The route she was to follow was marked by
a line of buoys and flags. By eight o'clock in the evening she arrived
at Cape Grisnez, and came to anchor near the shore. Mr. Brett watched
the operations through a glass at Dover. 'The declining sun,' he says,
'enabled me to discern the moving shadow of the steamer's smoke on the
white cliff; thus indicating her progress. At length the shadow ceased
to move. The vessel had evidently come to an anchor. We gave them half
an hour to convey the end of the wire to shore and attach the type-
printing instrument, and then I sent the first electrical message across
the Channel. This was reserved for Louis Napoleon.' According to Mr. F.
C. Webb, however, the first of the signals were a mere jumble of
letters, which were torn up. He saved a specimen of the slip on which
they were printed, and it was afterwards presented to the Duke of
Wellington.
Next morning this pioneer line was broken down at a point about 200
Yards from Cape Grisnez, and it turned out that a Boulogne fisherman had
raised it on his trawl and cut a piece away, thinking he had found a
rare species of tangle with gold in its heart. This misfortune
suggested the propriety of arming the core against mechanical injury by
sheathing it in a cable of hemp and iron wires.
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