Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1876
No. 92.
General Schenck to Mr. Fish.
London , February 1, 1876. (Received February 16.)
Sir: Inclosed with this I transmit an open original letter addressed, to the President, together with a parcel containing a number of accompanying charts. It is a petition, you will see, from “the Direct United States Cable Company,” and that association being a respectable and responsible English corporation, and its application for protection made apparently with good cause and in the public interest, I have not hesitated to forward the papers, as requested by Mr. Chanoin, the managing director.
I have, &c.,
Palmerston Buildings, Old Broad Street,
London, E. C. , 27th January, 1876.
Sir: I have the honor to inclose a letter from my company to the President of the United States, praying that the United States Government will grant such assistance to my company as will protect its cables from future injury, and elucidate the facts connected with past interruptions.
I now beg leave to ask your excellency to kindly forward the letter and the accompanying charts to the President.
I have the honor to be, your excellency’s most obedient servant,
Managing Director.
To His Excellency Robert C.
Schenck,
Envoy Extraordinary,
Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, 5
Westminster Chambers, Victoria street, L.
W.
Palmerston Buildings, Old Broad Street,
London, E. C. , January 27, 1876.
Sir: The Direct United States Cable Company was formed as an English company, incorporated in March, 1873, under the companies’ acts 1862 and 1867, with a capital of £1,300,000 sterling, which was fully subscribed for.
The cables were manufactured and laid for this company by Messrs. Siemens Brothers, of London, for which the company has paid upward of £1,245,000 sterling.
The cables, which consist of one from Ireland to Nova Scotia, and another from Nova Scotia to New Hampshire, United States, were partly laid in the summer of 1874, during the subsequent winter, and completed on the 5th day of September, 1875.
The cables were opened for public traffic on the 15th day of September, 1875, at a tariff reduced below that which had up to that moment been in force over the cables of the Anglo-American Telegraph Company.
On the 27th of September, 1875, the Ireland Nova Scotia cable was interrupted in latitude 45° 7′ 12″ N., longitude 54° 21′ 24″ W., by the dragging of an anchor or grapnel, and the company was obliged to charter a telegraph steamer for the purpose of proceeding to the place of the interruption and repairing the cable.
The repair was effected on the 4th day of November, 1875, and the line was re-opened for public traffic on the 6th of November. On the 10th December the Ireland Nova Scotia cable was again interrupted, this time in latitude 44° 41′ 42″ N., longitude 58° 52′ 12″ W., and again by the dragging of an anchor or grapnel over the cable.
[Page 175]Again the company was obliged to send out a telegraph ship to have the cable repaired, and on the 10th day of January, 1876, the cable was repaired add communication restored. On the same night traffic was resumed over the company’s lines; but on the 23d day of January, 1876, the Torbay New Hampshire section of the cable was broken, and up to the present moment traffic has not been resumed.
The Torbay New Hampshire cable, which was laid in the summer of 1874, and which remained perfectly intact throughout the whole of the two fishing seasons of 1874 and 1875, has now suddenly been interrupted.
That portion of the Ireland Nova Scotia cable which has twice been interrupted since the company opened its lines for public traffic was also laid in the summer of 1874, and has never been touched until after the opening of the company’s lines.
The fractured ends which have been brought home from the places of the two first interruptions, show beyond a doubt that the cable was broken by main force, such as a ship’s anchor being intentionally or unintentionally dragged across the line of the cable.
The fractures took place in a depth of from 80 to 100 fathoms, which is, no doubt, an unusual depth for any vessel to anchor in, and almost in each instance at the same time, viz, about 3 or 4 o’clock p.m.
The condition, moreover, of the cable after each repair had been effected was absolutely perfect, thus furnishing additional proof, if such indeed be needed, that the cable is itself in every respect as strong and good as it was when laid, and it is to the best of my belief the best insulated and best made cable of such a length ever laid.
The losses incurred by the company on account of these constantly occurring interruptions are ruinous to its business. Sixty thousand pounds sterling have already been expended for the two first repairs, and another sum of nearly £30,000 will probably be required to remedy the present fracture in the Nova Scotia and New Hampshire cable; but, worse than this, the entire interruption of the company’s traffic, the total loss of any revenue throughout the duration of each interruption, the consequent distrust created in the public mind with regard to the stability of the company, which reduces its traffic after each interruption to such an extent that only the most active exertions in the traffic department of the company are able in some measure to make good the falling off, the difficulty of keeping a large staff of employés in a thoroughly and efficiently organized state when half their time is passed without any work to be done, and innumerable minor inconveniences and dangers arising out of a state of affairs like this, have so injured the company, that its directors feel that, in the interests of their shareholders and of the public at large, (who naturally benefit by an active competition in the Atlantic-cable service not only in point of price but also as regards prompter and more accurate transmission of messages,) they are compelled to ask for the aid of your Government to assist them in every possible respect not only to find out those concerned in the three breakages which have already occurred, but also to adopt such measures as will effectually prevent any future recurrence of these disastrous breakages, whether they be brought about by ignorance or by malice.
My directors have already offered a reward of £500 sterling to any person able to give information as to the name of the steamer, sailing-ship, fishing-smack, or other vessel concerned in any of the previous breakages, which reward is increased to £1,000 in case malice should be proved.
My directors, therefore, pray that your Government will, for the protection of the exceedingly valuable property of the company, and for the protection of the interests of the telegraphing communities on both sides of the Atlantic, issue a notice warning the owners and captains of ships not to anchor near the course of the cable, and offering a reward on behalf of your Government in order to find out the vessels which have been concerned in the ruptures of this company’s cables for the past. My directors beg to suggest the advisability of posting up, by order of your Government, such notice, accompanied by charts showing the course of our cables, (of which I have the honor to forward herewith four,) in the custom-houses or other suitable places in all the fishing-ports under the jurisdiction of your Government.
I have the honor to be, your excellency’s most obedient servant,
Managing Director.