History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy – Mediterranean Cables 1854-1857 (click for Pdf)

La connessione era un cavo a sei conduttori da Spezia a Corsica (75 miglia), linee di terra attraverso la Corsica (128 miglia), da lì alla Sardegna via cavo (10 miglia) e attraverso quell’isola (200 miglia). Ci doveva essere un cavo di acque profonde da 125 miglia dalla Sardegna a Secali in Africa. Un circuito sotterraneo doveva condurre ad ovest ad Algeri per il traffico francese e un’altra ad est ad Alessandria d’Egitto per i messaggi britannici in India. Intendeva imitare la compagnia sottomarina, l’unica altra concessione telegrafica straniera concessa dai francesi, ma non ripeté quel successo. Il cavo Africa della Société fallì per diversi tentativi e abbandonò i suoi diritti di sbarco al governo francese nel 1856.

La Mediterranean Extension Telegraph Company fu quindi promossa da John Watkins Brett a Londra per servire gli interessi britannici nell’estremo sud ed est dell’Europa durante il 1857 che collegava la Sardegna, dove terminò la concessione originale, con Malta e Corfù. Quest’ultima isola era quindi un possedimento britannico, parte del suo protettorato delle Isole Ionie al largo della costa greca. Ha ricevuto una garanzia di interesse per aver completato e funzionato con successo i cavi dal governo britannico. Quando la concessione mediterranea originaria fu ceduta, la società di estensione aggiunse un cavo di 70 miglia da Malta alla Sicilia, quindi all’Italia continentale e ai circuiti statali in Europa, nel 1859.

Per leggere la storia di Steve Electric sul Mediterraneo Electric Telegraph nel contesto di altre società britanniche di telegrafia dell’epoca, vedi il suo sito web Distant Writing.

History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy Mediterranean Cables 1854-1857

In 1854 John Watkins Brett projected the Société du Télégraphe Électrique Méditerranéen, known better as the “The Mediterranean Electric Telegraph”, incorporated under French law, simultaneously in Paris; Turin, capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia; and London, England; to connect France, Corsica, Sardinia and the major French colony of Algeria by underwater cables. It had a capital of £300,000 on which 4% was guaranteed by France on £180,000 and 5% by Sardinia on £120,000 for fifty years.

The connection was a six-core cable from Spezia to Corsica (75 miles), land lines across Corsica (128 miles), from there to Sardinia by cable (10 miles), and across that island (200 miles). There was to be a 125 mile deep-water cable from Sardinia to Secali in Africa. An underground circuit was to lead west to Algiers for French traffic and another east to Alexandria in Egypt for British messages to India. It intended to imitate the Submarine company, the only other foreign telegraphic concession granted by the French, but it did not repeat that success. The Société’s

Africa cable failed over several attempts and it abandoned its landing rights to the French Government in 1856.

The Mediterranean Extension Telegraph Company was then promoted by John Watkins Brett in London to serve British interests in the extreme south and east of Europe during 1857 connecting Sardinia, where the original concession terminated, with Malta and Corfu. The latter island was then a British possession, part of its protectorate of the Ionian Islands off the Greek coast. It received a guarantee of interest for successfully completing and working the cables from the British Government. When the original Mediterranean concession was surrendered, the Extension company added a 70 mile cable from Malta to Sicily, hence to mainland Italy and the state circuits in Europe, in 1859.

To read Steve Roberts’ story of the Mediterranean Electric Telegraph in context with other British telegraph companies of the time, see his Distant Writing website.