BACK REFLECTION
1851 NEWFOUNDLAND POLE LINE SURVEY (GISBORNE’S JOURNAL) PART 1 OF 2 BY PHILIP PILGRIM
A
s this may well be the largest article to ever be contained in the SubTel Forum Magazine, I will begin by extending my sincere gratitude to Mr. Wayne Nielsen for publishing this significant document. I believe it important to bring this historical record to light and am positive that it will be referenced by many in the years to come. With this being said, the article is still too large for one issue so you will have to wait for the conclusion to this cliff-hanger in part two, coming in May. This issue’s Back Reflections is both a glimpse into the very early days of modern telecommunications as well as into frontier life in the 1850’s. Historians interested in aboriginal affairs will also find this document to be important as the Indigenous of North America also played a significant role in the deployment of the first telecom networks. Just as Tolkien’s Hobbit’s journey leads to the epic Lord of the Rings quest, this journey of Frederic Newton Gisborne leads to the Atlantic Cable adventure! Three things amazed me while reading when this journal: Firstly, it is that while Gisborne was struggling in the wilds of Newfoundland, with his vision to extend the telegraph network in North America towards England, the first successful submarine cable was being laid at the exact same time across the English
64 SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE
Channel and it was completed on Oct. 17, 1851. This day was a month-anda-half into Gisborne’s survey when he was at a low point (not the lowest) and prayed to God to save his men from starving. He was answered by rendezvousing with a schooner that happened to anchor in a nearby bay. Also, during this same journey, his brother Hartley will have completed the construction of Newfoundland’s first telegraph system (60 miles). Secondly, when immersed in this “adventure”, you completely forget that Gisborne was an experienced telecom engineer and that the purpose of the journey was to survey a route for a pole line and bridle road across 400 miles of uncharted wilderness very late in
the season. It may be helpful for the reader to know that Gisborne was only 27 years old in 1851 and had sailed the world with his brother and uncle from age 16 to 19. He began his telecom career at age 23 in 1847 in Montreal where he was trained by Orrin Wood (who constructed and operated the earliest telegraph system of Samuel Morse in 1844). By 1850, Gisborne had: • Surveyed and supervised the 300 mile extension of the telegraph line from Montreal along the St. Lawrence River to New Brunswick (1847-1848). • Constructed the first telegraph line in Nova Scotia (150 miles in 1849) and became Superintendent of the provinces telegraph system and supervised the planning and partial