I have a related question: The vessel that eventually laid the cable was the SS Great Eastern, she had an unsuccessful attempt in 1865 but in 1866 they were able to splice the '65 cable to a new one and successfully lay the cable. How were they able to find where the cable broke and dredge it up? Wouldn't it be miles underwater?
hi! there's always room for more input, but there have been a couple of interesting similar posts - check these out for previous responses
How difficult was it to lay the transatlantic telegraph cables?
It should be noted, prior to the successful laying of the Trans Atlantic telegraph cable, Western Union was busy trying to run a conventional telegraph line across North America, up through Canada, across Alaska (Russian America at the time), lay a submarine cable across the Bering Strait and connect back into a conventional telegraph line in Siberia, which would have tied into other European telegraph networks. A telegraphic connection between North America and Europe was so important, that the Russian-American system was considered a viable network in lieu of a transatlantic cable. Needless to say, the entire project was scrapped by 1867, but there were still valuable telegraph lines laid across North America, so the project wasn't a total loss.