CHAPTER VII
A FLEETING TRIUMPH
(1858)
IN the fall of 1857 the directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, realizing that it would be to their advantage to have Mr. Field take general charge and supervision of all the arrangements and preparations for the next laying of the cable, sent him an earnest request to come to England. It was in response to this that he sailed on the 6th of January, 1858, in the steamship Persia, arriving in England on the 16th. On the 27th the company passed resolutions offering him one thousand pounds besides his travelling expenses. This he declined, accepting only his expenses.
At a meeting of the board on the 18th of February the following resolution was passed; it was offered by Mr. Samuel Gurney:
“That the warm and hearty thanks of this company be tendered to Mr. Cyrus W. Field, of New York, for the great services he has rendered to the Atlantic Telegraph Company, his untiring zeal, energy, and devotion from its first formation, and for the great personal talent which he has ever displayed and exerted to the utmost in the advancement of its interests.”
In seconding this resolution, which was unanimously passed, Mr. Brooking told from his own knowledge of what “Mr. Field’s most determined perseverance, coupled with an amount of fortitude that has seldom been equalled,” had done for the company in Newfoundland in securing to it the exclusive right to land on the shores of that island.
The report ends with these words:
“The directors cannot close their observations to the shareholders without bearing their warm and cordial testimony to the untiring zeal, talent, and energy that have been displayed on behalf of this enterprise by Mr. Cyrus W. Field, of New York, to whom mainly belongs the honor of having practically developed the possibility and of having brought together the material means for carrying out the great idea of connecting Europe and America by a submarine telegraph.
“He has crossed the Atlantic Ocean no less than six times since December, 1856, for the sole purpose of rendering most valuable aid to this undertaking. He has also visited the British North American colonies on several occasions, and obtained concessions and advantages that are highly appreciated by the directors, and he has successfully supported the efforts of the directors in obtaining an annual subsidy for twenty-five years from the government of the United States of America, the grant of the use of their national ships in assisting to lay the cable in 1857, and also to assist in the same service this year, and his constant and assiduous attention to everything that could contribute to the welfare of the company from its first formation has materially contributed to promote many of its most necessary and important arrangements. He is now again in England, his energy and confidence in the undertaking entirely unabated; and, at the earnest request of the board, he has consented to remain in this country for the purpose of affording to the directors the benefit of his great experience and judgment as general manager of the business of the company connected with the next expedition.
“This arrangement will doubtless prove as pleasing to the shareholders as it is agreeable and satisfactory to the directors.