Mary Morton Cowan - Cyrus Fields Big Dream: The Daring Effort to Lay the First Transatlantic Telegraph Cable

Text copyright 2018 by Mary Morton Cowan

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, please contact .

Calkins Creek

An Imprint of Highlights

815 Church Street

Honesdale, Pennsylvania 18431

Printed in China

ISBN: 978-1-62979-556-0 (hc) 978-1-68437-142-6 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018933313

First ebook edition

H1.0

Designed by William D. Mack

Titles and quotes set in Burford

Chapter numbers and drop caps set in Haymaker

Text set in Geogrotesque Slab

Captions set in Brother 1816

FOR CATHERINE, DAVID, TIMOTHY, AND MARIANNE, WHO MAINTAIN A WONDERFUL CONNECTION WITH ME, USING TODAYS METHODS OF INSTANT COMMUNICATION

CYRUS WEST FIELD

O ne cold winter night in 1854, two men climbed the steps to Cyrus Fields house in New York City. One was Cyruss older brother Matthew, the other an Englishman named Frederic Gisborne. A servant ushered them in to Cyruss library. Fire crackled in the fireplace.

Matthew had met Mr. Gisborne in the lobby of the Astor House hotel in January. Gisborne had a dilemma with a telegraph project in Newfoundland, and Matthew thought Cyrus could help. At age thirty-four, Cyrus had recently retired, after making a fortune as a paper merchant. Now he was searching for new ways to invest his time and money. He wasnt particularly interested in Newfoundland, but he gave in to his brothers pestering and agreed to talk with Mr. Gisborne.

Cyrus didnt know how telegraphs worked. He knew only that wires were strung on poles, and messages traveled through them instantlyand he clearly understood the value of instant communication. Many companies were conducting business by telegraph over North Americas expanding network of wires. Lines already connected Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the Province of Canada to Maine, south to New York City, and farther down the Atlantic coast.

Matthew Field brought Frederic Gisborne here to Cyruss home in New York Citys wealthy Gramercy Park neighborhood to talk about a telegraph project.

Mr. Gisborne told Cyrus he wanted to connect the island of Newfoundland with the mainland by telegraph.

Cyrus wondered why.

Gisborne explained that messages from Europe could reach the United States faster if ships could drop letters off at St. Johns, the islands easternmost port, and send them as telegrams to New York and other cities. Messages would whiz through wires and arrive in New York two or three days before ships could deliver them.

Gisborne unrolled a map and spread it out on the library table. He explained to Cyrus that the Newfoundland legislature had granted his company permission to build and operate a telegraph line across the islandall the way from the east coast to the southwest corner. An underwater cable to the mainland would complete the connection.

But Gisborne had a problem.

Crews had strung only forty miles of line when he ran out of money. He couldnt pay his workers. His New York financiers backed out, and he was arrested for not paying his debts.

Cyrus knew Gisborne had come to him in search of money. He wanted to know how much Gisborne needed.

Fifty thousand dollars to pay his debts, Gisborne said, plus money for his company to finish stringing the line.

Cyrus stood by the table, calculating dollars in his head. Why pay a mans debt and invest in a bankrupt company to lay a telegraph line across the Newfoundland wilderness? All to save two or three days travel time to communicate with Europe? No. Cyrus was a shrewd businessman, and this sounded like a waste of his money. He made no promises to Gisborne.

After their meeting, Cyrus couldnt stop thinking. About telegraphs. About instant communication. And about trade. London was the center of world trade. Cyrus knew how frustrating it was to wait weeks when trading with British companies. It took ten or more days for ships to deliver mail, and ten more for a replyif the ships didnt go down at sea.

Restless, Cyrus spun his library globe. Thats when he noticed Newfoundland was much closer to England than he had thought. Why not lay a telegraph cable all the way across the ocean? Messages would arrive in minutes. People could be in touch every day instead of waiting nearly a month for letters to be shipped back and forth.

What a wild idea! With the persistence Cyrus had shown since boyhood, he latched onto his idea, determined to make it work. And that changed everything.

C yrus West Field liked to explore the valley of the Housatonic River with his brothers. He was never physically strong like they were, but he was determined to keep up. They rode horseback across meadows. They hiked through wooded hillsides and climbed over boulders, their dog, Rover, bounding along with them.

Cyrus was born on November 30, 1819, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and his parents named him after two menCyrus Williams, the local bank president, and Dr. Stephen West, the pastor of the Stockbridge church before Cyruss father.

Six siblings welcomed himDavid, Emilia, Timothy, Matthew, Jonathan, and Stephen. Cyrus was such a fragile baby, the neighbors thought he wouldnt survive. When he was learning to walk, he had to be placed in a bulky frame with wheels to support his body. Thin and wiry, the fiery little redhead ran on nervous energy.

The United States was recovering from the effects of the War of 1812 against Great Britain, and a few folks in town could still remember the Revolutionary War. Both of Cyruss grandfathers were officers in George Washingtons army. The year Cyrus was born, nearly ten million people lived in the countrys twenty-two states, and the population was growing. Cyruss family grew, too. A sixth brother, Henry, and a second sister, Mary Elizabeth, were born in the next few years.