ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 629, 17 November 1858, Page 3

ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH

This great enterprise has at length succeeded) and messages are now being regularly transmitted. A correspondent of the ' Daily; News,' who accompanied the Agamemnon, furnishes a graphic and: interesting description of the expedition, as far as that ship was concerned. He says: The rendezvous was reached on the evening of Wednesday, the 28th of July, just 11 days after our departure from Queenstown. The rest of the squadron were in site* at nightfall} but at such a considerable distance that it was past 10 o'clock on the morning of Thursday, the 29th, before the Agamemnon joined them: We were, as usual, greeted by a perfect storm of questions as to what kept us so much behind our time, and learned that all had come to the conclusion that the ship must have got ashore on leaving Queenstown harbour. The Niagara, it appeared, had arrived on the rei;dc"zvous oh Friday n'isjht, the 23rd ; the Valorous on Sunday, the 25th ; and the Gorgon on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 27th. The day was beautifully calm, so no time was to be lost before making the splice ; boats were soon lowered from attendant ships, the two vessels made "fast by a hawser, and. the Niagara's end of the cable conveyed on. board, the Agamemnon. '. About half past 12 o'clock the splice was effectually made, but with materials very indifferent. Instead of carefully rounded semicircular boards which had been used to enclose the junctions on previous occasions, it consisted merely of two straight boards nailed over the joining, with the iron rod and leaden pli meet attached to the centre. . In hoisting it out from the side of the ship; however^ the leaden sinker broke shortoff and fell overboard, and, there being no. more convenient weight at hand, a 321b. shot was fastened to -the splice instead, and the whole apparatus-.was quickly dropped into the.v«ea without anyjformaiitjv and mdeed^aaoat: without a spectator, for those on board the ship had witnessed so many-beginnings to the telegraphid line, that ifc : was- evident they despaired -there ever being ah end- to it.' The-stipulated\2oo fathoms. haying been paid but^:to allow the splice^ to sink well below the surface, tKe^sigh.al to start-was hoistetl, the hawser .cast,loose,,and the Niagara and Agamemnon started, for ;tne, last time for their opposite destinations.,.-For ±he first three hours the ships ; proceeded very, slowly, paying out a great quantity of slack; but after the expiration of :this time the speed of the Agamemnon was increased to about five knots per hour, the cable going at about six,' without indicating more than a few, hundred pounds of strain upon thedynamometer^ ;Shortly after six o'clock a very large whale was seen approaching the starboard bow at a great, speed, rolling and tossing the sea,into foam all around; and for the first time we felt the possibility of the supposition that our srejond. mysterious breakage might have been caused, after all, by one of these animals getting foul of it under water. It appeared as if it were making direct for the cable, and great was the relief of all when the ponderous living mass was seen slowly to pass astern, just grazing the cable where it entered the water, but fortunately without doing any mischief. All seemed to go well up to about 8 o'clock; the.cable,payed out from the hold with an evenness and regularity which showed how carefully and perfectly it had been coiled.away; and;to guard against accidents which.might arise, in consequence of the cable having suffered injury during the storm.,, the indicated strain upon the dynamometer' was never" allowed to get beyond 1700 lbs;, or less than one quarter what the cable is estimated to bear. Thus' far everything looked promising of success. But in such a hazardous work no on© knows what a few.minutes may bring-forth, for soon after eight an injured portion of the/cable, was discovered about a mile or two from: the portion paying out. Not a moment .wasjlosfc by Mr.-Canning, the engineer on duty^ in setting men to work to cobble up the-injniy aa. well as time would "permit, for the cable was going out at "such a rate that the damaged'por- . fcibn would be paid overboard in less than. [ twenty minutes, and former experience had . shown, us that to check .either the speed of the ship or the' cable would, in all probability; be: ; attended:))j the most fatal results. Just before ' the Japping was iimshedV Professor Thomp-. ison 'reported'that- the electrical, continuity iof ;wire : had ceased, but that the insulation' i was still perfect. Attention, wa* naturally ! directed to the injured piece as the probable source of the stoppage, arid-not, sV ! moment was lost in catting1 the cable at; that, point, with the intention of makine. a perfect; ' splice; bat to the consternation of *U,;*h>t.'lec., trical tests applied showedthe faalt tobeover^ board, and in all probability- some fifty: milej*. from the ship^ .Not a secou4 Ff«* tajbe tost.

