WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Transatlantic Telegraph Cable 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:06.760 Happy Saturday, one hundred and sixty five years ago today, 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:11.800 Cruiz finished laying the first transatlantic telegraph cable and then 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:15.240 the first successful communication was sent along that cable a 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.799 few days later. So we are replaying our episode on 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.600 the first transatlantic cable today. This originally came out on 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:30.280 November ninth, twenty sixteen. Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:40.680 in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:44.040 to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy D. Wilson, 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:47.839 and today we are listening to a topic that we 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:49.880 have gotten a number of requests for. One of them 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:52.839 that sticks in my mind is a request from our listener, Jeff. 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:55.800 But basically, the eighteen thirties and the eighteen forties were 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.880 a really exciting time for communication throughout the world. Sign 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.160 Tists and inventors were experimenting with telegraphy in some form 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:06.440 or another, and the world sort of stood on this 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:09.960 threshold of information flow. And once the ability to reach 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.840 one another through mechanical means started to become a reality. 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.160 Of course, as we know living in the digital age now, 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:18.959 that information flow quickly became a full on jet. But 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.040 it really was like a pretty speedy transition even then. 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:26.280 But to get to that initial point where things really 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:29.280 started to be global, it took almost two decades to 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:32.800 get a message sent across the Atlantic Ocean by telegraph. 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:35.360 That's from the time the idea was adopted as the 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:39.080 next logical step for global communication to when they actually 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.600 got a line completed and working. And this is sort 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.920 of a story of inspiration and daring, but above all, 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.000 the real story here is tenacity. As you will see 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.960 our story of the Transatlantic Cable. Unsurprisingly, we'll start with 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.120 Samuel Morse, who was credited with the invention of the 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:01.080 telegraph and his original career trajectory. If you're not familiar 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.200 with it, might surprise you a little bit. I suddenly 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.280 was so. Samuel F. B. Morsh was born on April 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.440 twenty seventh of seventeen ninety one to parents Jedediah and 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.000 Elizabeth Finley Morse, and as a student both at Phillips 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.160 Academy and then at Yale College, his performance was pretty 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:21.680 middling in all subjects except for art, which he loved. 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:25.160 He was not really aspiring to be an engineer or 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.760 an inventor at this point. He wanted to become a 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.640 painter when he got out of college. That was not 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.799 a particularly lucrative career plan. After an apprenticeship to a 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.600 Boston publisher, it was a parent that art really was 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:39.840 the only thing that he was interested in, so his 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.400 father sent him to England to study at the Royal Academy, 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:47.760 where he developed his style in the Romantic tradition. So, 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:51.200 after studying in England, he returned to Boston in eighteen 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:53.880 fifteen and he set up a studio there where he 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.080 continued to paint these large, epic pieces that were really 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.200 well regarded, but they weren't very lucrative. Everybody, but he 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.040 loved to look at them and talked about how good 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:04.919 they were, but nobody was buying them. So a few 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.040 years into his art career, he married a woman named 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.760 Lucretia Walker. This was in eighteen eighteen, and at this 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:11.800 point he realized he had to make ends meet and 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:14.000 provide for his bride and they were having a family, 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.960 so he began taking commissions to paint portraits, often traveling 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:22.680 to do so. Seven years into the marriage, Lucretia died 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:26.160 after giving birth to the couple's third child, and Samuel 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.360 was away on a painting job. When this happened, he 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.160 was so devastated that he wasn't able to make it 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:34.400 home in time for her burial, and this was just 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.280 the beginning of a series of heartaches for him. His 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:41.280 father died the following year, and then his mother passed 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:46.080 away a few years after that. So eventually Morse decided 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:48.480 to travel to Europe in eighteen twenty nine for a 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:50.839 three year trip that was intended to help him move 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.640 through his grief. This also proved to be