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The relay stations at each end of an underwater cable stood in the most isolated of places - extreme points of land where they would be closest to the opposite shore and away from fishing boats that might snag the cables.
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Islands of no commercial importance became convenient stepping-stones for cables. Fanning Island, in the Pacific, was uninhabited before Britain established a cable station there in 1902. Dirt had to be imported so that plants could be grown.
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Fanning Island, Pacific Ocean, 1904 Courtesy of Cable & Wireless Archive, Porthcurno, Cornwall, Great Britain |
Mombasa, Kenya, 1890 From Charles Bright, Submarine Telegraphs, 1898 |
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Heart's Content, Canada, 1866 National Museum of American History |
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Inside a cable station, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, 1858 This was the landing site of the first Atlantic cable. Drawing by Robert Dudley, from W.H. Russell, The Atlantic Telegraph, 1865 |
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Stations were equipped with pool rooms, tennis courts, and other diversions to keep the operators happy. At Heart's Content, an early cable station in Newfoundland, many of the operators came from Scotland, where the winter sport of curling was popular. This curling stone is missing its handle. |
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Curling stone from Heart's Content, late 1800s Loan from Heart's Content Mizzen Heritage Society | |
