The Great Transatlantic Cable

In the summer of 1858, the USS Niagara went to sea.

1858年夏天，尼亚加拉号航空母舰出海。

Below decks, the war ship carried an extraordinary cargo — a thousand tons of copper wire wrapped in enormous coils.

甲板下，这艘战舰运载着非凡的货物——包裹着巨大线圈的一千吨铜线。

The vessel also carried a thirty — eight year old, self-made millionaire named Cyrus Field.

船上还载着一位三十八岁、白手起家的百万富翁，名叫赛勒斯·菲尔德。

For years, Field had been obsessed with a grand idea: a cable across the Atlantic.

多年来，菲尔德一直痴迷于一个宏伟的想法：一条横跨大西洋的电缆。

He had seen telegraph wires spread across the American landscape, but the Atlantic Ocean remained the ultimate barrier to instant communication — a message between New York and London still took at least two weeks to cross the sea.

他看到电报线遍布美国各地，但大西洋仍然是即时通讯的最终障碍——纽约和伦敦之间的信息仍然需要至少两周的时间才能跨越海洋。

If Field could succeed, his Atlantic cable would revolutionize communication and transform international commerce.

如果菲尔德能够成功，他的大西洋电缆将彻底改变通讯方式并改变国际商业。

America would no longer be isolated from the rest of the world.

美国将不再与世界其他地区隔绝。

The cable was a huge gamble.

电缆是一场巨大的赌博。

From the hazards of sailing ships to the mysteries of an unproved technology, Cyrus Field's Transatlantic Telegraph was never far from catastrophe.

从帆船的危险到未经证实的技术的奥秘，赛勒斯菲尔德的跨大西洋电报从未远离灾难。

As thousand-mile wires were brought together, Cyrus Field would learn a dark secret about his cable.

当数千英里的电线连接在一起时，赛勒斯·菲尔德将了解到有关他的电缆的一个黑暗秘密。

After spending a fortune, he would be accused of committing fraud against two nations.

花了一大笔钱后，他将被指控对两国进行欺诈。

It was remarkable that he kept going through all that he, he managed to endure.

值得注意的是，他一直在经历他所经历的一切。

Cyrus Field's plan to connect the continents would call on the best scientists, the navies of two great powers, and the labor of thousands.

赛勒斯·菲尔德连接大陆的计划需要最优秀的科学家、两个大国的海军以及数千人的劳动。

"It was a very pretty plan on paper; God knows that none of us were aware of what we had undertaken."

“这是一个纸面上的非常漂亮的计划；上帝知道我们没有人知道我们所做的事情。”

A century before the Internet, Cyrus Field would attempt to wire the world.

早在互联网出现一个世纪之前，赛勒斯·菲尔德就曾试图通过有线连接世界。

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to make your way up to the table, don't be shy.

“女士们先生们，如果你们想登上谈判桌，请不要害羞。

Mr. Bishop, would you like to take your seat?

毕肖普先生，您想坐下吗？

This is the telegraphic apparatus.

这是电报设备。

We're going to send a message through Berlin to St. Petersburg.

我们将通过柏林向圣彼得堡发送一条消息。

In 1856, Cyrus Field, a young America promoter, arranged a series of exclusive parties for some British investors.

1856 年，一位年轻的美国发起人赛勒斯·菲尔德 (Cyrus Field) 为一些英国投资者安排了一系列独家派对。

Field set up telegraph keys in private mansions around London, and had his guests compose short messages.

菲尔德在伦敦各地的私人豪宅中设置了电报钥匙，并让他的客人撰写短信。

"Perhaps you would like to know what the weather is abroad?"

“也许你想知道国外的天气怎么样？”

These were sent by overland wires to other gatherings around Europe.

这些信息通过陆路发送到欧洲各地的其他聚会。

After a few minutes, replies came in from as far away as Russia.

几分钟后，来自远方俄罗斯的回复传来。

"That's it, Ladies and Gentlemen, the message is now coming through, afterŠthree minutes.

“就是这样，女士们先生们，三分钟后，消息就传来了。

And the message is, 'The Czar is most pleased with your enquiry and is in good health.'"

传达的信息是，‘沙皇对你的询问非常满意，并且身体健康。’”

The novelty of communicating at a distance delighted Field's guests.

远距离交流的新颖性让菲尔德的客人很高兴。

In the 1850s, these parlor games were strong evidence that the world was shrinking.

在 1850 年代，这些室内游戏是世界正在缩小的有力证据。

In less than a decade, the telegraph had become a boom industry in America.

在不到十年的时间里，电报业已成为美国的一个蓬勃发展的产业。

Twenty years earlier, working alone in his New York artist's studio, the painter, Samuel Morse, had tinkered with a mechanism for sending signals over short electrical wires.

二十年前，画家塞缪尔·莫尔斯（Samuel Morse）独自在纽约艺术家的工作室里工作，修补了一种通过短电线发送信号的机制。

With primitive batteries for power, he devised a code of simple dots and dashes to represent the letters of the alphabet.

利用原始电池供电，他设计了一种由简单的点和划线组成的代码来代表字母表中的字母。

In 1843, the U.S. government paid to string wires 35 miles from Washington to Baltimore.

1843 年，美国政府出资铺设了从华盛顿到巴尔的摩 35 英里的电线。

Within a few years, this first telegraph line had sprouted a system stretching from Boston west to the Mississippi River.

几年之内，第一条电报线就催生了一个从波士顿西部一直延伸到密西西比河的系统。

The era of instant communication was born.

即时通讯时代诞生了。

The telegraph really transforms the marketplace in the United States rather quickly.

电报确实相当快地改变了美国的市场。

Prices are known instantaneously around the country.

全国各地的价格即时可知。

So, whereas it used to be that, say, the price of pork in Cincinnati was known only to people in Cincinnati or that region, the price of pork in Cincinnati, with the telegraph, is now known in New York at the same time.

因此，尽管过去只有辛辛那提或该地区的人知道辛辛那提的猪肉价格，但现在通过电报，纽约也知道辛辛那提的猪肉价格。

The market is nationalized.

市场被国有化。

It is no longer dependent on space because space has, in effect, been annihilated.

它不再依赖于空间，因为空间实际上已经被消灭了。

Although New York and New Orleans could now communicate, oceans isolated the cities of America from the rest of the world.

尽管纽约和新奥尔良现在可以进行通信，但海洋将美国的城市与世界其他地方隔离开来。

The telegraph had shrunk the continent, but international news was still carried by wind and sail.

电报使大陆缩小了，但国际新闻仍然通过风和帆传播。

Ships would leave New York Harbor with mail and dispatches bound for London -- weeks away.

船只将带着邮件和快件离开纽约港，开往伦敦——几周后。

The telegraph ended at the docks of lower Manhattan.

电报的终点是曼哈顿下城的码头。

At an office block facing these docks, Cyrus Field had built a successful, international company by the time he was thirty.

在面对这些码头的办公楼里，赛勒斯·菲尔德在他三十岁时就已经建立了一家成功的国际公司。

The son of a prominent New England clergyman, Field's family included important judges and social reformers.