a pivotal 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:57.600 move because on the return voyage. Once he had done 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:00.840 this traveling, he met physician and some time inventor and 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:05.000 a great potential podcast subject, Charles Thomas Jackson. So, according 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:10.080 to the story, Jackson and Morse discussed the possibilities of 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:14.040 the transmission of messages via electrical current, and Morse came 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.760 away from this discussion very inspired. After making some quick 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.240 initial sketches for a machine and then spending several years 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:25.520 studying the electric relay work of scientist Joseph Henry, Morse 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:30.040 started building a telegraph prototype. As has been the case 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:32.760 with many inventions we've talked about in the podcast, Morse's 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.680 telegraph did not just appear in a vacuum. Not only 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.200 was he building on the work of others, but there 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:43.560 are also numerous other inventors who were working on similar 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.080 concepts of the time, with all of them basically driven 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:51.440 by a goal of improved communication for humankind. Yeah, it's 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.159 important to remember that if you wanted to communicate something 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:59.279 across the Atlantic Ocean, which was a frequent destination, like 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.479 people in the state, we're often sending things back to 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.640 Europe and vice versa, the fastest you could expect a 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:06.800 letter to reach someone was like a week, and that 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.080 was a really fast instance thinking about all the various 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.320 things we've talked about over the past years of the show, 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.520 where problems would have been completely prevented if it didn't 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:21.280 take weeks for a letter to get anywhere. Yeah. Yeah, 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:23.320 So this was sort of on a lot of people's 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.279 minds that they were like, man, if only I could 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:29.080 get communication to go faster. So that's why many people 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.039 were working on this, And so from eighteen thirty eight 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.560 to eighteen forty two, Morse and a partner named Alfred 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:39.080 Vale worked on getting funding to finish the development of 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.560 the telegraph machine and to develop the communication system that 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:46.240 would eventually be known as Morse Code, and a Congressman 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:50.080 from Maine named Francis ormand Jonathan Smith eventually backed the pair, 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.559 and he helped them get a congressional grant of thirty 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.960 thousand dollars to run a telegraph line from the US 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.920 Capitol in Washington, d C. To Baltimore, Maryland that was 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.560 a span of thirty eight miles about sixty one kilometers. 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.120 Their proof of concept demonstration for Congress had been a 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.280 line strung between committee rooms in the Capitol that relaid 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.640 several messages back and forth. Even as the line from 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.520 Washington's of Baltimore was being laid, they were already using it. 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:18.080 They would sort of put out a stretch and then 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.000 attach a machine to it and use it. And on 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.880 May first of eighteen forty four, it had reached within 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.520 fifteen miles of Baltimore, and the line we was used 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:30.760 to transmit Whig Convention nominees to Morse in Washington, DC 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:34.200 to announce the word via a telegraph line got to 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.360 DC more than an hour faster than the train from 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:41.039 Baltimore that was carrying the news. Yeah, that was kind 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:43.240 of a big moment where people were like, this is 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.520 viable this is really going to happen. And on May 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.479 twenty fourth of eighteen forty four, the first telegraph on 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.440 the newly completed d C Baltimore line. So there had 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.080 been some going on before, but the completed line, the 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.479 first note was sent by Morse and it read what 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.320 hath God Wrought? Once this message had actually been sent, 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:07.560 it led to a period of explosive growth in communications. 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.760 There were also multiple challenges to his patent on it, 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:13.720 which he was granted in eighteen forty seven, but ultimately 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.880 he was recognized as the inventor of the telegraph. Yeah, 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.040 just as with any big invention we've talked about, there 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:23.040 were a lot of people who wanted to say no, no, 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.160 I was part of that development. I was an important, 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.280 important part of it, including the general fer Art on 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.280 this machine. Yeah, including the gentleman that he had talked 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.880 with while he was returning from Europe, Charles Thomas Jackson. Again, 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.560 that would be a whole great episode in and of itself, 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.520 but over the following decade after they finished that that 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:46.760 line between the Capitol and Baltimore more than twenty thousand miles, 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.240 that's thirty two thousand kilometers roughly of telegraph line was 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.320 laid in the US, and in Europe a similar set 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.040 of criss crossing lines were being laid throughout the continent, 0:07:56.160 --> 0:08:00.840 connecting people like never before. Seriously, I I want to 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.280 make sure people grasp what a huge moment this was. 