BACK REFLECTION
THE MAN HISTORY FORGOT (PART 4) BY STEWART ASH AND BILL BURNS
A
s we described in November’s issue, James Stuart-Wortley and George Saward returned from France in July 1862 with high expectations of attaining French Government support, and there is then a five-month gap in the correspondence collection. On 2 December 1862, Stuart-Wortley wrote to Josiah Latimer Clark (1822-98), who was the partner of Sir Charles Tilston Bright (1832-88). This letter was written on the same day as an Extraordinary Meeting of the Atlantic Telegraph Co. Clark had been in the Middle East, presumably on consultancy work, and Stuart-Wortley, having met with him on his return, wanted a written record of their conversation. On the recommendation of the late Robert Stephenson (1803-59) and with the approval of the Directors, Stuart-Wortley had offered Clark the position of titular Engineer of the company (possibly as a replacement for Bright). This was to be for the purposes of recovering and reconstituting the existing 1858 cable, and only if they were successful in raising sufficient capital for that purpose would they need the services of an experienced engineer. Until such time, the position was to be ‘merely honorary’. He then explained to Clark that the offering in the company’s latest prospectus had raised only £60,000 to £70,000 of the required £600,000 and that unless at least £300,000 could be promised, the
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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE
Josiah Latimer Clark
project would fall stillborn. Stuart-Wortley’s next comments were telling: ‘Since then we have had some difficulty in keeping our Company alive, and it has only been the steadiness of the Directors in standing by an undertaking which they believe to be sound, and by personal contributions of individual Directors that we have been able to keep the office open and the rights & privileges of the Company intact during the constant exertions of other parties, by open as well as invidious means to thwart and deprecate our project. I will not refer particularly to the quarter from which I believe this active hostility to have principally come, except to say that it is the last from which in honour it ought to have come considering the profit and honours which its authors
had derived from the early operations of our Company.’ There is little doubt that Stuart-Wortley is alluding to Latimer Clark’s partner, Charles Tilston Bright. He went on to explain that the existing company would be restructured with a new Board of Directors, and that if he were still Chairman, he would recommend that the company should not employ a salaried engineer, but instead rely on the system Contractor for those services. Finally, he thanked Latimer Clark for his services to the Company and Government Commission, ‘notwithstanding your recent commercial & professional connection’ but advised him to apply to Captain Galton for remuneration for his services to the Commission, as he had made it perfectly clear to the Government that the Atlantic Telegraph Co had no funds to defray the cost of the Commission and in any event the use of Clark’s services had been suggested by the late Robert Stephenson (180359). Stephenson had been the preferred Chairman of the Commission, but he died on 12 October 1859 and had to be replaced by Galton. Now in a somewhat precarious financial position, with no income and having difficulty raising sufficient funds through stock offerings, the Atlantic Telegraph Co set up a Consulting Committee to ‘investigate and advise upon the electrical and mechanical questions involved in the work’. The