菲尔德是新英格兰一位著名牧师的儿子，他的家族中有重要的法官和社会改革家。

But, as a young man, Cyrus Field chose a different path.

但是，作为一个年轻人，赛勒斯·菲尔德选择了一条不同的道路。

While still a boy, he came to New York to seek his fortune.

当他还是个孩子的时候，他就来到纽约寻求财富。

He combines the background of sort of Calvinist, strict, protestant education, with the bustle, the excitement, the opportunity of commercial New York.

他将加尔文主义、严格的新教教育背景与纽约商业的喧嚣、兴奋和机遇结合起来。

Business was rapidly increasing the opportunities made available by the industrial revolution -- were almost without end.

工业革命带来的商业机会正在迅速增加——几乎是永无止境的。

The word millionaire was coined in 1827 to give a name to these people who had made fortunes outside of land.

百万富翁这个词是1827年创造的，用来称呼那些在土地之外发了财的人。

By the time Field was 30 years old he was a rich man and he was able to build a mansion on Gramercy Park, a very fashionable part of New York City at that time -- still is.

当菲尔德 30 岁的时候，他已经是一个富有的人了，他能够在格拉梅西公园建造一座豪宅，格拉梅西公园当时是纽约市非常时尚的地方——现在仍然如此。

Field wed a young woman from Connecticut, and together they moved into their newly built mansion on Gramercy Park.

菲尔德与一位来自康涅狄格州的年轻女子结婚，他们一起搬进了格拉梅西公园新建的豪宅。

Here, Mary Stone Field would raise their seven children.

玛丽·斯通·菲尔德 (Mary Stone Field) 在这里抚养了他们的七个孩子。

A newspaper declared Cyrus Field the 33rd richest man in town.

一家报纸宣称赛勒斯·菲尔德 (Cyrus Field) 是镇上第 33 位富有的人。

He started doing out his house at Gramercy Park and had an English butler and European china and beautiful trimmings and drapes and, um, was thoroughly bored -- he wanted something else in his life.

他开始整理他在格拉梅西公园的房子，有一位英国管家、欧洲瓷器、漂亮的装饰品和窗帘，嗯，他感到非常无聊——他想要生活中有别的东西。

Although still in his thirties, Field removed himself from the day-to-day management of his paper company.

尽管年仅三十多岁，菲尔德已经脱离了造纸公司的日常管理。

He was sort of looking around for something to do and his brother, who was an engineer, brought over a man who was involved in a scheme to build a telegraph across Newfoundland and then run a cable across the Cabot Strait to Nova Scotia, so that ships could stop at St. John's in Newfoundland, then they could telegraph the news ahead to New York.

他正在四处寻找事情做，他的工程师哥哥带来了一个参与计划的人，计划在纽芬兰建造一台电报机，然后铺设一条电缆穿过卡伯特海峡到达新斯科舍省，这样船只就可以在纽芬兰的圣约翰停泊，然后可以将新闻电报到纽约。

News coming from Europe could get to North America two days faster.

来自欧洲的消息传到北美可能会快两天。

Field, actually, was not terribly impressed with that idea.

事实上，菲尔德对这个想法并没有留下深刻的印象。

But then he happened to look at a globe and he just noticed that Newfoundland is right on the Great Circle Route to England and he just suddenly thought to himself, well, why don't we lay a cable across the Atlantic and then we wouldn't save two days, we'd save twelve days and have the news instantly.

但后来他碰巧看到了一个地球仪，他注意到纽芬兰就在通往英格兰的大圆航线上，他突然想到，好吧，我们为什么不铺设一条横跨大西洋的电缆，这样我们就不会节省两天，我们会节省十二天，然后立即得到消息。

With no knowledge of the ocean or the telegraph, Field began 1854 by writing to a Lieutenant Matthew Maury.

由于对海洋和电报一无所知，菲尔德于 1854 年开始写信给马修·莫里中尉。

Matthew Fontaine Maury was the Director of the Naval Observatory in Washington and the great American oceanographer -- he almost invented the science of oceanography.

马修·方丹·莫里是华盛顿海军天文台的台长，也是伟大的美国海洋学家——他几乎发明了海洋学。

He wrote to Maury asking if it was possible to lay a line across the, the Atlantic Ocean and Maury wrote back saying, funny you should ask, because I had a ship out there all summer taking soundings and we found this nice flat area perfect for laying a cable, in fact, we've named it the "Telegraph Plateau."

他写信给莫里，询问是否有可能铺设一条横跨大西洋的线路，莫里回信说，有趣的是，你应该问，因为我整个夏天都有一艘船在那里进行测深，我们发现这个漂亮的平坦区域非常适合铺设电缆，事实上，我们将其命名为“电报高原”。

With Lieutenant Maury's surprising encouragement, Field began to consider the scale of the project.

在莫里中尉出人意料的鼓励下，菲尔德开始考虑该项目的规模。

A primitive 27-mile line under the English Channel had just been laid.

英吉利海峡下一条 27 英里长的原始线路刚刚铺设完毕。

An Atlantic cable would need to be a hundred times longer.

大西洋电缆需要长一百倍。

Field realized he was going to need much more money than he, himself, could possibly invest in such a scheme and it was going to be a very large undertaking, but, fortunately, on Gramercy Park, he had lots of very rich neighbors, especially Peter Cooper, who was an iron monger who had made an enormous fortune, probably one of the two or three richest men in, in New York City at that time.

菲尔德意识到，他需要的资金比他本人可能投资的资金多得多，而且这将是一项非常庞大的事业，但幸运的是，在格拉梅西公园，他有很多非常富有的邻居，尤其是彼得·库珀，他是一位铁商，赚了巨额财富，可能是当时纽约市最富有的两三个人之一。

Peter Cooper was old enough to be Field's father, but they shared similar backgrounds.

彼得·库珀的年龄足以成为菲尔德的父亲，但他们有着相似的背景。

Cooper also shared Field's belief that business was akin to religion in its power to benefit the world.

库珀还认同菲尔德的观点，即商业类似于宗教，具有造福世界的力量。

Peter Cooper, who was a very religious man, he had always thought that the, the purpose of business was to make money, and the purpose of life was to do good.

彼得·库珀是一个非常虔诚的人，他一直认为商业的目的是赚钱，生活的目的是行善。

"The bottom of the sea between Newfoundland and Ireland is a plateau, which seems to have been placed there especially to hold the wires of a submarine telegraph and to keep them out of harm's way."

“纽芬兰和爱尔兰之间的海底是一个高原，似乎是专门为了固定海底电报线并使其免受伤害而放置在那里的。”

In March 1854, with little planning or research, Cyrus Field brought together Cooper and a few other influential neighbors hoping they would back his cable.

1854 年 3 月，在几乎没有计划或研究的情况下，赛勒斯·菲尔德召集了库珀和其他一些有影响力的邻居，希望他们能够支持他的电缆。

They were very savvy businessmen.

他们是非常精明的商人。

They trusted Field because he had been a very successful businessman, even though he was young.