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:08.800 It's kind of like how we went from regular kind 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.560 of clunky cell phones to smartphones and sort of everything changed. 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.280 In terms of trying to give a contemporary example, it 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.720 was that big of a jump. As quickly as telegraph 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.960 lines were spreading, ideas for new ways to extend and 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.840 push the technology were also spreading, and it wasn't long 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.040 before the idea of sending telegraphs across large bodies of 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:31.400 water took root in the minds of people who were 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:36.040 you thinking about advancements. While a so called Siberian telegraph 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:40.120 line was also considered considered because it would require fewer 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:44.240 dips into the water, a transatlantic cable was deemed to 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.480 be more viable because it would need to travel a 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:49.839 shorter distance. Yeah, it also wouldn't have to deal quite 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:53.320 so much with cold. But of course a line across 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:57.320 or more accurately under the water posed a number of challenges. 0:08:57.400 --> 0:08:59.520 It had to be strong and resilient and it had 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.720 to be in But of course there were also industrious 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.240 types who were completely ready and willing to rise to 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.960 such challenges. But before we start talking about them and 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.839 the herculean efforts that were made to install this cable 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.360 across the Atlantic, let's pause for a moment and have 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:27.880 a word from one of our sponsors in the United States. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.640 Cyrus Westfield, was the driving force behind the idea to 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.760 run a cable under the Atlantic, and he started championing 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.680 this idea in eighteen fifty four. Field was a financier 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.600 from Stockbridge, Massachusetts who had made his money in the 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.079 paper business, which truck cracks me up a little bit 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.480 because you know that might affect his own financial interests 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:54.760 before putting his efforts into submarines telegraph. And this would 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.320 not be the first line that was dropped underwater. A 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.760 link between Great Britain and France was completed at the 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:04.320 begin in the eighteen fifties that went through the English Channel, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.360 but this was obviously a far more ambitious thing than 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.680 any linking line that had existed up to that point, 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:11.960 and there were other underwater lines as well, but again 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:18.040 much shorter under the entire ocean. Field gathered information from 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.960 a variety of sources in this whole plan. He spoke 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.160 extensively with Frederick Newton Gisborne, who had run a line 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:26.840 from Nova Scotia to the tip of Newfoundland before his 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:31.319 company collapsed. He talked to an oceanographer named Matthew Maury 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.000 to try to gain insight into issues like currents and 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.400 the shifting of the steafloor, and he referred to Samuel 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.600 Morse to make sure that the technical requirements for this 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:43.800 line would be adequately addressed. Morris had also run some 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.559 underwater lines in the New York Harbor, so he had 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:51.480 some insights into the actual running of submarine cables. Cyrus 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:55.600 Field formed the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:59.520 to manage this venture, but he didn't stay independent. Didn't 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.600 stay that company that eventually rolled up under a parent 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.160 company that he helped form called the Atlantic Telegraph Company, 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.120 and Feeled at that point entered into a partnership with 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.360 three British men as they established that firm. That was 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.400 Charles Bright and then John and Jacob Brett, two brothers, 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.440 and that happened in eighteen fifty six. The Brett brothers 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.560 had already run that line that connected Britain and France 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:24.720 across the English Channel under the umbrella of the General 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.640 Oceanic and Submarine Telegraph Company, so they had some pretty 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:31.520 good experience to start with. The partnership began with three 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.160 hundred and fifty thousand British pounds in capital. Field's own 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:38.680 money made up about a quarter of that startup capital, 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:40.720 and then the company was able to get a charter 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.600 to run an insulated line of cable across the Atlantic. 