And on October 24th:
“I can hardly keep the business of the Atlantic Telegraph Company out of my mind for a single moment.”
The future captain of the Great Eastern wrote:
“R.M.S.S. ‘Europa,’ October 25, 1864.
“Cyrus W. Field, Esq.:
“My dear Sir,—I am in receipt of your favor of the 24th inst., for which I thank you. So far as it has gone you have paid me a very high compliment. I have been afraid at times that you may have thought me lukewarm upon the subject of commanding the Great Eastern, and am desirous you should understand that I have restrained my enthusiasm because I have not thought it likely I should be chosen, and that, after all, it might be only your partiality for me.
“I would not have been surprised if, after consulting with Mr. Cunard, your letter to me had alluded to the propriety of my giving it no more heed. It is so difficult to know what estimate other people may have formed of one’s capacity for any considerable effort—small things often give a strong bias—and he might have suggested some other man to you as more likely than I.
“I am, besides, still of opinion that the applicants for the honor will be so numerous, and apparently so eligible, that the majority of the directors will prefer a man over whom they will like to feel that they have the greatest possible control. It will probably appear objectionable to employ a man who felt himself the servant of another company, and who, for anything they could tell, might become ridiculously elated with the preference shown to him.
“I feel these are objections that will be advanced, because were I director I should urge them myself until well assured of fair reasons for abandoning them.
“You do, however, want a man who is familiar with the Atlantic—its fogs, ice and method of its gales—and, above all, one who will devote himself to working with the engineers of the cable, who, after all, must be obeyed. Any fellow who shows signs of advancing his own whims in opposition to theirs must be thrown overboard. No want of harmony should interfere with so great a scheme.