The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-14 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 14,

T fr NEWS a

THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH

EXPEDITION.

CRUISE Of THE AGAMEMNON'.
(From the Times Correspondent, 2d Edition.)
QUEENSTOWN, JULY 12.
At half-past 12 on Monday morning the Aga-
memnon anchored off Queenstown, after having,
as our readers are now aware, failed in the attempts
to submerge the Atlantic cable. The arrival of the
Niagara must have made known the bare fact that
the cable had parted, and the tremendous gales and
unfavourable weather which all the squadron had to
contend against, more or less, though only those on
board the Agamemnon can be said to know the real
nature of the peril which was encountered, and
the long series of difficulties, mishaps, and mis-
fortunes which marked almost the entire cruise
from first to last. Not Often have so many adverse
and disheartening circumstances been crammed into
a voyage of 33 days ; and never has the enterprise,
skill, and courage of all connected with the under-
taking been more conspicuously displayed than in
overcoming each obstacle as it arose almost with
every day. The next thing to success is to deserve
it ; and certainly if any scheme was ever entitled to
prosper from the perseverance and devotion of those
engaged in carrying it ont, that success was unques-
tionably due to the efforts of all on board the Aga-
memnon in favour of the. undertaking.. For once,
however, fortune did not favour the bold. The
attempt to lay the cable failed three times, and
once in the most mysterious manner; and those on
board have only the satisfaction of knowing that
everything that care and foresight could suggest
was done. Beyond this consciousness, that all has
been achieved that was possible with such materials,
no comfort is to be gleaned from the late attempts,
except, perhaps, in the fact, that as much cr more
wire still remains than the expedition was com-
menced with last year, and that both vessels will
start again for another and a last attempt the instant
they have filled up with coal—that is, by Saturday
next, at !mese 'Wist the i welt of the u t
will be your readers will be better able to judge
when, in the course of another day or two, they
will have laid before them the causes which have
led to the present failures, and the means, if ally,
which will be taken to guard against them. for the
future. In the meantime, they can judge for them-
selves of what has been done, and the difficulties
which have been encountered on board the Agamem-
non. Our readers are already aware that both
the "wire' ships quitted England in the most
unfavourable trim possible for bad weather. Ac-
cording to appearances at starting, however, bad
weather seemed of all others the risk least likely
to be encountered, so everything had been foreseen,
prognosticated, and provided for but a gale : that,
of course, was . out of the question. That tradi-
tional veteran, Brown, of the Transatlantic Line;
who had weathered so many storms in the Atlan-
tic, showed how, in June, one never had Occurred
While Jones proved how it wouldn't, and Robinson
made all serene by demonstrating clearly how it
couldn't happen. We might meet light winds, and
encounter some delay from calms and sultry wea-
ther, but a gale—a regular Atlantic storm—the very
idea was food for laughter. So the wire squadron
went to sea, with the two chief vessels laden
almost to the water's edge, and in all other respects
so little fitted for rough weather that, had a little of
the tremendous weather they experienced been
foreseen at home, not a ship would have moved
from Plymouth Sound. The Agamemnon had 2,840
tons dead weight in her, a monstrous load for any
ship of her tonnage, but made still more dangerous
and overwhelming .by the manner in which it was
stowed. In her hold was the main coil, a com-
pact mass of 1,100 miles
,in length, and there-
tore 1,100. tons in weight. On her orlop
deck, right forward, between the eyes, as sailors
say, was another coil of 100 tons, while on
her upper deck, and also right forward, was a coil
of 236 tons. The latter was of sufficient size to
interfere seriously with the proper working of the
vessel from the deck, and the united weights
of all of course brought the Agamemnon down
by the
,head to an almost unsafe extent. The
two 'lsmail coils, it was said, counteracted the
weight of the ponderous mass in the bottom of the
ship, and, certainly, if they did not tend to check