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.040 The British government also paid an annual subsidy to the 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:52.560 project of fourteen hundred pounds per year. So first the 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.040 cable that they needed had to be manufactured, and that 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.040 was a process which basically took the entire first half 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.640 of eighteen fifty seven. It was made by two different companies, 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:05.200 Glass Elliot and Company of Greenwich and RS. Newele and 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.920 Company of Liverpool. And this cable was made using seven 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.400 twenty two gauge copper wires which were twisted together and 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.400 then they were coded with latex, and that latex shrouded 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.320 line was then wrapped in tarred hemp, and then that 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:21.040 was coated with an iron wire casing that was made 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:25.079 from eighteen strands of wire, each made with seven charcoal 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:28.120 annealed iron wires that were twenty two gauge, So it 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.440 was a lot of wrapped in coiled wire making up 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.560 one big cable. The cable, once it was all assembled, 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.560 was approximately three quarters of an inch in diameter, and 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:40.040 a mile of cable required one hundred and thirty three 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.280 miles of wire to make it. It weighed about a 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:47.240 ton per mile of length. Yeah, that is not not 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.440 light business. And in the meantime, the Atlantic Telegraph Company, 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.200 while that cable was being made, had been drumming up 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.600 aid from both the US and British navies for this project. 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.559 So the US Navy had already compiled a survey of 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:03.640 the Atlantic Ocean between Newfoundland and Ireland that identified the 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.600 most suitable route for the cable to sit. And once 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:09.400 the cable was completed in the two locations by those 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:13.120 two companies, it was placed aboard two ships. The Niagara 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:15.720 from the US collected the cable that had been manufactured 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.400 in Liverpool, and the HMS Agamemnon of Great Britain took 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.560 on the cable that had been manufactured in Greenwich. The 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.679 initial run set out from the most westerly point of 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.840 Ireland the first week of August eighteen fifty seven, after 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:32.120 the European end of the cable was brought ashore. First 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:34.960 the Niagara would lay down its cargo of cable, which 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:36.760 would take it to the mid Atlantic, and then the 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:39.720 cable aboard the Agamemnod would be spliced to that and 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:41.760 would be dropped for the rest of the distance to 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.640 North America. And things went pretty well for almost a week, 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:48.960 but after six days there was an error handling the 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.200 breaking mechanism that controlled the cable's speed of descent into 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.520 the water, so the line snapped less than four hundred 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.120 miles or about six hundred and forty four kilometers into 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:03.080 the trip, and they tried with like grappling mechanisms to 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:04.880 try to grab it again, but they just could not, 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:08.840 so the Niagara and the Agamemnon returned to port. Additional 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:10.520 cable had to be made up for the lengths of 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:13.400 line that were lost to the bottom of the sea. 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.600 The second attempt started with the same two vessels, but 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:19.480 this time, instead of both setting out in the same direction, 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.040 they met in the mid Atlantic and then spliced the 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.520 ends of the cables from each ship together and then 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.400 the ships set out in separate directions like some kind 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:34.680 of math problem. Unsurprisingly to me, the line broke almost 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.800 as soon as the two ships started moving. That just 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:44.040 seems like the worst, worst possible plan. Well, that's eventually 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:46.840 how it happens, so don't get too judging. I'm to say. 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.720 It seems like this is rife. It seems like a 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.880 big gambol. Yeah, but they had done some testing in 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.760 smaller bodies of water while they were having that extra 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.480 cable made, and it seemed like this was probably good work. 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.040 So a third attempt was started right away, again, beginning 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.320 with a joint of the two lines before each of 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.800 the ships set out, and with only forty miles about 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.320 sixty four kilometers of cable in place, there was yet 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:15.800 another snap. They tried a third time, and this yielded 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.520 better results. They did manage to put down one hundred 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:20.600 and forty six miles about two hundred and thirty five 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.960 kilometers worth of line before there was another break, And 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:26.800 each time they would grapple and try to get those ends. 