A living document
WH Russell was a journalist for The Times in 1865, when he was asked to join the crew of The Great Eastern as it travelled from Valencia Island, Ireland to Heart's Content, Newfoundland, trailing the fifth attempted transatlantic telegraph cable.
As a journalist, Russell was a storyteller who enjoyed drama and details. Early in the book, he goes quite deep into the technical side of the cable, the materials involved, and the people who made it all happen. The later chapters are particularly enjoyable as a living descriptive memory of event, beautifully describing storms at sea, how the engineers responded to problems, and how people ashore celebrated the voyage, and lamented its failure. The effort was a fifth cable lost at sea, but laid the groundwork for a success the following year, and the fifth was later dredged from the sea floor and made active so the journey was far …
WH Russell was a journalist for The Times in 1865, when he was asked to join the crew of The Great Eastern as it travelled from Valencia Island, Ireland to Heart's Content, Newfoundland, trailing the fifth attempted transatlantic telegraph cable.
As a journalist, Russell was a storyteller who enjoyed drama and details. Early in the book, he goes quite deep into the technical side of the cable, the materials involved, and the people who made it all happen. The later chapters are particularly enjoyable as a living descriptive memory of event, beautifully describing storms at sea, how the engineers responded to problems, and how people ashore celebrated the voyage, and lamented its failure. The effort was a fifth cable lost at sea, but laid the groundwork for a success the following year, and the fifth was later dredged from the sea floor and made active so the journey was far from wasted.
The prints by artist Robert Dudley bring the words even further to life, and give some idea of scale that the words could never manage. He was a brilliant collaborator and deserves equal credit on this book.