The Early Pacific Cables
| Cables across the Pacific In 1877 a conference was held in Sidney Australia with the idea of connecting the sub Continent with North America. The technology of the day made this impractical. In 1901 The Britannia surveyed the ocean bottom for a cable. This was done with mechanical soundings, no mean feat. She was owned by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company which was later responsible for laying the cable. |
The Canadian terminus for the cable was at Bamfield on Vancouver
Island. 3459 nautical miles of cable were laid between there and Fanning
Island by the Colonia. 2046 NM of cable were laid by the Anglia between
Fanning Island and Suva. She laid another 980 nm of cable to Norfolk Is.
and another 837 nm of cable to Southport, Queensland Au. She went on to
lay 519 nm of cable from Norfolk Is. to Doubtless Bay NZ. New cable was
laid from Bamfield to Fanning Island in 1926. All this telegraph cable needed maintenance. The first ship built for this was the Iris in 1902. The 295 ft. (89.9m) 2253 GT. ship was stationed in Auckland NZ. Other ships were stationed in Canada and Fuji. |