A Historical GIS of Early Undersea Telegraph Wires: Nineteenth Century Global Communication and Their Impacts on Boundary Demarcation and International Trade

Robert Legg, Northern Michigan University

This paper discusses the pros and cons of Historical GIS approaches to mining data regarding the surveying and laying of undersea communication cables from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. During this period British and U.S. governments agreed to subsidize one of the first projects in global communication by connecting England and North America via a cable laid along a North Atlantic bathymetric plateau. This plateau was described by oceanographer and U.S. naval officer Matthew Fontaine Maury as “placed there especially for the purpose of holding the wires of a submarine telegraph and keeping them out of harm’s way.” In July 1858, after two failed attempts, a cable was spliced in mid-ocean between the U.S.N.S. Niagara, sailing west, and the H.M.S. Agamemnon, steaming east, each laying the cable as they approached Newfoundland and Ireland, respectively. Despite challenges, such as iron in the cable distorting compass readings and the cable being laid in a zig and zagged route across the ocean floor, the project succeeded. On 5 August, landings at Valentia Bay, Ireland, and Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, marked a milestone, with the Niagara having unspooled 1,030 nautical miles of cable and the Agamemnon laying 1,020. This pioneering venture not only revolutionized global communication but also had profound implications for border demarcation and the governance of international waters. The laying of the transatlantic cable necessitated negotiations over territorial waters and seabed resources, setting precedents for future international agreements on submarine cables and border delineation. Subsequent undersea cables became not just technological innovations but also political-technological-environmental assemblages that placed the British Empire and the United States at the forefront of shaping the dynamics of transatlantic and transpacific governance, trade, and even the delineation of maritime borders.

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 Presented in Session 59. Unearthing the Past with Historical GIS Data: Sourcing, Visualizing, Interpreting