Cyrus West Field (1819-1892) was a great American, fiercely loyal to his country, exceptionally honest, profoundly religious, and superbly talented. But his crowning trait which enabled him to take a place among the most accomplished Americans who ever lived was his abhorrence for idleness and constant drive to always accomplish. His singular achievement was his drive and leadership that enabled his company to build a cable that crossed the Atlantic Ocean and connected United States and England. Once this feat was achieved, the world has never looked back and from 1868 until today, the entire world is connected by cables which affects every inhabitant on Earth and is as relevant now or even more relevant in the 21st century as it was then. At that time, technology only allowed for data to be transmitted via telegraph which was a way in which words were conveyed via Morse code but the cable technology soon expanded to allow for telephones and internet, and the vast majority of the internet and phone use today is by cable (and not satellite). Another trait which was vital for this project and which Field had in abundance was the ability to keep at something even in the face of continued failure. Field’s response to the secretary of England as to what he would do if he would encounter failure is characteristic of this:
Back in England, Field wrote to George Villiers, Lord Clarendon, the foreign secretary,
A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable Paperback – July 1, 2003
asking for a meeting. One was quickly arranged, and Samuel Morse, whose prestige by this
time was considerable, was also present to lend support. The conversation lasted an hour and
Lord Clarendon showed great interest and asked many questions. Perhaps a bit startled not
only by the magnitude of the enterprise but also by Field’s confidence that it could be
successfully completed, he asked, “But suppose you Jon t succeed? Suppose you make the
attempt and fail— your cable is lost at sea—then what will you do?”
“Charge it to profit and loss,” said Field in his usual direct and very American way, “and go
to work to lay another.”
by John Steele Gordon
This post is based on the book by John Steele Gordon “A Thread Across the Ocean” which the reader is directed to for further detail. The focus here will be on the amazing acts of providence that took place to allow Cyrus Field to eventually triumph.
One final point about Field’s background which factored very much in Field’s historic success was his upbringing by his father, the Reverend David Field (1781-1867).
“The Reverend Field believed fully in the notion that idle hands arc the devil’s tools.
Certainly his own hands were anything but idle. He was a full-time clergyman, first in
Haddam, Connecticut, where the seven oldest of his children were born, and then
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where the last three arrived, including Cyrus, the seventh of his
eight sons…”
The passage quoted above discusses some of the senior Field’s accomplishments, not the least of which was that a number of his 9 children were extraordinarily successful. Any article on Cyrus West Field’s accomplishments without mention of his father would be missing a vital factor which enabled Field to achieve what he did.
Acts of Providence
- His upbringing by an outstanding father. With all his talents, he could not have accomplished what he had without his father having inculcated in him to be extremely honest, a strong belief in the beneficence of G-d, and a total aversion to idleness. His honesty was what allowed him to recover from his initial failures because investors trusted him. He also had an incredible drive to accomplish which was vital to doing something which seemed unthinkable.
- The fact that he initially succeeded (after a few failures) in 1858 in connecting England to the US and that there was a communication between the Queen of England and the US President. The cable that was laid for that was not suitable and indeed stopped working shortly thereafter. But it was providential that it worked for that short period in order to prove to himself and his supporters (most of whom abandoned him after the line failed) that the project was feasable.
- Field’s meeting with Frederick Gisborne. Gisborne had the idea of connecting Newfoundland with Nova Scotia belonging to Canada. Newfoundland was approximately 600 miles closer to England than was Nova Scotia, and Nova Scotia was approximately 600 miles closer to England than the rest of North America. Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia was already connected to the rest of North America, so by adding Newfoundland to the telegraph network they would move England closer to North America by 1200 miles (600 from North America to Halifax + 600 from Halifax to Newfoundland. Gisborne set about doing this but after laying only 40 miles of cables, he ran out of money. The financial backers of his company refused to provide any more funding so he went bankrupt. After this mishap, he was staying in New York’s Astor Hotel and he “happened” to meet Matthew Field, Cyrus’s brother, who was then working as a civil engineer. Matthew introduced Gisborne to his brother Cyrus, and they met in Cyrus’s library. Gisborne presented his plan to connect Newfoundland with Halifax to Cyrus and asked for Cyrus’s help. Cyrus listened politely but with a total lack of interest. The entire endeavor would only succeed in getting the telegraph network 600 miles closer to England than it already was in Halifax. But there would still be another 2400 miles to England. So what was the point of going through all that effort just to get the news to England a few days faster when it would still take a couple of weeks. However, after Gisborne left, Cyrus looked at a globe and it struck him that it would be possible perhaps to lay additional cable from Newfoundland to England thus connecting England and North America! That would allow news to travel from North America to England (and the rest of Europe which was already connected to England) in a matter of minutes! The reason why Gisborne didn’t think of this idea was twofold: a) Laying 2400 miles of cable was an entirely different matter than just laying 600 miles of cable. b) All the 2400 miles would have to be underwater submarine cables which were much more difficult. At that time, the furthest that submarine cable had every been laid was across the English channel which was only 25 miles. But this project required them to do a project which was 96 times larger (2400/25=96) in addition to the difficult task of laying the cable from Halifax to Newfoundland. But the idea took hold of Field and he wrote to two people asking them for advice. Upon receiving the answer that it was possible, Field embarked on this project with incredible zeal.
