A Cable to India: the story of the 1870 submarine telegraph cable from Bombay to Porthcurno

Mr John Pender, a Scottish cotton merchant based in Manchester, had become interested in the possibilities of submarine telegraphy. He was a director of the ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH COMPANY, which had made the first attempts to lay a successful Transatlantic Cable in 1857, and 1858, and 1865.
With the successful laying of the 1866 Transatlantic cable came the confidence to risk a submarine cable venture to India. Overland lines had already been established, but these were slow and unreliable. A submarine cable, it was rightly thought, would improve communications between Great Britain and India.
In 1868, the ANGLO-MEDITERRANEAN TELEGRAPH COMPANY came into being and laid a submarine cable from Malta to Alexandria, in Egypt. This opened the way for a viable cable to India, and so John Pender formed the BRITISH INDIAN SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH COMPANY. The aim was to link Suez and Bombay (now Mumbai) by cable, and link Alexandria with Suez by landline. With the Alexandria-Malta cable already in place, it would leave only the Malta-Great Britain sections to be laid.
To this end, Pender formed the FALMOUTH, GIBRALTAR & MALTA TELEGRAPH COMPANY. The cables themselves would be made by the TELEGRAPH CONSTRUCTION & MAINTENANCE COMPANY, known as TELCON, and formed by Pender himself by amalgamating the GUTTA PERCHA COMPANY with GLASS ELLIOT . . .
The Chiltern arrived in Bombay on Wednesday 26th January, 1870. Two days later, she was joined by the Great Eastern. By the end of Monday 7th February, the Chiltern had laid and buoyed the shore-end. A week later, the Great Eastern spliced on and began paying out towards Aden . . .
#telegraphy #GreatEastern #India #Porthcurno #JohnPender #1870

[@AppallingGrandeur]

Pomfret Castle, otherwise known as 18 Arlington Street. Read about that house in a book on lost London houses. It had Devonshire House in it (across from Green Park) and Dorchester House (demolished and replaced by the Dorchester Hotel). Those interior photos you've got here make it look like a lost gem. There's a photo I saw somewhere of a grand staircase and landing that was beautiful. It's such a shame it was demolished. You can look on Google Streetview and see what's there now.

[@villagerbythewoods8578]

Loving the way you say Carcavelos, dude.

[@FlintlockBill]

Car-ca-vel-losssssss

[@allanegleston4931]

wonder if that cable is still there .

[@mohamedsamsudeen7694]

Do the every end has a particular mobile number like identity to receive the message