The count down is on for the Transatlantic150 event hosted by Hibernia Atlantic on September 8th.  Since I’m doing the PR/Media Relations for the event, I have been digging up quite a bit of information related to the first undersea cable system, its importance, the historical figures behind it and the significance it had on the history of our lives in so many ways.

On Sept 1, 2008 PBS aired a special marking the anniversary titled ‘The Great Transatlantic Cable.’  Ireland released a collector’s stamp commemorating the event that included images of one of the first cable ships the USS Niagra. 

A brief history of this cable system is fascinating – go on – tell ‘em you read it here:

 
History of the Original TransAtlantic Cable

The Atlantic Cable Act passed in the US Senate by a single vote

The Atlantic Telegraph Company. A new company was formed to execute the Atlantic Cable project. It was called the Atlantic Telegraph Company. Its mission was to complete the work of the New York, Newfoundland, London Company.

The cost of the transatlantic cable was estimated to be about £350,000 pounds sterling

The US Navy was ordered to loan the USS Niagara to the Atlantic Telegraph Co.

The Niagara was built in 1845 as the largest US Navy ship weighing 5,200 tons with a wooden hull and iron ribs reaching a speed of 12 knots.

The original expedition began in 1857 with the naval ships USS Niagara and the HMS Agamemnon

The Agamemnon had an earlier naval design and a steam engine but it couldn’t keep pace with the Niagara

The ships were loaded up with the cable and ready to be sent off on August 5th 1857. Both ships received pomp and circumstance as well as lengthy speeches

The Niagara laid 400 miles of cable and then on August 11 at 3:45am she was pummeled by a wave and sank to the ocean floor, there wasn’t enough cable to continue so the expedition was abandoned for 1 year

Late spring 1858, Field was ready to try again, on June 10th the ships went off again but this time starting in the middle of the ocean, splicing the 2 halves together and then each ship lay in separate directions

During their cable laying mission, every hour the ships would communicate to each other making sure the cable was still functioning

There was a terrible storm that lasted more than a week and made the crews abandon their work, the
Agamemnon foundered and reached shore on June 25 and began to lay cable again the next day but after 140 miles the line snapped and they abandoned the mission again

On July 17th the ships set off again, the cable stopped working and then began again without any explanation.

The Niagara has compass issues, but Field sent another ship out to guide her. The Agamemnon almost ran out of fuel but had the sails help guide her along

On august 4th the Niagara reached Newfoundland and on August 5th the Agamemnon reached Valentia

On Thursday, August 5, 1858, the ship Niagara anchored at Newfoundland coast having laid 1,016 miles of cable. Just days later the cable was successfully landed in Ireland

The men who just weeks earlier were viewed as lunatics and failures were now embraced by the world as heroes

Nationalism soared as dignitaries honored the company for making connection between these two great continents. When Cyrus Field reached New York with the other directors of the company, a celebration was staged that was comparable to the ending of the war.

Services at Trinity church and then Cyrus field and the ships captains received a national salute, followed by a procession beginning at 42nd St on 5th Avenue

Transmission on this cable was short lived, 400 messages were sent and the cable died out in October

The original cable broke because it was designed to stay under water but the it wasn’ always and the sun shone too hotly and caused a melt in the gutta percha

SECOND & THIRD CABLE LAY

The original investors Richards and Taylor had no faith in another cable lay, but “n old Quaker friend” who was very rich got excited about the cable idea and gave in 3 or 4 thousand dollars.

In 1866 new equipment was created detecting a much smaller signal across the cable
In 1866 another cable was laid and this one had been laid correctly and after being laid was taken full advantage of The second and third cables was laid with success using the help of the SS Great Eastern

Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel a British engineer Brunel is also responsible for Paddington Station and the rail line that connected it to Bristol

The Great Eastern was 693 feet long and displaced 22,500 tons 2 engines capable of producing 10,000 horsepower, 5 funnels, 6 masts and 2 paddle wheels

The Great Eastern was so massive she was launched down the Thames River sideways.  The vessel was first a ship to transport 4,000 passengers without refueling

After the unlucky maiden voyage of 35 passengers, 8 company officials and 418 crew members this never happened.

The Great Eastern sold for 25,000 GBP (her build cost 500,000 GBP) and was converted to a cable laying ship

The new cable was completed May 30, 1865 and loaded onto the Great Eastern. She set off from Ireland on July 23, 1865, but the journey was interrupted by several cable failures

The fault was with the iron sheathing that surrounded the cable, and was fixed each time

August 2nd 1865, 600 miles from Newfoundland the cable snapped and sank to the bottom

The crew grappled for the cable for 2 weeks with no luck, and on August 13 headed back to England

July 13,1866 the ship set off again, with no issues, landing on Newfoundland on July 27th

On September 2nd the 1865 cable was retrieved from the ocean floor, and shortly after began functioning fully as well

Once the 1866 cable was functioning fully people wanted to send telegrams over the Atlantic 

The initial rate was $10 a word with a ten word minimum, meaning a skilled workman would have to set aside ten week’s salary in order to send a single message

In the early years of the cable big businesses made up 90% of the telegraph traffic

Businesses began sending one word telegrams, for example “festival” was sent and the receiver knew that meant “a case of mammoth torpedoes”

New York Tribune editor spent $5,000 to send an urgent report about the Franco-Prussian War

During 3 months in 1867 the cable sent 2,772 commercial messages for a daily revenue of $2,500 this represented only 5% of capacity so the rate for sending a message was halved boosting the daily revenue to $2,800

In 1869 a French group laid a cable from France to an island near Newfoundland then to Massachusetts

Rates began to fall following this cable lay and by 1900 16 cables were laid in the Atlantic Ocean

If you want more information, contact me at ilissa@jaymiescotto.com AIM: ilissanyc (let me know why you’re contacting me) or find me on FACEBOOK: Ilissa Miller

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