他们信任菲尔德，因为他是一位非常成功的商人，尽管他很年轻。

His greatest advantage was his drive and his energy and his determination to get things done.

他最大的优势是他的干劲、精力和完成任务的决心。

Clearly he wanted to see a return and clearly he tried to convince investors that they would get a return, but there's something more to it than that.

显然他希望看到回报，并且显然他试图说服投资者他们会获得回报，但事情远不止于此。

It's not just about money, it's about, I think, a desire to make a mark in the world and, also, a sense that once you've made your pile, once you've made your money, you still have obligations to service, to try to improve life for people and so on and so forth.

我认为，这不仅仅是金钱的问题，而是一种在世界上留下印记的愿望，还有一种感觉，即一旦你发了大财，一旦你赚到了钱，你仍然有义务提供服务，努力改善人们的生活等等。

It's quite common, isn't it, for business people to, to explain their actions in terms other than making money.

对于商界人士来说，用赚钱以外的术语来解释他们的行为是很常见的，不是吗？

There were people who saw the good that would come out of this project, but they did also have a very strong eye on the bottom line.

有些人看到了这个项目会带来的好处，但他们也对利润有着非常强烈的关注。

This was never philanthropy; this was always a business opportunity.

这绝不是慈善事业；而是慈善事业。这始终是一个商机。

Field's enthusiasm was contagious.

菲尔德的热情很有感染力。

The group chartered a small corporation with an imposing name ­ The New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company.

该集团特许成立了一家小公司，名称为“纽约、纽芬兰和伦敦电报公司”。

After posing for a formal portrait, the Gramercy Park cable investors toasted their project and pledged the vast sum of one and a half million dollars.

在摆出正式的肖像照后，格拉梅西公园有线电视投资者庆祝了他们的项目，并承诺投入一百五十万美元的巨额资金。

Years later, Field wrote of that meeting: "God knows none of us were aware of what we had undertaken." Field's first task would be bridging the 60-mile Cabot Strait separating Newfoundland from the rest of Canada.

多年后，菲尔德在回忆那次会议时写道：“上帝知道我们没有人知道我们所做的事情。”菲尔德的首要任务是架起将纽芬兰与加拿大其他地区分隔开的 60 英里长的卡伯特海峡的桥梁。

After wrecking a small ship, the new cable company was forced to spend almost all its original capital just stringing a wire through the wilderness to Newfoundland's eastern shore.

在撞毁了一艘小船后，新的电缆公司被迫花掉几乎所有的原始资金，只是将一根电线穿过荒野拉到纽芬兰的东岸。

"Not one of us had ever seen the country.

“我们中没有人见过这个国家。

On a map it was easy to draw a line from one point to the other, ignoring the forests, the mountains, and rivers that lay in our way."

在地图上很容易从一个点到另一个点画一条线，而忽略了路上的森林、山脉和河流。”

Cyrus Field succeeded in bringing the telegraph to Newfoundland, but for his Company the first year was a financial disaster.

赛勒斯·菲尔德成功地将电报带到了纽芬兰，但对他的公司来说，第一年就是一场财务灾难。

It was clear that he had grossly underestimated the scope of the project.

显然，他严重低估了该项目的范围。

By the fall of 1855, the telegraph line ended on the Canadian shore.

1855 年秋，电报线在加拿大海岸结束。

Cyrus Field was out of money, out of cable, and still 2,000 miles from Europe.

赛勒斯机场 (Cyrus Field) 没钱了，也没有电缆，而且距离欧洲还有 2,000 英里。

If his dream was to become a fact, Field needed more money than his New York backers could contribute.

如果他的梦想成为现实，菲尔德需要的资金超出了他的纽约支持者所能提供的资金。

In 1856, the American arrived in London, prepared to promise anything to sell more shares.

1856年，美国人抵达伦敦，准备承诺出售更多股票。

To bankers, he claimed his cable would bring an eight percent return; to idealists, it would bring world peace.

他对银行家声称他的电报将带来 8% 的回报；对于理想主义者来说，它将带来世界和平。

On a sales mission to a wealthy lord's country estate, he even compared his telegraph to a hunting dog.

在一次前往一位富有领主的乡村庄园的销售任务中，他甚至将自己的电报比作猎犬。

"The plan of which I've spoken is, essentially, just a dog ­ if you pinch his tail in London, he'll let out a bark in New York."

“我所说的计划本质上是，如果你在伦敦捏一只狗的尾巴，他在纽约就会发出一声吠叫。”

I think that, because Field was an American and because he was very direct and open and went straight to the point, he was able to mix, in these different strata of British Society in a way that perhaps someone British couldn't have done.

我认为，因为菲尔德是美国人，而且因为他非常直接、开放、开门见山，他能够以一种英国人无法做到的方式融入英国社会的不同阶层。

He actually went to see the First Lord of the Admiralty and said can you give me a boat?

他居然去见了第一海军大臣，说你能给我一条船吗？

The Admiralty, at this time, was rather short of boats, didn't have, too many to spare, but, but they said, yes, okay.

当时，金钟部的船只相当短缺，没有，太多了，但是，但是他们说，是的，好的。

Now, I can't imagine an English person would ever have done that because this is a very direct way to ­ they may have written a polite letter saying, oh, by the wayŠ and it probably wouldn't have had any effect, but, Field knew he needed a boat, went off and got one.

现在，我无法想象一个英国人会这样做，因为这是一种非常直接的方式，他们可能会写一封礼貌的信，说，哦，顺便说一句，这可能不会有任何效果，但是，菲尔德知道他需要一艘船，于是就去买了一艘。

Field needed more than British boats and money, he needed access to a rare British-made substance -- gutta-percha .

菲尔德需要的不仅仅是英国的船只和金钱，他还需要获得一种稀有的英国制造的物质——古塔胶。

This foul smelling tropical sap was used to protect electrical cable, and a London company monopolized most of the gutta-percha trees in the world.

这种散发着恶臭的热带汁液被用来保护电缆，一家伦敦公司垄断了世界上大部分的古塔胶树。

Absolutely critical to this enterprise was gutta-percha .

对于这个企业来说绝对重要的是古塔胶。

It's like rubber, it comes out of a tree, but it's a plastic.

它就像橡胶一样，是从树上长出来的，但它是塑料。

If you take gutta-percha and you just put it in hot water, it will begin to soften and then you can mold it in whatever shape and then you cool it down and it keeps that shape.

如果您将古塔胶放入热水中，它就会开始软化，然后您可以将其塑造成任何形状，然后将其冷却并保持该形状。

Insulated cable would weigh one ton per mile, and no single ship was big enough to carry the entire 2500-ton load.

绝缘电缆每英里重 1 吨，没有一艘船大到足以承载全部 2500 吨的负载。

Most experts doubted that existing cable would operate over such a distance.

大多数专家怀疑现有电缆能否在如此长的距离内运行。

But, one "consultant" claimed he could make it work.

但是，一位“顾问”声称他可以让它发挥作用。

Cyrus Field hired, as chief electrician, a medical doctor named Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse.

