The Albany Buoying a Bight of the Cable of 1865 on the Night of August 26th, 1866, 1866, Watercolor with touches of gouache, Sheet: 8 1/8 x 12 13/16 in. (20. 6 x 32. 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