Lot 96: On board the Great Eastern : 'Forward deck cleared for final attempt, 11 t h August 1865'

Robert Charles Dudley (1826-1900)
On board the Great Eastern: 'Forward deck cleared for final attempt, 11th August 1865'
signed 'R Dudley' (lower right)
watercolour heightened with white
10 x 14 3/8 in. (25.5 x 36.5 cm.)

VARIOUS PROPERTIES


The original idea for a trans-Atlantic telegraph link was proposed by Samuel Morse, Cyrus Field and others and the first cable was laid from Ireland to Newfoundland in 1858 but failed within a month. A second attempt was made in 1865, this time using Brunel's monster steamship Great Eastern , the only vessel in the world large enough to carry the complete cable length and which had been converted into a cable-layer for the purpose. Unfortunately, on 2 n d August [1865], when 1,200 miles out in the Atlantic and about two-thirds of the way across, the cable broke and the end sank 2½ miles to the ocean floor. The fascinating watercolour offered in this lot records the fourth and final attempt, on 11 t h August, to retrieve the broken cable from a depth of 1,950 fathoms which almost succeeded; despite the huge odds against finding it, the loose cable was successfully grappled and partially raised but the line gave way and, once it had gone, there was insufficient rope aboard the great ship to try again. There was therefore no alternative but for Great Eastern to put about and make her way home, subsequently returning the next year to complete the task by triumphantly laying the first Atlantic telegraph cable.

This technologically important watercolour was reproduced in Russell's 1866 book The Atlantic Telegraph (p. 93), the print being entirely faithful to the original excepting the absence of the Union flag casually draped over a cannon.