赛勒斯·菲尔德聘请了一位名叫爱德华·奥兰治·怀尔德曼·怀特豪斯的医生作为首席电工。

Doctor Whitehouse was a physician by trade, but he was an amateur telegrapher.

怀特豪斯医生是一名医生，但他是一名业余电报员。

He knew a great deal about telegraphy, there's no doubt about that, um, unfortunately, he was one of those people who just could not be wrong about anything.

他对电报了解很多，这是毫无疑问的，嗯，不幸的是，他是那些在任何事情上都不会出错的人之一。

He was a very outspoken man and a man of very definite ideas.

他是一个非常直言不讳、想法非常明确的人。

Indeed, he was a member of that group who believed that, if electricity had to travel a long distance, it needed a jolly good kick to get it on its way.

事实上，他是该团体的成员之一，他相信，如果电力必须传输很长的距离，就需要一个非常好的踢脚才能让它继续前进。

Electricity was still a mystery in the 1850s.

在 1850 年代，电力仍然是一个谜。

Before the light bulb, most people knew electricity only from thunderstorms or magic shows.

在灯泡出现之前，大多数人只能通过雷暴或魔术表演了解电力。

Whether a current could even flow through a 2,000--mile, undersea cable was completely uncertain.

电流能否流过 2000 英里的海底电缆还是完全不确定的。

There were many people who thought it wasn't possible.

当时很多人都觉得不可能。

Indeed, the British Astronomer Royal, Sir George Biddle Airy, declared that it was quite impossible to do this because, at the great depth of the ocean, the electric fluid would be squeezed out of the cable.

事实上，英国皇家天文学家乔治·比德尔·艾里爵士宣称这是完全不可能的，因为在海洋深处，电流体会被从电缆中挤出。

Dr. Whitehouse insisted that the Atlantic cable would work, but only if a strong enough current were applied.

怀特豪斯博士坚持认为大西洋电缆可以工作，但前提是施加足够强的电流。

Field was convinced that Whitehouse's system of robust batteries was the key to success.

菲尔德坚信怀特豪斯强大的电池系统是成功的关键。

Others cautioned Field that there needed to be more testing, but Dr. Whitehouse was so sure of his theories and Field knew any delay would cost money ­ money that he didn't have.

其他人警告菲尔德需要进行更多测试，但怀特豪斯博士对他的理论非常确定，而菲尔德知道任何延误都会花费他没有的钱。

With his British funders in place, Field sailed home to America.

在英国资助者就位后，菲尔德乘船返回美国。

His next job was to get the support of his own government.

他的下一个工作是获得本国政府的支持。

For months he lobbied most of the United States Congress -- writing home that he would rather be surrounded by Newfoundland's icebergs than Washington's politicians.

几个月来，他游说美国国会的大部分成员，写信回家表示，他宁愿被纽芬兰的冰山包围，也不愿被华盛顿的政客包围。

He was talking as though America really was still a backwater, isolated by its lack of communication.

他说的话就好像美国实际上仍然是一潭死水，因缺乏沟通而孤立。

And he was saying, look, you know, if-if I stand on the west coast of Ireland, I can send a message almost instantaneously to, um, anywhere on the European mainland, down into Africa, across, across the, um, Asian continent, but, here, in America you can only really talk to each other, you're cut off from the, from the rest of world commerce.

他说，看，你知道，如果——如果我站在爱尔兰西海岸，我几乎可以立即向，嗯，欧洲大陆的任何地方，一直到非洲，穿过，嗯，亚洲大陆，但是，在这里，在美国，你只能真正互相交谈，你与世界其他地方的商业隔绝。

Although many legislators argued that Britain ought to pay the entire bill for Field's scheme, the Atlantic Cable Act passed the Senate by a single vote.

尽管许多立法者认为英国应该为菲尔德的计划支付全部费用，但大西洋电缆法案还是以一票之差在参议院获得了通过。

Congress ordered the United States Navy to provide assistance.

国会命令美国海军提供援助。

Late in 1857, the navy loaned the USS Niagara to the Atlantic Telegraph Company.

1857 年末，海军将尼亚加拉号航空母舰借给大西洋电报公司。

Powered by a combination of steam and sail, the Niagara was the largest such vessel in the world.

尼亚加拉号由蒸汽和风帆相结合提供动力，是世界上最大的此类船只。

After being fitted with new machinery, and with Cyrus Field aboard, the U.S. ship sailed for a rendezvous point in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

在安装完新机器后，赛勒斯·菲尔德登上了这艘美国船，驶向大西洋中部的会合点。

Here, she met her British counterpart, the HMS Agamemnon , each carrying one-half of the cable.

在这里，她遇到了英国的阿伽门农号，每艘都携带着一半的电缆。

With both ships at the meeting point, riggers joined the cable.

当两艘船到达交汇点时，索具工加入了电缆。

Strand by strand the wires were carefully connected and a copper penny was soldered in for luck.

一根一根的电线被小心翼翼地连接起来，并焊接了一枚铜便士以求好运。

On July 29th 1858, a test signal was telegraphed from the Agamemnon to the Niagara .

1858 年 7 月 29 日，阿伽门农号向尼亚加拉号发出了测试信号。

That afternoon the ships sailed off in opposite directions.

那天下午，两艘船朝相反的方向航行。

Onboard the Niagara , telegraphers sent hourly test signals to the Agamemnon .

在尼亚加拉号上，电报员每小时向阿伽门农号发送测试信号。

As long as one ship could hear the other, the cable was working.

只要一艘船能听到另一艘船的声音，电缆就可以工作。

If the signal should ever stop, their mission would be a failure.

如果信号停止，他们的任务就会失败。

"Latitude 52°N, Longitude 32°W.

“北纬 52°，西经 32°。

Signals through the whole length of cable onboard both ships: perfect."

通过两艘船上的整条电缆发出信号：完美。”

For eight days, the Agamemnon and Niagara sailed east and west -- the first time in history that two ships had maintained contact beyond the horizon.

阿伽门农号和尼亚加拉号向东和向西航行了八天，这是历史上第一次两艘船在地平线之外保持接触。

The Niagara sent routine weather reports, The Agamemnon replied that whales were following the ship.

尼亚加拉号发送了例行天气预报，阿伽门农号回复说鲸鱼正在跟随该船。

Then, one morning, there was a crisis aboard the Niagara.

然后，一天早上，尼亚加拉号上发生了一场危机。

Officers discovered serious navigator navigational errors.

官员们发现导航仪存在严重的导航错误。

The ship had laid out too much cable for the distance covered.

对于所覆盖的距离来说，这艘船铺设了太多的电缆。

At that rate, they would run out of cable before making Newfoundland.

按照这个速度，他们在到达纽芬兰之前就会用完电缆。

It seems that the compass had been affected by the amount of iron.

看来指南针受到了铁含量的影响。

The cables were sheathed with iron.

电缆外面包裹着铁皮。

Therefore the compass would deviate from its north position.

因此，指南针会偏离其北方位置。

Without a reliable compass, the navigator needed to constantly check his position -- fighting to keep the ship on track.

