2-982-269 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Laying the Atlantic Telegraph Cable - the "Agamemnon" in a Storm, 1858. Ship struggling in '...the great storm on the 20th of June...the Agamemnon rolled so heavily and dangerously as in her then trim to lead to serious fears that the masts would go overboard, or that she would capsize completely and founder. In these heavy lurches the coals which were stowed in the main and lower decks broke away, and seriously injured several of the crew; the electric instruments were all injured; the main coal in the bottom of the hold shifted...sail was shortened to close-reefed fore and main topsails and reefed foresail - a long- and tedious job, for the wind so roared and howled, and the hiss of the boiling sea was so deafening, that words of command were useless, and the men aloft, holding on with all their might to the yards as the ship rolled over and over almost to the water, were quite incapable of struggling with the masses of wet canvas that flapped and plunged as if men and yards and everything were going away together'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.