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.560 But at some point you had to cut your losses 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:31.920 and say let's go back to port and reformulate our plan. 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.000 At this point. I feel like the Transatlantic cable had 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.400 burned down, fell over, and then sank it to the swap. 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:40.400 That's pretty much how it feels. I would have given 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.800 up at this point, but remember they're so deep in. 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.040 Four efforts gone bad was a setback. I'm sure plenty 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:52.520 of other people were like me judging their failures, but 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.920 it did not stop the project. Money was short, however, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.600 and these numerous failed attempts had already cost about three 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.440 hundred thousand pounds, so new shares of the Atlantic Telegraph 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.040 Company had to be offered for sale at twenty pounds 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:09.720 each to try to build up the company coffers. And 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:11.760 they did. They made some money and were ready to go. 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.000 So the Agamemnon and the Niagara set sale for the 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.880 rendezvous point in the mid Atlantic once again on June 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.720 tenth of eighteen fifty eight, after they had been restocked 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.400 with cable and machinery, but this time a storm quickly 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.520 derailed their plans. The Niagara managed the weather without too 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.200 much trouble, but the Agamemnon really really suffered. According to accounts, 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.280 it almost capsized. It lost some of the coal that 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:36.440 it was using for fuel as it was being tossed 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.480 around at sea, and while the two vessels did manage 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:43.040 to meet and start their cable laying mission, things quickly failed. 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.680 Not only did the cable snap, but the Agamemnon had 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:48.760 to use sail power to try to return to the 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.840 rendezvous point. But the Niagara at that point had returned 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:54.000 to Ireland as had been in the plan in the 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:57.480 event that the two ships lost communication, so eventually the 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.000 Agamemnon also made it back to port on July twe 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.840 wealth and the next two weeks were spent repairing and 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.720 were stocking and resetting the ships. Four vessels met in 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.439 the Atlantic Ocean on July twenty ninth, eighteen fifty eight, 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.280 to try yet again. The ships were the Agamemnon, the Valorous, 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.240 the Niagara, and the Gorgon, with the Agamemnon and the 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.880 Valarus aimed at Ireland and the Niagara and the Gorgon 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:24.399 headed toward Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. The four vessels started laying cable, 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.440 and this time they managed to connect the line short 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.520 shore all the way across the Atlantic, so apparently they 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.760 just needed two more ships additionally, well, they I think 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.639 those may have even been on a prior attempt but 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.440 I wasn't clear on that. In my research, they're kind 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:43.960 of left out of a lot of the talk because 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:45.960 they were kind of just support vessels at that point. 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:48.520 They were still doing basically the same plan with two 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.760 ships running line, and then they had some support in case, 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:55.960 I presume, but they did manage to get it stretched across, 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:59.040 and that cable was completed on August fifth, when the 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.480 Agamemnon reached Ireland. That was one day after the Niagara 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:04.600 had brought the North American end of the cable to 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.240 Trinity Bay. And all told, at this point the line 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.639 ran more than two thousand miles that's about thirty two 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:14.359 hundred kilometers across the ocean floor, and once it was 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:18.800 connected to the local telegraph stations, it worked. On August sixteenth, 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.480 eighteen fifty eight, the first telegraph cable to cross the 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:25.520 Atlantic was sent and it read directors of Atlantic Telegraph Company, 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.919 Great Britain to directors in America. Europe and America are 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.359 united by telegraph, Glory to God in the highest on Earth, 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:35.600 Peace and goodwill towards men. And then that same message 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:38.040 was relayed back across the Atlantic to confirm that the 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.600 line was working in both directions success for right now, 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:43.800 We're going to revel in this success for just a moment, 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:45.480 and what we do, we're going to have a