Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-02-16
secure last summer. or else Midway Is
land or Ocean Island. or Gardner island
The Existing Lines.

land or Ocean Island. or Gardner Island.
The Existing Lines.
Nineteen transatlantic cables have
been laid thus far. but not single trans
Pacific cable. Four of the transatlantic
cables were downright failures. and some
of the others have fallen into more or less
Gisuse. the companies owning them having
laid duplicate lines. with more satisfactory
results. The Anglo-Amercan Telegraph
Company now operates five transatlantic
cables-four from Valentia, Ireland, 10
Hearts Content. Newfoundland, and an
other from Minou. near Brest France, TO
the Island of st. Pierre, south or New
foundland. The Commercial Cable Com
pany has three transatlantic cables-two
from Waterville, Ireland, to CanSo. Nova
Scotia, and one from Ballingskelligs Bay.
Ireland, to Carso. The Direct United
States Gable Company operates another,
from Ballingskelligs Bay to Halifax; the
French Telegraph Company another. from
Brest, France to St. Pierre; the Western
Union has two. a northern and n southern.
from Semen Cove. near PenZance, Eng
land. to Canso; the brazilian Submarine
Telegraph Company also has two, between
Caravellos near Lisbon, Portugal, to Per-
rambuco. Brazil. via Madeira and cape
Verde Islands; while still another trans
Atlantic cable stretches from SeneSai, on
the west coast of Africa, to PeFnambuco.
In respect to the ownership of ocean
cables, our government is FAR behind III
the procession, as compared with otner
powers. including some foreign repubics.
The republic of France, for example. pos
sesses not less than fifty-two separate
official ocean cables: the young republic
of Brazil has not less than twenty-five,
and the Argentine Republic has three.
Turning to monarchical powers. Great
Britain alone owns and operates at home,
among her islands. along her coasts and
across her bays and cstuaries, 1o2 separate
official cables. aGgregating $50 miles in
length. In her international system she
operates Ia more, of which o belong to
her exclusively, measuring t6I miles. and
in her Indian administration TIC. she she mas Sd, 9
more measuring together 1,9S2 miles, making
in all 3, $50 miles of official ocean cable own
ed exclusively by her. not counting the
in which she is part owner. Then IN
with head offices in ottawa. In Queens
land she has IL; in South Australia. 3; in
New Zealand. 3; in Tasmania, l. and In
Victoria, l. Then Norway has 30 short
length official cables: Denmark has 80,
Greece has A. Germany has 45. Italy. IS;
Austria. 81: Japan, 81; Holland, 20; Turkey.
10; Sweden. 10; Spain. o; Russia, s; Bel
GUM. 2, and Cochin-China, 2.
The Recent Activity.
Considerable activity has recently been
manifested in private cable-laying, both
in the Atlantic and elsewhere, despite the
wide-prevailing depression In business.
Lost summer the Commercial Gable Com
Il
between Ballingskelligs Bay. Ireland. and
Canso, Nova Scotia. and the Anglo-Ameri-
can Telegraph Company laid an additional
line across the Atlantic from Naientia,
ireland, to Hearts Content Newfoundland
Besides these in the Atlantic-planted so
quietly that they created no stir whatever
in the business or news world-several new
smaller lines were laid in the far western
Pacific at about the same time; one from
Singapore. Malay Peninsula, to the Island
-, l,lnf nar
island with Hong Kong, northward.
third line. subsidized by the British gov
ernment, was laid from Queensland. Aus
tralia to the Island of New Caledonia,with
the intention of conducting it thence north
eastward to the Fiji Islands: and still an
other line was strung from Auckland. New
Zealand, to the Fijis. The necessary sur
veys have been completed to carry these
links on to the Samoan Islands, lying to
the northeast: and it is with n view OF
continuing these lines still further to Ha-
wall, or its neighborhood, and thence to
Vancouver, that the recent efforts were
made to secure the assent of the United
States to the landing of this British cable
on Hawaii.
The present prices of cabling to and from
the United States and China, Japan and
Australia by means of European and Ash
attic cables working eastward instead of
westward, are exceedingly high, but they
cannot he regarded as excessive when it
is remembered that the messages have to
be relayed several times in transit and
sent vast distances across territory where
the maintenance of the lines is highly ex-
pensive. For instance, message from
San Francisco to Auckland New Zealand
the costliest point to cable to now-costS
81 So per word, and is sent first to New
York. then to London and then forwarded
successfully over the lines of the great
Eastern Telegraph Company and the great
Eastern Extension Telegraph Company to
Suez, Alden, Bombay, Singapore, Adelaide
and Sidney to Auckland. From New York
tIa &c mol yDr1 nd
from Chicago, st. Louis and New Orleans
1t Is 6 cents more. Messages from San
Francisco to Yokohama, Japan, cost S2.33
per word by way of the Atlantic, Eastern
and Eastern Extension cables, and to
Hong Kong, 81. 0S per word. From Chicago,
ST. Louis and New Orleans to the same
places the rates are and cents less, re-
spectively, and from New York, IA and II
cents less, respectively.
Enemies to Cables.
1t does seem absurd at the close of this
nineteenth century, that a message cannot
be sent direct across the Pacific from San
Francisco to China or Japan, but must
first traverse the continent of America
eastward to New York, then the Atlantic
ocean, then the Mediterranean sea and
Red sea, then the Indian ocean and finally
skirt the eastern shores of Asia before
reaching its ultimate destination.
Counting in all the Atlantic, Mediter-
rarean, Indian ocean and smaller cables
under all the seas and bays of the world,
there are just 1.220 separate and distinct
ocean cables extant, with an aggregate
length of $4,000 miles, sufficient to sirdle
the earth seven times.
Cables have many enemies. both IN the
depths of the sea and at the shore ends.
Great damage has resulted to them from
the ravages of certain little marine animals
that seem to have particular affinity for
the hempen sheathings and gutta-percha
insulators.
There have been cases where cables have
been severed by sharks and sword fishes,
and one instance is recorded where break
was caused by the enlargement of a huge
whale in a loose portion of cable that
hung between steep slopes of the sea he'd
Sometimes, owing to lack of sufficient
SLACK" the cables become suspended over
lodges of rock and are gradually worn
away until the galvanic currents escape
altogether.
Submarine volcanoes are n great menace
70 oca1D cables a number of such