The idea of laying down a telegraph line between Europe and America,
by what is now familiarly known as the North Atlantic _route_, was
advanced many years ago both in England and America. In the year
1854 Colonel Shaffner of the United States took steps towards the
actual realisation of the project. Owing, however, to the Russian war
distracting public attention at the time, and subsequently to the
engrossing claims of the attempt to carry a deep-sea cable direct from
Ireland to Newfoundland, it was not until within the last twelvemonths
that the British nation became acquainted with the proposed north-about
route, as offering the most practicable mode of effecting Transatlantic
telegraphic communication.
The success which attended the laying of the cable between Dover and
Calais in 1851, gave an impetus to submarine telegraphy. Cables were
laid from time to time over various rivers and arms of the seas; and
as no instance of failure occurred, the possibility of crossing the
Atlantic itself came to be regarded as a feasible project. There had
been no manifestations in electrical phenomena to cause any doubt
as to the successful transmission of the galvanic current through a
cable of the length required to connect the two continents, a distance
of 2100 miles, until the latter part of the year 1853, when it was
made known by that distinguished philosopher, Professor Faraday,
that the electric force is arrested in its transit through very long
cables. Subsequent experiments demonstrated that this retardation is
cumulative, increasing in a certain ratio in proportion to the distance
traversed; that is to say, while it takes one-third of a second to
transmit a current through a cable 500 miles in length, it will take
about a second to transmit it 1000 miles. The discovery of this fact
was considered by many electricians both in England and America to be a
fatal obstacle to the commercial success of working a cable from Europe
to America direct.
Among the most prominent who held this opinion was Colonel Shaffner
of America. And early in the year 1855 we find that he published
his opinion in the following language, which up to the present time
he continues to entertain, viz.: “I will not say that a galvanic or
magnetic electrical current can never be sent from Newfoundland to
Ireland; but, I do say that, with the present discoveries of science,
I do not believe it practicable for telegraph service.” That gentleman
had devoted himself to the science and art of electric telegraphy for
many years, and had been the pioneer of the telegraph in the Western
States, where under his guidance the wires were extended to the verge
of civilisation in the West as early as 1851. By 1850 his name stood
high as one of the first telegraphic engineers of the United States. A
short time after Professor Faraday’s lecture, he started the project of
a telegraphic communication between the two continents by a series of
short stages, in preference to a continuous line carried right across
the ocean. His original idea was to connect Europe generally with
America, and he accordingly proposed to carry his line from Labrador
to Greenland, from Greenland to Iceland and the Færöe Islands, and
from the Færöe Islands to Norway, and thence to Copenhagen. He visited
Europe for the purpose of securing the necessary concessions, and in
August 1854 obtained one from the King of Denmark, and others from
the Governments of Sweden and Norway in the following year. Thus, at
the time when the question of a connection by telegraph with America
had been but scarcely entertained in this country, Colonel Shaffner
had already laid down a route, availing himself of those natural
stepping-stones which Providence had placed across the ocean in the
North, and thus evading many of the difficulties and risks which it was
predicted would be encountered in the direct sea route.
Subsequently, when the difficulties connected with that route came
to be demonstrated by actual trial, Colonel Shaffner, with a view to
meet the urgent wants of the British mercantile community, resolved
upon diverting the European end of the cable from Norway to Scotland,
which was cheerfully accorded by the Government of Denmark. In 1859
he took another important step in the execution of his project,
which was to explore personally the intended route by Greenland and
Iceland. He conceived he had good grounds for believing that the ice
of Labrador and Greenland would not imperil the safety of a cable
laid on the bed of the sea, provided the shore-end could be properly
secured, and that there was nothing in the electrical conditions of the
Northern regions to interfere with the working of the telegraph. He,
accordingly, chartered a small sailing vessel, and embarking with his
family on board, put forth from Boston on the 29th of August, 1859, for
the purpose of making this preliminary survey. He landed at Glasgow
in November of that year, and presented to the public the results of
his voyage, at a meeting over which presided the Dean of Guild, Mr.
