The old frigate at the cable works, Greenwich, 1866.

Lithograph after Robert Dudley from 'The Atlantic Telegraph', a book by W H Rusell with 26 illustrations by Dudley, published in 1866. This shows one of the boats that carried tanks of coiled cable to the 'Great Eastern', which was moored at Sheernes in Kent. The cable was for the third attempt, in 1866, to lay a transatlantic communications line. The attempt was succesful and established the first permanent telegraph cable acros the Atlantic, reducing communication times from the length of a sea voyage to a few seconds.