Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: HMS Agamemnon Lays the First T…

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Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea Medal: HMS Agamemnon Lays the First Transatlantic Cable

AssociatedAssociated with Lord Mountbatten of Burma (Frogmore House, Windsor, England, 1900 - 1979)

Medallist John Pinches, Medallists

DateMay 2004

Object NameMedal

MediumSterling Silver

ClassificationsMedals

AcquisitionPresented in 2004 by Dr Joan M Burrell.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDMS072500.61

Keywords

About MeAs early as 1843, the American Professor Morse, a pioneer of electrical telegraphy, had suggested the feasibility of a submarine cable linking Great Britain and America, but his ideas met with much scepticism, However, the first submarine cable was laid between Dover and Calais in 1850. The unfortunate break in that pioneer telegraphic link, caused by a fisherman who inadvertently trawled up part of the cable, did little to deter the growing number of those who had come to believe in the possibility of the much bolder scheme, and the link with France was opened to the public in November 1851.

After a great deal of experiment, the initiative was taken by Cyrus Field, who helped to float a company called the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company; this obtained concessions and subsidies from the British and American governments. Preparatory work was quickly undertaken to ascertain the practicability of transmitting signals through very long lengths of cable, and a survey of the North Atlantic seabed was then commissioned in order to establish the nature of the seabed upon which the cable must rest. There was also much discussion as to the best cable materials, and the means by which it might be insulated.

With these preliminaries complete, on 6th November, 1856 a prospectus was issued, inviting subscriptions to the Atlantic Telegraph Company, and British funds were readily forthcoming. American capital; however, was less easily obtained, and the necessary legislation in the Senate was at first violently opposed and was finally approved only after a close vote.

In view of the great weight of cable required to span the Atlantic, it was decided to divide the burden between two vessels, the British government providing HMS Agamemnon, a line-of-battle ship, and the American government supplying the naval frigate Niagara. HMS Agamemnon, with her large hold and her machinery placed near the stern, was well adapted to her new task, and soon took on board huge coils of cable.

Valentia Harbour, the most westerly in Ireland, was the point from which the 1,834 miles of cable began to be paid out in August 1857, but a mishap prematurely ended operations: it was in the following year that HMS Agamemnon and her consorts resumed the complicated task of completing the transatlantic cable link. After many vicissitudes, the cable was successfully laid, coming ashore in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. Soon afterwards, in August 1858, messages were passed between Queen Victoria and James Buchanan, President of the United States. About 400 messages were passed before communications were broken. Opinion was divided as to the cause of the breakage: some thought that inadequate insulation was responsible; others believed that insufficient cable had been prepared and paid out, preventing the cable coming to rest on the seabed.

This unhappy climax to so much ingenuity and enterprise was not to be the end of the story, however. The achievement of HMS Agamemnon and her consorts had demonstrated the possibilities which were to be exploited with success when Great Eastern completed the second link with the New World, and telegraphic communications were resumed in 1866.

The Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea, John Pinches Medallists Ltd.