BACK REFLECTION
NEW YORK TO LONDON TELECOMS SETBACK OF 1853 BY PHILIP PILGRIM
T
his Back Reflections article provides insight into the collapse of the first transatlantic cable enterprise, and how it was transitioned to a new and successful enterprise. This whole episode ultimately drove Frederic Newton Gisborne out of telecommunications, for a brief period. Not much is known about this dark time for Gisborne. Nearly all historical writings skim over it. I have been fortunate to find a nugget in the September 20, 1858 issue of the Daily Alta California newspaper. The writer of the article worked for the NYC financial backers of Gisborne’s efforts, and he provides behind-the-scenes details of what transpired. By following the money, a clearer picture is provided. There is also skullduggery going on with the Nova Scotia government at the same time. Some politicians vehemently attack Gisborne’s efforts in public papers. Further investigation on my part, is needed to reveal the details, however, some of the dots are appearing that connect both the N.S. and NYC parties that abandoned Gisborne. I will begin with a background of the events leading up to Gisborne’s 1853 ruin. This will be followed by the transcript of the Daily Alta newspaper article. A final section will align some of the hidden facts. By 1853, Gisborne had aligned the stars for a solid team and business
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plan to Connect London to NYC via a high-speed communication link. Uncertain financial backers, inability to win concessions with the US Government’s mail services, an early death of a key partner, and a recession in 1853 contributed to the collapse of the endeavour. Here are the critical path items that Gisborne had secured. These seemed like a strong foundation to make the project viable: 1. High speed Atlantic ships. Horace B Tebbetts and associates were deeply involved in ocean transport and ship designs. He had secured one of the fastest ocean steamships in the world the, William Norris [Fig 2], to run between St. John’s and Galway (the shortest path across the Atlantic). They also planned to intercept the other ocean liners of Collins and Cunard off Newfoundland for even more content. 2. Telecom links from St. John’s to NYC. This line was mostly built by 1853. Gisborne just needed to build a line across Newfoundland and lay a cable to PEI (he successfully connected NYC to PEI in Jan. 1853) 3. Telecoms links from London to Galway. This network was running once the 1853 Irish Sea cable was laid. Note: Nearly all terrestrial telegraph in the UK and Ireland was subterranean at that time. 4. Darius B Holbrook [Fig. 7] was a financial heavyweight backer of the team. He had connections to the
U.S. Gov., to railways, and even to developing a super city. He conceived and constructed a hub (Cairo City, Illinois) [Fig.3] that was connected by most major waterways in the USA. The robust NYC-LON plan would have seemed logical and viable to him. By late 1850, Gisborne was working for the Nova Scotia government. He had just completed the construction of their first telegraph line, that connected Halifax to New York city. He also personally telegraphed the first European news to New York City from the Associated Presses first foreign office, located in Halifax. At that time, international news was like today’s internet content and connecting London to NYC (old world to new world) was paramount. The only problem was the delay in the news travelling slowly by vessel across the Atlantic Ocean. In the 1840’s, ocean sailing ships evolved to steamships, however, they took days to carry news across the pond. Collins Line connected Liverpool to NYC and Cunard Line connected Liverpool to Halifax to Boston. By extending telegraph lines to Halifax, news could reach NYC even faster. In 1850 Gisborne had also learned of the Brett brothers’ submarine telegraph cable across the English Channel. He immediately realized that is was now possible, by using submarine telegraph cables, to extend the telegraph lines further east of Halifax to the eastern