Part 15 (1/2)
Hugest of all God's works That swireatness Here then was the vessel to receive the Atlantic cable
Seeing her fitness for the purpose, a few of the gentleraph combined to purchase her, as she was about to be sold One of them went doith all speed to Liverpool, and the next day telegraphed that the big shi+p was theirs
The neners at once put her at the service of the Atlantic Coreement that any compensation for her use should depend on the success of the expedition
Next to the good fortune of finding such a shi+p ready to their hands, was that of finding an officer worthy to command her Captain James Anderson, of the China, one of the Cunard stea public, both of England and America, and no one ever crossed the sea with hi of respect for his hfollowed the sea for a quarter of a century, he was also a ence, and of no s more than this which inspired such confidence It was his ceaseless watchfulness He always carried with hiious responsibility for the lives of all on board, and for every interest committed to him A ilance was especially , all who saw that tall figure on the wheel-house, watching with a keen eye every spar in the shi+p and every cloud in the horizon, felt a new security froe of a great expedition He was recoest terms, and was chosen unanienerosity, consented to give up his services, valuable as they were, to forward an enterprise of such public interest Being thus free, he accepted the trust, and entered upon it with enthusiasm Hoell he fulfilled the expectations of all, the sequel will show[A]
The work noent on with speed The wheels began to hureat dru the distance it was to span, was hardly to be rees of the earth's surface Mere figures give but a vague impression of vast spaces But it is a curious fact, ascertained by an exact computation, that if all the wires of copper and of iron, with the layers that , and the strands of yarn that were twisted into this one knotted sea-cable, were placed end to end, the whole length would reach from the earth to the moon!
As it caed in water, to make it familiar with the element which was to be its future hoe tanks, which could hold each a hundred and forty miles Here the cable was coiled to ”hibernate,” till it should be wanted for use the co the work thus well under ith no chance of another disastrous check, Mr Field left England with heart at rest, and returned to Aain on the Atlantic He reached England on the eighteenth of March
His visit was more satisfactory than a year before The as noell advanced It was a goodly sight to go down to Morden Wharf at Greenwich, and see the huge ues of deep-sea line The triumph apparently was near at hand It see that the cable should finally be laid in the year of grace 1865--the end for which he had so faithfully toiled since 1858--seven weary years--as long as Jacob served for Rachel! But, less fortunate than Jacob, he was doomed to one more disappointment At present, however, all looked well, and he could not but regard the prospect with satisfaction
Having noe up the Mediterranean The canal across the Isthress, under the supervision of French engineers, was at length so far advanced that the waters of the Mediterranean were about to ates were invited to be present from all parts of the world An invitation had been sent to the Cha for Europe, was appointed as its representative The visit was one of extraordinary interest The occasion brought together a nuineers froer frodo the land of the Pyraland about the first of May to find the work nearly coe part of it was already coiled on board the shi+p This was an operation of much interest, which deserves to be described The one on for eightout fourteenthe short days of winter
As the spring advanced, and the days grew longer, the amount was of course much increased But by the last of January they had already accuan the long and tedious work of transferring it to the Great Eastern It was thus slow, because it could not be made directly from the yard to the shi+p The depth of water at Greenas not such as to allow the Great Eastern to be brought up alongside the wharf She was lying at Sheerness, thirty hters and taken down to where she lay in the stream For this purpose the Admiralty had furnished to the Company two old hulks, the Iris and the Amethyst, which took their loads in turn When the former had taken on board some two hundred and fifty tons of cable, she was towed down to the side of the Great Eastern, and the other took her place
This was an operation which could not be done with speed With all the men who could be employed, they coiled on board only about two miles an hour, or twenty miles a day--at which rate it would take soan on the nineteenth of January, early in the , and continued till June, before all was safely stowed on board
The Great Eastern herself had been fitted up to receive her enormous burden It was an object to stow the cable in as few coils as possible
Yet it could not be all piled in one ht in the centre of the shi+p would cause her to roll fearfully If coiled in one circle, it was computed that it would nearly fill Astley's theatre froht feet wide and sixty feet high To distribute this enorht, it was disposed in three tanks--one aft, one amidshi+ps, and one forward
The latter, from the shape of the shi+p, was a little smaller than the others, and held only six hundred and thirty-three ht hundred each All were ht, so that the cable could be kept under water till it was immersed in the sea
