The Story of the Atlantic TelegraphField, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
History
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
Field, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
Transatlantic cables
Brunswick, which cable, however, was shortly afterward broken,
and a new one was subsequently laid down by the New York,
Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company. In the spring of
the following year, 1853, Mr. Gisborne set vigorously to work
to complete his favorite project of the line (which he intended
should be chiefly underground) from St. John's to Cape Ray. He
had constructed some thirty or forty miles of road, and was
proceeding with every prospect of success, when, most
unexpectedly, those of the company who were to furnish the
needful funds dishonored his bills, and brought his operations
to a sudden termination. He and the creditors of the company
were for several months buoyed up with promises of forthcoming
means from his New York allies, which promises were finally
entirely unfulfilled; and Gisborne, being the only ostensible
party, was sued and prosecuted on all sides, stripped of his
whole property, and himself arrested to answer the claims of
the creditors of the company. He cheerfully and honorably gave
up every thing he possessed, and did his utmost to relieve the
severe distress in which the poor laborers on the line had been
involved."
This is a testimony most honorable to the engineer who first led the way
through a pathless wilderness. But this Newfoundland scheme is not to be
confounded with that of the Atlantic Telegraph, which did not come into
existence until a year or two later. The latter was not at all included
in the former. Indeed, Mr. Gisborne himself says, in a letter referring
to his original project: "My plans were to run a subterranean line from
Cape Race to Cape Ray, fly carrier-pigeons and run boats across the
Straits of Northumberland to Cape Breton, and thence by overland lines
convey the news to New York." He adds however: "Meanwhile Mr. Brett's
experimental cable between Dover and Calais having proved successful, I
set forth in my report, [which appeared a year after his first
proposal], that 'carrier-pigeons and boats would be required only until
such time as the experiments then making in England with submarine
cables should warrant a similar attempt between Cape Ray and Cape
Breton.'" But nowhere in his report does he allude to the possibility of
ever spanning the mighty gulf of the Atlantic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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