.for it was evident that the cut portion must be jpaid overboard in a few minutes, and in the - meantime ithe tedious and difficult operation of making a splice had to be performed. The ship was 'immediately stopped, and no more -«abie payed out than was absolutely necessary to prevent it breaking. As the stern of the ship w-as lifted by the waves a scene of the most intense excitement followed. It seemed even by using the greatest possible : epeed, and paying out the least possible amount •of cable that the junction could be finished •before the part was taken out of the hands of the workmen. The main hold presented an ■extraordinary scene. Nearly all the officers of -the ship, and those connected with the expedition, stood in groups about the coil, watching (with that intense anxiety which is seldom seen, «xcept round foreign gaming tables) the cable as it slowly unwound itself nearer and nearer the joint, while the workmen, directed by Mr. Canning, under whose superintendence the cable was originally manufactured, worked at the splice as only men could work who felt that the life and death of the expedition depended -Jipon their rapidity. But all their speed was no purpose, as the cable was unwinding within a hundred fathoms, and, as a last and ■desperate resource, the cable was stopped altogether, and for a few minutes the ship hung on by the end. Fortunately, however, it was only for a few minutes, as the strain was continually ■rising above two tons, and it could not hold on '-much longer, when the splice was finished, the : signal made to loose the stopper, and it passed - overboard safely enough. When the excitement consequent upon having so narrowly vsaved the cable had passed away, we awoke to 'the consciousness that the.case was still as 'hopeless as ever, for the electric continuity was •till entirely wanting. Preparations were consequently made to pay out as little aa possible, *nd to hold on. for six hours, in the hope the &ult, whatever it might be, might mend itself before cutting the cable and returning to the 'rendezvous to make another splice. The mag*ieticneedles on the receiving instruments were watched closely for the returning signals; when in a few minutes the last hope was extinguished by their suddenly indicating ." dead earth,"; which tended that the cable had broken from the Niagara, or that the insulation had been-, •completely destroyed. In three minutes, however, everyone was agreeably surprised by the intelligence that the stoppage had disappeared, and that the signals had appeared at regular ?. intervals from the Niagara. It is needless to - cay what a load of anxiety this news removed * from the minds of every one, but the general confidence in the ultimate success of the opera-< tion&was much shaken by the occurrence, for ail felt that at any minute a similar accident dight occur. On Saturday, the 31st July, observations at noon showed us to be in latitude 50-58 Nl, and ■"■ longitude 28 -44 W., having made gdod 120 miles of distance from the starting point since noon of > *he previoHs day, with a loss of 27 per cent, of - cable. The Niagara, as far as could be judged from the amount of cable she payed out, which by a previous arrangement was signalled at • every ten miles, kept pace with us, within one or two miles, the whole distance across. During the afternoon of Saturday the wind again fresh--ened up, and before nightfall it again blew Tiearly a gale, and a tremendous ,sea ran before ;it from the south-west which made the Aga-~ ■memnoa pitch to such an extent that it was thought impossible that the cable could hold on through the night. Indeed had it not been for the constant care and watchfulness exercised by Mr. Bright, and the two energetic engineers, Mr. Canning and Mr. ■ Clifford, who acted with him, it could not have been done at all. Men were kept at the wheels of the machine to prevent them from stopping, as the stern of the ship Tose and fell with the sea. for had they done so, the ; cable must undoubtedly have parted. During Sunday the sea and wind increased, and bsfore the evening it blew a smart gale. Now, •indeed, were the energy and activity of all engaged in the operations taxed to the utmost Mr. Hoare and Mr Moore, the two engineers who had charge of the releasing wheels of the -dynamometer, had to keep watch and watch • every four hours and while on duty not daring ■to let their attention be removed from their occupation for one moment, for on their releasing the brakes every time the stern of the ship fell into the trough of the sea entirely depended the safety of the cable, and the result shows how ably they have discharged their duty. Throughout .the night there were few who had the least of the cable holding on till morning, ■and many remained awake listening for the •sound that all most dreaderl to hear, viz., the gun whi'eh should announce the failure of all our hopes; bat still the'cable—which in comparison ■with the ship from which it was paying out and the gigantic waves among which it was delivered, was but a mere