The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph. Field Henry Martyn
take the whole responsibility, he was accompanied at his earnest request by Mr. White, and by Mr. D. D. Field, whose counsel, as he was to be the legal adviser of the Company, was all-important in the framing of the new charter that was to secure its rights. The latter thus describes this first expedition:
"The agreement with the Electric Telegraph Company, and the formal surrender of its charter, were signed on the tenth of March, [1854,] and on the fourteenth we left New York, accompanied by Mr. Gisborne. The next morning we took the steamer at Boston for Halifax, and thence, on the night of the eighteenth, departed in the little steamer Merlin for St. John's, Newfoundland. Three more disagreeable days, voyagers scarcely ever passed, than we spent in that smallest of steamers. It seemed as if all the storms of winter had been reserved for the first month of spring. A frost-bound coast, an icy sea, rain, hail, snow and tempest, were the greetings of the telegraph adventurers in their first movement toward Europe. In the darkest night, through which no man could see the ship's length, with snow filling the air and flying into the eyes of the sailors, with ice in the water, and a heavy sea rolling and moaning about us, the captain felt his way around Cape Race with his lead, as the blind man feels his way with his staff, but as confidently and as safely as if the sky had been clear and the sea calm; and the light of morning dawned upon deck and mast and spar, coated with glittering ice, but floating securely between the mountains which form the gates of the harbor of St. John's. In that busy and hospitable town, the first person to whom we were introduced was Mr. Edward M. Archibald, then Attorney-General of the Colony, and now British Consul in New York. He entered warmly into our views, and from that day to this, has been an efficient and consistent supporter of the undertaking. By him we were introduced to the Governor, (Kerr Bailey Hamilton,) who also took an earnest interest in our plans. He convoked the Council to receive us, and hear an explanation of our views and wishes. In a few hours after the conference, the answer of the Governor and Council was received, consenting to recommend to the Assembly a guarantee of the interest of £50,000 of bonds, an immediate grant of fifty square miles of land, a further grant to the same extent on the completion of the telegraph across the ocean, and a payment of £5,000 toward the construction of a bridle-path across the island, along the line of the land telegraph."
This was a hopeful beginning; and, though the charter was not yet obtained, feeling assured by this official encouragement, and the public interest in the project, that it would be granted by the colony, Mr. Field remained in St. John's but three days, when he took the Merlin back to Halifax on his way to New York, there to purchase and send down a steamer for the service of the Company, leaving his associates to secure the charter and to carry out the arrangements with the former company. To settle all these details was necessarily a work of time. First, the charter of the old Electric Telegraph Company had to be repealed, to clear the way for a new charter to the Company, which was to bear the more comprehensive title of "New York, Newfoundland, and London." This charter – which had been drawn with the greatest care by the counsel of the Company, while on the voyage to Newfoundland – bore on its very front the declaration that the plans of the new Company were much broader than those of the old. In the former charter, the design was thus set forth:
"The telegraph line of this company is designed to be strictly an 'Inter-Continental Telegraph.' Its termini will be New York, in the United States, and London, in the kingdom of Great Britain; these points are to be connected by a line of electric telegraph from New York to St. John's, Newfoundland, partly on poles, partly laid in the ground, and partly through the water, and a line of the swiftest steamships ever built from that point to Ireland. The trips of these steamships, it is expected, will not exceed five days, and as very little time will be occupied in transmitting messages between St. John's and New York, the communication between the latter city and London or Liverpool, will be effected in six days, or less. The company will have likewise stationed at St. John's a steam yacht, for the purpose of intercepting the European and American steamships, so that no opportunity may be lost in forwarding intelligence in advance of the ordinary channels of communication."
But the charter of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, which was now to be obtained, began by declaring, in its very first sentence: "Whereas it is deemed advisable to establish a line of telegraphic communication between America and Europe by way of Newfoundland." Not a word is said of fast ships, of communications in less than six days, but every thing points to a line across the ocean. Thus one section gives authority to establish a submarine telegraph across the ocean, from Newfoundland to Ireland; another section prohibits any other company or person from touching the coast of Newfoundland or its dependencies [which includes Labrador] with a telegraphic cable or wire, from any point whatever, for fifty years; and a third section grants the Company fifty square miles of land upon the completion of the submarine line across the Atlantic.
In other respects the charter was equally liberal. It incorporated the associates for fifty years, established perfect equality, in respect to corporators and officers, between citizens of the United States and British subjects, and allowed the meetings of the stockholders and directors to be held in New York, in Newfoundland, or in London.
To obtain such concessions was a work of some difficulty and delay. The Legislature of the province were naturally anxious to scan carefully conditions that were to bind them and their children for half a century. I have now before me the papers of St. John's of that day, containing the discussions in the Legislature; and while all testify to the deep public interest in the project, they show a due care for the interests of their own colony, which they were bound to protect. At length all difficulties were removed, and the charter was passed unanimously by the Assembly, and confirmed by the Council.
This happy result was duly celebrated, in the manner which all Englishmen approve, by a grand dinner given by the commissioners of the new Company, to the members of the Assembly and other dignitaries of the colony, at which there were eloquent prophecies of the good time coming, showing how heartily the enterprise was welcomed by all classes; and how fond were the anticipations of the increased intercourse it would bring, and the manifold benefits it would confer on their long-neglected island.
No sooner were the papers signed, than the wheels, so long blocked, were unloosed, and the machinery began to move. Mr. White at once drew on New York for fifty thousand dollars, and paid off all the debts of the old company. A St. John's newspaper of April 8th, 1854, amid a great deal on the subject, contains this paragraph, which is very significant of the dead state of the old company, and of the life of the new:
"The office of the new Electric Telegraph Company has been surrounded the last two or three days by the men who had been engaged the last year on the line, and who are being paid all debts, dues, and demands against the old association. We look upon the readiness with which these claims are liquidated as a substantial indication on the part of the new Company that they will complete to the letter all that they have declared to accomplish in this important undertaking."
In the early part of May, the two gentlemen who had remained behind in Newfoundland rejoined their associates in New York, and there the charter was formally accepted and the Company organized. As all the associates had not arrived till Saturday evening, the 6th of May, and as one of them was to leave town on Monday morning, it was agreed that they should meet for organization at six o'clock of that day. At that hour they came to the house of Mr. Field's brother Dudley, and as the first rays of the morning sun streamed into the windows, the formal organization took place. The charter was accepted, the stock subscribed, and the officers chosen. Mr. Cooper, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Field, Mr. Roberts, and Mr. White were the first directors. Mr. Cooper was chosen President, Mr. White, Vice-President, and Mr. Taylor, Treasurer.
This is a short story, and soon told. It seemed a light affair, for half a dozen men to meet in the early morning and toss off such a business before breakfast. But what a work was that to which they thus put their hands! A capital of a million and a half of dollars was subscribed in those few minutes, and a company put in operation that was to carry a line of telegraph to St. John's, more than a thousand miles from New York, and then to span the wild sea. Well was it that they who undertook the work did not then fully realize its magnitude, or they would have shrunk from the attempt. Well was it for them that the veil was not lifted, which shut from their eyes the long delay, the immense toil, and the heavy burdens of many wearisome years. Such a prospect might have chilled the most