如果没有可靠的指南针，导航员就需要不断检查自己的位置——努力让船保持在正确的轨道上。

Even as cargo, the cable itself, was posing a challenge.

即使作为货物，电缆本身也构成了挑战。

Field had no technological background whatsoever.

菲尔德没有任何技术背景。

He said, later, that it was fortunate for him that he didn't know anything about the problems of undersea cables because he never would have gotten involved in the project.

他后来说，他很幸运，他对海底电缆的问题一无所知，因为他永远不会参与该项目。

At sea, Cyrus Field had time to reflect on his cable adventure.

在海上，赛勒斯·菲尔德有时间反思他的电缆冒险经历。

For most of the last four years, he'd left his wife and family alone.

在过去四年的大部分时间里，他都独自留下妻子和家人。

He had convinced his Gramercy Park neighbors to entrust him with their money and he had lost nearly every penny.

他说服了格拉梅西公园的邻居将他们的钱托付给他，但他几乎损失了每一分钱。

Now he'd gotten a host of new investors and was, again, stretched to the limit with an unperfected technology.

现在，他获得了一批新的投资者，并且再次将不完善的技术推向极限。

For a minister's son who had built his reputation on pure trust, he was in a difficult spot.

对于一个以纯粹的信任而闻名的大臣之子来说，他的处境很困难。

"I was standing on the deck of the Niagara in mid-ocean and, when I thought of all my hopes thus far disappointed, of the friends saddened by my reverses, I felt a load at my heart almost too heavy to bear."

“我站在大洋中央的尼亚加拉号的甲板上，当我想到迄今为止我所有的希望都落空了，想到朋友们因我的挫折而悲伤时，我感到心里的负担几乎沉重得难以承受。”

After eight days and nearly 1,000 miles, the Niagara entered Trinity Bay, Newfoundland -- the cable had arrived in North America.

经过八天、近 1000 英里的航行，尼亚加拉号进入纽芬兰三一湾——电缆抵达北美。

From a small shed on the beach, Field sent a four-word message to New York -- "The cable is laid." From the cable office on Wall Street the word spread quickly as the telegraph carried the news to towns around the United States.

菲尔德从海滩上的一个小棚屋向纽约发送了一条四个字的消息——“电缆已铺设”。随着电报将消息传送到美国各地的城镇，消息从华尔街的有线电视办公室迅速传播开来。

Newspapers from Maine to Missouri printed extra editions.

从缅因州到密苏里州的报纸都印有额外版本。

While Field prepared to return from Newfoundland to New York, the Agamemnon , arrived off the coast of Ireland.

当菲尔德准备从纽芬兰返回纽约时，阿伽门农号抵达爱尔兰海岸。

As the electrician, Edward Whitehouse watched, the European end of the cable was hauled ashore.

在电工爱德华·怀特豪斯 (Edward Whitehouse) 的注视下，电缆的欧洲端被拖上岸。

They set up a tent.

他们搭起了帐篷。

All the electrical equipment was put in place and Whitehouse and his colleagues were given free access to the cable to get into a working order.

所有电气设备都已就位，怀特豪斯和他的同事可以自由使用电缆以进入工作状态。

Queen Victoria composed a ceremonial telegram to President James Buchanan.

维多利亚女王向詹姆斯·布坎南总统写了一封礼仪电报。

One of Dr. Whitehouse's first tasks was to send her words across the Atlantic.

怀特豪斯博士的首要任务之一就是将她的话语跨越大西洋传递出去。

When the Queen's message arrived, America began celebrating.

当女王的消息到达时，美国开始庆祝。

New Yorkers sensed a new age had dawned.

纽约人感觉到一个新时代已经到来。

Two continents had been joined.

两个大陆已经连在一起了。

They were used to having the Atlantic Ocean be two weeks, three weeks, six weeks wide and, suddenly, here it was 10 minutes wide, and it was just a miracle.

他们习惯了大西洋的两周、三周、六周宽，突然之间，这里的宽度变成了十分钟，这简直就是一个奇迹。

There were these huge, spontaneous demonstrations that took place -- bonfires, fireworks, street parades, tens of thousands of people marching up Broadway -- immigrant groups, temperance societies, workingman's clubs, all essentially sharing in this notion of this is an American triumph, this is something that is uniquely American, there's an American genius at work here.

发生了这些大规模的、自发的示威活动——篝火、烟花、街头游行、数以万计的人在百老汇游行——移民团体、禁酒协会、工人俱乐部，所有这些基本上都在分享这样一种观念：这是美国的胜利，这是美国独有的东西，这里有一位美国天才在工作。

From the family home in Massachusetts, Field's brother sent a message -- "Cyrus, your father danced like a boy and all over town bells are being rung.

菲尔德的哥哥从马萨诸塞州的家中发来一条消息——“赛勒斯，你的父亲像个男孩一样跳舞，整个城镇的钟声都在敲响。

The joyful news has nearly overwhelmed your wife and family." A few blocks from the parades, Cyrus Field was not celebrating.

这个令人高兴的消息几乎让你的妻子和家人欣喜若狂。”距离游行队伍几个街区的赛勒斯菲尔德并没有庆祝。

From the first test signals, something seemed to be wrong.

从第一个测试信号来看，似乎有些问题。

Even the Queen's short message had taken hours to transmit.

甚至女王的短信也花了几个小时才传送完毕。

As time passed, the signals across the Atlantic became fainter.

随着时间的流逝，大西洋彼岸的信号变得越来越微弱。

In Ireland, Dr. Whitehouse's response was to add more and more batteries to the circuit, cranking up the amount of current passing through the cable.

在爱尔兰，怀特豪斯博士的反应是在电路中添加越来越多的电池，从而增加通过电缆的电流量。

Batteries with 500 volts, and then induction coils, maybe 2,000 volts, the poor cable it was not going to be able to withstand that, but nobody knew.

500 伏的电池，然后是感应线圈，可能是 2,000 伏，糟糕的电缆无法承受，但没有人知道。

In Newfoundland, the signals became intermittent, words were garbled, whole phrases missed.

在纽芬兰，信号变得断断续续，单词出现乱码，整个短语都丢失了。

"How do you receive?

“你怎么接收？

Can you read this?

你能读懂这个吗？

Please send something."

请送一些东西。”

The clipped, imperfect sounds of the telegraph told Cyrus Field that Europe and America were, once again, cut off.

电报的声音断断续续、不完美，告诉赛勒斯·菲尔德，欧洲和美国再次被切断了联系。

After just 23 days of operation, somewhere on the dark floor of the North Atlantic his cable had failed.

仅仅运行 23 天后，他的电缆就在北大西洋黑暗海底的某个地方发生了故障。

After all this outpouring of enthusiasm, after these huge, lavish banquets, after all the honors that are being laid on Field, the cable goes dead and, immediately many people, many newspapers and, and, and others start to say, well, maybe this whole thing was a hoax, maybe this whole thing was just a big stock fraud, maybe this was the kind of thing that we associate with P.T.

