BACK REFLECTION THE TRANS-ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH CABLE OF 1866
V
alentia Island situated on the south west coast of Ireland is not so much remote but is was still far from the cities and centres of industrialisation. Its link to the Irish mainland was via a boat service that was run by and served the local population. The largest town was Knightstown and the population relatively small with comparison to the size of the island. Life here was slow and the only industrialised production on the island was the slate quarry that was opened in 1816 and owned by the Knight of Kerry, in 1866 the present Knight of Kerry Sir Peter Fitzgerald, 19th Knight of Kerry, 1st Baron of Valencia, (18081880) did not know that his desire, along with many others such as Cyrus Field and William Thompson (Lord Kevin), to connect Valentia to Heart’s Content in Canada and to connect the old world with the new by the use of a new technology, the telegraph was about to become a reality. Heart’s Content is a small fishing village situated on the east coast of Canada on the island of Newfoundland, which is the closest American landmass to Europe and a place well known and settled by Irish emigrants escaping the hard agricultural and
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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE
Heart’s Content and Trinity Bay (www.atlantic-cable.com)
BY DEREK CASSIDY