the vessel's rolling, at least they made it easier and
less dangerous to the masts. When the ship did
roll, however, there was a constant struggle be
tween the weights at the bottom and the weights
at the 3 top, and the ship's sides, as the leyers
along which the force of both was, exerted and re-
sisted, suffered in proportion; This, however, was
not the evil of the upper deck coil, nor the reason
which after the bad weather bad set in made it an
object of constant anxiety and almost of dread to
all on board. It was bad enough to cruise with a
dead weight forward of some 250 tons, a weight
under which her deck planks gaped an inch apart,
and her beams threatened daily to give way ;
but when to these evils was added the fear
in bad weather that in some of her heavy
rolls the whole mass would slip, and take the
vessel's side out, it will be seen that in the whole
the precious coil was justly esteemed the bete noire
of the entire affair—the mill-stone about the necks
of all. However, as we have said, nobody thought
of these things when in the morning of the lOth of
June the squadron quitted Plymouth. It was then
to be a yachting cruise—a mere summer trip—and
any talk of waterproofs and sou'-westers would not
have been more out of place in adrawing-room than
on the de.* of the Agamemnon. The day favoured
this illusion. The barometer stood at 30.64, the
weather was hot and sultry, and after all sail had
been' set and reset, and every naval artifice adopted
to catch the breeze that would not come, Captain
Preedy reluctantly (for we had little more than
coals for the voyage borne) gave orders to get up
steam. The Niagara having plenty of coals,
had the aavantage of being always under steam,
and the Valorous and Gorgon did mostly as
the Agamemnon. Friday was the diitd of
The seine coquettish breeze
the previous day.
came fluttering through the rigging now and then,
and it was " hands up screw" and make nil, and
down screw and shorten sail all day, till even Cap
tain Preedy wearied in his efforts to save fuel, and
so we steamed again. This was dull work. Every
one wished for a breeze, and there were some who,
never having been at sea before, muttered rash
hopes that they might rather meet an Atlantic gale,
and their wishes were gratified as it turned out,
_far_ more than the people who.expreased. them.
Saturday the weather was cold and dull, but the
breeze was so fresh that the screw was finally
hoisted and fires raked out, while the Agamemnon,
under royals and studding sails, went through the
water at a rare pace, sending the foam from her
bows, and leaving a broad trail of still
water upon the angry sea behind. What
could be better ? But it became less enjoyable
towards noon, when the wind and sea got up, as
the glass went down, and the water grew darker,
and the clouds in the horizon were merged_ into a
dirty haze thickening towards the sea, and boding
very ill, indeed, to a summer cruise. Before even-
ing came the sail on the ship was reduced to half,
for the wind was up, with squally gusts of heavy
rain, and the barometer had gone below 29, and
was still falling rapidly. Such was the night, but
Sunday told its own tale, for even those least
versed in the boisterous premonitory symptoms of
an Atlantic g de could see at a glance that we were
in for it. The sky seemed a wretched mist—half
rain, half vapour—through which the other vessels
of the squadron loomed fainlly like their shadows,
watery and unsubstantial as the Flying Dutchman.
The sea lied changed its bright crisp blue for a turgid
feamy aspect, and the greet waves of tl4e Atlantic'
came rolling in iu tremendous succesiion like hills of
water withtheir tops all jagged and broheu by fierce
wind, and their white crests of foam b'own out into
a stream of feathery spray that almost hid the huge
dark gulfs between them. The Agamemnon, how-
ever, still kept on her way, rolling and streiming
heavily, atal giving all a fair forstaste of what they
Imight expect when the gale set in worse, for the
wino) was fast going round to the south-west, and
IL W. C:'5.,0 V:• 1.; • \I nt I1)^ I,,frinnina.
There was Divine service that dsy tuC eeen
deck, and, as officers and men set in respectful
silence, every change in the fast-increasing viol( no
of the gale could be distinctly noted through the
open hatchways. Heavy rain was falling, and .a
grayish looking scud was flying across th 4 sky with
e and shroud,
inconceivable rapidity—every rop
tautened to the utmost, was humming with a loud
clear noise, as if ten . thousand accordions were

