BACK REFLECTION
AN INUKSUK FROM 1854? BY PHIL PILGRIM
Fig.1 Rock Cribs Identified in 2019 (poles are digitally drawn on photo to enhance clarity)
F
irst an apology. This Back Reflection is done in haste as my vacation has overlapped with the article’s deadline. I had hoped to find time to cover the many exciting telegraph-related activities conducted over past two weeks but instead, I will share the most interesting one. No worries, I will cover the others in future articles (including the colourful “Smash my Ass” Brook trek, this waterway was previously called “Station Brook”. During late August, we were fortunate to vacation in the province of Newfoundland, where I was born, and where all early transatlantic subsea cables landed and their related backhauls were installed. This telecommunication infrastructure dates back to 1851. Since the province is both sparsely
90 SUBMARINE TELECOMS FORUM MAGAZINE
populated and sparsely developed, it is fairly easy to find the untouched “archeological remains” of these old
systems that connected London to New York City... basically INTERNET 1.0 circa 1858. Fig.2 Rock Cribs Used in 2024