在热情洋溢之后，在这些盛大而奢华的宴会之后，在菲尔德获得所有荣誉之后，电报突然断了，立即许多人、许多报纸以及其他人开始说，好吧，也许这整件事是一场骗局，也许这整件事只是一场巨大的股票欺诈，也许这就是我们与 P.T. 联系在一起的那种事情。

Barnum humbug.

巴纳姆的骗局。

A Boston newspaper accused Field of profiting by dumping his stock before the cable failed.

波士顿一家报纸指责菲尔德在电缆故障前抛售股票获利。

The minister's son was forced to defend his own integrity.

部长的儿子被迫捍卫自己的正直。

Cyrus Field must have been absolutely devastated because, if we convert the sort of cost of the cable at that time into the hundreds of millions of dollars that it would cost today, and that is an investment which is gone.

赛勒斯菲尔德肯定遭到了彻底的破坏，因为如果我们将当时的电缆成本换算成今天的数亿美元，那么这项投资就白费了。

And even if you found out that there was a problem, you know, that it's a, it's a fault within the cable someplace a break in the cable if there was a single thing, you can't do anything about it.

即使您发现存在问题，您也知道，这是电缆内部的故障，或者电缆断裂，如果有任何一件事，您也无能为力。

There's no way of going and picking up the cable and repairing it.

没有办法去捡起电缆并修复它。

Overnight, Cyrus Field went from being the toast of New York to a laughing stock.

一夜之间，赛勒斯·菲尔德从纽约的焦点变成了笑柄。

Newspapers, which a month earlier had hailed him, now called him "a man obsessed by insanity." Field knew that, for now, his Atlantic Cable was lost, but from his mansion he sent a short, confident note to his investors.

一个月前还曾为他欢呼的报纸现在称他为“一个痴迷于精神错乱的人”。菲尔德知道，目前他的大西洋电缆已经丢失，但他从自己的豪宅向投资者发出了一封简短而充满信心的信。

"Our cable is not dead but only slumbers.

“我们的电缆并没有死掉，只是处于休眠状态。

Someday, she will answer the call."

总有一天，她会接听电话。”

A few weeks after the cable's failure, a letter arrived from London.

电缆故障几周后，一封从伦敦寄来的信。

The scale of the debacle forced the British and American governments to call a Board of Enquiry to find out what had gone wrong.

这场灾难的规模迫使英国和美国政府成立了一个调查委员会来找出问题所在。

Field was summoned to explain himself.

菲尔德被传唤来解释自己的情况。

This is the very first time after a technological failure, that a board of enquiry was convened.

这是技术故障后首次召开调查委员会。

It was such a good idea that every time since, the first thing they do is summon a board of enquiry, whether it was when the Titanic sank in 1912 or the Challenger blew up in 1986.

这是个好主意，从那以后，无论是 1912 年泰坦尼克号沉没还是 1986 年挑战者号爆炸，他们做的第一件事就是召集一个调查委员会。

They found all kinds of things wrong.

他们发现各种各样的事情都是错误的。

They found that the cable was badly designed, that it had not been properly tested in real conditions, in water of the right temperature and at the right pressure.

他们发现该电缆设计得很糟糕，没有在实际条件下、在正确温度和压力的水中进行适当的测试。

There is a problem with long cables, there is a problem with deep cables, not just in laying them but actually getting them to work once the, once they have, um, once they have been laid.

长电缆有问题，深电缆也有问题，不仅是在铺设它们时，而且是在它们一旦铺设后实际上让它们工作。

The Board's suspicions focused on the electrician, Dr. Whitehouse.

委员会的怀疑集中在电工怀特豪斯博士身上。

When he hooked his powerful batteries to the Irish end of the cable, he forced so much power through the line that he blasted a hole through the gutta-percha insulation somewhere on the ocean floor.

当他将强大的电池连接到电缆的爱尔兰端时，他通过电线施加了如此大的电力，以至于在海底某处的古塔胶绝缘层上炸开了一个洞。

The entire 2,000-mile system had been turned into a wet clothesline.

整个 2,000 英里的系统已经变成了一条湿漉漉的晾衣绳。

Whitehouse really was set up as the person to take the blame He continued after that to protest that he had been right when it was becoming increasingly clear that he didn't actually know what he was doing.

怀特豪斯确实被认定为要承担责任的人。在那之后，当越来越明显地表明他实际上并不知道自己在做什么时，他继续抗议说自己是对的。

One of the most important things that the Board of Enquiry did was to discover that there was no adequate vocabulary in which to discuss technical details of, of electrical engineering and, within the next few years, a whole raft of words entered the English language, words like Watt and Volt and Ohm and Ampere.

调查委员会所做的最重要的事情之一是发现没有足够的词汇来讨论电气工程的技术细节，并且在接下来的几年内，大量单词进入了英语，例如瓦特、伏特、欧姆和安培等单词。

Um, they were all named for great pioneers in, in the history of, of electricity.

嗯，它们都是以电力史上伟大的先驱者的名字命名的。

Field replaced Whitehouse with Professor William Thomson, a brilliant, Scottish physicist, later known as "Lord Kelvin".

菲尔德用威廉·汤姆森教授取代了怀特豪斯，他是一位杰出的苏格兰物理学家，后来被称为“开尔文勋爵”。

Thomson thought what was needed was an instrument to detect very weak signals.

汤姆森认为我们需要一种能够检测非常微弱信号的仪器。

The electricity at the far end of the cable was too faint to produce a conventional click.

电缆远端的电流太微弱，无法产生传统的咔哒声。

Thomson struggled for a way to catch the signal.

汤姆森绞尽脑汁寻找捕捉信号的方法。

He was in his study one day and he was thinking about something, standing at his desk and he happened to be twirling his monocle.

有一天，他在书房里，站在书桌前思考着什么，碰巧转动着他的单片眼镜。

He noticed that the light coming in the window was reflecting off the monocle and the light spot was zooming around the room.

他注意到从窗户射入的光线被单片眼镜反射，光点在房间周围移动。

Suddenly, Thomson realized what was needed.

突然，汤姆森意识到需要什么。

His assistant attached a tiny glass reflector to an iron wire.

他的助手将一个微小的玻璃反射器连接到一根铁线上。

By focusing a kerosene flame on the mirror, even the slightest movement of the wire could be made visible.

通过将煤油火焰聚焦在镜子上，即使是最轻微的金属丝移动也可以被看到。

The ingenious mirror galvanometer could detect signals one thousand times fainter than other receivers.

精巧的镜面检流计可以检测到比其他接收器微弱一千倍的信号。

Although Dr. Whitehouse had taken the fall for the cable's failure, the Board also faulted Cyrus Field's impulsiveness.

尽管怀特豪斯博士承担了电缆故障的责任，但董事会也指责赛勒斯·菲尔德的冲动。

If Field was to try another cable, it would have to be based on solid physics.

如果菲尔德要尝试另一种电缆，它必须基于固体物理学。

Field was blinkered and he didn't, perhaps, take on all the information that was available to him, but, in another way, he drove the project forward through his own energy and his own abilities to actually harness the people who needed to be involved.

