Editing SS Great Eastern (section)

====Cable laying====
In May 1865, ''Great Eastern'' steamed to Sheerness to take on wire for the laying of the [[Transatlantic telegraph cable]]. In return for using the ship, her owners wanted $250,000 in telegraph company stock, but only on the condition the wire laying succeeded.<ref name=":11">Dugan (1952) pp. 167, 172–188</ref> To accommodate the {{convert|13950|mi|km|order=flip}} of cable she was carrying, ''Great Eastern'' had some of her salons and rooms replaced with large tanks to hold the cable. In July the ship began laying the undersea cable near [[Valentia Island]], gradually working her way west at a speed of {{cvt|6|kn|km/h|order=flip}}. The effort went relatively smoothly for several weeks, but the cable end was lost mid-Atlantic in an accident, forcing the ship to return in 1866 with a new line. The ship's first officer, [[Robert Halpin]], managed to locate the lost cable end and the unbroken cable made it to shore in [[Heart's Content, Newfoundland and Labrador|Heart's Content, Newfoundland]] on 27 July 1866.<ref name=":11" />

Halpin became captain of ''Great Eastern'', with the ship laying further cables.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Taylor |first=Richard |date=June 2021 |title=The Halpin Memorial Medal |page=146|journal=Orders & Medals Research Society Journal|volume=60 |issue=2|issn=1474-3353}}</ref> In early 1869 she laid a series of undersea cables near Brest.<ref>Dugan (1952) pp. 208–217</ref> Later that year she was outfitted to lay undersea cables in the Indian Ocean; most of the operation's expenses were covered by the British government and banks in India, which hoped to circumvent the unreliable overland cables linking Britain to India.<ref name=":0" /> In preparation for operations in the hot climate, the ship was painted white to deflect heat away from the ship's cable tanks. ''Great Eastern'' departed from Britain in December 1869, arriving in Bombay (now Mumbai) 83 days later to lay her first cable anchor. Upon her arrival in port, ''Great Eastern''<nowiki/>'s size generated considerable public interest, with the captain offering tickets to view the ship for 2 rupees apiece, distributing proceeds to the crew.<ref name=":0" /> Departing from Bombay before the onset of the Monsoon season, she proceeded north to lay a cable between Bombay and Aden. From Aden, she laid another cable to the island of [[Jabal al-Tair Island|Jabal al-Tair]], where a second ship rendezvoused with her to take up the cable to Suez and then on to Alexandria.<ref name=":0" />