1-629-615 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The 'Great Eastern' recovering the lost Atlantic cable, 1866, (c1920). An attempt in 1865 by Brunel's giant steamship, the 'Great Eastern' to lay the cable ended in failure when the cable snapped and the end was lost. The following year the 'Great Eastern' succeeded in retrieving the lost cable and completing it, connecting Valentia in Ireland to Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. Instead of the length of a sea voyage, communication time between the two sides of the Atlantic became a matter of seconds. Illustration from Story of the British Nation, Volume IV, by Walter Hutchinson, (London, c1920s).