When the cable was on board, and all the other
arrangements had been completed, the big ship left the Thames and sailed
for Valentia harbor.
The point of landing had been changed from Valentia harbor, five or six
miles, to Foilhommerum Bay. On the 23d of July, 1865, the shore end was
connected with the cable on board the ship, and the voyage was begun. It
would be interesting to follow the huge steamer on this remarkable
voyage, and to relate to the reader the almost marvelous manner in which
faults were detected in the line hundreds of miles from the shore, and
how the cable was successfully hauled in and the damage repaired. All
went well until twelve hundred miles of cable had been paid out, and the
ship was but six hundred miles from the shores of Newfoundland, when the
cable broke again and plunged into the sea.
Mr. Canning, the engineer in charge, was dismayed, but not disheartened.
For nine days the ship hung around the spot grappling for the cable, in
the hope of raising it, and sinking its grapnels for this purpose to a
depth of two miles. The cable was caught several times, but the rope
which held the grapnel broke each time, and the precious coil fell back
again into the deep.
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