The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

In Short

Henry M. Field chronicles the monumental twelve-year effort to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable, connecting North America and Europe across the ocean floor. The narrative traces the project's journey from early scientific validation and intense political debates through repeated mechanical disasters, lost equipment, and public skepticism, culminating in the triumphant successes of 1866. Field details the technical hurdles, international diplomacy, and sheer physical endurance required to complete the task. The work endures as a primary historical account of a transformative nineteenth-century technological leap, capturing the human determination behind an achievement that fundamentally reshaped global communication.

The Story

The narrative opens with the early conceptualization and scientific validation of a submarine telegraph line connecting Ireland and Newfoundland. Early experiments by Samuel Morse, alongside research by oceanographers and scientists, establish that electric signals can traverse long distances beneath the ocean. Cyrus W. Field forms a company to realize this vision, commencing extensive overland construction. Teams build over five hundred miles of road and telegraph lines across Newfoundland and Cape Breton to extend existing American networks to the easternmost edge of the continent, spending a million dollars before reaching the Atlantic shore.

To secure necessary backing, project leaders navigate intense political resistance in the United States Congress. Southern legislators express deep skepticism, raising anti-British objections and voicing fears that England will gain an undue geopolitical advantage from a cable anchored on British territory. Despite this hostility, key political figures push the funding bill through, securing crucial naval and financial cooperation between Great Britain and the United States.

The enterprise faces immediate physical trials during its ocean voyages. The initial 1857 attempt and subsequent expeditions in 1858 encounter horrific Atlantic storms, severe equipment strains, and repeated cable snapping. Though a cable is successfully landed in August 1858, sparking massive public celebrations, religious sermons, and civic ovations across both nations, the signal peters out after a few weeks, sinking the public into profound discouragement and financial hesitation.

Undeterred by the collapse, the organizers spend years raising capital and securing guarantees from the British government. Advances in manufacturing produce a far stronger, heavily insulated cable, which is loaded onto the massive Great Eastern in 1865. Disaster strikes again when the line breaks midway across the ocean and sinks to a depth of over two miles, forcing the crew to abandon the search for the season.

The ultimate resolution arrives in 1866. The Great Eastern sails once more, successfully laying a brand-new, perfectly functioning cable from Valentia, Ireland, to Heart's Content, Newfoundland. Immediately after landing the new line, the fleet turns back to the mid-ocean site of the previous year's failure. Through precision maneuvering and tireless dragging in two-mile-deep waters, the crew grapples the lost 1865 cable, pulls it to the surface, splices it to new wire, and carries it to shore. The long ordeal concludes with two operational telegraph lines linking the hemispheres, celebrated globally as a supreme triumph of modern enterprise.

How It Unfolds

Carving the land routes Workers hack through hundreds of miles of wilderness across Newfoundland and Cape Breton to establish overland telegraph lines to the coast.

Overcoming political hostility Organizers fight intense opposition in the United States Senate, where politicians argue against co-funding a project anchored in British territory.

Surviving the Atlantic tempest The fleet braves brutal June storms, severe ship displacement, and extreme cable tension during early attempts to pay out line across the ocean floor.

Celebrating the fleeting connection Cities host grand parades, civic banquets, and church services when the 1858 cable lands, only to suffer crushing disappointment when the line dies weeks later.

Coiling the giant wire Factories spin thousands of miles of heavy iron-and-copper cable, immersing the finished product in massive water tanks before loading it into the Great Eastern.

Losing the line in deep water Disaster strikes the 1865 voyage as the cable snaps unexpectedly, plunging two miles down to the ocean bed and defying immediate recovery efforts.

Grappling from two miles down Crews repeatedly lower iron grapnels into nineteen-hundred-fathom waters, successfully hooking and raising the lost 1865 line to create a second working transatlantic connection.

The People

• Cyrus W. Field: The primary American organizer who drives the enterprise from its inception. He wants to establish an instantaneous communications link between the New World and the Old, pouring over two hundred thousand dollars of his own wealth into the project and traveling across the Atlantic dozens of times. He faces financial exhaustion, public mockery, and repeated mechanical catastrophes, ultimately emerging as the widely celebrated visionary who united the continents.
• Samuel F. B. Morse: The famed inventor and scientist whose early electro-magnetic experiments establish the theoretical viability of long-distance underwater telegraphy. He seeks to prove that signals can cross the sea, conducting nocturnal tests in London and writing prophetic early letters to government officials. His initial validation gives the project essential scientific credibility, though he steps back as physical operations move to the open ocean.
• Professor William Thomson: The brilliant young Scottish physicist from the University of Glasgow who champion’s ocean telegraphy when others dismiss it. He wants to resolve the complex electrical problems hindering long-distance transmission, providing crucial theoretical insights and measuring techniques that keep the technical efforts grounded. His early scientific confidence helps sustain the project through its darkest setbacks.

In Its Own Voice

"The practical inference from this law is, that a telegraphic communication on the electro-magnetic plan may with certainty be established across the Atlantic Ocean!"

Written by Samuel Morse in 1843, this bold declaration showcases the early scientific confidence that drove the enterprise years before construction began.

"At half-past seven o'clock the cable was hauled on shore, and formal presentation was made of it to the Lord Lieutenant by Captain Pennock, of the Niagara; his Excellency expressing a hope that the work so well begun would be carried to a satisfactory completion."

This moment captures the joint diplomatic and naval cooperation on the Irish beach as American sailors and British officials landed the shore line together.

"In a few hours they reached the appointed rendezvous, and had set their buoys. The last day of August had come, and all seemed favorable for a final attempt."

This passage paints the tense, precise scene in mid-ocean as the fleet prepared to lower grapnels into deep waters to rescue the lost cable.

What It's Really About

Beneath its chronicle of engineering and seafaring, the book explores how human persistence and scientific discipline overcome environmental scale and deep political skepticism. It functions as an argument for international cooperation, showing how shared scientific ambition can bridge nationalistic divides, such as the heated debates between Southern politicians and British interests.

The text also wrestles with the psychological toll of public failure. It examines how public enthusiasm instantly collapses into profound cynicism when technology fails, and how leaders maintain focus despite widespread discouragement. Ultimately, the narrative frames technological progress as a moral and unifying force, arguing that instantly connecting human minds across vast distances fosters global peace and mutual understanding.

Why Read It Today

This history appeals to readers who enjoy vivid accounts of nineteenth-century engineering, maritime adventure, and international diplomacy. Henry M. Field writes with directness and narrative pacing, transforming technical specifications—like wire strand counts, ocean depths, and dynamometer tension readings—into high-stakes drama. The book captures the immense physical reality of early technology, where laying a wire required giant steamships, iron buoys, and manual labor in roaring Atlantic seas.

Readers must navigate periodic nineteenth-century period attitudes, particularly an uncritical faith in Western material progress and a frequent framing of the achievement in high-minded religious rhetoric. The text also includes detailed operational logistics and lists of parliamentary or legislative votes that occasionally slow the narrative stride.

Yet what stays with you is the sheer scale of the trial: the vision of ships waiting out magnetic storms, crews dragging heavy grapnels across two-mile-deep oceanic trenches in dead calm, and the relentless endurance of a small group who refused to accept the Atlantic Ocean as an insurmountable barrier.