The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-17 00:00:00

ARRIVAL

OF THE

GREAT EASTERN
AT CROOKHAVEN.

FAILURE OF THE ATLANTIC
TELEGRAPH EXPEDITION•

CROOKHAVEN, AUGUST 17.

The Great Eastern arrived off here this morning,
and furnishes the following particulars of the ope-
rations for laying the Atlantic Telegraph Cable,
which, it will be seen, have failed.
The Great Eastern sailed from Valentia, after
making the splice with the shore end, on the 23d of
July, and continued on her voyage to lat. 51 52,
long. 39 6, being 1,063 miles from Valentia, and
600 miles from Heart's Content, Trinity Bay,
Newfoundland. She had then paid out 1,212 miles
of cable, when it parted on the 2d of August, at
12 35 p.m., in soundings of 3,900 yards, under the
following circumstances :

A partial loss of insulation having been dis-
covered, the Great Eastern was stopped to recover
that portion of the cable in which the fault lay,
electrical tests placing it probably within six miles.
The cable was passed from the stern to the bow of
the ship for this purpose, and after getting in two
miles of cable, the fault being still overboard, the
cable broke about ten yards in board of the wheel
at the bow, having been injured by chafing on the
stern of the ship. Two previous faults had been
discovered, the first in soundings of about 1,000
yards, and the second in about 4,100 yards, and
had been successfully recovered and made good ; in
the first case ten miles, and in the second 2} miles of
cable were hauled in. After the cable parted a
grapnel, with 2i nautical miles of rope,was lowered
down, the ship being placed so as to drift over the
line of cable. The cable was hooked on the 3d, and
when 2,200 yards of the rope had been hauled
in a swivel iu the latter gave way, and 2,800
yards of rope were lost, the cable having been
lifted 1,200 yards from the bottom.

On the 4th, a buoy with a flag and ball was
moored, with 500 yards of rope to mark the place.
It is in lat. 51 deg. 35 min., long. 38 deg. 42 min.
30 sec. From the 4th fogs and adverse winds pre-
vented a further attempt until the 7th, which was
then made nearer the end of the cable, and was un-
successful from the same cause, when the cable had
been lifted about 1,000 yards. Another buoy was
here placed in lac. 51 deg. 28 min. 30 sec., long. 38
deg. 56 min. 9 sec.

A third attempt was made on the 10th, which
failed on account of the grapnel chain having fouled
the flukes of the g-rapneL The grapnel and last 800
yards of rope came up covered with ooze.
A fourth attempt was made on the 11th at 3 p.m.,
which also failed through the breaking of the grap-
nel rope when the cable had been raised 600 yards
from the bottom.

The stock of rope having now become exhausted,
it becamo absolutely necessary to proceed to Eng-
land for more and stronger tackle.
The practical conclusions unanimously arrived at
by those engaged in various capacities in the expe-
dition are as follow :

let, That the steamship Great Eastern, from her
size and consequent steadiness, together with the
better control obtained over her by having both the
paddles and screw, render it possible and safe to lay
an Atlantic telegraph cable in any weather.

2d, That the paying-out machinery constructed
for the purpose by Messrs. S. Canning and Clifford
worked perfectly, and can be confidently relied on.
3d, That the insulation of the gutta percha
covered conductor improved when submerged to
more than double what it had been before starting,
and has proved itself to be the best insulated cable
ever manufactured, and many times higher than the
standard required by the contract.

The cause of the two faults which were reco-
vered was in each case a perforation of the gutty
percha through to the proper conductor by a piece
of iron wire found sticking in the cable. Electri-
cally, the third fault was analogous to the first.
The difficulty may be provided against in future.
Fourthly, that nothing has occurred to create the
least doubt in the minds of those engaged in the
expedition of the practicability of successful lay-
ing and working an Atlantic telegraph cable, but,
on the contrary, their confidence has been largely
increased by the confidence obtained on this voyage.
Fifthly, that the Great Eastern steamship, supplied
with sufficiently strong tackle and hauling-in ma-
chinery for a depth of 4,000 to 5,000 yards, there is
little or no doubt of the possibility of recovering
the lost end of the cable, and completing the line
already about two-thirds laid.

The Great Eastern proceeds direct to Sheerness.
All well on board. She reports having parted
company with H.M.S. Sphynx a few days after
starting. The weather was for the most part very
calm, but often foggy and rainy. A stiff breeze
blew on two days, but although the sea washed over
the Terrible scarcely any motion was observable on
board the Great Eastern, her greatest roll being
7i degs., and her greatest pitching 1 to 11 degs.
The cable paid out beautifully, and owing
to its diameter and lightness the strain
required to prevent too rapid egress never
exceeded 14 cwt. Its angle with the horizon during
the paying out rarely exceeded 9i degrees. No
difficulty whatever was experienced in mooring the
buoys in the deepest water, two having been left
behind moored with pieces of cable that had been
picked up from a depth of two miles. One of
them rode out a stiff summer gale, its position after
nine days being unchanged. Captain Moriarty's
chronometer found the true position of the ship to
within a fraction of a mile.

The Terrible has sailed for Newfoundland to
coal.