A weather-beaten old sailor
said, 'I have watched nearly every mile of it as it came over the side,
and I would have given fifty dollars, poor man as I am, to have saved
it, although I don't expect to make anything by it when it is laid
down.'
But the joy was short-lived. The line was running out at the rate of
six miles an hour, while the vessel was only making four. To check this
waste of cable the engineer tightened the brakes; but as the stern of
the ship rose on the swell, the cable parted under the heavy strain, and
the end was lost in the sea.
The bad news ran like a flash of lightning through all the ships, and
produced a feeling of sorrow and dismay.
No attempt was made to grapple the line in such deep water, and the
expedition returned to England. It was too late to try again that
year, but the following summer the Agamemnon and Niagara, after an
experimental trip to the Bay of Biscay, sailed from Plymouth on June 10
with a full supply of cable, better gear than before, and a riper
experience of the work. They were to meet in the middle of the
Atlantic, where the two halves of the cable on board of each were to be
spliced together, and while the Agamemnon payed out eastwards to
Valentia Island the Niagara was to pay out westward to Newfoundland.
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