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Can I Get a Connection? Laying the Transatlantic Telephone Cable, 1955-1956

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Workers are laying the shore end of the transatlantic cable at Clarenville, Newfoundland, 1955. Cable ship Monarch is docked in the background. Oil drums floating in the water are used to float the cable. American Telephone & Telegraph Company, 1955. Mariners’ Museum Collection #P0001.004-PC407

Imagine a time before cell phones

…when telephone communication simply didn’t exist outside of one’s own country.

OneRepublic’s song Connection is one of the Museum’s theme songs. For us, it echoes our mission: The Mariners’ Museum and Park connects people to the world’s waters, because through the waters—through our shared maritime heritage—we are connected to one another.

Getting that Connection.

Cable is stored in one of four cable tanks. Monarch can carry about 2,000 miles of cable at one time. American Telephone & Telegraph Company, 1955. Mariners’ Museum Collection #P0001.004-PC424

Sixty-five years ago this summer, the laying of the first transatlantic telephone cable was completed. The project was jointly supported by American Telephone & Telegraph Company, the General Post Office of the United Kingdom and the Canadian Overseas Telecommunications Corporation.

The British cable ship Monarch is documented here during the historic cable laying operation. Cable was laid in three sections: a section on each end (Newfoundland and Scotland) that connected to a central section.

A cut-away of the cable shows its intricate make-up. The coper wire, over which 36 voices can flow simultaneously, is only slightly more than a tenth of an inch in diameter. The diameter of the cable is 1.84 inches. American Telephone & Telegraph Company, 1955. Mariners’ Museum Collection #P0001.004-PC426

The first phone call was made September 25, 1956 between New York, Ottawa and London. It can be heard here:

Crew working below deck with the submarine telephone cable.
Below deck scene showing crew at the cable tank. American Telephone & Telegraph Company, 1955. Mariners’ Museum Collection #P0001.004-PC422
Deck scene showing cable line being prepared to lay on ocean floor.
Men in coveralls work with the cable line while an officer looks on. American Telephone & Telegraph Company, 1955. Mariners’ Museum Collection #P0001.004-PC419
Deck view of the crew and equipment for the transatlantic telephone cable.
View showing a maze of steel drums, cable winches and hawsers as transatlantic telephone cable is pulled from the hold and fed over bow sheave to be placed at the bottom of the sea. 1955-56. Photographer Nelson Morris (New York), American Telephone & Telegraph Company, 1955. Mariners’ Museum Collection #P0001.004-PC415
Deck hands preparing to make the final splice to the Transatlantic Telephone Cable.
A trio of seamen on the foredeck, preparing a cable end for the final splice in the new Trans Atlantic Telephone Cable system between Clarenville, Newfoundland and Oban, Scotland. The splice was made off of Clarenville, August 14, 1955. American Telephone & Telegraph Company, 1955. Mariners’ Museum Collection #P0001.004-PC425
Looking over the cable feeding system at the submarine telephone cable being fed into the ocean.
Cable is moving along on deck gear and passing over the sheaves into the sea. American Telephone & Telegraph Company, 1955. Mariners’ Museum Collection #P0001.004-PC433

Sources:

OneRepublic. Accessed May 3, 2021, https://onerepublic.com/

Burns, Bill. Accessed May 2, 2021, https://atlantic-cable.com/Cables/1956TAT-1/

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