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Henry Stommel

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A SAGA OF THE SEAS

CYRUS W. FIELD IN EARLY MANHOOD

A SAGA OF THE SEAS

The Story of Cyrus W. Field and the
Laying of the first Atlantic Cable

BY

PHILIP B. McDONALD

Illustrated from
Contemporary Prints and Portraits

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INCORPORATED

1937

COPYRIGHT, 1937, BY
WILSON-ERICKSON, INC.

DESIGNED BY GEO. E. NEUHEDEL

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE COLONIAL PRESS INC., CLINTON, MASS.

PREFACE

THE NortH ATLANTIC, with its fogs and icebergs, put up a
stormy resistance when the first telegraph cable was laid along
its slimy bed. This difficult feat was accomplished by a New
York merchant who stuck at the disheartening job through
years of failures. The long fight to stretch a copper wire from
Ireland to Newfoundland has become one of the sagas of the
high seas. The final success of the cable-laying revolutionized
foreign-news service, which had required several weeks to
send word of the starting of wars, the death of a great man, or
the price of wheat. Such delays are hard to conceive today
when transmission of news around the world is almost in-
stantaneous.

The New York merchant who enlisted British engineers and
ships for the unique work was Cyrus Field, son of a New Eng-
land clergymen. He became one of America’s favorite heroes,
although he suffered much ridicule at first. For many years
his whiskered face was well known on Fifth Avenue and on
ocean steamers. He was also noted as the promoter of New
York’s elevated railways and in later life was pointed out as a
man who lost his large fortune in one calamitous day in Wall
Street. Always picturesque, he had many ups and downs.
Courageous and generous, he is interesting as a personality
aside from his achievement in linking the continents with an
ocean cable. There are many analogies in his life and times to
conditions of today.

Four years after his death in 1892, his daughter, Isabella
Field Judson, edited and published his letters and autobio-
graphical notes. ‘This book is the best source of original docu-
ments. The writings of his enterprising brother, the Rever-
end Henry Martyn Field, about the cable-laying are somewhat
wordy but vividly human and contain many first-hand impres-

Vv

v1 PREFACE

sions. A British view of the cable experiments, phrased in
persuasive English, is available in the writings of Sir Charles
Bright, son of Sir Charles T. Bright, chief engineer in the
early attempts before the Civil War.

Because of Field’s public services and picturesque achieve-
ments, numerous other sources are still extant, such as con-
temporary articles in newspapers and periodicals, both Ameri-
can and British. Most of these, however, were written from
too close a point of view and lack a sense of proportion. A
number of them are mentioned in the text. I wish to thank
the present descendants of the family for their aid and kind-
ness, especially Colonel Cyrus Field Judson of Ardsley-on-
Hudson, son of Isabella Field Judson and grandson of Cyrus
Field. I am also indebted to the Western Union Telegraph
Company, the New York Historical Society, New York Uni-
versity, and the New York Public Library, for use of books
and records.

Puitip B. McDONALD

New York University

April 10, 1937

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
I. THe New ENGLAND FOUNDATION
II. A Younc MAN In NEw York
III. THe Sree IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE
IV. ENGINEERING DIFFICULTIES
V. CyRUS THE GREAT .
VI. Harp Luck AnD HUMAN NATURE .
VII. Cyrus FIELD CARRIES ON
VIII. War anp DiscoURAGEMENT
IX. PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE
X. Tue Casce Is Lar .
XI. GRAPPLING FOR THE SEA-SERPENT
XII. Honors anp REwarps
XIII. Ovp-TimE Oratory
XIV. INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
XV. Evers ON THE PACIFIC
XVI. Pusuic-SpirRITED CITIZEN
XVII. A NATIONAL BENEFACTOR .
XVIII. Luck Turns AGAIN .
XIX. THE Worip Moves On
Bibliography
Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

Cyrus W. FIELD IN EARLY MANHOOD... Frontispiece

PAGE
ROAGENTIA EN 1859 5058 cd) fe we fe, hres
‘TELEGRAPH House, TRIniTy Bay, N. F., IN ae oe BAO
A WHALE INTERFERES WITH CABLE LAYING. . . . 72
CoILING THE CABLE AT SHEERNESS, May, 1866. . . 94
THE CLiFFs AT FOILHUMMERUM FACING CABLE LANDING 118
WOLETAM THOMSON, Lorp KEEVIN.. .. . .'. ...122
‘THE GREAT EASTERN, WITH Escorts. . . . . . 148
SPLICING THE CABLE ON THE GREAT EASTERN... 178
SEARCHING FOR FAULTS IN THE CABLE . . . . . 204
PREPARING TO GRAPPLE FOR LOST CABLE . . . . 230

PREPARING LARGE Buoy FOR LAUNCHING . . . . 256

A SAGA OF THE SEAS

Chapter One

THE NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION

Cyrus WEstT FIELD, born 1819, died 1892, had one of the most
exciting careers of his time. The span of his life marked the
transition from a primitive America, without railroads or
electricity, to the complicated civilization of the end of the
nineteenth century. In that drastic change of the American
scheme of living, he took a prominent part. He linked up the
news service of Europe with the news service of America—
an advance of tremendous significance. As the American
statesman, William M. Evarts described it, somewhat grand-
iloquently: “Columbus said, “There is one world, let there be
two’; but Field said, “There are two worlds, let there be one.’ ”’
The laying of the first Atlantic cable does not deserve such
extravagant praise as this, but it was, nevertheless, a striking
and romantic achievement—a stirring fight against the forces
of nature and the apathy of human nature.

Field’s life was a drama in the heroic style. He had a
humble beginning, experienced stupenduous difficulties, at-
tained a world-wide reputation, and suffered overwhelming
misfortunes. Few Americans pass through the extremes of
luck that characterized his efforts. He knew hard work and
countless discouragements. A unique triumph rewarded his
perseverance. After a life of public service and generous
deeds, he died a sad and disillusioned man. His personality
is one of the most attractive of the Victorian period.

He ran the gamut of adulation and criticism. One month
he was called a deluded fool. The next month he was cele-
brated as “Cyrus the Great,” one of the outstanding figures
since Columbus. He was glorified by extravagant praise, and
his name was cheered by thousands of admirers. New York

1

2 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

exalted him in a two-day carnival; poems were composed
about his accomplishments. He was honored by statesmen
and nobility. A few days later he was derided as a failure, and
accused of fraud and duplicity.

These discouraging insinuations, however, were proved
false. Once more he rose to the heights. Although a feted
hero for years and a man of deeds apparently sure of perma-
nent glory, he is now remembered only vaguely. Such is fame
in American life.

Cyrus Field is interesting as an outstanding man of his
times. Properly interpreted, his success in laying the first
cable across the Atlantic serves as a background for a reveal-
ing study of human nature, both in himself and in the popu-
lace that cheered and criticized him. He lived a full life—
much of it in the public eye. His biography gives an absorb-
ing picture of American conditions in the mid-eighteen-
hundreds, the era of wooden ships, whiskered men, and hoop-
skirted females.

As aman, he showed courage, initiative, and determination.
Liberal in his tendencies, he trusted others too freely and ex-
pected from them the same generosity and frankness that he
himself exhibited. Such an assumption is likely to lead to
disaster if followed too trustingly. The very optimism and
courage that made him famous later wrecked his fortunes.
This is one of the lessons of his life, that virtues carried too
far become weaknesses. An honest and modest man is always
a target for attacks.

One of the interesting aspects of his life was his wide ac-
quaintance with prominent persons, both in the United
States and Europe. He had a faculty for friendship and was
one of the most widely-known men of his day. Although his
admirers were legion and unusually demonstrative, especially
at banquets and speeches, he was betrayed more than once
by men he considered his friends. Such a frank and trusting
type of man was particularly liable to be preyed upon.

THE NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION 3

Much of his life was devoted indirectly to public service.
He benefited mankind by showing that ocean cables could
be laid to connect the continents; as an unofficial ambassador
he smoothed the difficult relations between the Northern
States and England during the Civil War; and he gave New
York an improved transit system. An inveterate traveler,
he was a frequent passenger on Atlantic liners and a familiar
figure abroad. Altogether he was a man worth knowing, a
leading personality during an important period of transition
in modern civilization.

It is worth tracing the career of this notable New Englander
from the hills of western Massachusetts, who conquered
Broadway, was toasted by London and Paris, and sped the
transmission of intelligence across the Atlantic. One of a
family of eminent Americans, he was another example of a
minister’s son who came to the metropolis and achieved suc-
cess. Study of his career helps to reveal the national charac-
teristics of the mid-nineteenth-century.

When Cyrus Field was born, in 1819, the young American
republic had scarcely more than obtained a fair start after the
disorders of two wars with England. Most of the people lived
in primitive villages, isolated from the larger centers by lack
of railroads and news service. It was still the ox-cart era of
slow transportation over rough roads cut through a formid-
able wilderness. ‘The nation had about twelve millions in
population.

In the Berkshire Hills, where Field was born, a village was
largely dependent upon its own products and local leader-
ship. Life was hard and insistent. The stern puritanism that
ruled in social matters did not alleviate the severity of natural
handicaps. The church, however, supplied a unifying bond
and a spiritual guidance that kept the community inspired
to a workable, if narrow, effort.

The father of Cyrus Field had only recently taken over the
pastorate of the church at Stockbridge, a tiny settlement in

4 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

the valley of the Housatonic river, not far from the New York
state line. The population was small but it had produced
Colonel Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams Col-
lege; and the eloquent but disturbing Jonathan Edwards
had lived and preached there. In those days the worth of a
town depended upon quality rather than upon quantity.

The Field family had moved their goods up from Haddam,
Connecticut, where the Reverend David Dudley Field had
started his career as a preacher fifteen years before and had
brought his young bride. Even the trip of less than a hundred
miles from Haddam to Stockbridge was a task of great difficul-
ty and even danger in that period, especially with several
young children and a load of household goods to manage.
This short trip required several days; today it could be com-
pleted in as many hours.

The Field family was a respected one. It can be traced back
to Zechariah Field, who came to Massachusetts from Ardsley,
Yorkshire, about 1629. He was a grandson of John Field, the
astronomer, who courageously introduced the unpopular
Copernican theory into England as early as 1556—long be-
fore Galileo was persecuted for teaching it in Italy. An in-
formative article about John Field was published in the Gen-
tleman’s Magazine of May, 1834. The family is believed to
have come to England from France during the Norman con-
quest. The name originally had “de la” before it and, as was
customary, was spelled in various ways, such as “Felde”’ and
“Feild.” ‘The well-known Chicago merchant, Marshall Field,
was descended from these same ancestors.

Cyrus Field’s grandfather, Timothy Field, served as captain
in Washington’s army; even in later life, when fashions were
changing, he continued to wear a cocked hat, short breeches,
long stockings, and silver shoe buckles. His son, the father of
Cyrus, attended Yale College, where he was influenced by
that stubborn old conservative, President Timothy Dwight.
In connection with his pastoral work, the Reverend David

THE NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION 5

Dudley Field became noted as a local historian of towns and
counties in Massachusetts and Connecticut. For example, he
wrote histories of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and the
city of Pittsfield.

Such histories, as well as his sermons, were in the best New
England tradition. A notable sermon of Parson Field was a
“Warning Against Drunkenness,” which he delivered with
stirring effect at the execution of a violent-tempered man who
had murdered his own wife while drunk. In exhorting this
unfortunate, who was about to be hanged, the eloquent
preacher declaimed: “Before yonder sun shall set in the west
your probationary state shall be closed forever. ‘This day you
will either lift up your eyes in hell, being in torment, or,
through the rich, overflowing, and sovereign grace of God, be
carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.”

The old parson’s New England conscience forced him to
strict measures even when his natural kindness urged him
otherwise. Thus a sense of duty forbade permitting member-
ship in his church to the Unitarian followers of William E1-
lery Channing. The Reverend David Dudley Field was never
inclined to compromise with what seemed to him contrary to
his duty. He was of the stern old stock that saw life in the
light of strict moralities and unbending purpose. ‘The small
villages throughout the western hills of New England re-
mained conservative long after Harvard and the cities en-
couraged new ideas.

The mother of Cyrus was the former Submit Dickinson,
called, as a girl “the Somers beauty.’ She was the daughter of
Noah Dickinson, of the village of Somers, Connecticut, who,
like Timothy Field, had served as captain in the Revolution.
As was customary in those times, she married early and bore a
large family. Curiously enough, her husband was accustomed
to call her “Mrs. Field” instead of “Submit,” even in the
privacy of their home. A picture of her in middle life shows
a resigned woman with good features and kind eyes, wearing

6 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

a white bonnet fastened closely by a bow under the chin. Her
husband’s features also were well formed but with the taut
expression characteristic of a man ‘accustomed to fighting
Satan. Cyrus came naturally by his handsome and intelligent
looks.

When the father became pastor of the Congregational
church at Stockbridge, the salary was six hundred dollars a
year—which was much more than the redoubtable Jonathan
Edwards had received in the same settlement several genera-
tions earlier. ‘There were two daughters and eight sons to be
brought up on this income. Cyrus was the eighth child and
seventh son. ‘Three other sons achieved distinction in Amer-
ican history—David Dudley Jr., Stephen Johnson, and Henry
Martyn. ‘The name of another son, Jonathan Edwards Field,
born before the family moved to Stockbridge, indicates an
admiration by the parents for that ardent revivalist; Jonathan
became a lawyer and politician.

The oldest son was David, fourteen years older than Cyrus.
He became a famous lawyer and jurist in New York, especial-
ly prominent in the troubled years following the Civil War,
when a number of outstanding legal cases were argued. Some
of his cases came before the United States Supreme Court
when his brother Stephen was a member of that august body.
He acted for Jay Gould and James Fisk Jr. in the notorious
Erie Railroad litigation; he defended the Tammany politi-
cian Boss Tweed; and he represented Samuel J. Tilden in the
dispute over the election of 1876, when Tilden really was
elected president but was defeated by Hayes in the electoral
college.

David's greatest achievement was his aggressive work for
the codification of the common law. He helped to bring
together divergent and confused rulings into a systematic
code that had some semblance of order and clarity. His pow-
erful influence was exerted to simplify legal procedure and
make it understandable; for example, by changing the num-

THE NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION 7

erous foreign phrases into ordinary English. A born reformer,
he had an inherited urge to fight obscurantism and to make
the truth. available. Such a stand aroused bitter opposition
among conservative lawyers, and he was subjected to severe
ridicule and abuse. His motto was, “The only men who make
any lasting impression on the world are fighters.” Although
called cold and forbidding, he had stanch admirers. He defi-
nitely impressed his generation as an outspoken critic of an-
tiquated legal practice.

David, being older than Cyrus and early established as a
lawyer in New York, was able to give a helping hand to his
young brother. Cyrus deserved aid from his older brothers
who had attended college, since the family’s finances were not
sufficient to send him there. David and Cyrus, though dif-
fering on many political questions, remained life-long friends.
They were highly individualistic but strongly affectionate.
Their long residence as neighbors in New York reinforced
family ties and the memories based on childhood days, when
they had knelt in the home sitting-room and listened to long
prayers from the old parson. All their lives, scattered though
the Field children were, they recalled vividly their puritani-
cal upbringing in the Massachusetts hill village, where their
world was an old-fashioned parsonage in an isolated commu-
nity of Yankee stock.

Another older brother, Stephen, became a United States
Supreme Court justice after an adventurous career. In 1849
at the age of thirty-three, he sailed for California, the land of
gold, where he landed with ten dollars in his pocket. Relieved
from the supervision of father and brother, he entered heart-
ily into the rough life of the frontier. Having had legal train-
ing, he was soon involved in actions at law, political feuds,
and land speculation. It was his intimate acquaintance with
Western land and mineral conditions that brought about his
appointment to the United States Supreme Court by Lincoln
during the Civil War.

8 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

In the Court decisions, Stephen Field submitted many
minority reports, and his dogmatic opinions aroused wide-
spread criticism. On several occasions there were threats to
shoot him if he returned to California, and one such attempt
actually was made. A few months before his death at eighty-
three, he was asked by his colleagues on the bench to resign.
One explanation of his stubborn mind was that it had become
set when, at Williams College, he was taught logic and phil-
osophy by Mark Hopkins, the eminent educator, who also
came from Stockbridge. He was a candidate for President in
1880 and 1884. A book called Stephen J. Field, Craftsman of
the Law has been written by Dr. Carl B. Swisher.

Both David and Stephen were equipped by inheritance and
temperament to render important service to the development
of American law. The talents that they gave to the improve-
ment of the nation’s legal practice included a faculty for ab-
stract and systematic thought, supported by personal initia-
tive and determination. Their father’s theological and his-
torical background had accustomed them to controversial and
theoretical issues. Like their father, they were not afraid to
stand by their convictions when they believed that it was their
duty to do so. Neither of these sons was popular, but both
were respected.

‘The youngest brother of Cyrus was Henry, who became a
clergyman and writer. Something of a rolling stone, he had a
varied and interesting life. He preached, traveled, and edited
a religious periodical called The Evangelist. Although his
travel books have been criticized as discursive and superficial,
they conformed to the expectations of his readers, especially
in pious interpretations, and are still readable. His book, The
Story of the Atlantic Telegraph, shows a versatility of which
few clergymen are capable. Henry Field was a very charming
fellow.

His influence in the Presbyterian Church was liberal and
progressive; he was even something of a man of the world.

THE NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION 9

To the consternation of his family and followers, he married
a beautiful foreigner who had been a leading figure in the
scandalous murder of a French duchess. Henry Field showed
courage in defying smug society to bring this exotic girl to
the United States. Her story has been told in slightly-dis-
guised form in a book called Lucile Cléry by Joseph Shearing.
In Henry’s later years, he was inclined to envy his more fa-
mous brothers, whom he exalted in his writings and sermons.
His own life, however, was varied and active and he en-
joyed rich experiences such as conventional clergymen usual-
ly miss.

This youngest son of the old parson was not so persevering
or single-minded as the others. David and Stephen were noted
for their militant and relentless ways. Cyrus, who came be-
tween them and Henry in age, was ingratiating and attractive,
while still firm and determined in his purposes. Henry was
more changeable and easy-going. His writings indicate a
facile ability, calculated to please a wide circle of admirers.
In this youngest son, the father’s strong will and unswerving
attitude were less evident than in the others.

In his old age, the father himself became less obdurate and
somewhat subdued. He lived to be nearly eighty-six and in
his later years was dependent upon his wife’s ministrations.
At his funeral in 1867, Mark Hopkins, who had been baptized
by the old parson, spoke feelingly of his record as a pillar of
devoutness and duty. On the memorial tablet to the Rever-
end David Dudley Field in the Stockbridge church are the
pious words: “The Hoary Head is a Crown of Glory when
found in the way of Righteousness.”

When Cyrus was born on November 30, 1819, his father
had only recently become pastor at Stockbridge. It was natu-
ral that the new baby’s name should be “West,” after the
venerable clergyman who had held the pastorate for more
than half a century previously. “Cyrus” was the first name of
the president of the local bank. It was a somewhat over-

10 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

whelming name to give such a frail baby, but formidable
names based on Biblical and historical sources were common
then.

The baby, although delicate, soon showed that it was en-
dowed with nervous energy. It was a favorite of the mother,
perhaps for that reason. Throughout his life, Cyrus Field’s
health was never robust but was sustained by enthusiasm and
eagerness. In his mature years, he was sometimes called ruth-
less and dictatorial when the animating purpose was really
only an anxiety to make progress and get results. Something
of the new spirit that was stirring the American republic, with
the rise of Andrew Jackson into political power, seemed to
enter into this baby in the Stockbridge parsonage. It was the
age of the construction of the Erie canal and of early experi-
ments with railroads.

Life among the hills of Massachusetts during Cyrus’ child-
hood was still cast in the puritanical tradition. Every morn-
ing and evening the family came together for a religious serv-
ice, each member with a Bible to read from. The father’s
long prayers at these gatherings made a deep impression
on the kneeling children although they did not always under-
stand the obscure theological terms. One of the favorite ex-
pressions of the father which puzzled the children was that
“the Lord will overturn, overturn, overturn—until he come,
whose right it is.” ‘There is something peculiarly moving in
this picture of the devout family bowed down in the bare
sitting-room listening to the Old Testament phraseology with
its big words. Of the several boys who knelt down in this par-
sonage among the hills, one was to become a leading figure
at the American bar, one was to build bridges and railroads,
one was to supply knowledge of the West to the highest court
in the land, one was to conquer the Atlantic for the transmis-
sion of intelligence, and one was to exert an influence for a
more liberal interpretation of religion.

This was still the age of theological argument—arguments

THE NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION 11

that seem strange today. One of the typical controversial
points of the time was whether the Sabbath began at sunset
on Saturday or at midnight. The old parson’s advice on this
question was, if in doubt, to keep both periods as sacred. The
Field children were required to be in the house by sunset on
Saturday evening. At that hour the father welcomed them
solemnly with the words: “We are on the borders of holy
time.” The suppressed children looked forward anxiously
for sunset on Sunday when they were free again. Such a
method of spending week-ends has gone out of fashion, except
perhaps in Scotland.

Living conditions during Cyrus’ boyhood were primitive
and difficult. In the Field home the meals were cooked in
medieval style over an open fire, with only a brick oven to
supplement the fire-place. Cook-stoves were unknown, as
were coal, gas, and kerosene. Lighting was by candles or
whale oil. ‘The meat supply came from animals killed in early
winter and packed away in the cellar. There were no butcher-
shops in Stockbridge, nor even traveling meat-vans. A favor-
ite dish was salt pork and boiled potatoes—that staple meal
of so many farmers in the American backwoods.

Clothes were home-made. Even after Cyrus was working
in a great New York “emporium” he continued to receive
clothing made at home by his mother. What such suits lacked
in fashionable cut, they made up in wearing qualities. Living
then was much more difficult because nearly everything had
to be made by hand, even pins and nails. In the more remote
New England villages the conditions of subsistence ap-
proached what they had been in medieval Europe, when a
typical village produced all its necessary staples except iron
and salt.

There was, however, an excellent academy in Stockbridge
—one of those admirable old schools taught by a master who
took his work seriously. A few years before Cyrus’ attendance,
a student named Mark Hopkins had absorbed early ideas of

12 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

education there, ideas that he was later to put in practice as
president of Williams College. Cyrus’ education was of short
duration, but sound and inspiring. As this boy studied his
“fourth reader,” he little dreamed that a later generation of
pupils all over the United States would read and recite a
poem about Cyrus Field from the fourth reader of their day.

As to the social diversions of the village of Stockbridge,
they were few enough. Cyrus liked to wander over the hills
and envisage new horizons—a characteristic that remained
with him throughout life. Inspired by his nervous energy, he
mingled well with the other boys and led them in games. At
the age of fifteen he acted in amateur theatricals at the local
academy. Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer was given, and
Cyrus played “Mrs. Hardcastle.’’ On the previous evening he
had taken the part of the son of an Indian chief, in what was
called a “Tragical Dialogue,’ including five young men.
This appearance on the stage in his home village is somewhat
surprising in view of the rigid beliefs about amusements.
Little did the audience realize the drama that was to charac-
terized his life. Other names on the theater program indicate
the nationality and something of the character of his com-
rades. ‘They included Adams, Watts, Dwight, Lincoln, Stuart,
Tremain, Williams, Pomeroy, Rockwell, Fowler, Selkirk,
Carter and Vallet—all of northwestern European origin.

Before he was sixteen Cyrus left home for good. Yet so
thorough had been his upbringing that his character was al-
ready set at that early age. Once away from his parents’ con-
trol, he acted as mature and grown-up as though he was ten
years older. Even beset by the strange customs and easy ways
of the sophisticated city of New York, he remained a boy of
the hills, although later to become an international promoter
and to consort with the great.

Chapter Two

A YOUNG MAN IN NEW YORK

THE FIELD FAMILY had always lived in New England, prin-
cipally Connecticut and Massachusetts. ‘The oldest son,
David, foresaw the coming growth and prosperity of New
York and established himself there as a lawyer after his pre-
liminary education at Williams College. The completion of
the Erie canal in 1825 made New York the American me-
tropolis, and it soon boasted of nearly two hundred thousand
population. It was more mixed in nationalities than Boston,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, or Savannah, and per-
haps more vulgar, but much less narrow and hide-bound.
David and Cyrus did well to leave a New England village and
go to New York. They arrived as the new expansion was
getting under way and grew up with the city. The Erie canal,
though only a ditch four feet deep, was affecting the lives of
many Americans.

The period that drew David and his brothers to New York
was one of great expansion and progress in national affairs.
Jeffersonian democracy was in the air, and the surging energy
of a rising people was bursting the bonds of caste and conven-
tion. The eyes of the nation were turned to the West, and the
vast possibilities of the continent’s natural resources and un-
developed opportunities were being recognized. After several
false starts and unfortunate interruptions, the newly-organ-
ized republic of the western world was getting into its stride.

The new system of canals, supplementing the rivers and
the turnpikes, had reduced freight rates to a tenth or a twen-
tieth of the former costs. This was an economic factor of
enormous importance and was the basis for a splendid boom
in business. The recently-invented steamship was also prov-

13

14 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

ing an industrial asset, although many poorly-constructed
ones blew up or racked themselves to pieces. A novel means
of transit by “‘rail-roads” with rather feeble locomotives was
being demonstrated by ingenious inventors, and bold proph-
ets were predicting the eventual supremacy of rails over
the established canals.

Many minor inventions and conveniences were coming in
to make life less arduous and toilsome. Even so small an ad-
vance as the invention of matches was significant of the trend
to a more urbane civilization. The industrial revolution in
the United States was under way. The typical American
predilection for action, exploitation, and progress was dem-
onstrating itself.

Cyrus Field’s career began in the Jacksonian prosperity of
the 1830's. During his active life, he saw the panic of 1837,
the coming of Darwinism, the Civil War, and the panic of
1873; the nation changed from agricultural to industrial.
When he died in 1892, the “frontier” era of American history
was over, and a more advanced order of society was in prepa-
ration. Roughly speaking, his span of life corresponds to the
Victorian era of England. In fact, Queen Victoria was born
in the same year as Field but survived him by nine years. He
died in the same year as Tennyson. When he was born, the-
ology and politics absorbed men’s attention; when he died,
economics and industry were paramount interests. Men
themselves had changed, as well as the nation’s development.

The New York to which the Field boys came to seek their
fortunes was an irregular cluster of old-fashioned houses on
the lower tip of Manhattan island. Business life centered
around the docks, where sailing ships discharged their exotic
cargoes. Dirt roads were still common although paved streets
with horse-cars were coming in. The rich men of the time
lived in tree-shaded dwellings around Wall street and the
Bowery. Many had summer homes up in Greenwich Village.
Columbia College was in the present financial section; the

A YOUNG MAN IN NEW YORK 15

church-like building of New York University was uptown at
Washington Square, on the outskirts of the city.

The bad sanitary conditions then prevailing exposed the
citizens to terrible plagues of yellow fever and cholera. The
drinking-water from the hand-pumps was so uncertain and
tainted that many residents depended largely upon other
beverages. When epidemics ravaged the city, the remedies
and preventives included such hallowed superstitions as
building bonfires at street corners to purify the air, profuse
bleeding of under-nourished patients, smearing the body with
oil or medicaments, and putting garlic in the shoes.

David Field found New York hospitable and easy-going
compared with the austere towns of New England. His letters
home painted a city where money was relatively plentiful and
opportunities for a smart young man so promising that any-
thing might happen. Cyrus, though barely in his teens, was
inspired by David’s glowing descriptions. Apparently a new
world down the Hudson awaited the repressed boy from the
puritanical village in the hills.

When he was five months past his fifteenth birthday, Cyrus
got his parents’ consent for leaving home to seek his fortune.
Realizing that money was not available for a college educa-
tion, he resolved to go to New York, where David was a rising
young lawyer, and to enter business. The father gave him
eight dollars from the thin family purse, and on April 29,
1835, he set out—only a boy in years but resolved to act like a
man.

‘There was a drive of thirty miles to the Hudson river, as no
railroads had yet approached Stockbridge. ‘This short drive
cost more than the hundred-mile steamer trip down the Hud-
son. The steamer fare was only fifty cents and his entire
expense from Stockbridge to New York was only two dollars,
although the trip required twenty-four hours to complete.
Today it is a railroad or motor ride of about three hours up
the Housatonic valley from New York to Stockbridge, but it

16 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

is no cheaper than a century ago. As he sailed down the beau-
tiful Hudson past Irvington and Dobb’s Ferry, he little
imagined that he would one day live in a palatial mansion
on a hill between those towns and that there he would enter-
tain distinguished American and European visitors.

Arrived in New York, Cyrus went to the leading dry-goods
store of A. T. Stewart & Company on Broadway, where David
had secured him a job as errand-boy. The store was between
Murray and Warren streets, and he obtained board and lodg-
ing on Murray street for two dollars a week. His first year’s
salary was only fifty dollars, so that he had to borrow from
his father and David. For the second year he received a salary
of a hundred dollars and was almost able to pay his board.
During the third year he was affluent on two hundred dollars.
The contract was for three years—a sort of apprenticeship
to give him business training.

The homesick boy wrote to his father about two weeks
after leaving Stockbridge. Among several references to the
family was the admonition: “Take good care of mother, and
tell her she must not get overdone.” He did not mention that
during many of the spring evenings he used to wander along
the Hudson, wishing that he was in one of the north-bound
steamers headed home. Professor Mark Hopkins, when in
New York, cheered up the unhappy boy at a Sunday dinner
at David’s. However, Cyrus was soon to get over his loneliness
in the excitement of new developments and friends. David
had married a cousin of Mark Hopkins and had made many
influential acquaintances in New York including William
Cullen Bryant, the talented poet and renowned editor of the
New York Evening Post. David later contributed a series of
notable articles on American legal practice to this newspaper.

At first Cyrus’ work required that he be at the store before
seven o'clock, but when he was promoted from errand-boy to
clerk, the hours were from quarter past eight until the man-
agers had left in the evening. Despite the late hours, he re-

A YOUNG MAN IN NEW YORK 17

solved to attend a theater even though (or perhaps because)
at home such straying from the straight and narrow path had
been called ‘‘taking the first step toward Hell.”” As his daugh-
ter later expressed it, “Being of an inquiring mind he deter-
mined, as so many country lads have done before and since,
upon giving one of the first evenings in the city to finding out
for himself what Hell was like.” For a green boy of fifteen,
receiving the salary of a dollar a week, this was a rash deter-
mination. It is interesting to note, as showing the customs
of the times, that some New York theaters seated “women of
ill fame” apart from the rest of the audience.

When he wrote home, his letters described, not his impres-
sions of the New York theater, but another sensational sight
for a small-town boy—a big fire. On Christmas day, 1835, he
wrote to his father that he had seen “‘the largest fire ever
known in this country. It burned about 674 buildings, most
of which were wholesale stores, and laid waste all of thirty
acres of this city. I was up all night to the fire, and last Sun-
day was on duty with David as a guard to prevent people from
going to the ruins to steal property that was saved from the
fire and laying [sic] in heaps in the streets. ‘The awful state
that the city was in can be better imagined than described.”
This was the great fire of 1835, which caused a loss of twenty
million dollars and which made a glow visible in Philadel-
phia and New Haven. Ironically enough, the city’s scanty
water system was frozen at the time. This fire temporarily
stopped the city’s growth that the Erie canal had heightened.
It wrecked the insurance companies and many business firms
and it helped to bring the financial panic of 1837.

A typical postscript to Cyrus’ letter added: “I wish mother
would make for me a black frock-coat (she knows the kind
that I want) and a plain black stock. Perhaps you had better
send me the $6 that you were to let me have.” The postscript
was signed “‘C. W. Field” although the main letter was signed
“Your affectionate son, Cyrus.” A year later he wrote his

18 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

mother to make him “‘a black broadcloth coat with skirts and
covered buttons.” He sometimes sent his mother purchases
of cloth from the store, such as a remnant of merino or a mus-
lin collar.

An earlier letter than this gave many homely details of his
life in New York. It began: “I received by Mr. Baldwin five
nightcaps, a pin-cushion, and some wedding-cake.” Some-
what ungrammatically he continued: ‘““There is in the store
beside the firm twenty-four clerks, including two book-keep-
ers.”” An expense account in this letter listed: hair cutting
1214c, one vial of turpentine to get some spots out of coat
614c, shoes mended 183,c, two papers of tobacco to put in
trunks to prevent moths getting in 1214c, one straw hat $1,
and a steel pen 1214c. Steel pens were then replacing quills.
David had thought that the straw hat from home was too
dirty.

Next to the great fire, probably the most sensational news-
paper story of the period was the scandalous murder of a
“bad girl” called Ellen Jewett, by a man of the upper class in
a luxurious house of ill repute. James Gordon Bennett him-
self visited the scene and regaled the readers of his New York
Herald with lurid details. The trial that followed, in which
the murderer was acquitted, engrossed the New Yorkers of
1836. It must have seemed frightfully sinful to young Cyrus
from Stockbridge, for it revealed a phase of life of which he
knew little.

For amusements, besides walks along the Hudson, he pa-
tronized the Mercantile Library at Nassau and Beekman
streets. He wrote to his mother that he had read through the
Pilgrim’s Progress, and that he and another clerk (apparently
his room-mate) took turns in reading a chapter of the Bible
“every night before we go to bed, and we have got as far as
the 25th chapter of Genesis.” He also joined an Eclectic
Fraternity, which met weekly over a leather store for debates.
A loan of twenty-five dollars from his father seemed to prey

A YOUNG MAN IN NEW YORK 19

on his mind, but he finally repaid it, with a silk handkerchief
as interest.

An amusing incident that occurred in 1837 reveals side-
lights on the attitude of employees, and shows that human
nature changes very little. The Stewart store’s strict rules re-
quired that clerks record their tardinesses both in the morn-
ing and after dinner and supper, somewhat in the manner of
punching a time-clock. For each tardiness a fine of twenty-five
cents was collected, and this sum was to be kept and given to
a charity that the clerks should designate. The regulation
was phrased in the pious language of the period.

On October 1, the clerks, who possessed names like Selden,
Goodrich, Walker, Selby, Matthew, Austin, Mills, MacFar-
lan, and Zabriskie, demanded the accumulated fines from the
cashier and repaired to a popular oyster-saloon in a basement
on Broadway at Chambers street. A unanimous vote de-
manded that an oyster supper should be served at the expense
of the fund, which Cyrus as treasurer had in charge. This
was done, and then followed a protracted debate as to which
charity should receive the balance. This debate, over the
oysters and drinks, must have been very amusing. These
clerks were on a spree and talked in bold terms.

At last it was unanimously resolved that there was no such
deserving charity in the city or state of New York as the clerks
of A. T. Stewart & Company, and that Cyrus should repay to
each clerk the exact amount of his fines less the cost of the
supper. By this time it was nearly daybreak. Naturally A. T.
Stewart was not particularly pleased to hear of all this, but
the damage had been done.

Years later, when Cyrus was famous, Stewart remarked that
probably the young man had received his first suggestion of
the possibilities of telegraphy when he used to tick warnings
to the other clerks that Stewart was approaching, so that every-
one could appear busy and attentive. When Cyrus left the
employ of the store, after three years there, a dozen of the

20 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

clerks gave him a complimentary dinner, and one of Stewart’s
partners presented him with “the accompanying trifle as a
token of esteem and sincere friendship.” The trifle was a
diamond pin that Cyrus wore for over twenty-five years.

When the financial depression of 1837 began, Cyrus was
still working for A. T. Stewart & Company. Confused times
came upon the country. Instead of sitting tight at his job,
Cyrus, who was eighteen years old, attended evening school
to learn bookkeeping by double entry. He then resigned at
the store, despite Stewart's offer of a rise in salary, in order to
accept a position as assistant to his brother, Matthew, who
was then engaged in manufacturing paper in a small mill a
few miles from Stockbridge. Matthew had offered him $250
a year, with board and washing. Cyrus’ new duties included
sales trips to Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, and New
York. In the interval between leaving Stewart’s and begin-
ning work at Lee, he made a business trip for his brother Dud-
ley as far west as Detroit and Ann Arbor, so that he saw some-
thing of the vast territory that the canals and railroads were
opening up. He was now a man of affairs though scarcely out
of his teens. ‘The homesick country boy, awed by the big
city, Was acquiring experience and assurance. As a salesman,
he was successful by reason of his likable nature and opti-
mism; but the nation’s business was under a cloud, and condi-
tions grew worse instead of better.

The depression proved to be a protracted one, and small
companies, inadequately financed, failed by the hundreds. It
was a period when quick shifts had to be made; no one knew
what to expect amid the uncertainties and fears on all sides.
By the spring of 1840, as a new presidential election ap-
proached, a little improvement seemed possible for hard-
pressed American industry.

Cyrus, who was past twenty years old, optimistically re-
solved to go into business for himself as a manufacturer of
paper. He bought an interest in a small paper-mill at West-

A YOUNG MAN IN NEW YORK 21

field, Massachusetts, with the little fund that he had saved.
Such mills were being sold at low prices. But conditions were
still difficult, and by October, he was in a mood to accept an
offer from the firm of E. Root & Company, wholesale paper-
dealers of Maiden Lane in New York City. The offer was for
him to become a junior partner and promote sales in such
cities as Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and Boston.
The New York office was managed by the senior partner. As
events afterward proved, Cyrus should have investigated the
company’s finances more carefully before involving his future
in a situation with which he was not familiar. ‘Things were
going to happen that would make him wish himself safely
back at Stewart & Company selling dry-goods.

Two days after he was twenty-one, while his financial pros-
pects were still in doubt, Cyrus somewhat rashly married
Mary Bryan Stone of Guilford, Connecticut, which was near
his father’s birthplace—not far from New Haven. Miss
Stone’s father had died of yellow fever in Georgia many years
previously. Since then the widow, with three children, had
lived with her aged parents at Guilford. In a letter from New
York announcing the coming marriage to his father and
mother, Cyrus wrote, somewhat formally: ‘The writer of
this intends to be joined in the bands of matrimony to Miss
Mary B. Stone one week from this day, that is, on next Wed-
nesday morning, December 2, 1840, at 10 o’clock A. M., and
requests the pleasure of meeting you both, with sister Mary,
at the house of Mr. A. S. Fowler in Guilford, at the above-
mentioned time.” Letters were still mailed without enve-
lopes; the postage was thirteen cents for short distances.

Dr. Field came over to perform the ceremony from the
near-by village of Haddam, Connecticut, where he was then
pastor. Stephen, who had not yet sought his adventurous for-
tune in California, acted as groomsman for his brother. ‘There
were three kinds of cake, with wine, before the party drove
to New Haven. On the next day, the newlyweds went to New

22 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

York by boat and started boarding in a house on Bond street,
where they remained for two years, paying sixty dollars a
month for the two. Housekeeping was a hard undertaking in
those days of old-fashioned stoves and whale-oil lamps, with
no regular system of running water, and was not to be under-
taken rashly by a young couple.

Four months after the wedding, the firm of E. Root &
Company failed with large liabilities. Although Cyrus was
not the principal, in some obscure manner the burden of
debts fell upon him. Overwhelmed by this avalanche, he
negotiated the best terms he was able with the creditors, pay-
ing what he could, and thus released himself sufficiently from
the rigid laws of the time to dissolve the firm and start a busi-
ness of his own. This failure and the stern discipline inci-
dental to doing business during the depression of the late
thirties gave him a certain ruthlessness in attitude and out-
look. Young men striving for success are apt to show ruthless-
ness.

He now took an office near the East River docks and organ-
ized the wholesale-paper firm of Cyrus W. Field & Company.
Later he took into the firm his brother-in-law, Joseph F.
Stone. A long period of hard work was ahead, with debts
hanging over. It was a discouraging beginning for a newly-
married couple, but the marriage proved a singularly happy
one. His family expenses during this early period of married
life were about fifteen hundred dollars a year. There was an
item of a willow cradle costing two dollars, and eighty-eight
cents for repairing a silk hat. A doctor’s visit cost one dollar
at that time.

In 1842 the new Croton aqueduct brought adequate sup-
plies of running water to the city that had suffered so from
lack of it in the great fire of seven years before. Housekeeping
was now made easier, especially as returning prosperity
brought additional conveniences to city-dwellers. The Fields
stopped boarding and rented a house in the suburbs at 87

LGQt NI WLLNYIVA

A YOUNG MAN IN NEW YORK 23

East Seventeenth street, where they lived for ten years.
Brother David believed this location to be too far out in the
country but later he moved to a house near by. So assiduously
did Cyrus devote himself to his business that he breakfasted
by lamplight and took dinner and supper downtown near his
office on Cliff street. His children, who were beginning to
come, saw him only on Sundays. The intense, grinding work
gave him a restless manner, and his health declined. Fortu-
nately a period of expansion and national prosperity suc-
ceeded the devastating years of the depression. New gold
from California began coming in to stimulate trade.

Cyrus’ arrangements with the creditors of E. Root & Com-
pany had been in the nature of a compromise that had re-
leased him from legal obligations by part payment of the full
amounts due. His own feeling, however, was that he should
repay these debts in full, even though he had had little to do
with contracting them. By 1853, when he was thirty-three
years old, he had prospered so successfully that he was worth
over a quarter of a million dollars, which had a large buying
power in those days. He looked up the old debt records and
computed the unpaid portions with interest at seven percent.
To each creditor he sent a check for this full amount.

They had never expected to be paid after ten or more years,
as there was no legal obligation; consequently they were
overjoyed. Some were elderly men in poor circumstances,
others widows. It was a noble act typical of a generous and
conscientious nature. As an example of how the interest
had mounted during the years, an original debt of $1500 in
1841 had been compromised in 1845 by Field’s paying
$942.07, a full discharge being then granted. In 1853 the
creditor unexpectedly received a check of $1142.49 for the
balance with interest. Obviously this amount was larger than
the sum accepted in 1845 for the full payment, and was in
fact not much smaller than the entire original debt.

“TI now wished,” Field wrote, ‘‘to retire from business alto-

24 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

gether, but at length I yielded to the solicitations of my junior
partner so far as to agree to leave my name at the head of the
firm and to leave in the business a capital of $100,000. But
this was done with the express understanding that I was not
to be required to devote any time to it.” He was now in a
happy position—a rich man, free to indulge his hobbies and
blessed with an untroubled home life. Being an active man,
full of energy and faith, he looked around for something to
interest him. He had recently moved a few blocks north to
Gramercy Park and had built a house, later called 123 East
Twenty-First street, on the north side of that aristocratic
square. ‘There were only a few other buildings around him at
first, although his brother David occupied the next house.
Forty years were to be spent at this convenient headquarters.

In 1849 there had been a trip to Europe on the advice of the
family physician, who feared overwork and business strain.
Leaving their four small daughters in care of an aunt at New
Haven, Field and his wife visited England, after a crossing of
eighteen days; then Scotland, Ireland, and the Continent.
At a church in Scotland, when Mrs. Field gaily offered to
share her book of Psalms with her husband, a stern old lady,
assuming that the young couple were not married, reproved
them by saying: “Remember that you are in the house of
God.”

On the Continent they paid visits to Paris, Geneva, the
Italian cities, Vienna, Germany including a Rhine voyage,
and Brussels. They were able to see the after-effects of the
democratic uprisings of 1848 and to compare the social con-
ditions with those in America. On the steamer home they
met George Bancroft, the historian, who proved a life-long
friend.

Field’s daughter, Isabella Field Judson, reported that the
family life in New York was simple and smooth-running.
During the summers there were rides to the picturesque

A YOUNG MAN IN NEW YORK 25

woods of Hoboken (called then the Elysian Fields), to Astoria
on Long Island, and to Coney Island—‘“‘all very different
places from those of the present time.’ Each morning the
family cow was taken to pasture at Madison Square—a few
blocks from the residence on Gramercy Square. This locality
was soon to change radically as the city grew uptown. In
1850, a few months after the birth of a son, the entire family
left New York in two horse-drawn carriages for a ride of four
weeks, first to Guilford, then to Stockbridge, then on a night
boat down the Hudson. These family activities illustrate
the typical life of prosperous New Yorkers during Victorian
days—the so-called “age of innocence.”

In the summer of 1851, Cyrus and Mrs. Field toured the
Southern, Western, and Northern states, seeing the Natural
Bridge in Virginia, the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and
an Indian tribe in Minnesota. They also participated in one
of the famous boat races on the Mississippi; the steamer they
were on threatened to blow up as all kinds of fuel, including
hams from the cargo, were fed to the boiler. At Niagara Falls
they stopped in the same hotel with ‘“‘the Swedish Nightingale”’
Jenny Lind, outside whose door was usually a circle of ad-
mirers. Field’s detailed expense accounts of these trips sug-
gest that, even on vacation, he was not able to forget business
methods and that, like most self-made Americans of the pe-
riod, he was inclined to think in terms of the ledger. He out-
grew this trait, however, as he became more a man of the
world.

After paying the old debts and retiring from business in
1853, Field planned a long tour of South America with his
friend, Frederick Church, the well-known painter of land-
scapes. He hoped that it would benefit his health, although
he had to pay a hundred dollars extra premium on his life
insurance because of the risks involved. They sailed up the
Magdalena River in Colombia for six hundred miles and

26 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

spent four months on mule-back in the Andes. Coming back
by way of the Pacific, they crossed the isthmus of Panama
partly by railroad and partly on mules. Church made many
sketches of the tropical wilderness for his landscapes.

While roughing it in the mountains, they became sepa-
rated from their baggage by a flooded river and had to wait
three weary weeks to regain it. Field became nervous at the
delay, particularly because he wished to be back in Stock-
bridge in time for the celebration of his parents’ golden wed-
ding on October 31. He arrived just in time. Thirty-nine of
the family dined in the old home, to which the father had re-
turned from Connecticut. Cyrus and David had bought the
house for the parents, now old but still active.

One reason for the South American trip was to permit a
search for a lost brother, ‘Timothy, who had enlisted in the
navy and had sailed from New Orleans in 1835 on a ship
never heard of again. There had been rumors that Timothy
was living as a wealthy planter in South America. No trace of
him was found, however, and he was finally given up as lost.
On the voyage home, Cyrus met Marshall O. Roberts, a suc-
cessful promoter of steamship and railroad lines, who after-
ward joined him in the telegraph venture.

Field brought back from the South a number of interesting
exhibits, including native coats woven of grass, two dozen
parrakeets, and a live jaguar. Most remarkable of all, was an
Indian boy of fourteen—an impish son of a bull-fighter. ‘The
plan was to educate this boy and send him back as a mission-
ary, but he proved too intractable. He broke the arm of the
cook and caused consternation by ambushing members of the
family in a dark hall and flourishing a knife. When Field
was in England in 1856, the family sent the boy back to
South America.

From these activities and attempts at recreation, it can be
seen that Field was casting about for some worth-while inter-

A YOUNG MAN IN NEW YORK 27

est to divert his mind. He was not accustomed to idleness
and was too young a man really to retire. As a matter of fact,
the most active part of his life was ahead. Undreamed-of
deeds and efforts awaited him; a vast new problem was com-
ing up for solution. Hard work, discouragement, and fame
were ahead. His career had scarcely begun.

Chapter Three

THE SIMPLE IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE

IN ONE SENSE it was somewhat strange and unexpected that a
retired New York merchant should take up as his life work
the promotion of the first Atlantic cable. Field had received
no education in science or engineering, and his experience
in finance had been limited to mercantile transactions. Yet
he possessed an inheritance of Yankee ingenuity and adapt-
ability, and he was a persuasive, magnetic type of man. Peo-
ple liked him and were swayed by his sanguine arguments. He
was subject to fits of depression, it is true, but they were
quickly over and his normal attitude was optimistic.

At the middle of the nineteenth century the electric tele-
graph was just becoming important. It was the first applica-
tion of the electric current to prove of substantial value.
Back in the days of Benjamin Franklin, electricity had been
known only as static or spark electricity made by friction, and
the public heard of it principally through so-called cures for
disease and the part it played in the use of lightning-rods.
About 1800, current electricity began to be heard of through
the chemical experiments of the Italian professor, Alessandro
Volta. It was then thought that the chief use of the current
would be as an aid to chemistry in the laboratory.

As further researches were made, the inter-relations of
electricity and magnetism were recognized, especially after
the famous experiments of Michael Faraday in England in
1831, and similar investigations by Joseph Henry in the
United States at about the same time. But engineers and in-
ventors were slow to apply the theories of electro-magnetism.
It was to be several decades before practical electric motors
were produced. Electrical engineering was not yet established.

28

THE SIMPLE IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE 29

Samuel F. B. Morse, a portrait-painter who had found
Americans inappreciative of art, had the idea in 1832 of send-
ing messages by electricity. Henry, a Princeton professor,
knew much more of the scientific theory of this than Morse.
But the latter, disappointed in his ambitions of painting, ex-
perimented at New York University, where he taught art,
and made a primitive recording telegraph that sent messages
through a long wire. There was little public interest or en-
couragement for this at first; in fact, it was ridiculed.

In 1842, when Morse asked Congress for $30,000 to demon-
strate his invention on a large scale, the politicians were sar-
castic. One of them stated that an appropriation might better
be made in the interests of mesmerism. ‘Taxpayers criticized
the idea of public money being spent for the fantastic notion
of a broken-down artist that he could “send messages by light-
ning.” Just when Morse had given up hope of government
aid, the bill was passed by a narrow margin. Field was to have
a similar experience fifteen years later.

Even when Morse demonstrated the reality and reliability
of a line from Washington to Baltimore, the telegraph was
not recognized as an important factor in modern life. Years
passed before the telegraph companies made any profit. The
early offices established for the use of the public were little
patronized. People did not realize the possibilities of this
device for flashing messages across the country. The nation
was changing from an agricultural to an industrial basis, but
it was still conservative, despite the new railroads and steam-
ships that were the wonder of the day.

Shortly after 1850, when the idea of ocean cables began en-
gaging the imagination of a few dreamers, the telegraph was
just coming into its own. At last its usefulness was being rec-
ognized as a method to regulate railroad trains and as a means
of transmitting items for the newspapers. Professor Morse,
who had grown old fighting for his patents, began at last to
make some money after long years of poverty and ridicule.

30 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

There was a general speeding up of life and a disposition to
try new ways, although skepticism was still strong. Political
and religious subjects were then more likely to engage the
attention of American people than applications of science.
The Civil War was ahead, as were the great debates about
Darwin’s theories.

After the public recognition of the possibilities of the tele-
graph, however, the idea of quicker transmission of news and
messages between Europe and America was a natural one to
arise. About 1850 the idea seems to have come to two men in
particular, Frederick N. Gisborne and John T. Mullock. The
latter, who was Roman Catholic bishop of Newfoundland,
wrote to a St. John’s newspaper on November 8, 1850, con-
cerning the feasibility of a telegraph line across the island,
connected with Nova Scotia by a cable under the strait.
‘This would shorten the transmission of messages between the
two continents by forty-eight hours. Important news about
wars, catastrophes, and financial matters would thus be facili-
tated and many costly mistakes avoided. Newfoundland and
Ireland were apparently convenient way-stations for relaying
news from steamers.

Gisborne was an English electrician working in Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick to extend telegraph lines. He may have
had the idea of a Newfoundland line before Mullock. In
1851 he obtained permission from the Newfoundland govern-
ment for a telegraph line across the island, some four hundred
miles long. ‘To connect this line with the mainland, he talked
of using carrier-pigeons or small steamers until a short cable
could be laid under the strait.

After a survey through Newfoundland’s rough country
with the help of the government, Gisborne organized a com-
pany in 1852, which was granted exclusive rights to erect
telegraph lines on the island for thirty years, with encourag-
ing concessions of land upon the completion of the line. But
in 1853, when he started laying such a line, his financial back-

THE SIMPLE IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE 31

ers stopped the funds and he was arrested and prosecuted for
the company’s debts.

Discouraged, Gisborne came to New York to raise more
funds in January, 1854, and stopped at the opulent Astor
House despite his shortage of cash. Matthew Field, who had
employed Cyrus in the paper business and who knew Gis-
borne, asked his capitalist brother to have a talk with the in-
genious Englishman. There were several conferences about
the project and its possibilities. Matthew, as an engineer, had
built railroads and bridges in the West and South; he was a
practical man.

After one of these evening conferences, Cyrus, who at first
had been indifferent and skeptical, was studying the large
globe in his library. The thought occurred to him that if a
short ocean cable was feasible, why could not a long one be
laid between Newfoundland and Ireland. Next morning he
wrote about this to Professor Samuel F. B. Morse at Pough-
keepsie and to Matthew F. Maury, head of the National Ob-
servatory at Washington. He also consulted with his brother
David and another neighbor, Peter Cooper, the venerable
philanthropist.

Morse, then in his sixties, had suggested an Atlantic cable
several years before. He now called on Field, the two became
good friends, and Morse assisted the enterprise as electrician.
The reply of Lieutenant Maury was still more to the point.
Strangely enough, he had just written a long letter on the
identical subject to the Secretary of the Navy, and he en-
closed a copy of this, dated February 22, 1854, in his reply
to Field.

This interesting letter reported that a United States brig
had taken soundings during the previous summer between
‘Newfoundland and Ireland. Fortunately the ocean bed had
been found to be of moderate depth and comparatively
smooth. This insured quiet water necessary for a telegraph
cable. The specimens of the sea bottom brought up by the

32 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

special sounding apparatus had shown only an ooze of minute
shells with no abrading sand or gravel. Maury considered
these exceptional conditions to be unusually inviting for a
deep-sea telegraph line—almost a sign from God favoring
such a cable. He suggested, however, that there might be tre-
mendous practical difficulties in getting a large ship to lay
such a long wire in the heavy seas customary there. This
“beautiful plateau” of the ocean bottom, ‘where the waters
of the sea appear to be as quiet and as completely at rest as at
the bottom of a mill-pond,” was known to underlie a turbu-
lent and dangerous sea, where ships passed with difficulty
amid fogs, storms, and icebergs. The word “plateau” meant
that the ocean bottom at that place was not jagged or moun-
tainous and was only moderately deep.

Encouraged by such favorable comments to believe that he
could achieve a really great service for mankind, Field in-
duced several of his well-to-do acquaintances to assist in form-
ing a company. After winning over the benevolent man of
affairs, Peter Cooper and his own shrewd brother David, he
persuaded Moses Taylor, Marshall O. Roberts, and Chandler
White to join the group. Later Wilson G. Hunt also came in.
‘Taylor and Roberts were well-known capitalists; Cooper was
New York’s leading citizen.

At first sight, as Cooper afterward explained, it seemed
“a wild and visionary scheme” more suited for the inmates of
a lunatic asylum than for practical New York financiers. From
the very start, it was Field’s enthusiasm as a promoter that
won support for the project, which was so unusual and chi-
merical that a man of exceptionally winning address was re-
quired to advance it.

Field little realized what he was getting into. His brother
Henry, in his Story of the Atlantic Telegraph, wrote: “He
thought little of a few thousands risked in an uncertain ven-
ture; but never imagined that he might yet be drawn on to
stake upon its success the whole fortune he had accumulated;

THE SIMPLE IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE 33

that he was to sacrifice all the peace and quiet he had hoped
to enjoy; and that for twelve years he was to be almost without
a home, crossing and re-crossing the sea, urging his enter-
prise in Europe and America.”

A start had to be made. Before the winter was over, Cyrus
and David Field, with Chandler White, sailed from Halifax
to St. John’s in an uncomfortable little steamer that felt its
way for three days along the stormy, frost-bound coast of
Newfoundland. Bishop Mullock was among the officials who
welcomed them. The island’s Attorney General, Edward M.
Archibald (later British consul-general at New York), as-
sisted them ably. The rights granted to Gisborne’s company
two years before were now canceled, and a new charter was
given to the projected New York, Newfoundland & London
Telegraph Company for an exclusive monopoly for fifty
years to lay submarine cables across the Atlantic from the
shores of Newfoundland. Upon the party’s return to New
York, the Company was officially organized with Cooper as
president, and a capital of a million and a half dollars was
quickly subscribed. This first meeting was held at six o’clock
in the morning of May 8, 1854, at the residence of David
Dudley Field. It was held so early because they would not do
business on a Sunday, and one of them had to leave the city
later on Monday. The entire capital was subscribed before
breakfast. Henry Field wrote of this fifteen-minute meeting,
during which money was raised so readily: ‘Well was it for
them that the veil was not lifted, which shut from their eyes
the long delay, the immense toil, and the heavy burden of
many wearisome years. Such a prospect might have chilled
the most sanguine spirit.”” The capital which was originally
subscribed eventually proved to be but a fraction of that nec-
essary. Cyrus Field tended to over-simplify problems and to
underestimate troubles.

This American company made its position strong and defi-
nite before taking up matters in the British Isles. It paid off

34 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

the debts of Gisborne’s company (nearly fifty thousand dol-
lars), and arranged for large land grants and other help from
the Newfoundland Government. Fifty square miles of land
was given to the Company, with a promise of as much more
upon the successful laying of the cable. Despite the New-
foundland Government’s limited income, it even voted a
small amount for the telegraph financing. The legal and
financial arrangements, supervised by David Dudley Field,
gave the Company an intrenched position for the starting
of this momentous enterprise.

As Henry Field pointed out in his Story of the Atlantic
Telegraph, “There is nothing in the world easier than to
build a line of railroad, or of telegraph, on paper.” One has
only to take the map and sweep his pencil along the line to
be run. ‘“‘A thousand leagues vanish at a stroke. All obstacles
disappear.” ‘The Company’s practical difficulties now began
to arise, and Cyrus Field’s luck turned bad again.

Field’s entire career was a succession of ups and downs.
Just after the Company was organized, his business partner
and brother-in-law, Joseph F. Stone, died, so that Field was
obliged to resume his old place at the head of the firm. A
few weeks later his little son died. With a heavy heart he con-
tinued his double work. Early in 1855 he sailed for England
to order the cable for connecting Newfoundland with Nova
Scotia. In England he met the veteran telegraph promoter
John W. Brett, who encouraged him while others smiled in-
credulously.

At that time the British were the leaders in cable work.
Morse had laid a small copper wire in New York harbor in
1842, but the results were not encouraging, although his idea
of insulating with hemp soaked in tar and pitch and sur-
rounded by a layer of rubber was suggestive. In 1845, Ezra
Cornell, for whom Cornell University was afterward named,
laid a cable under the Hudson River between Fort Lee, New
Jersey, and New York. This consisted of two cotton-covered

THE SIMPLE IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE 35

wires, insulated with rubber and enclosed in a lead pipe. It
worked well for a few months until broken by the ice. Also a
gutta-percha-covered wire across the Connecticut river at
Middletown had operated successfully.

