CHAPTER IX.

DAVY JONES’S LOCKER—SUBMARINE CABLES. The First Channel Cable—Now‐a‐days 50,000 Miles of Submarine 98 Wire—A Noble New Englander—The First Idea of the Atlantic Cable—Its Practicability admitted—Maury’s Notes on the Atlantic Bottom—Deep Sea Soundings—Ooze formed of Myriads of Shells—English Co‐operation with Field—The First Cable of 1857—Paying Out—2,000 Fathoms Down—The Cable Parted—Bitter Disappointment—The Cable Laid and Working—Another Failure—The Employment of the _Great Eastern_—Stowing Away the Great Wire Rope—Departure—Another Accident—A Traitor on Board—Cable Fished up from the Bottom—Failure—Inauguration of the 1866 Expedition—Prayer for Success—A _Lucky_ Friday—Splicing to the Shore Cable—The Start—Each Day’s Run—Approaching Trinity Bay—Success at Last—The Old and the New World bound together