Note: The French Cable Station Museum website is now on line, with a history of the station, details of the exhibits, and information for visitors.
France laid its first submarine cable across the Atlantic in 1869, from the cove of Petit Minou (about 10km west of Brest on the French mainland) to
Saint-Pierre et Miquelon (off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada), with an extension to
Duxbury, Massachusetts.
After four years this enterprise was absorbed by the Anglo-American
Telegraph Company. See Bill Glover's detailed
history of the French cable companies.
In 1879 a new
French cable was laid. Its owner was La Compagnie Française
du Télégraphe de Paris à New York, which contracted with the English
company of Siemens Brothers to manufacture and lay the cable.
The order was placed in March 1879, and Siemens began laying it in
June, using their cableship Faraday (1), built in 1874 as
the first ship designed specifically for laying cable. The cable stretched
2,242 nautical miles across the Atlantic from Deolen (about 17km west of Brest) to St. Pierre
and 827 nautical miles from there to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, landing
at a custom-built station near the Nauset Light Beach lighthouse at
North Eastham which was used for the next twelve years The
North Eastham station was somewhat isolated and difficult to access
in the winter, so in 1891 a new station was built at Orleans, near
the town's commercial district. A cable from the old station
at Nauset was laid across Nauset Marsh to the foot of Town Cove at
Orleans and then to the new cable station house. Maintaining the large,
old station merely as a connection point proved too costly, and, as
a result, the Nauset station house was sold in 1893. At the same time,
a small hut that measured about ten by fifteen feet was constructed
near the old station as a connecting point for the cable. That hut
currently forms part of the structure known as the French Cable Hut.
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| These cable maps, published by the International Telegraph Bureau, Bern, in 1897, show the 1879 cable route from Brest to St. Pierre & Miquelon, continuing to Cape Cod. |
The New York Times reported the landing of the cable on November 17th:
THE NEW OCEAN CABLE IN PLACE
THE FINAL SPLICE MADE—A CONGRATULATORY DISPATCH TO FRANCE.
NORTH EASTHAM, Mass., Nov 17, 1879. The steamer Faraday returned at 7:30 A.M. Sunday, and anchored a mile off the beach. George Van Chauvin, cable engineer, boarded the steamer, followed soon after by President Bates and vice-president Thomas Swinyard, who went on board to welcome Capt. Trott, of the Faraday, and L. Loeffler, the agent of Siemens Brothers. The work was immediately commenced on the shore end of the cables and at 6 P.M. it was on the beach and laid through a trench dug to receive it, and signals exchanged with the Faraday from a temporary building on the beach. The shore end being landed, the officers connected with the cable company and the American Union Telegraph Company, with M. P. Magno, Inspector of French telegraph lines, and Count von Hoff, went on board of the steamer, and she proceeded to the spot where the cable is buoyed, about 10 miles off shore. To-day the final splice was made, and the cable was worked throughout the entire circuit from Cape Cod to Brest. About 1,000 people visited the beach yesterday from adjoining towns, many of whom went on board the Faraday.
The first dispatch over the new cable to Brest, from this station, was the following:
NANSET BEACON LIGHT, CAPE COD.
NORTH EASTHAM, Mass., Nov. 17, 1879.
To President of Compagnie Francaise du Telegraph de Paris et New-York:
It gives me unbounded pleasure to send to you, through your own cable, this moment completed, the warmest congratulations of my company upon an achievement in respect of which, both as regards rapid construction and the laying, as well as perfect insulation, there is no parallel in cable history, it being only just seven months from this very day, the 17th of November, since the concession to your company was granted by the French Government. Messrs. Siemens Brothers, Mr. Loeffler, Capt. Trott, and Mr. George Von Chauvin, your worthy representatives in this country, deserve the highest praise for the energetic and able part each has taken in this great enterprise, through the success and instrumentality of which, it is devoutly hoped, that national friendship and commercial intercourse between our two Republics, as well as between the Old and New Worlds generally, will be still further strengthened and advanced.
