FEATURE VALENTIA ISLAND CABLE STATION An Evolving Future
BY DEREK CASSIDY
INTRODUCTION
The Valentia Island Cable Station was opened in 1868 under the auspices of the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, which took over the interests of the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1865 after the cable installation failed about 600 miles from Newfoundland. The Anglo-American Telegraph Company also took over the interests of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, thereby giving them exclusive rights for all telegraph traffic from Valentia to New York, once a new cable was laid. The successful completion of the 1866 trans-Atlantic telegraph submarine cable and the subsequent recovery of the 1865 cable was the precursor to many years of telegraphy, innovation and research that helped push Valentia Island Cable Station to the forefront of telegraph technology, Many telegraphists went onto to open and develop new telegraph stations across the globe including Porthcurno1. There were eleven cables that left Valentia for far flung places such as Heart’s Content, Newfoundland; Sennen Cove, Cornwall; Le Harve, France and Emden, Germany. 1865
Valentia - Heart’s Content, Newfoundland
1866
Valentia - Heart’s Content, Newfoundland
1870
Valentia - Cahersiveen
1873
Valentia - Heart’s Content, Newfoundland
78 SUBMARINE TELECOMS FORUM MAGAZINE
1874
Valentia - Heart’s Content, Newfoundland
1880
Valentia - Heart’s Content, Newfoundland
1882
Valentia - Emden, Germany
1894
Valentia - Heart’s Content, Newfoundland
1918
Valentia - Sennen Cove, Cornwall
1920
Valentia - Le Havre/Sennen Cove, Cornwall
1923
Valentia - Sennen Cove, Cornwall Table 1: The telegraph submarine cables that left Valentia Island12
The Valentia Island Cable Station was the focal point for all telegraph traffic from Kerry until the Direct United States Telegraph Cable [DUST] was laid by the Siemens Brothers for the newly established Direct United States Cable Company in 1873/74. This cable was landed in Ballinskelligs and was the only cable connection from Ballinskelligs to the Americas however it did not actually connect directly to the US but landed in Tor Bay, Nova Scotia first. In 1877 the Anglo-American Telegraph Company took over the DUST cable and a telegraph line was built between the two stations. In 1920 the GPO bought the DUST cable and leased it to Western Union, it was re-diverted to Mousehole, in Cornwall in 1923. The Ballinskelligs Cable Station was in operation from 1874 to its closure in 1923 when the cable station was given to the state and used as an Irish School until the 1940s when it was demolished.