When Field was in England, the British already had tele-
graph cables operating under the English channel to the Con-
tinent, and between Scotland and Ireland. John W Brett, al-
ready named, was prominent in this work; he and his brother
had suggested a cable to America several years previously.
Other attempts to lay short cables were being made in several
parts of Europe, some successful, others not. ‘The deep waters
of the Mediterranean proved difficult to contend with, espe-
cially steep declivities and deep ravines; and the strong tides
and rough bottom around Ireland had given trouble. The
first proposals for a cable across the Atlantic were met in
England by skepticism and ridicule. The obstacles were
thought to be overwhelming. The British were not, in gen-
eral, inclined to be any too hospitable to Yankee promoters
arriving in London with fantastic schemes requiring capital;
they could sneer very effectively at such attempts. A few of
them, however, recalled the successful operation of a 400-mile
telegraph under the Black Sea during the Crimean War; this
was a single wire, insulated only by gutta-percha—the whole
no thicker than a lead pencil.

Besides Brett, another British proponent of an Atlantic
cable was Professor William Thomson of the University of
Glasgow, afterward Lord Kelvin. Even before Field appeared
in England in 1855, Thomson had written to the Royal So-
ciety in London expressing support for an Atlantic telegraph
and suggesting means of calculating the effect of electricity in
a cable. Later Thomson was to act as technical adviser in the
arduous work of laying the first deep-sea cable. His name will
always be associated with that achievement, although, of
course, it was only one of many activities that marked his
long career as an outstanding leader in nineteenth-century

36 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

science. Brett, Thomson, and a young engineer named
Charles T. Bright were pillars of strength to Field in his early
negotiations in England.

The attention of the promoters now turned toward New-
foundland. This island, which is larger than Ireland, has the
wild scenery and barren expanses of Scotland. It was, and still
is a sparsely-settled country. Most of the inhabitants live in
the deeply-indented bays of the eastern coast, remote from
other settlements. ‘The capital, St. John’s, is hundreds of miles
from any large city. The route of the cross-island telegraph
was along the desolate and inhospitable south shore. This
harsh environment, the remoteness from any source of sup-
plies, and the primitive attitude of the people combined to
make a difficult task of any extensive enterprise undertaken
there. When representatives of foreign capital came to St.
John’s for concessions to develop the island’s resources, they
often became involved in local politics, were hindered by
neighborhood animosities, or were opposed by the tendency
of islanders to feel antagonistic toward rich strangers. Many
an agent of foreign capital who has gone to St. John’s with
high hopes has been outwitted by the lawyers and business
men of the island who put their personal aims above the com-
mon good. Cyrus Field, shrewdly advised by David Dudley
Field, avoided much of this.

When the New York, Newfoundland & London Telegraph
Company began the task of connecting St. John’s by wire
with Nova Scotia, it was estimated that only a moderate ex-
penditure and a year of time would be required for that part
of the work. It actually took over two years and most of the
Company’s capital. Severe troubles were encountered. The
construction of the land line across the island, even under the
experienced supervision of Matthew Field, was a wearisome
and arduous job because of the wild nature of the country
and lack of the most elementary conveniences, such as roads
and supplies. When the first attempt was made to lay the

THE SIMPLE IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE 37

cable between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, rough weather
and perverse human nature interfered. It was a combination
of comedy and tragedy.

This was the age of ceremonious initiations and official dis-
plays at the starting of public works. A friendly party of prom-
inent persons interested in the new telegraph sailed from
New York in August of 1855 ona palatial steamer to help with
the cable-laying. They assumed that it would be only a pleas-
ant outing. On board were Cyrus Field and his brother
Henry, Peter Cooper, Professor Morse, Bayard Taylor (fam-
ous traveler and writer), John Mullaly (a reporter), clergy-
men, artists, and a number of ladies. After one or two stops
for social calls and receptions, the steamer succeeded in locat-
ing the little sailing bark that had brought the cable from
England. Samuel Canning (later Sir Samuel Canning), of
whom more will be heard, assumed charge of the engineering
task now undertaken.

The steamer was to take the bark in tow just off the New-
foundland coast for the actual work of laying the cable. But
the captain of the steamer had become offended because the
master of ceremonies had placed a clergyman at the head of
the table instead of himself and, in Cooper’s words, “he be-
came as stubborn as a mule.” After fastening the end of the
cable to the telegraph-house on shore, the party ordered the
captain to tow the bark across the strait. The captain promptly
ran the steamer into the bark and almost wrecked it; later
he got into other difficulties and entangled the towing-cable
in the steering-wheel. ‘The bark nearly foundered on a reef.

Once under way, the rebellious captain refused to steer by
the signal-marks placed on shore. “I know how to steer my
ship,” he declared; “I steer by my compass.” A lawyer from
the party drew up a paper warning him, but he merely steered
out of the course in the other direction. When twenty-four
miles of cable had been laid, they were only nine miles from
shore, so badly had the captain steered. A storm then came

38 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

up, and the cable had to be cut after forty miles had been paid
out. The formerly gay party returned to New York amid
pessimism and gloom.

Undaunted, Cyrus Field sailed again for England to order
a new cable. His sanguine nature quickly conquered fits of
depression. Next summer, having learned not to use a sailing
vessel in the work and to avoid social displays, the Company
succeeded in laying an eighty-five-mile cable between New-
foundland and the mainland. A land extension of a hundred
forty miles was built across Cape Breton to connect the cable
with Nova Scotia’s telegraph system. Expensive problems
were still being encountered in building the four-hundred-
mile line across Newfoundland, as roads and settlements had
to be made in the wilderness. Matthew Field organized a
force of six hundred men there amid difficulties of the most
discouraging kind. Over a million dollars was spent on these
American extensions, of which Field contributed over two
hundred thousand. It was now advisable to enlist British
cooperation, both in finance and technique. Field particu-
larly wished to talk with John W. Brett, the father of sub-
marine telegraphy in England, who had laid the first cable
across the English channel.

In the summer of 1856, Field, with his family, was in Eng-
land conferring with such technical advisers as Brett, Michael
Faraday, Charles T. Bright, and Dr. Edward O. W. White-
house. Before leaving the United States, he had persuaded
the Washington Government to take more soundings between
Newfoundland and Ireland, similar to those of which Maury
had written him two years before. Later Field persuaded
the British Admiralty to take additional soundings along the
same route. He wished to get as much information as science
could give him. Up to this time the Bretts and the Brights
were the leading authorities on submarine telegraphs and
had laid lines off the British coast. They helped Field but
considered themselves the pioneers.

THE SIMPLE IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE 39

There were decisive questions of technique to be answered
before progress could be made. The longest telegraph cable
hitherto laid successfully was a little over a hundred miles
long. An Atlantic cable would be two thousand miles long,
submerged to depths of nearly three miles. Could such a line
really be laid; what size should it be and how insulated; once
laid, could an electric charge be sent through it? ‘There were
widespread doubt and criticism. Field was called a visionary
fool who was wasting time and money. Professor Sir G. B.
Airy, F.R.S., the Astronomer Royal, announced that it was
mathematically impossible to submerge a cable safely at so
great a depth; and that, even if it were possible, no signals
could be transmitted through so great a length. One sug-
gestion received was to fasten the cable to buoys; others were
still more ridiculous. Bright and Whitehouse had done some
real research, however; Brett and Bright had actually laid
short submarine cables that worked. On the other hand, the
noted bridge-engineer Robert Stephenson declared that the
mid-Atlantic depths would be too much for any practical
cable-laying.

Soon after arriving in England, Field wrote to Lord Clar-
endon, the Foreign Secretary, about his plans and hopes. He
was requested to appear for an interview. As Professor Morse,
electrician for the American company, was also in London,
the two went to the Foreign Office together. Field’s deter-
mined attitude impressed the officials, who realized the ad-
vantages that a seafaring nation would derive if ocean cables
could be laid and operated. The original suggestions of Bish-
op Mullock and Gisborne, however, were kept in mind; and
the British officials arranged with the Cunard line that mail
steamers between Liverpool and the United States might
receive and throw overboard, while off the Irish shore and the
tip of Newfoundland, cases containing messages to be handled
by the telegraph company’s vessels for quick dispatch. ‘This
was never done, however, to any great extent.

40 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

A depressing blow came to Field at this time. He took his
family for a visit to Paris, and a favorite sister of his died
there. Suppressing his sorrow, he now proceeded to promote
in England a new company to lay the cable and to work in
conjunction with the American company. Late in 1856, the
Atlantic Telegraph Company was organized with a capital
of three hundred fifty thousand pounds, divided into three
hundred fifty shares of a thousand pounds each. After ad-
dressing the chambers of commerce in Liverpool and Man-
chester, Field, accompanied by the helpful Brett, was able
to arouse the sporting instincts of the British, so that they took
all except eighty-eight shares. Prominent persons like ‘Thack-
eray and Lady Byron subscribed; even Glasgow citizens took
a few shares despite Scottish caution and canniness.

The eighty-eight shares which Field carried to New York,
about a quarter of the total, were in his name, but he hoped
to sell most of them to American investors. The American
subscriptions were disappointing, however, and Field was
left as the largest stockholder. It is interesting to note that an
American residing abroad, George Peabody, the philanthro-
pist and banker, became a director of the Company, along
with Professor William Thomson and several Englishmen.
The company that laid the cable was predominantly British
although the chief promoter was an American. The firm of
George Peabody & Company subscribed for ten shares of the
stock; Brett took twelve and was the second largest owner;
but Field had over sixty in his name. He arrived in New York
on Christmas day. Naturally he wished to spend some time
with his family and try to dispose of part of his stock. Instead,
he had to hurry off to Newfoundland on the Company’s busi-
ness, traveling through winter storms and ice.

The British Government was disposed to be generous in its
aid to the project. It agreed not only to furnish ships for
taking soundings and laying the cable, but also, upon the
completion of the line in good working condition, to pay an

THE SIMPLE IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE 41

annual minimum subsidy for its official messages. When the
Company’s officials tried to induce Congress also to lend a
ship to help lay the cable and to grant a subsidy of seventy
thousand dollars a year, opposition arose. Field, who had
fallen ill in Newfoundland from overstrain, was hurriedly
called to Washington. He found the American legislators
less helpful and sporting than the British officials had been.
The aristocratic nature of the British Government permitted
reasonable power to intelligent leaders for assisting beneficial
developments; the American idea was scattered responsibility
and rough-and-tumble debates.

The request made of the Government was a reasonable one.
It asked only for aid equal to that granted in England. The
criticism at Washington concerned the British terminals of
the cable and the wealth of some of the New York supporters,
such as Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, and Marshall Roberts.
There was talk of laying a European cable directly from the
shore of the United States. Field pointed out that such a line
would have to be over a thousand miles longer than one from
Newfoundland, and that the ocean bed to the south was
deeper and more jagged. Despite his illness, he talked to
nearly every member of Congress.

Finally the bill passed the House by a majority of nineteen
votes. Iwo weeks later, on March 3, it passed the Senate by
one vote, but was said to be unconstitutional. Field quickly
sought the Attorney General and asked for a prompt decision
on this point. It was favorable. On the morning of March 4,
1857, a few hours before he retired from office, President
Pierce signed the bill.

The hard fight for government aid to a pioneering effort
aimed to benefit the nation had been won by as narrow a
margin as was the case fifteen years before, when Professor
Morse had given up hope before Congress in its late session
voted funds for trying out the telegraph that he had invented.
Henry Field wrote of the difficulties in getting Congress to

42 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

help the cable project: “The Atlantic cable has had many a
kink since, but never did it seem to be entangled in such a
hopeless twist as when it got among the politicians.”

Because of the light shed on the state of American intelli-
gence of that period, it is interesting to review some of the
arguments in Congress when the question of aid to the cable
_ enterprise was debated. President Pierce was favorable to
the bill when it was drawn up by Senator William H. Seward
of New York, as was the Secretary of State. But, as Seward
said afterward, “the jealousies of parties and sections in Con-
gress forbade them to lend it their official sanction and patron-
age.” It is the nature of politicians to make complications and
to befog a clear issue. All kinds of objections can be manu-
factured against a new idea, especially by jealous and ignorant
men.

The following extracts from the debate indicate the views
of various members of the Senate of the time. Bayard of Del-
aware, speaking in favor of the bill, said: “It is a mail opera-
tion. It is a Post-Office arrangement. It is for the transmission
of intelligence. . . . I hold it, therefore, to be as legitimately
within the proper powers of the Government, as the employ-
ing of a stage-coach, or a steam-car, or a ship, to transport the
mails.’” When the objection was raised that a subsidy of sev-
enty thousand dollars a year was a large sum to guarantee,
Bayard replied that England alone paid nine hundred thou-
sand dollars a year for mail service to the United States.

As to the expense of furnishing a ship of war to help lay
the cable, Senator Douglas of Illinois said: ‘Will it cost any-
thing to furnish the use of one of our steamships? ‘They are
idle. We have no practical use for them at present. They are
in commission. They have their coal on board, and their
full armament.” This point was emphasized further by Rusk
of ‘Texas, who though a Westerner was an active proponent
of the bill. He said: “I think that is better than to keep them
rotting at the navy-yards, with the officers frolicking on shore.

THE SIMPLE IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE 43

. . . I should be willing to vote two hundred thousand dol-
lars” instead of ‘“‘the very moderate subsidy asked for, only
seventy thousand dollars a year.”’

Much of the opposition came from Southern members,
such as Mason and Slidell, of whom more will be heard later.
Butler of South Carolina exclaimed: ‘“This is simply a mail
service under the surveillance of Great Britain.” Jones of
Tennessee, in a patriotic outburst, said: “I do not want any-
thing to do with England or Englishmen!”’ Hunter of Vir-
ginia asked: “What security are we to have that in time of war
we shall have the use of the telegraph as well as the British
Government?”’

To this Seward of New York replied: “My own hope is,
that after the telegraph wire is once laid, there will be no
more war between the United States and Great Britain. I
believe that whenever such a connection as this shall be made,
we diminish the chances of war. . . . If we do not make it,
the British Government has only to add ten thousand pounds
sterling more annually, and they have the whole monopoly
of this wire.”

As to the possibility of war, another member, Hale of New
Hampshire, pointed out that such undue fear of war might
paralyze all improvements along the Great Lakes. “The city
of Detroit will have to be abandoned, beautiful and progres-
sive as it is, because in time of war, the mansions of her citi-
zens there lie within range of British guns. What will the
suspension bridge at Niagara be good for in time of war? If
the British cut off their end of it, our end will not be worth
much.”

This favorable point was also emphasized by Benjamin of
Louisiana, despite his Southern bias. He said: ‘Again, Sir,
I say, if Great Britain wants it for war, she will put it there
at her own expense. . . . I feel a glow of pride when I see
these triumphs of science, by which mind is brought into
instant communication with mind across the intervening

44 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

ocean. . . . Scarcely can a gun be fired in war on the Euro-
pean shore ere its echoes will reverberate among our own
mountains.”

Such were Congressional debates in the 1850's. Apparently
politics change very little through the decades. In this case,
the more distinguished and broad-minded members were in
favor of the project; the sectional and narrow-minded ones
were opposed. Senators Seward and Douglas were among the
celebrated men of their time; Senators Hale and Rusk also
were well known. It is interesting to note that when the bill
asking for a charter was debated in the English House of
Lords, criticism was made that it gave to the United States
important advantages that properly should be reserved for
Great Britain. Lord Redesdale, for example, stated that it
would have been far better policy if the British had under-
taken the whole guarantee themselves, rather than allow a
foreign government to join it. To this Lord Granville said
that this telegraph was intended to connect two great coun-
tries, and it seemed only reasonable that both should have
the same rights.

The political and financial difficulties were finally smoothed
out, and the stage was set for action on other problems that
awaited solution. The technical aspects of the enterprise
were underestimated at first. It was not appreciated that a
small fault in the engineering or electrical procedure could
nullify a splendid financial scheme or a cordial political
agreement. As was later demonstrated by costly mistakes and
depressing failures, a cable designed too small in diameter,
or an electric current too strong and powerful, could wreck
a year’s work of a thousand men. Even a puncture in the
cable by a nail or a piece of wire could set progress back dis-
couragingly.

The initial attitude was to trust that nature would be kind.
The favorable soundings of the ocean bottom had encour-
aged this trust. Between Ireland and Newfoundland the

THE SIMPLE IDEA OF AN ATLANTIC CABLE 45

ocean bottom was much smoother and more moderate in
depth than to the south, for example around the Azores,
where jagged peaks and valleys distorted the depths of the
sea. The only sudden change in the bottom along the north-
ern route was about two hundred miles off the coast of Ire-
land, where there was a ‘“‘drop-off’ from the shallow seas of
the island to the depths of mid-ocean. Later, however, even
this change in depth was found to be much less sudden than
had been supposed, and no particular trouble was experi-
enced in the cable-laying at this place, especially if the steamer
proceeded slowly and allowance was made for slack in the
cable. If all the technical factors had been as favorable as the
bottom of the sea, the undertaking would have been much
easier. For example, soft shells of microscopic animals cov-
ered the sharp rocks and rough sand of the ocean depths, as
if put there by Providence. These shell-fish did not live in
that enormous pressure but had dropped there after death in
the shallower waters above—a quiet shower of minute shells
to cushion the cable.

Among the technical difficulties, those relating to the
electric impulses to be sent through a two-thousand-mile
cable were highly-specialized problems. An electric impulse
does not flow along such a long insulated conductor without
complications; it is in fact very temperamental. There has
to be perfect insulation to keep the current from dissipating
itself in the salt water. ‘The insulation thus lies between two
good conductors—the copper wire within, and the salt water
without. The cable, consequently, becomes a condenser,
like a huge Leyden jar. Furthermore, such a long wire has
great tendency toward self-induction, which acts to slow up
the signals sent through it. A third disturbance comes from
the irregular earth currents between widely-separated parts
of the earth’s crust. ‘These were the problems on which Pro-
fessor Thomson and Cromwell Varley worked and studied
—problems of great scientific difficulty.

46 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

The Morse telegraph, so successful on land, was out of the
question in the ocean, where stimulation by automatic relays
was impossible. Even the Morse signals of dots and dashes
could not be used, as they would not pass through so long a
wire without relays to add impulse to the long line. For
this reason, experts in land telegraphy were more or less
helpless in advising on ocean problems, and much pioneer
research had to be done.

I~

Ger NI “ACN ‘AVG ALINRLL ‘ASQOH Hd VUONTAL

Chapter Four

ENGINEERING DIFFICULTIES

Most OF THE technical work affecting the cable was done in
England, where it was made. The question of how large the
cable should be, and how it should be designed, was a critical
one. In the limited experience of the British engineers with
short submarine lines, too light a cable had been carried away
by the tide, and too heavy a cable had been found difficult to
unwind from its drum and to pay out over the side of a ship.
The aim was to get flexibility and strength combined. A
thick insulation was necessary to prevent the electrical im-
pulse from being dissipated in the water, whereas a land tele-
graph line requires only glass supports to insulate it.

The short cable laid in 1856 between Newfoundland and
Nova Scotia was the first to be composed of several small cop-
per wires, instead of a single larger wire. This design was
flexible and insured that a flaw in a single wire would not
stop the operation of the cable. For the insulation, there was
fortunately available from Asia a new vegetable gum called
gutta-percha and believed superior to rubber.

It was known, however, that a gutta-percha covering tended
to absorb some of the electricity flowing through the copper
wires. Experiments had been made to overcome this static
loss (which was due to induction) by a series of opposite cur-
rents or waves of electricity. The Bright brothers and Pro-
fessor ‘Thomson had worked on this problem. The matter
was obviously not a simple one.

As for the size of the cable, Professor Morse reported that
large coated wires beneath the water or the earth are worse
conductors than small ones. The great Faraday had stated
that the larger the wire, the more electricity is required, and

47

48 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

the greater is the retardation. These opinions induced the
management to order a rather small cable, not so large in
diameter as one used in the English channel or one in the
Mediterranean. |

Morse and Faraday were wrong in this respect; the engineer
of the cable enterprise, Charles ‘T. Bright (afterward Sir
Charles Bright) was right, despite his youth, in advocating a
heavier cable—as was afterward proved. One argument
against too stiff a cable was that Brett had recently lost a
cable in the Mediterranean between Sardinia and Algeria,
when it became unmanageable in the laying because of its
weight.

The cable as finally designed had seven copper wires in a
strand at the center, each wire about the diameter of a darn-
ing needle. Around this strand of seven wires was insulation
of gutta-percha sufficient to give a diameter of three-eighths
of an inch to the core. Around this core was a layer of hemp
saturated with a mixture of tar, pitch, linseed oil, and wax.
All this was sheathed spirally with an armor of iron wires to
protect against abrasion, and the completed cable was finally
drawn through another mixture of tar. The diameter of the
completed cable was between five-eighths and three-quarters
of an inch. For the extra-heavy ends of the cable at the shore
terminals, more insulation and heavier sheathing were used
to protect against rocks and other disturbances. The cost
of the 2500-mile cable was well over a million dollars. It was
made in two halves at two separate factories in England, each
half being taken by a different ship when finished. To test the
electrical continuity, the halves were connected, when on the
ships, by a short piece of cable and a current sent through
the entire length. This test proved satisfactory.

It was decided to start laying the cable from Valentia bay,
Ireland. ‘To show Anglo-American good-will, the American
ships would lay the British end, and the British ships the
American end. The splendid American frigate, the Niagara,

ENGINEERING DIFFICULTIES 49

which had been stripped of its guns, was to lay the first half
from Ireland to the middle of the Atlantic. ‘Then the other
half of the cable was to be spliced on and laid to Newfound-
land by the smaller British frigate, the Agamemnon, a screw-
propelled, three-masted veteran of the Crimean War. This
was still the day of wooden ships; the Agamemnon, for exam-
ple, was of stout oak shaped in the old built-up style that had
changed so little during the centuries. ‘The Niagara, of over
5000 tons, was screw-propelled and could make ten or eleven
miles an hour. The attending American ship, the Susque-
hanna, was an old-fashioned side-wheeler. ‘These two ships
were the pride of the American navy, and the Agamemnon
was revered as a hero ship for its bombardment of Sebastopol
in southern Russia. Another British ship, the Leopard at-
tended the Agamemnon. All these ships used sails to supple-
ment their steam power. Incidentally, while in England at
this time, Field went down to Blackwall on the Thames to
see a huge ship then being built. It was the Great Eastern,
which eventually was to lay the cable; the 22,500 tons of this
monster exceeded the tonnage of the entire cable fleet of 1857.

‘There were banquets, receptions, and speeches before leav-
ing Ireland. Queen Victoria’s representative, the Lord Lieu-
tenant of Ireland, who was then the Earl of Carlisle, came
down from Dublin and was entertained elaborately by the
local Knight of Kerry, Peter Fitzgerald, who was lord of the
manor for miles around the cable site. ‘The harbor of Valentia
was studded with smaller vessels, decked with bunting, as
visitors flocked in to see the inception of so illustrious an
event. It is interesting to note that the Ireland-Newfound-
land route became similarly important several generations
later for airplane flights, and that crowds then gathered to
watch “take-offs’” in much the same spirit as in 1857.

The speech of Lord Carlisle, representing the Queen, in
response to a toast shows the spirit of the occasion. He said
in part: “I am probably the first Lieutenant of Ireland who

50 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

ever appeared upon this lovely strand. . . . Whatever dis-
appointments may possibly be in store, it would be criminal
to feel discouragement. . . . However, upon this rocky front-
let of Ireland, at all events, today we will presume upon suc-
cess. We are about to establish a new material link between
the Old World and the New. . . . Ido not compliment them
with the idea that they are to efface or dim the glory of that
Columbus, who, when the large vessels in the harbor of Cork
yesterday weighed their anchors, did so on that very day three
hundred and sixty-five years ago—it would have been called
in Hebrew writ a year of years—and set sail upon this glo-
rious enterprise of discovery. . . . Let us pledge ourselves to
eternal peace between the Old World and the New.”

The reference to possible disappointment and difficulties in
the Lord Lieutenant’s speech indicates that a large measure
of skepticism about the project still remained in the con-
sciousness of thoughtful men, despite the festivities and the
cheers. ‘The Lord Lieutenant spoke again and referred to the
Irish in America in the following words: “Many of your
dear friends and near relatives have left their native land to
receive hospitable shelter in America. . . . If you wished to
communicate some piece of intelligence straightway to your
relatives across the wide world of waters—if you wished to tell
those whom you know it would interest in their hearts of
hearts, of a birth, or a marriage, or, alas, a death, among you,
the little cord, which we have now hauled up to the shore,
will impart that tidings quicker than the flash of lightning.”

In accordance with the custom of the times, the vicar of the
parish offered a prayer, in which he said: “Control the winds
and the sea by thy Almighty power and grant us such favor-
able weather that we may be enabled to lay the cable safely
and effectually.” This had a faint resemblance to ancient
invocations to the Greek gods, as recorded, for example, in
the Odyssey. In fact, the gathering of the ships on the shore
of this green island was not unlike such events as Homer had

ENGINEERING DIFFICULTIES 51

chronicled three thousand years before, except that the pur-
poses were different. The Greeks had sought the rescue of a
beautiful woman and the satisfaction of a successful war with
old military and commercial rivals; the Anglo-Americans
were trying to facilitate the transmission of intelligence for
effecting better understanding among nations. Curiously
enough, the name Agamemnon of the principal British ship
engaged in this work recalled the renowned attack on Troy
in the imperishable story of Homer.

After an official of the Atlantic ‘Telegraph Company had
expressed the thanks of all present to the Lord Lieutenant
for gracing the occasion with his presence, there were calls
for Cyrus Field. With his customary generosity he said: “If
ever at the other side of the waters now before us, any one of
you shall present himself at my door and say that he took hand
or part, even by an approving smile, in our work of today, he
shall have a true American welcome.” Naturally this kindly
sentiment pleased the volatile Irish audience. ‘The Knight of
Kerry, good Peter Fitzgerald, wrote a personal note to Field
saying that the latter had “stolen the hearts” of his wife and
children and of every friend with whom he came in contact.
There was obviously some blarney in the air.

The Liverpool Post described vividly the scene on the Irish
shore: ‘‘For several hours the Lord Lieutenant stood on the
beach, surrounded by his staff and the directors of the railway
and telegraph companies, waiting the arrival of the cable, and
when at length the American sailors jumped through the
surge with the hawser to which it was attached, his Excellency
was among the first to lay hold of it and pull it lustily to the
shore.” The New York Herald of three weeks later said that
“never before was such a scene presented in Valentia bay;
the face of the poorest spectator beamed with joy.”

The London Times of a fortnight earlier had described the
féte champétre following the storage of half the cable on the
British Agamemnon as it lay in the Thames: “All the details

52 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

connected with the manufacture and storage of the cable are
now completed, and the conclusion of the arduous labor was
celebrated yesterday with high festivity and rejoicing. .. .
The festival was held in the beautiful park which had been
obligingly opened by Sir Culling Eardley, near Erith... .
The honorable baronet has all along evinced the liveliest sym-
pathy with the undertaking. . . . The three centre tables
were occupied by the crew of the Agamemnon, a fine, active
body of young men, who paid the greatest attention to the
speeches, and drank all the toasts with an admirable punctual-
ity, at least so long as their three pints of beer per man lasted;
but we regret to add that, what with the heat of the day and
the enthusiasm of Jack in the cause of science, the mugs were
all empty long before the chairman’s list of toasts had been
gone through. Next in interest to the sailors were the work-
men and their wives and babies. The latter, it is true, some-
times squalled at an affecting peroration, but rather improved
the effect. . . . It was a momentary return to the old pa-
triarchal times.’’ A later number of the Times reported satis-
factory tests of the cable-laying machinery off the Isle of
Wight on the way to Ireland.

Early on the morning of August 6, 1857, the squadron of
ships sailed with flying flags out of the rocky bay. Before they
had gone five miles the cable caught in the machinery and
parted. The Niagara returned, repaired the damage, and re-
sumed her course more slowly. ‘The paying-out machinery, to
which many anxious thoughts had been devoted, rumbled
like “an old coffee-mill,”’ as Henry Field said, but the miles
ticked off as a thousand eyes watched the process carefully.
“Stars came out on the face of the deep, but no man slept,”
continued this commentator.

Cyrus Field was on board with Professor Morse, the electri-
cian of the American company. The United States navy regu-
lations did not permit newspaper correspondents, but a New
York Herald reporter, John Mullaly, was there in the capacity

ENGINEERING DIFFICULTIES 53

of Morse’s secretary. Two London papers were also represent-
ed. Mullaly later wrote a book about the expedition, The
Laying of the Telegraphic Cable. He had also accompanied
the Newfoundland party two years before.

Morse himself was seasick much of the time, as was also
Field, who had been ill on shore. ‘The young chief engineer
of the British company, Charles T. Bright, was also on board,
with Samuel Canning and other assistants. Dr. Whitehouse,
the electrician of the British company, stayed at Valentia.

Continual telegraphic communication was maintained
along the newly-laid cable between Valentia and the Niagara.
At one stage, for some obscure reason, the cable messages
stopped for two and a half hours, and the engineers were so
disappointed that they almost cut the cable in despair. ‘Then
the electric impulses resumed as mysteriously as they had
stopped, and everyone cheered up. But greater grief was in
store, even though the “drop-off” two hundred miles out was
passed successfully and deep water gave no trouble at first.

Four days out, when three hundred eighty miles had been
laid to depths up to two miles, the cable snapped. ‘The pow-
erful brakes had been manipulated too suddenly as a wave
rose under the ship, increasing the weight and strain. A cry
of anguish ran through the squadron; the officials were
stunned. Half a million dollars in material and labor had
vanished beneath the waves.

The ships sorrowfully returned and discharged their car-
goes. ‘The Niagara sailed back to America. Any continuation
of the project would have to be postponed for another sum-
mer. Before Cyrus Field left England, however, he persuaded
the directors of the British company to increase the capital
and to order seven hundred miles of new cable. Depressed
at first, he was not a man to let one failure deter him from his
aim; as the son of the Reverend David Dudley Field, he had
inherited steadfast and unswerving resolution. Skepticism
had increased, however, since the loss of the cable, and many

54 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

persons looked upon the whole affair as one of the unfulfilled
dreams of the romantic life of the sea.

When Field arrived in New York, more bad news awaited
him. His troubles had a habit of coming in battalions. The
panic of 1857 had swept over the country, as the impetus
from the California gold boom and the Crimean War brought
reactions. While he was at sea, his mercantile firm had been
forced to suspend, with debts of six hundred thousand dol-
lars, although a sum of over half of that amount was due the
firm from other bankrupt operators. Such unmerited rebuffs
in business made him seem at times brusque and heartless
in his mercantile policy. Often such an attitude was merely
the consequence of his impatience and frustrated hopes.

He settled with his creditors by giving up goods from his
store or signing notes at seven percent interest. Before two
years elapsed, these notes were all retired. Given any kind of
a chance, Field had quick powers of recuperation, and his
firm enjoyed much good-will despite the criticism of his
wasting time on a wild-goose chase across the Atlantic.

After a visit to Washington to ask the Government for the
use of the naval vessels for another attempt, Field sailed for
England early in 1858. Additional funds were raised with
difficulty; a hundred thousand pounds were required. The
Atlantic Telegraph Company, recognizing the need for uni-
fied leadership and for improvements in the apparatus, asked
Field to act as general manager. Although he agreed to this,
he declined remuneration. The minutes of the directors’
meeting said on this point: “It was unanimously resolved to
tender him, in respect to such services, the sum of one thou-
sand pounds over and above his travelling and other expenses
as remuneration.”

Field had brought William E. Everett, formerly chief en-
gineer of the Niagara, to devise less cumbersome machinery
for laying the cable. With the cooperation of British engi-
neers, a smaller and more flexible machine was perfected—a

ENGINEERING DIFFICULTIES 55

design that weighed only a quarter of the former one. Field
had to act as a dictator and undoubtedly offended some of the
British associates but he was impatient for results.

It was gradually recognized that laying a cable two thou-
sand miles long in water up to three miles deep was largely
an engineering problem. The British engineers, overawed
by the magnitude of the task, had originally designed a ma-
chine too heavy and ponderous in its action. Handling a
cable that was actually too light and weak, this bulky appara-
tus had stopped progress and delayed matters a year. It is
not strange, however, that technical mistakes were made at
first; it is surprising that not more of them were made, when
the pioneer nature of the work is considered. ‘There was some
working at cross purposes, but Field managed to bring to-
gether the various factions. He assumed a domineering atti-
tude for the time.

To help improve the new cable-laying machine, a gentle-
man in London, named J. G. Appold, suggested self-releasing
brakes similar to an apparatus used in jails and prisons. ‘These
-could be adjusted to stand only a regulated strain before they
released themselves. As adapted by Bright, this device pre-
vented a sudden check and insured smoother operation. It
was an important aid. When the new machine was demon-
strated before a group of engineers, their opinion was that a
great advance had been made.

As an instance of the unforeseen difficulties constantly aris-
ing in such an unprecedented undertaking, news came to
London that the American steamer, the Susquehanna, which
had assisted the Niagara during the first attempt, could not
come again, as it was in the West Indies and yellow fever had
broken out on board. Rising to the occasion, Field called
a cab, drove to the British Admiralty, and sent in his card to
Sir John Pakington, First Lord of the Admiralty. Admitted
at once, he explained his predicament, saying that although
he was ashamed to ask for more aid, another ship had to be

56 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

found quickly. Sir John, with genuine British courtesy, re-
plied that his Government was pressed for ships to convey
troops to Malta, but he would see what he could do. In an
hour or two he sent word that Her Majesty’s ship Valorous
had been ordered to replace the Susquehanna. The Gorgon
was replacing the Leopard of the year before in the British
arrangements.

There was over three thousand miles of cable to load on
the Niagara and the Agamemnon. ‘This included a new
length of seven hundred miles and a thirty-nine mile piece
that had been recovered from the lost cable of the year be-
fore. Placing the cable on the two ships was a task of no small
difficulty. A hundred and sixty men, divided into four groups
to relieve one another, labored day and night during all of
April and most of May. The cable had to be coiled carefully
on large cones to avoid injuring the insulation.

Preliminary tests were conducted in the Bay of Biscay, in-
cluding splicing and lowering the cable and electric conti-
nuity. ‘The new mirror “galvanometer” invented by William
Thomson was carefully tested. ‘This replaced the Morse sys-
tem with its familiar relays, and eliminated momentum and
inertia by a delicate needle and a tiny mirror to reflect a ray
of light. This was only one of the many services of Professor
Thomson to the work. At this time, he insisted upon very
pure copper being used in the cable and kept the tests to a
high standard. Not only was he a good theorist; he had prac-
tical Scottish sense. Years later he invented the slender needle
that is still seen in cable offices tracing ink-marks on a ribbon
of tape, and which replaced the mirror galvanometer.

A new plan of procedure in the cable-laying was to be
tried at this time. Instead of starting the work from the coast
of Ireland, the two ships carrying the cable were to meet in
mid-ocean, splice the two halves together, and sail apart, one
for Ireland and the other for Newfoundland. This method
had been favored by Bright the year before, but the other

ENGINEERING DIFFICULTIES 57

officials had over-ruled him in order that constant communi-
cation could be maintained with the telegraph-office on the
Irish shore. Such communication was not really necessary,
but there was a reassuring novelty in being able to send mes-
sages from shore to a ship hundreds of miles out in the ocean
during the work.

An early start was made this year in June, as the weather
authorities considered that month the most favorable for
calm seas. Like many of the other vicissitudes of the project,
this prophecy proved wrong. On June 10, the “wire squad-
ron” sailed from Plymouth “with fair skies and bright pros-
pects.’” After two days of good weather, a terrific storm blew
up and continued furiously for over a week. The Agamem-
non in particular almost foundered. The great weight of
cable was a serious handicap. A large coil on deck not only
made the ship top-heavy but actually broke loose and threat-
ened to hurtle through the side; the cable was badly snarled.
Almost by a miracle the hard-pressed vessel, battered and
leaking, kept from turning turtle and survived the terrible
pounding. The crew were exhausted and many were in-
capacitated.

The storm finally ended, and fifteen days after leaving
Plymouth the four ships came together at the appointed
meeting-place on a sea so tranquil as to seem unnatural. After
many repairs and adjustments the cable was spliced, and the
ships separated. Only six miles had been paid out when the
Niagara’s end, which had become too slack, broke near the
machine that was paying it out.

The two ships returned, made a fresh splice, and started
again. Everything ran smoothly until about eighty miles had
been laid. ‘Then Professor ‘Thomson of the Agamemnon,
coming on deck just before dawn, reported something wrong
in the electrical continuity. At the same time on the Niagara
Cyrus Field discovered a similar fault. ‘The cable had parted
somewhere, but just what happened always remained a puz-

58 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

zling mystery. Probably the break was at the bottom of the
sea. There was even another failure near the Agamemnon
as the brakes were applied. These were discouraging condi-
tions.

Their enthusiasm spoiled, the officials resolved to keep try-
ing and to take the utmost precaution in every way. Once
more the ships met, spliced ends, and sailed apart, proceed-
ing slowly and carefully. Everyone on board was by this time
in a chastened mood. Men went quietly about their duties
with sober faces and measured steps. The fuel supplies were
getting low, and the stale beef to which the meals were re-
duced was almost inedible.

On this attempt, conditions seemed more favorable. The
weather was mild, and the machinery ran smoothly. But sud-
denly, when the ships were over two hundred miles apart and
there was only a small load on the Agamemnon’s end, the
cable broke close to the ship. There apparently had been
some injury to the cable, due to the disturbances in the storm.

Despite qualms and fears, the distressed Agamemnon and
the Valorous headed gamely once more for the place of ren-
dezvous, after twenty days at sea. Through high seas and
thick fogs, the two British ships sought for the others. It
finally became evident that these had returned to Ireland; so
the search was abandoned. ‘The Niagara reached Queenstown
on July 5, a week before the Agamemnon. Thus ended a dif-
ficult expedition against dangerous odds.

The most heroic of efforts had been made. The best tech-
nical authorities had cooperated. Knowledge, skill, and hard
work had been contributed without stint; money had been
spent freely. The result, after repeated trials, was failure.
Most men would have recognized defeat and have admitted
that the problem was too much for them. Cyrus Field was
saddened, but not convinced that he was beaten.

Chapter Five

CYRUS THE GREAT

AFTER THESE REPEATED and heroic efforts to lay an Atlantic
cable, in which several million dollars had been practically
tossed into the ocean, the pessimists had their inning. Imme-
diately after the Niagara’s arrival in Queenstown, word spread
that the expedition had failed. Cyrus Field landed and set
out for London to meet the directors. The chairman, Sir
William Brown, sent word from Liverpool to sell the cable
and abandon the undertaking. The vice-chairman, who had
formerly shown unusual enthusiasm, resigned his office and
left the meeting. The prospect was anything but cheerful.

Undismayed, the remaining directors resolved, like Robert
Bruce, to try once more and to do so at once. Thomson and
Bright, the technical advisers, agreed that the feat was pos-
sible. ‘There was still sufficient cable left for a successful lay-
ing. ‘The order to go ahead was given. Curtis Lampson, who
acted as deputy-chairman and stood firm for another trial,
was eventually made a baronet by Queen Victoria for thus
sticking so loyally.

On July 17, with no cheers, the ships sailed from Queens-
town. They were to proceed individually, rather than as a
squadron, to the rendezvous. This repeated attempt to con-
quer the Atlantic was generally regarded as a “mad freak of
stubborn ignorance.” Derision and pity were expressed by
people who a few months before had sent good wishes and
God-speed.

The ships arrived on different days at the rendezvous. The
Niagara was there on July 23, the Valorous on the 25th, the
Gorgon on the 27th, and the Agamemnon on the 28th. Ex-
perienced hands made the splice. ‘The Niagara, with Cyrus

59

60 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

Field and William Everett on board, headed for Newfound-
land; the Agamemnon, carrying Thomson and Bright, headed
for Ireland. The contest was on again. This time there was
to be better luck.

When the splice was made in mid-ocean, Field was hope-
ful but chastened. “I was standing on the deck of the Niag-
ava,” he said later. “The day was cold and cheerless. . . .
When I thought of all that we had passed through, of the
hopes thus far disappointed, of the friends saddened by our
reverses, of the few that remained to sustain us, I felt a load
at my heart almost too heavy to bear.’”’ His New England con-
science troubled him; was it fair to his family to persist so
stubbornly?

The Niagara steamed westward; but no games were played
on her deck, as on previous trips. No telegraph stock was
bought and sold, as reports came from the electrician, in an
imitation stock-exchange. A short distance from the rendez-
vous the ship’s compass began playing false, and it was neces-
sary for the Gorgon to do the piloting. ‘There was trouble
with the electrical continuity, but messages to the A gamem-
non were resumed after initial despair and some tinkering.
A fault in the cable was detected and corrected before that
portion was laid. As the ship approached Newfoundland,
huge icebergs were sighted but successfully avoided.

On the Agamemnon there was more excitement. Early in
the work, a large whale was seen approaching the ship headed
straight for the cable. Luckily the great animal missed a con-
tact. The suggestion was offered that perhaps the second
mysterious break of the cable a month before had been caused
by such an accident. Several days later an American three-
masted schooner almost collided with the Agamemnon as it
cut across the course. The Valorous steamed ahead and fired
a gun as a warning. The Americans were puzzled but when
they guessed what was going on, they gave a cheer. ‘The es-
cape, however, was too close to be comforting. Later the

CYRUS THE GREAT 61

Valorous had to fire gun after gun just before daybreak to
ward off a large American bark which threatened to become
entangled in the cable.

A portion of the cable on the Agamemnon was found to be
damaged, and for a time there were fears that some of that
‘already laid was similarly faulty. T'wo interruptions in the
electrical continuity were overcome and found to be due to
unimportant causes. Unfavorable winds added to the worries,
and an undue amount of cable had to be paid out as a zigzag
course was necessary.

Nevertheless, general conditions continued favorable. The
luck was changing. At dawn on the morning of August 5,
1858, the rocky Irish coast was sighted, and by six o’clock
anchor was dropped opposite Valentia. The crew sighed their
relief; the officials were overjoyed. A signal came through
the cable that the Nzagara, which had sighted Newfoundland
the day before, was landing its end, having evaded icebergs
and fogs. Cyrus Field stepped ashore on the wild coast of
Trinity bay on the evening of August 4, and before day-
break on the morning of August 5 he waked the sleeping op-
erators in the telegraph-house with the words, “The cable is
laid.” ‘They were astonished and incredulous; it was like a
dream coming true.

The Niagara had laid 1030 nautical miles; the Agamemnon
1020, a total of 2050 nautical miles. This is equivalent to
about 2360 land miles. A copper wire capable of bearing an
electric current along the bed of the ocean connected the Old
World with the New. By noon on August 5, the news began
to spread over Europe and America. The Field family, gath-
ered at Stockbridge, were startled on a quiet summer after-
noon by a telegram from Cyrus announcing the glad tidings.
‘They were overwhelmed with emotion; soon the little New
England village was in a tumult. Bells were rung, and guns
were fired. Children, released early from school, shouted:
“The cable is laid! The cable is laid!’”” The home-town boy

62 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

from Stockbridge had aroused the world. As Henry Field
phrased it, Cyrus Field woke up famous.

Part of the excitement arose from the unexpectedness of
the news. If the success had come a year before, or even a
month before, the public would have been somewhat pre-
pared. But nearly everybody had concluded that the efforts
were doomed to fail and that Field was pursuing a forlorn
hope.

To show the impact of the glad news, in staid Boston a
hundred guns were fired on the sacred Common, and the bells
of the city were rung for an hour. In New York people flocked
into the streets and broke into an uproar of rejoicing. These
seaboard cities realized the immense advantages that an ocean
cable to Europe would bring them. Similar outbursts of re-
joicing took place in all parts of the country after Field’s tele-
gram from Newfoundland at noon of August 5 announced to
the Associated Press in New York that the expedition had
succeeded.

At that period, electricity was still a mysterious and won-
derful force. People were awed by successful manifestations
of it. Some of them, like Morse, looked upon it as a gift from
God to aid man in his hard struggle here below. Others were
suspicious of it as a factor unknown to their forefathers and
not mentioned in the Bible; it was possibly a “trap of Satan.”
But now all qualms were forgotten, at least temporarily.

On the same day, August 5, Cyrus Field telegraphed Presi-
dent Buchanan that Queen Victoria would send an official
opening message to him. The President, who was in Pennsyl-
vania, replied next day, expressing his congratulations and
his hope for perpetual peace between nations. An avalanche
of congratulatory telegrams and letters began to pour in upon
Field from all sides. The poet Longfellow wrote to a friend
“the great news of the hour, the year, the century.’

There was still incredulity among persistent doubters. ‘The
tone of an editorial in the New York Evening Post reflected

CYRUS THE GREAT 63

conservative opinion. Although the news headlines pro-
claimed: ‘Success of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable,” the edi-
torial said with the professional austerity characteristic of its
noted editor, William Cullen Bryant, a friend of Field: “Such
is the startling intelligence which reaches us just as we are
going to press. We find it difficult to believe the report, for
recent events have prepared us for a very different result, and
yet the dispatch comes to us through our regular agent, who
would not deceive us. He may have been imposed upon, but
that is quite unlikely. If the few coming hours shall confirm
the inspiring tidings and the cable is landed and in working
condition, all other events that may happen through the world
on this day will be trifles.

“To-morrow the hearts of the civilized world will beat to
a single pulse, and from that time forth forevermore the con-
tinental divisions of the earth will in a measure lose those
conditions of time and distance which now mark their rela-
tions one to the other. But such an event, like a dispensation
of Providence, should be first contemplated in silence.”

The rise in the fortunes of the telegraph company is
graphically indicated by the quotations of the stock of the
Atlantic Telegraph Company in London. Before the success-
ful completion of the cable-laying, the thousand-pounds shares
sold at three hundred fifty pounds; after the good news ar-
rived, the price jumped to nine hundred pounds. A few
weeks later, unfortunately, they were to sink again.

An interesting article in the New York Herald of August 9
summarizes the alteration in popular feeling about Cyrus
Field and furnishes a philosophical sermon on_ historical
fame. The article said:

“Many terse and witty things have been said and written
in all ages to show the difference with which the same enter-
prise is viewed when it results in success and when it results
in failure. We have never had any better illustration of this
than we now have in connection with the great enterprise of

64 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

the age. After the first and second attempts to lay the Atlantic
cable had failed, wiseacres shook their heads in sympathetic
disapprobation of Mr. Field and said, ‘What a fool he was!’
It was evident to them all along that the thing could never
succeed, and they could not understand why a sensible, clear-
headed man like Field would risk his whole fortune in such a
railroad-to-the-moon undertaking. If he had ventured a third
of it or a half, there might be some excuse for him, but to
have placed it all on the hazard of a die where the chances
were a hundred to one against him—worse even than the
Wall Street lottery conducted under the name of the Stock
Exchange—was an evidence of folly and absurdity which they
could not overlook and for which he deserved to suffer.

“Now all that is changed. Midnight has given place to noon.
The sun shines brightly in the heavens and the shadows of
the night have passed away and are forgotten. Failures have
been only the stepping-stones to success the most brilliant.
The cable is laid; and now the most honored name in the
world is that of Cyrus W. Field, although but yesterday there
were ‘None so poor to do him reverence.’

“The wiseacres who shook their heads the other day and
pitied while they condemned him are now among the fore-
most in his praise, and help to make his name a household
word. Bells are rung and guns are fired and buildings are
illuminated in his honor throughout the length and breadth
of the land; and prominent among all devices and first on
every tongue and uppermost in every heart is his name. Had
he not, like the great Bruce, persevered in the face of repeated
failures until his efforts were at length crowned with success,
he would have been held up to the growing generation as an
illustration of the danger of allowing our minds to be ab-
sorbed by an impracticable idea, and his history would have
been served up in play and romance, and used “To point a
moral or adorn a tale.’ As it is, the nation is proud of him,
the world knows him, and all mankind is his debtor.”

CYRUS THE GREAT 65

Typical of the extravagant praise showered on Field was
an impressive oration by a famous preacher, the Reverend
Henry Ward Beecher, on the evening of August g at Fishkill-
on-the-Hudson. This master of eloquence reviewed briefly
the coming of the steamboat, the railroad, and the telegraph
—all within the memory of men of the day. He continued in
his vivid style:

“T thought all the way in riding down here to-night how
strange it will seem to have that silent cord lying in the sea,
perfectly noiseless, perfectly undisturbed by war or by storm,
by the paddles of steamers, by the thunders of navies above it,
far beyond all anchors’ reach, beyond all plumbing inter-
ference. There will be earthquakes that will shake the other
world, and the tidings of them will come under the silent
sea, and we shall know them upon the hither side, but the
cord will be undisturbed, though it bears earthquakes to us.
[Earthquakes have broken the cables on several occasions.]
Markets will go up and fortunes will be made down in the
depths of the sea. The silent highway will carry it without
noise to us. Fortunes will go down and bankruptcies spread
dismay, and the silent road will bear this message without a
jar and without disturbance. Without voice or speech it will
communicate thunders and earthquakes and tidings of war
and revolutions, and all those things that fill the air with
clamor. ‘They will come quick as thought from the scene of
their first fever and excitement, flash quick as thought and
silent on their passage, and then break out on this side with
fresh tremor and anxiety. To me the functions of that wire
seem, in some sense, sublime. Itself impassive, quiet, still,
moving either hemisphere at its extremities by the tidings that
are to issue out from it: =)...

“We are called, and shall be increasingly so, to mark the
advantages which are to be derived from the connection of
these continents by this telegraphic wire. ‘To my mind the
prominent advantage is this: it is bringing mankind close to-

66 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

gether, it is bringing nations nearer together. And I augur the
best results to humanity from this. The more intercourse
nations have with each other, other things being equal, the
greater the tendency to establish between them peace and
good-will, and just as they are brought together will they con-
tribute to advance the day of universal brotherhood. .. .

“That which is spoken at twelve o’clock in London will be
known by us at eight o’clock in the morning here, according
to our time. . . . It is no longer in her own bosom that
France can keep her secrets. It is no longer in her own race
that Russia can keep her thoughts and plans. It is no longer
in the glorious old British Islands that their commercial in-
telligence can be confined. It is wafted round and round the
globe. In less than an hour, whenever this system shall be
completed, the world will be enlightened quicker than by the
sun; quicker than by the meteor’s flash. What is known in
one place will be known in all places; the globe will have but
one ear, and that ear will be everywhere.”

The foregoing speech sounds strange to modern ears. The
splendid advantages that Beecher foresaw in the use of ocean
cables have become so common that today they are taken for
granted. It is difficult now to realize a world in which news
from Europe arrived three weeks old. Readers of twentieth-
century newspapers have little comprehension what the Eu-
ropean news letters looked like a century ago, when short
summaries about wars, kings, and finances seemed like stale
readings in history.

One of the congratulatory letters that Field appreciated
most came from the secretary of the Atlantic ‘Telegraph Com-
pany, George Saward of London. This said in part: “‘At last
the great work is done. . . . I congratulate you upon this
happy termination to the fearful anxiety, the continuous and
oppressive labor, and the never-ceasing, sleepless energy which
the successful accomplishment of this vast and noble enterprise
has entailed on you. . . . If the contemplation of future fame

CYRUS THE GREAT 67

has a charm for you, you may well indulge in the reflection,
for the name of Cyrus Field will now go onward to immor-
tality as long as that of the Atlantic telegraph shall be known
to mankind. It has been such a shock to us here that we have
hardly realized it at present. I really think that some of the
people who come here don’t believe it yet.”

This discerning appreciation from a fellow official, who
knew what anxieties and labors Field had gone through, was
generous and comforting, especially coming from a London-
er. In later years the British claimed much of the honor of
the achievement, since, as they said, they did most of the
technical work and supplied most of the money. Another
respected colleague, George Peabody, the American capital-
ist of London, wrote, “Your reflections must be like those of
Columbus, after the discovery of America.” Even Archbishop
Hughes in New York mentioned the cable in placing an in-
scription under the corner-stone of St. Patrick’s Cathedral,
although materialistic achievements are rarely referred to in
such Catholic ceremonies.

Nearly two weeks passed before Field arrived in New York
from Newfoundland. The public became impatient at the
delay in getting the cable to function. Field sent a message
to the Associated Press on August 7 from Trinity Bay, saying:
“We landed here in the woods, and until the telegraph instru-
ments are perfectly adjusted, no communications can pass be-
tween the two continents; but the electric currents are re-
ceived freely.’”’ President Buchanan had said in his message
to Field of August 6, “I have not yet received the Queen’s
despatch.”

As the public criticism grew more insistent, Field tele-
graphed from St. John’s on August 11 saying that the direc-
tors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company had ruled that the
cable should be given over for several weeks to the experi-
ments of Dr. Whitehouse, Professor Thomson, and the other
electricians ‘‘to enable them to test thoroughly their several

68 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

modes of telegraphing, so that the directors might decide
which was the best and most rapid method for future use.”

On the sixteenth, however, before the Niagara had arrived
in New York, the public was informed that Queen Victoria’s
message Officially opening the cable had been received, and
that President Buchanan’s reply had been dispatched. The
wording of the Queen’s message was a formal congratulation
“upon the successful completion of this great international
work . . . an additional link between the nations, whose
friendship is founded upon their common interest and recip-
rocal esteem.” The Queen used the term “electric cable,” a
new designation for it.

President Buchanan reciprocated the congratulations ‘on
the success of the great international enterprise accomplished
by the science, skill, and indomitable energy of the two coun-
tries.” He continued: “It is a triumph more glorious, because
far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror
on the field of battle. . . . Will not all nations of Christen-
dom spontaneously unite in the declaration that it shall be
for ever neutral . . . even in the midst of hostilities?”

The public announcement of these official messages, formal-
ly opening the underseas cable, aroused enormous enthusiasm.
On the morning of August 17, the people of New York were
awakened by the thunder of a hundred cannon fired in City
Hall Park at daybreak. At noon the salvo was repeated, and
bells were rung in the principal churches. Flags were flying
from the public buildings; factories blew their whistles;
triumphant placards appeared in the windows of stores and
business houses.

The placards displayed quaint phrases that bespoke a naive
point of view. One of them was as follows: “Queen Victoria,
your despatch received; let us hear from you again.’ Another
was: “The Old Cyrus and the New. One Conquered the
World for Himself, the Other the Ocean for the World.”

CYRUS THE GREAT 69

Near this was a witty one as follows: “Our Field is the Field
of the World.”

As evening came on, the buildings were illuminated in
special effects, which, before the day of the electric light, were
difficult to accomplish. In that period, lighted signs called
“transparencies” were made by placing lamps behind cloth or
paper. One of these on the front of a Broadway hotel was
eighteen feet by thirty-one, and had blue and white letters.
It said: “All Hail to the Inventive Genius and Indefatigable
Enterprise of John and Jonathan, that has succeeded in con-
summating the Mightiest Work of the Age; May the Cord that
binds them in the Bonds of International Friendship never
be severed, and the Field of its Usefulness extend to every
part of the Earth.”’ At the top of the sign was the word “‘Vic-
toria’ in large capital letters; at the bottom the word “Bu-
chanan’’; at the left the word “Agamemnon ’’; at the right the
word “Niagara.” Also at the bottom, in small type were two
lines of verse:

Let nations’ shouts, ’midst cannons’ roar,
Proclaim the event from shore to shore.

Another prominent hotel was decorated with colored lights
and flags of several nations. On a transparency was the in-
scription: ‘Married, August, 1858, by Cyrus W. Field, Old
Ireland and Miss Young America. May their honeymoon last
forever.” The New York Sun displayed this gas-lighted sign:
“S. F. B. Morse and Cyrus W. Field, Wire-Pullers of the
Nineteenth Century.”

A placard that reviewed history proclaimed: “Lightning,
caught and tamed by Franklin, taught to read and write and
go on errands by Morse, started in foreign trade by Field,
Cooper & Co., with Johnny Bull and Brother Jonathan as
special partners.”

The New York Tribune, then under the sway of the famous

70 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

Horace Greeley, a friend of Field, graphically described the
procession in the streets. It said: “The workmen upon the
Central Park and the workmen on the new Croton reservoir
made a novel parade, and after marching through the prin-
cipal streets were reviewed by Mayor Tiemann in front of the
City Hall. The procession was headed by a squad of the
Central Park police in full uniform; then came a full brass
band and a standard-bearer with a white muslin banner on
which was inscribed, “The Central Park People.’

“The workmen, attired in their every-day clothes, with
evergreens in their hats, next marched in squads of four, each
gang carrying a banner with the name of their boss-workmen
inscribed thereon. In the line of the procession were several
four-horse teams drawing wagons in which were the work-
men in the engineer’s department. On the sides of the ve-
hicles were muslin banners with the words, ‘Engineer Corps.’
The reservoir workmen were a hardy-looking set of men, and
were fair specimens of the laborers of New York.

“The procession filled Broadway from Union Square to
the Park, and, as it was altogether unexpected, it created no
little excitement and inquiry. If all the men and teams in
this turnout are kept at the city’s work we shall soon see great
improvement in the new park.”

Similar demonstrations were held in other cities through-
out the country. These were informal outbursts, rather than
officially-planned ceremonies.

So great was the excitement in New York that it continued
until next day, when the City Hall caught fire and was nar-
rowly saved from destruction. On that morning, August 18,
the Niagara steamed into the harbor, bringing Cyrus Field
from Newfoundland. Although he had already resigned as
general manager of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, he
gave two receptions for the officers and sailors of the Niagara.
Field was popular with the crew, and they cheered loudly
when he addressed them after an evening procession in the

CYRUS THE GREAT vp!

streets. He sold the remnants of the cable to Tiffany & Com-
pany, Broadway jewelers, to cut up and sell as souvenirs to
eager buyers.

All these festivities and high jinks had been spontaneous
and unofficial. It was now planned to hold in New York “A
General Celebration of the Laying of the Atlantic ‘Telegraph
Cable.” ‘This was to last two days, and September 1 and 2
were designated for the momentous occasion.

The celebration began appropriately on the morning of
September 1 with a service at Trinity Church. The Church
was decorated with the flags of all nations, the Stars and
Stripes and the Union Jack being most prominent. In the ab-
sence of Bishop Potter, the service was conducted by Bishop
Doane of New Jersey. The latter had written some verses for
the occasion. They began:

Hang out that glorious old Red Cross;
Hang out the Stripes and Stars;
They faced each other fearlessly

In two historic wars;

But now the ocean-circlet binds

The Bridegroom and the Bride;

Old England, young America,
Display them side by side.

