Coiling the Cable in the After-tank on Board the Great Eastern at Sheerness: Visit of H. R. H. the Prince of Wales on May 23rd, 1865, 1865?66, Watercolor over graphite with touches of gouache, Sheet: 6 11/16 in. ? 10 in. (17 ? 25. 4 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