Chap­ter V — Mem­oir of Fleem­ing Jenkin revis­its a phys­i­cal­ly demand­ing but ulti­mate­ly reward­ing episode in Jenkin’s teleg­ra­phy work. Aboard ship and suf­fer­ing from ill­ness, he endured dif­fi­cult con­di­tions while deal­ing with the tech­ni­cal chal­lenge of a cable falling six­ty yards short of its intend­ed land­ing point. The short­fall could have meant fail­ure, but Jenkin and his team adapt­ed, man­ag­ing to com­plete the con­nec­tion to the tele­graph sta­tion. Despite pain and fever, he wit­nessed the suc­cess as the line became active. The first mes­sages, includ­ing a thought­ful note from Miss Clara Volk­man to Mrs. Reuter, were trans­mit­ted using a method devised by Mr. Var­ley. Though Jenkin was too unwell to ful­ly cel­e­brate, the achieve­ment marked a key mile­stone in their mis­sion.

His recount­ing tran­si­tions to the 1869 voy­age of the GREAT EASTERN, a ship already regard­ed with rev­er­ence for its size and role in teleg­ra­phy. Jenkin express­es dis­ap­point­ment at not hav­ing the time to record more of its details, acknowl­edg­ing the vessel’s icon­ic sta­tus in the world of marine engi­neer­ing. He does, how­ev­er, take care to doc­u­ment the per­son­nel who made the expe­di­tion pos­si­ble. Among them were respect­ed names like Theophilus Smith and Leslie C. Hill, along with Lord Sackville Cecil and the sea­soned Cap­tain Halpin. Each of these indi­vid­u­als would con­tribute to the unfold­ing suc­cess of the tele­graph­ic work that fol­lowed. Their pres­ence under­scored the scale and seri­ous­ness of the effort—telegraphy at this lev­el was no longer exper­i­men­tal; it was oper­a­tional and inter­na­tion­al.

The chapter’s pow­er lies not just in tech­ni­cal accom­plish­ments but in the human dimen­sion Jenkin brings to his nar­ra­tive. While the tech­ni­cal feat of bridg­ing the cable gap mat­ters, it’s the people—engineers, crew mem­bers, and message-senders—who bring the mis­sion to life. Jenkin’s humil­i­ty in shar­ing cred­it and his clar­i­ty in detail­ing the dis­com­fort of trav­el makes the sto­ry feel real and ground­ed. The suc­cess was not with­out cost. Weath­er, sick­ness, and equip­ment short­com­ings test­ed every part of the crew’s resolve. Still, the mis­sion suc­ceed­ed, and Jenk­in’s under­stat­ed pride shows through in the details he choos­es to high­light.

He sub­tly links the hard­ships of that jour­ney with the prepa­ra­tion for what lies ahead on the GREAT EASTERN, where the stakes would be even high­er. That ves­sel rep­re­sent­ed a new chap­ter in telegraphy—a com­bi­na­tion of scale, exper­tise, and engi­neer­ing ambi­tion unlike any­thing before. Jenkin’s admi­ra­tion for the ship and its crew is clear. Although this chap­ter doesn’t delve into the GREAT EASTERN’s tech­ni­cal work­ings, it sets a firm foun­da­tion by show­ing how far teleg­ra­phy had pro­gressed from mod­est starts to oper­a­tions involv­ing mas­sive crews and ships. The read­er is left with antic­i­pa­tion for what this next voy­age will bring.

Through these events, Jenkin illus­trates the evo­lu­tion of cable-lay­ing from ten­ta­tive explo­ration to large-scale exe­cu­tion. These weren’t just pro­fes­sion­al milestones—they were glob­al com­mu­ni­ca­tions break­throughs. He cap­tures a sense of his­to­ry being made not by acci­dent, but through care­ful coor­di­na­tion and immense per­se­ver­ance. The work was phys­i­cal, intel­lec­tu­al, and emo­tion­al. Each mis­sion was part of some­thing larg­er: a project to con­nect dis­tant lands with words trans­mit­ted in an instant. Jenkin’s involve­ment, though marked by per­son­al tri­al, helped shape this tran­si­tion into the mod­ern world.

Even while lim­it­ed by ill­ness, Jenkin’s obser­va­tion­al pow­ers remain sharp. He records the sub­tleties of char­ac­ter among his col­leagues and hon­ors their roles with­out inflat­ing his own. This blend of humil­i­ty and pre­ci­sion is what gives the mem­oir its depth. The cable may have fall­en short phys­i­cal­ly, but the mis­sion’s suc­cess stretched far—across oceans and into the dai­ly lives of those wait­ing for mes­sages. Fleem­ing Jenkin’s account reminds us that progress is rarely smooth, but always built by those who choose to keep work­ing through the storm.