菲尔德的视野很狭隘，也许他没有接受他可以获得的所有信息，但从另一种角度来说，他通过自己的精力和能力推动了项目向前发展，从而真正利用了需要参与的人员。

There was a very big problem when he turned back to the cable and tried to get it moving again.

当他转回电缆并试图让它再次移动时，出现了一个非常大的问题。

He said this was his darkest hour really when people wouldn't listen to him.

他说这是他最黑暗的时刻，人们不听他的。

Many people had lost a great deal of money and weren't willing to throw more after it.

许多人损失了很多钱，并且不愿意再投入更多。

Field was forced to go back to London and really concentrate his efforts, um, in Britain.

菲尔德被迫回到伦敦，真正集中精力，嗯，在英国。

I think you can tell Field's character when it comes to failure, when the British Foreign Minister asked him, before this all started, what he would do if failed, and he said charge it up to profit and loss and start again.

我想你可以看出菲尔德的性格，当谈到失败时，当英国外交大臣在这一切开始之前问他，如果失败了他会怎么做，他说记入损益并重新开始。

He never let up.

他从未松懈过。

This is also, I think, part of the salesman part of Field no matter how bad things were looking, no matter how much money was lost, no matter what disaster befell the cable project, his optimism seemed to be unshakeable, his faith in the ultimate success must have been inspirational to other people and given them confidence to keep investing.

我认为，这也是菲尔德推销员的一部分，无论情况多么糟糕，无论损失了多少钱，无论电缆项目发生什么灾难，他的乐观态度似乎都不可动摇，他对最终成功的信念一定会激励其他人，让他们有信心继续投资。

By the time Field had raised new capital in Britain, his own country had exploded.

当菲尔德在英国筹集新资本时，他自己的国家已经爆炸了。

In April 1861, civil war broke out in America.

1861年4月，美国爆发内战。

While it tore the nation apart, the war's use of battlefield telegraph equipment also demonstrated the power of good communication.

虽然战争使国家分裂，但战场上电报设备的使用也展示了良好通信的力量。

When peace came to America in 1865, Field and his backers resumed the cable project with new vigor.

1865 年美国迎来和平，菲尔德和他的支持者以新的活力恢复了电缆项目。

They had a great stroke of luck.

他们运气非常好。

The greatest engineer of the 19th century, with the wonderful name of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, said, "Mr. Field, I have the ship to lay your cable." In 1858, he launched the Great Eastern , which was not only the largest ship in the world, it was five times the size of any ship in the world.

19世纪最伟大的工程师，有着美妙名字的伊桑巴德·金德姆·布鲁内尔，他说：“菲尔德先生，我有船来为您铺设电缆。” 1858年，他下水了大东方号，这不仅是世界上最大的船舶，而且是世界上任何船舶尺寸的五倍。

Brunel's original idea was to build a ship large enough to steam from England to Australia and back without having to re-coal.

布鲁内尔最初的想法是建造一艘足够大的船，可以从英国航行到澳大利亚并往返，而无需重新加煤。

It turned out that it was a commercial disaster.

事实证明，这是一场商业灾难。

Nobody wanted, particularly, to go to Australia, um, even without having to re-coal, and, on the Atlantic run, it was just too big to make money.

尤其是没有人愿意去澳大利亚，嗯，即使不需要重新燃煤，而且在大西洋航线上，它太大了，赚不到钱。

Field realized immediately that it would be perfect because it was the only ship in the world that could carry all the cable in one go.

菲尔德立即意识到这将是完美的，因为它是世界上唯一一艘可以一次承载所有电缆的船。

Field and his British backers were able to buy the bankrupt Great Eastern for only two percent of what it had cost to build.

菲尔德和他的英国支持者只用了建造成本的百分之二就买下了破产的大东方公司。

The one ship in the world big enough to alone lay the entire cable was now in Field's hands.

世界上唯一一艘足以单独铺设整条电缆的船现在掌握在菲尔德手中。

Compared to the attempt of 1858, the Great Eastern would be a voyage of luxury.

与 1858 年的尝试相比，大东方号将是一次奢华的航行。

For weeks, at a dock in London, 7,000 tons of continuous cable was spooled into the holds of the great ship.

数周以来，在伦敦的一个码头，7000 吨的连续电缆被缠绕在这艘巨轮的货舱中。

There was no longer any need to worry about mid-ocean splicing with another boat.

不再需要担心在大洋中与另一艘船拼接。

It was all on one ship.

一切都在一艘船上。

The Great Eastern was so huge that the cable, apparently, was lost in the hold.

大东方号是如此之大，以至于电缆显然在货舱中丢失了。

A decade earlier, Cyrus Field had begun with a small gathering in his own parlor, now he was about to set sail in the world's largest ship with dozens of technicians and the finest equipment 19th century science could provide.

十年前，赛勒斯·菲尔德 (Cyrus Field) 在自己的客厅里举行了一次小型聚会，现在他即将乘坐世界上最大的轮船起航，船上有数十名技术人员和 19 世纪科学所能提供的最先进的设备。

The European end of the new cable ran from the same Irish bay as in 1858.

新电缆的欧洲端与 1858 年一样从同一爱尔兰海湾延伸。

With Field on deck, the Great Eastern steamed toward Newfoundland, 2,000 miles over the horizon.

菲尔德号在甲板上，大东方号驶向距离地平线 2,000 英里的纽芬兰。

Field was the only American on the expedition.

菲尔德是这次探险中唯一的美国人。

There were hundreds of men on the Great Eastern and there was only one American and that was Cyrus Field.

大东方号上有数百人，但只有一名美国人，那就是赛勒斯·菲尔德。

Everybody wanted Cyrus Field there because everybody knew that he was the man who was going to make this all come together.

每个人都希望赛勒斯·菲尔德在那里，因为每个人都知道他是让这一切走到一起的人。

He was the classic entrepreneur, which is, in many ways, is like a producer on a, of a, of a Broadway show.

他是一位典型的企业家，从很多方面来说，他就像百老汇演出的制片人。

I mean, the producer doesn't write, he doesn't act, he doesn't paint scenery, he doesn't do anything except make it possible for all the others to come together and have the show.

我的意思是，制片人不写作，不表演，不画风景，除了让所有其他人能够聚在一起观看演出之外，他什么也不做。

Without the producer, there's no show.

没有制片人就没有演出。

Alone with his thoughts on the two-week voyage, Cyrus Field took time to record his impressions in his daily journal.

赛勒斯·菲尔德独自思考了为期两周的航行，并花时间在日记中记录了他的印象。

"There is a wonderful sense of power in the great ship.

“这艘伟大的船有一种奇妙的力量感。

We are trailing a slender conduit through which lightning will flash with the news and passions of two mighty nations."

我们正在追踪一条细长的管道，通过它闪电将闪烁着两个强大国家的新闻和激情。”

Always with the gift for promotion, Field brought along an artist to record the voyage of the Great Eastern .

一向有晋升天赋的菲尔德，带了一位艺术家来记录大东方号的航行。

The advantage of the Great Eastern , in carrying all the cable, is you start at, at Ireland and you head for Newfoundland but you're hooked up.