quick 0:18:45.480 --> 0:19:00.160 word from one of our sponsors. So after that initial success, 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.720 Queen Victoria and President James Buchanan were then able to 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:07.800 trade messages on this newly laid line, and the British 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.880 monarch cabled on August seventeenth the following message. The Queen 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.679 desires to congratulate the President upon the successful completion of 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:18.879 this great international work in which the Queen has taken 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.160 the greatest interest. The Queen is convinced that the President 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.480 will join her in fervently hoping that the electric cable 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.080 which now connects Great Britain with the United States, will 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:31.760 provide an additional link between the two nations, whose friendship 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:35.440 is founded upon their common interest and reciprocal esteem. The 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.800 Queen has much pleasure in thus directly communicating with the 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:42.040 President and in renewing to him her best wishes for 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:47.040 the prosperity of the United States. Buchanan replied, the President 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:50.639 cordially reciprocates the congratulations of her Majesty the Queen on 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:55.040 the success of this great international enterprise. Accomplished by the science, skill, 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:58.639 and indomitable energy of the two countries. It is a 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:02.239 triumph more glorious because far more useful to mankind than 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.440 ever one by conqueror on the field of battle. May 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:08.520 the Atlantic Telegraph, under the blessing of Heaven, prove to 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.080 be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:15.040 kindred nations, and an instrument designed by Divine Providence to 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.840 diffuse religion, civilization, liberty, and law throughout the world. In 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.360 this view, we will not all the nations of Christendom 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:27.360 spontaneously unite in the declaration that it shall be forever neutral, 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:30.800 and that its communications shall be held sacred in passing 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.320 to the place of their destination, even in the midst 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:39.000 of hostilities. So you may have noticed these are wordy telegraphs. 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:43.159 They're real wordies. They're talkie talkie, and apparently they were 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:46.000 quite vexing to the telegraph operators. And because of the 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.520 lengthy nature of these messages, they each took more than 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:54.160 seventeen hours to transmit. Don't talk so much, you God. 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:56.639 It's like I get it. You want to convey a 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:03.160 lot of stuff. Transmission received, Stop works stop. This is awesome. 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:09.399 This excitement was really fleeting because the line had problems 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.440 almost immediately. There are two primary reasons that were discussed 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:15.320 for the failure. One was that the cable just was 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:18.440 not strong enough, and the initial messages had been sent 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.600 with too high a voltage that taxi line, so in 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:27.320 addition to being so long, they were also damaging. As 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:29.280 for the voltage, this was largely due to the fact 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:32.160 that operators on either side of the Atlantic were fiddling 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:34.520 with the settings, trying to figure out how to optimize 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:36.720 the signal, but neither knew what the person on the 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:39.760 other end was doing. As for the weakness of the cable, 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:42.560 there were some claims that one of the cable manufacturers 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.240 had left a section of the cable outside in the 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:48.119 hot sun before it was delivered to the ships, and 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:53.359 that some of the latex had melted and ruined the insulation. Yeah, 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:56.639 so it could also have been a combination of those things. 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:00.800 It could also have just been this. This is difficult. 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.919 In my head, there's a little cartoon where like a 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.000 crab or a lobster just walks up and kind of 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:09.080 gnaws on it, and I know it's made to not 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:11.479 let that happen. But the cartoon is very cute. I 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:16.320 was thinking a shark because I've seen jaws. So the 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:20.520 first transatlantic telegraph line was unfortunately completely dead within just 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:23.520 a few weeks. It finally went silent on September eighteenth 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:26.879 of eighteen fifty eight. But even with that failure, some 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:29.199 really impressive work had been done in the time that 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:32.320 the cable was functional. Over the course of those twenty 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:35.120 three days, two hundred and seventy one messages had been 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:38.200 sent from Newfoundland and one hundred and twenty nine messages 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:42.480 had been sent from Ireland. Undaunted with this at this 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:47.879 point just unending list of setbacks, Cyrus Westfield decided to 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:51.760