Thus with her spacious chauest, the Great Eastern opened her doors to take in the Atlantic cable; and long as it was, and wide and high the space it filled, it found ae and room within her capacious sides Indeed, it was the wonder of all who beheld it, how, like a monster of the sea, she devoured all that other shi+ps could bring The Iris and the Aed their iron contents Yet this leviathan sed shi+p-load after shi+p-load, as if she could never be satisfied A writer who visited her when the cable was nearly all on board, was at a loss to find it He looked along the deck, fron of it appeared How he searched, and how the wonder grew, he tells in a published letter After describing his approach to the shi+p, and cli up her sides and his survey of her deck, he proceeds:
”But it is time that we should look after e have raph cable To our intense astonishh informed that there are nearly two thousandpiece--a piece long enough to stretch from Land's End to John O'Groat's--is in course of shi+pment We walk up and down on the deck of the Great Eastern without seeing this gigantic chain which is to bind together the Old and the New World; and it is only on having the place pointed out to us that we find where the cable lies and by what process it is taken on board On the side opposite to where we landed, deep below the deck of our giant, there isa house, and froraph cable is drawn silently into the immense womb of the Great Eastern The work is done so quietly and noiselessly, by ine, that we scarcely notice it Indeed, were it not pointed out to us, ould never think that that little iron cord, about an inch in diah a wooden table, is a thing of world-wide fa which may influence the life of whole nations; nay, whichthe direction in which the iron rope goes,coht yet seen on board the Great Eastern We find ourselves in a little wooden cabin, and look down, over a railing at the side, into an immense cavern below This cavern is one of the three 'tanks' in which the two-thousand-ent of electricity co in here in a beautiful, silent manner, and is deposited in spiral coils, layer upon layer It is almost dark at the imures through whose hands the coil passes to its bed
Suddenly, however, theof the sea; so away to the West, Away to the West as the sun went down--'
the sounds of which rise up fro effect, and produce an indescribable i of the sailors who are taking charge of the Atlantic Telegraph cable is haunting us like a drea shi+p, through es, staircases, and proeous saloons, full of ardless of expense;' and through buildings croith glittering steaantic dimensions, where the latent power of coal and water creates the force which propels this monster vessel over the seas In vain our attention is directed to all these sights; we do not adination is used up The echo of the sailors' song in the womb of the Great Eastern will not be banished from our mind It raises visions of the future of the ain from its narrow berth; hoill sink to the botto from reat nations, offsprings of one race and pioneers of civilization, will speak through this wonderful coil, annihilating distance and ti here, on the spot where we stand? For it is truly a marvellous romance of civilization, this Great Eastern and this Atlantic Telegraph cable Even should our age produce nothing else, it alone would be the triue”
As the work approached completion, public interest revived in the stupendous undertaking, and crowds of wonder-seekers came down from London to see the preparations for the expedition Even if not ad round the great shi+p, in whose e sea-serpent It had alsoothers, the Prince of Wales cairdle which was to link the British islands with his future doth, on the twenty-ninth of May, al, the manufacture of the cable was finished The ht months had been in a constant whirl,of a bell announced that the hty work stood coot on board, and the shi+p prepared for her voyage Hundreds of busy hands were at ithout ceasing, and yet it was six weeks before she was ready to put to sea
It may well be believed that it was no small affair to equip such an expedition Beside the enormous burden of the cable itself, the Great Eastern had to take on board seven or eight thousand tons of coal, enough for a fleet, to feed her fires Then she carried about five hundredthe weeks they h for a s down, one land There stood the ive thes, and a hundred and twenty sheep, while whole flocks of ducks and geese, and fowls of every kind, cackled as in a poultry-yard Beside all this live stock, hundreds of barrels of provisions, of meats and fruits, were stored in the well-stocked larder below Thus laden for her voyage, the Great Eastern had in her a weight, including her own reat as could have been carried by the whole fleet hich Nelson fought the battle of Trafalgar
As the time of departure drew near, public curiosity was excited, and there was an extraordinary desire to witness the approaching atteed by applications from all quarters for perranted, on the scale asked, even the large dimensions of the Great Eastern could hardly have been sufficient for the crowds on board The de for places for newspaper correspondents These caland, but from France and Ae of being represented The result hat ht have been expected As it was impossible to satisfy all, and to discriminate in favor of some, and exclude others, would seeed to exclude all Of course this gave great offence There was an outcry in England and in the United States at as denounced as a selfish and suicidal policy But it is doubtful whether any other possible course would have given better satisfaction
Whether the Managers erred in this or not, it should be said that they applied the same inexorable rule to the excluded, unless they had some special business on board
It should be borne in mind that the expedition was not under the control of the Atlantic Telegraph Coraph Construction and Maintenance Company, which had undertaken the work in fulfilment of a contract with the former Company to manufacture and lay down a cable across the Atlantic, in which it assu the cable, but chartering the shi+p and appointing the officers, and sending its own engineers to lay it down