大东方航空公司的优势在于，在携带所有电缆方面，您从爱尔兰出发，前往纽芬兰，但您已经连接好了。

In other words, that through this 2,000 miles of cable you've got a receiver and transmitter on ship and then the same on shore.

换句话说，通过这 2,000 英里的电缆，您可以在船上安装接收器和发射器，然后在岸上安装同样的接收器和发射器。

So, all the time, they were in contact with each other as they were sailing away.

因此，在航行过程中，他们一直保持着联系。

Every mile they went they had a new record for the length of functioning submarine cable.

他们每行驶一英里，就会创造海底电缆运行长度的新记录。

They knew what was going on in Ireland and Ireland knew what was going on in the ship at every moment.

他们知道爱尔兰正在发生什么，爱尔兰也知道船上每时每刻都在发生什么。

At one a.m.

凌晨一点

on the sixth night of the voyage, the telegrapher in Ireland failed to receive the Great Eastern 's hourly signal.

航行的第六晚，爱尔兰的电报员未能收到大东方号的整点信号。

Minutes later, a thousand miles in mid-ocean, Field was summoned to the ship's telegraph shed.

几分钟后，在大洋中央一千英里处，菲尔德被叫到船上的电报棚。

The signals from Ireland had disappeared.

来自爱尔兰的信号消失了。

The circuit had broken.

电路坏了。

Desperate to save the project, the captain of the Great Eastern attempted an impressive piece of seamanship.

为了拯救这个项目，大东方号的船长尝试了一项令人印象深刻的航海技术。

The huge, 700-foot ship reversed course on the high seas and backtracked 40 miles.

这艘700英尺长的巨轮在公海上改变航向，后退了40英里。

A grappling hook was dropped over the side.

一个抓钩从侧面掉了下来。

After several passes, the cable was snared from the ocean floor.

经过几次之后，电缆从海底被缠住。

The crew attached the wire to a massive winch and slowly raised it three miles to the surface.

工作人员将绳索连接到一个巨大的绞车上，然后慢慢地将其提升到水面三英里。

Field watched as the cable was inspected foot by foot.

菲尔德看着电缆被一步步检查。

Small metal spikes had pierced the gutta-percha covering.

小金属钉刺穿了古塔胶覆盖物。

Some onboard feared sabotage, but the problem proved to be a defect in manufacturing.

船上一些人担心遭到破坏，但事实证明问题是制造过程中的缺陷。

Miles of bad line were cut out of the circuit and a flash from the galvanometer told them that the contact with Ireland had been reestablished.

数英里长的坏线被从电路中切断，检流计的闪光告诉他们与爱尔兰的联系已经重新建立。

Field's cable was rescued.

菲尔德的电缆被救了。

"It has been a long, hard struggle, nearly 13 years of ceaseless toil.

“这是一场漫长而艰苦的斗争，近13年的不懈努力。

Often my heart has been ready to sink.

很多时候我的心已经准备好沉下去了。

Alone, far from home, I have accused myself of madness to sacrifice the peace of my family.

独自一人，远离家乡，我指责自己疯狂地牺牲了家人的安宁。

But, all the hopes have led me on and I have prayed that I might not taste of death till this work was accomplished."

但是，所有的希望都引导着我，我祈祷在这项工作完成之前我不会尝到死亡的滋味。”

At dawn, on the fourteenth day, the Great Eastern entered the rugged Newfoundland Bay.

第十四天黎明时分，大东方号驶入崎岖的纽芬兰湾。

The cable was brought ashore at the village of Heart's Content and wired into the North American grid.

该电缆在 Heart's Content 村登陆并接入北美电网。

Cyrus Field sent a short message simultaneously to backers in New York and London.

赛勒斯·菲尔德同时向纽约和伦敦的支持者发送了一条短信。

"Arrived Newfoundland nine this morning.

“今天早上九点到达纽芬兰。

All well.

一切都好。

Thank God, the cable is laid." A few hours later he sent a personal message to his wife at their home in Gramercy Park.

感谢上帝，电缆已经铺设完毕。”几个小时后，他在格拉梅西公园的家中给妻子发了一条私人信息。

"The cable has been hauled ashore and is in perfect working order.

“电缆已被拖上岸，工作状态良好。

Now we shall be a united family again."

现在我们将再次成为一个团结的家庭。”

It was remarkable that he kept going through, through all that he, he managed to endure and I, I do think it was something ahead of its time.

值得注意的是，他一直在经历，经历了他设法忍受的一切，而我，我确实认为这是超前于时代的。

I think without his commitment at that point, it could have taken years longer to, to put into place.

我认为如果没有他当时的承诺，可能需要几年的时间才能落实到位。

Direct communication between Britain and America has never been broken since that morning in 1866.

自1866年的那个早晨以来，英国和美国之间的直接联系从未中断过。

In a lot of contemporary illustrations, you've got the lion of England, the eagle of the United States joined.

在许多当代插图中，英国的狮子和美国的鹰都加入其中。

It helps to cement Anglo/American culture and it helps to, to create really what you might call the Victorian world, which is united by this cable.

它有助于巩固英美文化，也有助于创造真正的维多利亚世界，通过这条电缆将其联合起来。

The idea that news going from London to New York or other parts of the world, eventually, um, this is something we take for granted now and, again, it's hard to imagine how amazing that seemed back then.

新闻从伦敦传到纽约或世界其他地方，最终，嗯，这是我们现在认为理所当然的事情，而且，很难想象当时这看起来有多么令人惊奇。

The idea of, of the wiring of the world, creating a neighborhood of the whole world.

世界布线的想法是创建全世界的邻里。

I think what the cable anticipates is that sense of connectedness, everything being connected, which is so common eh in everyday life today.

我认为电缆所期待的是那种连接感，一切都连接起来，这在当今的日常生活中是如此普遍。

The cable was the great event of Cyrus Field's life, I mean, by the time it was finally finished and successful, he was nearing 50 years of age.

这条电缆是赛勒斯·菲尔德一生中的一件大事，我的意思是，当它最终完成并成功时，他已经年近 50 岁了。

And he became very, very rich become it; he was worth around six million dollars by 1880, which in those days made you very rich indeed.

他变得非常非常富有。到 1880 年，他的身价约为 600 万美元，这在当时确实是非常富有的。

Um, he then lost much of it in, in Wall Street, but he was still world famous, honored wherever he went.

嗯，后来他在华尔街失去了很多，但他仍然世界闻名，无论走到哪里都受到尊重。

Cyrus Field's 1866 cable carried 1,000 messages per month, at up to ten dollars a word.

赛勒斯·菲尔德 (Cyrus Field) 1866 年的电缆每月传送 1,000 条消息，每个字的价格高达 10 美元。

By the time Field died in 1892, there were a dozen telegraph cables across the Atlantic.

1892 年菲尔德去世时，横跨大西洋的电报电缆已有十几条。

Even today, most communication between America and Europe is still carried by transatlantic cable.

即使在今天，美国和欧洲之间的大部分通信仍然通过跨大西洋电缆进行。