At one o'clock the procession formed at the Battery and
started up the route later to be familiar to heroic aviators.
The destination was Forty-Second street at Sixth Avenue,
where stood the grandiose Crystal Palace—a large glass-and-
iron building designed in imitation of the famous Crystal
Palace in London. The following account from the New York
Herald of September 2 indicates the elaborate display.

The Herald’s headlines were resplendent. They an-
nounced: “The Cable Carnival. . . . Achieved is the Glori-
ous Work. . . . The Metropolis Overwhelmed with Visitors.
. . . Over Half a Million of Jubilant People. . . . Broadway
a Garden of Female Beauty. . . . A Bouquet in Every Win-

"2 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

dow. . . . Glorious Recognition of the Most Glorious Work

of the Age. . . . Reunion of All the Nationalities. . . . The
Cable Layers. ... The British Naval Officers in Town.
. . . The Jack Tars of the Niagara on Hand... . The Big
Coil of Cable. . . . Scenes at the Crystal Palace. . . 2 Mhe
City at Night. . . . The Fireworks in the Park. . . . The
City Hall Safe. . . . ‘Torch-Light Procession of the Firemen.
. . . Dluminations. . . . The Colored Lanterns a la Chi-
nois.

The article then went on to say: “The scene presented
along Broadway altogether transcends description. Every
available and even unavailable place was secured long before-
hand, and from the Battery to Union Place one was obliged to
run a gantlet of eyes more effective and more dangerous
than any artillery battery. This display of female beauty,
conjoined to the great array of flags, banners, and mottoes,
made us think of a Roman carnival... .

“The hour appointed for the interesting ceremonies inside
the Palace to commence was half-past four o’clock, but the
procession did not arrive there till within a few minutes of
six. By that time there were about ten thousand persons in
the building anxiously awaiting the arrival of the celebrities,
whom all were desirous to see and hear... .

“The crew of the Niagara, with a model of that ship, entered
by the front door, and, marching up the centre aisle, took
their place in front of the platform. They were loudly
cheered, and they responded in true sailor fashion by cheer-
ing lustily for Captain Hudson, Mr. Field, the mayor, and
almost every one they recognized on the platform. .. .

“At night one would suppose the crowd would lessen. Not
so. The illuminations, the fireworks, the many-colored lan-
terns, and the general gas and spermaceti demonstrations
gave to Broadway a carnavalesque appearance which it is al-
most impossible to describe. . . . The great bazaars vied with
each other in the number and variety of their mottoes and

ONIAVT WIGVO ALIM SAAN WIVHM V

CYRUS THE GREAT "3

designs, both for day and night; but, passing by all of them,
we were especially struck with the following distich on the
side of a car:

With wild huzzas now let the welkin ring,
Columbia’s got Britannia on a string.

. . . The fact is, that an avalanche of people descended upon
us, and New York was crushed for once; but we do not lay
Atlantic cables every day.”

New York was resolved to outdo even the memorable cele-
bration at the completion of the Erie canal over thirty years
before. As Henry Field afterward remarked, “It seems
strange now to sit down in cold blood and read what was pub-
lished in the papers of that day.” Among the many poems
composed during the enthusiasm of the time was one of twelve
stanzas by John G. Saxe published in Harper's Weekly. ‘The
last two stanzas were as follows:

Now long live James, and long live Vic,
And long live gallant Cyrus

And may his courage, faith, and zeal
With emulation fire us.

And may we honor evermore

The manly, bold, and stable,

And tell our sons, to make them brave,
How Cyrus laid the cable.

In the 1870’s this jingle was printed in hundreds of thousands
of “fourth readers” and recited on school platforms through-
out the country. Field was not to blame for this. It was a
consequence of the taste of the period. One of the worst
stanzas went as follows:

Bold Cyrus Field he said, says he,
“I have a pretty notion,

That I can run a telegraph
Across the Atlantic Ocean.”

74 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

‘The two-day carnival in New York concluded with a “Mu-
nicipal Dinner by the Common Council of the City of New
York to Cyrus W. Field, and Officers of H. B. M. Steamship
Gorgon and U. S. Steam Frigate Niagara in Commemoration
of the Laying of the Atlantic Cable.” The bill of fare of this
epicurean banquet, served to six hundred guests, puts to
shame even the kingly feasts of the courts of Louis the Four-
teenth or Emperor Charles the Fifth. A modern reader of the
extended courses and heavy foods is likely to wonder how
any man could eat them and survive. Apparently New York-
ers felt that, having shown scant faith in the cable during its
laying, they must atone by the richness and sumptuousness of
this dinner to Field.

The affair began with oysters on the half shell, after which
there were green turtle soup and gumbo with rice. Then
came boiled fresh salmon with lobster sauce, and broiled
Spanish mackerel with steward’s sauce. The boiled meats
were turkey with oyster sauce, and leg of mutton with caper
sauce. The roasts were young turkey, ribs of beef, ham with
champagne sauce, lamb with mint sauce, and chickens with
English sauce.

Well launched now, the hungry guest could have under
“cold dishes” such dainties as boned turkey with jelly, chicken
salad with lobster sauce, patties of game with truffles, and
ham sur socle with jelly. ‘The entrées were numerous: tender-
loin of beef larded with mushroom sauce, lamb chops with
green peas, chartreuse of partridges with Madeira sauce, forms
of rice with small vegetables, timbale of macaroni in Milan-
aise style, wild ducks with olives, breasts of chicken with
truffle sauce, soft-shell crabs fried plain, stewed terrapin in
American style, braised squabs with gardener’s sauce, larded
sweetbreads with string beans, larded fricandeau of veal with
small carrots, flounders stuffed with fine herbs, reed birds
with steward’s sauce, broiled turtle steaks with tomato sauce,
croquettes of chickens with fried parsley, larded tenderloin

CYRUS THE GREAT 75

of lamb with poivrade sauce, and pluvier on toast in Italian
sauce.

The relishes were raw tomatoes, Spanish olives, pickled
oysters (a favorite dish then), currant jelly, and celery. If the
guest desired still more meat, there were under “game” such
trifles as partridges with bread sauce, and broiled English
snipe. The vegetables were relatively scarce (as in the diet
of Louis the Fourteenth). They were boiled and mashed po-
tatoes, stewed tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and lima beans.

Pastry was well represented by pies of apple, plum, peach,
pineapple, custard, and pumpkin. Also plum pudding and
cabinet pudding, fancy blanc mange, Spanish cream, pine-
apple salad, Swiss méringues, fancy ornamented charlotte
russe, gateaux in Neapolitan style, and jellies of maraschino,
of Madeira, of punch, of champagne, and of fancy fruits.

Under “confectionery” were listed: canilla méringues 4 la
créme, rose almonds, fancy lady’s cake [sic], quince soufflée,
vanilla sugar almonds, ornamented macaroons, mint cream
candy, butterflies of Vienna cake, Savoy biscuit, variety glacé
fruit, dominos of biscuit, fancy variety candy, roast almonds,
conserve kisses, chocolate biscuit, fancy diamond kisses, pre-
served almond kisses, and vanilla ice cream [only one flavor].

If the guest was still hungry, there were “desserts” as fol-
lows: almonds, peaches, pecan nuts, Grenoble nuts, hot-house
grapes, citron melons, Bartlett pears, raisins, filberts, and
coffee. The other drinks were not listed, but many toasts were
drunk, including one to Cyrus W. Field: “To his exertions,
energy, courage, and perseverance are we indebted for the
ocean telegraph; we claim, but Immortality owns him.” Lord
Napier, the English minister, expressed the appreciation of
the British Empire in cordial words.

The bill of fare also listed the ornaments of the tables, de-
signed especially for the occasion. They were as follows:
Queen Victoria of Great Britain (represented as a young
woman, as she was then under forty); President James Bu-

76 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

chanan of the United States; Cyrus W. Field with his cable;
Professor Morse, inventor of the telegraph; Dr. Benjamin
Franklin; the telegraph instrument of the Metropolitan
Hotel, where the dinner was served; the United States man-
of-war Niagara; the Agamemnon and the Niagara paying out
the cable; Cyrus W. Field surrounded by flags of all nations;
the coats of arms of all nations, on a pyramid; Pocahontas with
“real American design’; a temple of liberty; a grand orna-
mental fruit vase; a temple of music; a frosting tower; a sugar
tower with variety decorations; a flower pyramid; a white
sugar ornament; a fruit basket supported by dolphins; a fancy
decorated flower vase; a tribute temple; a pagoda pyramid;
a mounted Scotch warrior; an Ethiopian tower; a floral vase
decorated; a frosting pyramid; a mounted church; a pyramid
of cracking bonbons; a Chinese pavilion; a triumphant
temple; a sugar harp with flower decorations; a variety pyra-
mid; a fancy sugar temple; an ornamented sugar tower; a
temple of art; and a lyre surmounted with cornucopia of
flowers.

A study of this truly gorgeous banquet, feting a man who a
month before had been ridiculed and pitied, reveals not only
the spirit of the times, but something of the spirit of all time.
The banquet itself reveals the naive desire for display and for
the superlative that then characterized society. It also reveals
something about the dietary on which Americans subsisted.

Chapier Six

HARD LUCK AND HUMAN NATURE

TO UNDERSTAND FULLY the relation of Cyrus Field to his
times, and something of the nature of his fame, it is well to
stop and survey his career to this point. In 1835 he had come
to New York at the age of fifteen—a country boy with no
particular advantages. His education had been limited; the
experience acquired in a backwoods village dominated by
puritanical standards had not particularly fitted him to be a
world figure.

Nevertheless, twenty-three years after his arrival as a green
youngster, he was the toast of Broadway and a hero of the
civilized world. ‘This eminence had not been obtained easily.
During much of his twenty-three years since leaving home, he
had been in debt or financial straits. The achievement that
made him famous had proved to be one of the most difficult
and discouraging tasks ever attempted. He had contended
with repeated crises of both nature and human nature. Finan-
cial and engineering problems of unprecedented variety had
confronted a young man whose training had been provincial
and narrow.

Cyrus Field was naturally a likable man, though his prog-
ressive ways sometimes offended stodgy or jealous persons.
By nature he was frank and optimistic, with engaging man-
ners and persuasive conversation. It was these attractive char-
acteristics, coupled with the reliability and determination
bred in him, that won him early success. It was, unfortunately,
this same trustfulness and simplicity that eventually brought
sorrow to his home. For a full picture of the man, it should be
added that his health was never robust and that, being sensi-
tive, he was often discouraged; but he revived quickly.

77

78 | A SAGA OF THE SEAS

When the grand celebration was given in his honor, he
was thirty-eight years old. Charles Bright, the British hero
of the occasion, was but twenty-six; he was knighted a few
days after landing the cable in Ireland and was feted and
praised somewhat as Field was. As indicative of the British
attitude at this time, the leading article in the London Times
on the day after the completion of the line said: “Mr. Bright,
having landed the end of the Atlantic cable at Valentia, has
brought to a successful termination his anxious and difficult
task of linking the Old World with the New, thereby an-
nihilating space. Since the discovery of Columbus, nothing
has been done in any degree comparable to the vast enlarge-
ment which has thus been given to the sphere of human ac-
tivity.” As this typical comment indicates, the British looked
upon the victory as theirs and Bright as the man who had
achieved it.

But all this rejoicing was premature. Sad news was on its
way. Something was wrong with the cable. At the very time
when the official celebration was being held in New York, the
cable ceased to operate properly. As Henry Field said: “Alas
for all human glory! Its paths lead but to the grave. Death is
the end of human ambition. The very day that a whole city
rose up to do honor to the Atlantic telegraph and its author,
it gave its last throb, and that first cable was henceforth to
sleep for ever silent in its ocean grave.”

This is not strictly accurate, because confused signals could
still be sent through the cable until October 20. On the first
day of the official celebration, a message was delivered to
Cyrus Field in New York which had come that morning from
the British officials of the Company. This message said: “The
directors are on their way to Valentia to make arrangements
for opening the wire to the public.” That was one of the
last clear messages transmitted over the cable.

Several hundred successful messages had been sent during
the weeks of testing and trial, but now only vague murmurs

HARD LUCK AND HUMAN NATURE 79

were received. In the words of Henry Field: “The Atlantic
cable was dead! That word fell heavy as a stone on the hearts
of those who had staked so much upon it. . . . Vain is all
human toil and endeavor. The years thus spent are fled away.
. . . So was it here. Years of labor and millions of capital
were swept away in an hour into the bosom of the pitiless
sea. Of course the reaction of the public mind was very great.
As its elation had been so extravagant before, it was now silent
and almost sullen. People were ashamed of their late enthu-
siasm, and disposed to revenge themselves on those who had
been the objects of their idolatry. It is instructive to read the
papers of the day. As soon as it was evident that the Atlantic
cable was a dead lion, many hastened to give it a parting kick.
There was no longer any dispute as to who was the author of
the great achievement. Rival claimants quietly withdrew
from the field [sic], content to leave him alone in his glory.”
At each end of the cable discouraged operators vainly tapped
their keys, adjusted fresh batteries, and attempted new combi-
nations—but the useless wire was dumb.

A curious aftermath of the official celebration in New York
was that, nearly a year later, Cyrus Field received a note from
the Mayor granting him the freedom of the City. The delay
was partly caused by the manufacture of a gold snuff-box, also
voted him by the City at that time. These testimonials came
like an anticlimax. A somewhat similar delay was to occur
years later when Congress gave him a gold medal.

A letter, dated September 6, 1858, from the secretary of the
Atlantic Telegraph Company was published in the London
Times. It said: “I am instructed by the directors to inform
you that owing to some cause not at present ascertained, but
believed to arise from a fault existing in the cable at a point
hitherto undiscovered, there have been no intelligible signals
from Newfoundland since one o’clock on Friday, the gd inst.
The directors are now at Valentia, and aided by various scien-
tific and practical electricians, are investigating the cause of

80 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

the stoppage, with a view to remedying the existing difficulty.
Under these circumstances no time can be named at present
for opening the wire to the public.”

The Company’s directors had gone hopefully to Valentia
with the idea of opening the line to the public. They found
a sad disappointment. From the apex of success, their spirits
dropped to the depths.

Said Henry Field: “Many explanations were offered of this
sudden suspension of life. One writer argued that the Tele-
graphic Plateau was only a myth; that the bottom of the ocean
was jagged and precipitous; that the cable passed over lofty
mountain chains, and hung suspended from the peaks of sub-
marine Alps, till it broke and fell into the tremendous depths
below. But others found a readier explanation. With the
natural tendency of a popular excitement to rush from one
extreme to the other, many now believed that the whole thing
was an imposition on public credulity, a sort of ‘moon hoax.’
An elaborate article appeared in a Boston paper, headed with
the alarming question, “Was the Atlantic cable a humbug?’
wherein the writer argued through several columns that it
was a huge deception. A writer in an English paper also made
merry of the celebration in Dublin, where a banquet was
given to Sir Charles Bright, in an article bearing the ominous
title: ‘Very like a whale.’ This writer proved not only that
the Atlantic cable was never laid, but that such a thing was
mathematically impossible.”

But there were uglier rumors than these, so far as Cyrus
Field was concerned, for he bore the brunt of the execration.
As his brother wrote: ‘But others there were—sharp, shrewd
men—who thought they could see through a mill-stone
farther than their neighbors, who shook their heads with a
knowing air, and said, ‘It was all a stock speculation.’ One
writer stepped before the public with this solemn inquiry,
‘Now that the great cable glorification is over, we should like
to ask one question, How many shares of his stock did Mr.

HARD LUCK AND HUMAN NATURE 81

Field sell during the month of August?’ ” ‘The answer to
this insinuating question was that Cyrus Field had sold only
one share since the cable was laid. The sale brought nine
hundred pounds; it had originally cost him more than that.
He had not found the project a money-making scheme.

Of course, it would have been possible for a group of clever
manipulators to forge the messages exchanged between Queen
Victoria and President Buchanan. But those who believed
such a story overlooked the news of unexpected events that
the cable had transmitted. These included the report of the
collision of two steamships off Newfoundland. This news
was sent promptly to the Cunard company in London. Again,
the news of the end of warlike troubles in China was sent
from London to America and took the public by surprise.
Most convincing of all, messages were sent by British military
authorities, after the quelling of the Indian mutiny, to stop
two regiments that were to sail from Canada to England.
This news saved a substantial sum of money for the British
Government by halting the unnecessary transportation of
troops.

There were other instances of this kind to prove that the
cable had actually functioned for about three weeks, during
which the testing and tuning-up were in progress. But the
public was not disposed to be judicial in its comments. It had
praised extravagantly; the cable was dead; there must have
been fraud or deception.

It was true that the cable had never worked with entire
satisfaction; it had been slow and erratic, as different methods
of operating were tried. One curious reaction from the epi-
sode of this failure was that a prominent New York lawyer of
the time, Charles O’Conor, continued for years to instance the
belief that messages had been flashed across the Atlantic as an
extreme example of human credulity. This O’Conor later
encouraged Field to reorganize New York’s elevated railways
—a change of heart.

82 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

The actual conditions were as follows, in the words of the
son of Sir Charles T. Bright, engineer for the Atlantic Tele-
graph Company, who of course understood the technical
procedure: “Unfortunately for the life of the cable, Mr.
Whitehouse [the official electrician] was imbued with a belief
that currents of very high intensity, or potential, were the best
for signaling; and he had enormous induction-coils, five feet
long, excited by a series of very large cells, yielding electricity
estimated at about 2000 volts potential. The insulation was
unable to bear the strain, and thus the signals began to gradu-
ally fail.”

This was at the beginning of the tests made, as soon as the
cable had been laid. ‘The mistake of Dr. Whitehouse in as-
suming that a high voltage was best suited for sending a mes-
sage through the cable was similar to the other serious mis-
take of the British technical staff when they assumed, in the
previous year, that a ponderous machine was best for laying
the cable. ‘They tended to overdo the idea of power. This is
a common mistake in the early stages of invention and design;
later procedure is likely to simplify and tone down the clumsy
tendencies of pioneer work.

“For something like a week,” said the younger Bright, “the
efforts to work through the cable with the above apparatus
proved ineffectual, the power being constantly increased to
no purpose. Professor ‘Thomson’s reflecting galvanometer,
which had worked so well during the voyage, was then used
again with ordinary Daniell cells.”

By this latter method the cable was made to function. The
first clear message came through on August 13, eight days after
the landing. Toward the end of the month, several itemized
news dispatches were successfully sent. The results, however,
were erratic, and there was little reliability. Sometimes sev-
eral hours were required to send a single dispatch, although
on one occasion a message was sent and answer received in two
minutes.

HARD LUCK AND HUMAN NATURE 83

In the words of Bright’s son: “But the insulation of the
precious wire had, unhappily, been giving way. The high-
potential currents from Mr. Whitehouse’s enormous induc-
tion-coils were too much for it; and the diminishing flashes of
light proved to be only the flickering of the flame that was
soon to be extinguished in the external darkness of the waters.
After a period of confused signals, the line ultimately
breathed its last on October goth, after 732 messages in all
had been conveyed.” Just to indicate how little voltage was
actually required: after the 1866 cable was laid, an experi-
ment was made in which a message was sent successfully from
Newfoundland to Ireland by an improvised apparatus con-
sisting of a small copper percussion-cup and a tiny strip of
zinc, activated by a drop of acidified water—a truly pigmy
battery. The superior insulation made this possible.

The mistakes that had been revealed about the cable were,
that it was too light and the insulation too thin. Bright had
been correct in his original recommendation for a heavier
cable; and Faraday, Whitehouse, and Morse had been wrong.
Dr. Whitehouse, who had been a physician before he turned
electrician, was a painstaking technician and an ingenious
experimenter; but he did not know enough about electricity.
The moderate power from the batteries used on the ships,
helped out by ‘Thomson’s sensitive reflecter, would have been
better for sending messages than Whitehouse’s enormous in-
duction-coils. He wished to standardize a sturdy apparatus,
with a special relay and the Morse recorder, but he overdid
his part. He sent a stroke of lightning over the cable, which
required only a spark.

Consulting electricians were called in and distinguished
advice was asked. Various devices were tried to enliven the
dead cable. None of them gave any promise. Efforts were also
made to raise the cable, but the grappling-tools of that period
were of slight consequence, so that very little was accom-
plished. Sir Charles Wheatstone and Professor David Hughes,

84 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

both high authorities, agreed that the cable had been ruined
by too intense currents, which had burst through the gutta-
percha covering. One simile suggested was that, in engineer-
ing terms, high-pressure steam had been used in a low-pres-
sure boiler. Not enough was understood about electricity
at this time.

These unexpected slips of science indicate the odds that
handicapped Cyrus Field’s efforts to lay and operate an At-
lantic cable. He had persuaded capitalists to invest large
sums of money in the belief that a cable could be made strong
enough to be paid out from a ship into water three miles deep;
and that electricians could then send signals through two
thousand miles of this cable, which could not be relayed or
maintained as a land wire could. His plans assumed that, as
Lieutenant Maury had reported, the bed of the ocean in this
place was more level and moderate in depth than elsewhere,
and that there would be little disturbance or abrasion to a
cable laid on the bottom. All these assumptions depended
upon a conquest of nature by a knowledge of science that had
not yet been established. Cyrus Field was downcast by this
failure. He was disappointed, but not beaten. Peter Cooper
helped to cheer him up; Wilson Hunt was also hopeful;
‘Taylor and Roberts were pessimistic.

Undismayed by repeated blows of fate, he was in London
next spring and urged the directors of the British Company
to raise six hundred thousand pounds for laying a new cable
and perhaps repairing the old one. But subscriptions to the
new stock came in very slowly. The idea was gaining ground
that the enterprise was too difficult for a private corporation,
and that the British Government should take it over. The
Company finally asked the Government to guarantee the in-
terest on part of the stock even if the next attempt failed.

This request might have been granted except for an un-
favorable development in another submarine telegraph,
which deepened the public pessimism about cables in general.

HARD LUCK AND HUMAN NATURE 85

The British Government had recently assisted in the laying
of a cable in the Red Sea, in order to facilitate communica-
tion with India. But the cable was improperly designed and
soon ceased to function. ‘Things began to look as though such
enterprises were impracticable.

Nevertheless, the British Government made a sporting of-
fer. It agreed that if an Atlantic cable could be made to ope-
rate, it would increase its annual subsidy for official messages
from fourteen thousand to twenty thousand pounds, and it
would guarantee eight percent interest on six hundred thou-
sand pounds of new capital for twenty-five years. Still further
help was given by the Government in its soundings off Ire-
land and in its organization of an official committee to clarify
the technical problems. ‘This Committee, composed of emi-
nent authorities, worked for nearly two years and finally re-
ported favorably on the feasibility of an Atlantic cable. ‘This
long delay retarded the active prosecution of the cable-
laying, although valuable data were gathered that would even-
tually bring success. The technical features of the undertak-
ing were at last being recognized and solved.

These were difficult years for Cyrus Field. His life seemed
destined to be a succession of ups and downs. At the close of
1859, after his firm had finally succeeded in paying off the
debts incurred in the panic of 1857, another misfortune fell
upon them. The firm’s office and warehouse on Beekman
street were destroyed by fire. ‘There was a large loss of goods
beyond the amount covered by insurance, and valuable papers
were burned. It is no wonder that at times Field appeared
hard and implacable in business. Fresh efforts had now to be
made to resuscitate the firm.

When the Republican Party’s national convention to nom-
inate a candidate for president was held in the summer of
1860, Field (unlike his brother David and his friend Horace
Greeley) favored the selection of William H. Seward of New
York, who had helped the cable subsidy in the Senate. He had

86 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

not heard much that was favorable about a gawky and vulgar
Westerner called Abe Lincoln. Nearly everyone realized,
however, that national affairs were approaching a crisis. As
events afterwards proved, Seward would have been a danger-
ous man in the presidency because of his grandiose and ego-
tistical ideas. How different things look at the time they hap-
pen from the way in which history later evaluates them.
David Dudley Field and Horace Greeley were influential in
defeating the nomination of Seward, which made possible the
choice of Lincoln. In later years a statue of Seward was erect-
ed in Madison Square, near Greeley’s and Field’s homes.

New York’s political apprehensions were somewhat over-
shadowed during the fall of 1860 by the visit of no less a per-
sonage than the Prince of Wales, the nineteen-year-old son of
Victoria, afterwards Edward the Seventh. Because of his over-
seas connections and international fame, Field was able to
assist the British consul, his old friend Archibald, in the en-
tertainment of the august visitor. Peter Cooper, another old
friend, was chairman of the General Committee of Arrange-
ments; Morse also assisted. Unfortunately the floor of the
Academy of Music collapsed during the grand ball given for
the Prince. The committees gave a sigh of relief when the
royal party departed and the socially pretentious had put
away their fans and furbelows. Incidentally the skirts of the
ladies at the ball in the Academy of Music were so volumin-
ous that one such lady would fill a modern elevator. The pe-
riod was mid-Victorian and the costumes grotesque.

Chapter Seven

CYRUS FIELD CARRIES ON

MORE TROUBLE WAS in store for Cyrus W. Field & Company.
Another of America’s recurrent panics swept the country.
The firm made a brave fight but in December, 1860, was
obliged to suspend payment once again. Two days after
Christmas, Field addressed a frank letter to his creditors,
offering to give up “every dollar of property I have in the
world.’ The creditors accepted twenty-five cents on the dol-
lar and permitted him to manage the firm, rather than call
in trustees.

In ‘order to make this payment and continue his subscrip-
tions due upon stock in the two telegraph companies, he
placed a mortgage upon everything he owned, including
even the portraits of his father and mother. His chief assets
were the house in Gramercy Park, the equity in his firm, and
the stock holdings in the two telegraph companies. He even
listed among his assets a pew in the Madison Square Presby-
terian Church. While he arranged these matters, the Civil
War flamed on the horizon—a new interruption to cable-
laying, but destined to be an ultimate stimulus. David Dud-
ley Field, who was influential in politics, worked to prevent
the war. When Lincoln, as a candidate for president, spoke
in New York, he appeared on the platform at Cooper Union
with David Dudley Field and William Cullen Bryant as
escorts.

During the course of the War, Cyrus Field was often in
Washington. He assisted the Government officials by advice
and suggestions, particularly in regard to telegraphic in-
formation and spying. He emphasized the need for tele-
graphic or cable communication to forts and military posts,

87

88 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

so that Washington headquarters could direct the campaign
more intelligently. Another recommendation of his was the
purchase of improved British gunboats to protect Northern
commerce and blockade Southern ports. President Lincoln
relied greatly upon telegraphic news.

Among other officials whom Field assisted were Secretary of
- State William H. Seward, Assistant Secretary of War ‘Thomas
A. Scott (who had charge of the railroads), General George
B. McClellan, Colonel ‘Thomas W. Sherman, and General
U. S. Grant. On several occasions he visited the armies at the
front, where he was helpful and welcome. The methods of
conducting war at that time were more informal than today,
and an intelligent civilian who understood such an important
subject as telegraphy could make himself useful and some-
times act as intermediary between Washington headquarters
and the officers in the field. Field’s tact and disarming man-
ners enabled him to achieve several helpful services for the
hard-pressed officers with whom he conferred. Later Field’s
daughter Alice also visited the front in Virginia and wrote an
interesting letter of her impressions.

Something of Field’s character and standing can be under-
stood by reference to a typical correspondence during the
War. On December 4, 1861, he wrote from a hotel in Wash-
ington to Major-General McClellan suggesting that the “Gov-
ernment establish at once telegraphic communication be-
tween Washington and Fortress Monroe by means of a sub-
marine cable from Northampton County to Fortress Monroe;
that Forts Walker and Beauregard be connected by a sub-
marine cable; that a submarine cable be laid between Hilton
Head and Tybee Island; that the forts at Key West and Tor-
tugas be brought into instant communication by means of a
telegraph cable; that a cable be laid connecting the fort at
‘Tortugas with Fort Pickens.”

General McClellan approved these suggestions in the fol-
lowing notation: “I most fully concur in the importance of

CYRUS FIELD CARRIES ON 89

the submarine telegraph proposed by Mr. Field, and earnest-
ly urge that his plans may be adopted and he authorized to
have the plans carried into execution. More careful consider-
ation may show that a safer route for the cable from Fernan-
dina to Key West would be by the eastern shore of Florida.
This will depend on the strength of our occupation of the
railroad from Fernandina to Cedar Keys.”

Several days later, Colonel ‘Thomas W. Sherman wrote to
Field as follows: “It was but the other day I was discussing
the very subject you mention. We want very much a tele-
graphic communication between Beaufort, Hilton Head, and
the Tybee. How can we get it promptly?’ Obviously Field’s
suggestions were taken seriously, and his practical knowledge
of telegraphy was useful to the military authorities.

Because of his friendship with William H. Seward, the
Secretary of State, Field was in a position to write to him
freely, as indicated in the following extracts from a letter of
January 1, 1862: “The importance of the early completion of
the Atlantic telegraph can hardly be estimated. What would
have been its value to the English and United States govern-
ments if it had been in operation on the goth of November
last, on which day Earl Russell was writing to Lord Lyons,
and you at the same time to Mr. Adams, our minister in Lon-
don? A few short messages between the two governments and
all would have been satisfactorily explained. I have no doubt
that the English government has expended more money dur-
ing the last thirty days in preparation for war with this coun-
try than the whole cost of manufacturing and laying a good
cable between Newfoundland and Ireland. . . . Will you
pardon me for suggesting to you the propriety of opening a
correspondence with the English government upon the sub-
ject, and proposing that the Atlantic Telegraph Company
should be aided or encouraged to complete their line, and
that the two governments should enter into a treaty that in
case of any war between them the cable should not be molest-

go A SAGA OF THE SEAS

ed?’ Seward and Field later discussed this matter in person
at Washington with the approval of President Lincoln and his
cabinet.

The Lord Lyons referred to was the British minister at
Washington, as Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy
Adams) was minister at London. There had been dangerous
repercussions over the high-handed seizure: of two Confeder-
ate emissaries, Mason and Slidell, from the Trent, an English
steamship, by the captain of a Northern frigate. War came
perilously near between the Northern States and England.
‘This would have been a catastrophe for the North.

To Field, such international flare-ups seemed chiefly the
consequence of lack of quick communication that would al-
low a reasonable exchange of opinions. The long delays in
sending letters by steamers, requiring several weeks to get an
answer to an inquiry, bred misunderstandings based upon
lack of information, and the impatience of human nature.
He looked forward to prompt explanations between nations,
with more give-and-take than the rigid documents of slow
diplomacy permitted.

The suggestion in Field’s letter prompted Secretary Seward
a fortnight later to write to Adams that when opportunity pre-
sented itself, he might mention to Lord Russell, the British
Foreign Minister, that President Lincoln thought very favor-
ably of the plan for an Atlantic cable and would be glad to
cooperate with the British Government in securing its suc-
cessful execution. Lord Russell later talked with Field in
person at the Foreign Office about the prospects of the Atlan-
tic Telegraph Company and its requirements for laying a new
cable. To strengthen his argument, Field referred to the two
official messages that had been sent for the British Govern-
ment over the cable of 1858, and of the large saving in money
effected when the Oriental news had arrived in Canada so
promptly. Lord Russell finally decided, however, that because

CYRUS FIELD CARRIES ON gl

of the difficult complications of the war, it would be best to
defer cable-laying for the time.

While in London, Field acquainted himself with the latest
developments in submarine telegraphy. The British firm of
Glass, Elliott & Company, which had made half the first cable,
had recently laid successfully for the French Government a
cable in the Mediterranean between France and Algeria.
This was in water over two miles deep. The same firm had
also laid a still longer Mediterranean cable between the island
of Malta and the city of Alexandria in Egypt. This latter
cable was nearly as long as the one between Ireland and New-
foundland, being over fifteen hundred miles in length. Still
another successful cable was soon to be under way—the first
cable to India, laid in sections along the Persian Gulf by Sir
Charles Bright, former engineer of the Atlantic Telegraph
Company. These successes helped to offset in the public mind
the failures of the Newfoundland and the Red Sea lines.

Before leaving London, Field asked the firm of Glass, El-
liott & Company to compute their terms for undertaking the
laying of a cable from Ireland to Newfoundland. After sever-
al months of calculation, they wrote to him stating their es-
timates and their confidence in its success. Meanwhile, Field
had been trying to raise funds in America for a new attempt.
He visited Boston, Providence, Albany, Buffalo, and Phila-
delphia, besides canvassing commercial organizations in New
York. Small contributions rewarded his earnest exhortations,
but the general attitude was to listen with interest and en-
courage him verbally, but not to buy any stock. The cable
scheme was considered a sort of South Sea Bubble! The au-
dience were impressed by Field’s glowing arguments and
agreed that in theory it was a wonderful idea, but they were
hard-headed Americans not inclined to risk hard-earned
dollars.

At various times in his career, Field was accused by “pa-

92 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

triotic’ Americans of being pro-British. While he was in
England at this time, some enemies circulated stories about
him designed to injure his reputation. Like all individuals of
original ideas and determined character, he had antagonized
jealous and unprincipled men. They started rumors about
his “treasonable proceedings with the public enemy” and
even managed to obtain mention of such scandal in two Lon-
don newspapers. A complaint was made against him before
the United States Grand Jury and some testimony presented,
but it was later dropped. Several letters were written to en-
trap him. His answer to all this was to lay the facts before the
Attorney General and his two good friends, the Secretary of
State and the Secretary of the Treasury. ‘There was, of course,
no thought of treason in his activities and travels, most of
which were devoted to the advancement of the cable project.
American relations with England, however, were acute at this
stage of the war.

Shortly after his return from England in the spring of 1862,
Field delivered an address before the American Geographical
and Statistical Society. He quoted the recent statement in the
London Times that “We nearly went to war with America
because we had not a telegraph across the Atlantic.” Continu-
ing he said: “And here I may mention a fact not generally
known—that during the excitement of the Trent affair a per-
son connected with the English government applied to
Messrs. Glass, Elliott & Company, of London, to know for
what sum they would manufacture a cable and lay it across
the Atlantic; to which they replied that they would both man-
ufacture and lay it down for £675,000, and that it should be
in full operation by the 12th day of July of this year. Well
might England afford to pay the whole cost of such a work;
for in sixty days’ time she expended more money in prepara-
tion for war with this country than the whole cost of manu-
facturing and laying several good cables between Newfound-
land and Ireland.”

CYRUS FIELD CARRIES ON 93

This argument about the enormous sums spent for mili-
tary purposes, as compared with the aid given to scientific
projects, is true even today. Congress begrudged small sub-
sidies to Morse and Field, who worked to facilitate the trans-
mission of intelligence. During the Civil War, the benefits of
telegraphy were too great to be measured. In fact, vast sums
were lost because the Government did not encourage the
invention more generously. Governments were slow in rec-
ognizing the possibilities of scientific aid, as they are even
today.

In England, there was more understanding of the need for
an Atlantic cable than in the United States. An island with
far-flung colonies and world-wide interests naturally compre-
hended the advantages of prompt transmission of important
news more readily than a self-contained republic not yet fully
settled. It was only Field’s personal magnetism that won finan-
cial support in America; in England the sporting habit of
speculating on maritime ventures reinforced the far-seeing
sagacity that recognized ocean cables as a factor of unusual
significance. ‘The British governing class was intelligent and
inclined to encourage new ventures that were well recom-
mended.

During the spring of 1862 the directors of the Atlantic
Telegraph Company tried persistently to persuade the Prime
Minister, Lord Palmerston, to realize the need for an Atlantic
cable. Lord Palmerston had sporting proclivities but was get-
ting old. Furthermore the pronounced sympathy of most aris-
tocratic Englishmen for the Confederate cause militated
against such an alliance with the Northern States as the cable
project would imply. Palmerston himself had attempted to
bully the American Government on several occasions before
the war began.

There was intense feeling against England in New York
and Washington. Field wrote to his friend Thurlow Weed, a
prominent American journalist who was in London, saying:

94 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

“I regret exceedingly to find a most bitter feeling in this
country against England. Mr. Seward is almost the only
American that I have heard speak kindly of England or Eng-
lishmen since I arrived.”

A few days later, Field wrote to Seward as Secretary of
State, asking him to direct Adams in London to press again
upon the British Government the importance of an Atlantic
cable. He was now convinced that the laying of the cable was
his life work. In his early forties, he was at the height of his
powers, and he lost no opportunity to advance his arguments.
Writing to one of the directors of the Company in London, he
said in part: ‘Four weeks ago this evening I arrived from Eng-

land, and almost every moment of my time since I landed has
- been occupied in working for the Atlantic Telegraph, either
in seeing the President of the United States, or one of his
Cabinet, or some member of the Senate or House of Repre-
sentatives, or an editor of one of our papers, or writing to the
British provinces, or doing something which I thought would
hasten on the time when we should have a good submarine
telegraph cable working successfully between Ireland and
Newfoundland, and if we do not get it laid in 1863 it will be
our own fault. Now, now is the golden moment, and I do beg
of you and all the other friends of the Atlantic telegraph to
act without a moment’s unnecessary delay. . . . I hardly think
of anything but a telegraph across the Atlantic.”

Field’s association with President Lincoln and his cabinet
was not based entirely on his advocacy of an ocean cable, or on
his advice about telegraphy for the military operations of the
war. Because of his acquaintance with the leaders of thought
and national policy in England, he was able to inform the
cabinet members in Washington what London opinion was
likely to be on any particular question. Similarly when in
England, he explained American conditions to influential
leaders there. His version of diplomacy included a wide exten-
sion of such personal exchanges of ideas through the medium

COILING THE CABLE AT SHEERNESS, MAY, 1866

CYRUS FIELD CARRIES ON 95

of an Atlantic cable. Like many other thoughtful men, he
believed that most of the controversies and bitternesses of
life arise through lack of understanding of the views of others.

At that time, the transmission of accurate and complete
news between America and Europe was so faulty or neglected
that the British were not properly informed of the policy of
the Northern States or of the favorable operations of their
armies in the field. From the beginning of the war, Field
urged the need for accurate dispatches being sent to Europe
by each steamer. His daughter Isabella recalled that one sul-
try summer day of 1862 he made a trip to New York from the
pleasant resort of Long Branch on the New Jersey coast in
order to make sure that a steamer sailing for Europe next
morning carried favorable news of the movements of the
Northern armies.

From his knowledge of the powerful resources of the Brit-
ish at that time, he realized what a calamity it would be if
they should align themselves with the Confederacy, as their
upper classes were inclined to do. Since England did not
officially espouse the cause of the South, thanks are certainly
due to men like Field who used their special knowledge to
explain conditions, and their influence to dissuade the Brit-
ish leaders from rash action. The course of American history
might have been decisively changed had England been swayed
by her dominant statesmen to render official aid to the South-
ern States. It should be recalled that England at that period
was the strongest nation in the world, whereas the Northern
States were relatively weak.

In the autumn of 1862, Field was again in London. Re-
luctantly he had made up his mind that neither the American
or British Government was disposed to do much more for the
Atlantic Telegraph Company. He had written hopefully to
one of the directors: “We can succeed without further assist-
ance from either government, as I believe that an appeal to
the public will now get us all the money that we can want,

96 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

provided the business is pressed forward in a proper manner.”
Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister, finally returned a dis-
appointing answer to the Company and the Washington Gov-
ernment was so involved in the war that it could scarcely be
expected to spare any funds. The British Government did,
however, signify its willingness to increase its financial aid if
a cable was successfully laid.

Arrived in London, Field, with the secretary of the Com-
pany, George Saward, went to hear the eminent Baptist
preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon. He then sent some news and
documents about the war to the humanitarian philanthro-
pist, Lord Shaftesbury. A business colleague, the Right Hon-
orable James Stuart Wortley, arranged an audience for Field
with William E. Gladstone, at that time a leading statesman
but not yet at the height of his career. Gladstone was so sym-
pathetic with the cause of the Confederacy that he had said
that “Jefferson Davis had made an army, had made a navy,
and, more than that, had made a nation.”

Understanding Gladstone’s liking for human documents,
Field secured a copy of an illuminating book called Thirteen
Months in a Rebel Prison to give the great parliamentarian.
Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, was fifty-three
years old and was approaching his first term as Prime Minister.
He had not been anxious to meet Field at first, sensing an
appeal for financial aid, but the chat impressed him so deeply
that next day he wrote a long letter to the engaging American
who had so frankly expressed the views of the Washington
Government. It was somewhat unusual for a busy statesmen
—one of the three or four most important officials in England
—to write at such great length to a foreigner whom he had
just met.

The letter has historical value because it shows the state of
mind of an influential British leader concerning the Ameri-
can Civil War. It was written in Gladstone’s own handwrit-
ing, with an occasional word crossed out. ‘The letter’s refer-

CYRUS FIELD CARRIES ON 94

ence to “this destructive and hopeless war” and “‘your fright-
ful conflict” reveal how deeply sober Englishmen were im-
pressed by the bitter and protracted struggle in a country so
closely linked with their own; as does also the reference to
the “amount of misery inflicted upon Europe such as no
other civil war in the history of man has ever brought upon
those beyond its immediate range.”

Somewhat strange to modern readers is Gladstone’s con-
viction that victory for the North was impossible, that the
spirited and determined Southerners could never be “con-
quered and kept down.” As the letter phrases it, “You have
failed because you resolved to do what men could not do.”
Gladstone did not believe in slavery, which he called “the
terrible calamity and curse,” but he agreed with General
Winfield Scott, the outspoken American who had said to the
South: “Wayward sisters, go in peace.” Finally, the letter
concluded: ‘Laws stranger than human will are on the side
of self-defence; and the aim at the impossible . . . is not
only folly, but guilt to boot.”

The letter in full is as follows:

11 Carlton House Terrace,

November 27, 1862.

My dear Sir,—I thank you very much for giving me the Thir-
teen Months. Will you think that I belie the expression I have
used if I tell you candidly the effect this book has produced upon
my mind? I think you will not; I do not believe that you or your
countrymen are among those who desire that any one should
purchase your favor by speaking what is false, or by forbearing
to speak what is true. The book, then, impresses me even more
deeply than I was before impressed with the heavy responsibility
you incur in persevering with this destructive and hopeless war
at the cost of such dangers and evils to yourselves, to say nothing
of your adversaries, or, of an amount of misery inflicted upon
Europe such as no other civil war in the history of man has ever
brought upon those beyond its immediate range. Your frightful
conflict may be regarded from many points of view. ‘The compe-
tency of the Southern States to secede, the rightfulness of their

98 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

conduct in seceding (two matters wholly distinct and a great deal
too much confounded), the natural reluctance of Northern Amer-
icans to acquiesce in the severance of the Union, and the appar-
ent loss of strength and glory to their country; the bearing of the
separation on the real interests and on the moral character of the
North; again, for an Englishman, its bearing with respect to Brit-
ish interests—all these are texts of which any one affords ample
matter for reflection. But I will only state, as regards the last of
them, that I, for one, have never hesitated to maintain that, in
my opinion, the separate and special interests of England were
all on the side of the maintenance of the old Union; and if I were
to look at those interests alone, and had the power of choosing in
what way the war should end, I would choose for its ending by
the restoration of the old Union this very day. Another view of
the matter not to be overlooked is its bearing on the interests of
the black and colored race. I believe the separation to be one of
the few happy events that have marked their mournful history;
and although English opinion may be wrong upon this subject,
yet it is headed by three men perhaps the best entitled to repre-
sent on this side of the water the old champions of the anti-slav-
ery cause—Lord Brougham, the Bishop of Oxford, and Mr. Bux-
ton.

But there is an aspect of the war which transcends every other:
the possibility of success. The prospect of success will not justify
a war in itself unjust, but the impossibility of success in a war of
conquest of itself suffices to make it unjust; when that impossi-
bility is reasonably proved, all the horror, all the bloodshed, all
the evil passions, all the dangers to liberty and order with which
such a war abounds, come to lie at the door of the party which
refuses to hold its hand and let its neighbor be.

You know that in the opinion of Europe this impossibility has
been proved. It is proved by every page of this book, and every
copy of this book which circulates will carry the proof wider and
stamp it more clearly. Depend upon it, to place the matter upon
a single issue, you cannot conquer and keep down a country
where the women behave like the women of New Orleans, where,
as this author says, they would be ready to form regiments, if such
regiments could be of use. And how idle it is to talk, as some of
your people do, and some of ours, of the slackness with which the
war has been carried on, and of its accounting for the want of suc-
cess! You have no cause to be ashamed of your military character

CYRUS FIELD CARRIES ON 99

and efforts. You have proved what wanted no proof—your spirit,
hardihood, immense powers, and rapidity and variety of re-
sources. You have spent as much money, and have armed and
perhaps have destroyed as many men, taking the two sides to-
gether, as all Europe spent in the first years of the Revolutionary
war. Is not this enough? Why have you not more faith in the
future of a nation which should lead for ages to come the Ameri-
can continent, which in five or ten years will make up its appar-
ent loss or first loss of strength and numbers, and which, with a
career unencumbered by the terrible calamity and curse of slav-
ery, will even from the first be liberated from a position morally
and incurably false, and will from the first enjoy a permanent
gain in credit and character such as will much more than com-
pensate for its temporary material losses? I am, in short, a fol-
lower of General Scott. With him I say, “Wayward sisters, go in
peace.’ Immortal fame be to him for his wise and courageous
advice, amounting to a prophecy.

Finally, you have done what men could do; you have failed be-
cause you resolved to do what men could not do.

Laws stronger than human will are on the side of earnest self-
defence; and the aim at the impossible, which in other things
may be folly only, when the path of search is dark with misery
and red with blood, is not folly only, but guilt to boot. I should
not have used so largely in this letter the privileges of free utter-
ance had I not been conscious that I vie with yourselves in my
admiration of the founders of your republic, and that I have no
lurking sentiment either of hostility or of indifference to Amer-
ica; nor I may add, even then had I not believed that you are
lovers of sincerity, and that you can bear even the rudeness of its
tongue.

I remain, dear sir, very faithfully yours,

W. E. Gladstone.
Cyrus Field, Esq.

In answer to this long letter, Field sent some documents on
conditions in America and a small book called Among the
Pines. He felt a conscientious duty to acquaint the leaders of
British thought with the exact situation in America, so that
they could draw correct conclusions. Gladstone read the
book “with great interest” and gave permission for a copy of

100 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

>

his “‘officious letter,’ as he called it, to be sent to the Secre-
tary of State at Washington; President Lincoln was interested
in it also. Of Among the Pines, Gladstone said in a later let-
ter, that “it seems to open to view more aspects of society and
character in the slave States than Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and to
be written without any undue and bewildering predominance
of imagination.”

In a somewhat pompous closing sentence, Gladstone added:
“We all vie with one another in fervently desiring that the
Almighty may so direct the issue of the present crisis as to
make it effective for the mitigation and even for the removal
of a system which ever tends to depress the blacks into the
condition of the mere animal, and which among the whites
at once gives fearful scope to the passions of bad men and
checks and mars the development of character in good ones.”’
Gladstone’s liberal mind believed in the legal right of the
Southern States to secede, although he deprecated slavery and
its evils.

While in England, Field was hospitably received by many
prominent personages. Although he was known to be a re-
tired merchant—to have been “in trade’’—his services in be-
half of an Atlantic telegraph were recognized as disinterested
and distinguished. The British had heard that when the At-
lantic Telegraph Company asked him to act as general man-
ager for laying the cable of 1858, “it was unanimously re-
solved,” as the minutes of the Board of Directors stated, “‘to
tender him, in respect to such services, the sum of £1000
over and above his travelling and other expenses, as remun-
eration.””’ When he promptly declined this sum, accepting
only his expenses, the action did not seem typical of the crass
Americans against whom the British aristocracy had been
warned. They found Field an interesting and modest man.

The Dowager Duchess of Sutherland invited him to her
home frequently and was a cordial friend. Others who enter-

CYRUS FIELD CARRIES ON 101

tained him included Sir Culling Eardley (who had given the
féte champétre for the crew of the Agamemnon), Russell
Sturgis (the American architect), Julius Reuter (of the tele-
graph agency), and Lady Franklin. He also met Sir Charles
Wheatstone (the scientist), Captain Douglas Galton (the
engineer), Charles Francis Adams (the American minister),
and John Bright (the great liberal statesman, not the tele-
graph engineer), and Bright’s colleague, Richard Cobden,
renowned exponent of free trade.

Shortly after his return home in the winter of 1863, he re-
ceived a letter from John Bright, who was one of the few
Englishmen in strong sympathy with the North and to whom
Field had sent documents and books explaining the Northern
stand in the war. This letter from the famous English cham-
pion of the middle classes expressed anxiety for the disturbed
conditions in America but told of a change of British senti-
ment in favor of the Northern cause. Such a change in sym-
pathy was what Field had been working for; in fact he was an
important influence in bringing it about. Bright’s letter was
as follows:

London, February 27, 1863.

My dear Sir,—I have to thank you for forwarding to me Mr.
Putnam’s four handsome volumes of the Record of the Rebel-
lion. I value the work highly, and have wished to have it. I shall
write to Mr. Putnam to thank him for his most friendly and ac-
ceptable present.

We are impatient for news from your country. There is great
effort without great result, and we fear the divisions in the North
will weaken the government and stimulate the South. Sometimes
of late I have seemed to fear anarchy in the North as much as
rebellion in the South.

I hope my fears arise more from my deep interest in your con-
flict than from any real danger from the discordant elements
among you. If there is not virtue enough among you to save the
State, then has the slavery poison done its fearful work. But I
will not despair. Opinion here has changed greatly. In almost

102 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

every town great meetings are being held to pass resolutions in
favor of the North, and the advocates of the South are pretty
much put down.
This is a short and hasty note...
Believe me always
Very truly yours,
John Bright.

It is significant of Field’s character and ideals that he was
on intimate terms with the more liberal element in British
public life. Gladstone, Cobden, and Bright were typical in
their time as marking the rise to power of the industrial
classes associated with trade and democratic standards, as
opposed to the landed gentry and hereditary legislators of
the conventional English pattern. Yet Field had also an
aristocratic element in his nature and had friends in England
among the conservative classes. Had he been an Englishman,
it is likely that his flair for public service and his faculty for
winning support by persuasive argument would have led
him to enter politics. Unfortunately for our national welfare,
political life in the United States was, and is, less attractive
than in England to a man of ability and integrity.

It is interesting to note that John Bright became a sup-
porter of the scheme for an Atlantic cable partly because of
his advocacy of free trade. In particular, he and his colleague
Cobden wished to make it possible to import inexpensive
grain and other foods for the British working man. To buy
grain at low prices, knowledge of foreign markets and crop
reports was helpful. An ocean cable would facilitate this.

Chapter Erght
WAR AND DISCOURAGEMENT

DESPITE THE APATHY of governments and capitalists, Field
had now become a sort of crusader; the indomitable spirit of
his father seemed to animate him. Upon his return to the
United States early in 1863, he set himself more seriously than
ever to the uphill task of raising additional funds for a new
cable. ‘There had been financial stringency due to the war,
and the rate of exchange of American currency as compared
with the British, was unfavorable; the dollar sank to sixty-two
cents in gold value in 1863, and below forty cents in 1864.
His own firm was having its troubles in common with others.
It was necessary, for example, for the firm to sell paper sup-
plies only for cash; even a few days’ credit could not be al-
lowed, because of the confused conditions. The general situ-
ation made it necessary for Field to take a hard-hearted view
of business.

Nevertheless, he continued to address chambers of com-
merce and associations of merchants and brokers on behalf
of an Atlantic cable. He visited Boston, Providence, Albany,
and Buffalo and talked so eloquently that small subscriptions
for the stock were made. At that time he wrote in a letter: “I
never worked so hard in my life.’’ In localities where there
were men with capital, he literally canvassed from door to
door.

At the end of May, when he sailed for England again, he
was able to say: “The total subscriptions in America to the
Atlantic telegraph stock to date are £66,615 sterling. Every
single person in the United States and British North Ameri-
can provinces that owns any of the old stock of the Atlantic
telegraph has shown his confidence in the enterprise by sub-

103

104 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

scribing to the stock.” ‘This was a very creditable performance
when it is recalled that in the prosperous year of 1856 before
any failure of the cable had spoiled the initial enthusiasm, he
had been able to dispose of less than a tenth of the original
capital of the Atlantic Telegraph Company in America; in
fact, of the eighty-eight shares of a thousand pounds each
which he brought from London at that time, he was able to
sell only twenty-seven shares, and had to pay for the remain-
der from his own funds. American capitalists were not dis-
posed to speculate in foreign companies and were engrossed
in home affairs.

When Field sailed for England at the end of May, 1863, he
was so worn by his campaigns that he slept almost contin-
uously for the first few days out of New York, only getting
up for an occasional meal. He had become a familiar figure
on Atlantic steamers, having made over two dozen crossings
of the Atlantic. Later in his career he said that he had made
over sixty crossings, on most of which he was seasick. He
needed this rest that the ocean interlude gave him, for when
again in London he was out early and late, working for the
new cable and enlightening the British about conditions in
America.

Reports from New York were disturbing as the crisis of the
war approached. His firm advised him that when Lee’s army
advanced into Pennsylvania, business was almost suspended.
The English felt that the South was about to win the struggle,
and many of them were exultant. The Northern cities were
threatened by Confederate audacity, and their people were
fearful of the future until the battle of Gettysburg early in
July. Field was full of apprehension and very nervous while
awaiting news from America, which was delayed in coming.

Shortly after the crisis of Gettysburg, letters from New York
told of the disorderly draft riots that disgraced the North-
ern conduct of the War. These riots raged for four days in
the streets of New York, endangering seriously the lives and

@

WAR AND DISCOURAGEMENT 105

property of residents. The end came in a bloody encounter
within a block of Field’s home at Gramercy Square, when a
detachment of soldiers met a mob of rioters at Twenty-First
street and Third Avenue. Thirteen men were killed, eighteen
wounded, and many were taken prisoners.

The wife of David Dudley Field, whose residence ad-
joined that of his brother, wrote of this terrifying experience:
“My husband got back just in time to save, by prompt and
vigorous action, our property. Our poor servants were terri-
bly alarmed; they were threatened by incendiaries who
warned them to leave the premises. . . . Think of one hun-
dred and eighty soldiers sleeping in our stable, the officers
being fed in the basement. . . . As the rioters approached
our house they were met by a company of soldiers that Dud-
ley had just sent for; their glittering bayonets and steady
march soon sent them back before they had time to effect
their demoniacal purpose.” Isabella Field Judson, daughter
of Cyrus, recalled that when the rioters approached their
home, the servants fled, excitedly taking the cat and a box
of tea but leaving silver, ornaments, and other valuables.

The suspense that Field suffered while awaiting news from
home was convincing illustration of the need for an ocean
cable. His anxiety began on July 16 when a letter dated July
1 arrived from his firm telling of Lee’s raid into Pennsylvania.
The battle of Gettysburg was fought from July 1 to July 3,
and with a cable the news would have been in London on
July 4. Instead of that, Field began worrying intensely on
July 16—thirteen days after the battle was over. A ship was
due on July 18, and Southern sympathizers among the British
expected it to bring news of the critical defeat of the Northern
army. The steamer was delayed, however, and did not arrive
on the day it was due. The next day was Sunday, and no news
was forthcoming.

Field was too restless to attend church. Hailing a cab, he
drove to the house of the American minister, but Adams was

106 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

at church. Going next to the rooms of a friend, Field found
him shaving but induced him to come along to the financial
district. They drove to Reuter’s telegraph agency and over-
whelmed the attendant with demands for American news.
Although the attendant was under orders not to divulge such
early reports from Ireland and feared for his job if he did so,
they promised to find him a better place if discharged. With
his foot in the door, Field refused to move until he was satis-
fied. The harassed attendant finally capitulated and an-
nounced: ‘“There has been a three days’ fight at Gettysburg;
Lee has retreated into Virginia; Vicksburg has fallen.”

Smiling happily, the two hurried away. Field gave the glad
tidings to Adams and others. He took particular delight in
informing certain prophets who had been sure that the North-
ern army could not stop Lee. Indications now were that the
worst was over, but a letter dated July 15 told of the begin-
ning of the draft riots in New York and there was more sus-
pense. When Field finally heard that his family was safe, he
breathed a sigh of relief. He had sorely needed the services of
a cable. How many such cases must have occurred before
cable service was established!

His fears allayed, Field resumed his patriotic services to his
country by acting as intermediary for a closer understanding
between the statesmen of the United States and England. He
had shown an informal letter addressed to himself from John
Bright, to the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase,
who replied to Field at length. Field showed Chase’s letter to
Gladstone. In this manner, he got these leading men ac-
quainted with the informal views of one another without the
pomposity and circumlocution of official communications.
He believed that if the statesmen of each country understood
the convictions, the difficulties, and the human qualities of
the others, they would be less belligerent and more tolerant,
and that diplomatic exchanges would be smoothed over.

Chase’s letter of August 21, 1863, commenting upon that

WAR AND DISCOURAGEMENT 107

of Bright said: “It is marked by the comprehensive sagacity
which distinguishes his statesmanship. . . . A letter expres-
sing the same general ideas as are contained in that addressed
to you was lately sent by Mr. Bright to Mr. Aspinwall. ‘This
letter Mr. Aspinwall kindly enclosed to me, and I read it to
the President. I had repeatedly said the same things to him,
and was not sorry to have my representations unconsciously
echoed by a liberal English statesman. The President said
nothing, but I am sure he is more and more confirmed in the
resolution to make the proclamation efficient as well after
peace as during rebellion. My own efforts are constantly
directed to this result. . . . I never admit in conversation or
otherwise the possibility that the rebel States can cease to be
rebel states and become loyal members of the Union except
through the recognition of the condition created by the proc-
lamation, by the establishment of free institutions under
slavery-prohibiting constitutions. I not only labor for these
ends, but hope quite sanguinely that they will be secured.
The public sentiment of the country has undergone a great
change in reference to slavery. Strong emancipation parties
exist in every slave State not affected by the proclamation, and
a general conviction prevails that slavery cannot long survive

the restoration of the republic. . . . I do not care to sketch
the picture of the great and powerful nation which will then
exhibit its strength in America. . . . The war moves too

slow and costs too much; but it moves steadily, and rebellion
falls before it. Our financial condition remains entirely
sound. ‘The new national banks are being organized as rapidly
as prudence allows. . . . Whatever else may happen, we
shall have gained, through the rebellion, an opportunity, not
unimproved, of establishing a safe and uniform currency for
the whole nation. . . . I trust you are succeeding well in your
great scheme of the inter-continental telegraph. . . . If I had
the wealth of an Astor you should not lack the means of con-
struction.”

