Early in 1854, Mr. Field’s attention was drawn to the scheme for a telegraph between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, in connection with a line of fast steamships from Ireland to call at St. John’s, Newfoundland.  The idea struck him that if a line were laid to Ireland, lasting benefit would result to the world.  So he called together some of his intimate friends, including Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, Chandler White, and Marshall O. Roberts, and they joined him in organizing the “New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company,” which was the pioneer in the movement to connect the two continents by a telegraph cable, and without whose aid its consummation would have been indefinitely delayed.

The work was costly and difficult.  The first part consisted in surveying the bottom of the sea for a route.  This was done by taking “soundings” and “dredgings.”  As some of you are aware, “sounding” is an operation for ascertaining the depth of the sea, while “dredging” reveals what plants and living creatures are at the bottom.  After much patient labor, a level space was found between Ireland and Newfoundland, and it seemed to be so well adapted to the surveyor’s purposes that it was called the “Telegraphic Plateau.”

[Illustration:  THE GRAPNEL.]

Two or three large vessels were next equipped, and sent out with several thousand miles of cable on board, which they proceeded to lay.  But the fragile cord—­fragile compared with the boisterous power of the waves—­broke in twain, and could not be recovered.  A second attempt was made, and that failed, too.  Brave men can overcome adversity, however, and the little band of scientific men and capitalists were brave men and were determined to succeed.  Each heart suffered the acute anguish of long-deferred hope, and each expedition cost many hundred thousands of dollars.  Nevertheless, the promoters of the Atlantic cable sent out a third time, and when failure met them again, it seemed to common minds that their scheme was a settled impossibility.  Not so with the heroes.  Each failure showed them some faults in their plans or machinery.  These they amended.  Thus, while they were left at a distance from the object of their ambition, they were brought a little nearer to its attainment.

Guided by the light of past experience, they equipped a fourth expedition.  The “Great Eastern” was selected, and her interior was altered for the purpose.  She was, and is still, the largest vessel afloat.  Her length is six hundred and ninety-five feet; her breadth eighty-five feet, and her burthen twenty-two thousand tons.  One of the principal causes of failure in previous expeditions was the inability of the cable to endure the severe strain put upon it in stormy weather as it passed from an ordinarily unsteady vessel into the sea.  The “Great Eastern,” from her immense size, promised to be steady in the worst of gales.  Her hold was fitted with three enormous iron tanks—–­a