A thread across the ocean

the heroic story of the transatlantic cable

Plot

On 8 January 1815, British troops fought the Americans in the Battle of New Orleans. In a battle lasting half an hour, the British suffered casualties totalling 2,036. It remains the worst defeat in the whole long history of the British Army. But this terrible battle did not affect the outcome of the war - for one simple reason. Two weeks previously a peace treaty had been signed in the Netherlands. Today, in a world in which news flashes around the globe in an instant, the sort of time lags experienced then are almost inconceivable. This is largely due to a group of Victorian entrepreneurs who fought to realize a dream that would revolutionize communication for ever. They wanted to lay an electric cable across the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The endeavour joined together the greatest minds on both sides of the ocean including Samuel Morse and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. A THREAD ACROSS THE OCEAN tells the story of this epic struggle as stray vessels, whales, the fiercest storms the Atlantic had seen in many years, all proved obstacles in laying the cable. It was a struggle that would require a decade of effort and millions of dollars in capital as well as uncommon physical, financial, and intellectual courage. But when they succeeded these men had changed the world.