108 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

This letter by one of the inner government at Washington
during the Civil War makes possible a glimpse behind the
scenes. ‘The tone is reassuring and steadfast; not many per-
sons in the country were so calm and far-seeing as the Secre-
tary of the Treasury. It is difficult to realize now that emanci-
pation of the slaves was a subject of such difference of opinion
in the North, but history shows that the Washington govern-
ment fearfully evaded the issue of slavery during the early
stages of the War. The emancipation of the slaves as a war
measure, however, was followed later by amendments to the
Constitution making their freedom permanent.

When Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer, had read
Chase’s letter, he wrote to Field: ‘“‘As respects Mr. Chase, he
is, if I may say so, a brother in this craft; and I have often
sympathized with his difficulties, and admired the great ability
and ingenuity with which he appears to have steered his
course.” In the same letter, Gladstone acknowledged with
interest a letter ‘full of feeling” which Field’s daughter Alice
had written her mother concerning a visit to the headquarters
of the Army of the Potomac. Gladstone liked such uncon-
ventional descriptions. The letter is interesting even today,
as the fresh impressions of a naive girl impressed by uniforms
and flags but saddened by the realities of war.

Alice Field had spent two days and nights at the front in
view of the enemy’s signals, not far from Bull Run in Virginia.
“The whole country is desolated,’ she wrote. Her party
lunched with a general, who was very courteous. “This tent
is charming. . . . Our lunch consisted of ham sandwiches,
pickles, jelly, ale, and tea.’ Her quarters one night were in
an old mansion still occupied by two saddened Virginia ladies,
one of whom had lost a son in the Confederate army. She
wrote: “We felt so much for these proud women, obliged to
receive Northern strangers, and unable to conceal their fallen
fortunes, that we did our best to heal their wounded self-love.
After tea we dressed for the ball. I wore the blue tissue, the

WAR AND DISCOURAGEMENT 109

white lace waist, and a blue ribbon only in my hair.” They
drove to the ball in an ambulance; the ball-room was dec-
orated with ragged flags full of bullet holes. General Meade
condescended to speak to her twice and next day invited her
party to dinner. At the military review, the realistic cavalry
charge by yelling soldiers frightened the ladies. ‘They were
touched by the appearance of veteran regiments that had but
two or three hundred men left. ““They march so firmly,” she
wrote, “carrying their torn banners, with the names of the
battles in which they have fought written upon them.” Such
a letter, as Gladstone noted, brings clearly to the reader some-
thing of the pathos of the war. Alice was the only one of
Field’s four daughters who did not marry; unfortunately she
became an invalid in later life and eventually suffered from
hallucinations. The full letter follows:

Washington, D. C., February 25, 1864.
My dear Mother,—Since I last wrote I have been to the army
front, passing on the way many of the battle-fields whose names
bring up sad memories, and finally living for two nights and much
of three days within view of the enemy’s signals, and in the midst
of our own encampments. . . . Early on Monday morning we
found ourselves in the government train on the way to Brandeth
Station. This is a five hours’ journey from Washington, but the
time could not have dragged with any one interested in the his-
tory of our country. We saw the battle-ground of Manassas; we
crossed the Bull Run stream and the fields made memorable by
Pope’s disastrous campaign. Indeed, along the long line of the
railway runs a battle-field—the ‘“‘race-course,” as an officer told
me it was called, so often have our troops and the enemy’s pur-
sued each other there. Everywhere one sees the evidences of war;
the whole country is desolated, and the earth ploughed by the
tread of armies; broken earthworks border the brows of the hills,
and wherever a camp is seen around it is a stockade or abatis to
protect it from Mosby’s guerillas, who infest this region.
As we were whirled past these scenes, I listened to the talk of
the officers about me, and expressions such as these made the
story doubly real: “It was there the cavalry was attacked”; “The

110 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

bridge we are now crossing was contested all day in the action
of the other day”; We held those hills where that body of artil-
lery is now moving.” So those five hours hurried away, and we
did not wake up to the present until we reached Brandeth Sta-
tion. Here stood lines of ambulances to receive the army’s guests,
and soon we were placed in an ambulance and jolted over cor-
duroy roads to the general’s tent. After an hour’s jolting we
reached our first destination. The general’s tent was one of a
large encampment on a hill which commands a view of our forti-
fications all about the country and those of the rebels across the
river, only four or five miles away.

The general received us very courteously, and with him and
three of the officers of his staff we lunched in the tent. This tent
is charming. At one end blazes in a huge fireplace—open, of
course—a bright wood fire; in the centre stands a table, over
which hangs a chandelier holding three candles; on one side is
the bed; and all about are army chairs.

Our lunch, where the officers presided as hosts and waiters,
consisted of ham sandwiches, pickles, jelly, ale, and tea. The
three officers were our escorts to our quarters, which we found to
be in the old Virginia manor Milton, owned and still inhabited
by a well-known family.

They did not smile upon us at first, but we made a great effort
to propitiate the two sad-looking Virginia ladies who received us.
They both were in mourning for the son of one of them, who was
killed during the Peninsula campaign—a rebel. Poor, poor fel-
low! We felt so much for these proud women, obliged to receive
Northern strangers, and unable to conceal their fallen fortunes,
that we did our best to heal their wounded self-love. After tea
we dressed for the ball. I wore the blue tissue, the white lace
waist, and a blue ribbon only in my hair. . . . Our three escorts
arrived long before we were ready, but at last we were put again
into our ambulance. Just fancy the strangeness of going to a ball
in an ambulance, and the ball-room itself, indeed, was as odd a
mingling of contrasts. It was an immense boarded room, with a
pointed roof from which hung many flags and banners, most rag-
ged and full of bullet-holes, some in ribbons; guns were stacked
against the building, and these were draped with evergreens; on
either side of the platform used by the band rested cannons
pointed towards us; these were almost concealed by banners

WAR AND DISCOURAGEMENT 111

again. From this end of the room came excellent music all the
evening.

I was made quite happy by General Meade’s condescension in
speaking to me twice. We had four hours’ sleep that night, or
rather the next morning. The whole of Tuesday was given to a
great review—that of the Second Corps. General Meade reviewed
the troops. There were 7000 infantry and 3000 cavalry; these
last were Kilpatrick’s, and they showed us a cavalry charge; this
was very exciting, and their shrieks in rushing upon the supposed
enemy so overcame us that we clung to each other in terror. The
day was more than May, it was June. Far away rose the Blue
Ridge (well named, we thought), while all over the country in
every direction were marching the infantry, or the artillery was
rumbling, or the cavalry dashing about in the soft Virginia
breezes. When General Meade reviewed the army, as he rode with
his staff past each brigade the general and officers joined the cav-
alcade of the commander-in-chief, the band playing and colors
flying and bayonets glistening, all in the bright sunlight of that
perfect day. I cannot tell you how touching was the sight of those
regiments that have been long in the service, and have but two
or three hundred left. They march so firmly, carrying their torn
banners, with the names of the battles in which they have fought
written upon them.

During the review we received an invitation from the general
to dine with him, which we accepted. I must reserve a detailed
account of this dinner for another letter.

The next morning we bade good-bye to our friends, and re-
turned to the restraints of city life.

After Field returned to New York in September of 1863,
he and his wife gave a reception for Sir Alexander and Lady
Milne, who had arrived with several British warships at New
York. ‘This act of hospitality was of more than ordinary conse-
quence, because the tense relations between the United States
and England had at one time prompted an official order from
London to the naval commander-in-chief of the North At-
lantic and West Indies fleet to abstain strictly from entering
any United States port “unless absolutely compelled to do
so by the necessities of the service.” ‘There had been several

112 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

inflammatory incidents at sea that had tested the North’s
rights and claims in conflict with the British conventions of
maritime “rule of the waves.”

The Secretary of the Treasury wrote to Field, thanking him
for the entertainment of the British officers. His letter com-
petently sums up the situation:

‘Treasury Department, October 7, 1863.

My dear Mr. Field,—I am glad that you are doing your part to-
wards making the stay of the naval officers of the Good Queen in
our metropolitan harbor agreeable to them. My faith is strong
that the English government will yet see that the interests of man-
kind demand that there should be no alienation of the two great
branches of the Anglo-Saxon family from each other, and will do
its part towards removing all causes of alienation by full repara-
tion for the injuries inflicted on American commerce by unneu-
tral acts of British subjects, known to and not prevented by the
responsible authorities.

That’s a long sentence, but I believe it conveys my meaning. I
am sorry I cannot accept the kind invitation of yourself and Mrs.
Field (to whom please make my best regards acceptable) to meet
these gallant officers.

Yours very truly,
S. P. Chase.

Vice-Admiral Milne reported that he had been informed
of a hostile feeling in the Northern States against England
“in consequence of the building of the two ships of war in
Liverpool for the Southern States, and from various other
matters connected with the existing civil war, and that my
reception would probably be unsatisfactory. This, however,
was not the case; my visit was evidently acceptable, and proved
most satisfactory.” After leaving New York, Admiral Milne
was received so courteously at Washington by President Lin-
coln and his cabinet that Lord Lyons, the British minister,
sent a special note of thanks to the Secretary of State. Seward
replied to this in a note that spoke of Admiral Milne’s “just,
liberal, and courteous conduct in the performance of his du-

WAR AND DISCOURAGEMENT 113

ties while commanding H. M.’s naval forces in the vicinity of
the United States.”

It was fair-minded exchanges such as this that kept the
Northern States and England from giving way to the hot re-
sentment and jingoistic promptings occasionally felt over
conflicting interests. Field had a tactful hand in these liberal
exchanges. By nature he was fitted to extend frank courtesies
and speak disarmingly of such neutral matters as ocean tele-
graphs and British personages whom he had met. His friend-
ship with the British consul-general in New York, Edward M.
Archibald, who had helped him in Newfoundland, was a
factor in these social amenities.

In the summer of 1863, a temporary revival of optimism in-
duced the Atlantic Telegraph Company to advertise for bids
for a new cable. Seventeen were received. ‘The consulting
engineers advised accepting that of Glass, Elliott & Company,
and a contract was partly made. Field was elated and so con-
fident that he insured his stock against risk. But after he left
England, there were delays and difficulties that spoiled the
plans for 1864. The reports that now came to him from Lon-
don were most discouraging; the work seemed at a standstill.
Many men in Field’s position at this time would have washed
their hands of the whole affair and devoted themselves to their
own business and family. On the contrary, at the end of 1863,
he retired from business in New York for the second time,
gave up his downtown office on Beekman street, and went to
England, resolved to make greater exertions than ever, de-
spite the war that was still raging. Encouraging factors were
at work. A British capitalist, ‘Thomas Brassey, showed interest
in his proposals; several others were induced to invest, and
a reorganization of affiliated companies improved the outlook.

Since the failure of the 1858 cable, rival schemes had been
broached and tried. A suggestion that had been submitted to
the Danish government years before was taken up by an
American electrician, Colonel T. P. Shaffner. This plan was

114 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

to lay an Atlantic cable in four short sections by way of Ice-
land and Greenland. From the north of Scotland to the Faroe
Islands (owned by Denmark) was little more than two hun-
dred miles; from there to Iceland (also Danish) was less than
three hundred miles; the longest section, from Iceland to
southern Greenland, was seven hundred miles; from there to
Labrador was five hundred fifty miles.

These short sections, combined with the shallow depths
(except for one place between Greenland and Labrador),
were strong advantages. ‘There were handicaps from icebergs
and the desolate location of Greenland, but Colonel Shaffner
was prepared to prove that these were not serious. In August,
1859, he and his family sailed from Boston in a small vessel
for a preliminary survey of the route. After making depth
soundings off Greenland and Iceland, he arrived at Glasgow
in November and aroused support for his scheme. His daring
and initiative caught the public’s attention.

In the spring of 1860, the British Government aided this
North Atlantic project by sending out a ship to take sound-
ings. To explore the landing places, the promoters purchased
a steam yacht, which, carrying Shaffner and a capable party
including two Danish officials, sailed from England during
the summer, after a friendly visit from Queen Victoria and
the Prince Consort. The findings of these two vessels were
reported in January, 1861, to a crowded meeting of the Royal
Geographical Society, when Sir Leopold McClintock and Sir
Charles Bright, who were officially connected with the enter-
prise, spoke favorably of the technical aspects, such as ice, vol-
canoes, and the ooze of the ocean bottom. After these interest-
ing preliminaries, however, the scheme fell into the general
apathy that often engulfs such far-flung enterprises.

There was also discussion of a South Atlantic route. This
involved a cable between Spain and Brazil, by stops at Ma-
deira, the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Isles, and islands
off the South American coast. Another suggestion was a route

WAR AND DISCOURAGEMENT 115

from Portugal to the Azores, Bermuda, and the Southern
States. Variations of these routes have ultimately been used
for cables, but the pioneer work was, of course, not done there.

A still more interesting competition was now under way to
attain telegraphic communication between America and the
Old World. This was the overland telegraph by way of
Alaska and Siberia, sponsored by an energetic American,
Perry McDonough Collins. This route was the choice of
those who believed that a long ocean cable would never be
practicable; and that a land line, with a short cable under
Bering Strait, would prove ultimately successful.

Collins, who had gone to California during the gold rush,
was a former banker and lawyer of the type successful in San
Francisco during pioneer days. Like Field, he was a natural
promoter and had far-reaching visions. In 1856, after con-
ferences at Washington with President Pierce, Secretary of
State Marcy, and the Russian minister, he was appointed
Commercial Agent of the United States for the Amoor river
region of Siberia. This manufactured appointment was
granted merely to enable him to investigate Russian territory
under an official title. After obtaining the consent of the
Russian, British, and American governments, with all neces-
sary legal rights, he finally got the Western Union Telegraph
Company to issue ten million dollars of special stock for the
long overland line.

This financial arrangement was not completed, however,
until 1866. During the Civil War, Congress aided by voting
the use of a naval vessel and an appropriation for surveying
the coast of Alaska, which was still owned by Russia. Presi-
dent Lincoln approved the measure in 1864, and actual con-
struction work was begun in that year. Secretary of State
Seward spoke highly of Collins; and Senator Latham, chair-
man of the committee on military affairs, anticipated success
by declaiming: “We hold the ball of the earth in our hand,
and wind upon it a network of living and thinking wire, till

116 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

the whole is held together and bound with the same wishes,
projects, and interests.” It was the custom of the time to in-
dulge in grandiose orations and to build huge air castles from
maps and prospectuses.

Collins himself declared grandly in a lecture in New York:
“America and Europe are to be united in the gentle bands of
iron fillets, while Old Mother Asia stands bridesmaid to the
distant couple.” In his travels through wild parts of Siberia,
he imagined himself a future potentate in the Amoor region.
He talked of Marco Polo and Genghis Khan.

To anticipate a little, Collins’ project was well under way
in 1866 and about three million dollars had been spent when
Cyrus Field finally laid a successful cable. ‘The news came like
a clap of thunder. ‘The construction crews on the overland line
in Alaska were summarily discharged. The wire on hand was
sold to the Indians for suspension bridges and fish-nets, and
the green-glass insulators supplied them with drinking-cups
for years. Collins’ dreams of Oriental magnificence and
splendor crashed in ruins.

It is evident that Field’s project for an Atlantic cable be-
tween Ireland and Newfoundland was not the only possibility
discussed during this period. Other ambitious men were plan-
ning and trying different routes and methods. It is interesting
to note that some of these routes suggested for inter-conti-
nental telegraphs became, several generations later, the routes
for aviators steering, as the crow flies, to economize distance
while making occasional stops to refuel and rest. The New-
foundland-Ireland route, in particular, has proved popular
for air flights as well as for cables.

The British and American governments were willing to
encourage any likely cable scheme. Each promoter had his
own spokesmen in official circles. ‘That Field was the one
finally successful was due to the directness and simplicity of
his attack, coupled with his persuasive and organizing ability.

WAR AND DISCOURAGEMENT 117

It was, of course, no easy problem to solve, regardless of the
route chosen.

The technical aspects were underestimated at first. Knowl-
edge of engineering and of electrical science had to be gained
by the slow method of making costly mistakes. Much had
been learned, however, by this time concerning the manu-
facture and laying of cables, and the best system of signaling
through them. Human brains and energies were at last des-
tined to succeed in this long fight with nature. Field’s initia-
tive and perseverance were at last to be rewarded.

Chapter Nine

PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE

‘THE BriTisH HAVE Claimed that they supplied the bulk of the
funds for laying the first Atlantic cables, and did most of the
scientific and technical work necessary for the ultimate suc-
cess. These claims are justified. The British capitalists were
not only richer and more far-seeing than the Americans at
that period, but also more conversant with maritime risks and
more sporting in taking a chance. Furthermore, since they
had world-wide commercial interests, a large navy, and far-
flung colonies, they had most to win by the successful opera-
tion of deep-sea cables. London was then the world’s center of
capital and commercial enterprise.

The British engineers and scientists were better prepared
to investigate cables and electrical phenomena. Faraday, the
great pioneer in electrical experimenting, had awakened the
British scientists in regard to the possibilities of the strange
force that at first had been regarded merely as a diversion or
minor laboratory aid. Professor William ‘Thomson, in partic-
ular, followed the trail blazed by his famous predecessor and
formulated the standard theory of the operation of ocean
cables. Sir Charles Bright typified the intelligent young Eng-
lishman who was devoting his ability to engineering. At that
time the American engineering colleges had scarcely got a
start; most educated men in the United States had legal,
theological, or literary minds.

Compared with the brilliant British scientists, the Ameri-
can Samuel F. B. Morse, electrician for the New York, New-
foundland & London Telegraph Company, was less well pre-
pared. He had received the education and training of an
artist, rather than of a scientist, and until he was past forty

118

x

ONIGNWT ATAVO

JIOV WOYHNINOATOA LY SHATIO AHL

es Pate
alae wie
er ee

PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE 119

knew very little about electricity. When he offered his serv-
ices to Field, he was in his sixties. After a long period of pri-
vation and ridicule, he was beginning to let his head become
a little turned by the applause and honors which the final
success of his recording telegraph was bringing him. Field
was America’s best contribution to the Atlantic cable.

As indicative of the active British interest in technique,
the special committee appointed by their Government in
1859 thoroughly reviewed the subject of making, laying, and
operating submarine cables. This committee, under the
chairmanship of Captain Douglas Galton of the Royal Engi-
neers, enlisted the efforts and knowledge of Sir Charles Wheat-
stone and William Fairbairn, celebrated scientists, and George
P. Bidder, Cromwell F. Varley, Latimer Clark, and Edwin
Clark, notable engineers, with the helpful cooperation of
George Saward, secretary of the Atlantic ‘Telegraph Company
and close friend of Field.

Some of the aspects of the problems investigated by the
committee in its nearly two years of deliberations were: the
electrical and mechanical properties of copper wire, both
pure and alloyed; the properties of gutta percha and other
insulating substances; the chemical changes in all these ma-
terials when submerged in salt water; the effects of high pres-
sure and low temperature on these substances; the tensile
strength and breaking strain of copper wires, and of iron,
steel, and tarred hemp separately and combined; the electrical
charging and discharging of conductors; and the methods of
testing conductors and locating faults.

This elaborate inquiry was followed by an interesting paper
before the British Association for the Advancement of Science
(of which one of the committee members, William Fair-
bairn was president) by Sir Charles Bright and Latimer Clark
(also of the committee). This paper systematized the methods
of electrical testing and greatly clarified the subject. Later
Bright and Clark devised a preservative mixture for prevent-

120 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

ing oxidation of the iron sheathing of cables; this was in con-
nection with their work for the British Government in laying
a cable to India by way of the Persian Gulf. Varley, who
helped Field later in the electrical technique, estimated that
an Atlantic cable should transmit eight words a minute—and
possibly as high as thirteen. Such an optimistic prophecy was
ridiculed, but was afterwards fulfilled despite the slowing
tendency of self-induction.

The short cables laid by British engineers during this pe-
riod also brought to light a large fund of information of
which the early pioneers had been largely ignorant. The
failure of the Red Sea cable, laid by Lionel Gisborne with
the cooperation of the Turkish and British governments,
showed what to avoid. Its construction was too fragile for the
rough places where it lay, and the sections were laid too taut
without enough slack for an uneven bottom. So faulty was
this cable that a complete message was never sent through the
entire length, and the different sections failed one by one.
The British Government’s loss of a large sum of money in
this abortive undertaking spoiled official enthusiasm for sev-
eral years after 1859.

In 1864, however, the success of the cable to India by way
of the Persian Gulf revived public hopes and clarified the
technical procedure. The long Mediterranean cables be-
tween France and Algeria, and between Malta and Alex-
andria, had also taught a number of lessons to the British
engineers in charge. Moreover, the merger in 1864 of the
two leading firms of Glass, Elliott & Company and the Gutta
Percha Company into the new Telegraph Construction &
Maintenance Company brought into cooperation the most
experienced veterans in the making and laying of cables. ‘To
Field’s great joy this strong corporation promptly subscribed
for such a large block of Atlantic Telegraph stock that no
more subscriptions were necessary. Over half of the new issue
of six hundred pounds was taken up by these contractors.

PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE 121

This was preferred stock, to pay eight percent, and its absorp-
tion cleared the way for action.

Another lucky maneuver was now accomplished in the en-
gagement of the splendid (but unprofitable) steamer, the
Great Eastern. This 22,500-ton ship—the largest in the world
—had proved too big for ordinary service. A change of owner-
ship and a favorable contract were now arranged. Such a
ship would be able to carry the heavier cable now to be used,
whereas two ships had been required to hold the previous
cables. The contract with the owners provided that if the
cable was not laid successfully, no charge would be made for
the ship’s services. But if it was laid successfully, the payment
would be fifty thousand pounds in shares of telegraph stock.

It was, thus, largely the contractors who financed this latest
attempt at laying a cable. Apparently the example of the
cables operating successfully in the Mediterranean and Per-
sian Gulf, one of which was over fifteen hundred miles long,
had convinced the British that enough was now known of the
correct technique to lay an Atlantic cable. The exigencies
arising from the Civil War, as Field repeatedly pointed out,
also had demonstrated the great need for telegraphic com-
munication between Europe and America.

For the new cable, there was talk of using hemp rope
around the insulated copper wire, with no iron sheathing,
but a compromise was accepted of steel wires encased in thick
hemp. The new cable was larger and costlier than had been
used before. The earlier cable had been less than three-
quarters of an inch in diameter; the new one was an inch and
a tenth, including the hemp. This made a relatively larger
area of cross-section than at first appears. The old cable had
weighed one ton to the nautical mile; the new one weighed
thirty-six hundred pounds per mile—nearly twice as much.
But immersed in water the new cable weighed only slightly
more than the old one. This was helpful, because it thus sank
slowly in water, as was desired.

122 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

There was the same number—seven—of copper wires in
the core as in the first cable, and they were bunched together
as before, but the new wire weighed three hundred pounds
to the mile compared with a hundred seven pounds before,
and it was purer copper. ‘The insulation of gutta-percha and
hemp was thicker and better applied than in the first cable,
and the steel wires of the armored sheathing were tougher
and larger. Much had been learned about making steel in
the few years since the first cable, and a given size of wire was
now much stronger than before. ‘The new cable would sus-
pend eleven miles of itself in water without breaking, as com-
pared to only five miles of the first cable—an important factor
in paying out cable in a rough sea two or three miles deep.

The aim in designing this new cable had not been merely
to make a heavier and thicker cable, but to secure strength
combined with flexibility. Dead weight of itself is a fault.
The old cable, although relatively small, had been almost
as heavy as a rod of iron. When paid out from a ship, it sank
with a suddenness dangerous for breaking, especially if the
ship gave a sudden lurch. ‘Thus in 1857, the first cable broke
when the Niagara’s stern was tossed up on a wave just as the
brakes were shut down.

The relative lightness of the new cable when immersed in
water was partly the consequence of encasing each of the
steel sheathing wires in thick hempen yarn saturated with
preservative. ‘Thus the cable looked like a manila rope; in
fact, it was a combination of rope and metal. The purpose
of this design was to protect the steel wires from rust due to
exposure to air and water, and also to lighten the cable when
in water. This precaution proved only partly successful, for
the hemp decayed rapidly in the sea, exposing the steel to
the water after a few months.

The heavier copper wire used in the seven threads at the
center of the cable—the wire that carried the messages—was

it
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WILLIAM THOMSON, LORD KELVIN

PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE 123

the result of careful research by Professor ‘Thomson. He had
computed the scientific law for the operating speed of a cable.
Curiously enough, the young engineer Charles Bright in 1857
had advised almost the same size of copper wire and insula-
tions as Thomson now decreed, but had been over-ruled by
his elders. That is, Bright’s good judgment and engineering
sense had estimated about what ‘Thomson’s research had later
proved to be correct, but meantime devastating losses had
been suffered.

This incident is typical of how such mistakes occur. The
right technique is sometimes a long time in being revealed
by investigation of scientific theory. Meanwhile, practical
men of sound judgment and professional intuition may have
arrived at the same conclusions but, not being able to prove
their ideas by accepted formulas, they may be quashed by
superiors who actually are in the wrong. Bright had made a
few experiments but was looked upon as only a youngster
compared with Faraday and Morse.

Many technical mistakes were made during the course of
this pioneering. They arose, as a rule, from lack of a sense of
proportion. One expert wished to emphasize some special
feature; another urged his particular hobby. ‘There were
numerous fallacies to be disposed of before the correct pro-
cedure was learned. ‘The naive trust in faulty devices by the
early officials seems astounding, yet such developments occur
often in applied science.

In May of 1864, Field returned to America, feeling much
relieved at the sudden brightening of the prospects for a new
cable that would operate successfully. In August, he was in
Newfoundland to choose a landing place for the new cable.
Sailing up picturesque Trinity Bay in the surveyor’s steamer,
he picked out a little harbor called Heart’s Content, where
only a fishing settlement of about sixty houses broke the wild
landscape. This was twenty miles from the former landing

124 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

place, Bay of Bull’s Arm, but had quiet deep waters favorable
for a cable. ‘The Newfoundlanders took great interest in all
this.

There was much more traveling during the summer, in
order to arrange cooperation with the telegraph lines in Can-
ada, Newfoundland, and the United States. Field was a fre-
quent patron of railroads, steamers, stage-coaches, and even
fishing boats. His activities were designed both to help the
cable campaign and to further Anglo-American understand-
ing in regard to the war, which was entering its final stages.
He was particularly active socially.

General John A. Dix has recorded (Memoirs of John
Adams Dix) that in December, 1864, he was a guest, together
with the British minister, Lord Lyons, at Field’s residence in
New York when a telegram came that might have caused in-
ternational trouble had not those two officials talked the mat-
ter over at once. This is typical of Field’s intermediary services
during a period of unusual stress in the relations of two great
countries. Because of his wide acquaintance and amiable
nature, he acted somewhat like an unofficial ambassador in
his travels back and forth.

In February of 1865 Field visited General Grant’s army at
the front and saw his friends in Washington, having much to
talk over before departing again for England. The ship on
which he sailed for Liverpool was commanded by the captain
whom Field had picked to take charge of the Great Eastern.
There were many details to be arranged about equipment and
crew for such an exceptional and temporary engagement. For
one thing, the Great Eastern was too large to be moored near
the cable works at East Greenwich, so that the cable had to
be cut and coiled on pontoons, after a preparatory soaking
in water to accustom it to the elements.

While the new cable was being manufactured in England,
Field, temporarily relieved of old worries, took an ocean
cruise for a holiday. He was pleased, also, at the impending

PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE 125

end of the Civil War; Lee surrendered that spring. ‘The Suez
canal, being constructed by French engineers, was about to
mingle the waters of the Mediterranean with those of the
Red Sea. Acting as representative of the New York Chamber
of Commerce, Field attended the opening ceremony. He met
many eminent engineers, including the great Ferdinand de
Lesseps. Being an experienced traveler engaged in a unique
international enterprise, Field was always welcome at such
gatherings; in fact he made a speech or two. While in Egypt,
he visited the pyramids and other attractions. During his
return trip to London, he heard of the assassination of Presi-
dent Lincoln and was horrified at such a calamity coming so
soon after the end of the war.

The cable required over eight months to manufacture; then
it was taken by smaller vessels out to the Great Eastern and
carefully coiled at the rate of two miles an hour. A cable
that required months for construction and coiling could be
lost in the depths of the ocean in a few seconds. ‘To distribute
the enormous weight on the ship, the cable was stored in three
tanks—one forward, one amidships, and one aft. These tanks
were watertight, so that the cable could be kept under water.

Many visitors, including the Prince of Wales, came from
London to watch the interesting preparations. ‘The London
newspapers printed descriptions of the work. One of these
visitors wrote: ‘The echo of the sailors’ song in the womb of
the Great Eastern will not be banished from our mind. It
raises visions of the future of the mystic iron coil under our
feet—how it will roll forth from its narrow berth; how it will
sink to the bottom of the Atlantic, or hang from mountain to
mountain far below the stormy wave; and how two great
nations, offsprings of one race and pioneers of civilization,
will speak through this wonderful coil, annihilating distance
and time. Who can help dreaming here, on the spot where
we stand? For it is truly a marvelous romance of civilization.”

The Great Eastern had, besides six masts, both a propeller

126 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

and paddlewheels. It was now taking on about five hundred
men and large supplies of coal and food. ‘The amazed Lon-
doners saw a live cow go on board for the milk supply; also
twenty pigs, a hundred and twenty sheep, a dozen oxen, and
large flocks of ducks, geese, and chickens. Some one estimated
that her total load, including machinery, was almost as great
as could have been carried by the entire fleet with which
Nelson fought at Trafalgar. To pull up the huge anchor re-
quired the united strength of almost two hundred men. It
is sad to reflect that such a fine ship proved too big for the
ordinary shipping work of her day, and was eventually dis-
mantled as useless.

Many interested persons, realizing that history was being
made, asked permission to sail as passengers but were refused.
Field and Professor ‘Thomson were allowed to sail, also one
newspaper man, the veteran W. H. Russell (later Sir W. H.
Russell) of the Times, and two artists (O’Neill and Dudley)
to depict the scenes of the voyage. Field was the only Ameri-
can. The discipline and formality were strict. ‘The rather
haphazard spirit of the earlier expeditions had been replaced
by rigid system. Russell’s book The Atlantic Telegraph gives
an excellent account of the daily routine.

At last all preparations were completed, and the giant ves-
sel steamed away on its difficult mission. On the Irish coast,
the special shore section of the cable was fastened several miles
from the former place, in order to have the advantages of
quiet water under secluded cliffs. As the Great Eastern was
too large for shore maneuvering, a smaller vessel laid the
twenty-seven miles of extra-heavy end to which the main cable
was spliced. The splicing was completed on Sunday evening,
July 23, 1865, ready to begin the contest with the ocean
depths.

The starting of an important undertaking on a Sunday was
considered a good omen by the sailors, who would have been
suspicious of a start made on a Friday. Henry Field, with a

PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE 127

clergyman’s interest in such matters, says in his Story of the
Atlantic Telegraph: ‘They like, when a ship is moving out
of sight of land, that the last sound from the shore should be
the blessed Sabbath bells. If that sacred chime were not heard
today, at least a Sabbath peace rested on sea and sky. It was
a calm summer’s evening. The sun was just sinking in the
waves, as the Great Eastern, with the two ships of war which
waited on either hand, to attend her royal progress, turned
their faces to the west, and caught the sudden glory.”

Even the experienced reporter of the Times was moved by
this picturesque scene: “As the sun set, a broad stream of
light was thrown across the smooth billows toward their bows,
as if to indicate and illumine the path marked out by the
hand of Heaven.” Henry Field’s comment on this impressive
effect was: ‘‘What a sacred omen! Had it been the fleet of
Columbus sailing westward, every ship’s company would have
fallen upon their knees on those decks, and burst forth in an
Ave Maria to the gentle Mistress of the Seas. But in that
manly crew there was many an eye that took in the full beauty
of the scene, and many a reverent heart that invoked a bene-
diction.”

The American sponsors of the cable had wished to have a
United States warship accompany the British ships on this
expedition and on March 1, 1865, had addressed such a re-
quest to President Lincoln and the Secretary of the Navy.
The request was signed by Peter Cooper, Cyrus W. Field,
E. M. Archibald, and three others. But there was still an
antagonistic feeling toward England at Washington, and the
officials were absorbed in the overwhelming events that
marked the end of the War, so that no action was taken. The
cable squadron was thus entirely British, with one lone Amer-
ican citizen aboard. Nevertheless, he was an important factor
in the work.

To accompany the Great Eastern, the British Government
had sent two warships, the Sphinx and the Terrible, which

128 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

supplied the official atmosphere and approval of the nation
that “ruled the waves.” The beginning of this expedition
was favorable. The machinery worked so smoothly that “the
cable glided into the water with such ease that it seemed but a
holiday affair to carry it across to yonder continent,” as Henry
Field phrased it. But at daybreak next morning the booming
of a gun announced trouble as the great ship came to a stop.
Said Henry Field: “The electricians, with troubled counte-
nances, were passing in and out of the testing-room, which,
as it was always kept darkened, looked like a sick-chamber
where some royal patient lay trembling between life and
death.”

The dreaded disturbance of “electrical continuity” had
come to bother them. Professor Thomson’s sensitive galva-
nometer, which utilized a ray of light from a tiny mirror to
magnify any disturbance to the passage of the current, had
indicated that something was wrong. Messages could still
be sent to shore through the eighty-four miles of cable, but
apparently there was a leak about ten miles from the ship.
The best plan was to turn the ship around, pick up the cable,
and cut out the defective section.

Slowly the ponderous ship was reversed and picking-up
operations commenced. As Russell described it, “‘So delicately
did she answer her helm, and coil in the film of thread-like
cable over her bows, that she put one in mind of an ele-
phant taking up straw in its proboscis.” Only about a mile
could be raised in an hour. When about ten miles of cable
had been examined, the trouble was found. A small needle
of wire had been driven into the cable, apparently by acci-
dent, and had made an electrical contact between the sea
water and the copper wires. The faulty portion was cut out
and a splice made.

As Henry Field described this exasperating incident: “It
was this pin’s point which pricked the vital cord, opening a
minute passage through which the electricity, like a jet of

PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE 129

blood from a pierced artery, went streaming into the sea.
. . . This insignificant and contemptible source of trouble
was snatched from its place, the wounded piece of cable was
cut off, anda splice made. . . . A full day and a half had been
lost by this miserable piece of wire.”

The electrical continuity was now restored, and messages
were again flashed clearly between Ireland and the ship. The
transmission was so perfect that the electricians at Valentia
could distinguish the rolling of the Great Eastern, as the
waves tossed the ship sufficiently to induce a faint current of
electricity from the shifting relations with the magnetic me-
ridian. Much progress was being made in knowledge of the
electrical phenomena in long cables.

All went well again for several days. The “drop-off”,
where the coast shelf changed rapidly to the deep bed of the
ocean, was passed safely. Then, when five days out and seven
hundred miles had been laid, a worse interruption of current
occurred. Apparently a piece of the insulation had been de-
stroyed and the current was escaping into the sea. Once again
the ship was reversed and picking-up was begun to find the
defect.

The water was two miles deep, and the hauling-in was
difficult. But in a few hours the fault was found; it was
another piece of wire inserted in the cable. Once again a
section was cut out and a splice made. Suspicions now arose
over these “accidents’’.

The pile of cable on deck was examined. Another needle
of wire was discovered piercing the cable! Apparently a
traitor among the workmen had been paid to wreck the ex-
pedition’s effort. It was recalled that a similar incident had
happened previously on an expedition in the North Sea,
when a workman had confessed that he had been hired by a
rival company to drive a nail into the cable. Probably the
object of such a plot was to depress the stock quotations of
the telegraph company on the London Exchange. The failure

130 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

of the expedition would mean at least a two-million-dollar
drop in the market valuation of the shares.

Volunteer guards were posted to watch the workmen, and
for several days things went well. Cyrus Field’s hopes rose
high; success seemed near. ‘Two-thirds of the cable had been
laid; deep valleys in the ocean depths had been safely passed.
Two days more and the shallow bottom of the Grand Banks
would be reached. Then, on the morning of August 2, as
Field kept watch over the men, a grating sound was heard,
like a nail in the machinery, and the electricians reported a
small fault in communication.

The matter did not seem serious, but the cable was hauled
in. While the ship tossed idly on the waves during this pro-
cess, faults in the machinery caused undue strains in the
cable. The injured part almost within grasp, when suddenly
it broke and the dark line slipped into the depths of the At-
lantic! Another catastrophe had befallen the misfated cable.

Cyrus Field walked into the saloon and, with quivering
lips and pale face, announced, “The cable has parted and has
gone overboard.” The chief engineer, Samuel Canning, had
preceded him, muttering, “It is all over! It is gone!” as he
hurried to his cabin. The officials who had watched and
prayed under severe nervous strains realized that a small
accident had ruined the work of months.

The disappointment and gloom were intense. Nearly
twelve hundred miles had been laid, but now the ragged end
lay on the bottom of the ocean two and a half miles beneath
them. Canning decided to grapple for the cable, despite the
great depth and his unsatisfactory equipment. He had done
a little of this ‘fishing’ in the Mediterranean, but never at
such depths.

Two anchors fastened to the end of a piece of wire rope
were flung overboard and sank for two hours before striking
bottom. In the words of Henry Field: ‘All night long these
iron fingers were raking the bottom of the deep but grasping

PERSEVERANCE, PERSEVERANCE 131

nothing, till toward morning the long rope quivered like a
fisherman’s line.” The hauling-in began and went on for
several hours. The cable was raised three-quarters of a mile
from the bottom when a swivel broke; the cable sank back,
carrying with it a large piece of the fishing-rope.

After delays and fogs, another attempt was made, and this
time the cable was raised a mile from the bottom when an-
other swivel broke. The rope was getting short, and repairs
were necessary. Blacksmith fires were started on deck and
glowed weirdly in the fog. Russell wrote: “One might well
pardon the passing mariner, whose bark drifted him in the
night across the track of the great ship, if, crossing himself,
and praying with shuddering lips, he fancied he beheld a
phantom ship freighted with an evil crew, and ever after told
how he had seen the workshops of the Inferno floating on the
bosom of the ocean.”

Two more attempts were made, but both failed; the rope
was nearly gone. The cable itself had not broken during
these fishing trials; it was the grappling apparatus that was at
fault. ‘The date was now August 12. The season’s work was
over, and the ships parted company. Henry Field wrote: “The
Great Eastern swung sullenly around, and turned her im-
perial head toward England, like a warrior retiring from the
field—not victorious, nor yet defeated and despairing, but
with her battle-flag still flying, and resolved once more to
attempt the conquest of the sea.”

There was great need for what Blackwood’s Magazine
called Field’s “unswerving resolution”. It referred to him as
“full of hope and confidence, and never betraying anxiety or
despair even at the most serious disaster—a man whose rest-
less energy is best shown in his spare yet strong frame.” ‘This
was from a source not inclined to praise promiscuously.
Blackwood’s usually discriminated rather sharply, especially
against Americans.

Chapter Ten

THE CABLE IS LAID

AMID THE GENERAL gloom there were grounds for optimism.
The report of the technical staff, including Professor ‘Thom-
son and Samuel Canning, summarized some favorable items.
The cable, when not injured, had proved amply strong for all
ordinary strains. ‘The improved telegraph instruments had
sent more than eight words a minute through the cable to
Ireland, clearly and unmistakably; this was in contrast with
the cable of 1858 which had been very slow and undepend-
able. ‘The gutta-percha insulation was much better than the
earlier type, and seemed to improve after submersion in the
cold water of the ocean. The testing-device almost miracu-
lously enabled the electricians to locate the approximate
position of a fault in the cable. The paying-out machinery
operated perfectly, but needed a steam-engine for pulling in
cable before it touched bottom. The grappling process had
worked hopefully and only needed better apparatus. The
Great Eastern had been steady and had kept under good con-
trol by the combination of paddle-wheels and propeller.
Buoys had been used successfully to mark the location of the
lost cable.

Confidence began to revive. ‘The directors of the Company
decided that not only should a new line be laid, but that the
old cable should be raised, spliced, and completed. This
would then give a double line to depend on.

The contractors made a new and liberal offer, by which
their profit would depend largely upon their success. Also
they agreed to subscribe heavily, if necessary, for the new
stock issue. It was finally decided to raise six hundred thous-
and pounds of new capital by issuing first-preferred, twelve-

132

THE CABLE IS LAID 133

percent stock. The former preferred stock would come next
for dividends at eight percent, and the common stock would
rate four percent dividends.

This seemed like a reasonable arrangement, and Field
sailed for America. In November, Captain James Anderson
of the Great Eastern wrote him that things were not going
well. “I am sorry you are not here,” he said. “Somehow no
one seems to push when you are absent.” Field wrote to
Saward, the secretary, that unless favorable news came, he
would return to England and help.

When he arrived in England on the day before Christmas,
1865, he learned that the Attorney General had just ruled
that the Company had no legal right to issue twelve-percent
preferred stock ranking over the older preferred stock. The
Company’s lawyers had advised the opposite, but now the
money already subscribed had to be returned and the work
of making the new cable stopped. It was not a merry Christ-
mas at all. This flattening out of the plans was typical of
what Field had to contend with on many occasions during the
long years of effort.

For advice, Field went to one of the cooperating owners
of the Great Eastern, Daniel Gooch (later made a baronet
for his cooperation). His advice was to organize a new com-
pany; several other associates concurred. After meetings of
the directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company and of the
‘Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Company, a new cor-
poration was formed under the name of the Anglo-American
Telegraph Company. The officials composing these com-
panies were largely the same, and the operations were linked
by contracts, which also included the American corporation,
the New York, Newfoundland & London Telegraph Com-
pany. Field was among the ten who subscribed ten thousand
pounds each; and the generous English capitalist, Thomas
Brassey, who had come to the rescue a year before, offered to
supply sixty thousand pounds if necessary. The six hundred

134 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

thousand pounds capital was raised in a fortnight, despite a
financial depression in England. The American firm of J. S.
Morgan & Company aided the effort. In Field’s old age, a
younger Morgan was to prove a good friend.

It was now March 1, and in the four spring months, sixteen
hundred miles of cable had to be made, to add to the eleven
hundred miles remaining from the year before. About two
thousand miles would be required for the new cable, and sev-
en hundred for completing the cable of 1865 if it could be
grappled for successfully. With improved equipment and
better skill in laying, there would be less slack and waste than
in the early attempts. The first cable of all, in 1857, had
been twenty-five hundred miles long when manufactured;
the early cable-laying had been done on rather a zigzag
course because of lack of skill in such difficult work.

The new cable was similar to the one of the year before,
except that the steel wires for sheathing were galvanized, to
protect against corrosion. ‘This dispensed with some of the
sticky preservative and added to the lightness and strength.
The shore-end section in Irish waters was made, this time,
in three weights: the first eight miles out from the coast was
especially heavy; then came eight miles of moderately heavy;
and finally fourteen miles of ordinary heavy. Altogether, this
totaled thirty miles of heavy section before the main cable was
spliced on. At the Newfoundland end, where there was less
shipping, only five miles of heavy shore cable was considered
necessary.

In accordance with the recommendations of the engineer-
ing advisers of the year before, a seventy-horsepower steam-
engine was added to the machinery, in order to pick up and
draw in cable. For grappling the old cable, a twenty-mile
length of wire rope was ordered; each of the forty-nine wires
of this rope was separately encased in manila hemp. Special
grapnels for dragging the ocean bottom were added; these
were essentially hooks with double heads.

THE CABLE IS LAID 135

Improvements had also been made in the electrical testing-
devices for discovering faults in the cable and its insulation.
The new plan was to test the cable in advance of laying more
continuously than previously, so as to prevent an injured sec-
tion from passing into the water before it could be stopped.
Even the lost cable of 1865 could now be tested along its
twelve-hundred-mile length in the depths of the ocean; it was
found in good condition.

Of these improved testing methods, Henry Field wrote in
exuberant phrases: “As when a master of the organ runs his
hands over the keys, and tells in an instant if it be in perfect
tune, so did these skillful manipulators, fingering at the end
of this mightier instrument, declare it to be in perfect tone,
ready to whisper its harmonies through the seas.” Although
a clergyman in a period when Darwin’s theories had made
science seem dangerous, Henry Field showed a sympathy for
new ideas. To him, the discoveries and conquests of natural
phenomena were gifts from God to the race of mankind.

The Great Eastern had been altered and scraped for the
new ordeal. Its propeller was now surrounded with an iron
cage, to keep the cable and ropes from getting caught, as had
been provided for the Niagara and Agamemnon. Henry Field
wrote of the cable-loading: ‘““The Great Eastern, that had done
her part so well before, again opened her sides, and the
mysterious cord was drawn into her vast, dark, silent womb,
from which it was to issue only into the darker and more silent
bosom of the deep.”

Arrived at the Irish terminus, the fleet laid the thirty miles
of shore cable—stiff and heavy to withstand anchors and
abrasions. ‘There was a business-like gravity about these
operations. The Illustrated London News said: “Speech-
making, hurrahing, congratulations, and vaunts of confi-
dence were, as it seemed, avoided as if on purpose. There was
something far more touching in the quiet and reverent solem-
nity of the spectators yesterday than in the slightly boisterous

136 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

joviality of the peasantry last year. . . . The old crones in
tattered garments who cowered, dudheen in mouth, their
gaudy colored shawls tightly drawn over head and under
the chin—the barefooted boys and girls, who by long prac-
tice walked over sharp and jagged rocks, which cut up boots
and shoes, with perfect impunity—the men at work winding
up and down the hazardous path—the patches of bright color
furnished by the red petticoats and cloaks—the ragged gar-
ments, only kept from falling to pieces by bits of string and
tape—the good old parish priest, who exercises mild and
gentle spiritual sway over the loving subjects of whom the
ever-popular Knight of Kerry is the temporal head, looking
on benignly from his car—the bright eyes, supple figures, and
innocent faces of the peasant lasses, and the earnestly hopeful
expression of all—made up a picture impossible to describe
with justice. Add to this, the startling abruptness with which
the tremendous cliffs stand flush out of the water, the alter-
nations of bright wild flowers and patches of verdure with
the most desolate barrenness, the mountain sheep indifferent-
ly cropping the short, sweet grass, and the undercurrent of
consciousness of the mighty interests at stake, and few scenes
will seem more important and interesting.”

This description of the Irish terminus of the cable, with its
typical peasants and wild scenery, reveals some of the roman-
tic features of Cyrus Field’s career. For a boy brought up in
a staid Massachusetts village, he had a faculty of projecting
himself into lively and stirring scenes. The Newfoundland
terminus was picturesque also, but in a still more primitive
way. Its coast had been settled by people very much like those
described in the London News article, but their descendants
had been living for a number of generations in a remote and
inhospitable region.

The telegraph fleet of 1866 was somewhat changed from
the year before. To accompany the Great Eastern, the British
Government was able to spare only one ship—the Terrible,

THE CABLE IS LAID 197

which had also served in 1865. The telegraph company had
chartered two other ships, the Albany and the Medway; the
latter carried several hundred miles of the old cable and a
short, heavy cable of ninety miles to go across the Gulf of St.
Lawrence between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Another
smaller ship served to lay the Irish shore end.

On board were some of the veterans of former expeditions.
“Blessings on their hearts of oak,” wrote Henry Field. The
chief engineer, Samuel Canning, was there, prepared to do
better grappling than a year before, with the aid of the im-
proved apparatus. Another veteran is best described by Henry
Field: ‘““That slight form yonder is Professor ‘Thomson of
Glasgow, a man who in his knowledge of the subtle element
to be brought into play, and the enthusiasm he brings to its
study, is the very genius of electrical science.’ Last but not
least, there was Cyrus Field himself—lean and hawk-like, the
dauntless crusader and persevering promoter. He had made
a trip to America in the spring but had returned. Unfortu-
nately the eloquent Dr. Russell, of the Times, was at the scene
of war in Germany; the secretary of the Anglo-American Com-
pany, John C. Deane, kept the official diary on board. Sir
Charles Bright, the capable engineer of the first cable, was
at this time a member of Parliament and busy in London, but
his partner, Latimer Clark, was at Valentia to represent the
firm as consulting engineers for the Anglo-American Com-
pany.

The fleet sailed on Friday, the thirteenth of July. Some of
the sailors thought that a few hours’ delay would do better
than starting on such a doubly unlucky day. It was pointed
out, however, that Columbus sailed from Spain on a Friday
and discovered the New World on a Friday. As a matter of
fact, this telegraph expedition reached land on the New-
foundland coast on a Friday just two weeks later.

The ocean end of the thirty-mile shore-cable had been
marked by a buoy. The fleet found this, despite the fog, and

138 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

hauled up the end from water six hundred feet deep. ‘‘Quick,
nimble hands,” wrote Henry Field, “tore off the covering
from some yards of the shore end of the main cable, till they
came to the core; then, swiftly unwinding the copper wires,
they laid them together, twining them as closely and carefully
as a silken braid. Thus stripped and bare this new-born child
of the sea was wrapped in swaddling-clothes, covered up with
many coatings of gutta percha, and hempen rope, and strong
iron wires, the whole bound round and round with heavy
bands, and the splicing was complete.” This was done in the
rain—another bad omen.

As soon as possible, messages were flashed to the telegraph-
house on the cliffs of Valentia. The electrical tests showed
that the entire two-thousand-mile length was in good condi-
tion. The Terrible steamed ahead to warn other vessels away;
the other two consorts were assigned one to each side. The
course chosen was thirty miles south of the cable of the year
before, to avoid any conflicts, especially when grappling later.

Cyrus Field felt confident of the new equipment and the
increased skill of the technicians. The speed and energy with
which the expedition had been organized had cheered him
ereatly, after all the delays and discouragements of the long
years before. As he afterward wrote: “It was only the first day
of March that the new company was formed . . . yet such
was the vigor and despatch that in five months from that day
the cable had been manufactured, shipped on the Great East-
ern, stretched across the Atlantic, and was sending messages,
literally swift as lightning, from continent to continent.”

So optimistic had Field felt in the spring of 1866, that he
gave a dinner at the Buckingham Palace Hotel on April 5.
At this Anglo-American rapprochement, he sat between the
American minister, Charles F. Adams, and the Ear] of Caith-
ness. The British newspapers, in reporting the dinner, re-
ferred to Field’s “inspired fervor’ and “certainty of success.”
His friend, John Bright, wrote him two cheering letters at

THE CABLE IS LAID 139

this time. One of them expresses Bright’s concern over Ameri-
can politics of the Reconstruction period—a consequence
of his real friendship for the Union and his humanitarian
ideals. ‘This letter is as follows:

Rochdale, March 26, ’66.

My dear Mr. Field,—I shall not be in London before the gth
April, and therefore shall not be able to dine with you on the
5th, which I much regret.

If you could come down here on your way to Liverpool, I
should be very glad to see you. I expect to be at home till the end
of the week.

I hope your telegraph labors have been successful, and that be-
fore the summer is over you will see your noble effort successful.

I am anxious about what is doing in Washington, but I have
lost faith in the President, and think Mr. Seward is allowing him-
self to be dragged into the mud of his Southern propensities. If
Grant continues firm with the Republican party, he may prevent
great mischief. The power of the President seems too great in an
emergency of this nature. His language shows that his temper is
not calm enough for dangerous times. In this he falls immeas-
urably below Mr. Lincoln.

But if I despair of the President, I shall have faith in the
people.

I wish you a pleasant voyage and a complete success in your
great undertaking.

Always sincerely your friend,
John Bright.

The other letter from Bright arranged for a meeting of the
two men in Liverpool. Although the Civil War was over and
the Northern cause had been vindicated, there was still a
severe strain in the relations between England and the United
States, particularly in regard to the claims under way from
Washington for damages over British naval interference dur-
ing the war. Field’s active friendship with influential English-
men was instrumental in averting outbursts of recrimination
and helped to bring the spirit of compromise that finally pre-
vailed. In Bright’s second letter, the “Mr. Dudley” referred

140 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

to was the artist of the cable expedition. The letter is as
follows:

Rochdale, March 28, ’66.

My dear Mr. Field,—I will try to come to Liverpool to meet you
on Friday, the 6th April, nothing unforeseen preventing.

I shall be glad to spend a quiet evening with you before you
sail. I shall be glad also to meet Mr. Dudley.

You seem, as usual, to be hard at work up to the last day of
your stay here.

Always truly your friend,
John Bright.

Now that Field was on the Great Eastern again, with the
cable being paid over the stern, he dismissed from his mind
the political entanglements of the two countries. The crisis of
his life’s work was at hand. After twelve years of unremitting
effort, the last great attempt to bridge the ocean was under
way. The combined technical skill of hundreds of picked
men—skill built up by years of specialized research—was en-
gaging the forces of nature in a final struggle for success. ‘The
lessons of the cable had been difficult to learn, but able men
had learned them.

On a calm sea the telegraph fleet steamed slowly along.
A speed of only five knots (about a hundred twenty miles a
day) was considered safest. To curb the powerful machinery
of the Great Eastern down to this rate, the propeller was
stopped and the paddle wheels reduced below their capacity.
The official record-keeper, Deane, explained that, since the
ship’s bottom had been cleaned, the capacity for speed was
greater; on the expedition of 1865 the bottom of the Great
Eastern had been “one incrusted mass of mussels.” Deane’s
Diary of the Expedition is not so thrilling as Russell’s book
of the year before but is a faithful account of a less eventful
trip.

So calm was the sea that, in the words of Deane, ‘‘the masts
of our convoy were reflected in the ocean, an unusual thing

THE CABLE IS LAID 141

to see. A large shoal of porpoises gambolled about us for half
an hour. A glorious sunset, and later, a crescent moon, which
we hope to see in the brightness of her full, lighting our way
into Trinity Bay before the days of this July shall have ended.”
The cable-laying went splendidly, and the old bogey of elec-
trical continuity gave not a particle of trouble.

After several days of halcyon conditions, a real shock broke
the spell. ‘he cable became snarled in itself as the coils
unwound from the drum. The ship was stopped immediately
and the paying out halted. In the words of Deane: “No fish-
ing line was entangled worse than the rope was when thrust
up in apparently hopeless knots from the eye of the coil to
the deck. There at least five hundred feet of rope lay in this
state, in the midst of thick rain and increasing wind.” Can-
ning was prepared to cut the cable and mark it with a buoy,
if necessary. Fortunately this was not necessary, and after
three anxious hours, the crisis was over.

This interference of the coils of cable, coming unexpectedly
at midnight, shows how difficult it was to guard against acci-
dents. Every precaution that could be thought of had been
taken, especially in view of the troubles of the year before,
when small needles of wire had been sufficient to spoil the
cable. The men who worked in the tank where the cable was
coiled had been clothed completely in canvas over-suits, and
in slippers instead of shoes with nails. The discipline and
cooperation were noteworthy. The artist, Dudley, made ex-
cellent sketches and paintings of the men at work under such
novel conditions.

So satisfactorily could messages be sent through the cable
that European news was transmitted freely to the ship. Those
on board followed closely the accounts of the fresh war that
was under way—the most momentous for Europe since Water-
loo. Bismarck was humbling Austria and consolidating the
Germanic states.

Messages received in mid-Atlantic reported that the Ital-

142 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

ians were advancing against the Austrians to regain Venice;
that the efficient Prussian army was marching triumphantly
through the mountains of Bohemia and approaching Vienna; _
and that the smaller German cities were capitulating to Bis-
marck’s iron will. Twice a day the news bulletins were posted
on deck and flashed to the other ships. Included also were
accounts of debates in Parliament and quotations from the
London stock exchange. ‘The rapid transmission of news of
world events had begun; a new era was opening for the news-
papers—the era of cables.

The telegraph fleet steamed slowly but successfully along,
with little trouble to report. The place in the ocean where
the cable of 1865 had broken was passed safely, and everything
was still operating well. Deane wrote under date of Sunday,
July 22, when nine days out: “Cable going out with unerring
smoothness, at the rate of six miles an hour. There has been
great improvement in the insulation. This remarkable im-
provement is attributable to the greatly decreased tempera-
ture of, and pressure on, the cable in the sea.” Expectations
were high; Cyrus Field dreamed of victory.

On the next day the deepest part of the route was passed
over without undue strains. Deane recorded: ‘Mr. Cyrus
Field sent a message to Valentia, requesting Mr. Glass to ob-
tain the latest news from Egypt, India, and China, and other
distant countries, so that on our arrival at Heart’s Content
we shall be able to transmit it to the principal cities of the
United States. In just eight minutes he had a reply in these
words, ‘Your message received and is in London by this.’ ”’

By Thursday, July 26, signs of land began to appear and
the water was much shallower. Birds were noticed. Henry
Field wrote: “They could almost snuff the smell of the land,
such as once greeted the sharp senses of Columbus.” The ar-
rival had been timed to coincide with a full moon to facilitate
night work, but the customary fogs lay over the Grand Banks.
Henry Field continued: ‘For the last two or three nights, as

THE CABLE IS LAID 143

the round orb rose behind them, banks of cloud hung so
heavily upon the water, that the moonlight only gleamed
faintly through the vaporous air, and the fleet seemed like
the phantom ships of the Ancient Mariner, drifting on
through fog and mist.”’ It was a weird effect, not uncommon
on the Grand Banks.

The British Admiralty had arranged that its ships stationed
on the Newfoundland coast should welcome the telegraph
fleet and give help in the unfamiliar waters. ‘The entrance
to Trinity Bay is notoriously foggy, and even in mid-summer
there are icebergs about. As a matter of fact, one was sighted
at this time, rising fifty feet above the water and with un-
known extent below. Despite the iceberg, the fog, and the
dangers of an unfamiliar coast, the officials on the telegraph
fleet were tense with joy and expectancy. They realized that
a great historical event was being enacted.

The British ships received the telegraph fleet with cheers.
At first the fog was too thick for much of a welcome—even
for safety. Deane wrote: “Here we are now ( 6a. m.), within
ten miles of Heart’s Content, and we can scarcely see more
than a ship’s length.” A couple of hours later the fog evapo-
rated, and there were revealed to the anxious mariners the
bleak shores of Trinity Bay; also the other ships, the pathway
of buoys, and a picturesque group of fishing-boats. ‘The fish-
ermen were astonished to see this enormous steamer in their
quiet haven.

On this Friday morning, July 27, 1866, a final message came
clearly over the cable from Ireland, just before it was cut for
starting work on the shore end. This message ended with the
news: ““Treaty of peace signed between Prussia and Austria.”
A new era in the world’s news service was assured. The crisis
had been passed successfully. The officers of the telegraph
fleet went in a body to the little church on shore to give
thanks.

