the gale did not in the least affect the ship. She went on through the heavy sea steady as an island, running out the Cable at the rate of 7 knots an hour; and when the wind shifted to N.N.W. our course was altered to N.W. by W. ½ W., through a sea which fell as rapidly as it had risen. The crisis was now at hand. I was aroused about 8 o’clock a.m., Greenwich time (ship’s time being more than two hours earlier), by the slowing of the engines, and on looking out of my port saw, from the foam of the paddles passing ahead, that the ship was moving astern. In a moment afterwards I stood in the Testing-Room, where Mr. de Sauty, the centre of a small group of electricians, among whom was Professor Thomson, was bending over the instruments, surrounded by his anxious staff. The chronometer marked 8·6 a.m., Greenwich time. In reply to my question as to what was wrong, Professor Thomson whispered, “Another bad fault.” This was indeed surprising and distressing.

In order to make the history of the day consecutive, I will relate as closely as possible what occurred. Mr. Field went on duty in the tank in the early morning, relieving M. Jules Despescher. Some twenty minutes before the fault was noticed, whilst Mr. Field was watching, a grating noise was heard in the tank as the coil flew out over the flakes. One of the men exclaimed, “There goes a piece of wire.” The word was passed up through the crinoline shaft to the watcher. But he either did not hear what was said, or neglected to give any intimation, as the warning never reached Mr. Temple, who was on duty at the stern at the time. At 8 a.m., Greenwich time, being the beginning of an hour, and therefore the time when in regular series the electricians on board the Great Eastern began to send currents to the shore, the gentleman engaged in watching the galvanometer, saw the unerring index light quiver for an instant and glide off the scale. The fact was established that instead of meeting with the proper resistance, and traversing the whole length of the Cable to the shore, a large portion of the stream was escaping through a breach in the gutta percha into the sea. If the quantity of the current escaping had been uniform, the electricians could calculate very nearly the distance of the spot where the injury had taken place. In the present instance, however, the tests varied greatly, and showed a varying fault. When the current is sent through a wire from one pole it produces an electro-chemical action on the wire, and at the place of the injury, which leads to a deposit of a salt of copper in the breach, and impedes the escape of electricity; and when the opposite current is returned, the deposit is reduced, and hydrogen gas formed, a globule of which may rest in the chink, and, by its non-conducting power, restore the insulation of the Cable for a time. The fault in the present instance was so grave that it was resolved to pick up the Cable once more, till we cut it out, and re-spliced it. How far away it was no one could tell precisely; but from a comparison of time it was imagined that the faulty part was not far astern, and that it was in the portion of Cable which went over at 8 o’clock in the morning, or a little before it; and although the time was not accurately fixed when Mr. Field heard it, the grating noise was supposed to arise from some cause connected with the fault. Had the engineers foreseen what subsequently occurred they might have resolved to go on, and take the chance of working through the fault. Professor Thomson has since given it as his opinion that the fault could have been worked through, and that the Cable could have transmitted messages for a long time at the rate of four words a minute—making an amply remunerative return. Mr. de Sauty also entertained the belief that the Cable could have worked for several months, at all events. But it does not appear that Mr. Canning had any reason to act on the views of these gentlemen, and it was quite sure, when the end was landed in Heart’s Content, Mr. Varley could not have given his certificate that the Cable was of the contract standard. Neither Mr. Varley nor Mr. Professor Thomson had any power to interfere, or even to express their opinions, and electricians and engineers are generally inclined to regard with exclusive attention their own department in the united task, and to look to it solely.

Nothing was left but to pick up the cable. Steam was got up in the boilers for the picking-up machinery, the shackles and wire rope were prepared, and, meantime, as the ship drifted the Cable was let run out, and the brakes were regulated to reduce the strain below 30 cwt. As they were cutting the Cable near the top of the tank in the forenoon to make a test, one of the foremen perceived in the flake underneath that which had passed out with the grating noise when the fault was declared, a piece of wire projecting from the Cable, and when he took it in his fingers to prevent it catching in the passing coil, the wire broke short off. I saw it a few minutes afterwards. It was a piece of the wire of the Cable itself, not quite three inches long; one end rather sharp, the other with a clean bright fracture, and bent very much in the same way as the piece of wire which caused the first fault. This was a very serious discovery. It gave a new turn to men’s thoughts at once. After all, the Cable might carry the source of deadly mischief within itself. What we had taken for assassination might have been suicide. The piece of wire in this case was evidently bad and brittle, and had started through the Manilla in the tank. How many similar pieces might have broken without being detected or causing loss of insulation? The marks of design in the second fault were very striking; but the freaks of machinery in motion are extraordinary, and what looked so like purposed malice might, after all, be the effect of accidental mechanical agency. There were thenceforth for the day two parties in the ship—those who believed in malice, and those who attributed all our disasters to accident. In the end the latter school included nearly all on board the ship, and it was generally thought that in the Cable, or, rather, in what had been intended as its protection, was the source of its weakness and ruin.

Before the end of the Cable was finally shackled to the wire rope, tests were applied to the portion in tanks. The first cut was made at the old splice, between the main and fore tanks, and the Cable was found perfect. The second cut, at three miles from the end of the Cable, showed the fault to be overboard. Whilst the tests were going on, and the cablemen got the picking-up gear in readiness, the dynamometer showed a strain on the Cable astern varying from 20 to 28 cwt.