3-017-074 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Indo-European Telegraph: Landing The Cable in the mud at Fao, Persian Gulf, 1865. 'When some four miles of cable had been paid out, and the boats were about one mile from the semi-fluid bank dignified by the name of shore, the boats grounded. Though there was very little depth of water, there was a great depth of mud of the consistency of cream. There was no use in hesitating; the cable must be landed at any risk; so Sir Charles Bright, to set an example to his staff and the men, was the first to get out of the boat and stand up to his waist in the mud - an example which was followed by all the officers and men, upwards of one hundred in number, who were all soon wallowing in the soft yielding ooze up to their chests, but still dragging the end of cable with them. The progress through such a material was necessarily slow: half-swimming, half-wading, it was impossible to rest for a moment without hopelessly sinking below the surface; yet no one thought of abandoning the cable...it was nearly dark before the last of the party reached the shore. All were grimed with mud, and nineteen out of twenty were nearly naked, having lost or abandoned almost every article of clothing in the struggle to reach the land. But...the cable had been landed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.