Cyrus Field was on land as early as possible, in order to

144 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

telegraph to St. John’s to engage a ship to repair the short
cable between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, which had
been broken by an anchor. England knew all about the suc-
cess of the expedition. America as yet knew nothing. Even
the Newfoundlanders scarcely realized that a tremendous vic-
tory had been won. They were pleased at the excitement, but
somewhat phlegmatic as to its meaning.

Field had tried, months before, to persuade the New York,
Newfoundland & London Telegraph Company to repair its
cable across the Gulf of St. Lawrence and to put into good
condition its four-hundred-mile line across Newfoundland,
which was ten years old. But the directors hesitated to spend
money until the cable had been successfully laid. Their
hopes had been disappointed before, and they had become
cautious. They could scarcely be blamed for such an attitude.

Field’s impatience was now intense. The news of the cable-
laying had to be sent by boat to Nova Scotia; another vessel
was dispatched to fish up and splice the short cable. New York
did not receive the glad tidings until Sunday morning—two
days after the landing at Heart’s Content.

Field’s family, who were up the Hudson near Newburgh,
saw the river dayboat decorated with flags as they came from
church, and heard the glad news that “the cable has been
laid!” Telegrams from Field came to his wife and the press.
The telegram to Mrs. Field included the sentence, ‘““Now we
shall be a united family.” For twelve years the head of the
family had been going and coming under a strain—at times
ridiculed by associates. The family’s fortune had been linked
precariously with the success of this strange wire at the bot-
tom of the ocean. Now better days were coming!

When the reports of success had spread to the world, Field
began to receive messages of congratulation. One came from
San Francisco almost at the same instant as one from the
French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was in Egypt.
Of this coincidence, Henry Field wrote: “What a meeting

THE CABLE IS LAID 145

and mingling of voices was this, when a winged salutation fly-
ing over the tops of the Rocky Mountains, reached the same
ear with a message which had been whispered along the Medi-
terranean and under the Atlantic; when the farthest East
touched the farthest West—the most ancient of kingdoms
answering to the new-born empire of the Pacific.” To the
world of that period, the quick transmission of news under
the Atlantic was a marvelous phenomenon.

To indicate how sharp a change the new cable brought in
finance and business, it is only necessary to recall that before
this time, American commodities and securities were traded
on the British exchanges at prices unknown in the United
States until two weeks later. As London was then preeminent-
ly the world’s financial center, and Liverpool the great market
for cotton, there was always intense interest among American
investors and traders as to the quotations prevailing in Eng-
land. While still on the Great Eastern, Cyrus Field had cabled
to Ireland the following message: “‘Please send us Thursday
afternoon the price that day for cotton in Liverpool and the
London quotations for consols, United States five-twenty
bonds, Illinois Central and Erie Railroad shares, and also
bank rate of interest. ‘The above we shall send to New York
on our arrival, and I will obtain the latest news from the
States and send you in return.’ Thus did a momentous se-
quence begin.

It is clear that the laying of a successful cable between
Europe and America revolutionized international finance,
commerce, diplomacy, and news service. Cyrus Field and his
British collaborators showed that the continents could be
linked by a message-flashing device thousands of miles long
operating under the depths of the ocean. After this date, the
news of European capitals was known in America as quickly
as in the city of its origin. A new wonder had been worked
by man’s conquest of nature. Cyrus Field’s dream had come
true!

Chapter Eleven

GRAPPLING FOR THE SEA-SERPENT

‘THE NEW CABLE was only eighteen hundred fifty-two nautical
miles in length—nearly two hundred miles shorter than the
cable of 1858. This was due chiefly to the smaller proportion |
of slack in the new cable—only about eleven percent of the
whole. Such a reduction of waste had been attained by laying
in a straighter line and by better technique and skill. The
greatest satisfaction of the officials, however, was in the ease
and reliability with which messages could be sent between
Newfoundland and Ireland. There was none of the depress-
ing uncertainty and irregularity of the cable of 1858. The
technique of ‘Thomson, Varley, and others had solved these
problems.

Despite these pleasing evidences of success, Cyrus Field’s
restless energy impelled him to proceed with the rest of the
work as planned, even as congratulatory messages began to
shower upon him in Newfoundland. Said Henry Field:
“Though the Great Eastern was still lying in the little harbor
of Heart’s Content, casting her mighty shadow on its tranquil
waters, she was not ‘content’ with her amazing victory, but
sighed for another greater still. “Though she had done enough
to be laid up for a year, still she had one more test of her
prowess—to recover the cable of 1865, which had been lost
in the middle of the Atlantic.”

The cable was landed on July 27. Five days later, on Aug-
ust 1, two ships of the telegraph fleet, the Terrible and the
Albany, sailed for the place, six hundred miles out, where the
end of the cable of 1865 had slipped into the ocean. The
Great Eastern was detained at shore until August 9 to replen-

146

GRAPPLING FOR THE SEA-SERPENT 147

ish fuel supplies. To insure such a large supply of coal, six
ships had been sent from Wales, of which one foundered at
sea. Scarcely had the Great Eastern cast anchor off shore be-
fore these five coaling-vessels came alongside to transfer their
cargoes.

There was also transferred from the Medway to the larger
ship about six hundred miles of cable for splicing to the lost
cable. Equipped and ready for the “fishing” expedition, the
Great Eastern and the Medway set out from Trinity Bay, after
the Governor of Newfoundland, with an august party, had
come down from St. John’s to give his sanction to the affair.
Cyrus Field was on board, ready for cne more contest with
the elements.

On Sunday, August 12, the four ships were reunited on
the high seas. The Terrible and the Albany had located the
position of the lost cable by astronomical observations; the
buoys placed to mark the spot in 1865 had long since disap-
peared, from relentless buffeting by wind and wave. Some
careful planning was now necessary to fish up from a depth of
two and a half miles the end of a cable—little more than an
inch in diameter. It was no easy job, as the failures of the
year before had taught them.

A line of buoys, held by special anchors, was established to
mark the lost cable. Each buoy was numbered and surmount-
ed by a flag, visible except in a fog or at night. The key buoys
had also a lantern to mark them. All was now ready for the
“fishing.”

The Great Eastern dropped its huge grapnel at the end of
a rope composed of forty-nine wires, each encased separately
in hemp. Nearly two hours were required for it to reach bot-
tom. The grapnel was then dragged through the slimy ooze
and minute shells that covered the ocean bed, occasionally
striking what seemed to be rock or boulders. During this
process, Cyrus Field sometimes sat on the wire rope where

148 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

it went over the bow of the ship and could tell by its quiver
that it was dragging on the bottom more than two miles be-
neath him.

As had been the case a year before, it was not so difficult to
hook the deep-lying cable as it was to lift the long stretch up
to the steamer. On several occasions the cable was hooked and
raised nearly to the steamer but something interfered and it
fell back. On one attempt the slippery “sea-serpent’’ (as
Henry Field called it) had been brought above the water, so
that the crew gave a “hearty English cheer.” But after being
in sight for five minutes, it broke under the strain and, twist-
ing like a great eel, sank back to the bottom, to the disgust of
the frantic seamen who were trying to land it.

The look of this cable was peculiar. The official record-
keeper, Deane, wrote: “On the appearance of the cable, we
were all struck with the fact that one half of it was covered
with ooze, staining it a muddy white, while the other half
was in just the state in which it left the tank, with its tarred
surface and strands unchanged, which showed that it lay in
the sand only half embedded. The strain on the cable gave
it a twist, and it looked as if it had been painted spirally
black and white. This disposes of the oft-repeated assertion,
that we should not be able to pull it up from the bottom, be-
cause it would be embedded in ooze.”

Some days were too rough for progress, and strong winds
drove the ships off their course. They lost valuable portions
of the wire rope used for grappling; every delay was reducing
the short season available for work. Cyrus Field’s diary shows
that some days were too calm, when the sea was like glass. A
little wind was necessary to make the ship drift over the cable
for the hooking process. ‘Trial after trial was made under the
varied conditions as the days went by.

On one occasion the Albany went off on a trial of its own.
During the night, Cyrus Field was awakened by the firing of

SLYOOSH L.LIM ‘NYALSVA LVAD AHL

GRAPPLING FOR THE SEA-SERPENT 149

guns. The captain rushed in to say that the cable had been
recovered! As they hurried to the deck, they saw the Albany
coming toward them, with the crew cheering madly. But the
cheers were wasted. Next morning the recovered cable
proved to be only a fragment two or three miles long that had
broken off in previous grappling.

The crews were becoming worn out, and provisions and
coal were getting low. Many believed the quest to be hope-
less. ‘The Terrible, whose men were on half rations, finally
had to leave for St. John’s after a cruise of nearly four weeks.
The remaining three ships moved a hundred miles east to
try their fishing luck where the water was not so deep. It was
the last desperate resort.

It was the last day of August, and the sea was calm. Accord-
ing to the plans for cooperation, the three ships lined up over
the cable. The grapnel was lowered for the thirtieth trial.
About midnight the cable was hooked. For five hours the
long line was raised slowly, until it was about half way to
surface.

The increasing weight of the suspended cable now began
to get dangerous. To increase the favorable chances, the
Great Eastern stopped hauling in, buoyed the cable, and
moved westward three miles for a fresh grip. When this sec-
ond hold was obtained, the Medway grappled about two miles
farther west.

When the Medway had raised its part of the cable nearly to
surface, orders were given to heave it on board or break it in
the process. The cable broke. This lightened the weight and
gave an end to pull in. The Great Eastern now began to pull
in the loose end slowly and cautiously. This was the new
technique that had been worked out.

The cable had been hooked on Friday night. It was now
Sunday morning, September g. As the slippery eel approached
the surface, the crews were hushed. ‘Two men were lowered

150 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

by ropes over the high bow of the Great Eastern. As soon as
they saw the slime-covered line that had given so much
trouble, they seized it firmly and fastened it with ropes.

“When once it was made fast, all took a long breath,” wrote
Henry Field. “The cable was recovered. They had the sea-
serpent at last. There the monster lay, its neck firmly in
their gripe, and its black head lying on the deck. But even
then there was no cheering. . . . Men are sometimes stunned
by a sudden success, and hardly know if it be not all a dream.
. . . Yes—it was the same that they paid out into the sea thir-
teen months before.”

‘The great question now was whether signals could be sent
through this cable to Ireland. If a sharp rock or a pin point
had injured it, the transmission might be spoiled. The cable
was hauled in to the testing-room, “where the chief electri-
clan was to operate upon it, to see whether it was alive or
dead,” as Henry Field said. ‘There was an hour’s preparation.

The artist of the expedition, Robert Dudley, whose draw-
ings later appeared in the Illustrated London News, described
this scene: “And now, in their mysterious, darkened haunt,
the wizards are ready to work their spells upon the tamed
lightning. . . . Professor Thomson, be sure, is here, a worthy
‘Wizard of the North’; Cyrus Field could no more be absent
than the cable itself. . . . The core of the cable is stripped
and the heart itself—the conducting wire—fixed in the instru-
ment. . . . The ticking of the chronometer becomes monot-
onous. Nearly a quarter of an hour has passed, and still no
sign! Suddenly Willoughby Smith’s hat is off, and the British
hurrah bursts from his lips, echoed by all on board with a
volley of cheers.” The Irish station had replied; the cable
worked.

The conditions at the Irish end in Valentia were described
in the Spectator of London: “Night and day, for a whole year,
an electrician has always been on duty, watching the tiny ray
of light through which signals are given, and twice every day

GRAPPLING FOR THE SEA-SERPENT 151

the whole length of wire—one thousand two hundred and
forty miles—has been tested for conductivity and insulation.
. . . The object of observing the ray of light was of course
not any expectation of a message, but simply to keep an accu-
rate record of the condition of the wire. Sometimes, indeed,
wild, incoherent messages from the deep did come, but these
were merely the results of magnetic storms and earth-currents,
which deflected the galvanometer rapidly, and spelt the most
extraordinary words, and sometimes even sentences of non-
sense. Suddenly, last Sunday morning, at a quarter to six
o'clock, while the light was being watched by Mr. Crocker,
he observed a peculiar indication about it. . . . The unsteady
flickering was changed to coherency, and at once the cable
began to speak, to transmit the appointed signals which in-
dicated human purpose and method instead of the inarticu-
late cries of the illiterate Atlantic—the delirious mutterings of
the sea. . . . The words ‘Canning to Glass’ must have seemed
like the first rational words uttered by a high-fevered patient,
when the ravings have ceased and his consciousness returns.’

The message that came was: “Canning to Glass. I have
much pleasure in speaking to you through the 1865 cable.
Just going to make splice.”

Cyrus Field in a speech made in London months later de-
scribed his anxiety as he awaited the electrician’s test on the
Great Eastern in mid-ocean. “Never shall I forget that event-
ful moment,” he said, “when in answer to our question to
Valentia, whether the cable of 1866, which we had a few
weeks previously laid, was in good working order, and the
cable across the Gulf of St. Lawrence had been repaired, in
an instant came back those six memorable letters, ‘Both O. K.’
I left the room, I went to my cabin, I locked the door; I could
no longer restrain my tears.”

As soon as those on the telegraph fleet were assured that
everything was satisfactory, they prepared to depart. The Al-
bany picked up the buoys and headed for England. The

152 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

Great Eastern and Medway still had work to do in laying the
rest of the 1865 cable to Newfoundland.

A storm was now blowing up, and the waves were soon
rising high. ‘The splice had been made, and the crew carefully
paid out the patched cable. Cyrus Field sought shelter from
the storm in the electrician’s room. As he sat there, wonder-
ing how his family were, a message came that had been sent
from New York to Ireland by the 1866 cable and then re-
layed by the 1865, cable to the ship. The message said that his
family were well and praying for his safe return. This was
striking proof of the efficacy of his work—a demonstration in
point.

Except for this storm, no serious trouble was met in laying
the nearly seven hundred miles of cable until they were al-
most at Heart’s Content. Then, just after receiving a sum-
mary of European news from the Times of September 8, a
fault showed up in the cable. It was found to be on the ship.
The end of a broken wire had been accidentally bent into
the core. The injured portion was cut out, and a splice made.

On that same day the Medway laid the shore end, and by
evening a second cable spanned the Atlantic. Its length was
about nineteen hundred nautical miles—a little more than
the 1866 cable, but less than the 1858 cable. The technique
of cable-laying was now understood. There was cause for
pride and elation.

Never did the obscure settlement at Heart’s Content wit-
ness such a scene as when the telegraph fleet returned to its
quiet waters on Saturday, September 8, 1866. Word had been
received, of course, by way of Ireland of the successful raising
of the old cable on the Sunday before. As the fleet came up
the bay, innumerable small vessels gave it a rousing welcome.
The shore end of the cable was seized and fastened by willing
hands. Field and Canning were hoisted up and cheered tu-
multuously by a crowd of admirers. The straggling little fish-

GRAPPLING FOR THE SEA-SERPENT 153

ing hamlet had its day of triumph. Undoubtedly these unus-
ual scenes are still discussed there.

The work of the Great Eastern was finished. After years of
idleness and failure, it had finally written its name high in the
annals of the sea. A double victory had been won, and a re-
markable lesson in deep-water grappling taught the world. It
was time now to return to England. The fight was over, and
the victors were to separate.

Cyrus Field parted with regret from his brave comrades of
the high seas—many of them veterans of his various expedi-
tions. With deep emotion he shook hands and said goodbye.
Seafaring men do not often take such a liking to a financial
promoter as to this friendly Yankee of the aquiline nose and
bushy whiskers. When he went over the side of the ship, Cap-
tain Anderson shouted: “‘Give him three cheers!’ They were
given with sincerity and were still ringing in his ears as he
watched the great ship depart. He was due back in the United
States, where his family awaited him.

In a speech several weeks later, Field said: ‘It has been a
long, hard struggle. Nearly thirteen years of anxious watch-
ing and ceaseless toil. Often my heart has been ready to sink.
Many times, when wandering in the forests of Newfoundland,
in the pelting rain, or on the decks of ships, on dark stormy
nights—alone, far from home—I have almost accused myself
of madness and folly to sacrifice the peace of my family, and
all the hopes of life, for what might prove after all but a
dream.”

Most of Field’s personal fortune had gone into telegraph
stock, in order to uphold America’s quota in good faith with
the British investors. At times he was in dire financial straits,
especially during the recurring periods of tight money in the
United States. His daughter, Isabella Field Judson, stated
that outsiders did not realize to what extremes his family were
forced at critical periods. “Not a luxury was allowed,” she

154 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

wrote, “and during those twelve years any wish that might be
expressed could only be gratified ‘when the cable is laid.’
All waited for that day, but not always patiently, for one or
another was often heard to exclaim, ‘Oh, if that old cable was
only at the bottom of the ocean!’ and to this he would in-
variably answer, “That is just where I wish it to be.’ ”
Eighteen months later in London, Field told of the seesaw
vicissitudes of his telegraph stock. He said: “It is within the
last six months only that we have received the first return from
the money we had put at the bottom of the Atlantic. I do not
believe that any enterprise has ever been undertaken that has
had such fortune: that has been so low, and, one might almost
say, so high. I have known the time when a thousand pounds
of Atlantic telegraph stock sold in London at a high premium.
I have known the time when a thousand pounds of the same
stock was purchased by my worthy friend, the Right Honor-
able Mr. Wortley, for thirty guineas. At one time when I
was in London trying to raise money to carry forward this
great enterprise, a certificate for ten thousand dollars in the
New York, Newfoundland, & London Telegraph Company
sold at the Merchants’ Exchange in New York by public auc-
tion for a ten-dollar bill. On my return home the gentleman
handed the certificate to me and asked me if it was worth
anything. I said to him, ‘My dear sir, what did you pay for
it?’ and to my mortification he showed to me the auctioneer’s
bill for ten dollars. I said to him, ‘I shall be happy to pay
you a good profit on your investment.’ He replied, ‘No; what
do you advise me to do with it?’ I rejoined, “Lock it up in
your safe. Do not even think about or look at it until you
receive a notice to collect your dividends.’ The holder now
receives a dividend of eight hundred dollars per annum in
gold for his investment. If any gentleman here has ever pos-
sessed a more fluctuating investment I should like to hear it.”
Field’s personal investment (or speculation) in telegraph
stock was more than a third of a million dollars. This in-

GRAPPLING FOR THE SEA-SERPENT 155

creased to about two million dollars when the Company be-
gan operations and cablegrams became popular. At the com-
pletion of the two cables, Field was forty-seven years old and
had a wife, four daughters and two sons. Besides his family,
he was always generous to other relatives and friends, so that
he had plenty of use for his income.

Field’s strength and weakness lay in his liberality and op-
timism. He persuaded men to follow his plans by his frank-
ness and open-hearted fairness. There is no doubt that he
took enormous chances in risking his family’s nest-egg in an
adventure on the high seas—a closely-fought contest with the
forces of nature. He had no assurance that a cable really
could be laid; or that, once laid, it could be operated profit-
ably. Neither his upbringing as a minister’s son in an in-
land village nor his training as a merchant had prepared him
for a career as international promoter of a great maritime
speculation. His knowledge of engineering and electricity was
slight, yet time and again he supplied just the factors needed
to bring the difficult project to success.

When the two cables had been successfully laid and their
operation was begun, care was taken not to ruin them by too
high a charge of electricity, as had been the case in 1858. The
copper wires in the core were nearly three times as large as
those of 1858. Nevertheless, in the opening messages a speed
of only eight words a minute was attempted. As the operators
became more experienced, this rate was increased to fifteen or
more words a minute. The self-induction of electricity in a
long cable tends to slow down the transmission of messages;
this was a serious problem at first.

Despite all the care expended, both of these cables broke
down a few months later, but they were revived successfully.
One was out of order again in the following year. The engi-
neering firm of Bright & Clark advised about these troubles.
Neither cable lasted many years in operation, but by the time
they gave out, others had been laid and still greater progress

156 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

made in manufacturing and operating them. Two rocky
ridges on the ocean bed wore out several cables.

An interesting experiment was conducted by the British
engineer, Latimer Clark at Valentia after the technique had
been perfected. He requested that the Newfoundland elec-
tricians join together their ends of the two cables, so that a
current could pass from one to the other. This made a total
length of continuous cable of over thirty-seven hundred miles.
Clark then borrowed a small silver thimble from the daughter
of the Knight of Kerry—one of the Fitzgeralds. Into the
thimble he placed a little sulphuric acid and a tiny fragment
of zinc. The silver, zinc, and acid constituted a miniature
battery, and with the charge of electricity so generated, he
sent signals back and forth across the Atlantic in little more
than a second of time. That is, the signals went from Ireland
to Newfoundland and back while the watch ticked twice. ‘The
signals that came racing back from this weak charge were suf-
ficient to deflect the ray of light from Thomson’s sensitive
galvanometer at least twelve inches.

This experiment shows how wrong the electricians of 1858
were when they assumed that a large voltage of electricity
was necessary to force signals across two thousand miles of
ocean. As Henry Field said, “God was not in the whirlwind,
but in the still, small voice. . . . It seemed as if the deep
were a vast whispering gallery, and that a gentle voice, mur-
mured in the ocean caves, like a whisper in a seashell, might
be caught, so wonderful are the harmonies of nature, by lis-
tening ears on remote continents.” It must be added, how- .
ever, that this striking demonstration by Clark was only pos-
sible when the insulation was of the superior type used in
1866; the cable of 1858 was not so well insulated even before
the high voltages ruined it. An ocean cable tends to leak
electricity, because salt water is an excellent conductor and
would dissipate the current if there were no insulation.

Another disturbing factor in any long cable is the difference

GRAPPLING FOR THE SEA-SERPENT 157

of electric potential existing between stations widely separat-
ed on the earth’s crust; this engenders irregular earth currents
in the cable. Varley overcame this difficulty by an ingenious
device. Such problems had never been anticipated by the
early promoters of the cable.

Many improvements by the cable companies have been
made in recent years. A modern permalloy cable, containing
a single copper wire, uses only twenty-five milliamperes of cur-
rent. ‘This is one twenty-five-thousandth of the amount neces-
sary to ring a doorbell. An ocean cable is now laid in a furrow
plowed in the ocean bed by a deep-sea plow. Thus it is pro-
tected against icebergs, anchors, and fishing tackle. Earth-
quakes, however, still snap cables occasionally. A modern
cable costs about $2000 a mile to manufacture; the upkeep
for repairs and maintenance is also high.

Chapter Twelve

HONORS AND REWARDS

WHEN THE Great Eastern arrived in England and the public
became convinced that British seamanship had achieved a
splendid victory, a surge of pride went through the nation.
They realized what enormous advantages the submarine trans-
mission of telegrams meant to their far-flung empire. Queen
Victoria, who was in Scotland, directed her Prime Minister,
the Earl of Derby, to confer knighthood on Captain Ander-
son, Professor ‘Thomson, Canning, and Glass; and baronetcies
on Lampson and Gooch of the Company’s officials. She par-
ticularly mentioned her regret at not being able to honor
Cyrus Field because of his American citizenship. On a pre-
vious occasion the Queen had offered a baronetcy to the
American banker, George Peabody, in recognition of his
philanthropy among the poor of London, but he had declined
it. Royal favors are not often refused.

Lord Derby’s letter stating the Queen’s wishes about these
honors was addressed to Sir Stafford Northcote, the chairman,
at a dinner to honor the British heroes of the cable-laying.
Sir Stafford was president of the Board of Trade; he later be-
came the Earl of Iddesleigh. ‘The letter was in part as follows:

Balmoral, Saturday, September 29, 1866.

Dear Sir Stafford: As I understand you are to have the honor
of taking the chair at the entertainment which is to be given on
Monday next, in Liverpool, to celebrate the double success which
has attended the great undertaking . . . Her Majesty has accord-
ingly been pleased to direct that the honor of knighthood should
be conferred upon Captain Anderson, the able and zealous com-
mander of the Great Eastern; Professor ‘Thomson, whose distin-
guished science has been brought to bear with eminent success
upon the improvement of submarine telegraphy; and on Messrs.

158

HONORS AND REWARDS 159

Glass and Canning, the manager and engineer respectively of the
Telegraph Maintenance Company, whose skill and experience
have mainly contributed to the admirable construction and lay-
ing of the cable. Her Majesty is further pleased to mark her ap-
proval of the public spirit and energy of the two companies who
have had successively the conduct of the undertaking, by offering
the dignity of a baronetcy of the United Kingdom to Mr. Lamp-
son, the Deputy Chairman of the original company, to whose
resolute support of the project in spite of all discouragements it
was in a great measure owing that it was not at one time aban-
doned in despair; and to Mr. Gooch, M. P., the Chairman of the
company which has finally completed the design. If among the
names thus submitted to and approved by Her Majesty, that of
Mr. Cyrus Field does not appear, the omission must not be attrib-
uted to any disregard of the eminent services which, from the
first, he has rendered to the cause of transatlantic telegraphy, and
the zeal and resolution with which he has adhered to the prosecu-
tion of his object, but to an apprehension lest it might appear to
encroach on the province of his own Government, if Her Majesty
were advised to offer a citizen of the United States, for a service
rendered alike to both countries, British marks of honor, which,
following the example of another highly distinguished citizen, he
might feel himself unable to accept.”

There have been claims that the British did practically all
the work in laying the first cables. Something of the contem-
porary feeling on the subject may be understood by noting the
remarks at this dinner in Liverpool. There was a disposition
to make Sir Charles Bright the hero of the occasion. Bright
had been the chief engineer of the expeditions of 1857 and
1858, although a very young man at the time. Later he had
become a member of Parliament and a man of affairs. ‘The
firm of Bright & Clark had acted also as consulting engineers
to the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, but Bright had
not been active in this later work. The English like to honor
an “old timer” who has survived the early jealousies.

At the dinner in Liverpool, there were many titled and
political dignitaries. "The chairman proposed toasts to Her
Majesty the Queen, the President of the United States, and

160 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

the Prince of Wales. Then he proposed a toast to “the origin-
al projectors” of the Atlantic telegraph—Sir Charles Bright
and Cyrus Field, John W. Brett having died. Quoting the
Times: “He begged to couple with the toast the name of Sir
Charles Bright, as, perhaps, the foremost representative from
all points of view up to the present time (applause). The
greatest honor is due to the indomitable perseverance and
energy of Sir Charles Bright that the original cable was suc-
cessfully laid, though, through no fault of his, it had but a
short useful existence (great cheering).”

The Times account continued: ‘Sir Charles Bright, M. P.,
after acknowledging the compliment paid to the ‘original
projectors’ and to himself personally, said that the idea of lay-
ing a cable across the Atlantic was the natural outcome of the
success which was attained in carrying short lines under the
English and Irish Channels, and was a common subject of
discussion among those concerned in telegraph extension
prior to the formation of the Atlantic ‘Telegraph Company.

“About ten years ago the science had sufficiently advanced
to permit of the notion assuming a practical form. Soundings
taken in the Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland
proved that the bottom was soft, and that no serious currents
or abrading agencies existed, for the minute and fragile shells
brought up by the sounding-line were perfect and uninjured.

“There only remained the proof that electricity could be
employed through so vast a length of conductor. Upon this
point and the best mode of working such a line, he had been
experimenting for several years. He had carried on a series of
investigations which resulted in establishing the fact that mes-
sages could be practically passed through an unbroken circuit
of more than two thousand miles of insulated wire, a notion
derided at that time by many distinguished authorities. Mr.
Wildman Whitehouse, who subsequently became electrician
to the company, had been likewise engaged. On comparing
notes later, it was discovered that they had arrived at similar -

HONORS AND REWARDS 161

results, though holding somewhat different views, for his (Sir
C. Bright’s) calculations, using other instruments, led him to
believe that a conductor nearly four times the size of that
adopted would be desirable with a slightly thicker insulator.
It was this type which the new cables just laid had been fur-
nished with.

“In 1856, Mr. Cyrus Field—to whom the world was as much
indebted for the establishment of the line as to any man—
came over to England upon the completion of the telegraph
between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. He then joined
with the late Mr. Brett and himself (Sir C. Bright) with the
view of extending the system to Europe, and they mutually
agreed, as also did Mr. Whitehouse later, to carry out the
undertaking. A meeting was first held in Liverpool, and in
the course of a few days their friends had subscribed the neces-
sary capital... .

“The credit attached to these second and third Atlantic
cables must mainly rest with the Telegraph Construction
Company (formerly Messrs. Glass, Elliott & Company) and
their staff. . . . To Mr. Glass, upon whom the principal re-
sponsibility of the manufacture devolved, the greatest praise
was due for his indomitable perseverance in the enterprise.
Then the art of insulating the conducting-wire had been so
wonderfully improved by Mr. Chatterton and Mr. Willough-
by Smith, that, nowadays, a very feeble current was sufficient
to work the longest circuits, an enormous advance on the
state of affairs nine years previously. Again, they must not
forget how much of the success now attained was due to Pro-
fessor ‘Thomson and his delicate signaling-apparatus. .. .

“Tt was satisfactory to find that the cables were already be-
ing worked at a very large profit. ‘This system would doubt-
less be quadrupled within a short period, when the land-lines
on the American side were improved (hear, hear, and ap-
plause). . . . There was a future for submarine telegraphy to
which scarcely any bounds could be imagined.”

162 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

In view of the attitude of some of the British to minimize
Field’s part in the achievement, it was natural that expressions
of respect from those qualified to know the whole story pleased
him most. Sir William Thomson (later to be Lord Kelvin)
wrote him from Scotland: “I am sorry I had not an opportu-
nity of saying in public how much I value your energy and
perseverance in carrying through the great enterprise, and
how clearly you stand out in its history as its originator and
its mainspring from beginning to end.” Dr. W. H. Russell,
the famous correspondent of the Times, had said in his book
about the expedition which he accompanied: “Mr. Field may
be likened either to the core, or the external protection, of
the cable itself. At times he has been its active life; again he
has been its iron-bound guardian.”

From the great French engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps,
who built the Suez canal came a cablegram saying: “‘Feélicita-
tions pour persévérance et grand succés.’’ Captain Anderson
wrote a long letter from the Great Eastern to Mrs. Field, in
which he said: “Mr. Field, at least, never gave out. He never
ceased to say, ‘It would all come right,’ even when his looks
hardly bore out the assertion. But at last it did.”

Sir Charles Wheatstone, the veteran authority on electri-
city, was asked by the Secretary of the Privy Council, prior to
the conferring of the Queen’s honors, to assist the Govern-
ment by naming the persons most deserving of reward in the
work. He named Field, Glass, Canning, Anderson, and Thom-
son. The paragraph about Field spoke of his “indomitable
perseverance.” It said further: “Through good and through
evil report he has pursued his single object undaunted by re-
peated failures, keeping up the flagging interest of the public
and the desponding hopes of capitalists, and employing his
energies to combine all the means which might lead toward
a successful issue.”’

Gladstone, who was soon to be England’s prime minister,
wrote Field shortly after the landing of the cable. His letter

HONORS AND REWARDS 163

also expressed praise for the American Government’s financial
program, about which subject his own experience had made
him an able judge. The letter is as follows:

11 Carlton House Terrace, S. W.,
August 28, ’66.

My dear Sir,—The message which you did me the honor to send
me from Newfoundland at the commencement of this month,
embodying in part the contents of a speech delivered by me in the
House of Commons a few hours before, was a signal illustration
of the great triumph which energy and intelligence in your per-
son, and in those of your coadjutors, have achieved over difficul-
ties that might well have been deemed insurmountable by
weaker men. I offer you my cordial congratulations, and I trust
that the electric line may powerfully contribute to binding our
two countries together in perfect harmony.

The message reached me among friends interested in America
and produced a very lively sensation.

We live in times of great events. Europe has not often of late
seen greater than those of the present year, which apparently go
far to complete the glorious work of the reconstruction of Italy,
and which seem in substance both to begin and complete an-
other hardly less needed work in the reconstruction of Germany.
But I must say that few political phenomena have ever struck me
more than the recent conduct of American finance. I admire be-
yond expression the courage which has carried through the three-
fold operation of cutting down in earnest your war establish-
ments, maintaining for the time your war taxes, and paying off
in your first year of peace twenty-five millions sterling of your
debt. There are nations that could lay an electric telegraph under
the Atlantic and yet could not do this. I wish my humble con-
gratulations might be conveyed to your finance minister. ‘This
scale can hardly be kept up, but I do not doubt the future will be
worthy of the past, and I hope he will shame us and the Conti-
nent into at least a distant and humble imitation.

I remain very faithfully yours,
W. E. Gladstone.
Cyrus W. Field, Esq.

A letter from John Bright to Field exhibited almost too
much enthusiasm. This great liberal statesman said in part:

164 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

“The world as yet does not know how much it owes to you,
and this generation will never know it. I regard what has
been done as the most marvellous thing in human history.
I think it more marvellous than the invention of printing,
or, I am almost ready to say, than the voyage of the Genoese.”
This letter, written a few days after the Congressional elec-
tion of 1866, concluded: ‘“‘Your elections have turned out
well. I hope you will yet be ‘reconstructed’ on sound prin-
ciples, and not on the unhappy doctrines of the President.”
Apparently the courageous character of Andrew Johnson was
not yet appreciated in England.

A few weeks before this, Bright had said in a speech at
Leeds: ‘Tomorrow is the greatest day in the United States,
when perhaps millions of men will go to the polls, and they
will give their votes on the great question whether justice
shall or shall not be done to the liberated African. ... A
friend of mine, Cyrus Field of New York, is the Columbus
of our time, for after no less than forty passages across the
Atlantic in pursuit of the great aim of his life, he has at length
by his cable moved the New World close alongside the Old.
. .. The English nations are brought together, and they
must march on together.”

In America, Field was once again the man of the hour, the
hero of eulogistic celebrations, the man who everybody “knew
would win.” A dinner was given in his honor by his old asso-
ciates in the New York, Newfoundland & London Telegraph
Company. The chairman of the Company, the well-beloved
Peter Cooper, spoke of the Company’s origin twelve years
before.

He said in part: “We as little dreamed of the difficulties at
that time that we were destined to encounter as did the Jews
of old dream of the difficulties that they were doomed to meet
in their passage to the promised land. We, like the Jews of
old, saw the green hills afar off, and, like them, we had but a
faint idea of the bare spots, the tangled thickets, and rugged

HONORS AND REWARDS 165

cliffs over and through which we have been compelled to pass
in order to gain possession of our land of promise. We have,
however, been more fortunate than the Jews of old; we have
had a Moses who was able to lead on his associates, and when
he found them cast down and discouraged, he did not call
manna from heaven nor smite the rock, but just got us to
look through his telescope at the pleasant fields that lay so
temptingly in the distance before us, and in that way he was
able to inspirit his associates with courage to go on until,
with the help of the Great Eastern, and the means and in-
fluence of the noble band of men that Mr. Field has been
able to enlist in the mother country, we have at last accom-
plished a work that is now the wonder of the world... . I
trust our united efforts will hasten the glorious time when
nations will have war no more; when they will beat their
swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-
hooks.”

The Chamber of Commerce of New York arranged a ban-
quet at which Field was toasted as “the projector and main-
spring of the Atlantic telegraph . . . his fame belongs to us,
and will be cherished and guarded by his countrymen.” ‘The
members had requested him in advance that “they may hear
from your lips the story of this great undertaking.” Field
spoke frankly and vividly of the vicissitudes of the long effort,
and in particular of the great grappling expedition when “a
slimy monster fresh from the ooze of the ocean bed” was
snared and dragged on board after many heart-breaking fail-
ules; then tested for electrical response while the crew held its
breath. As a sufferer from seasickness, he emphasized the dis-
advantages under which they often labored from storms,
rough seas, and fogs. He made clear also the human element
in the long vigils, the bitter disappointments, and the hard
road to an understanding of the technical problems. Such a
talk showed Field at his best—courageous, modest, and in-
formal, a combination of New England background enlivened

166 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

by New York humanness and polished by international con-
tacts. It made clear to his auditor the qualities of the man
who had proved equal to a great task.

He said in part: “It was the worst weather I ever knew at
that season of the year. In the dispatch which appeared in
the New York papers you may have read, “The weather has
been most pleasant.’ I wrote it ‘unpleasant.’ We had fogs and
storms almost the whole way. Our success was the result of
the highest science combined with practical experience. Ev-
erything was perfectly organized to the minutest detail... .
Captain Moriarty had, with Captain Anderson, taken most ex-
act observations at the spot where the cable broke in 1865,
and these were so exact that they could go right to the spot.
After finding it, they marked the line of the cable by a row
of buoys, for fogs would come down and shut out sun and
stars, so that no man could take an observation. These buoys
were anchored a few miles apart. ‘They were numbered, and
each had a flagstaff on it, so that it could be seen by day, and
a lantern by night. Thus having taken our bearings, we stood
off three or four miles, so as to come broadside on, and then
casting over the grapnel, drifted slowly down upon it, drag-
ging the bottom of the ocean as we went. At first it was a little
awkward to fish in such deep water, but our men got used to
it, and soon could cast a grapnel almost as straight as an old
whaler throws a harpoon. Our fishing line was of formidable
size. It was made of rope, twisted with wires of steel, so as to
bear a strain of thirty tons. It took about two hours for the
grapnel to reach bottom, but we could tell when it struck. I
often went to the bow and sat on the rope, and could feel by
the quiver that the grapnel was dragging on the bottom two
miles under us. But it was a very slow business. We had storms
and calms and fogs and squalls. Still we worked on day after
day. Once, on the 17th of August, we got the cable up, and had
it in full sight for five minutes—a long slimy monster, fresh
from the ooze of the ocean’s bed—but our men began to cheer

HONORS AND REWARDS 167

so wildly that it seemed to be frightened, and suddenly broke
away and went down into the sea.

“This accident kept us at work two weeks longer; but final-
ly, on the last night of August, we caught it. We had cast the
grapnel thirty times. It was a little before midnight on Friday
night that we hooked the cable, and it was a little after mid-
night Sunday morning that we got it on board. What was the
the anxiety of those twenty-six hours? The strain on every
man’s life was like the strain on the cable itself. When final-
ly it appeared it was midnight; the lights of the ship, and in
the boats around our bows, as they flashed in the faces of the
men, showed them eagerly watching for the cable to appear on
the water. At length it was brought to the surface. All who
were allowed to approach crowded forward to see it; yet
not a word was spoken; only the voices of the officers in com-
mand were heard giving orders. All felt as if life and death
hung on the issue. It was only when it was brought over the
bow and on to the deck that men dared to breathe. Even
then they hardly believed their eyes. Some crept towards it
to feel of it—to be sure it was there. Then we carried it along
to the electrician’s room to see if our long-sought treasure
was alive or dead. A few minutes of suspense and a flash told
of the lightning current again set free. Then did the feeling,
long pent up, burst forth. Some turned away their heads and
wept. Others broke into cheers, and the cry ran from man
to man and was heard down in the engine-rooms, deck below
deck, and from the boats on the water and the other ships,
while rockets lighted up the darkness of the sea. Then with
thankful hearts we turned our faces again to the west. But
soon the wind arose, and for thirty-six hours we were exposed
to all the dangers of a storm on the Atlantic. Yet in the very
height and fury of the gale, as I sat in the electrician’s room,
a flash of light came up from the deep which, having crossed
to Ireland, came back to me in mid-ocean telling that those
so dear to me were well.

168 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

“When the first cable was laid in 1858 electricians thought
that to send a current two thousand miles it must be almost
like a stroke of lightning. But God was not in the earthquake,
but in the still, small voice. The other day Mr. Latimer Clark
telegraphed from Ireland across the ocean and back again
with a battery formed in a lady’s thimble! And now Mr. Col-
lett writes me from Heart’s Content: ‘I have just sent my
compliments to Dr. Gould, of Cambridge, who is at Valentia,
with a battery composed of a gun cap, with a strip of zinc,
excited by a drop of water, the simple bulk of a tear!’”

Among the guests at this banquet was General George G.
Meade, who was loudly acclaimed as “the hero of Gettysburg, ”
to which he answered that there was but one hero on this oc-
casion and that he, the General, had traveled a hundred miles
to pay him honor, after watching anxiously Field’s hard strug-
gles and disasters. ‘““The heartiness of this soldierly reply,”
wrote Henry Field, ‘‘was echoed by the bluff old warrior,
Admiral Farragut, who had been so often through the smoke
and flame of battle, that he knew how to appreciate not only
common courage, but the desperate tenacity that holds on in
spite of disaster.” Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase sent his con-
gratulations from Washington “‘to Mr. Field upon the success
of his grand undertaking—the most wonderful achievement
of civilization.’’ Secretary of State Seward, General Grant,
President Johnson, and many other dignitaries sent eulogistic
messages.

The Common Council of New York passed resolutions at
this time couched in the pompous language of the period con-
eratulating Field on “the success attending his unexampled
perseverance in the face of almost insuperable difficulties, and
his fortitude and faith in the successful termination of the
herculean labor to which he has devoted his rare business
capacity, his indomitable will, and his undaunted courage for
a series of years—that of uniting the two hemispheres by teleg-
raphy.” This formidable array of words was merely part of

HONORS AND REWARDS 169

the ‘‘whereas” paragraph. There were also two “resolved”
paragraphs. A “copy of the foregoing preamble and resolu-
tion,” properly engrossed and duly authenticated was “pre-
sented to Cyrus W. Field, Esq. as a slight evidence of the ap-
preciation by the people of this city of the service he has ren-
dered in uniting the old and new worlds in the electric bonds
of fraternity and peace.” Obviously these city fathers were
more enthusiastic in words after the event than they had been
in subscriptions to Field’s pleas before the event. Such is
fame, and such is human nature!

Harper's Magazine of October, 1866, spoke glowingly of
this “‘great historical event” and predicted: ‘““The name which
will be always associated with this historical event is that of
the man who has so patiently and unweariedly persisted in
the project, Cyrus W. Field. With an undaunted cheerfulness,
which often seemed exasperating and unreasonable and fanat-
ical, he has steadily and zealously persevered, no more dis-
mayed or baffled by apparent failure than a good ship by a
head wind.” This sentiment implies that, until final success
was achieved, Field’s optimism and persistent faith exasperat-
ed many stout American burghers. What a difference success
makes!

A curious train of events now began in regard to a gold
medal voted to Field by Congress. Henry Field considered
such a medal the equivalent of a knighthood. A resolution
was introduced in the Senate in December, 1866, expressing
the thanks of Congress in the name of the country for Field’s
“foresight, courage, and determination” etc. ‘The two Houses
expedited its progress and passed it unanimously. President
Johnson signed it promptly.

The resolution specified “that the President of the United
States be requested to cause a gold medal to be struck, with
suitable emblems, devices, and inscription,” and “that when
the medal shall have been struck, the President shall cause
a copy of this joint resolution to be engrossed on parchment,

170 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

and shall transmit the same, together with the medal to Mr.
Field, to be presented to him in the name of the people of
the United States of America.”

As this resolution specified, the medal was struck “with
suitable emblems, devices, and inscription,” but Field did not
receive it for many months, and then he received a facsimile
—not the original. What happened illustrates a form of gov-
ernmental stupidity that would be pathetic if it were not
ludicrous. After the medal was “struck,” it was exhibited at
a meeting of the President’s cabinet. It was then handed to
a clerk in the Treasury department with instructions to “put
it carefully away.” There was now a dignified delay. Over a
year after the resolution was passed, Field was notified that
the medal would be presented to him in Washington. But
upon his arrival there he was requested not to mention the
subject. No one seemed to know where the medal was. An-
other medal was ordered, and made. In January, 1869, two
years after the resolution was passed, a letter came to Field
from Secretary of State Seward carrying out the terms of the
resolution in a formal and brief manner, as follows:

Department of State,

Washington, January 7, 1869.

Sir,—Pursuant to the resolution of Congress of March 2, 1867,

the President has caused to be prepared for presentation to you,

in the name of the people of the United States, a gold medal, with

suitable devices and inscriptions, in acknowledgment of your em-

inent services in the establishment of telegraphic communication

by means of the Atlantic cable between the Old World and the

New. This testimonial, together with an engrossed copy of the

resolution referred to, is herewith transmitted to you by direction
of the President.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,
William H. Seward.

This medal transmitted by the Secretary of State was a fac-
simile, not the original. What happened to the original re-
mained a mystery until 1874, more than seven years after the

HONORS AND REWARDS 171

resolution was passed. At that late date, the Treasury clerk
to whom the medal had been entrusted for “safe keeping”
and who had been forgotten, asked the Secretary of the ‘Treas-
ury why Field had never been given the medal which had
been made for the purpose and which he, the clerk, had been
keeping carefully as instructed to do. Governmental proced-
ure in this case had been slow but safe.

Field was then in England. He received a cablegram from
Washington saying: “The missing original Congressional gold
medal, a duplicate of which was made and presented to you,
has been found. Its value is about six hundred dollars... Sec-
retary Treasury wishes informally to know whether you wish
to possess it. If so, it will be given to you on receipt of value.”

In other words, Field could have the medal struck for him
by paying six hundred dollars for it. When he returned home
and was in Washington, he called at the Treasury office for
it. But there had been another misunderstanding. He was
told that the medal had been sent to the United States mint
in Philadelphia. A telegram was dispatched to the director
of the mint. It arrived just in time to prevent a re-melting.
Field finally received the medal but found that a hole had
been drilled in it!

Some pleasanter experiences marked his visits to Europe
after the first enthusiasm had subsided. He sailed in Febru-
ary, 1867, for England. While in London, he received a letter
from Paris signed by a number of Americans temporarily
there (including Professor Morse), inviting him to come to
Paris for a public reception in his honor. Field was not able
to accept this generous invitation because of engagements in
England.

The American Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool wrote
to him at this time, stating that it had voted gold medals to
Canning, Anderson, Willoughby Smith, and himself in com-
memoration of the successful completion of the Atlantic cable.
The medals were now ready, and it was proposed to present

172 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

them at a banquet in Liverpool. The Liverpool Daily Post of
March 15, 1867, said in part of this affair: “The members of
the American Chamber of Commerce in this town gave a
splendid banquet last night, in the Law Association Rooms,
Cook Street, to Sir Samuel Canning, Sir James Anderson, Mr.
Cyrus W. Field, and Mr. Willoughby Smith, the layers of the
Atlantic telegraph cable, on which occasion a magnificent
solid gold medal was presented to each of these gentlemen.
. . » The chairman in proposing “The projector and the asso-
ciates in the laying of the Atlantic cable’ said. . . . ‘But it
is good for our humility—a virtue in which we do not natural-
ly excel—to remember that the first credit of that success is
due, not to an Englishman, but to an American, Mr. Cyrus
Field. He is the projector of the plan, and had it not been for
his tenacity of purpose, his faith—which, if it did not remove
mountains, at least defied oceans to shape his purpose—the
plan would long ago have been abandoned in despair. In
this tenacity and utter incapacity to understand defeat, Mr.
Field is a representative man of the Anglo-Saxon race wher-
ever found’. . . . Mr. Field said: ‘I think I may safely affirm
that never before were so many men brought together in one
enterprise who were so pre-eminently fitted by diversified en-
dowments and by special knowledge and experience to solve
the problem of the Atlantic telegraph. Most fortunate, more-
over, were we in finding such a ship as the Great Eastern, and
such a commander as Sir James Anderson.’ ”

These speeches brought out the point that the final suc-
cess of making, laying, and operating the cable was due to
the systematic cooperation of many highly-skilled experts
using elaborate and unique equipment. When the little group
of New York capitalists had met in Field’s dining-room in
1854 to discuss the scheme, they had not realized that they
would become involved in such complicated and difficult
ramifications. They did not understand the technical skill
and the financial additions that would be required. Nor did

HONORS AND REWARDS 173

they foresee that a long, disastrous war would interrupt their
plans. ‘To them the enterprise had seemed short and simple;
it proved long and expensive.

While Field was in England on this occasion, he received a
letter from the Prime Minister, Lord Derby, expressing once
more Queen Victoria’s regret at not being able to honor the
American projector of the cable. ‘This letter indicates that it
was not merely among the liberal statesmen, like Gladstone
and Bright, that Field’s work was appreciated, but also among
the aristocracy—a fact brought out during the next year,
when additional British respects were paid to him. Lord
Derby’s letter was as follows:

St. James Square, March 17, 1867.
Sir,—Understanding that you are on the point of returning to
the United States after a short visit to this country, I am anxious
to take the opportunity of saying to yourself, what in the Queen’s
name I was authorized to write to the chairman of the banquet
in the autumn at Liverpool, how much of the success of the great
undertaking of laying the Atlantic cable was due to the energy
and perseverance with which, from the very first, in spite of all
discouragements, you adhered to and supported the project. Your
signal services in carrying out this great undertaking have been
already fully recognized by Congress, and it would have been very
satisfactory to the Queen to have included your name among
those on whom, in commemoration of this great event, Her Maj-
esty was pleased to bestow British honors, if it had not been felt
that, as a citizen of the United States, it would hardly have been
competent to you to accept them. As long, however, as the tele-
graphic communication between the two continents lasts your
name cannot fail to be honorably associated with it.
Wishing you a safe and prosperous return to your own country,
I have the honor to be, sir,
Your obedient servant,
Derby.
Cyrus W. Field, Esq.

A somewhat similar letter of appreciation was received at
this time from the Speaker of the House of Commons, J.

174 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

Evelyn Denison, who thanked Field for his services to Eng-
land. Curiously enough, the progressive State of Wisconsin,
in what was then the wilds of the Northwest, also voted Field
a gold medal, although it profited less by the cable than the
Eastern States. He sailed for America in the familiar Great
Eastern and arrived in New York in April of 1867. Something
of his hopes for the cable as a preventive of war was expressed
at this time in a poem called “Cable Hymn,” written by the
New England Quaker, John Greenleaf Whittier. It contains
some vivid phrases:

O lonely bay of Trinity,
O dreary shores, give ear!

Lean down unto the white-lipped sea,
The voice of God to hear.

From world to world His couriers fly,
Thought-winged and shod with fire;
The angel of His stormy sky
Rides down the sunken wire.

What saith the herald of the Lord?
‘The world’s long strife is done;
Close wedded by that mystic chord,

Its continents are one.

And one in heart, as one in blood,
Shall all her peoples be;

The hands of human brotherhood
Are clasped beneath the sea.

Through Orient seas, o’er Afric’s plain,
And Asian mountains borne,

The vigor of the Northern brain
Shall nerve the world outworn.

From clime to clime, from shore to shore,
Shall thrill the magic thread;

The new Prometheus steals once more
The fire that wakes the dead!

HONORS AND REWARDS 175

Throb on, strong pulse of thunder! beat
From answering beach to beach;
Fuse nations in thy kindly heat,
And melt the chains of each!

Wild terror of the sky above,
Glide tamed and dumb below;

Bear gently, ocean’s carrier-dove,
Thy errands to and fro.

Weave on, swift shuttle of the Lord,
Beneath the deep so far,

The bridal-robe of earth’s accord,
The funeral shroud of war.

For lo! the fall of ocean’s wall,
Space mocked and time outrun;

And round the world the thought of all
Is as the thought of one!

The poles unite, the zones agree,
The tongues of striving cease;
As on the Sea of Galilee
The Christ is whispering Peace!

One of the matters to which Field had attended while in
England was an adjustment of friction between the New
York, Newfoundland & London Telegraph Company and the
Anglo-American Telegraph Company. The former Com-
pany’s four-hundred-mile line across Newfoundland was often
out of order, and similar annoyances and interruptions had
occurred in the connecting lines of northern Nova Scotia,
where snowfall was heavy. What was needed, it was obvious,
was a better link between eastern Newfoundland, where the
cable terminus was situated, and the main lines of Nova Sco-
tia. Acting for the New York, Newfoundland & London Com-
pany—the original corporation sponsored by Field and his
neighbors—he signed a contract with the Telegraph Construc-
tion & Maintenance Company for a submarine cable to be laid

146 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

from Placentia in eastern Newfoundland to Sydney, Nova
Scotia. This cable would make it unnecessary to use the
Newfoundland land line on which Matthew Field had ex-
pended so much effort during two and a half years in the
backwoods.

After his return to America, Cyrus Field went to Canada
and Newfoundland for several weeks. There were many
minor troubles to straighten out. For example, complaints
were made frequently at first of mistakes in the cablegrams.
One message saying “Protect our drafts’ was delivered as
“Protest our drafts’ —a serious change of meaning. Another
message saying “Letter thirteen received, you better travel”
was delivered in Paris as “Letter thirteen received, son pretty
well.”

The early cables were not managed efficiently. Autocratic
British officials antagonized the public, especially in Ameri-
ca. Field protested vigorously against such untactful manage-
ment and spoke his mind freely. ‘There was much criticism,
for example, of the Anglo-American Company’s early oppo-
sition to code messages. The officials in London, apparently
in a fit of suspicion or officiousness, decreed that no secret
meanings should lower the dignity of their hard-won cables.
Field considered this a mistaken policy. He believed in satis-
fying the customers, rather than treating them suspiciously
as the British tended to do. In a letter to the Secretary of the
Company in London, he criticized the prohibition and argued
for a more genial attitude, which his long experience as a
merchant had shown him was the best method of attracting
and holding customers. This letter, as reproduced here, in-
dicates something of the difference in commercial policies
that was to distinguish British and American business methods
for several generations to come, and that was to enable the
United States to forge ahead so rapidly in world trade. The
letter was as follows:

HONORS AND REWARDS 174

New York, October 1, 1867.
My dear Mr. Deane,—In relation to the tariff, and particularly
that part touching ciphers, I must again appeal to you, and I do
wish my words could carry conviction to your mind of the fatal
tendency of the course we are carried into by your rules. . . .
But let us inquire if we are benefited by this rule of strictness.
We see that very few acknowledged cipher messages are for-
warded. ‘There are people who can make messages apparently in
plain text but which are actually cipher, and in the various at-
tempts to get much into little there lies the germ of many dis-
putes between customers and receiving clerks. ‘The truth is, we
make nothing and lose much. Many who were our best custom-
ers now use the line only in cases of emergency, whereas they
would use it daily if our terms were liberal. The U. S. govern-
ment and the representatives at Washington of all the foreign
governments are determined to use us as little as possible. We
are reviled on every side. ‘The government, the press, and all the
people will do all in their power to encourage a competing line.
Something must be done to arrest this feeling. Why not try re-
duction for three months, and see what the effect will be. . . .
I remain, my dear Mr. Deane,
Very truly your friend,
Cyrus W. Field.

Eventually Field’s policy was adopted, and the pompous
British officiousness was curbed. After the success of these
two pioneer cables, completed after so much hard labor and
worry, other cables were laid across the Atlantic. ‘Three years
later, for example, France was connected to America by a
line to the little island of St. Pierre just south of Newfound-
land, and thence to the mainland by a shorter cable. ‘This
was laid by the Great Eastern with some of the same staff as in
1866. This line from Brest to St. Pierre was nearly twenty-
seven hundred nautical miles—considerably longer than
the Newfoundland cables. ‘This cable proved costly in repairs
and did not wear well.

More active competition with the Newfoundland lines came
in 1875 when the Direct United States Cable Company opened

178 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

a cable that connected England and the United States by a
more “direct” but longer route. Both this company and the
French company, however, were soon absorbed into a financial
combination with the Anglo-American Company. This lat-
ter company laid two additional Newfoundland cables in
1873 and 1874, to replace the pioneer cables that were wear-
ing out. The laying of the 1874 cable was the last telegraph
work done by the Great Eastern, which was soon to enter upon
evil days and to be dismantled because unprofitable. This
big ship was ahead of the times.

Later, other Atlantic cables were laid by British, French,
and American companies. That ubiquitous financier, Jay
Gould, for example, promoted the laying of two cables in
1881 and 1882, and linked them with the Western Union lines
in America. Two other American capitalists, John W. Mack-
ay and James Gordon Bennett (owner of the New York
Herald) combined a little later to lay two cables from Ireland
to Nova Scotia—a similar route to Gould’s. The sole rights
for landing cables in Newfoundland were held for fifty years
by Field’s original promotion, the New York, Newfoundland
& London Telegraph Company. Other Atlantic lines were
laid by way of the Azores, despite the deep, jagged bottom in
the ocean there. By 1900 thirteen cables crossed the North
Atlantic, but usually one or two were out of order.

Later cables were heavier than the early ones. The copper
wires in the core became larger and more numerous in the
newer designs. The protecting armor was also heavier and
more durable against rocks, ice, and general abrasion. The
speed at which messages could be sent was increased steadily
from the rather slow rate of the early cables; by the duplex
system of 1875, messages could be sent in both directions at
the same time.

The rates charged for messages were gradually reduced. In
the earliest schedules the rate was as high as twenty pounds
(nearly a hundred dollars) for a minimum of twenty words,

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HONORS AND REWARDS 179

and in 1867 it was a pound a word. This enormous charge
seems ridiculous today when only a few cents a word is
charged. The high charges on the early cables was the con-
sequence of the slow rate of sending messages—eight or ten
words a minute. This slow rate was due to the disturbed and
induced currents in the cable.

Despite the exorbitant charges for cable messages, the early
company took in $2500 to $3000 per day, and profits of a mil-
lion dollars a year were made as the business increased.
Horace Greeley and other newspaper men pointed out that
lower rates would bring vastly greater income, as the early
cables operated at only five to ten percent of capacity This
advice proved true. When rates were reduced, the profits
increased sharply. Duplex cabling was introduced in 1871;
by this method messages can be sent in both directions simul-
taneously on the same wire. From the early rate of about fif-
teen words a minute, the speed of cabling has increased
markedly. A single cable can now handle over two thousand
words a minute.

Chapter Thirteen

OLD-TIME ORATORY

‘THE FORTUNES OF the Fields were enormously improved by
the success of these pioneer cables. Almost all of Cyrus Field’s
funds had gone into telegraph stock. As Isabella Field Jud-
son, his daughter, states in her book, there had been painful
economizing for twelve impressionable years while a large
family was growing up. The uncertainties and hardships of
the Civil War added to the domestic privations. The children
had come thoroughly to hate the cable and its exactions; it
had deprived them of many comforts dear to young hearts, and
of their father’s company and peace of mind. After 1866,
however, the family was able to afford all the luxuries that
an affectionate and wealthy father could make possible. ‘The
old bogey became then a source of pride and a public distinc-
tion to attractive children.

Upon Cyrus Field’s triumphant return to New York in the
fall of 1866, he sold a substantial block of his telegraph shares
to rehabilitate his lagging accounts. Being, as always, con-
scientious about debts of honor, he wished to make restitu-
tion to those creditors who, six years before, had accepted
- twenty-five cents on the dollar when his firm was swamped
in the financial difficulty of 1860. He sent to each creditor
the full amount outstanding, with interest at seven percent.
The total amount paid was more than a hundred seventy
thousand dollars.

