There were some who thought it hopeless to try, declaring that to locate a cable down would be like looking for a small needle in a large haystack. However, Robert Halpin navigated HMS "Terrible" and grappling ship "Albany" to the correct location. "Albany" moved slowly here and there, "fishing" for the lost cable with a five-pronged grappling hook at the end of a stout rope. Suddenly, on August 10, "Albany" "caught" the cable and brought it to the surface. It seemed to be an unrealistically easy success, and that is how it turned out. During the night, the cable slipped from the buoy to which it had been secured and the process had to start all over again. This happened several more times, with the cable slipping after being secured in a frustrating battle against rough seas. One time, a sailor even was flung across the deck when the grapnel rope snapped and recoiled around him. "Great Eastern" and another grappling ship, "Medway", arrived to join the search on the 12th. It was not until over a fortnight later, in early September 1866, that the cable was finally retrieved so that it could be worked on; it took 26 hours to get it safely on board "Great Eastern". The cable was carried to the electrician's room, where it was determined that the cable was connected. All on the ship cheered or wept as rockets were sent up into the sky to light the sea. The recovered cable was then spliced to a fresh cable in her hold, and paid out to Heart's Content, Newfoundland, where she arrived on Saturday, September 7. There were now two working telegraph lines.