D.H. BATES
President American Union Telegraph Company.
The steamer Faraday arrived back from making the final splice at 3:30 P. M. The entire party soon after assembled on the beach, where mutual congratulations were exchanged. All the business having been finished, a final departure from the beach took place, and, at a few minutes before 6 o'clock, the party started from North Eastham Station, by special train, for Boston. Previous to starting, Cable Director Brugiere and Engineer Von Chauvin telegraphed their thanks, on behalf of the French Cable Company, to Secretary Evarts for the liberal action of the American Government, by means of which the cable was landed under very favorable circumstances.
BOSTON, Nov. 17. The officers of the new French Cable Company and the American Union Telegraph Company, who assisted at the landing of the cable at North Eastham arrived here at 9:45 P. M., and left here in a later train for New-York.
The 1879 cable remained in operation
until the 1930s. Meanwhile, in 1898 the first direct cable from
France was laid by the François Arago from Brest to the Orleans
station. At 3,173 nautical miles it was the longest single-span
cable laid up to that time.
The Orleans station operated until it was dismantled
by the US Signal Corps during World War II. It was put back
into operation in 1952, and finally closed in November 1959.
Fortunately the building and its equipment were preserved, and the
station opened as a museum in 1972. For more information on the museum, telephone:
(508) 240-1735.
The museum now has its own website.
The Cape Cod Times had a feature article on the museum in
1999. The Cape Cod National Seashore has a
page on the
French Transatlantic Cable
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| The French Cable Station Museum building today |
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The station building circa 1905. Note the absence
of the extension visible on the current photographs |
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Photographs of the cable station and equipment c.1967 from the
Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record |
Rear of station building |
Operations room equipment |
Operations room equipment |
Heurtley and Muirhead magnifiers |
Left, rear of the Muirhead cable transmitter
Center, St. Pierre recorder
Right, automatic message sender and perforator |
Detail of Heurtley and Muirhead magnifiers |
Muirhead electrostatic siphon recorder |
Signal monitor and regenerator, used to
relay the signal from New York to France |
Left, Muirhead cable transmitter
Right, rear of St. Pierre recorder |
The photograph on the bench shows the operations
room in the station's working days |
Muirhead cable transmitter with harmonic motor |
Clokey double-pen siphon recorder, used to monitor both the incoming and outgoing signals |
Presentation sample of the 1879 cable, 5" long, 1" diameter.
Top Cap: "Compagnie Française du Télégraphe de Paris à New York"
Bottom Cap: "Siemens Frères à Londres B No. 8107" |
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Stock certificate: La Compagnie Française
du Télégraphe de Paris à New York |
Promotional paperweight for the French Cable Co. |
| Neal McEwan's 1879 cable section, recovered from the bed of the Atlantic Ocean |
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The paper label inside the lid of the box states:
Piece of Atlantic Cable recovered from a depth of 1748 fathoms [about two miles] after being submerged eight years
This section of cable was presented to O. French by George G. Ward, Vice President of Mackay Bennett Cable Co., 1890. The box is silk covered and silk lined, though a little water-stained.
The cable specimen is 5 inches long and has a diameter of 1 1/8". Its cover is tar impregnated twine, then called 'jute.' Under the jute are 18 steel wires, a layer of insulation and a multi-strand copper core consisting of a central wire and 10 thinner wires wrapped around it.
Each end of the cable piece has an engraved decorative brass cap. The engraving reads as follows:
Top Cap:
Compagnie Française du Télégraphe de Paris à New York Cable No. 8105
Bottom Cap:
Siemens Brothers & Co. London
Submerged 3rd September 1879
No. Longitude 43 N 24 W Depth 1748 Fathoms
1879 recovered cable images and text courtesy of Neal McEwen: The Telegraph Office |
See also the detail page for the 1879 cable |
