The Great Eastern Under Weigh, July 23rd, 1865: Escort and other Ships, H. M. S. Terrible, H. M. S. Sphinx, The Hawk and Revised: The Caroline, 1865?66, Watercolor over graphite with touches of gouache, Sheet: 7 1/4 ? 12 1/2 in. (18. 4 ? 31. 7 cm), Drawings, Robert Charles Dudley (British, 1826?1909), One of the 19th century's great technological achievements was to lay a telegraphic cable beneath the Atlantic, allowing messages to speed back and forth between North America and Europe in minutes, rather than ten or twelve days by steamer