Buchanan. The observations made and facts collected on that voyage
gave the public reason to hope that telegraphic communication could be
established by way of the proposed route, and so satisfied were his
friends in London with the advantages held out, that funds necessary
to secure the undertaking were promptly found.
During the voyage above referred to, Colonel Shaffner sounded the deep
seas to be traversed by the telegraph between Labrador and Greenland,
and between Greenland and Iceland. These and other observations have
been most singularly corroborated by the more recent Government survey
by Sir Leopold M‘Clintock, and by that of Mr. Allen Young, commander of
the “Fox” Expedition.
In the course of the spring of 1860, Colonel Shaffner read a paper
on the proposed North Atlantic Telegraph to the members of the Royal
Geographical Society, and every assistance was rendered, under the able
direction of the President, Earl de Grey, Sir Roderick Murchison, and
the Secretary, Dr. Norton Shaw. On the 15th of May, Lord Palmerston
granted an audience to an influential deputation, headed by the Right
Hon. Milner Gibson, and four other members of the House of Commons,
to solicit the assistance of Government in sending out ships and
officers to make the necessary official survey for ascertaining the
practicability of the proposed route. The Premier appeared fully to
appreciate the advantages of the north-about scheme, and in a very
short time the Admiralty were directed to send out an expedition for
the purpose of making the required survey.
The Admiralty selected for this duty Captain Sir Francis Leopold
M‘Clintock, an officer of great experience in the navigation of the
Arctic Seas, and Her Majesty’s steamer “Bulldog” was placed under his
command. This distinguished officer was directed to take the deep-sea
soundings, and he sailed from Portsmouth on his mission in June, 1860.
In the meantime, the promoters of the enterprise purchased the “Fox,”
the yacht formerly employed in the successful search for the remains
of the Franklin expedition, and fitted her out for the purpose of
making the surveys of the landing places of the respective cables.
The “Fox” was placed under the command of Captain Allen Young, of the
mercantile marine, an officer well known for his distinguished labours
under M‘Clintock in the Franklin search. At the same time, Dr. Rae,
an intrepid Arctic explorer, volunteered his services to join the
“Fox,” and take charge of the overland expeditions in the Færöe Isles,
Iceland, and Greenland. Whilst Colonel Shaffner, as Concessioner and
Telegrapher, and two delegates on the part of the Danish Government,
Lieutenant Von Zeilau and Arnljot Olafsson, a member of the Icelandic
Diet, accompanied the “Fox” Expedition, to take part in the necessary
surveys.
Before the departure of the “Fox,” which sailed on July 18th, 1860,
Her Majesty the Queen, the Prince Consort, and other members of the
Royal Family, honoured the enterprise by a visit to that vessel, while
lying off Osborne, and took a lively interest in the details of the
expedition.
The “Bulldog” returned to England in November, and the “Fox” arrived
towards the latter part of the same month. Both expeditions,
notwithstanding an unusually tempestuous season, were successfully
carried out, and on the evening of Monday, the 28th January, in the
present year, the results of their labours, as well as those of Dr. Rae
and Colonel Shaffner, with a report upon the Greenland Fiords, by Mr.
J. W. Tayler, a resident on that coast for seven years, were presented
to the members of the Royal Geographical Society.
The respective papers were received with repeated applause, and every
possible manifestation was given, indicating the confidence of those
present in the practicability of the enterprise. At the subsequent
meeting, February 11th, a discussion upon the papers took place,
on which occasion the promoters and others engaged in this great
undertaking were enthusiastically congratulated upon their most
triumphant success, in proving the practicability of the proposed
telegraphic route, _viâ_ the Færöe Isles, Iceland, and Greenland.
Before closing these remarks it is but justice to notice the assistance
given to the enterprise by Mr. Joseph Rodney Croskey, of London. This
gentleman not only advanced the 100,000 rix dollars caution money paid
to the Danish Government, but he also made the requisite advances for
the purchase of the “Fox,” fitting her out for the late Expedition, and
all the preliminary expenses up to the present time.