"
Once more the furnaces glowed and the hammers rang in the manufacture of
the cable. Great improvements were made in the cable itself and in the
machinery for laying it, and the "Great Eastern" was thoroughly
overhauled. The cable was completed and put on board in June, and the
big ship left the Medway on the last of the month and proceeded to
Berehaven, in Ireland, where she took on her final stores of coal. This
done, she proceeded to Valentia, where she arrived on the seventh of
July.
The shore end was successfully laid and made fast to the cable on board
the "Great Eastern," and on Friday morning, the 13th of July, 1866, the
huge ship set sail for Newfoundland, accompanied by her consorts of the
telegraph fleet. The voyage occupied fourteen days, the ship making an
average run of about one hundred and eighteen miles per day, and paying
out about one hundred and thirty-one miles of cable in the same period
of time. The weather was fair during the whole voyage, but the anxiety
of the officers in charge was none the less on that account. There were
accidents to be dreaded more than unfavorable weather.
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