Back Reflection Images courtesy of Atlantic-Cable.com
The Father of Submarine Telegraphy? The 3rd December will be the 150th Anniversary of the death of a man that many (including the Times in 1855) have described as “the Father of Submarine Telegraphy”, John Watkins Brett (1805 – 1863). John and his younger brother Jacob (1808-1893) are synonymous with the first cross channel cable laid by the Goliath on 28th August 1850 and the more commercially successful cable of 1851, but little else has been written about his life and untimely death. This is surprising give his contribution to the birth of the Submarine Cable Industry.
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John was the son of William and Elizabeth née Watkins. William ran a cabinet making and upholstery business, “William Brett & Sons”, in Bristol, in the South West of England. It appears that John was somewhat of a child prodigy, with an aptitude for drawing and painting. After leaving school at the age of 12, John was apprenticed, until the age of 21, to a Bristol man, John Mintorn (1773-1870), who ran a “revolving library and bookshop”, also dealing in art and prints. John became a drawing tutor, but by 1830 he was able to set up his own house and studio where he became
by Stewart Ash
an artist and painter of miniatures. In 1831, a fire destroyed his studio, all his works and a small collection of objets d’art. This fire was almost certainly part of the destruction reeked in the city of Bristol by the “Reform Riots” that took place from 29th October to 2nd November. Although John continued to paint for pleasure, from 1832 onwards, his profession was always stated as “picture dealer” and he appears to have developed a substantial upper class clientele. In late 1832, John embarked on a five year tour of the USA with an exhibition of “Old Maters”. These pictures were shown with great success in major galleries in New York and Boston. Back in England, on 24th June 1833, another fire destroyed the premises of William Brett & Sons. The following year, the “Old Masters” were on display in Washington DC for six months, during which time Senator George Poindexter (1779-1853) proposed that the United States Government should purchase them for US$40,000. It appears from articles in the American papers that John Brett was holding out for US$60,000 but ultimately Poindexter’s proposition was defeated in the Senate, by 22 votes to 20. Having failed to
make the sale, John took the pictures away to exhibitions in Baltimore and Charleston. During 1835, John’s father wound up his cabinet making business and established himself as an art dealer in London’s Covent Garden; he then travelled to join his son in the USA. One of Brett’s major friends and allies in the USA was the artist John Turnbull (1750-1843). Turnbull was, from 1817, president of the American Academy for fine arts and, in 1833, had single handily averted a merger with the then newly formed National Academy of Design. This earned him the perpetual enmity of its president, one Samuel Finlay Breese Morse (1791-1872)1. Whether Brett, in Morse’s mind, was tarred with the same brush as Turnbull is uncertain, but when their paths crossed cross again, in the submarine cable arena, the relationship appears to have been less than cordial. At the time, John hinted that he had first met “his friend” in New York, in 1837. The Academy of Fine Arts, in New York, where Brett’s Old Masters were stored was destroyed by yet another fire, on 23rd March 1837. Although many of the gallery’s own 1. See Back reflection Issue 63