thread—continued to hold on, -only leaving a sulphury phosphoric line upon •the stupendous seas as they rolled on towards the ship. With Sunday morning, came no improvement in the -weather. We ' had passed by the deepest sounding of 2400 &thorns, and over more than half of the deep water generally while the amount of cable stiil in the ship was more than sufficient to carry ,ua to the Irish coast, even supposing the continuance-of the bad weather should oblige us to,pay out thesameamount of slack cable as we had been hitherto wasting. Thus far, things looked very promising for our ultimate success: During the afternoon of Monday, an American three-masted .barque, which afterwards proved sto be -^heiChieftain, was'seSij standing from the •eastward-to.wards. ns. No notice was taken of '■her at first. butittiieri she. wa's within about half .a mile ,o£the Agame/nnon she fcltefetl her course and bore" rlgjit ■"doww-aerpss1 our^hoVsl1 * A coi-lisf&h»w^icTi-rolghtipy6ve'fatarto the cable now B»e»f»ea^ri(?v"ha'hle,.pT'.U>.ohrd' only be' avp'Hed-by the-equally hazardous, expeflient'of altering the .Agamemnon** course. The Valorous steamed a.«lu>ad» ami fired a gun for lw?r to heave-to, vTiich, as-she did not appear to take much no-

tice of, was quickly followed by another from the bows of the Agamemnon, and a second and third from the Valorous, but still the vessel held on her course, and, as the only resource left to avoid the collision, the course of the Agamemnon was altered just in time to pass within a few yards of her. It is evident that our proceedings were a source of the greatest possible astonishment to them, for all her crew crowded upon the deck and rigging, and, dipping the ensign several times, they gave us three hearty cheers. About three o'clock on Tuesday morning, all on board were startled from their beds by the loud booming of a gun, everyone, without waiting for the performance of the most particular toilet, rushed on deck to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. Contrary to all expectation the cable was safe; but just in the grey light could be seen the Valorous, rounded in the most warlike attitude, firing gun after gun, in quick succession, towards a large American barque, who being quite unconscious of our proceedings was standing right, across our stern. Such loud and repeated remonstrances from a large steam frigate were not to be despised, and evidently without knowing the why or the wherefore, _ she quickly threw her sails aback, and remained hove-to. Tuesday was a much finer day than we had experienced for nearly a week, but still there was a considerable sea running, and our dangers were far from past. Yet the hope of our ultimate success ran high. About five o'clock in the evening the steep submarine mountain which divides the telegraph plat from the Irish coast was reached, and the sudden shallow. of the water had a very marked effect upon the cable, causing the strain and speed to lessen every minute. A great deal of slack was paid out to allow for any greater inequalities which might exist, though not discovered by the sounding line. About ten o'clock the shoal water of 250 fathoms was reached. The only remaining anxiety was the changing from the lower main coil to that upon the upper deck, and this most difficult and dangerous operation was sucssssfully performed between three and four o'clock on Wednesday morning. Wednesday was a beautifully calm day; indeed, it was the first on which any one would have thought of making a splice since the day we started from the rendezvous. We therefore congratulated ourselves on having saved a week by commencing operations on the Thursday morning. At noon we were in latitude 52 deg. 11 mm., lon. 12 deg. 40 rain. 2 sec W., 89 miles distant from the telegraph station at Valentia. The water shallow^ so there was no difficulty in paying out. We were almost without any loss by slack, and all looked upon the undertaking as virtually accomplished. At about 1 o'clock in the morning the second change from the upper deck coil to that upon the orlop deck was safely effected, and shortly after the vessels exchanged signals that they were in 200 fathoms water. As the night advanced the speed of the ship was reduced, as it was known we were only a short distance from the land, and there would be no advantage in making it before daylight in the morning; about 12 o'clock, however, the Skelleys light was seen in the distance, and the Valorous steamed on a-head to lead us into the coast, firing rockets at intervals to direct us, which were answered from the Agamemnon; though according to Mr. Moriarty, the master, the ship, disregarding the Valorous, kept her own course, which proved to be the right one in the end. By daylight in the morning of Thursday the bold and rocky mountains which entirety surround the wild and picturesque neighbourhood of Valentia, rose right before us at a few miles distance. Never, probably, waslthe sight of land more welcome to us, as it brought our arduous duties to a successful termination.