8 8.

going at once, while now and then, as the ship
pitched up near the wind, her great sails flapped
;,nd slatted like peals of thunder, pitching the
vessel with an uneasy vibration, as if the masts
were coming out of her. Still, among the little con-
gregation no one moved more than was necessary
"to keep his seat as the ship lurched over, and the
service proceeded as little disturbed by the war of
elements outside as if all were assembled within the
walls of a cathedral. Towards the end, however,

Capt. Preedy looked up wistfully through the hatch-
way once or twice, scrutinising the masts and sails
with a keen glance, for the storm was getting worse,
and the air darker and thicker every minute, and
the hoarse roar through the rigging was drowning
every other sound. Service over, and it was
" Hands reef topsails ;" then again, after a little

lapse, the smite cry ; and yet agan4, fill at four in
the afternoon the Agamemnon was rushing through
the foam under close-reefed topsails and foresail.
At half-past four we caught the last glimpse of
the Gorgon, as, making a long stretch to wind-
ward, she was lost in the misty darkness that
marked the horizon to windward. At five the

Valorous began to drop astern, and by six she also
had disappeared, ,but still the Niagara and Aga-
memnon held on together, the former under sail

and steam, the latter, like- all the English vessels;
under sail alone. Of thcrtwo vessels specially ap-
pointed to convoy and assist, if necessary, tho
Agamemnon and Niagara,. we saw no more till all
dank( r was past and the squadron had reassembled

'at the rendezvous some 172 days afterwards. On
Sunday night the gale seemed at its worst. The
ocean resembled one vast snowdrift, the whiti.h
glare from which, reflected on the dark clouds

that almost rested on the sea, had a tremendous

and ;unnatural effect, as if the ordinary laws of
nature had been reversed by the stArm. The
Niagara, which had hitherto kept close, began to
give a very wide berth, and, as darkness in-
creased, she too went out of sight, and it was every
one for themselves. There must be many of

