‘Europe and America are united by telegraphy’
The first cable was laid across the floor of the Atlantic from Telegraph Field, Foilhommerum Bay on Valentia Island in Kerry to Heart’s Content in eastern Newfoundland, Canada.
Before that, communications between the continents took place only by ship. And sometimes severe winter storms delayed ships for weeks.
The transatlantic cable allowed a message and a response in the same day.
More than 300,000 miles of wire, enough to circle the earth 13 times, were used to manufacture the cable.
Five attempts to lay a cable were made – one in 1857, two in 1858, one in 1865, and one in 1866, the latter surviving until satellite communications took over in the 1960s.
The first attempt, in 1857, was a failure. The cable was started on August 5 of that year. It broke the same day, was repaired and broke again in the middle of the ocean and the operation was abandoned for the year.
Another attempt was made the following year which met with initial success and on August 16, 1858, the first message sent via the cable was: “Europe and America are united by telegraphy. Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace and good will toward men.”
On behalf of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria then sent a telegram of congratulation to US president James Buchanan and expressed a hope that it would prove “an additional link between the nations whose friendship is founded on their common interest and reciprocal esteem”.
The president responded: “It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle.” Considering the speed of today’s fibre optic communications, this was snail mail. Queen Victoria’s message of 98 words took 16 hours to send.
In October 2002, a memorial of Valentia slate by local sculptor Alan Hall to mark the laying of the transatlantic cable to Newfoundland was unveiled on top of Foilhomerrum Cliff.
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