‘These were not legal debts—merely applications of a New
England conscience. The New York Evening Post printed a
friendly testimonial about this act of honesty; and George
Peabody—always thoughtfully considerate—presented Field
with a splendid silver service engraved to commemorate “an

180

OLD-TIME ORATORY 181

9?

act of very high commercial integrity and honor.” Later in
life Field was to discover that all American financiers were
not so honest as himself, and that it was extremely costly to
trust his business associates as his creditors had trusted him.
In other words, Field was too frank and naive to survive the
increasing pressure of American finance. Others did not al-
ways treat him in the generous way in which he treated others,
even though he was acknowledged to be a public benefactor.

To understand fully the striking change that the Atlantic
cable, connecting Europe and America, brought to the daily
life of the people of the two continents, it is necessary to quote
from the actual observation of someone who witnessed the
transition. Henry Field, although a clergyman, was familiar
with the commercial goings-on of his day. As an editor, an
author, and a traveler, he was equipped to record his im-
pressions.

In his Story of the Atlantic Telegraph, he wrote: “The
practical results of the cable were even greater than he had
dared to anticipate. In the space of a few months it wrought
a commercial revolution in America. It was a new sensation
to have the Old World brought so near that it entered into
one’s daily life. Every morning, as Mr. Field went to his
office, he found laid on his desk at nine o’clock the quotations
on the Royal Exchange at twelve! ‘This soon made an end
of the tribe of speculators who calculated on the fact that no-
body knew at a particular moment the state of the market on
the other side of the sea, an universal ignorance by which they
profited by getting the earliest advices. But now everybody
got them as soon as they, for the news came with the rising
of each day’s sun, and the occupation of a class that did much
to demoralize trade on both sides of the ocean was gone.

“The same restoration of order was seen in the business of
importations, which had been hitherto a matter of guess-
work. A merchant who wished to buy silks in Lyons, sent out
his orders months in advance, and of course somewhat at ran-

182 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

dom, not knowing how the market might turn, so that when
the costly fabrics arrived, he might find that he had ordered
too many or too few. A China merchant sent his ship round
the world for a cargo of tea, which returned after a year’s ab-
sence, bringing not enough to supply the public demand, leav-
ing him in vexation at the thought of what he might have
made, ‘if he had known,’ or, what was still worse, bringing
twice too much in which case the unsold half remained on his
hands. ‘This was a risk against which he had to be insured,
as much as against fire or shipwreck. And the only insurance
he could have was to take reprisals by an increased charge on
his unfortunate customers.

“This double risk was now greatly reduced, if not entirely
removed. The merchant need no longer send out orders a
year beforehand, nor order a whole shipload of tea when he
needed only a hundred chests, since he could telegraph to his
agent for what he wanted and no more. With this opportunity
for getting the latest intelligence, the element of uncertainty
was eliminated, and the importer no longer did business at a
venture. Buying from time to time, so as to take advantage of
low markets, he was able to buy cheaper, and of course to sell
cheaper. It would be a curious study to trace the effect of the
cable upon the prices of all foreign goods. A New York mer-
chant, who has been himself an importer for forty years, tells
me that the saving of the American people cannot be less than
many millions a year.

“But the slender cord beneath the sea had finer uses than to
be a reporter of markets, giving quotations of prices to count-
ing rooms and banking houses; it was a link between hearts
and homes on opposite sides of the ocean, bearing messages
of life and death, of joy and sorrow, of hopes and fears. One
of its happiest uses was the relief of anxiety. A ship sailed for
England with hundreds of passengers, but did not arrive at
her destination on the appointed day. Instantly a thousand
hearts were tortured with fear, lest their loved ones had gone

OLD-TIME ORATORY 183

to the bottom of the sea, when the cable reported that the
delay was due simply to an accident to her machinery, that
would keep her back for a day or two, but that the good ship
was safe with all on board. What arithmetic can compute the
value of a single message that relieves so much anguish? Thus
the submarine telegraph stretched out its long arms under the
sea, to lay a friendly hand on two peoples, and give assurance
to both. . . . The heart of the world beat under the sea.”

It was on such benefits to his fellow creatures that Cyrus
Field had often pondered as he strode the decks of tossing
ships on the Atlantic seas during many a foggy or seasick
night, while the cable uncoiled its slender strands and slipped
into the dark water below. He himself had experienced a
taste of the anxiety caused by slow communication when, in
London during the Civil War, he worried over the raid of
the Confederate army toward his home and the draft riots in
New York. An eloquent orator of the period, Edward Ever-
ett, had pictured the wonder of the cable when he spoke at the
opening of an observatory in Albany in 1857.

Everett said in part: “Does it seem all but incredible to
you that intelligence should travel for two thousand miles,
along those slender copper wires, far down in the all but fath-
omless Atlantic, never before penetrated by aught pertaining
to humanity, save when some foundering vessel has plunged
with her hapless company to the eternal silence and darkness
of the abyss? Does it seem, I say, all but a miracle of art, that
the thoughts of living men—the thoughts that we think up
here on the earth’s surface, in the cheerful light of day—about
the markets and the exchanges, and the seasons, and the elec-
tions, and the treaties, and the wars, and all the fond nothings
of daily life, should clothe themselves with elemental sparks,
and shoot with fiery speed, in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, from hemisphere to hemisphere, far down among the
uncouth monsters that wallow in the nether seas, along the
wreck-paved floor, through the oozy dungeons of the rayless

184 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

deep; that the latest intelligence of the crops, whose dancing
tassels will, in a few months, be coquetting with the west wind
on those boundless prairies, should go flashing along the
slimy decks of old sunken galleons, which have been rotting
for ages; that messages of friendship and love, from warm,
living bosoms, should burn over the cold, green bones of men
and women, whose hearts, once as warm as ours, burst as the
eternal gulfs closed and roared over them centuries ago.”

This speech by Everett is a reminder that people today
have ceased to be thrilled, not only by the thought of a won-
der-working cable under the ocean, but also by the ardent
oratory that attracted the great-grandfathers and great-grand-
mothers of the present generation. It was, of course, a much
different world from that of today. Every generation appears
strange and ludicrous to the generations that immediately
succeed it, just as in fifty years the radio sales-talks and the
football games of today will probably arouse roars of laughter.
It might be suggested, however, that Cyrus Field, with his
progressive ideas and public spirit, would be more at home
today—if deprived of his beard—than most of his contempo-
raries. He was, in many respects, ahead of his time and was
happily free of the pompous and stodgy manner that char-
acterized so many of the eminent worthies of the Victorian
period.

A matter of national policy that interested Field at that
time because of his association with England, was the clearing
up of the chaotic post-war finances. The Secretary of State,
his old friend Seward, wrote him in February of 1868 about
the heavy demands being made upon the Government. Field
was arranging to go to England in a few days. He wrote to the
Secretary of the Treasury at Washington, saying: “I have un-
doubted confidence in the good faith of our government that
it will pay the principal and interest of every dollar of its
bonded debt in gold, and shall do all in my power to make
my friends in Europe think as I do.”

OLD-TIME ORATORY 185

A few weeks later, John Bright—carrying on in Parliament
despite the death of his colleague Cobden—wrote him in
England about the same difficulty. His letter follows:

Rochdale, March 8, 1868.

My dear Mr. Field,—I have only just received your kind invi-
tation. Unluckily Tuesday is fixed for the Irish debate, and I can-
not be away from the House on that evening.

I regret this very much, for it would give me much pleasure to
spend an evening with you. I must call upon you, and have a talk
with you on the new crisis which has arisen in your country.

Some of your statesmen are in favor of repudiation, and you
are dethroning your President, and yet your stocks are not sen-
sibly shaken by all this in the English market. There is more
faith in you than there was three or four years ago!

But I hope your people will not repudiate.

Always sincerely yours,
John Bright.
I expect to be in town in the course of to-morrow.

The “kind invitation” mentioned in Bright’s letter was for
a dinner given by Field at the Buckingham Palace Hotel on
the fourteenth anniversary of the organization of the New
York, Newfoundland & London Telegraph Company in his
Gramercy Park home. Dinners to mark anniversaries of this
kind were frequent at that period, and Field’s amiable hos-
pitality made him a well-liked host. Social affairs bringing to-
gether leading Englishmen and Americans improved the dip-
lomatic relations between the two nations and were a distinct
benefit during the strained relations of the post-war period.

At that time there was a sharp dispute between the United
States and England over the damages inflicted on Northern
shipping during the Civil War by Confederate vessels built
and equipped at British ports. These losses had been serious
and humiliating to the Northern cause, but England’s tradi-
tional pride in carrying things with a high hand “where
Britannia rules the waves’ had hindered a fair settlement.
The American protest—called the “Alabama claims” from

186 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

the name of the most notorious of the privateers—was being
debated at this time in Parliament.

At Field’s dinner in the Buckingham Palace Hotel, he said:
“Gentlemen, on Friday evening I had great pleasure in hear-
ing the debate in the House of Commons on the Alabama
claims. Before that, I confess to you, I felt exceedingly anxious
about the relations between England and the United States;
and on Thursday last, in sending a private telegram to Wash-
ington, I used these words: ‘When you see the President, Mr.
Seward, and Mr. Sumner, please say to them that I am per-
fectly convinced that the English government and people are
very desirous of settling all questions in dispute between the
United States and this country, and that with a little concilia-
tion on both sides this desirable object can be accomplished.’
Gentlemen, we are honored here tonight with the presence of
several distinguished persons connected with the press in
England and America, and I am going to give you as a toast
‘The Press’ of those countries; and I shall ask them, who so
well know public opinion, to tell us frankly whether I was
justified in sending such a message to Washington.”

Field’s initiative in cabling to the United States a full re-
port on the Alabama debate does not seem remarkable today,
when long cablegrams of international news are sent daily
as a matter of journalistic routine. But at that period, such a
policy was less common in news practice. Something of the
attitude of the newspapers was expressed in a speech at Field’s
dinner by the London correspondent of the New York Trib-
une, who said in part: “I heard with pleasure from Mr. Field
that he had sent the Alabama debate to New York, an instance
of public spirit for which the two countries owe him a debt of
gratitude; for through it there is, I suppose, this morning in
every journal in America, certainly in every large journal
on the Eastern coast, full tidings of the debate. It is, perhaps,
such a message as was never before sent from one country to
another. It was my fortune to listen to that debate. No news-

OLD-TIME ORATORY 187

paper report can give such a notion of the tone and temper
of the House as hearing it conveyed to me. It was not only
the sincere purpose, it was not only the enthusiasm and earn-
estness, the good-will to America which every speaker showed,
but there was a certain electric sympathy which seemed to
pervade the House. It manifested itself in cheers for every
liberal sentiment and every kindly expression that fell from
the speakers’ lips. Several members of the House came to
me as I sat under the gallery, and with what I may be pardoned
for calling an almost boyish enthusiasm, said, ‘Is not that
capital?’ as some sentence of conciliation and of justice fell
from the lips of Lord Stanley, of Mr. Forster, or of Mr. Mill.
Now, sir, I should not be loyal to the journal which I repre-
sent if I did not say that this authoritative declaration of a
changed feeling in England is sure to be welcome in America.
Not one but many journals came to us from the United States
in advance of this debate breathing a similar spirit. ‘The cloud
which for years has hung between the two countries seems to
be passing away, and it would be ungrateful not to believe
that a spark along this cable has helped to dispel it. At any
rate, I cannot make a mistake in saying that any disposition
to close up the old quarrel, any wish for future union which
English lips may utter, is sure to find a cordial echo from the
press on the other side of the Atlantic.”

An English opinion was expressed at Field’s dinner by the
Right Honorable James Stuart Wortley, who spoke of the
sending by ‘“‘our worthy chairman of the conciliatory debate
of the House of Commons on the Alabama claims to Amer-
ica.” He continued: “I am very glad this has been done, as it
is far more likely to create good feeling between the two
countries than anything else.”

The great Gladstone himself, at that time the most in-
fluential man in England, was not able to attend the dinner
because of a prolonged session that evening in the House of
Commons, where his presence was essential. But at seven

188 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

o'clock he wrote a note to Field, who received it just before
the dinner began. The note was as follows:

House of Commons, March 10, 1868, 7 P. M.

My dear Sir,—I have cherished to the last the hope of coming
to see you, but unhappily it is now arranged that Lord Mayo will
not speak until after dinner, and I therefore fear that my pres-
ence at the only time of the evening when it would have been of
use will be impossible. I should have much enjoyed, and I had
greatly coveted, the opportunity your kindness offered—speaking
a word of good-will to your country—but I am detained here by a
higher duty; for there is, in my judgment, no duty for public men
in England which at this juncture is so high, so sacred, as that of
studying the case of Ireland, and applying the remedies which I
believe it admits.

We shall be here until midnight, but not without thoughts of
your festival and of the greatness of the country with which it is
connected. You are called upon to encounter difficulties and to
sustain struggles which some years ago I should have said were
beyond human strength. But I have learned to be more cautious
in taking the measure of American possibilities; and, looking to
your past, there is nothing which we may not hope of your future.

I remain, my dear sir, most faithfully yours,

W. E. Gladstone.
Cyrus W. Field, Esq.

The high point of the evening came when Field suggested a
toast to the memory of the lamented idealist, Richard Cob-
den, ‘‘who proposed to the late Prince Consort that the profits
of the exhibition of 1851 should be devoted to the establish-
ment of telegraphic communication between England and
America, and who, later, desired that the English government
should supply one-half of the capital necessary to establish
telegraphic communication across the Atlantic. . . . If the
government had followed his advice they would today be re-
ceiving half the dividends on the Anglo-American and Atlan-
tic telegraph stocks. I hope this consideration may lead them
to pursue a liberal policy in regard to the extension of the
telegraph to India, China, and Australia.” All present rose

OLD-TIME ORATORY 189

and drank the toast in silence. Cobden had died a few months
before, worn out by his persistent advocacy of more liberal
laws for the working man. At one time Cobden had been a
guest of Field in New York; the two had much in common
in their ideals of public service.

It should be added, in passing, that the Alabama claims
were finally settled in 1872 by England’s agreement to pay
more than fifteen million dollars to the United States—a note-
worthy admission that the days of Lord Palmerston’s jaunty
bullying of the American Government had passed. When
England’s High Commissioners, including the Marquis of
Ripon, came to the United States to negotiate the Alabama
controversy, they were guests of Field in New York. Such
diplomatic assistance to the improvement of Anglo-Americans
relations was not uncommon for him.

Field’s faculty for getting along with difficult Englishmen
was the consequence of his direct manner of speech and his
absence of boasting. The English were so accustomed to
artificial and snobbish attitudes among themselves that his
naturalness afforded relief and gave them an opening for
demonstrating the real virtues which underlay their self-
conscious superiority. Field’s modesty took the form, not of
shyness and self-effacement, but of hospitality and frankness.

While in England in 1868, he received notification from the
Department of State in Washington that it had received for
him from Paris a “Grand Prize and Diploma.” This prize,
the highest honor of the Paris Exposition of that year was
typical of the official respect paid him as the world recognized
what a striking benefit the Atlantic cable conferred on man-
kind. But a more discriminating and appreciated honor was
paid him in July, when a gathering of distinguished leaders
of British thought gave him a testimonial banquet in Lon-
don. This was perhaps the greatest hour of his life.

The invitations spoke of the banquet “‘as an acknowledg-
ment of the eminent services rendered to the New and Old

190 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

Worlds by his devotion to the interests of Atlantic telegraphy
through circumstances of protracted difficulty and doubt.”
The chairman of the invitation committee was the Duke of
Argyll; the chairman of the executive committee was Sir
James Anderson, former captain of the Great Eastern and
Field’s comrade of many an anxious night on the high seas.

The wording of the acceptance of an invitation by the fa-
mous humanitarian, the Earl of Shaftesbury, is typical of
the genuine respect felt in England for Field’s accomplish-
ment. It was as follows:

June 19, 1868.

Sir,—It would give me great pleasure to show any mark of re-
spect in my power to Mr. Cyrus Field and to the great nation to
which he belongs.

I shall be happy to attend the dinner on July 1st, if by so doing
I can attest my sense of Mr. Field’s services.

I trust that I shall not give offence, should I be compelled to
retire before the rest of the company.

I remain your servant,
Shaftesbury.

Sir James Anderson.

The speeches at the dinner were fitting and impressive.
The Duke of Argyll said in proposing “that which is pre-
eminently the toast of the evening”: “I believe the success of
this enterprise would have been delayed for many years—
perhaps for whole generations of men—had it not been for
the confidence and zeal, for the foresight and faith, amount-
ing, as I think, to genius, of our distinguished guest, Mr.
Cyrus Field. . . . Of all commercial enterprises which have
ever been undertaken, this one on the part of Mr. Cyrus
Field represented the noblest and purest motives by which
commercial enterprise can ever be inspired. . . . He risked
every farthing of his own private fortune in promoting its
success. On these grounds, ladies and gentlemen, I ask you
to drink his health. But on one other ground also I ask you

OLD-TIME ORATORY 191

to drink it, and that is this, that he is personally one of the
most genial and kindly-hearted of men. At a time when his
country was in great difficulty, and when many Americans
thought at least they had something to complain of in the tone
of English society [the Duke was a Scotsman], I was in the
constant habit of meeting Mr. Field, and I never saw his tem-
per ruffled for a moment, I never heard any words fall from
him but words of peace between the two countries . . . and
I have reason to believe that his services and exertions in the
United States have not a little contributed to secure the re-
turn of that feeling.”

Several prominent members of the British Government
were present, among them Sir John Pakington, Sir Stafford
Northcote, and Alexander Milne. The Right Honorable Sir
John Pakington said in part: “I am one of the few—and they
are quickly becoming fewer—who made a tour in the United
States not only before electric telegraphs were thought of, but
before even steamboats had crossed the Atlantic. . . . It so
happened that the wind was in the west, as it generally is, and
I was exactly six weeks from shore to shore. . . . The com-
munication, which at the time to which I first referred occu-
pied six weeks, may now be effected in as many minutes. . . .
Even during the dinner we have been corresponding briskly
with our American friends.”

Cobden’s old associate in the fight to import grain freely
into England, John Bright, spoke feelingly and at great
length. He said in part: ‘““During the years which passed be-
tween 1790 and 1815, for nearly twenty-five years the gov-
ernment and people of this country were waging a war of a
terrific character with a neighboring state. The result of that
war was that which is, I believe, the result of every great war
—enormous expenditure, great loans, heavy taxation, grow-
ing debt, and, of course, much suffering among the people,
who have to bear the burden of those burdens. But after
that war, during twenty-five years, from 1815 to 1841, there

192 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

was scarcely anything done by the government of this country
to remedy the gross and scandalous inequalities of taxation,
and to adopt a better system in apportioning the necessary
burdens of the state upon the various classes of people. But
since 1841, as we all know, we have seen a revolution in this
country in regard to taxation and finance, and I need not re-
mind you that this has been mainly produced by the teaching
of one who is not with us tonight, but who would have re-
joiced, as we now rejoice, over the great event which we are
here to celebrate, whose spirit and whose mind will, I be-
lieve, for generations yet to come stimulate and elevate the
minds of multitudes of his countrymen. . . . I conclude that
such a nation as the United States—such a people, so free and
so instructed—will not be twenty-five years before they rem-
edy the evils and the blunders and the unequal burdens of
their taxation and their tariff. They will discover, in much
less time than we have discovered it, that a great nation is ad-
vanced by freedom of industry and of commerce. . . . For,
after all that can be said of invention and of science, and of
capital, it required the unmatched energy and perseverance
and faith of Cyrus Field to bring to one grand completion the
mightiest achievement which the human intellect, in my
opinion, has ever accomplished.”

This was grand praise indeed. Bright thoroughly admired
Field and longed for better exchanges between nations. His
ringing words in favor of lower tariffs and reduced taxes after
a costly war are appropriate even today. In another part of
his speech, Bright referred to Columbus, as follows: ‘““When
that cable was laid, when the iron hand grasped in the almost
fathomless recesses of the ocean the lost and broken cable, if
it be given to the spirits of great men in the eternal world, in
their eternal life, to behold the great actions of our lives, how
must the spirit of that grand old Genoese have rejoiced at the
triumph of that hour, and at the new tie which bound the
world he had discovered.”

OLD-TIME ORATORY 193

Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, realizing from his long
experience in the diplomatic service the immense advantage
of direct telegraphic connections, referred in his speech to
the misunderstandings that formerly had occurred through
lack of ready exchange of ideas between two such nations as
England and the United States—nations that should be on
the friendliest of terms. He was impressed by Field’s willing-
ness to spend so much time on the high seas. Said the vener-
able Viscount: “He crossed the Atlantic more than forty times
in pursuit of that glorious object, and I, who have crossed it
but twice, have learned thereby to appreciate the results, as
well as the perils, of so immense an undertaking.” Appar-
ently the Viscount had experienced a rough crossing and held
unpleasant memories of it.

The great engineer, Viscount de Lesseps, spoke in French
about “la télégraphie électrique, merveilleuse invention
moderne mettant au service de l’homme la force que les an-
ciens donnaient pour embleme a la divinité; et qui, au lieu de
planer sur nos tétes en signe de menace, poursuit une marche
bienfaisante jusque dans les profondeurs des mers.’ He con-
cluded dramatically in an outburst of praise: ‘““Honneur a
Cyrus Field, qui a été le grand propagateur et fondateur de
la télégraphie transatlantique! Honneur a ses compagnons
de travail et de victoire!” This was discerning commendation
from a distinguished man of the world who understood well
the magnitude of such a project as an Atlantic cable.

As an indication of the evening’s significance, the Duke of
Argyll telegraphed the following message to President An-
drew Johnson at Washington: “I am now surrounded by up-
wards of three hundred gentlemen and many ladies who have
assembled to do honor to Mr. Cyrus Field for his acknow]-
edged exertions in promoting telegraphic communication
between the New and the Old World. It bids fair for the
kindly influences of the Atlantic cable that its success should
have brought together so friendly a gathering; and in asking

194 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

you to join our toast of ‘Long life, health, and happiness to
your most worthy countryman,’ let me add a Highlander’s
wish—that England and America may always be found, in
peace and in war, ‘shoulder to shoulder.’ ”

An answer from Secretary of State Seward came promptly
as follows: ‘Your salutations to the President from the ban-
queting-hall at Willis’s Rooms have been received. The din-
ner hour here has not yet arrived—it is only five o’clock; the
sun is yet two hours high. When the dinner hour arrives the
President will accept your pledge of honor to our distin-
guished countryman, Cyrus W. Field, and will cordially re-
spond to your Highland aspiration for perpetual union be-
tween the two nations.” Apparently the President—unlike
Highlanders—did not drink toasts between meals and had
regular hours for dinner.

The Duke also sent a cablegram to Field’s family in the
United States and received a reply from his oldest daughter,
as follows: “I thank you most sincerely for the kind words
you have spoken of my father, causing me to feel that we are
friends, although our acquaintance is thus made across the
sea and in a moment of time.’”’ This message from an Ameri-
can girl was well phrased and appropriate. Like Secretary
Seward’s message, it was read to the assembled diners.

A few days later Field received a note from Argyll Lodge,
Kensington, in which the Duke expressed his pleasure at
presiding at the banquet. He said: “I would rather have my
name associated with the Atlantic telegraph than with any
other undertaking of ancient or modern times.” Several let-
ters of regret were received from prominent persons who were
unable to attend.

Among these was Lord Clarendon, who had assisted Field
to get governmental aid; he referred to Field’s “zealous ef-
forts in promoting friendly relations between our respective
countries.”’ Goldwin Smith, well known on both sides of the
Atlantic, wrote of his personal gratitude to “the author and

OLD-TIME ORATORY 195

the indomitable promoter of an enterprise the success of
which will link me, though far away, to my English home.”
George Peabody wrote from “Castle-Connell by Limerick,”
to which Irish retreat John Bright had brought an account
of the banquet, expressing his pleasure at Field’s honors. ‘The
American minister to France, General John A. Dix, whom
Field had entertained in New York, wrote to Sir James An-
derson regretting his inability to pay his respects in person.
Everything considered, the affair was a striking tribute of
England’s gratitude to Field and of his personal popularity
among a people not inclined to praise Americans indiscrimi-
nately.

There was a desire among many people in the United
States that John Bright, who had defended the North during
the Civil War, might cross the Atlantic and pay a visit to the
American friends of his liberal policies. ‘The Americans ad-
mired his reforms as a champion of the democratic classes
and his advocacy of the free importation of grain into Eng-
land. Field, who was anxious to entertain Bright in New
York, was the bearer of an invitation signed by many Ameri-
can notables which said: “Your presence at this time would
tend to strengthen the ties between your country and ours.”

But Bright was deeply involved in the prospects of a Brit-
ish election to defeat the Tories and make Gladstone prime
minister. He replied to Field as follows:

Torquay, Devon, October 13, 1868.
My dear Mr. Field,—Your letter has been sent on to me, and
has followed me in my journey in Cornwall. . . . I rejoice at the
patriotism of your countrymen, many of whom have gone or are
going home to take part in the great election; and I hope most
earnestly that the Republican candidates may be elected by a
grand majority.
In this country the elections seem likely to go strongly against
the Tories; they deserve to be well beaten.
As to the invitation from New York, I can say nothing except
that I am deeply indebted to your friends for their kind invita-

196 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

tion, and that I regret extremely that I have never yet been able
to visit your country. I need not tell you how many are my en-
gagements here, and how uncertain is the prospect of my being
able to see the many kind friends I have in the States.

I must ask you to thank the gentlemen who wrote to me, and to
say that I am very grateful to them for their kind remembrance
of me.

I wish you a pleasant voyage and return. I almost envy you the
ease with which, after your long experience, you cross the At-
lantic.

I shall wait with confidence, but not without anxiety, what the
cable will bring us the day after your election. I see four States
have their elections to-day, from which something may be judged
of what is to come.

I am, always very sincerely, your friend,
John Bright.

Chapter Fourteen

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

IN THE AUTUMN of 1868, Field returned from England in
time to vote for General Grant for president. He had enjoyed
cordial relations with President Pierce, who signed the bill
granting government aid for the cable; with President Bu-
chanan, to whom Queen Victoria sent the first cable message;
with President Lincoln through his friend, Secretary of State
Seward; and with President Johnson, to whom the Duke of
Argyll sent the cable message. Later he became intimate
with President Grant and was a still closer friend of Presi-
dent Garfield, for whose family he did a great service. Cyrus’
brother, David Dudley Field, was still better known at Wash-
ington, because of his influence in politics and law; and Ste-
phen Field by this time was serving on the United States Su-
preme Court. Both David and Stephen were feared by poli-
ticians, because of their rigid opinions; Cyrus was more ap-
proachable and sociable.

It is said that the movement for the nomination of Grant
began in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, a few blocks from Field’s
residence. This hotel, at Fifth Avenue and Twenty-Third
street, was a favorite resort of Republican leaders. Field
often dropped in there of an evening and was a familiar fig-
ure on the Avenue.

There was important work for him in New York in im-
proving the relations between the American and British of-
ficials of the cable companies. The friction between the va-
rious cliques of directors, especially in England was growing
worse, in spite of Field’s intermediary efforts and the benefi-
cent influence of the grandfatherly Peter Cooper. The best
conception of these departmental jealousies and tempera-

197

198 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

mental differences can be gained from a letter written at the
time to Cooper by one of the British stockholders who had
done important work as an engineer in the cable-laying,
Cromwell Varley, then on a visit to New York.

Fifth Avenue Hotel,
New York, October 6, 1868.

My dear Sir,—I hope you will pardon me for addressing you
upon the subject of the Atlantic circuits.

I am a small shareholder in the New York, Newfoundland, and
London Telegraph Company, a larger in the Anglo-American
and Atlantic Telegraph companies; and it is with regret that I
see that the two companies are fighting instead of working.

It seems as if they were re-enacting just the same farces that were
performed when we were endeavoring to raise funds both for the
1865 and the 1866 cables. I venture unhesitatingly to assert that
we should not have succeeded but for the indomitable energy and
the excellent judgment of Mr. Cyrus Field.

I do not believe the present attempt at an adjustment will end
in any useful results unless some one like Mr. Cyrus Field, enjoy-
ing the confidence and personal regard of those interested on this
side, as well as such men as Brassey, Hawkshaw, Fairbairne, Fow-
ler, Gladstone, Bright, Whitworth, and others in Europe, go to
England empowered to act on behalf of your company. The
jealousies and conflicting interests existing between the directors
on the other side prevent them from acting with that vigor and
integrity of purpose so necessary to command success, and which
qualities are possessed to so large an extent by Mr. Cyrus Field,
to whom the world is mainly indebted for the Atlantic cables.
He of all others is, in my opinion, the one most capable of effect-
ing the settlement we are all so interested in. He succeeded in
restoring public confidence, in harmonizing the disputants, and
in raising the money when the enterprise had twice proved a fail-
ure, and had as often been virtually abandoned by its natural
protectors. How much the more, then, will he succeed now when
he reappears amongst his old supporters and his true friends,
backed this time not by failure, but by triumphant success, and
with all his predictions realized! .. .

Very truly yours,
Cromwell F. Varley.
Peter Cooper, Esq., New York.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 199

The suggestions in this letter, which were amply justified
by facts, were acted upon a year or more later, when the
Anglo-American Company absorbed the Atlantic Telegraph
Company. As the years went on, a more unified control of
the organization was effected, and the loose ends were pulled
in. The Anglo-American Company continued to absorb other
companies, including its competitors. In 1873 it bought out
the New York, Newfoundland & London Company; this was
just before the financial depression of that autumn.

Varley’s letter indicates the high esteem in which Field
was held both in England and America. He was now a rich
and powerful man. During that winter, of 1868-69, his wife
and two daughters journeyed to the south of France. Field
sailed in January to join them at Pau. Just before he left he
received from Secretary of State Seward the gold medal (sec-
ond impression) that had been voted to him by Congress two
years before.

In the spring he was once more among his friends in Eng-
land. While there he received a cablegram announcing the
completion of the Pacific railroad connecting the newly-ac-
quired and gold-enriched California with the Eastern states.
He forwarded this message to his friend General Dix in Paris.
By June he was back in New York and busy with important
tasks.

Since he could afford a country home as well as his New
York house, he acquired a tract of land on a hill overlooking
the Hudson between Dobb’s Ferry and Irvington, about
twenty miles from New York. This property was later ex-
panded to an estate of several hundred acres. The house
was a commodious structure in the Victorian style. It was
named Ardsley, from the old Yorkshire residence of the fam-
ily before Zechariah Field came to Massachusetts in the time
of the Pilgrims. There is now a station on the New York Cen-
tral railroad called Ardsley-on-Hudson, at the foot of the hill
where the old mansion stood. This district is part of Sleepy

200 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

Hollow, as described by Washington Irving, and not far
from the huge Pocantico estate of the Rockefellers.

Like his friends in England, Field was now equipped to
entertain guests either in the city or the country. Many dis-
tinguished persons visited at Ardsley, both British and Amer-
icans. The roomy house and the extensive grounds were par-
ticularly appreciated by his children, now growing into young
men and women. As an indication of Field’s social nature,
the following letter from the distinguished preacher, Henry
Ward Beecher, is typical and amusing:

May 7, 1870.
My dear Mr. Field,—On Friday noon, as I sat writing in the
Christian Union office, about twelve of the clock, it suddenly
flashed across me that I had engaged to breakfast with you at nine
of the morning, alas! and have only to say in excuse that I forgot.
Ordinarily that would be an aggravation, for it would argue
indifference; but in a man who forgets, he is grieved to say, fun-
erals, weddings, and social engagements; who forgets what he
reads, what he knows, it ought not to be considered as a specific
sin so much as a generic infirmity. I pray you forgive me, and
invite me again! Then see if I forget.
I am very truly yours,
Henry Ward Beecher.

Both of Field’s parents were now dead, so that the old
habit of going back to Stockbridge had ceased. His mother,
Submit Dickinson Field, had witnessed his first triumph and
fame. She had died in the summer of 1861, eight years after
her golden wedding celebration, which Cyrus had hurried
back from South America to attend. The “old parson” had
died in the spring of 1867, worn out by nearly eighty-six years
on the earth which he had labored to improve. He had seen
the final victory of Cyrus in conquering the ocean; had wit-
nessed the success of David Dudley Jr. in his leadership of
the American bar; and had rejoiced at Stephen’s appoint-
ment by President Lincoln to the United States Supreme

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 201

Court. All three of these sons were giving important service
to their country.

Part of Cyrus Field’s service to his country came from his
personal influence among the British. Henry Field wrote of
him: “No man in America was better known abroad, no
house received more foreign guests, many of whom he had
not met before, but who brought letters to him, and there
was no end to his hospitality.” ‘There was need at that time
of men who understood international complications.

The troublesome Alabama claims against England were
causing ill feeling between the two countries. Delicate ques-
tions of national honor, as well as a large sum of money, were
involved. Field deprecated the flaming diatribes against Eng-
land that were being broadcast from Congress by such ordi-
narily trustworthy leaders as Charles Sumner of Massachu-
setts. In an effort to ward off unreasonable appeals to passion,
he wrote to Senator Sumner from Ardsley, as follows:

Irvington-on-the-Hudson, June 24, 1869.

My dear Mr. Sumner,—Many thanks for your letter of the 13th
instant; it should have been answered at once, but it was sent to
my house in Gramercy Park.

I thank you for your letter to Secretary Fish. I do most sin-
cerely hope that we shall soon have a better feeling between this
country and England, and I know of no one that can do more to
bring about this desirable result than yourself.

You may be sure that I shall do all I can. I wish you would
write our mutual friend, Mr. John Bright, frankly.

I hope soon to have the pleasure of seeing you again and re-
newing our late conversation.

With respect I remain, my dear Mr. Sumner,

Very truly your friend,
Cyrus W. Field.

A few weeks later an able and conciliatory article on the
Alabama claims by President Woolsey of Yale appeared in the
periodical The New Englander. Field sent Woolsey his
thanks for the article and told him that he was forwarding it

202 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

to John Bright in England. His letter to Bright was as fol-
lows:

New York, August 9, 1869.

My dear Mr. Bright,—Since my return from England I have
seen many of our ablest men, including the President of the
United States, the Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury,
Senator Sumner, several other members of the Senate, and mem-
bers of the House of Representatives, the Governors of several
States, leading editors in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and
Washington, and I have found only one that advocated war with
England.

I am more than ever convinced that if the English government
would send to Washington yourself, the Duke of Argyll, and Earl
Granville as special ambassadors to act with the British minister,
the whole controversy between England and America could be
settled in a few months. Please give this matter your careful con-
sideration. I send you by this mail the New Englander for July,
containing an article on the Alabama question written by Presi-
dent Woolsey, of Yale College.

With kind regards to your family and with great respect,

I remain, my dear Mr. Bright,
Very truly your friend,
Cyrus W. Field.

Field’s suggestion that the Duke of Argyll and Lord Gran-
ville be sent as special commissioners to assist the negotiations
at Washington did not meet with Bright’s approval. He be-
lieved that the trouble was in the Senate, where garrulous
orators like Sumner were running wild. His reply to Field
was more a letter to a friend than an official statement. It
shows the attitude of liberal Englishmen of the Victorian pe-
riod toward the rising republic that was pulling itself together
after a disastrous war. The letter follows:

Rochdale, August 24, 1869.

My dear Mr. Field,—I am glad to have your letter, and note its

contents with much interest. I do not see how your suggestion
can be adopted at present.

Whatever is done now towards a settlement must necessarily

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 203

come from your side. We have done all we can. Your govern-
ment sent an envoy with the unanimous assent of the Senate. He
came avowedly with the object of arranging an existing difficulty.
He made certain propositions on the part of his government.
These were considered by our government, and finally were
adopted and consented to. A convention was signed, including
everything your minister had asked for, and this convention was
rejected by your Senate. Who knows that it will not reject any
other convention? If you have an envoy who has no power to
negotiate, and an executive government which cannot ratify a
treaty, where is the security for further negotiation? We cannot
come to Washington and express our regret that Reverdy John-
son did not ask for more. We gave him all he asked for, all that
Mr. Seward asked for, all that the then President asked for. What
could we have done, what can we now do more?

It is clearly for your government to explain why the convention
failed, and what, in their opinion, is now required from us. ‘The
civilized world, I am quite sure, will say that we are on a certain
vantage-ground, having consented to all that was asked from us,
the convention not having failed through our default.

I could easily suggest a mode of settlement which all mankind,
outside the two countries, would approve of; but how do I know
what your government can do? If there is passion enough for
Mr. Sumner to appeal to, or believers in his wild theories of in-
ternational obligation, how can any settlement be looked for?
There is abundant good feeling here to enable our government
to do what is just, but no feeling that will permit of any volun-
tary humiliation of the country.

Until something is known of what will content the powers that
will meet in Washington in December next, I do not see what any
mission from this to you would be likely to effect. I have read the
article in the New Englander. It is moderate, and written in a
good spirit. I do not know that there is anything in it that I could
not freely indorse. Upon the basis of its argument there could be
no difficulty in terminating all that is in dispute between the two
countries. But the article is in answer to Mr. Sumner; and the
question is, does your government, and will your Congress, go
with Mr. Sumner or with the review article? And what view will
your people take?

I write all this privately to you. It is not from a Cabinet min-
ister, but from an old friend of yours, who is a member of the

204 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

English Parliament, and who has taken some interest in the affairs
of your country. You will consider what I say, therefore, as in no
degree expressing any opinion but my own. I have abstained from
writing or speaking in public on the subject of the dispute. I
could say something to the purpose probably if I thought men on
your side were in a mood to listen and to think calmly. But after
what has happened in connection with the convention I think
we can only wait for some intimation from your side.

There is a good opinion existing here with regard to your gov-
ernment, and especially as regards your Secretary of State. I hope
he may have the honor of assisting with a wise moderation to the
settlement of the disputes on which so much has been said and
written and so little done. .. .

Believe me always sincerely your friend,

John Bright.

In answer to this, Field wrote: “I regret Mr. Sumner’s
speech and his course about the Alabama claims more than I
can express, and shall do all I can to counteract the effect of
his actions, and you can help me, I think, very much, if you
will take the trouble to write your views fully.” During the
following winter, Field was in England on business of the
telegraph companies. Upon his return he went to Washing-
ton and talked with Senator Sumner. His effort now was to
get an arbitrator or arbitrators appointed, whose decision
about the claims should be binding. Sumner professed to be-
lieve that it would be undignified for the United States to ac-
cept arbitration.

England later followed Field’s original suggestion to Bright
and sent a special commission to America, with the Marquis
of Ripon as spokesman. These High Commissioners of Her
Britannic Majesty, as they were called, were entertained by
Field; and the Marquis at a banquet toasted the health of his
host and the “credit due to the little wire which tied the two
nations so close together.” Another member of the commis-
sion, Sir Stafford Northcote (later Lord Iddesleigh) also
agreed that the cable was particularly important in the deli-

AHL NI SLTAVA WO ONTHOUVAS

oe

GEA

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 205

cate negotiations at Washington. He said: ‘““We usually met
our American colleagues at mid-day, and we were by that
time in possession of the views of our home government as
adopted by their Cabinet in the afternoon of the same day.”
This use of the cable to expedite and smooth international
differences was in accordance with Field’s hopes of many
years back.

The negotiations at Washington ended in what was called
the Treaty of Washington, and well-wishers on both sides
hoped that an amicable end to the quarrel was in view. But,
as often happens,- self-seeking politicians on the opposing
sides interpreted the terms to suit their own purposes. So-
called “patriotic” defenders of each nation’s honor continued
to make inflammatory speeches. A fiery speech made in
Brooklyn on Washington’s Birthday of 1872 by Schuyler
Colfax aroused indignant feeling on both sides of the At-
lantic. The speech called for huge payments for “indirect
damages” as well as direct damages—a preposterous claim. It
was a Critical moment.

Field was in London at the time, but he wrote a long letter
to Colfax. The great length shows how deeply he was con-
cerned at the dangerous turn that events had taken. The
sentiments expressed in this letter show Field’s understand-
ing of Anglo-American relations and his influential work to
improve them. The letter shows him at his best. It was as
follows:

London, 24th February, 1872.

My dear Mr. Colfax,—Having read this morning a brief tele-
graphic summary of the speech which you delivered at Brooklyn
on Washington’s Birthday, I feel constrained to address you on
the subject upon which you have spoken with so much emphasis.
I refer to the Treaty of Washington. I share your opinion that
neither nation will dare, in the face of civilization, to destroy the
treaty; but nevertheless the crisis is a grave one. It therefore be-
hooves every one who can assist to bring about a better under-

206 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

standing on the points of difference between the two countries to
make his contribution to that end. This is my apology for ad-
dressing you.

The grave misunderstanding which has arisen between Great
Britain and the United States is due to the widely different man-
ner in which the Treaty of Washington has been from the outset
interpreted by the two nations. I have not met a single person on
this side of the Atlantic who expresses any desire “to back out”
of the treaty, or refuse the fulfilment of any one of the obligations
which it is believed to impose; nay, more, my conviction is that
if the British people were satisfied that the principle of referring
vague and indefinite claims to arbitration had somehow or other
crept into the treaty, they yet would, while passing emphatic
votes of censure on their representatives at Washington, at the
same time never dream of calling back the pledge which Lord
Ripon and his colleagues had given on their behalf.

The excitement which followed the publication of the Ameri-
can case was occasioned by the belief—universal among all classes
of the English people—that their own interpretation of the treaty
was the right one, and that indeed no other interpretation had
ever been or would be given to it. It is desirable that Americans
should remember this fact—that until the publication of the
American case nobody on this side of the water had the remotest
idea that the Washington Treaty contemplated more than arbi-
tration with reference to the direct losses inflicted by the Alabama
and other Confederate cruisers which escaped from British ports
during our civil war. This is not a matter of surmise; it is demon-
strable on the clearest evidence. I therefore contend that whether
the public sentiment of England be well founded or not, its ex-
istence is so natural that even if we Americans are wholly in the
right we ought to make every allowance for it—in fact, treat it
with generous forbearance.

So early as June 12th last, when Lord Russell, in moving a
resolution for the rejection of the treaty, charged the Americans
with having made no concessions, Lord Granville retorted by
pointing to the abandonment of the claim for consequential
damages. “These were pretensions,’ he said, ‘which might have
been carried out under the former arbitration, but they entirely
disappear under the limited reference.’ There could be no mistake
as to his meaning, because in describing the aforesaid ‘pretensions’
he quoted the strong and explicit language which Mr. Fish had

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 207

employed. We are bound to believe that Lord Granville spoke in
perfect good faith, especially as the American minister was present
during the debate, and sent the newspaper verbatim report of it
to his own government by the ensuing mail. When the debate
took place the ratification of the treaty had not been exchanged.
If Lord Granville was in error, why did not General Schenck cor-
rect him?

On the same occasion the Marquis of Ripon, also replying to
Lord Russell’s taunt, remarked that ‘so far from our conduct be-
ing a constant course of concession, there were, as my noble
friend behind me [Earl Granville] has said, numerous occasions
on which it was our duty to say that the proposals made to us
were such as it was impossible for us to think of entertaining.’
This, also, was understood to refer to the indirect claims.

Turning to the debate which took place in the House of Com-
mons on the 4th of August, one searches in vain for any remark in
the speeches of Mr. Gladstone, Sir Stafford Northcote, or Sir
Roundell Palmer which indicated any suspicion that the Alabama
claims had assumed the portentous character which now attaches
to them. The doubt which Lord Cairns at one time entertained
had been set at rest by the ministerial explanations made at the
time in the House of Lords, and not a single argument advanced
in the Lower House, either in support of or in opposition to the
treaty, touched upon the question of these claims. Even Mr.
Baillie Cochrane, the well-known Conservative member, who
denounced the treaty on all sorts of grounds, and whose avowed
object was to pick as many holes in it as possible, was unable to
allege that England had consented to an arbitration which might
involve her in indefinite liabilities.

Sir Stafford Northcote, in the course of his humorous speech—
a speech instinct with good feeling towards the United States—
said that ‘a number of the claims under the convention which was
not adopted [the Johnson-Clarendon Treaty] were so vague that
it would have been possible for the Americans to have raised a
number of questions which the commissioners were unwilling to
submit to arbitration. They might have raised the question with
regard to the recognition of belligerency, with regard to construc-
tive damages arising out of the recognition of belligerency, and a
number of other matters which this country could not admit.
But if honorable gentlemen would look to the terms of the treaty
actually contracted they would see that the commissioners fol-

208 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

lowed the subjects very closely by making a reference only to a
list growing out of the acts of particular vessels, and in so doing
shut out a large number of claims which the Americans had pre-
viously insisted upon, but which the commissioners had prevented
from being raised before the arbitrators.’ All this points unmis-
takably to the definite and limited character of the claims which,
in the judgment of the English negotiators, were alone to be sub-
mitted to arbitration.

It seems to me that Judge Williams, in the speech he made at
the banquet I had the honor to give to the British High Commis-
sioners in New York, expressed sentiments which can only be sim-
ilarly construed. ‘Many persons,’ he said, ‘no doubt, will be dis-
satisfied with their [the Joint High Commissioners’] labors; but
to deal with questions so complicated, involving so many con-
flicting interests, so as to please everybody, is a plain impossibility;
but in view of the irritation which the course of Great Britain
produced in this country during our late rebellion, and in view of
the one-sided and generally exaggerated statements of our case
made to the people, the American Commissioners consider them-
selves quite fortunate that what they have done has met with so
much public favor in all parts of the country and among men of
all political parties.’

The true friend of America, the Duke of Argyll, speaking in
the Upper House, was equally emphatic. “The great boon we have
secured by this treaty,’ he said, ‘is this: that for the future the
law of nations, as between the two greatest maritime states in the
world, is settled in regard to this matter, and that.for this great
boon we have literally sacrificed nothing except the admission
that we are willing to apply to the case of the Alabama and that
of other vessels those rules, I do not say of international law, but
of international comity, which we have ourselves over and over
again admitted.’ It is impossible that the duke would have ex-
pressed himself in language so hopeful and so contented if behind
‘the case of the Alabama and that of other vessels’ he had seen
looming up the colossal demands which were originally embodied
in Senator Sumner’s memorable oration.

The views thus put forward sank deep into the public mind,
and the treaty was accepted and ratified by popular opinion on
this basis. General Schenck, several months after the delivery of
the above speeches, in addressing a Lord Mayor’s banquet at the
Guildhall, bade the English ministry and Lord Ripon ‘congratu-

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 209

late themselves upon the success with which they have endeavored
to bring about friendly relations between the United States and
Great Britain.’

People here ask how he could congratulate the British govern-
ment if he knew all the while that their construction of the treaty,
which was to cement the friendship of the two countries, fatally
differed from the construction put upon it by the government at
Washington.

I have not given my own but the English view of the matter.
When such momentous issues are at stake—when a false move on
the diplomatic board may endanger the peace of two kindred
nations—it is absolutely necessary that our people should know
what is the English side in this controversy. The first duty of a
loyal American citizen is to ascertain the whole truth, and not by
ignorance or obstinacy to commit himself to a wrong course.

Many hard words have been lately spoken and written about
Mr. Gladstone. I therefore feel it incumbent upon me to bear my
testimony to the large and statesmanlike view of American af-
fairs which he has taken for several years past, and to the cordial
good feeling he has shown towards our country since he has been
at the head of the present government. In spite of temporary
misunderstanding, I will continue to hope that the Treaty of
Washington will bear the fruit which he anticipated; that, to
quote his own eloquent words in the House of Commons on the
4th of August, that treaty will do much ‘towards the accomplish-
ment of the great work of uniting the two countries in the ties of
affection where they are already bound by the ties of interest, of
kindred, of race, and of language, thereby promoting that strong
and lasting union between them which is in itself one of the main
guarantees for the peace of the civilized world.’

With great respect I remain,

My dear Mr. Colfax,
Very truly your friend,
Cyrus W. Field.

At this time a court of arbitration was sitting at Geneva to
decide what damages England must pay the United States in
accordance with the Treaty of Washington. The meetings
were protracted, and much anxiety was felt over national
embarrassments as to the blame and the wrongs in the long

210 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

controversy. Thomas Hughes, then a member of Parliament,
became so concerned that he wrote to Field as follows:

House of Commons,
London, March 1, 1872.

Dear Mr. Field,—As I hear, with regret, that you are detained
here by illness, I take the liberty, as an old acquaintance, of asking
whether you cannot do something in your compulsory leisure to
help our countries in this untoward business as to the case.

If you, who are so well known here, believe your government
to be in the right, and that they never did waive, or meant to
waive, the claim for indirect damages, and if you will make this
statement publicly here, in any manner you please, it would cer-
tainly go far to induce me, and I think most of the other public
men who were strong Unionists during your civil war, to advocate
the submission of the whole case as it stands to the Geneva board.
On the other hand, if you cannot do this, I really think we may
ask for your testimony on the other side.

If you do not see your way to taking any action in the matter,
pray excuse this note, for which my apology must be that this is
no time for any of us who are likely to get a hearing to keep
silence.

I am always yours very truly,
‘Thomas Hughes.

To this Field replied courteously and enclosed a copy of
the letter that he had sent to Colfax a week earlier. ‘The
letter to Colfax seemed so apposite to Hughes that he had it
printed in the Times. John Bright, who was also much con-
cerned with the turn of events, wrote to Field at this time, as
follows:

“This trouble about the treaty is very unfortunate. I think your
letter admirable, and I hope it will do good in the States, where,
I presume, it will be published. I confess I am greatly surprised at
the ‘case’ to be submitted to the Geneva tribunal. There is too
much of what we call ‘attorneyship’ in it, and too little of ‘states-
manship.’ It is rather like a passionate speech than a thoughtful
state document. And what a folly to offer to a tribunal claims
which cannot be proved. No facts and no figures can show that
the war was prolonged by the mischief of the pirate ships; and

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 211

surely what cannot be proved by distinct evidence cannot be
made the subject of an award. This country will not go into a
court to ask for an award which, if against it, it will never accept.
An award against it in the matter of the indirect claims will never
be paid, and therefore the only honest course is to object now be-
fore going into court. Has the coming Presidential election or
nomination anything to do with this matter? Or is Mr. Sumner’s
view of the dispute dominant in Washington? I should have
thought your government might have said: ‘We will not press the
claims objected to before the tribunal, but we shall retain them
in our “case” as historic evidence of our sense of magnitude of
the grievance of which we complain.’

“This, I dare say, would have satisfied our government and
people, and practically it would have satisfied every reasonable
man in the States. To such as would not be content with it,
friendship and peace would, in the nature of things seem to be
denied.”

Upon his return to the United States in the spring, Field
talked to a number of his countrymen in order to learn their
views on the Alabama claims. They seemed disposed to be
fair toward England and disinclined to insist upon “indirect
damages.” He wrote to Bright as follows:

Gramercy Park,
New York, 2d April, 1872.

My dear Mr. Bright,—I arrived on 25th March, after a very
rough passage of sixteen days. .. .

Since my return I have devoted much of my time to ascertain
the real sentiment of the people of this country in regard to the
Washington Treaty, and as far as I can judge, after seeing many
persons of different political parties, it appears to be almost unan-
imous that our government has made a great mistake in including
these indirect claims in the ‘case.’ I am convinced that the best
people in England and America desire to have this question set-
tled in a fair and honorable manner. In fact, many say to me that
they have got tired of hearing about the indirect claims... .

With great respect and kind regards to your family,

I remain, my dear Mr. Bright,
Very truly your friend,
Cyrus W. Field.

212 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

The court of arbitration at Geneva continued its work in
as judicial a spirit as possible, and finally fixed the amount of
damages that England must pay the United States at about
fifteen million dollars. This amount represented actual losses
inflicted on Northern shipping and disregarded the extrava-
gant claims by American politicians for “indirect losses”
caused by the Confederate privateers. England paid the
amount in 1873—a large sum for such a violation of neu-
trality—and statesmen on both sides heaved a sigh of relief.
It had been the humiliation of criticism as much as the money
that angered the British. Field’s unofficial suggestions had
helped, especially the suggestion for a special commission of
British negotiators to come to Washington, and for a final
decision by judicial arbitrators. For an amateur, Field was a
diplomatist of no small ability.

When Field was in England during the winter of 1869-70,
he was able to carry out some of the reforms in organization
of the telegraph companies that had been advocated by Crom-
well Varley in his letter to Peter Cooper over a year before.
The friction and jealousies between the officials of the Anglo-
American and the Atlantic Telegraph companies were finally
surmounted by a consolidation of the two, in which the latter
lost its name and entity. Field also helped to bring about a
working arrangement between the New York, Newfoundland
& London Company, the Anglo-American Company, and the
new French company that had laid a cable from France to
St. Pierre and thence to Massachusetts. The Anglo-American
Company absorbed the Newfoundland company in 1873, thus
gaining its valuable rights for exclusive use of the island’s
shores for thirty-one additional years. The original charter
for fifty-year rights had been granted in 1854, so that the
monopoly extended to 1904. The Anglo-American Company
was finally absorbed by Western Union.

A typical example of Field’s humanitarian use of the cable
occurred in the autumn of 1871, when Mrs. O’Leary’s cow

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 213

kicked over a lantern in Chicago, and a fire loss of two hun-
dred million dollars followed. Field cabled to London that a
hundred thousand people were homeless and suffering, and
that the banking houses with American connections should
organize a relief fund. Many other cablegrams were sent,
and a large sum of money was collected for relief. ‘The mayor
of Chicago telegraphed: ‘“God bless the noble people of Lon-
don. Your response was received by our committee in tears.
We are lifted from our desolation.”

A few weeks later Field attended a telegraphic convention
in Rome. Prompted by a letter from Morse, he argued for
protection and inviolability of submarine cables during wars;
in fact, spent Christmas and New Year’s Day in this endeavor.
The convention, which was international, lasted six weeks.
Morse and Field were ahead of their time in the interna-
tional sympathies that the telegraph had encouraged in them.
‘They had seen the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War,
and had been shocked and revolted by them. While Field
was in Italy, the people of New York were agog over the mur-
der of the notorious financier, James Fisk, Jr., by a rival ina
love affair. Fisk was called “the king of Wall Street” and had
been associated with Jay Gould in various ventures. Wall
Street scandals were becoming numerous in post-war New
York.

Field went to Russia before returning home. So frequent
were his trips across the Atlantic that in 1878 his distin-
guished guest in New York, Dean Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
of Westminster, referred at the Century Club to “the won-
derful cable, on which it is popularly believed in England
that my friend and host Mr. Cyrus W. Field passes his myste-
rious existence, appearing and reappearing at one and the
same moment in London and New York.”’ Somewhat similar
sentiments were expressed in November, 1872, by Premier
Gladstone at a dinner given by Field in London shortly after
the Alabama settlement.

214 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

Gladstone said in part: “The union of the two countries
means, after all, the union of the men by whom they are in-
habited; and among the men by whom they are inhabited
there are some whose happy lot it has been to contribute more
than others to the accomplishment of what I will venture to
call that sacred work. And who is there, gentlemen, of them
all that has been more marked, either by energetic motion or
by happy success in that great undertaking, than your chair-
man, who has gathered us round his hospitable board to-
night? His business has been to unite these two countries by a
telegraphic wire; but, gentlemen, he is almost a telegraphic
wire himself. With the exception of the telegraphic wire,
there is not, I believe, any one who has so frequently passed
anything between the two countries. I am quite certain there
is no man who, often as he has crossed the ocean, has more
weightily been charged upon every voyage with sentiments
of kindness and good-will, of which he has been the messen-
ger between the one and the other people.”

Chapter Fifteen

EYES ON THE PACIFIC

A RESTLESS IMAGINATION like Field’s did not stop at bridging
the Atlantic. He hoped to see the Pacific likewise conquered
by a cable, so that messages could be flashed around the
world. At that time there was telegraphic communication
from China to western Europe by way of the British cables
and overland wires to India. Field hoped to see an alternate
line by way of the Pacific islands to Japan and Shanghai, but
did not wish to become involved and absorbed in the project
as he had in the Atlantic cable.

Through his connections in Congress, Field used his influ-
ence in 1870 for obtaining privileges for a projected organi-
zation to lay a Pacific cable. The route selected was over six
thousand miles in length, as compared with the two thousand
miles of Atlantic cable. But by dividing this total into four
parts between islands, no one span would be much longer
than the Atlantic cable.

A cable from San Francisco to the Hawaiian Islands, Field
estimated, would be 2080 miles. From Hawaii to the coaling
station of Midway Island would be 1140 miles. The longest
stretch, from Midway Island to Yokohama, would be 2260
miles. A cable from Yokohama to Shanghai would be 1035
miles. ‘The total was 6515 miles.

This total was later found too small. The long span from
Midway Island to Japan, with its great depths, was judged
less feasible than a zigzag from Midway Island to the island
of Guam; thence by way of the island of Yap to Shanghai, or
by way of the Philippines to Hongkong. The total mileage
of this would be well above seven thousand miles, and the

215

216 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

cost might run up to twelve or fifteen million dollars. This
seemed to many people a large amount to spend for an alter-
nate route to China. Perhaps a cable to Siberia would be
shorter and cheaper, it was suggested. Perry McDonough
Collins’ overland telegraph to Russia by way of Alaska and
Bering Strait would scarcely cost as much. As always, how-
ever, Field was optimistic, and he won the support of Ameri-
can capitalists associated with his previous ventures and also
of several newcomers like Darius Ogden Mills, a Western
banker who had “‘struck it rich.”

Field’s growing interest in the Orient led him in June,
1871, to go to Russia as a member of a committee from the
Evangelical Alliance to exhort the Czar in favor of religious
liberalism. He was still thinking of a Pacific cable, and he
resolved to write a personal letter to the Czar. Upon his re-
turn to England, he composed the following letter to the Rus-
sian Grand Duke Constantine, with whom he had conferred
and who he hoped would intercede for him with his Impe-
rial Majesty:

London, 11th August, 1871.
To His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Constantine:

Sir,—With this I have the honor to enclose a memorial ad-
dressed to His Majesty the Emperor of Russia respecting the es-
tablishment of a submarine telegraph communication between
the west coast of America and the eastern shores of Russia,
China, etc.

I shall esteem it a great favor if your Imperial Highness will
be so good as to forward the memorial to His Majesty, with any
observations on the subject which may be thought desirable.

With respect to the gentlemen mentioned in the memorial as
prepared to join me in the enterprise, I may explain that they
are among the very first merchants and capitalists of the United
States. . . . As I am leaving for the United States this evening,
my address will be Gramercy Park, New York. I would express
my sincere thanks for the great kindness shown to myself by your

EYES ON THE PACIFIC 217

Imperial Highness, and for the interest you have taken in the
subject I have so much at heart.
I beg to subscribe myself
With great respect,
Your most obedient servant,
Cyrus W. Field.