your readers who know what a line.of-battle-ship is
in a gale of wind, though such experience would
give them but a faint notion of how the Agamem-
non went at it all that night. She strained and
laboured under her heavy burden as if she was
breaking up, and the massive beams under her
upper deck coil cracked and snapped with a noise
resembling that of small artillery, almost drowning
the hideous roar of the wind as it moaned and
ileaL i tareueh the ; jerking and seraining
the little storm sails as though it meant to teat
them from the yards. Those in the improvised
cabins on the main deck had little sleep that
night, for the upper deck planks above them
were working themselves free, as sailors say,
and, beyond ,a , doubt, they were infinitely
more free than easy, for they groaned under the
pressure of the coil with a dreadful uproar, and
availed themselves of the opportunity to pt in a
little light, with a good deal of water, at every roll.
The sea, too, kept striking with dull heavy violence
against the vessel's bows, forcing its way through
hawse-holes and ill-closed ports with a heavy slush,
and thence, hissing and winding aft, it roused the
occupants of the cabins aforesaid to a knowledge
that their floors were under water and that the
flotsam and jetsam noises they heard beneath was
only their outfit for the voyage taking a' cruise of
its own in some five or six inches of dirty bilge.
Such was the Sunday night, and such was a fair
average of all the nights throughout the week,
varying only from bad to worse. Daybreak on
Monday ushered in as fierce a gale as has ever
swept over the Atlantic.
The barometer was lower, and, as a matter of
'course the wind and sea were infinitely higheethau
the day before. It was singular, but at 12 o'clock
the sun pierced through the pall of clouds and
shone brilliantly for half an hour, and during that
brief time it blew as it has not often blown before.
So fierce was this gust that its roar drowned every
other sound, and it was almost impossible to give
the watch the necessary orders for taking in the
close-reefed foresail, which when furled almost left
the Agamemnon under bare poles, though still
surging through the water at speed. This gust
past, and the usual gale set in—now blowing
steadily from the south-west, and taking us
more and more out of our course each minute.
Every hour the storm got worse, till towards 5 in
the afternoon, • when it seemed at its height, and
raged with such violence of wind and sea that
matters really looked serious even from such a strong
and large ship as the Agamemnon. The upper deck
coil had strained her decks throughout excessively,
and though this mass in theory was supposed to
prevent her rolling so quickly and heavily as she
would have done without it, yet still she heeled
over to such an alarming- extent that fear
of the coil itself shifting again occupied every mind,
and it was accordingly strengthened with additional
shores bolted down to the deck. The space occupied
by the coil below hal deprived the Agamemnon of
several of her coal bunkers, and, in order to make
up for this deficiency, as well as to endeavour to
counterbalance the immense mass which weighed
her doivn by the head, a large quantity of coals had
been stowed on the deck aft. On each side of her
main deck were 35 tons secured—secured' in a mass,
while, on the lower deck 90 tons were stowed away
in the same manner. The precautions talesn to se-
cure these great masses also required attention as the
great ship surged from side to side. But these coals
seemedsecure, and were so, in fact, unless the vessel
should almost capsize—an upleasant aternative
which no one certainly anticipated then.
Everything, therefore, was made " snug,"
as sailors called it, though their efforts by no
means resulted in the comfort which might have
been expected from the tern]. The night, however,
passed over without any mischance beyond the
smashing of all things incautiously left loose and
capable of rolling, and one or two attempts which
u night,
hott,her except,
the Agamemnon made in the middle watch appa •
mat-
tersre 1t 13i; !Nov
atsu
the m bottomered
tupwards.toofsn
Sunday
perhaps, a little worse, and certainly much more
wet below. Tuesday the gale -t" con tnued with al-
most unabated force, though the
barometer had
risen to 29.30, and there was sufficient sun to take
a clear observation, which
showed
our distance from
the rendezvous to be 563
miles.
During this after-
noon the Niagara rejoined company and, the
wind going more
ahead, the Agamemnon took to
violent pitching, plunging steadily into the trough
of the sea as if she meant to break her back and lay
the Atlantic cahle in a heap. The change in her
motion was not good, and it strained and taxed
every inch of timber near the coils to the very ut-
most. It was curious to see how they worked and
bent as the Agamemnon went at everything she
met head first. One time she pitched so heavilyt' as
to break one of the main beams of the lower deck,
which had to be shored with scrowjacks forthwith.
It is dull work, however, writing a journal of such
mishaps, and duller still to read it. Suffice, then,
to say that there was the same sea and less wind on
Wednesday, heavy sea and rain on Thursday, with
gusts and squads, and heavy rain on Friday. Sa-
turday the 19th June, things looked a little better.
The barometer seeme I inclined to go up and the sea
to go down, and for the first time that morning
since the gale began some six days previous, the
decks could be walked with tolerable comfort and
security. But, alas, appearances are as deceitful
in the Athivic as elsewhere, and, during a compa-
rative calm that afternoon the glass fell lower,while
a thin line of black haze to windward seemed to
grow up into the sky, until it covered theheavens
with a sombre clarknesseand warned us that, after
all, the worst; was to come. There was much heavy
rain that evening, and then the wind began—not
violently, nor in gusts, but with a steadily increas-
ing force, as if the gale was determined to do its
work slowly, but to do it well. The sea was ready-
built to hand, as sailors say, so that at first the
storm did little more than urge on the ponderous
masses of water with redoubled force, and fill the
air with the foam and spray it tore from their rag-
ged crests. By and bye, however, it grew more
dangetous, and Capt. Preedy himself remained on
deck throughout the middle watch, for the wind
was hourly getting worse, and the Agamemnon,
rolling 30 deg. each way, was labouring heavily,
arid straining, to a dangerous extent.
At 4 a. m. sail was shortened to close -ra efed fore
and main topsails and reefed foresail—a long
aand
tedious job, for the wind so roared and bowled, nd
the hiss of the boiling sea wss so deafening, that
words of command were useless, and the men aloft,
holding on with all their might to the yards as the
ship rolled over and over almost to the water, were
quite incapable of struggling with the massed of
wet canvass that flapped and plunged as if men.
and yards and everything were going away toge-
ther. The ship was almost as wet inside as out—
and so things wore on till 8 or 9 o'clock, every-
thing getting adrift and being smashed, and every
one on board jamming themselves up in corners or
bolding on to beams to prevent their going adrift
e. At 10 o'clock the Agamemnon was roll-
ing and labouring fearfully, with the sky getting
darker, and both, wind and sea increasing every
minute. At about half-past 10 o'clock three or
four gigantic waves were seen approaching tho
ship, coaling heavily and slowly On through the
mist nearer and nearer, rolling on like hills of
green water, with a crown of foam that .seemed to
double their height. The Agamemnon rose heavily
to the first, and then went down quickly into the
'v-:'t 'ti of this yet,, faun.. over as she did. so,
BO its itlllloSt to eapsizs coureeet. ie en tee a. rt
There was a fearful crashing as she lay over this
.way, for'everything broke adrift, whether secured
or net, and the uproar and coniti&on were terlifie
for a minute ; thee back she came again on the
starboard beam in thb same wanner, only quick r,
and still deeper'than before. Again there was the
same noise and crashing,. and the officers in tLe