The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-11


single exception mentioned above, nothing In
the shape of mishap occurred, vet YOU can
have a very faint idea of the mental strain
entailed on those whose lot it is to lay an At
lantic cable. Morn, noon, and night, without
a moments interruption tue drum keeps on
revolving and the noise of the cable is heard
rushing along the trough on its way from the
tank to the bed of the Atlantic Ocean. It is
not pleasant to be aware that any trifing acci-
dent might serve to cut the rope in two and
that the failure of any portion of the machi-
merry, or a moments inattention on the part
of any one ON duty, might cause a solution of
continuity in that 'little bit of string' Gas the
cable has been facetiously called) which (to
put it low is worth something more than half
million of money.
Everybody who did duty in the tank was
compelled, by the rules of the Telegraph Com
pany, to wear particular dress. This dress
was made of canvas, and comprised trousers
and jacket in one piece, the whole being made
to lace up the back. No pockets were allowed
so that no evil-disposed person or persons
could possible seorete any instruments calcu-
lated to do damage to the cable. To this gar
ment there was only one entrance, through
the back, and when once the wearer was in
side, he found it difficult to get outside again
without the assistance of friend. AS these
clothes were made rather full round the
waist 'to allow for the stoop," they gave
figure; and, to add to all, the company pro-
vided pair of boots not of the most improved
shape, made without any nails in the soles,
so that the "shoe-nail' theory of the cause of
accidents would be no longer tenabe.
There was one parsonage of note on board,
who, by some mishap, has escaped notice in
all previous accounts. This was the ships
laureate, poet of the most refined thought,
a perfect Tennyson in his way, who always
commemmorated the little events of the
voyage in a few short lines of poetry,
which l should think, for rhythmical ele-
gance, beauty of expression, and regularity
of metre, are without parallel in the whole
range of British literature. l will give you
few samples. For instance, when we had
passed the spot where the cable parted last
year, the poet sang thus
"The spot is passed, and we are Egood speed
Where we failed last year in our undertaking;
Heaven seems smiling on us, the weather is
There is no defect yet has the telegram shows
any night:
Kind spirit watch over us. and spread your
wings has far has you are able,
And grant us to lay our commun icRtion cable"
Again, after the raising of the cable of 1865,
he says
"In the annals of history we all do know
Napoleon and Hannibal led armies through
But show me your records and will yield,
Such men as MrSamuel Canning and Mr.. cyrus
Who with willing hearts and minds, and heads
and hands was able,
With the help OF all on board. to rise, splice,
cable"
These are merely two samples chosen from
among nearly fifty specimens. You will kindly
observe, as the Snowman says, that the two
last lines of both these stanzas (and this re-
mark holds good for all the others) end re-
spectively in able and cable, and that as he
nears the end of the verse, his Pegasus puts
on a squirt and runs clean away with the bit,
composed ofthe rules of prosody, between his
teeth.
On Friday, July 9th, we landed the shore
end Of the cable in Hearts Content harbor.
amidst salvos (whatever they may be) and
vivas, British cheers, and the firing of cannon.
If you will kindly imagine the excitement, it
will save the trouble of a description. Thus
one of the most successful voyages on record
was begun and ended on a Friday.
After a fortnights sojourn at Hearts Con-
tent, during which the intervals of work were
filed up by innocent amusement and after we
had been visited by governors, bishops, and
high potentates of every degree, and had given
one or two state feastings, at which everybody
congratulated everybody else, and each of the
swells of the expedition declared tha, there
never were such nice men in the world as
his colleagues, we set sail once more for the
purpose of graphing for the lost cable of 1865.
/ don't suppose there were ten men in the
whole of England and America who really
were perfectly sanguine as to the ultimate
success of this experiment, and of these ten
men Mr.. Canning and Professor Thomson
would form one-fifth. OF course, on board
the ship we all said 'that the thing was
certainty" but l don't believe that there
were many who, in the private recesses of
their own cabins did not shake their heads
and look little doubtful. Of course, 1 never
did such thing; but then, you know, the
e exception proves the rule.
We reached our destination Clat. something
and long. something else) on the 18th of
August, and on the 18th our grappling-rope
was paid out for the first time. There was
naturally a good deal of excitement during
this first attempt, and small crowd of people
might be seen watching the dynamOmeter
during the whole day. The excitement rather
fell when we learnt that we were drifting
wrongly, and there was no hope this time.
There was a little excitement, however, as the
grappling-rope came up. Now was the time to
secure the precious ooze of which so much had
been heard; and as the last few fathoms of the
rope came over the bows a small band of
naturalists were busy assailing it ON all sides.
Some were content with merely picking at the
rope with sharp instrument, while the more
cunning collected the drippings in basins,
with an eye to the preservation Of the sedi-
ment. This last soon became the popular
''dOdge," and the one most generally adopted
on subsequent occasions. II takes about an
hour and half to pay out the two thousand
iathoms OF grappling rope, and a similar time
to pick it up again when there is nothing on
the end. When we had prize on the Crap
mel, the latter operation was performed more
slowly and occupied five, six, or even seven
hours. Both manmuVres are effected by means