Splicing the Cable (after the First Accident) on Board the Great Eastern, July 25th, 1865, 1865?66, Watercolor over graphite with touches of gouache, Sheet: 6 7/8 ? 10 7/16 in. (17. 5 ? 26. 5 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