The enclosed letter or ““memorial” addressed to the Czar
was a long and formal document written by a man who had
received little regular education but had mingled for years
with the great and near-great. The boy from Stockbridge did
not hesitate to express his convictions to the formidable
Father of All the Russias. His memorial seems, in general,
well phrased and convincing. It was as follows:

To His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia:

The memorial of Cyrus West Field, a citizen of the United
States of America, respectfully thereto,

That having taken an active part in the establishment of elec-
tric telegraph communication across the Atlantic Ocean between
America and Europe, and having been also interested in the lay-
ing of the existing submarine telegraph lines between Europe
and the East, he is now desirous of submitting to your Majesty a
project for completing the electric telegraph circle round the
globe by uniting by submarine cables the western coast of America
with the eastern shores of your Majesty’s dominions, and with
China or Japan, or both, as may be found most expedient.

Having regard to the complete success, both scientific and prac-
tical, of the submarine telegraph cables now working, which are
in the aggregate about 40,000 miles in length, your memorialist
deems it wholly unnecessary to enlarge on the perfection attained
in the manufacture of telegraph cables, or the facility and cer-
tainty with which they are laid in all parts of the world.

Experience has proved that submarine telegraph cables can
readily be recovered and repaired in case of accident, so that there
is practically no limit to the length of line which may be employed
or the depth of the water in which they may with perfect safety
be submerged.

Memorialist is aware of the strong desire existing in the United

218 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

States of America for the establishment of a telegraph cable across
the Pacific Ocean in order to the furtherance of commercial inter-
ests and to the strengthening of the friendly relations which have
for so many years existed between the United States and. your
Imperial Majesty’s government.

From communications which memorialist has had with the
government of the United States and with many leading mem-
bers of Congress, he is able to say with confidence that both the
government and the legislature take a deep interest in the sub-
ject, and that, as memorialist believes, they will readily join with
your Majesty in making such arrangements as may be found neces-
sary to carry out the enterprise.

Memorialist has made diligent inquiry from the persons best
able to advise with respect to the practicability of uniting the two
great continents by telegraphic cable, and he has received most
satisfactory assurances on the subject.

The proposed line would be about 6000 miles in length, and
would be made in at least two lengths, landing at one or more of
the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

From this point the line would extend on the one hand to Rus-
sian territory, where it would be connected with the imperial
system of land lines, and on the other hand it would run to the
western coast of the United States, joining there the American
wires, and thus give direct communication between Russia and
the whole continent of America, and, by means of the cables now
laid with every important telegraph line in the world.

Your Majesty will not fail to appreciate the importance and
value of such a communication to Russia as well as to the United
States of America.

It would be an act of presumption on the part of memorialist
to affect to point out to your Majesty the advantages of the line
in its international and political aspect. The cost of the line can-
not be ascertained until the route is definitely settled, but it will
be manifest that for such an undertaking the very best descrip-
tion of cable must be used.

From the best information which could be obtained, and from
the experience of existing lines, memorialist is led to believe that
for some years such a line would not in itself be remunerative as
a commercial speculation, although there would doubtless be a
large amount of business passing through it; and, further, that
having regard to the risks necessarily incident to so great a work,

EYES ON THE PACIFIC 219

it is and will be impossible to raise the capital required for estab-
lishing the line without material aid from the governments direct-
ly interested.

Memorialist is therefore led to look to your Majesty and the
United States government for assistance in carrying out this great
undertaking, and, having taken counsel of his associates in former
telegraphic enterprises as to the best means of effecting the desired
object in the shortest time, he respectfully submits to your Majesty
the following project:

1. That the proposed Pacific telegraph line should be estab-
lished by a company formed by responsible persons experienced
in telegraphic business, under the sanction and supervision of
your Majesty’s government and the government of the United
States of America.

2. That the respective governments should each appoint a
permanent director of the company.

g. That the course of the line, its termini and stations, and
other needful arrangements be determined under the joint ap-
proval of the official directors representing the two governments.

4. That each government should guarantee for twenty-five
years interest at three per cent. per annum on the cost of the
line, the net receipts for each year (after providing for mainten-
ance and repairs) being applied pro rata in relief of the guaran-
tees.

5. That one-half net profits above six per cent. per annum be
set apart as a sinking fund for return of capital, and the balance
divided equally between the stockholders and the government.

6. That at the end of twenty-five years of guarantee the com-
pany shall retain the cable and other property, but without any
exclusive right.

Memorialist believes that with such assistance as is indicated
above the cables could be made and laid within three years.

The following eminent citizens of the United States have ex-
pressed their willingness to join memorialist in this important
enterprise:

Peter Cooper, Prof. S. F. B. Morse,
Moses ‘Taylor, Dudley Field,
Marshall O. Roberts, Wm. H. Webb,
Wilson G. Hunt, Darius Ogden Mills.

Memorialist now humbly seeks your Majesty’s approval of the

220 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

above project, believing that if so approved the government of
the United States will give their concurrence, and that the work
will be speedily accomplished.
Cyrus W. Field
of New York.

Once more back at Gramercy Park, Field thought of some
additional aspects of the Russian proposal that he should have
included in his letter. For example, he was willing to agree
not to kill seals or deal in furs in Russian territory. To ob-
viate controversy with Japan, he would avoid the disputed
island of Saghalien (or Sakhalin). The amount of money re-
quired should be limited. With these provisions in mind, he
wrote again to the Grand Duke Constantine, as follows, urg-
ing a prompt answer:

Gramercy Park,
New York, 19th September, 1871.

Sir,—Referring to my personal interviews with you, and to my
letter of 11th ultimo, in which I enclosed a memorial to His
Majesty the Emperor of Russia respecting the establishment of a
submarine telegraph cable between Russia and the United States
of America, I now beg respectfully to submit to your Imperial
Highness the following modifications of the propositions con-
tained in that memorial, which I think will commend themselves
to your good judgment:

1. The proposed guarantee of three per cent. not to commence
until the day the cable is completed and in successful working
order.

2. The amount of capital guaranteed not to exceed £3,000,000.

3. The company to bind itself not to kill seals, nor to deal in
furs on any portion of Russian territory.

4. The cable not to be landed on the island of Saghalien.

5. In the event of any dispute arising between the cable com-
pany and any subject of His Imperial Majesty, the question to be
referred to the Russian courts. In disputes between the cable com-
pany and American citizens, the courts of the United States to
have sole jurisdiction.

May I respectfully solicit your Imperial Highness to take these

EYES ON THE PACIFIC 221

proposed modifications into your consideration, and, should they
meet with your approval, I would beg the favor of your laying
them before His Majesty the Emperor, with such suggestions as
may seem to you advisable.

It is important that I should know the views of His Imperial
Majesty’s government at the earliest moment, as the Congress of
the United States meets on the first Monday in December.

I beg again to express my sincere thanks for the great kindness
shown to myself by your Imperial Highness, and for the interest
you have taken in the subject I have so much at heart.

I have the honor to subscribe myseif,
With great respect,
Your Imperial Highness’s most obedient servant,
Cyrus W. Field.

For a mere American business-man to expect cooperation
from the slow-moving and complicated Russian Government
was perhaps a forlorn hope. Field may have been unduly ex-
alted by the official greetings and royal glamour that he ex-
perienced in Russia, without sensing that it was largely empty
show with little significance. Still, Russia had helped Morse
and had shown gratitude for the advantages of the telegraph.
Moreover, Perry McDonough Collins had obtained coopera-
tion from Russian bureaucrats in his scheme for an overland
telegraph to connect Asia and America; in fact, he had nego-
tiated successfully through the same Grand Duke Constan-
tine, who, as General Admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy,
understood the need for communication by cable.

The enormous distances and lack of railroads throughout
the great Russian empire had made its government ready to
adopt the telegraph, which was particularly convenient in
helping to quell insurrections. The problem of a six-thou-
sand-mile ocean cable, however, costing fifteen million dol-
lars was too much for the Russians, and they manifested small
interest in Field’s memorial. He visited Russia again in the
winter of 1872 but was discouraged by the apathy of the of-
ficials. ‘The phlegmatic Russian temperament was too much

222 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

for his eager and energetic nature. In the autumn of 1873 a
financial panic began in America.

Nevertheless, the prospect of a Pacific cable by way of
Hawaii still held attractions. Field even selected a sandy
beach a few miles south of San Francisco as a terminus. The
Hawaiian Government made him alluring promises at first,
recognizing the prestige of his Atlantic success, but up to 1879
granted no definite concessions that would enable anyone to
proceed with assurance. In that year, he received the follow-
ing letter from the influential Yankee politician, Elisha Al-
len, who was acting as agent for the “King of the Sandwich
Islands”:

Hawaiian Legation, March 10, 1879.

Sir,—The twenty-fifth anniversary of the formation of the com-
pany for laying the Atlantic cable seems an appropriate occasion
for giving an impulse to the great work of extending a cable
across the Pacific.

I am sure that you will not be satisfied with anything less than
a cable round the world.

The Hawaiian Islands have a very central position for the
navigation of the North Pacific. They are a great resort for the
naval and mercantile marine of the commercial countries.

His Majesty the King has long realized the great importance
of a submarine cable to his kingdom, as well as to all nations
whose vessels and citizens visit there, and has authorized me, by
advice of his Cabinet, to grant you, your associates and assigns,
the exclusive privilege of landing a submarine cable or cables
on any of the Hawaiian Islands, and for using the same for con-
nection with the United States, or any other country, and cross-
ing any or all of the silands, and this for the period of twenty-five
years.

Any land which you may find necessary to have for any of these
purposes will be furnished by the government free of expense to
you, not intended to include land for offices or houses.

It is to be understood that if you do not within five years begin
the construction of the cable necessary to connect the islands with
the United States, and establish the connection within ten years,
this grant is to cease.

EYES ON THE PACIFIC 223

The King and Cabinet, having the greatest confidence in your
ability and energy, anticipate the completion of the cable to the
islands at an early day.

I have the honor to be, sir,
With great respect,
Your obedient servant,
Elisha H. Allen.
His Hawaiian Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni-
potentiary.

Hawaii's Government had been in a confused state since
1874, when King Lunalilo died leaving no children, so that
dynastic troubles arose. Order had to be restored by the joint
forces of England and the United States, and tendencies fa-
vored annexation by the latter country. Field was cheered by
the new developments. He wrote to Allen as follows:

_ Plenipotentiary.
New York, May 17, 1879.
Dear Judge Allen,—I sail for Europe on Wednesday next, the
21st instant, and shall be absent five weeks from this city. During
my visit there I shall confer with my friends in regard to the Pa-
cific cable, and I am willing to head a subscription list with my
own subscription of one hundred thousand dollars.
I shall be happy to confer with you on my return to this country.
I have had a bill introduced into Congress granting permission
to land and operate cables in the United States, which I hope will
pass during this session.
With great respect,
I remain, dear Judge Allen,
Very truly your friend,
Cyrus W. Field.

The United States was just emerging from the strangling
effects of the financial depression that had begun in 1873.
The nation’s business had almost stopped. Field’s own for-
tunes had suffered with others, and in 1879 he lost a large
amount from Samuel J. Tilden’s manipulation of elevated-
railway stock, which Field had sponsored and of which he
was a large holder. Nevertheless he continued to work for a

224 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

Pacific cable. The officials at Washington were not inclined
to incur large financial responsibilities for a cable to Asia.
They inquired about costs. Field asked British contractors
to estimate on manufacturing and laying a cable to Hawaii,
thence one to Japan and one to Australia by way of the Fiji
Islands and New Caledonia.

His position was that of adviser rather than active pro-
moter, as he had already experienced enough worry over one
such enterprise. In the summer of 1880, he sent a list of sug-
gestions to those favorable to the project in Washington.
These suggestions were as follows:

1. That the United States government obtain from some emi-
nent electrician specifications for the best description of cable
suitable for the great depths and the great lengths required to
connect the western with the eastern coasts of the Pacific.

2. That the government advertise for tenders to manufacture
and lay such description of cable, one-fourth the amount to be
paid when the cables are all manufactured, one-fourth when they
are on board the steamers and the steamers ready to sail, one-
fourth when the cables have been successfully laid, and the re-
maining fourth when they have been worked successfully and
without interruption for thirty days.

By adopting this course I think you would obtain a good cable
at the lowest price.

The government could pay for such a cable by selling its four
per cent. bonds, having a long time to run, at a considerable
premium; and the revenue from such a cable would, in my opin-
ion, steadily increase from year to year, and at no distant day be
a source of revenue to the country.

Have you ever written to the American ministers in Japan and
China on the subject? If the United States government desired it,
and took the proper steps, I think that England, Russia, France,
Japan, and China would each do something towards encouraging
the enterprise.

Apparently the heavy losses that the nation had suffered
in the financial depression, and the uncertainties of the polit-
ical outlook both at Washington and Honolulu, combined

EYES ON THE PACIFIC 225

to dampen the enthusiasm of capitalists and politicians who
originally favored a Pacific cable. The terms of the Hawaiian
offer, as stated in Judge Allen’s letter of March 10, 1879, re-
quired that if actual construction of a cable to Hawaii was
not started within five years, the offer became invalid. Field
gave the project all the encouragement that he felt justified
in giving. In 1880 and 1881, when he and his wife traveled
around the world, he spoke in favor of a cable in the Pacific
ports that he visited, but received polite speeches rather than
concrete help.

As the years went on, Field tried to revive negotiations for
the laying of a cable at least as far as Hawaii. In 1884 he esti-
mated that this two-thousand-mile line—about the length of
the Newfoundland cable—would cost three million dollars.
In later years the revival of this project had political compli-
cations, for in 1898 Hawaii was annexed to the United States.
The publicity that Field had given the islands helped in dem-
onstrating their importance to the politicians at Washington,
who assisted in their annexation, very much as Perry Mc-
Donough Collins’ project for an overland telegraph to Siberia
by way of Bering Strait advertised Alaska to the United States
Government, which thereupon bought the territory from
Russia.

Eventually Pacific cables were laid along the routes that
Field had suggested, and the technique that made them pos-
sible was the consequence of the experimental work that he
had organized for the Atlantic cables. ‘The men who toiled
through Newfoundland fogs and grappled in Atlantic seas
led the way for the linking of all continents by “whispering
wires.” ‘They were the pioneers who demonstrated what could
be done.

A striking demonstration of the conquest of the world by
the telegraph was staged in 1871 in New York. Field’s old
friend, the one-time artist and professor, Samuel Finley
Breese Morse, died in 1872, at the age of eighty-one. About a

226 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

year before the old inventor’s death, a statue of him was un-
veiled in Central Park. It had been paid for partly by dollar
subscriptions from telegraph operators in the United States
and Canada. The unveiling had been planned for Morse’s
eightieth birthday but was delayed several weeks. Very few
statues are erected to men still alive, so that the occasion was
unusual. Morse was invited to attend but declined from
modesty. ‘The speech of William Cullen Bryant, presenting
the statue to the city, was somewhat exaggerated. He said in
part: “Every telegraph station is a memorial. . . . Every
telegraph wire strung from post to post, as it hums in the
wind, murmurs his eulogy. Every sheaf of wires laid down in
the deep sea, occupying the bottom of soundless abysses to
which human sight has never penetrated, is a testimonial to
his greatness. . . . The whole world itself has become his
monument.’

That evening a stirring ceremony was conducted in the
Academy of Music. A table on the stage held the original
instrument used on the first line, from Washington to Balti-
more. This was connected with telegraph lines extending to
distant cities. At nine o’clock it was announced that all lines
were clear for the farewell message of the inventor to his chil-
dren—thousands of operators waiting everywhere. An at-
tractive girl operator sent the message, to which Morse him-
self added his own name by manipulating the key in the dots
and dashes of the Morse code.

As the white-whiskered old man was escorted to the table,
tremendous applause burst forth. When he had clicked out
the letters of his name, the crowd arose and cheered deafen-
ingly. Morse was almost overcome and buried his head in his
hands.

Then came the answers from telegraph stations all over the
world—New Orleans, Quebec, San Francisco, Halifax, Ha-
vana, Bombay, Hongkong, and Singapore. It was a convinc-
ing demonstration of man’s triumph over nature. In Morse’s

EYES ON THE PACIFIC 2217

valedictory, he expressed. credit to Alfred Vail, Professor
Leonardo D. Gale of New York University, Ezra Cornell,
Volta, Oersted, Arago, Henry, Cyrus Field, and others.

Morse and Field were sincere friends. Both sons of New
England clergymen of the old school, they had received simi-
lar upbringings in the puritanical tradition. Both had
achieved early small successes and had then experienced tre-
mendous difficulties and discouragement. After long strug-
gles, both had become famous—almost household words
throughout the world. Both had traveled so much that they
had developed international views. They agreed on many
important questions, such as the use of the telegraph to pro-
mote peace. Field named one of his sons Edward Morse Field.

When Field was disposed to mix with the prominent New
Yorkers of the period succeeding the Civil War, he strolled
the few blocks from his house to Madison Square, where the
Fifth Avenue Hotel had become a noted meeting place for
leading citizens. During the war this white-marble edifice
was the headquarters for Northern patriots intent on pre-
serving the Union. Among the well-known persons who gath-
ered there were William Cullen Bryant, Horace Greeley, and
Thurlow Weed (influential journalists); Commodore Van-
derbilt, Jay Gould, Daniel Drew, James Fisk Jr., and Ham-
ilton Fish (powerful capitalists); Boss ‘Tweed, Samuel J. Til-
den, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester A. Arthur, Roscoe Conkling,
and James G. Blaine (politicians and statesmen). Other ce-
lebrities who dropped in were Henry Ward Beecher, the elo-
quent preacher; General John A. Dix, famous for his tele-
gram, “If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag,
shoot him on the spot”; and Mark Twain, living then at
Hartford. Not all these men, of course, were friends; in fact,
there were some bitter enmities among them.

For a quarter of a century this hotel was a rendezvous for
prominent Republicans; important political conferences
were held there. The plan to make Grant president in 1868

228 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

originated in its rooms. Even at the end of the century, the
plan to make Theodore Roosevelt an unwilling vice-presi-
dent was said to have had the same place of origin. ‘Tom
Platt, dictatorial political boss, used to hold forth in the
“amen corner’ of this hotel.

During the period when Field used to stroll into the Fifth
Avenue Hotel, its standard charge for a room and a day’s
meals was two and a half dollars. Four meals a day were
served, and the guests were seated at one long table. A guest
could bring a friend to a meal without extra charge; in fact,
as the hotel was supposed to be a home, a guest was expected
to have occasional friends call upon him. Hospitality was the
order of the day, and the American scene was less compli-
cated than in modern times.

Shortly after the Civil War, the section of New York at
Madison Square, where Fifth Avenue crosses Broadway, be-
gan classifying itself with the Rue de la Paix and the Suez
canal among the great cross-roads of the world. Fashion and
trade met at Fifth Avenue and Twenty-Third street—close to
the Field home. This was the era of whiskers for men and
enormous hoop-skirts for women. These adornments sym-
bolized the respectability and elegance of the Victorians; they
protected the masculine face and the feminine figure from
depreciating criticism and vulgar contacts. It is a relief to
note, however, that Cyrus Field, although he wore whiskers,
was always natural and unaffected—never stodgy or smug.

Chapter Sixteen

PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZEN

WHEN FIELD was in London in December, 1872, Junius Mor-
gan of the well-known American banking family asked him
to have a look at the Cesnola collection of antiquities from
Cyprus, which island had not yet been taken over from the
Turks by the British. These antiquities, which illustrate the
ancient arts and industries of the eastern Mediterranean, had
been excavated by General (formerly Count) di Cesnola,
American consul in Cyprus. They were of great value to stu-
dents of the history and culture of Phoenician, Cypriote, and
Greek mythology; in particular, the island had been the site
of the most famous temple dedicated to Venus, goddess of
love.

General di Cesnola offered some of the early relics for sale
in Paris in 1870, but the full value of the collection was not
appreciated until he shipped his most important finds to
London and published an album of photographs. News of
the collection reached America, and the director of the
newly-formed Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
wrote to Junius Morgan in London asking whether the col-
lection could not be secured for the United States, where
classical studies—especially archeology—needed encourage-
ment. The problem was to find public-spirited Americans
who would contribute funds to buy the antiquities. Publi-
city was needed.

Although Field was not a patron of art, he interested him-
self in the matter; perhaps the name Cyprus (so like his own)
attracted him. He looked up General di Cesnola and intro-
duced him to Gladstone, Lord Granville, Dean Stanley of
Westminster, and the American minister in London, Charles

229

230 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

Francis Adams. In accordance with the custom of the period,
he gave a dinner party in honor of the General, and brought
visitors to see the Cypriote antiquities. Articles began to ap-
pear in the newspapers about the collection. Gladstone, who
was then Prime Minister, declared that the Cesnola finds were
particularly important to students of the classics. ‘The British
Museum offered ten thousand pounds for part of the collec-
tion.

Field drove General di Cesnola to Morgan’s office, and pa-
triotically suggested an immediate purchase for the Metro-
politan Museum of New York. Morgan agreed, and a part
payment was made. The total paid for the collection was
sixty thousand dollars, of which Field contributed a thousand
and other Americans similar amounts. The collection formed
the nucleus for an important department at the Museum. A
book about the Cesnola antiquities was later written by John
L. Myres, professor of ancient history at Oxford.

It must be confessed, however, that Field knew little of
art. In this respect he was a typical American, who (as Theo-
dore Roosevelt said) is apt to be inartistic. Field’s house at
Ardsley, for example, was essentially Victorian in its design
and, fortunately, is no longer standing. Field was later criti-
cized for putting elevated railways in New York’s streets.
Like most Americans of his time, he favored utility rather
than esthetics.

In the autumn of 1873, Field was in New York when a
financial panic that paralyzed American business began. Like
most other observers in that and other panics, he believed
that it was only a temporary reaction and that in a few days
all would be well. In the numerous cablegrams that he sent
to his British associates, he stated his day-by-day opinions on
conditions in New York.

Thus on September 19 he cabled: “Great panic here in
money market.” The failure of the firm of Jay Cooke & Com-

4

TO GRAPPLE FOR LOST CABLE

PREPARING

PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZEN 231

pany in Philadelphia had started a collapse. On the follow-
ing day he advised: “‘Confidently believed, reliable quarter,
government will take measures relieve market before Mon-
day, but thus far panic has exceeded anything ever known.”
This panic had really begun in Vienna in the preceding May;
it spread next to the United States, then back to Europe. It
lasted several years. Field had experienced the long panic of
1837 but had been too young to understand it. The over-
done expansion of the post-war period had brought no warn-
ing for him. His naturally optimistic nature made it difficult
for him to comprehend the depressing factors that breed sus-
picion and fear, and he totally failed to understand the psy-
chology of Wall Street operators who could capitalize panic
and make money by smashing stocks down. This last charac-
teristic was later to cost him the fortune that he had built up
during a life of hard work.

Six weeks later he cabled: ‘‘Most of the firms that have sus-
pended are those that have been doing too much business for
their capital, but confidence is so shaken that many stocks are
being sold at whatever they will bring. Think perhaps have
seen worse, but don’t yet see signs of permanent improve-
ment.” Another message was: ‘““Western Union sold before
panic at ninety. Has sold in last few days less than forty-four.”
This depreciation was, of course, moderate compared with
the low figures ultimately reached. A terrible retribution
was upon the nation for a false scale of values and too much
materialism.

The distress caused by the depression aroused Congress in
the spring of 1874 to pass a bill for expansion of the cur-
rency. Leading bankers and capitalists became alarmed at
this threatened dilution of their resources. Meetings were
held in the Eastern cities to protest against the bill and to
petition President Grant to veto it. In New York on April
15, such a meeting was held in Field’s house at Gramercy

222 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

Park. A resolution was adopted to present a petition to the
President bearing the signatures of twenty-five hundred
leading bankers and business firms of New York City.

On the committee in charge of this petition besides Field
were John Jacob Astor, Ethan Allen, August Belmont, W.
M. Evarts, Wilson G. Hunt, W. H. Macy, Marshall O. Rob-
erts, A. T. Stewart, Jonathan Sturges, Moses Taylor, and J.
A. Agnew. Several of these men were old associates of Field.
A delegation from the committee, including Field, took the
petition to Washington and conferred with President Grant.
The bill was vetoed.

A letter received at this time from Gladstone is interesting
as showing that, at the end of his first term as Prime Minister,
he believed that the closing period of his life (he was then
sixty-five) would be “‘spent in freedom from political commo-
tion.” Little did he realize that at three later periods he
would again be Prime Minister; that in fact he had scarcely
begun his political career. Gladstone’s rival, Disraeli, who
now became Prime Minister, was seventy and was also to be
Prime Minister again at a later period. England apparently
trained her leaders thoroughly before entrusting power to
them. Gladstone’s letter was as follows:

11 Carlton House Terrace,
March 31, 1874.

My dear Mr. Cyrus Field,-When I was about to thank you for
your kind letter of the 10th, I received that of the 17th announc-
ing to me the funeral of Mr. C. Sumner, and the great manifesta-
tion of feeling which it called forth.

His loss must be heavily felt, and his name will long be re-
membered in connection with the abolition of slavery, which was
wrought out in the United States by methods so wonderful and so
remote from the general expectation.

As respects events in this country, they have brought about for
me a great and personally not an acceptable change. I have al-
ways desired earnestly that the closing period of my life might be
spent in freedom from political commotion, and I have plenty of

PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZEN 233

work cut out for me in other regions of a more free and open
atmosphere.

As respects the political position, it has been one perfectly hon-
orable for us, inasmuch as we are dismissed for or upon having
done what we undertook or were charged to do; and as respects
the new ministry, they show at present a disposition to be quiet.

Believe me, my dear Mr. Field,

Yours very faithfully,
W. E. Gladstone.

After a trip to California with his wife and a party of
friends, Field sailed once again for England in June of 1874.
Having heard of a special celebration in Iceland, he resolved
to satisfy an old curiosity to visit this island of the North At-
lantic, south of which he had passed so often in his cable voy-
ages, and which had once been given consideration as a half-
way station for an Atlantic cable. During that summer, the
people of Iceland were celebrating a thousand years of settle-
ment of the island, and a royal party from Denmark was ex-
pected.

An American journalist, Murat Halstead, had been invited
by Field to meet him in London and accompany a select party
to Iceland. Somewhat jokingly Halstead called on Field at
the Buckingham Palace Hotel. To his surprise he found a
party really organizing to go, including several scientists and
the noted author Bayard Taylor, who was to describe the
millennial celebration for the New York Tribune. The party
chartered a tiny steam yacht, instead of taking the monthly
boat from Copenhagen that stopped at Leith in Scotland.
The registered tonnage of the little vessel in which they
braved the sub-arctic seas was less than a hundred fifty tons.

Before sailing, Field and Halstead toured the Highlands
and met the others at Aberdeen, where the regulations re-
quired that they all enlist as British seamen, to be paid a
shilling each for the voyage. Field enrolled as electrician.
Stops were made at the Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe Islands;
at the last place they met the fleet of the Danish king. After a

234 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

trip of great interest but some hardship—it has been described
in a book by Taylor—they landed in state and visited the
island’s geysers and volcanic relics, attracting almost as much
attention as the royal party. The Icelanders wondered
whether this lean Yankee promoter, of whose exploits they
had heard with special interest, was going to lay a new cable
across the Atlantic by way of their island. Such, however, was
not the purpose of the visit. It was merely Field’s method of
relaxation to test his energy by new explorations.

The visit to Iceland gave a temporary respite from the pes-
simism that was now prevalent in the United States, where
the building of railroads had been overdone. The depression
manifested itself in closed factories and banks. The centen-
nial celebration of American independence was held at Phil-
adelphia in the midst of gloom and apprehension. Among
the exhibits was Alexander Graham Bell’s toy and novelty,
the “talking telegraph,” later called the telephone. His ef-
forts to sell stock in what afterward became the greatest cor-
poration in the world were met by skepticism and rebuffs.
This was the beginning of the Bell system, later absorbed
into the American Telephone & ‘Telegraph Company.

In contrast with the apathy and fear of other capitalists,
Field retained his characteristic courage and cheerfulness dur-
ing the depression. He had seen some bad days himself when
his cables snapped and dropped to the bottom of the ocean.
This boundless energy, coupled with his innate optimism and
lack of guile, was, unfortunately, to bring disaster to his later
years. Once more back in the United States he looked about
for opportunities for public service. The depression in in-
dustry was deepening, and much suffering was apparent
among the working classes in New York. There was need for
Field’s benevolent leadership.

New York had expanded amazingly in the post-war period
and was growing rapidly uptown. Previous to 1850 the city
was practically all below Fourteenth street. Field’s residence

PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZEN 235

on ‘Twenty-First street was originally in the suburbs, and his
pasturing of a cow in Madison Square indicates the rural
conditions there. As the city extended its streets uptown and
absorbed the villages that had developed on Manhattan
Island, there was need for coordinated municipal planning.
The local politicians of the period, who were particularly
dishonest, seemed incapable of supplying such leadership.
New York was just freeing itself of the rule of Boss Tweed;
this notorious politician was convicted of fraud in the autumn
of 1874 and sentenced to twelve years in prison; he died in
Ludlow Street jail in 1878.

Slums had developed in the downtown sections of the city
because the people who worked there had no dependable
means of transportation that would enable them to live away
from their work. The dreadful epidemics of small pox, yel-
low fever, and cholera that periodically ravaged the congested
sections demonstrated the need for the rapidly-growing city
to spread northward, since, being an island, it could not grow
in any other direction. ‘The population was now over a mil-
lion and rising rapidly.

The uptown stretches of Manhattan that had been dotted
by farms, villages, and scattered taverns and stores—many of
them disreputable and disgraceful—were altering into city
squares. Shantytowns and squatters’ settlements had occu-
pied some of the most desirable locations, especially in and
around Central Park. In the ill-kept streets were pigs, goats,
and piles of rubbish. A unifying system of development was
needed.

New York’s requirements for rapid transit then, as now,
were perennially ahead of fulfillment. Delays have been so
customary in supplying transportation that by the time a new
system is built, there is need of additional service. Traffic
jams characterized New York’s growth since the Erie canal
gave the impetus for the city to excel its rivals along the At-
lantic seaboard. ‘To be a New Yorker meant to be elbowed

236 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

and delayed in the passage from home to business. There was
some talk of a subway, but several decades were to pass before
this materialized.

A new method was tried shortly after the Civil War. A
short elevated railway from the Battery to Cortlandt street
was opened as early as 1868 and was later extended through
Greenwich Village. By 1876 the line had been completed
along Ninth Avenue uptown to Sixty-First street, and trains
ran once or twice an hour in each direction. The early cars
were pulled by cables wound from drums, and the stub ends
of the rails at the terminals were turned up in a curve to pre-
vent any running-over. This infrequent service aroused
little enthusiasm, although the promoters had talked of ex-
tending the line to Yonkers. The company finally went
bankrupt, and the service ceased.

Cyrus Field, in the intervals between European jaunts, had
witnessed the city’s astonishing growth from the great fire of
1835 to the post-war expansion. From his home on East
Twenty-First street, he had seen the rows of buildings extend
farther and farther uptown until, from living in the suburbs
near a cow pasture, he was hemmed in by sedate, brownstone
developments that reflected the smug taste of the Victorian
era. Gramercy Park, long an aristocratic center, became an
island surrounded by neighborhoods of mixed and changing
character.

Some of the curious old horse-cars that aided New Yorkers
to get about ran near Field’s home. ‘The New York & Harlem
railroad changed from horse power to steam power, as did
the other pioneer railroads, but antiquated horse-cars re-
mained on New York’s streets until long past the coming of
electric traction. Rich people did not have to patronize such
crowded common-carriers, since they possessed carriages. But
many public-spirited citizens, like Field, were concerned at
the lack of dependable transportation for workmen who must
maintain families on the low wages then prevalent.

PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZEN 237)

Half-a-dozen miles north of the city, the village of Harlem
had been expanding steadily along the valley of the Harlem
River since early Dutch times and was now well grown. Ob-
viously the natural direction of expansion for New York was
northward to include Harlem. The surface lines of the New
York & Harlem railroad, which had been absorbed by the
New York Central, gave inadequate service for commuters
and the poorer classes.

Apparently the city had reached the limit of the growth pos-
sible by the slow horse-cars, the omnibuses, and the surface
steam-lines with their interference of the life in the streets.
For several years there had been efforts to build and operate
an elevated railway over the heads of pedestrians on the
streets in order to avoid traffic delays. A trial had been made
in putting up the “steel stilt” railway on Ninth Avenue on
the west side, and a franchise had been granted for an east-
side line on Third Avenue near Field’s home. There were
attempts also to build lines on Second and Sixth Avenues.
But many difficulties had been encountered, and only short
sections of lines were in prospect, with no unified system and
without adequate finances. Severe legal difficulties were
threatening, and the terrifying depression from which the
nation was just emerging had made investors exceedingly
cautious. The financial hurricane had wrought havoc in
values and had deadened initiative.

‘There was need for a public-spirited promoter to complete
and unify the elevated lines—a broad-minded man in whom
the people would have confidence. Field, although nearing
sixty, decided to supply this leadership. As with the cable
project of twenty-odd years before, he did not foresee the
complicated difficulties that would be met. As with his en-
tanglement in the firm of E. Root & Company, which over-
shadowed his early married life, he did not realize what he
was getting into.

The New York Elevated Railroad Company, which had

238 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

been granted a franchise for a Third Avenue line, was badly
in debt. The creditors were not even hopeful of getting their
money back. Field had seen similar situations in his mercan-
tile experiences and had definite views about how to proceed.
After careful consideration, he formulated a liberal and
courageous offer.

He expressed himself as willing to acquire control of the
elevated company and serve as its president without salary,
as he had served in the cable-laying. But first he wanted it
free of all hampering debts and insisted that future outlays
must be for sound values and paid in cash. He favored can-
celing a contract calling for over a million dollars a mile in
cost of construction—a price obviously too high and sugges-
tive of under-cover deals. The city had been undergoing an
epidemic of graft and dishonesty. It seemed to Field that, in
view of the uncertainty of the creditors’ recovering their in-
vestment, they should be willing to accept sixty cents on the
dollar in the form of bonds. He hoped that the directors,
being influential men, would agree to such a proposal and
accept bonds for the debts due them.

Something of the moral spirit and resounding phrases of
the period is indicated by an address about the elevated rail-
way made before the New York Historical Society at the
Academy of Music by a leading lawyer, Charles O’Conor, the
same man who had once ridiculed the cable. He declared
grandiloquently: “It is said, and doubtless with truth, that
the great cities have hitherto been destroyers of the human
race. A single American contrivance promises to correct the
mischief. The cheap and rapid transportation of passengers
on the elevated rail, when its capacity shall have been fully
developed, will give healthful and pleasant homes in rural
territory to the toiling millions of our commercial and manu-
facturing centres. It will snatch their wives and children from
tenement-house horrors, and, by promoting domesticity,
greatly diminish the habits of intemperance and vice so liable

PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZEN 239

to be forced upon the humbler classes or nurtured in them
by the present concomitants of their city life.” The word
“concomitants” symbolizes the contemporary fondness for
big words.

In the spring of 1877, Field took up the matter in his usual
energetic and persuasive manner. Early in June he organized
a meeting of all persons interested in the city’s need for rapid
transit and invited typical leaders in public affairs to be pres-
ent. The poet and editor, William Cullen Bryant, now well
past eighty years old, replied as follows:

The Evening Post,
New York, June 4, 1877.
To Cyrus W. Field, Esq.:

I cannot be present at the meeting to be held this evening at
Chickering Hall, but I am heartily with you and your friends in
the object of the meeting. I hope that a decided expression will
be given to the conviction that an absolute necessity has arisen of
instituting some method of conveying passengers between the
upper and lower parts of the city which shall unite the greatest
convenience with the utmost possible speed.

Yours faithfully,
Wm. C. Bryant.

There was opposition to Field’s plans from capitalists as-
sociated with the railroads already operating from the Grand
Central station and supplying service to Harlem. In reply, he
pointed out that the elevated railway, starting from South
Ferry on the tip of Manhattan, would pass the East River
ferries on the way northward to the Bowery and Third Ave-
nue, and would pick up and bring many passengers from
downtown and Brooklyn to the Grand Central station. This
would be a benefit to the three railroads using that station.
In fact one reason for building the Third Avenue line was to
connect the Ninth Avenue line with the East River ferries
and the Grand Central.

Field’s attitude in this project, as in the cable work, was
simple and direct. He felt that he was doing the public a

240 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

service, and he appealed for support. His own remuneration
was to come in the enhanced value of the stock he had taken
over—a perfectly honest and straightforward reward. As
president of the company, he forwent a salary and disdained
byplays of stock-juggling. As events afterwards proved, his
attitude was too naive and sincere. Predatory financial ope-
rators are inclined to take advantage of incorruptible pro-
moters, whose moves are easy to anticipate because they fight
fairly.

One of the most difficult obstacles in the early stages of the
company’s development was the opposition of property-
owners to the construction of an elevated railway in the
street just outside their upstairs windows. This opposition is
easy to understand. The noise, the smoke, the jar, and the
deprivation of light and privacy were serious reasons for pro-
test. Most residents and owners of real estate along the route
naturally objected to such an unpleasant demonstration of
the machine age a few feet from their property.

The property-owners used every legal means at their dis-
posal to prevent the company’s use of the streets. ‘They pre-
sented a strong and reasonable argument. Field recognized
their position, but pleaded for the public’s right to rapid and
efficient transit and the needs of the rapidly-growing city. A
system of elevated railways, he declared, was exactly what the
haphazard settlements on the island should possess to bind
them together into a great and prosperous metropolis. The
issue was threshed out in the courts. ‘The elevated company
won an important victory, and a significant precedent was
established for the common good as opposed to private rights.
As events afterward proved, the building of the elevated sys-
tem brought a real-estate boom in which many property-
owners made a fortune.

During a year and a half of intensive effort, much progress
was made. In the autumn of 1878, Field was able to report
to the directors of the company as follows: “It is not eighteen

PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZEN 241

months since I purchased from some of your then directors
a majority of the stock of your company at such a price that
today it sells for more than five times as much as it cost me;
and at the same time I bought from the same parties a very
large amount of bonds, and today they sell for more than
double what they cost me, including seven per cent. interest
to date. ‘The above stock and bonds I purchased on the ex-
press condition that the contracts of the company with cer-
tain parties to build this road for one million two hundred
thousand dollars per mile, payable one-half in stock and the
balance in first mortgage bonds of this company at par, should
be cancelled. ‘The amount that has been saved to this com-
pany by the cancelling of this contract you all well know.”

This optimistic report might lead a reader to infer that
building and operating of the elevated railways had been an
easy job. It was quite the contrary. Problems were met that
today would seem impossible but were very real at the time.
Many people, for example, were at first afraid to ride so high
in the air and predicted terrible calamities from collapse of
the supporting columns or derailments that would hurl train-
loads of screaming passengers upon traffic below. ‘To counter-
act this attitude, the company induced prominent leaders in
public life to sanction the elevated system by taking ostenta-
tious rides on it, so that the faint-hearted would summon
courage and try a chance in the air. Fashionable ladies helped
to set the style. For many years, steam locomotives were used
to haul the trains, as electric motors had not been perfected;
and live coals and hot water were dropped on pedestrians
and horses in the streets. ‘The smoke belching from the loco-
motives blew in the windows of indignant housewives or
blackened laundry hung out to dry. It even penetrated the
veils of lady passengers and left patterns of soot on their faces.

As might be expected from a public-service corporation
operating in a large city, there were recurrent troubles with
the workmen. After the Civil War, wages and the cost of liv-

242 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

ing experienced a steady decline. As the evil effects of the de-
pression of 1873 wore away, however, a new prosperity de-
veloped. ‘The propaganda of labor unions began to influence
employees everywhere, and demands were made to better the
conditions of work and the schedule of wages.

When the elevated railway had built up its position as the
most important factor in the transportation of the city’s mil-
lions, the employees realized the essential part which they
played in municipal economics. In particular, the trained
and skilled engineers deemed themselves a vital element in
New York’s daily drama of the streets. They went on strike,
and troubles loomed. Field met a deputation of the men and
effected a quick agreement, so that the public would not be
inconvenienced by lack of its customary service. Later, he in-
vited some of the employees to a dinner at his Gramercy Park
residence, where they listened with interest to a speech by
the aged Peter Cooper, who told them of the city as it had
been in 1800, when he was a boy nine years of age.

Years later, one of the men involved in the strike negotia-
tions, William McDowell, wrote of Field’s treatment of these
employees in an article in Harper’s Magazine shortly after
Field’s death. This account is interesting as showing early
social conditions in New York. The article said in part: “At
the time of the strike of the engineers on the elevated road in
New York I had a part in bringing the representatives of the
engineers and the late Cyrus W. Field, a director in the ele-
vated company, to a meeting that resulted in a quick under-
standing between the conflicting interests and an ending of
the strike. Mr. Field was so pleased with the fairness of the
committee representing the engineers with whom he had to
deal that he invited them at once to dine with him at Del-
monico’s, an invitation which their representatives declined
for them, fearing that its acceptance might be misunderstood.
Mr. Field, however, continued to feel that he wished to ex-
tend some social courtesy to the employees of the elevated

PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZEN 243

road, and at a later date, when he was all-powerful in that
corporation, he issued a formal invitation to the employees
to a reception at his house. To a large number the initials
‘R. S. V. P.’ on the lower corner of the invitation were a great
mystery, and, as the story goes, the invited compared notes
and sought an explanation of them. At last one bright young
man announced that he had discovered what they meant, and
he explained to the others that ‘R. S. V. P.’ stood for ‘Reduced
salaries very probable.’ ”

Obviously, Field did much for the development of New
York’s transportation system, at a critical time when the
city’s irregular growth needed just the impetus and unifying
influence that well-managed elevated railways could supply.
He worked for the benefit of the people of the city; in fact,
he aroused resentment among financiers who had selfish aims
to accomplish. For example, as soon as he deemed the con-
dition of the operating company warranted it, he advocated
reducing the fare from ten to five cents for all hours of the
day, so that a poor man using the line would not be charged
more than he could afford. At that time twenty cents a day
for transportation was a laborer’s income for an hour’s work.

There were other complications to engage Field’s atten-
tion. In addition to the Third Avenue and Ninth Avenue
lines, elevated lines were also built on Second Avenue and
Sixth Avenue by other promoters. All these lines, including
Field’s were leased by a third corporation, the Manhattan
Company. This operating company had been promoted
partly by Samuel J. Tilden, a resident of Gramercy Park,
whom Field had interested in his original plans to give New
York an adequate transit system and who had acquired stock
at a very low price per share. Tilden, a former governor of
the state, had really been elected President by the voters of
the nation in 1876, but had been defeated by Hayes in the
electoral college—a contest in which David Dudley Field
acted in a legal capacity for his neighbor. Cyrus Field had en-

244 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

abled ‘Tilden to buy a large block of elevated stock at a bar-
gain, but naturally wished him to hold it until success was
assured.

In 1879, when Field was in Europe, Tilden’s premature
sales of elevated stock on the Exchange broke the price, and
Field had to buy heavily in order to give market support and
allay destructive rumors. In the language of Wall Street,
Tilden “unloaded” his shares to the extent of a million dol-
lars, and Field had to buy to bolster the price. He maintained
that Tilden had given his word not to sell. Naturally when he
returned from Europe, he was no longer a friend to his neigh-
bor, who he considered had betrayed him. There is a statue
of ‘Tilden today on Riverside Drive in New York.

This loss was a severe blow to Field financially. Although
he was a multi-millionaire, a good part of his fortune was “‘on
paper,” that is, in securities that might depreciate in price.
His conscientious efforts to hold up the price of elevated
shares in the face of litigation, “watered” stock, and evil ru-
mors were to have a still more tragic sequel. He was an ex-
ception among the experienced and ruthless capitalists of the
financial district, who operated in that period according to
cut-throat methods.

Since the completion of the cables, Field had varied his
investments by buying coal-mining and railroad stocks, from
both of which he made profits. One of his most profitable
investments was in the Wabash Railway, of which he served
as president for several years until he resigned in 1880. While
working for the completion and organization of this railroad,
he was associated with the well-known financier, Jay Gould,
sometimes styled “‘the little wizard of Wall Street,” although
he was also called other names.

Gould impressed Field, who admired action, and the two
cooperated in organizing the elevated system. The “‘wizard”’
gradually acquired large holdings of elevated stock. In 1882
the public were surprised to see that the Manhattan Company

PUBLIC-SPIRITED CITIZEN 245

was diluting its stock by issuing a large proportion of new
shares. Despite Field’s known probity, this tended to weaken
the confidence of the public in these securities. Later there
came a false rumor that the company’s charter was to be
canceled. ‘The shares that had been quoted around seventy-
five dollars dropped to less than a quarter of that figure. Af-
ter remaining at a low price for a time, they began rising to
their former levels, as the Manhattan Company absorbed its
two parent companies in one of the mergers so common then.
All these fluctuations and complications in the finances of the
elevated railways were part of the new technique of Ameri-
can business that developed so markedly after the Civil War,
when financiers “ran wild” in Wall Street.

When Field advocated a reduction in the fare on the ele-
vated system from ten cents to five cents for all hours of the
day, Gould objected, but Field’s faction still controlled a
majority of the shares. So bitterly did the opposing faction
fight this reduction that a bill had to be passed at Albany to
legalize the action. Governor Grover Cleveland (later Presi-
dent) vetoed the bill. There were high feelings and lingering
resentment from this precedent-setting fight, but the fare was
finally reduced despite all the opposition.

Chapter Seventeen

A NATIONAL BENEFACTOR

Cyrus W. FIELD WAS now a well-known man. His deeds, his
wealth, and the essentially American qualities of his success
had made him a favorite subject for sermons on perseverance
and for articles about the applications of science. A genera-
tion of children had read the jingly stanzas of “How Cyrus
Laid the Cable,’ as printed in the Sanders fourth readers
that were used in hundreds of schools. ‘Thousands of shrill-
voiced youngsters had declaimed the verses that originally ap-
peared in Harper's Weekly:

Twice did his bravest efforts fail,
And yet his mind was stable;

He wan't the man to break his heart
Because he broke his cable... .

Once more they tried—hurrah! hurrah!
What means this great commotion?

The Lord be praised! the cable’s laid
Across the Atlantic Ocean.

Loud ring the bells—for, flashing through
Six hundred leagues of water,

Old Mother England’s benison

Salutes her eldest daughter.

O’er the land the tidings speed,
And soon in every nation

They'll hear about the cable with
Profoundest admiration.

Because of, or despite, this country-wide notoriety, Field
was recognized as a public-spirited capitalist of unusual or-
ganizing ability who was unlike the typical New York pro-
moter or Wall Street operator. There was genuine affection

246

A NATIONAL BENEFACTOR 247

for him as a benefactor of mankind, and a sort of proprietary
respect for his world-wide fame. He was a rich man who had
made his fortune honestly in carrying out a difficult plan by
hard work despite discouraging blows of fate.

There still lingered in the United States, however, an un-
dercurrent of dislike for England and for persons favorable to
that country. ‘This was a relic of the Revolution and the War
of 1812. At times, for example during the strained period of
the Civil War, Field was considered unduly friendly with
the British. His cordial entertainment of European visitors
was not entirely liked by a nation brought up to “beware of
foreign entanglements’ and influenced by orators of “‘spread-
eagle” patriotism.

A number of British and American dignitaries attended a
dinner that Field gave in New York on the twenty-fifth anni-
versary of the first meetings of the New York, Newfoundland
& London Company. This was on March 10, 1879, when a
more hopeful feeling about the country’s financial future was
succeeding the discouraging panic that began in 1873. Sir
James Anderson sent a cablegram pointing out that since Field
began his first promotion, sixty thousand miles of cable had
been laid, at a cost of about a hundred million dollars. He
continued: “Distance has no longer anything to do with com-
merce. The foreign trade of all civilized nations is now be-
coming only an extended home trade; all the old ways of
commerce are changed or changing, creating amongst all
nations a common interest in the welfare of each other.”

Another cablegram, from the Dean of Westminster, Arthur
P. Stanley, called the celebration ‘‘the silver wedding of Eng-
land and America.” It continued: “What God hath joined
together let no man put asunder. . . . Already instantaneous
communication between the Old World and the New has
been consigned to the commonplace book of history. It has
become one of those familiar things which we forget all
about because they are familiar . . . things which are of the

248 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

highest value, but of which it is hard to speak without talking
platitudes.” Already the old difficulties of communication
were being forgotten; after a dozen years of cable service, the
public was taking it for granted—its story was, as the Dean
said, a ‘‘platitude.”’

The Reverend William Adams, old friend of the Fields,
said of the cable at this dinner: “Though the ear catches no
articulate words passing along its quivering strands, yet this
polygot interpreter is speaking now, with tongue of figure,
beneath the astonished sea, in all the languages of the civ-
ilized world.” This was a reminder of the wonder and appre-
ciation that the first cables originally aroused.

The distinguished Victorian churchman, Dean Stanley,
who did so much to make Westminster Abbey a British
shrine, preached in New York during the autumn preceding
this banquet. At that time he visited Ardsley and spoke of the
capture and the heroic death of Major André, which had
taken place in that locality. “The capture of this British spy,
in his effort to negotiate with Benedict Arnold, had taken
place near Tarrytown; the execution had been across the Hud-
son near Washington’s headquarters. The story was that
Washington had closed his shutters in order not to see the
hanging.

The visitors at Field’s house-party proposed that some of
them cross the Hudson to Tappan and endeavor to find the
place of execution. These inquiries near Washington’s re-
puted headquarters failed to reveal the desired information.
At last an aged resident over ninety years old said that he
remembered when the body of André was dug up and taken
to England in 1821. He had stood by when the grave was
opened and had noticed that the roots of an apple tree were
growing over the coffin. The tree was found to be still there.

That evening when the youth and bravery of André were
discussed again, Field impulsively said to Stanley: “Mr. Dean,
if you will write an inscription, I will buy the land and put

A NATIONAL BENEFACTOR 249

?

up a stone.” His purpose was simply to mark an incident
notable in American history. But when the newspaper head-
lines reached the public, their sensational phraseology gave
the impression that Field, an Anglomaniac, was erecting a
monument to a British spy who had worked to make the Rev-
olution a failure. The old “spread-eagle” patriotism was
whipped up and resentment flamed against him who had
been “gallant Cyrus.’’ It was one of the ‘“‘tempests in a tea-
pot” that Americans welcome for excitement.

Dean Stanley was astonished at such a reaction. He wrote:
“Tf you find that there is really a feeling against it, pray do
not think of it. The game is not worth the candle. Poor
Major André, engaging as he was, is not worth rekindling of
forgotten animosities.”

With his customary perseverance, Field continued with
his plans. He tried to get the New York Historical Society
to cooperate and give the monument the aspect of an ordin-
ary historical marker, but that organization declined to be
implicated. According to Field’s instructions, a stone like an
ordinary cemetery-monument was cut and inscribed as fol-
lows:

Here died, October 2, 1780,

Major John André, of the British Army,

Who, entering the American Lines

On a secret Mission to Benedict Arnold,

For the Surrender of West Point,

Was taken Prisoner, tried, and condemned as a Spy.
His Death,

Though according to the stern code of war,

Moved even his enemies to pity,

And both armies mourned the fate

Of one so young and so brave.

In 1821 his remains were removed to Westminster Abbey.
A hundred years after the execution

This stone was placed above the spot where he lay

By a citizen of the United States, against which he fought,
Not to perpetuate the record of strife,

250 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

But in token of those better feelings

Which have since united two nations

One in race, in language, and one in religion,
With the hope that this friendly union

Will never be broken.

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster.

“Patriotic” Americans, whose feelings had been aroused,
were indignant that Field should carry out his plan in the
face of their opposition. Some of them procured dynamite
and blasted the offending monument. Field had a new one
cut and placed. In November of 1885, this also was dyna-
mited. Deciding not to replace the marker again, Field an-
nounced that the spot was now sufficiently marked. It was
indeed: the “insult’’ to the nation’s glory was “avenged.”
Unknown patriots had demonstrated their spirit.

In October 1878, another memorial in which Field parti-
cipated aroused no such resentment. On the seventy-fifth an-
niversary of the marriage of his parents, he and three other
sons gave the town of Haddam for a park or public green
the site of the meeting-house to which the “old parson” and
his new bride had come in early married life. A similar gift
of a park and memorial tower was made by Cyrus and David
to the town of Stockbridge. The father’s first charge as a
young man had been at Haddam, Connecticut, after which
he had gone to Stockbridge; but he was recalled to Haddam
for a term of years in later life, after which he retired to
Stockbridge to spend his last years among the Berkshires.

Field’s hard application on the elevated-railway problem
emphasized the need for relaxation to improve his health,
which had never been strong. He arranged a trip to the
south of France and Algiers for the winter and early spring
of 1880. While taking this rest, he had time to reflect and
mature his plans. He was now sixty years old, and the ner-
vous energy that had sustained him on difficult tasks was a

A NATIONAL BENEFACTOR 251

little diminished. Reviving prosperity in the United States
had restored his fortune, despite the serious loss due to Til-
den’s defection. In particular he had made a large profit by
helping to complete the Wabash Railway, of which he had
been serving as president.

Perhaps it was time to retire from active business and live
on the several millions that his courage and initiative had
brought him. Once before he had “retired”—in 1853 when
he was thirty-three—but he had not been able to remain idle.
Now he would be more content to play the observer and
merely advise other men instead of leading them.

He was still negotiating about a cable to Hawaii but was
resolved to let others do the active work and worrying. Per-
haps a good stimulus for that scheme would be the fulfillment
of his old desire to take a trip around the world, starting by
way of the Pacific. When he returned to New York, therefore,
he resigned the Elevated and Wabash presidencies and put
his business affairs in condition for a prolonged absence. Oc-
tober, he believed, would be a favorable month for beginning
the long trip.

The coming political campaign, however, began to engage
his attention, particularly because of his friendship with the
Republican candidate for president, James A. Garfield. This
self-made man had begun life as a canal-boy in the rough
days when Ohio, where he was born, ranked as ‘“‘the West’;
he had succeeded in attending Williams College and, entering
politics, had become widely respected. Field decided to post-
pone his trip until after the election, so that he could vote
for Garfield and influence other votes in favor of the Repub-
licans.

He was able to exert some indirect influence a week before
the election in a speech that he made at a banquet where he
was the guest of honor. ‘This affair was a spontaneous expres-
sion by friends and neighbors who wished to give him a “‘send-

252 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

off” for his world cruise. The notice of the event that he re-
ceived was a sincere example of the fondness for him felt by
many associates and admirers. It was worded as follows:

Cyrus W. Field, Esq., New York:

Dear Sir,—A few of your neighbors and personal friends are
desirous of meeting you in a social and informal way before you
start upon your tour round the world. They will be glad if you
will give them the pleasure of your company at a dinner on some
evening in the latter part of October. ‘Tuesday, the 26th, is sug-
gested as a suitable time; but if any other day will better comport
with your convenience, you have only to name it. They are not
willing you should go away without their greeting and God-
speed. '

This banquet was more than a perfunctory ceremony for
a multi-millionaire; it was a real tribute, and Field enjoyed it
thoroughly. One of the speakers, General Horace Porter, de-
clared enthusiastically: “Beyond the sentiment of friendship
we all have a profound admiration for one who, at a period
of life when most men, having surrounded themselves with
the rich things of earth, in personal comfort, art, and litera-
ture, would be content to retire to some shady Arcadia and
enjoy the rest to which they were so fully entitled, is bristling
with all the activity of youth, seeking new worlds to conquer
and projecting new enterprises.”

Before he left the country, he had an opportunity to do a
service for the New York Historical Society, which neverthe-
less declined cooperation with his efforts to maintain a monu-
ment to Major André. He wrote them in support of their
proposal to erect a monument to Nathan Hale, who, as a
captain in the Revolutionary army, had been executed by the
British as a spy. The André and Hale cases were similar, but
André had been a British rather than an American spy.

Field wrote the Society as follows: “I am glad to hear that
it is proposed to erect a monument to Nathan Hale. Many
years ago I joined with others in such a memorial at Coventry,

A NATIONAL BENEFACTOR 253

Conn., where he was born. But one ought to be erected in
this city, and, if possible, on the very spot where he died. ‘That
spot you have, I understand, ascertained to be at or very
near the armory of the Seventh Regiment. What an inspira-
tion would a monument there be to our young soldiers!
There ought to be inscribed on it his own immortal words:
‘I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.’
If the New York Historical Society will obtain permission to
have a monument erected there, I will, with pleasure, bear
the whole expense.”

Election day was November 2. Field succeeded in sending
a number of voters to the polls to vote for Garfield, who was
elected. The next morning at the early hour of four o’clock,
he left in a special car for San Francisco. As a former railroad
president and a power in Wall Street, he was shown every
courtesy. People everywhere knew his name and had seen
pictures of the bearded Yankee who had given the world an
Atlantic cable and New York “a street railway that ran up in
the air.” At San Francisco he sailed for Japan.

The trip across the Pacific demonstrated to him the im-
mense distances of that ocean as compared with the moderate
span from Newfoundland to Ireland. Even after making stops
at various islands, there would be enormous difficulties, he
could see, in such a long cable laid in such deep water. He
realized that the line would eventually be laid, but perhaps
not in his lifetime.

Much as he needed such a change and rest as the trip gave
him, the monotonous expanses of water made him restless and
he wondered what was going on back in the city of the elevat-
ed railway. Such a feeling was not conducive to leisurely
sightseeing in Oriental lands like Japan, China, the Malay
States, and India. As many other Americans have done, he
surveyed the conventional tourist sights in a somewhat absent-
minded mood.

One of the pleasantest features of the trip was the cordial-

254 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

ity with which he was received by British officials, who ordin-
arily did not open their hearts to American travelers. His
wide acquaintance with such well-known men as Gladstone,
John Bright, Dean Stanley, Edward Archibald, Sir Charles
Bright, Sir James Anderson, Goldwin Smith, etc., enabled
him to talk with the British wherever he went. Also from his
association with the American presidents and their cabinets
he was able to enlighten his hosts on conditions at Wash-
ington.

His stay in India was the most extensive, because of his
familiarity with the British officials. ‘The Governor General
at that time was his old friend, the Marquis of Ripon, whom
he had entertained when Her Majesty’s High Commissioners
came to the United States to negotiate the Alabama claims.
India interested him more than the countries he had just seen,
because he felt racially allied both to the people and the gov-
erning class. The spectacle of teeming masses of the white
race living under such straitened economic conditions gave
him much food for thought.