- The fact that Field knew very little about the science and technology involved in the project. Had Field known how difficult it was, he would have “realized” that it was impossible. But he didn’t know, and upon receiving positive responses from the two people he wrote to (who were actually not familiar with all the technological problems involved) he embarked upon this project. “
- Gisborne approached Field at the precise time when Field was already semi-retired from his business, having been extraordinarily sucessfulful and just returned from a trip to South America. He was looking for a project to start.
- Field approached Cooper, who besides being one of the wealthiest Americans, had grown up unlearned. He had a passion to provide learning for Americans to make up for what he had never had. (He founded Cooper Union college for which tuition was free.) This idea took hold of him powerfully, because it would be a way to spread knowledge across the world.
- Field’s extraordinary wealth provided him with the prestige necessary to convince some of America’s richest citizens to join him. It also provided him with a tremendous amount of capital with which to start. Interestingly, a number of years after the project was completed satisfactorily, he lost his wealth.
- Field convinced the English government to grant extraordinary favorable terms and assistance which was so unusual that the government of England noted that “Her Majesty will be advised not to give her ratification to the creation of similar monopolies.” But this “monopoly was ratified by England.
- The President signed the law on his second to last day in office. It barely passed the Senate, only clearing with one vote. It was a time when there was a strong anti-English sentiment in Congress (Anglophobia) where they didn’t want anything to do with England. It was only through the pushing of a few Senators and the oratory skills of Senator Judah Benjamin of Louisiana (he later defected to the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War and then escaped to England where he was had a highly successful career in England) that it passed.
- The fact that the project was divided into two: a) the cable from New York to Saint Johns and b) the cable from Saint John’s across the ocean to Europe. Because of the much higher difficulty than expected with the first part of the project; the group led by Field was being prepared for the exponentially higher difficulty of the second part. Additionally, the group had one part completed which gave them prestige and a moderate amount of income and also the knowledge that they could in fact be successful.
- The fact that they did not originally know how much money it would cost and how incredibly difficult it would be. Field said years later, “God knows that none of us were aware of what we had undertaken to accomplish.” Henry Field (the brother of Cyrus) wrote regarding the first part of the project (from New York to Saint John’s): “How at such times the expedition ay floundering in the woods, still struggling to force it’s way onward; what hardships and sufferings the men endured – all this is a chapter in the history of the Telegraph which has not been written and which can never be fully told.” John Steele writes, “The group committed itself (at the beginning of the project) to raising Capital in the amount of 1.5 million. That was a huge sum for those days but it would prove to be nowhere near enough. It would not have been nearly enough even if everything had gone right which it certainly didn’t.” “Field knew little of the science or technology involved in such an undertaking. Indeed, it is probably fortunate that he did not, because he might well have dismissed the entire notion as impossibly fanciful.”
- The new discovery of Gutta Percha, a type of material from the tree that was an excellent insulator for cables that would be laid underwater. In fact, since the time of the ancient Romans, there until the early nineteenth century; almost no new materials were discovered! But then, shortly before the time of Field’s project, a host of new materials were discovered, including the Gutta Percha.
- Field’s honestly, and his endearing personality that allowed him to persuade so many rich people to help him and caused the engineers to work hard for him. Samuel Cunning was the engineer on the yacht Sarah L. Bryant that was supposed to payout the cable into the sea for the first part of the project (which also required a few dozen miles of underwater cable). This yacht was connected with the James Adger, which would tow the Sarah L. Bryant out to the sea while it was paying out the cable. This was to be the first attempt at laying the underwater cable for the linkage from New York to Saint Johns. However, Captain Turner deliberately sabotaged the project in multiple ways (although to all appearances, it all looked like accidents). As a result, the first attempt was a complete failure. John Steele writes: “Before the assembled passengers, [Field] told Cunning that he [Cunning] was in no way responsible for the failure, but rather that he had done his best under impossible circumstances. Cunning was deeply grateful for this vote of confidence from a man who might well have been looking for scapegoats… Field had learned his lesson and wanted no more yachting parties. The cable was successfully laid the next summer, 1856, using the steamer Propontis, with Samuel Cunning once more the engineer in charge of the operation.”
- The fact that Field chose to write to Samuel Morse who was one of the few people in the world who believed that the project could be done. And especially, the fact that Field’s second letter reached Lieutenant Matthew Maury just when he had completed an oceanographic survey who replied, “Singularly enough, just as I received your letter, I was closing one to the Secretary of the Navy on the same subject.”
