The Laying of the Atlantic Cable

This series has four easy 5 minute installments.

Introduction
Twenty-two years after the completion of the first telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore, in 1844—came the greatest triumph in the history of telegraphy. The first successful laying of an ocean tele graph, the Atlantic cable of 1866, marked the beginning of a new era in human intercourse, for the first achievement has been followed by others of like magnitude in various parts of the world. It is said that the first experiments for demonstrating the practicability of a submarine telegraph were made by Samuel F. B. Morse, under whose direction the Washing ton and Baltimore telegraph line was opened.

The successful demonstration of submarine telegraphy was made through the work of Cyrus W. Field and his associates. He was the son of David Dudley Field, who also had several other sons distinguished in American history. Cyrus W. Field was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1819. In 1853 he retired from business in New York with a fortune and devoted himself to the enterprise that gave him his fame. About this time Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, Marshall 0. Roberts, Chandler White, Robert W. Lowber, and David Dudley Field, brother of Cyrus, met at the residence of the last-named on “four successive evenings, and, around a table covered with maps and charts and plans and estimates, considered a project to extend a line of telegraph from Nova Scotia to St. John’s, in Newfoundland, thence to be carried across the ocean.” The undertaking appeared to the projectors to be much less difficult than it actually proved. They thought it might be accomplished from New York to St. John’s “in a few months,” but it took two years and a half to lay this line. Few persons had any faith in the scheme, and the money for this great initial step was all furnished by Field and his friends mentioned above.

The development and carrying out of the enterprise to its transatlantic completion are here related in the words of its leading promoter, to whom the chief honors of this inestimable service to mankind are universally ascribed. The account was written in 1866.

This selection is by Cyrus W. Field.

Time: 1866

At first the Atlantic-cable project was wholly an American enterprise. It was begun, and for two years and a half was carried on, solely by American capital. Our brethren across the sea did not even know what we were doing away in the forests of Newfoundland. Our little company raised and expended over a million and a quarter of dollars before an Englishman paid a single pound sterling. Our only support outside was in the liberal character and steady friendship of the Government of Newfound land, for which we were greatly indebted to Mr. E. M. Archibald, then Attorney-General of that colony. In preparing for an ocean cable, the first soundings across the Atlantic were made by American officers in American ships. Our scientific men—Morse, Henry, Bache, and Maury—had taken great interest in the subject. The United States ship Dolphin discovered the telegraphic plateau as early as 1853, and the United States ship Arctic sounded across from Newfoundland to Ireland in 1856, a year before Her Majesty’s ship Cyclops, under command of Captain Dayman, went over the same course. This I state, not to take aught from the just praise of England, but simply to vindicate the truth of history.

It was not till 1856 that the enterprise had any existence in England. In that summer I went to London, and there, with Mr. John W. Brett, Mr. (now Sir) Charles Bright, and Doctor Whitehouse, organized the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Science had begun to contemplate the necessity of such an enterprise; and the great Faraday cheered us with his lofty enthusiasm. Then, for the first time, was enlisted the support of English capitalists; and then the British Government began that generous course which it has continued ever since—offering us ships to complete soundings across the Atlantic and to assist in laying the cable, and an annual subsidy for the transmission of messages. The expedition of 1857 and the two expeditions of 1858 were joint enterprises, in which the Niagara and the Susquehanna took part with the Agamemnon, the Leopard, the Gordon, and the Valorous; and the officers of both navies worked with generous rivalry for the same great object. The capital—except one quarter which was taken by myself—was subscribed wholly in Great Britain. The directors were almost all English bankers and merchants, though among them was one gentleman whom we are proud to call an American—Mr. George Peabody, a name honored in two countries, since he has showered his princely benefactions upon both.

After two unsuccessful attempts, on the third trial we gained a brief success. The cable was laid, and for four weeks it worked-though never very brilliantly. It spoke, though only in broken sentences. But while it lasted no less than four hundred messages were sent across the Atlantic. Great was the enthusiasm it excited. It was a new thing under the sun, and for a few weeks the public went wild over it. Of course, when it stopped, the reaction was very great. People grew dumb and suspicious. Some thought it was all a hoax; and many were quite sure that it never had worked at all. That kind of odium we have had to endure for eight years, till now, I trust, we have at last silenced the unbelievers.

After the failure of 1858 came our darkest days. When a thing is dead, it is hard to galvanize it into life. It is more difficult to revive an old enterprise than to start a new one. The freshness and novelty are gone, and the feeling of disappointment discourages further effort.

Continued.

We want to take this site to the next level but we need money to do that. Please contribute directly by signing up at https://www.patreon.com/history

Some History Moments selections posted before 2012 need to be updated to meet HM’s quality standards. These relate to: (1) links to outside sources for modern, additional information; (2) graphics; (3) navigation links; and (4) other presentation issues. The reader is assured that the author’s materiel is faithfully reproduced in all History Moments posts.