Heart's Content Transatlantic Cable

by Lynn & John Salmon <>{

John used to work for a company that was bought by Cable & Wireless, so of course, we had to detour to the site of the first Transatlantic Cable in Heart's Content. It was on the Newfoundland peninsula of towns with cute names. We passed through Heart's Delight and Heart's Desire along the way, and stopped at a place called Dildo for lunch. Alas, we didn't have time to further detour to Salmon Cove.

In July 1866, after nine years and several unsuccessful attempts, the first permanent telegraph cable connecting Europe and North America was hauled ashore at Heart's Content. The station is a time capsule of the communications technology that connected us up to the 1960s.

The Transatlantic Cable Museum was jam-packed with cool objects. Just our kind of place. I spent some time reading copies of old letters from Samuel Scott Bailey, telegraph operator at Heart's Content in the 1860s. Perhaps he was also a curler. Curling was played by the cable staff in 1866.

Cool article in Wired about the laying of the longest wire on Earth by Neal Stephenson.