His thoughts, however, reverted continually to the Western
World where his deepest interests lay. Instead of spending
leisurely months in Oriental wanderings as he had at first in-
tended, he arrived in the south of France in early March,
having given Asia a rather cursory survey. A few weeks more
of idling and he was back in New York by the middle of May.
His round-the-world trip had lasted less than six months.

The new Secretary of State, the “plumed knight” James G.
Blaine, who was as influential as Garfield, wrote him an of-
ficial welcome, as follows:

Department of State,
Washington, D. C., 23d May, 1881.
My dear Mr. Field,—Welcome, thou wanderer! We intend
now to anchor you for some time in your native waters.
Your arrival is timely. You can be of great service to the country

A NATIONAL BENEFACTOR 255

and to the administration, which counts you among its chief
friends. . ..
Hastily and truly,
James G. Blaine.

President Garfield, as a loyal son of Williams College,
planned to attend that college’s commencement on July 6.
His wife and several members of the cabinet, including Blaine,
were to accompany him. Field courteously invited the Presi-
dential party to break the journey at Ardsley and to spend a
day or two at his place on the way from Washington to Wil-
liamstown. The invitation was accepted.

But when President Garfield went to the Pennsylvania sta-
tion on July 2 to begin this trip north, he was shot by an ag-
grieved office-seeker and after a few weeks died. He had been
in office only since March. The nation was shocked; for the
second time since the Civil War a well-beloved president had
been killed by a crank.

Field was deeply affected, and his sympathy went out es-
pecially to the wife and five children. He wrote to a friend in
Washington to ask, in case the President died, whether the
family would be left adequately provided for. The answer
was that only about twenty thousand dollars would be avail-
able.

On the day of the Williams commencement, July 6, he
sent the following message by telegraph and cable to capital-
ists whom he knew both in America and Europe: “If Presi-
dent Garfield should die from the wounds received on 2d
instant he would leave for his wife and five children about
twenty thousand dollars. I shall tomorrow, ‘Thursday, morn-
ing exert myself to the utmost to raise a sum of money to be
presented to him at once, as I feel confident it would help
his recovery if he knew that in the event of his death his
family would be provided for. I shall cheerfully subscribe
five thousand dollars towards the sum to be raised. If you or

256 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

any of your friends would like to join, please telegraph to me
early tomorrow, Thursday, for what amount I may put your
name, and oblige.”

Such an appeal coming from Cyrus Field aroused imme-
diate response. Contributions ranging from five thousand
dollars to a silver dime (given by a child) were sent to his
office at 145 Broadway. A total of over three hundred sixty
thousand dollars was raised. ‘This was invested in sound bonds
and brought in an assured income. It helped to educate the
children, one of whom, Harry A. Garfield, later became presi-
dent of Williams College and organizer of the internationally-
known Institute of Politics. After the death of Mrs. Garfield,
the funds were divided among the five children. They always
felt supremely grateful to Cyrus Field for his generous im-
pulse. At this time, Field managed to get a bill through Con-
gress to pay a pension of five thousand dollars to widows of
ex-presidents; Mrs. Polk and Mrs. Grant benefited by this.

Field himself was almost the victim of an act of malevolence
in the following spring. A mail-carrier, riding on the Third
Avenue elevated, stepped off the train and threw his mail-
bag on the station platform. When the bag hit the platform,
there was an explosion of a parcel inside. Examination showed
that the burned remnants of the parcel were addressed to
Field. A similar package in the bag was addressed to William
H. Vanderbilt.

After this exhibition of American gratitude, Field gave
orders that all packages delivered to the house must be
plunged into a tub of water. His daughter, Isabella Field
Judson, reported that this order caused consternation among
the young ladies of the household, who feared for their new
spring gowns and Victorian finery. However, no other bombs
were found, and the usual routine was resumed at Gramercy
Park, which was now near the center of the city’s shopping
district. Stores were moving uptown and eastward. Around

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A NATIONAL BENEFACTOR 254

Madison Square flourished luxurious hotels, sedate clubs, and
fine residences—centers of social and political life.

Observers of New York at that period, the early eighties,
have described the city as noisier than today. Horse-cars
clanged up and down the streets warning clumsy trucks off
the rails. ‘The paving was the noisiest possible, cobbles and
blocks of stone; a smooth asphalt surface had been tried and
judged too slippery for horses. Steel-shod hoofs on the un-
even paving-blocks added to the rumble of the heavy vehicles
and the roar of the steam-driven elevated trains.

The district had changed greatly from the time when the
Fields led their cow to pasture in Madison Square. Electric
lights were coming in; Edison’s first generating plant was
opened in September of 1882 with fifty-nine customers. This
first electric-lighting system was downtown in the business
district near Field’s office. Homes were still lighted by oil
lamps and gas, but gradually they too were wired for the
miraculous incandescent bulbs. ‘Telephones were coming into
use—‘‘talking telegraphs” as they were first called in derision.
Field supported these innovations when they were introduced
and sometimes aroused jealousy among conservative neigh-
bors, especially at Ardsley where his telephone was the pi-
oneer.

A new metropolis was rising as New York expanded up-
town. The Brooklyn bridge was completed, and the down-
town sections of the city were rebuilt. The lean years of the
seventies were forgotten as America forged ahead into pros-
perity and progress. Inspired by the constructive spirit now
under way, Field acquired a desirable plot of land at the foot
of Broadway—the historic site of Washington’s headquarters
—and arranged for the erection of the well-known Washing-
ton Building for the use of business offices. This tall structure
was long a landmark to vessels coming up the bay. The at-
tractive view from the Battery, with ships and sea air to re-

258 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

mind Field of his years of ocean vigils, was one of the con-
soling factors of his later years. No. 1 Broadway was a desir-
able address.

The position that Field occupied in financial and political
circles brought him the ambition to own a New York news-
paper and to demonstrate an improved news service by a more
generous use of cables and telegraphs. His fortune was sufh-
cient to enable him to acquire the New York Evening Express
and The Mail, and to combine them into The Mail and Ex-
press. During six years of the middle eighties, he directed
the policy of this paper. At first, his enterprise and liberal
views made the enterprise seem promising, and he enhanced
his following among readers of the metropolitan district.

He gradually learned, however, as have many other wealthy
men, that running a daily newspaper in a large city is a com-
plicated and highly-specialized job. A liberal policy and a
generous purse in such an undertaking lead to suspicion and
abuse. People do not understand a man who is exceptionally
truthful and quixotic. American journalism of less idealistic
and broad-minded views has usually succeeded better and
survived the years longer.

Field himself did not possess any particular literary ability
and was never a talented writer. Like most men who talk
easily and persuasively, he was less convincing when address-
ing an unseen audience. His special gift lay in winning over
a small group whom he could inspire with his personal energy
and magnetism.

As the years went by, he realized that he was not so inter-
ested as he had imagined in controlling a metropolitan news-
paper. Competition in the field was sharp and recriminations
violent. ‘There was small satisfaction in courting criticism,
misinterpretation, and slander. It is interesting to note in this
connection that Field was one of the comparatively few
Americans successful in recovering a large sum from a New
York newspaper for libel. He sued James Gordon Bennett,

A NATIONAL BENEFACTOR 259

publisher of the New York Herald, because of damaging state-
ments about “sham dividends” on preferred stock of the Wa-
bash Railway, and won a verdict for $25,000. Ordinarily
he overlooked such unfair attacks and forgot them as quickly
as possible.

After his Wall Street disaster in the summer of 1887, Field
looked around for a buyer for his paper and a few months
later sold it under pressure of his debts. It had not been a
satisfactory investment. Most individuals, he had discovered,
possess a rather limited ability and should keep within those
limits. His own forte was promotion rather than competitive
operation; he was too fair-minded and chivalrous to challenge
successfully the standards that then prevailed among Ameri-
can newspapers.

Chapter Eighteen

LUCK TURNS AGAIN

THE EIGHTEEN-EIGHTIES were a comparatively happy period
for a majority of the American people. In the seventies the
country had suffered a terrific chastisement for over-indulg-
ence during the post-war expansion. ‘The nineties were to
bring a similar chastening. Between those two depressions
stretched a succession of unruffled years when the nation dis-
played its best gifts and its pleasantest graces. ‘The Civil War
animosities were gradually fading, and even the disgraceful
abuses of the Reconstruction period were being forgotten.

In foreign affairs, relations with England were much im-
proved since payment of the Alabama claims. ‘There was sym-
pathy for the French because of their defeat in 1870, so that
their abortive attempt to place a royal family in Mexico dur-
ing the Civil War was overlooked. A new friendship for Ger-
many was growing, as more and more American scholars
were attracted to its universities. America was still dependent
upon European capital for development of the West, but a
surprising growth in national wealth was building an inde-
pendent financial system. The upward surge of American in-
dustries and Western agriculture was a promise for future
strength and self-reliance.

The Field family had grown up. Of the four attractive
daughters, three married. The oldest, Mary, married a broker
named Lindley, who joined with the older son, Edward
Morse Field, to form a brokerage firm that possessed en-
viable connections with important capitalists. The third
daughter, Isabella, married into the well-known Judson fam-
ily; she edited Cyrus Field’s letters and autobiographical notes

260

LUCK TURNS AGAIN 261

after his death. The other son, Cyrus William Field, also
married but developed lung trouble.

A number of grandchildren were born, so that Cyrus Field,
with his white beard, became something of a patriarch. The
family loved to gather on the extensive estate at Ardsley,
where many guests were entertained. The original twenty-one
acres had been expanded into several hundred. Commuting
to the city was a matter of only half an hour’s train ride, and
the neighboring towns of Irvington and Dobb’s Ferry were
becoming busy centers.

In 1882, Field bought a large tract of land in the valley of
the Saw Mill river, adjoining his estate at Ardsley. His plan
was to build a number of model cottages for working-men, the
rent to be ten to twenty dollars a month. Some of his friends
in England had made similar use of their estates. However,
the building of a city aqueduct for water supply upset his
plans, and five years later he suffered heavy financial losses.
He liked country life and hired a number of workers to care
for his extensive grounds, where he raised chickens, as he had
dreamed of doing during bleak nights on the north Atlantic.
His workers received very considerate treatment. Unfortu-
nately he was not able to carry out all his plans for them.

The Northern Pacific railroad had recently been completed
to the Pacific coast, and traveling to the West was now be-
coming more enjoyable. Field, as a power in the railroad
world, received special privileges on such trips. Late in the
summer of 1884, he left in a private car with several mem-
bers of the family for a trip to the coast. ‘They were away
six weeks and covered over eleven thousand miles; this was
the Victorian equivalent of automobile touring.

After seeing Portland and Tacoma, they explored Puget
Sound on a small steamer and saw there the forest from which
the tall masts of the Great Eastern had been cut for transport
to England around Cape Horn. Crossing into Canada, they

262 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

met Donald Smith and his party, to whose special train the
Fields’ car was attached. Smith (later Sir Donald, then Lord
Strathcona) was a director of the Canadian Pacific railway,
then building; in 1885 he drove the last spike at the comple-
tion ceremony. He now showed his authority by naming a
peak in the Rockies “Mount Field,” as a compliment to his
guest. A little station where the train happened to stop was
also called ‘Field’; this settlement, which is not far from
Banff, still exists. ‘The party crossed the mountains and
stopped at Winnipeg, which was becoming important in the
opening of the Canadian West.

Field was usually a cynosure of interest when he traveled
thus among Americans or British who knew the story of the
Atlantic cable. Especially when he used the telegraph—as he
did frequently—he was served with alacrity by the operators,
who respected two names in particular, Morse and Field. His
daughter, Isabella, reported that telegraphers used to ask,
“Are you the original Cyrus?”’

Before the presidential election, he was back home to vote.
The Republican candidate was the vaunted James G. Blaine,
who as Secretary of State had welcomed Field from his trip
around the world. ‘The Democratic candidate was the Gover-
nor of New York who had opposed Field’s five-cent fare on the
elevated railways. After a campaign of high-power oratory
and much mud-slinging, the “plumed knight’ was defeated
by the stern-faced Cleveland. For the first time since the
Civil War, the Democrats had elected a president. Among the
disappointed candidates was Stephen Field of the United
States Supreme Court, who had also been a candidate in 1880.

The sad condition of a former president of the United
States now engaged Field’s ready sympathy. His old friend,
Ulysses S. Grant, was in trouble. After eight years in the
White House and a trip around the world, this former worker
in the leather trade had re-entered business, this time asa New
York broker. Unfortunately a great soldier is not generally

LUCK TURNS AGAIN 263

a good business-man or a skillful politician. Grant picked a
dishonest partner and was doomed to fail. The people of the
nation adjusted their views to the idea of a former inmate of
the White House working as a financier to win a competence
for old age. Suddenly, with the swiftness that Wall Street
knows so well, Grant found his resources swept away, and he
was reduced to selling his swords and medals to raise cash. A
painful disease incapacitated him, and the hero of a great war
found that former glory helps little when bad luck befalls.
Handicapped though he was, he began to write his memoirs in
order to produce an income for his widow after he was gone.

Field was much distressed at the news of Grant’s condition.
He started a subscription to raise funds for the family of the
ex-president, as he had done for the family of Garfield. When
Grant heard of this, his characteristic modesty induced him to
request Field not to continue the kind action. He wrote Field
as follows:

New York City, January 6, 1885.

My dear Sir,—Through the press and otherwise I learn that you,
with a few other friends of mine, are engaged in raising a sub-
scription for my benefit. I appreciate both the motive and the
friendship which have dictated this course on your part, but, on
mature reflection, I regard it as due to myself and family to de-
cline this proffered generosity.

I regret that I did not make this known earlier.
Very truly yours,
U. S. Grant.
Cyrus W. Field, Esq.

There was nothing, of course, for Field to do under these
circumstances except to accede to the request and ask his as-
sociates to do likewise. He replied as follows:

6th January, 1885.
My dear General Grant,—I have this moment received your
letter of this date, and I shall, as requested in the letter from your
son, send a copy immediately to Messrs. A. J. Drexel and George

264 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

W. Childs, of Philadelphia; to General W. T. Sherman, St. Louis,
and Mr. E. F. Beale, of Washington.
I have for several days been very anxious to call and see you, but
have been prevented by press of business and a severe cold.
With great respect, I remain,
Dear General Grant,
Very truly your friend,
Cyrus W. Field.

Six months later Grant died of cancer, at the age of sixty-
three. After his troubles were over, a large sum of money
was subscribed to build a grandiose tomb for him in one of
the most conspicuous spots in New York City. It is a favorite
calling-place for sight-seeing busses and tourists. The effect
inside is like the interior of an Egyptian pyramid.

During the summer of 1885 Field was again in England.
On July 4 in London he gave a dinner for thirty friends, of
whom eight were Americans. Excellent speeches were made
by the Duke of Argyll and John Bright, both venerable
figures. The Duke said that the best friends of his life had
been Americans—Charles Sumner the statesman, Longfellow
the poet, Prescott and Motley the historians, and Cyrus Field.
As to the late unfriendliness over the Alabama claims, so com-
pletely had America proved its rights that it was difficult to
find an Englishman who would admit that he ever thought
differently. The Duke, who was himself a statesman and
author, had a ripe old age ahead of him.

John Bright, unfortunately, was to die a few years later.
In his speech, he recalled the days of the Civil War, when, in
the absence of a cable, he used to spend the week in anxiety
over the news which the Saturday steamer would bring from
America—news two weeks old. On several occasions during
the war, for example after the battle of Bull Run, he thought,
as did many other Englishmen, that the South would win.
The ultimate victory of freedom over slavery filled his life
with happiness. As always, Bright’s fine voice and sincerity
thrilled his listeners.

LUCK TURNS AGAIN 265

Field was still in England when Grant died. He helped to
arrange a memorial service for the ex-president in Westmin-
ster Abbey, at which Dean F. W. Farrar spoke. A large crowd
attended, including representatives of the Queen and the Gov-
ernment.

His friends were growing old. Upon his return home, he
joined with his brothers, David, Stephen, and Henry in send-
ing a telegram to George Bancroft, the historian, upon the
occasion of his eighty-fifth birthday. Bancroft had been a
fellow passenger with Cyrus Field and Mrs. Field in returning
from Europe in 1849. He was destined to live until over
ninety. On this occasion, he telegraphed back: “When I am
gone, keep the departed traveler kindly in memory.”

In the summer of 1886, Field was again in London, renew-
ing old friendships and dining out. He was present, for ex-
ample, at a special dinner in the Liberal Club. One of the
speakers, who had been on the Great Eastern during the cable-
laying, recalled that, even when Field’s fortune hung in the
balance of a coil of cable, his poise and courage never failed
him. There was more to this remark than appeared at the
time. Within a year, Field’s fortune was to hang in the bal-
ance, not of a metal cable slipping to ocean depths, but of a
flimsy tape from a ticker recording the depths of a fallen stock.

In late August, as he had done two years before, he took a
western trip, partly in Canada. He helped to set the fashion
for Americans to use the newly-built railroads to visit the
coast and the Canadian Rockies. These long-distance trains
were becoming more and more comfortable, as George Pull-
man learned to design better sleeping-cars and dining-cars.

During that autumn, his long fight for a uniform fare of
five cents at all hours was won for the passengers on the New
York elevated lines. This lower rate had the effect of chang-
ing the types of passengers carried. When ten cents was
charged—a relatively large proportion of a worker’s wages—
the affluent classes patronized the lines. At that time, the cars

266 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

were new and a ride in the air was a novelty. After the lower
rate went into effect, rougher types and larger crowds were
attracted, so that riding on the elevated became less fashion-
able. Stately gentlemen in somber coats and veiled ladies in
kid gloves were elbowed aside by the Caseys of “Thoity-
Thoid”’ street and the Goldbergs of Harlem. Many influential
persons believed the change to be a mistake; some of these
were owners of stock in the company. Field was criticized
in the offices of powerful financiers and in well-to-do homes.

When Field took over the organization of the elevated-
railway system in 1877, he aimed to benefit the public and to
promote the orderly growth of the city. He succeeded in this
plan, and gave the city a fast and economical traction system
that bridged the critical quarter-century between the slow
surface-car and the subway of the twentieth century. It is true
that the elevated railway was something of a nuisance in the
streets on which it ran, and that the puffing little engines
dropping live coals and belching smoke were unlovely objects.
But drastic methods had been necessary to solve a difficult
problem. A great metropolis was in process of growth.

Electrical transportation had not then been devised for
practical operations, and the underground railway was still
in the future. Field used the best methods that were available,
revived a financial failure, and systematized a badly-managed
utility. He introduced sound economics, personal honesty,
and a sense of responsibility into the workings of a public-
service corporation closely linked by necessity with corrupt
politicians and predatory financiers. It was his old-fashioned
integrity and direct frankness that enabled him to carry out
his plans in the face of opposition and abuse. People had
faith in him and recognized his unselfishness.

At times the public’s trust in him was shaken, as when
“watered” stock was injected into the company’s finances, but
it was realized that he had to compromise with other influ-
ences among the stockholders. Evil rumors were circulated

LUCK TURNS AGAIN 267

at times about the company’s future, as about all public-
service corporations, and the stock quotations were artificially
maneuvered, but Field did all that he could to prevent this.
He conceived it to be his duty to support the stock in the mar-
ket, as he wished to keep it a high-grade investment security,
rather than let it become a Wall Street footbali subject to
every whisper or plot.

A man so honest-minded and open-handed as Field, asso-
ciating with experienced manipulators in finance, was des-
tined eventually to lose out. His prestige and large fortune
sustained him for ten years of elevated-railway history. Then
he succumbed to the tape of a Wall Street ticker; the con-
queror of the ocean depths was swamped by a deluge of stock
certificates; the optimist who had sold cable stock to hesitant
capitalists was himself sold out by pessimists and skeptics.

Field’s diary of May 16, 1877, contained this item: “Bought
this day a controlling interest in the New York Elevated Rail-
road Company and was elected president of the company.” |
Slightly over ten years later, on June 24, 1887, he lost in a
few hours, by a transaction in elevated-railway stock, the
fortune that had required years to build. This day’s opera-
tions were called in Wall Street the ‘““Manhattan squeeze.”

Much discussion has taken place as to just what happened
on that fateful day and what went on behind the scenes. Dif-
ferent versions have appeared. Field made no recriminations,
as he had against Tilden eight years before when he lost a
million to the wily politician. His losses now were much
larger, probably five million dollars, but he stood the disaster
as he had stood similar ones on the high seas when a precious
cable slipped away into the ocean depths.

It is possible to state the general happenings of that summer
day; it may never be possible to determine the plans and mo-
tives that actuated them. In some respects what took place
was similar to what had taken place on previous occasions—
but to a more extreme degree. Field tried to sustain the drop-

268 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

ping prices of elevated-railway stock. ‘The drop became more
and more drastic. He flung his fortune into the gap, but it
proved insufficient. More stock was being sold than he was
able to buy. He lost out.

The Manhattan Company had been doing well for several
years and was a profitable investment. It attracted small cap-
italists who trusted the management and who believed that
an even brighter future was ahead. The stock was quoted
above its par value of a hundred dollars a share. Since the re-
duction of the fare to five cents in the previous autumn, the
crowds using its service had increased tremendously.

Field believed that higher prices for the stock were justi-
fied and could be brought about. He gained the impression
that two well-known financiers, Jay Gould and Russell
Sage, agreed with him and would cooperate in a movement
to build the price higher, as they were large holders of Man-
hattan stock. Gould afterward said that he warned Field
against the venture. At that time, Gould and Sage were two
of the greatest powers in Wall Street. Field considered them
his friends and supporters.

Field had been a large holder of elevated-railway stock
since he acquired his original holding in New York Elevated
Railroad at a low price because of the discouraging conditions.
His constructive work in reorganizing and improving the ele-
vated lines had greatly increased the value of his investment.
There had been additional stock issued and other complica-
tions, including a merger, by which an operating company,
the Manhattan, had combined the original Third and Ninth
Avenue lines with the Second and Sixth Avenue lines of an-
other company.

Encouraged by what he believed was promise of support
from Gould and Sage, Field now began adding other thou-
sands, bought in the open market, to the thousands of shares
of Manhattan stock that he already owned. The price quoted
on the Exchange strengthened and began to rise. Apparently

LUCK TURNS AGAIN 269

other optimistic investors were also buying. At previous times,
Field had thus sponsored the stock to instill confidence in the
stockholders. He resolved to buy boldly and thus give a strong
impetus to the improving prices.

But after a further slight rise, the quotations appeared to
hesitate, and then to recede. Apparently other stockholders
were not so enthusiastic as Field and were selling their shares
in expectation of lower prices. It is common practice, of
course, to make a profit by selling in anticipation of a drop
and then buying at lower prices. Some professional operators
make a practice of thus driving stocks down by heavy sales
and disquieting rumors; they become highly skilled in capital-
izing pessimism and playing on men’s fears. Gould and Sage
were experienced operators.

By innate character, Field had always been an optimist.
His success in life had been based on constructive work in
building things up. This trait is typically American and was
especially natural in an era of expanding industry and nation-
al development. His direct and honest nature did not make
allowance for the forces of destruction and guile.

As the quotations on Manhattan fell lower and lower, he
resolved to utilize his resources to the utmost to stop the de-
cline and buoy the stock up. It seemed, however, that, de-
spite the thousands of shares which he was buying, more thou-
sands were being thrown on the market. Other operators
were selling greater amounts than he could buy. Things be-
gan to look ominous for him; his personal fortune, large
though it had been, was limited. His holdings in other securi-
ties, such as Western Union and Missouri Pacific, were also
dropping in value, as though in sympathy with Manhattan.
These three were “Gould stocks” in the language of Wall
Street. Were Gould and Sage selling from their large hold-
ings?

Having lost so much, Field dreaded to admit defeat and
to stop his loss while quotations were depressed. A good rally

270 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

might restore all that the decline had wiped out. At previous
crises in his career, he had stuck by his convictions and won
out in the end. His conquest of the ocean depths had been
attained only after the most calamitous defeats.

Rallying all his resources, he attempted to bolster the mar-
ket for Elevated shares. But there seemed to be no end to the
flood of stock being offered for sale at constantly lower prices.
Soon he was in desperate straits, as his available funds
dwindled. The seeming impossible had happened.

Driven to the extremes of asking for a loan, he went to his
collaborator in the Elevated financing, Jay Gould, who was
known to have enormous resources. The veteran financier
agreed to lend him a large sum. Field was grateful and hurried
to use this in buying more Manhattan stock. It was insufficient
to stop the debacle; there seemed to be no bottom to the
drop in values. If Gould was selling as Field bought, the lat-
ter did not seem to suspect it.

To cover his huge losses, Field had to have more funds.
His most available asset was the many thousands of shares
that he had just bought so prodigally. But their market
price was still dropping. Returning to Gould, he had to offer
his large accumulation of Manhattan stock at a price far below
what he had paid. Gould agreed to accept the offer, thus ac-
quiring at a price near par millions of dollars worth of shares
that were worth nearly twice that valuation—a profitable
day’s work.

The certificates were transferred from Field’s strong-box to
Gould’s. Field paid off his obligations. He had lost in one
day about five million dollars—the fortune built up in tele-
graph and railroad promotions by years of honest work.

Aside from his real estate, there was not much left to him.
The homes at Gramercy Park and Ardsley Park were, fortu-
nately, in his wife’s name; his equity in the office building
at the foot of Broadway was involved in encumbrances. He
sold his newspaper The Mail and Express at a disappointing

LUCK TURNS AGAIN 271

figure; it had not been a success. At sixty-eight, he was finan-
cially back where he had been at thirty.

Much sympathy was expressed for him, with indignation
at the other stockholders of the Elevated company who had
failed to help him support the stock. The “Manhattan
squeeze”’ passed into financial history. It had been a terrible
day for Cyrus Field. There is something of a commentary on
the American financial system in this story of a well-meaning
and honest man who starts the day with a fortune of several
million dollars and finds himself a few hours later almost
ruined, with all that such a loss implies in consequences for
his family and his old age.

Chapter Nineteen

THE WORLD MOVES ON

AFTER THIs TRAGIC blow to his old age, Field presented a brave
face to the world. He hesitated to curtail his family’s com-
forts, and they continued to live much as before. They had
come to rely upon him as an unfailing resource. It is difficult
to curtail a large family’s standard of living, especially when
the members are well known in social circles.

The era was one of increasing luxuries and expansion.
Leading citizens were expected to encourage advances in
America’s fads and fashions. ‘The brownstone fronts of New
York’s proud élite required a more and more pretentious out-
lay of style. Automobiles had not yet appeared, but resplen-
dent carriages and spanking teams of horses flashed along the
avenues. The buildings were getting higher; the success of
the Eiffel tower in Paris was encouraging the construction of
“skyscrapers” supported by a steel skeleton. The pioneer
epoch was drawing to a close; the nation had entered a stage
in which the inventions and ground-work of the previous
generation were taken for granted.

Field had been a pioneer—one of the earnest band of early
Americans who dreamed visions and worked earnestly to at-
tain them. What they conceived that the country needed was
improved means of communication and transportation, a
prompter and more reliable linking together of isolated and
straggling communities. Now that this aim was largely ful-
filled, a more intense exploitation of the continent’s resources
was under way. Sharp exploiters were coming to the front—
men who understood how to grab, how to evade the law, and
how to destroy. The age of innocence in America’s develop-
ment was over; a gilded performance was now being staged.

272

THE WORLD MOVES ON 2473

A notable figure in the city’s drama, Field at seventy was
still active and energetic, though quieter than before. An
observant writer in the New York Sun described him as fol-
lows: “In his last years, Mr. Field was a quaint and familiar
figure downtown. ‘Tall, slightly bent, with his white, full
beard, and his hair bushy behind his temples, he appeared in
the street, summer and winter, in a long black coat, peering
keenly from under his heavy eyebrows at all who approached
him. His face was alert, vigorous, and searching, yet with
young men he was curiously amiable, patting them on the
back, volunteering service in a fatherly tone, and keeping
closely his own counsel in a decided yet unoffending manner.”

His old friends were dropping off, one by one. Peter Coop-
er had died in 1883 at well over ninety years of age. His
neighbor Samuel J. Tilden died three years later. In England,
John Bright died in 1889. The robust Gladstone, though ten
years Field’s senior, was still active and reappearing inter-
mittently as Prime Minister.

A few weeks before Bright’s death, Field cabled him a
cheering message. It concluded as follows: “It may comfort
you in your long illness to know that your name is on the lips
and in the hearts of millions on this side of the Atlantic, who
can never forget how you stood by the cause of our country.”
Field had ceased his frequent trips abroad and now spent
more time with his gardens and chickens.

Around Ardsley, where he still maintained an extensive
estate, he was called “Uncle Cyrus.” The neighbors had not
always liked his progressive suggestions, which tended to dis-
turb the customary calm. But they recognized the essential
kindness and benevolence of the aging promoter. The em-
ployees on his estate spoke gratefully of his generosity and
concern for their comfort.

His friends and family found an opportunity to express
their respect on December 2, 1890, in a celebration of fifty
years of happy married life since a young New York business-

274 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

man had taken a Connecticut bride to the metropolis. There
had been seven children and sixteen grandchildren. Numer-
ous friends called on that day to wish happiness to the frail
old couple.

From England, Sir James Anderson sent a long letter of con-
gratulations and good wishes, signed by eighty-four names,
many of them of prominent persons. Among these were men
who had been connected with the cable work, such as Samuel
Canning, William Thomson, Willoughby Smith, Latimer
Clark, W. H. Russell, Robert Dudley, and H. D. Gooch.
Other interesting names were the Duke of Argyll, W. E.
Gladstone, Catherine Gladstone, H. M. Stanley of Alderly,
Oscar Wilde, Constance Wilde, W. S. Cunard, and Jane Cob-
den.

Sir James wrote in conclusion: “The days and years are
rolling away, and we may well cling to the memory of excit-
ing and happy days when we were twenty-five to thirty years
younger and the future filled with nervous anxieties.” He
himself was sixty-six; he recalled that it had been twenty-five
years since the first cable-laying in the Great Eastern and fifty
years since he went to sea as a sailor boy.

At the golden-wedding celebration, it was evident that both
Cyrus Field and his wife were in delicate health. During the
following summer of 1891 the other members of the family
watched them with grave solicitude. Medical advisers report-
ed that any sudden excitement might be fatal.

Late in August, on the birthday of Mrs. Field, the family
dined together for the last time. David Dudley Field, al-
though much older than his brother, was able to be present
with words of cheer and good wishes. The two were as friend-
ly as ever. Cyrus was frankly affectionate; David retained a
genuine fondness for his younger brother.

In these last months of his life, when Cyrus Field deserved
happiness and quiet, a dreadful series of blows befell him.

THE WORLD MOVES ON 246

_ On November 23, 1891, his wife died. His affectionate na-
ture was deeply shocked at this snapping of a long thread.
Theirs had been an unusually happy partnership, despite
many anxieties over debts and cables. She had encouraged
him during dark days and always believed in his success. The
Reverend Arthur Brooks wrote a moving appreciation of her
kindness and tact in an article for the periodical, The
Churchman.

Scarcely had his wife been buried, when Cyrus Field learned
of the failure of his elder son’s brokerage firm operating as
Field, Lindley, Wiechers & Company. This was Edward
Morse Field, who had taken up grain brokerage; he had
formed a partnership with Daniel Lindley, the husband of
Mary Field, oldest daughter of Cyrus. When first formed, the
firm had succeeded brilliantly, because of its social connec-
tions with prominent New Yorkers. Then rumors were heard
of wild speculations by Edward Field, and heavy losses. ‘They
were all too true.

Cyrus Field had helped his son’s business ventures in a
trusting spirit. When Edward came to him and confessed
that the firm’s condition was shaky, the generous old man
assumed that the trouble was merely temporary. Always op-
timistic and open-handed, he turned over to his son practical-
ly all of his own securities, believing that the loan of them
would tide over the dangerous crisis. It was vain to attempt
to stem the flood of obligations and questionable dealings that
swept over the firm. Bankruptcy was inevitable.

Investigation of Edward Field’s affairs showed such grave
irregularities that he was arrested. His mental condition be-
came alarming, and he was confined in an asylum. For the
rest of his life he was judged insane and incompetent.

During these sad revelations, Cyrus Field’s oldest daughter,
Mrs. Lindley was seriously ill, and before Edward Morse’s
_ trial came up in court that winter, she died. The trial was

276 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

for forgery, and the well-known lawyer Bourke Cockran did
all that he could for the defendant. It was useless.

Cyrus Field collapsed under these terrible shocks. On his
seventy-second birthday, at the end of November, he found
that of the large fortune he had invested in telegraphs and
railroads, only a thousand pounds in Anglo-American cable
stock remained. He felt unable further to assist his family,
for which he had always cherished a deep affection. His
daughter Alice, who had never married, was also ill and men-
tally unbalanced.

So depleted were the family’s resources, according to his
daughter Isabella, that in the spring he would not have been
able to go to the country home at Ardsley if his friend Pier-
pont Morgan had not advanced the necessary funds. Morgan,
who was often accused of ruthlessness in business, did many
a generous deed that was never advertised. It was he also who
paid the premiums on Field’s life insurance, one policy of
which had been taken out nearly fifty years before.

The change to the country air did not benefit the aging
man, as his family had hoped. His weakness and nervousness
increased. The accumulation of calamities had proved too
much for a constitution that had never been strong and had
been sustained chiefly by enthusiasm.

Early on July 12, 1892, the family were called to the bed-
side, including the brothers David, Stephen, and Henry. The
end came that morning. Cyrus Field’s long struggle was over.

An account of his last illness was published in the New York
Tribune, which said: ‘‘He was delirious and suffered from
several attacks of acute nervousness, and on those occasions he
again went through the trials and struggles of the days when
he was working night and day at that stupendous undertak-
ing which has made him famous. At one minute he would
imagine that he was at a port on the Newfoundland coast
superintending the departure of ships with the cable to the
Irish coast. In his delirium he would cry out, ‘Hold those

THE WORLD MOVES ON 204

ships! Don’t let them sail yet. I must make further experi-
ments.’ ”’

His mind wandered to the great crises of his active and ad-
venturous life, when he sailed the North Atlantic, paying out
cable through fogs and storms. At times he talked of old
friends and associates, and imagined that the figures around
his bed were those of Morse, Gladstone, and others prominent
in his early career. Toward the end he was quieter and, al-
though he was not able to speak, his eyes followed with af-
fection those who had gathered there. He was buried at Stock-
bridge near his wife and parents.

The New York newspapers devoted much space to his obit-
uary. Although the advantages of ocean cables for news serv-
ice had long been taken for granted, and a new generation of
editors had come on the scene, it was still realized that Field
had been the pioneer of such advancement. The New York
Herald gave over a page to his death and biography.

As an indication of the period in which Field died, the news-
papers announcing his death printed a vast variety of news.
They were totally unlike the newspapers of his youth. The
city of St. John’s, Newfoundland, for example, was reported
half destroyed by a disastrous fire. In England, the aged but
robust Gladstone—ten years Field’s senior—had just been re-
elected to Parliament; he was to be Prime Minister for sever-
al years more. In America, the bitterly-fought Homestead
strike of steel-workers raged in Pennsylvania. At Washington,
a bill for the free coinage of silver had been defeated in Con-
gress. There was an item in the paper about litigation over
Edison’s incandescent-light filament. In New York, electric
storage-batteries were replacing horses on the Second Avenue
street-cars, and improvements were being made on Broad-
way’s cable-railway. In the city’s slums, babies were dying
from a heat wave.

After Field’s death, many eloquent testimonials were paid
to his memory. The troubles of his later years were still fresh

278 A SAGA OF THE SEAS

in the public memory, and much sincere sympathy was felt
for him. Previous to those misfortunes, the public had thought
of him as a wealthy and socially-prominent New Yorker who
had achieved an enviable fame. Only the older generation
really remembered his cable triumph, although the younger
elements had read articles and poems about it.

His special appeal to the public imagination lay in his ex-
emplification of typical American characteristics of energy,
initiative, hard work, and perseverance. A large circle of as-
sociates, both in business and private life, recalled his liberal-
ity and charity; these memories, which were not published,
illustrated a very real aspect of his character. Field had been
a generous and frank personality. He had taken dangerous
chances and had attained a brilliant success, although bad
luck overtook him at the end.

Some persons who disliked him and had been jealous of
his victories were pleased at his failures. The usual crowd of
wiseacres, who habitually oppose exceptional individuals and
trim their sails to mediocrity, shook their heads sagely at
“what they had always expected.” They were a similar crowd
to the ones who had laughed in the eighteen-fifties at the idea
of sending electrical impulses under the ocean, and who had
“foreseen” the early failures in cables.

At various times, Field had been criticized for appearing
brusque in business deals and dictatorial in his methods. Such
characteristics were probably the consequence of his impatient
desire to get things done and his remembrance of occasions
when the business world had treated him harshly and brutally.
The actual records show deeds that prove an honest nature
and a kind heart.

If courage and generosity are the two greatest traits that a
man can possess, Field ranked high as a personality, regardless
of his successes and failures. His success in laying cables was
partly the consequence of favorable factors of nature, such as

THE WORLD MOVES ON 279

electrical laws and oceanic conditions. Chance influences
most careers. His failures in business were due to personal
characteristics not at all discreditable to him. Taken all in all,
he was a fine type of American citizen—a pioneer, a public
benefactor, and a brave man.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Atlantic Cable Mismanagement; Correspondence between J. W.
Simonton, Cyrus W. Field and Others, 1871, New York.
Briggs, Charles F. and Maverick, Augustus. The Story of the
Telegraph and a History of the Great Atlantic Cable, 1858,

New York.

Bright, Edward Brailsford. The Life Story of the Late Sir
Charles Tilston Bright, 1899, Westminster, England.

Bright, Charles. The Story of the Atlantic Cable, 1903, London.

Dix, John A. Memoirs of John Adams Dix, 2 vols., 1883, New
York.

Field, Henry Martyn. History of the Atlantic Telegraph, 1867,
New York; Story of the Atlantic Telegraph, 1892, New York;
Record of the Family of the Late Rev. David Dudley Field,
1880 (privately printed).

Harper's Magazine and Harper’s Weekly, 1857-1892.

Judson, Isabella Field. Cyrus W. Field, His Life and Work,
1896, New York.

Morse, Edward Lind. Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Jour-
nals, 2 vols., 1914, Boston and New York.

Mullaly, John. The Laying of the Telegraphic Cable, 1858, New
York; The First Atlantic Telegraphic Cable, 1907, Philadel-

hia.

IE York Newspapers, including the Herald, the Tribune, and
the Sun, 1856-1892.

Ocean Telegraphy; the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Organi-
zation of the First Company ever formed to lay an Ocean
Cable, March 10, 1879, New York.

Pierce, F.C. Field Genealogy, 2 vols., 1901, Chicago.

Prime, Samuel I. The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 2 vols., 1875,
New York.

Reid, James D. The Telegraph in America, 1886, New York.

Remonstrance against the Petition of Peter Cooper and others
Respecting Exclusive Privileges in Relation to a Sub-
Marine Telegraph Cable between Europe and America,
1857, Boston.

Russell, W. H. The Atlantic Telegraph, 1866, London.

281

282 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Swisher, Carl B. Stephen J. Field, Craftsman of the Law, 1930,
Washington.

Technical Periodicals, including Journal of the Telegraph, 1868-
1914; The Telegrapher, 1864-1877; Scientific American,
1851-1936; and Annales Telegraphiques, Paris, 1855-1899.

The Gentleman’s Magazine, May 1834, containing paper on
John Field.

Van Rensselaer, Cortlandt. Signals from the Atlantic Cable,
1858, Philadelphia.

INDEX

Adams, Charles Francis, 89, 90, 94,
101, 105,106, 138, 229, 290.

Adams, Reverend William, 248.

Airy, Sir G. B., 39.

Alabama Claims in Civil War, 185,
186, 189, 201, 212, 254, 260, 264.

Alaska, 115, 116.

Allen, Elisha H., 222, 223.

American Telephone & Telegraph
Company, 234.

Among the Pines, book about Civil
War conditions, 99.

Anderson, Sir James, 133, 153, 158,
162, 166, 171, 172, 190, 195, 247,
254, 274.

André, Major John, British spy, 248,
249, 250, 252.

Anglo-American Telegraph Com-
pany, 133, 137, 175, 176, 178, 199,
212, 276.

Appold, J. G., 55.

Arago, Dominique Francois, 227.

Archibald, Edward M., 33, 86, 113,
127, 254.

Ardsley, England, 4, 199.

Ardsley-on-Hudson, 199, 200, 201,
248, 257, 261, 270, 273, 276.

Argyll, Duke of, 190, 191, 193, 194,
195, 202, 208, 264, 274.

Arnold, Benedict, 248.

Arthur, Chester A., 227.

Astor, John Jacob, 232.

Azores, The, 45, 178.

Atlantic Telegraph Company, 40,
51, 54, 63, 66, 67, 70, 79, 82, 89, go,
93> 95, 100, 104, 113, 119, 120, 133,
154, 160, 199, 212.

Bancroft, George, 24, 265.

Beecher, Reverend Henry Ward, 65,
66, 200, 227.

Bell, Alexander Graham, 234.

Belmont, August, 232.

Bennett, James Gordon, 18, 178, 258.

Berkshire County, Massachusetts, 3,
5» 250.

Bible, The, 10, 18, 62.

Bidder, George P., 119.

Bismarck, Prince Otto von, 140, 141.

Black Sea, 35.

Blackwood’s Magazine, 131.

Blaine, James G., 227, 254, 255, 262.

Brassey, Thomas, 113, 133.

Brett, John W., 34, 35, 38, 39, 40,
48, 160, 161.

Bright, Sir Charles T., 36, 38, 39, 47,
48, 53, 55, 60, 78, 80, 81, 82, 91,
118, 119, 123, -137;, 1553, 159; 160;
161, 254.

Bright, John, 101, 102, 106, 107, 138,
139, 140, 163, 164, 173, 185, 191,
192, 195, 196, 201, 202, 203, 204,
210, 211, 254, 264, 273.

British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, 119.

Brooks, Reverend Arthur, 275.

Brown, Sir William, 59.

Bryant, William Cullen, 15, 63, 87,
226, 227, 230.

Buchanan, President James, 62, 67,
68, 69, 73, 75> 195-

Buckingham Palace Hotel, 138, 185,
186.

Byron, Lady, 35, 40.

Canning, Sir Samuel, 37, 53, 130, 132,
197, 151, 152, 158, 159, 171, 172,
274.

Caithness, Lord, 138.

Canadian Pacific Railway, 261.

Carlisle, Lord, 49, 50, 51.

Cesnola, General Luigi Palma di, 229,
230.

Cesnola Antiques, 229, 230.

Chicago Fire of 1871, 213.

Chamber of Commerce of New York,
125, 165.

Channing, William Ellery, 5.

283

284

Chase, Salmon P., g2, 106, 108, 112,
168.

Church, Frederick, 25, 26.

Civil War, 3, 14, 30, 87, 93, 94, 95,
103-112, 121, 124, 125, 139, 183, 185,
195, 213, 247, 264.

Clarendon, Lord, 39, 194.

Clark, Latimer and Edwin, 119, 137,
155, 156, 168, 274.
Cleveland, President

252.

Cobden, Richard, 101, 102, 185, 188,
189, 191, 274.

Cockran, Bourke, 276.

Colfax, Schuyler, 205-209.

Collins, Perry McDonough, 115, 116,
216, 221.

Columbia College, 14.

Common Council of New York, 168,
169.

Congress, U. S., 29, 41, 93, 115, 169,
231. (Also see Senate, U. S.)

Conkling, Roscoe, 227.

Constantine, Grand Duke, of Russia,
216, 220, 221.

Cooper, Peter, 31, 32, 37, 41, 84, 86,
127, 164, 195, 198, 212, 219, 242,
273.

Cornell, Ezra, 34, 227.

Crimean War, 35, 49, 54.

Croton Aqueduct, New York, 22.

Cunard Line, 39, 274.

Cyprus, 229, 230.

Grover, 245,

Deane, John C., 137, 140, 141, 142,
143, 177-

Derby, Lord, 158, 173.

Dickinson, Submit, wife of the Rev-
erend David Dudley Field, 5, 6, 10,
16, 17, 18, 26, 200.

Disraeli, Benjamin, 232.

Dix, General John A., 124, 195, 199,
227.

Doane, George Washington, Bishop
of New Jersey, 71.

Douglas, Senator Stephen, 42, 44.

Drew, Daniel, 227.

Dudley, Robert, artist, 126, 139, 140.
274.

Dwight, Timothy, 4.

INDEX

Eardley, Sir Culling, 52, 101.

Edwards, Jonathan, 4, 6.

Elevated Railway in New York, 237-
245, 251, 265-271.

Erie Canal, 10, 13, 15, 235.

Erie Railroad, 6, 145.

Evarts, William M., 2, 232.

Everett, Edward, 183, 184.

Everett, William E., 54, 60.

Evening Express, The New York, 258.

Evening Post, The New York, 15, 62,
180.

Fairbairn, William, 119.

Faraday, Michael, 28, 38, 47, 48, 83,
123.

Farragut, Admiral David G., 168.

Field, British Columbia railway
station, 262.
Field, Alice, daughter of Cyrus

Field, 108, 109, 110, 111, 276.

Field, Cyrus West, hero of the North
Atlantic, born, 3; ancestry, 4;
family, 5-9; boyhood, 10-12; ar-
rives in New York, 16; marries, 21;
moves to Gramercy Park and re-
tires from business, 24; gets idea
of Atlantic cable, 31; failure off
Newfoundland, 38; gets help from
Congress, 41; starts laying cable off
Ireland, 48; failure, 53; another
start, 57; the cable laid, 61; ac-
claimed as hero, 68-76; failure, 78;
meets Gladstone, 96; tries another
cable, 121; failure again, 190; tries
once more, 134; succeeds, 143;
awarded medal by Congress, 169-
171; feted in London, 189-195; as-
sists settlement of Alabama claims,
201-212; argues for Pacific cables,
216-225; goes to Iceland, 233;
promotes elevated railways, 238;
honors André, 248; helps Garfield
family, 255; buys newspaper, 258;
loses fortune, 267-271; overcome by
tragedies, 275; dies, 276; buried at
birthplace, 277.

Field, Cyrus William, younger son of
Cyrus Field, 261.

INDEX

Field, Reverend David Dudley, 4, 5,
Q, 10, 21, 26, 53, 200.

Field, David Dudley, 6, 7, 9, 15, 20,
31, 32, 33, 85, 86, 87, 195, 200, 221,
242, 265, 274, 276.

Field, Edward Morse, older son of
Cyrus Field, 227, 260, 275.

Field, Reverend Henry Martyn, 6, 8,
32, 33, 84, 37, 41, 52, 62, 73, 78, 79,
80, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 135,
137, 138, 142, 143, 150, 156, 168,
169, 181, 182, 183, 201, 265, 276.

Field, John, 4.

Field, Jonathan Edwards, 6.

Field, Marshall, 4.

Field, Mary, oldest daughter of
Cyrus Field, 194, 260, 275.

Field, Matthew, 10, 20, 31, 36, 38,
176.

Field, Stephen Johnson, 6, 7, 8, 9,
10, 21, 195, 200, 262, 265, 276.

Field, Timothy, older and younger,
4, 5, 26.

Field, Zechariah, 4, 199.

Fifth Avenue Hotel, 195, 227, 228.

Fire of 1835, New York, 15.

Fish, Hamilton, 227.

Fisk, James, Jr., 6, 213, 227.

Fitzgerald, Peter, Knight of Kerry,
49, 51, 136, 156.

Franklin, Benjamin, 28, 69, 76.

Franklin, Lady, 101.

Gale, Professor Leonardo D., 227.
Galton, Captain Douglas, 101, 119.
Garfield, Harry A., 256.

Garfield, President James A., 195,
251, 253, 254, 255, 256, 263.

Gentleman’s Magazine, The, 4.

Gettysburg, Battle of, 104, 105, 106.

Gisborne, Frederick N., 30, 31, 33,
39-

Gisborne, Lionel, 120.

Gladstone, William E., 96, 97, 98, 99,
100, 102, 108, 109, 163, 173, 187, 188,
207, 200, 214, 229, 230, 232, 233, 254,
274, 277-

Glass, Elliott & Company, 91, 92, 113,
120.

285

Glass, Sir Richard A., 151, 158, 159,
161.

Goldsmith, Oliver, 12.

Gooch, Sir Daniel, 133, 158, 159, 274.

Gould, Jay, 6, 178, 213, 227, 244, 268,
269, 270.

Gramercy Park, New York City, 24,
25, 87, 185, 201, 236, 242, 256, 270.

Grant, Ulysses S., 168, 197, 227, 231,
232, 262, 263, 264, 265.

Granville, Lord, 44, 202, 206, 229.

Great Eastern, The, 49, 121, 124-153,
158, 162, 165, 172, 174, 177, 178,
190, 261, 265, 274.

Greeley, Horace, 70, 85, 86, 179, 227.

Guilford, Connecticut, 21, 25.

Gutta-Percha, 35, 47, 132.

Haddam, Connecticut, 4, 21, 250.

Hale, Nathan, American spy, 252,
253-

Halstead, Murat, 233.

Harper’s Magazine, 169, 242.

Harper’s Weekly, 73, 246.

Hawaiian Islands, 215, 222, 223, 224,
225, 251.

Hayes, Rutherford B., 6, 242.

Henry, Joseph, 28, 29, 227.

Herald, The New York, 51, 52, 63,
64, 71, 178, 259, 277.

Hopkins, Mark, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15.

Hughes, David, 83.

Hughes, Thomas, 210.

Hunt, Wilson G., 32, 84, 219, 232.

Iceland, 233, 234.

Illustrated London News, The, 135,
136, 150.

Irving, Washington, 200.

Jay Cooke & Company, 230.

Johnson, President Andrew, 164, 168,
169, 193, 194, 195.

Johnson, Reverdy, 203, 207.

Judson, Isabella Field, daughter of
Cyrus Field, 24, 95, 153, 180, 256,
260, 262, 276.

Lampson, Sir Curtis, 59, 158, 159.
Lesseps, Viscount Ferdinand Marie
de, 125, 144, 162, 193.

286

Lincoln, Abraham, 86, 94, 112, 115,
125, 127, 139, 195.

Lind, Jenny, 25.

Lindley, Daniel, 260, 275.

Liverpool Daily Post, The, 51, 172.

Longfellow, Henry W., 62, 264.

Lords, House of, London, 44, 207.

Lucile Cléry, novel about Mrs. Henry
Field, 9.

Lyons, Lord, 89, go, 112, 124.

McClellan, General George B., 88.
McClintock, Sir Leopold, 114.
McDowell, William, 242, 243.

MacRay, John W., 178.

Madison Square, 25, 86, 227, 228, 235,
2517.

Mail and Express, The New York,
258, 270.

Marcy, Willam L., 115.

Marriage of Cyrus Field and Mary
Bryan Stone, 21.

Mason and Slidell, 43, 90. (James M.
Mason and John Slidell.)

Maury, Matthew F., 31, 32, 38, 84.

Meade, General George G., 109, 111,
168.

Mediterranean, 35, 91, 120, 121, 125,
130.

Metropolitan Museum, New York,
229, 230.

Middletown, Connecticut, 35.

Mills, Darius Ogden, 216, 219.

Milne, Sir Alexander and Lady, 111,
112, 191.

Morgan, John Pierpont, 276.

Morgan, Junius S., 134, 229, 230.

Morse, Samuel F. B., 29, 31, 34, 37;
39, 41, 47, 48, 52, 53, 69, 76, 83,
118; 11Q, 1295, 171, 213, 219; 225,
226, 227, 274.

Morse Telegraph, 34, 46, 56, 83, 226.

Mount Field, British Columbia, 262.

Mullaly, John, 37, 52.

Mullock, Bishop John T., 30, 33, 39.

Myres, John L., professor at Oxford,
230.

Napier, Lord, 75.

INDEX

New Englander, The, a periodical,
201, 202, 203.

Newfoundland, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37,
38, 39, 40, 44, 53, 56, 60, 62, 67, 70,
81, 83, 91, 92, 94, 123, 124, 136, 142,
143, 144, 146, 152, 160, 161, 175,
176, 177, 178, 276. (See also St.
John’s.)

New York Historical Society, 238,
249, 252, 253-

New York, Newfoundland & London
Telegraph Company, 33, 36, 133,
144, 154, 164, 175, 178, 185, 199,
B125/247.

New York University, 15, 227.

Northcote, Sir Stafford (Earl of Id-
desleigh), 158, 191, 204, 207.

Northern Pacific Railroad, 261.

Nova Scotia, 30, 34, 38, 144, 175, 176,
178.

O’Conor, Charles, 81, 238.

Oersted, Hans Christian, 227.

O’Neill and Dudley, artists, 126. (See
also Dudley, Robert.)

Pacific Cables, 215-225, 251, 253.

Pakington, Sir John, 55, 56, 191.

Palmerston, Lord, 93, 96, 189.

Panics, Financial, 14, 20, 54, 87, 103,
230, 231.

Paris, 40, 171, 189.

Peabody, George, 40, 67, 158, 180,
195.

Persian Gulf, 91, 120, 121.

Pierce, President Franklin, 41, 42,
115, 197.

Pilgrim’s Progress, book, 18.

Platt, ‘Tom, 228.

Plymouth, England, 57.

Porter, General Horace, 252.

Presbyterian Church, 8, 87.

Prince Albert, Consort of Victoria,
114, 188.

Prince of Wales, later Edward VII,
86, 125, 160.

Pullman, George, 265.

Queenstown, Ireland, 58, 59.

Red Sea, 85, 91, 120, 125.

INDEX

Redcliffe, Viscount Stratford de, 193.

Redesdale, Lord, 44.

Reuter, Julius, and Reuter’s Tele-
graph Agency, 101, 106.

Ripon, Marquis of, 189, 204, 206, 207,
208, 254.

Roberts, Marshall O., 26, 32, 41, 84,
219, 232.

Root, E., & Company, 21, 22, 23, 237.

Roosevelt, President Theodore, 228,
230.

Royal Society, The, 35.

Russell, Lord, 89, 90, 206, 207.

Russell, Sir W. H., 126, 131, 137, 140,
162, 274.

Sage, Russell, 268, 269.

Saward, George, 66, 96, 119, 176.

Saxe, John G., 73, 246.

Scott, Thomas A., 88.

Scott, General Winfield, 97, 99.

Senate, U. S., 41, 42, 115, 202.
also Congress, U. S.)

Seward, William H., 42, 43, 44, 85,
88, 89, 90, 92, 94, 112, 115, 139, 168,
170, 184, 186, 194, 199.

Shaffner, Colonel T. P., 113, 114.

Shaftesbury, Earl of, 190.

Shearing, Joseph, author of novel,
Lucile Cléry, 9.

Sherman, Colonel Thomas W., 89.

Siberia, 115, 116, 216.

Slidell and Mason, 43, go. (John
Slidell and James M. Mason.)

Smith, Goldwin, 194, 254.

Smith, Willoughby, 150, 161, 171,
17250274.

South America, 25, 26, 114.

Spectator, The, London periodical,
151.

Spurgeon, Reverend Charles H., 96.

Stanley, Dean Arthur Penrhyn, of
Westminster, 213, 229, 247, 248,
249, 250, 254-

Stephenson, Robert, 39.

Stewart, A. T., & Co., 15, 19, 20, 21,
232.

St. John’s, Newfoundland, 30, 36,
144, 147, 149, 277. (See also New-
foundland.)

(See

287

St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, 67.

St. Pierre, island, 177, 212.

Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 3, g, 10,
12, 15, 25, 26, 61, 62, 200, 217, 250,
277.

Stone, Mary Bryan, wife of Cyrus
Field, 21, 162, 274, 275.

Stone, Joseph F., brother-in-law of
Cyrus Field, 22, 34.

Strathcona, Lord (Donald Smith),
261.

Sturgis, Russell, 101.

Suez Canal, 125, 228.

Sumner, Charles, 186, 201, 202, 204,
208, 211, 264.

Sun, The New York, 69, 273-

Sutherland, Dowager Duchess of, 100.

Swisher, Carl B., author of biography
of Stephen J. Field, 8.

Taylor, Bayard, 37, 233, 234.

Taylor, Moses, 32, 41, 84, 219, 233,
234.

Technical Problems of the Cable, 44,
45, 46, 47, 48, 55. 56, 80, 82, 83,
119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 128, 132,
134, 135, 147, 148, 155, 156, 157,
179.

Telegraph Construction & Mainte-
nance Company, 120, 133, 159, 161,
175.

Telephone, 234, 257.

Thackeray, William M., 4o.

Third Avenue, New York, 105, 237,
239, 243, 256.

Thirteen Months in a Rebel Prison,
book of Civil War times, 96.

Thomson, Sir William (Lord Kelvin),
35> 40, 45, 47, 56, 57, 60, 67, 82, 83,
118, 123, 126, 128, 132, 137, 156,
158, 162, 274.

Tiffany & Company, New York jew-
elers, 71.

Tilden, Samuel J., 6, 223, 227, 243,
267, 273.

Times, The, London, 51, 52, 78, 79,
92, 137, 152, 160, 161.

Tribune, The New York, 69, 186, 187,
233, 276.

Twain, Mark, 227.

288

Tweed, Boss, 6, 227, 235.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, novel, 100.
Unitarians, 5.

Vail, Alfred, 227.

Valentia, Ireland, 48, 53, 61, 79, 80,
138, 142, 150, 151, 168.

Vanderbilt, “Commodore” Cornelius,
227.

Vanderbilt, William H., 256.

Varley, Cromwell F., 45, 119, 120, 157,
198, 199.

Victoria, Queen, 14, 49, 59, 62, 67,
68, 73, 75, 81, 86, 114, 158, 159, 173,
195, 265.

Volta, Count Alessandro, 28, 227.

Wabash Railway, 244, 251, 259.

INDEX

Webb, William H., 219.

Weed, Thurlow, 93, 227.

Western Union Telegraph Company,
115, 178, 212, 231, 269.

Wheatstone, Sir Charles, 83, 119, 162.

White, Chandler, 32.

Whitehouse, Edward O. W., 38, 39,
53, 67, 82, 83, 160, 161.

Whittier, John G., 174, 175.

Wilde, Oscar, 274.

Williams College, 4, 8, 12, 13, 251,
255.

Williams, Ephraim, 4.

Wisconsin, 174.

Woolsey, Theodore Dwight, President
of Yale, 201, 202.

Wortley, James Stuart, 96, 154, 187.

Yale College, 4, 201, 202.