The Cable Passed From the Works into the Hulk (the Old Frigate Iris) Lying in the Thames at Greenwich, 1865?66, Watercolor over graphite with touches of gouache, Sheet: 6 7/16 ? 10 1/16 in. (16. 4 ? 25. 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