BACK REFLECTION
EARLY SUBMARINE CABLE REPAIRS (1857 - 1865) BY PHILIP PILGRIM
T
his article centers on the two faults, and the five repairs, of the 1856 Gulf of St. Lawrence Cable. I have included clippings of some of the many newspaper articles covering the repairs. These clippings present the story well and give insight into the research content that drives these historical Back Reflections articles. Hopefully you can follow along and enjoy reading the original news snippets as if you were “back in the day”. In particular, the team at IT Telecom out of Montreal should enjoy this topic as this is the first repair in “their patch”. In recent years, IT Telecom has laid and repaired many cables in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and has probably picked up the 1856 and 1866 cables during route clearing operations.
ICPC DIGRESSION:
BIG THANKS to IT Telecom for hosting the recent 2025 ICPC Plenary meeting in Montreal where the ICPC discussed many subjects related to cable protection. At the Plenary, Camino Kavanagh presented newly compiled historical cable fault data from the early era of submarine telecommunications. Yours truly is keen to dig in... now back to the story.... The “Gulf Cable” was one of the earliest, and longest, cables in North America. It was a major cable in the
102 SUBMARINE TELECOMS FORUM MAGAZINE
telegraph path connecting NYC to London from 1856 to 1866. This ten year window in time was when telegraph “stopped at the beaches” and ships carried the messages onward across the Atlantic Ocean. This Gulf Cable was also a key part of the transatlantic telegraphic cable system during the short life of the 1858 Atlantic Cable, and again, it was part of the 1866 transatlantic telegraphic cable system; for a short time... cue ominous music.
BACKGROUND
In the early days of telegraph, a
Figure 0 1856 Cable Deep Water (left), Shore-End (right)
complete NYC to London transatlantic system required several submarine cables, and several terrestrial systems, to connect these two cities. The main three submarine cables needed were: 1. Transatlantic Cable (3,200 km) 2. Irish Sea Cable (100 km) 3. Gulf of St. Lawrence Cable (120km)