BACK REFLECTION
GUNS N’ CABLES (THE LAST DUEL IN NEWFOUNDLAND) BY PHILIP PILGRIM
H
appy New Year to all! I hope that 2024 is as interesting and as rewarding as this past year. It is truly wonderful to see our industry continue to connect the world year upon year. With respect to Guns n’ Cables, in a mere 5 years, it will be 200 years since a young Samuel Colt’s first experimented with submerged wire covered with tarred cloth in July of 1829; but even with guns in the title, this article has little to do with Colt. This issue’s Back Reflection is the eyewitness story of an event that celebrated its 150th anniversary last September 25th. It occurred just after the fourth successful transatlantic cable landed in Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, in August of 1873. The main character in this story was employed in someway at the cable station but so far, research has been unable to uncover his exact role. Many of the people mentioned in the story have connections to the telegraph goings-on in St. John’s Newfoundland at that time. The reason for selecting this topic is one of clarification. Just a few days ago, on December 28th, 2023, a story on a Canadian news site repeated folklore and hearsay passed down from a song about this event. Much of the colour in their piece comes from an article written by M.J. O’Mara in The Cadet Vol.6 No.2 July 1919. O’ Mara was the Chief Inspector of Weights and Measures for St. John’s at the time of the event and his brother, John, was a telegrapher, who
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had worked in the telegraph office in St. John’s then relocated to the United States. O’Mara’s article adds a few interesting details but seems to follow the lyrics of the song therefore, he may not have been an eyewitness. Local newspapers and magazines in Newfoundland have long been running the story off and on over the decades and each a nearly verbatim copy of the previous. Fortunately, in past subsea research from a few years ago, I had the luck to stumble across a detailed description of the event from an eyewitness. It differed from the news article so now seems like a good time to share it. Hopefully, the publishing of this SubTel Forum article will improve the clarity of the event and can help improve the accuracy through its future referencing.
Before jumping into the story, here are some background items and a few clarifications that should make it more enjoyable:
THE DITTY:
A song/poem was written about the duel. Only fragments of the song occur in most of the articles that I have come across, but it seems to be in full in the article below. I have had no luck (yet) in finding the original composer. The eyewitness alludes to the possible composer being Charlie McCarthy, who is said to have worked for a Dr. Dearin (M.D. and drug store owner) in St. John’s at the time of the duel. When researching further, I found a John McCarthy, who owned a store since the 1850’s in St. John’s. He had five sons: Martin & Mi-