The S.S. Great Eastern, converted into a cable layer was progressing well with the massive task of laying an Atlantic Telegraph Cable between the west coast of Ireland and Heart's Content in Newfoundland. With two thirds of the cable down, 1186 miles laid and 606 miles to go, disaster struck when the cable broke and was lost on the sea bottom. Several efforts to grapple it failed. A year later, however, the Great Eastern repeated, and finally completed, the task. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, A History of the United States Since the Civil War: 1865-68 (New York: Thte MacMillan Company, 1917), I: 204-207.
"The Breaking of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable," Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, September 23, 1865, p. 4.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Science/Technology
