The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-12-07
SKETCH OF
THE CABLE
PROJECT
The Pacific Was
Charted Long
Ago.
THE COST OF
: CONSTRUCTION
Eastern Writer Sketches Legisla.
lion in the Past and Tells Of
Routes Surveyed.

~ HIRTEEN submarine telegraph
cables cross the Atlantic between
n Europe and North America; three
cables connect Europe and South Amer
lea; Africa's coast is girdled; even
antipodal Australia and New Zealand
have been reached; but the Pacific
ocean yet remains 20 be spanned The
great girdIe around the globe will never
be complete until the little gap is filed
between America and Asia. Then the
modern Puck will be able to put his
@'<irdIe round about the EARTH not in
forty minutes, but in that many sec
onds.
The wonder is. as one OF our states
men recently said, not that vast oceans
have been SPAWNED by cable, but that
this vastest OF oceans has not been
crossed before. That the nineteenth
century should have come and gone
without a submarine cable connecting
the continents adjacent to the Pacific
Is almost inexplicable. 1t need not be
a4gued that there is a great need of 1t;
We know that for many years there has
heen agitation respecting 1t, and with
in three years emergencies have arisen
that have demanded it's completion.
Several times within the past few
years attention has been called to the
fact that congress is legislating about
the granting of charter for the build
ing of a transpacifc cable. Private
companies have offered to construct it,
both with and without the aid of gov
ornamental subsidies. and yet the prof.
ect has hung fire. Since ;he acquisi
ton OF Oriental territory by. our gov
eminent, since the annexation of Ha-
wall and taking OF Midway or Wake ISL
and. the cesslon OF Guam and the
Philippines, we have. had a chain of
islands stretching in an uneven line
from our western coast to Asia, form
ing. as 1t were. stepping stones acrcss
the Pacific. They are rather far apart
TO be sure, and to connect them viii re-
uuire a cable nearly 1000 miles IN
length, with an expenditure OF from
$1,000. 900 to $4,000. 900. But that Is
nothing. When our Uncle Sam shall
have drawn on his famous seven
league boots" he will step across that
According to recently completed sur
veys. the distance from San Francisco
70 Hawaii IS about 200 miles, thence
10 Wake island, that low lying spot in
midocean. IL is 1000 miles: 1900 more
to Guam, and 1870 to the east coast of
Luzon. whence n short land line reaches
into Manila From Manila TO Hong
kong Is eco miles, where connection VIII
be made with the continental systems
and cabIes-the Great Northern and
Chinese land line and the Eastern Elk
tension-that make for Europe and the
Atlantic
The Pacific was charted some years
ago with reference to the laying tof
cable between California and Hawaii. /,
and only last year Lieutenant Com
mander VI. II. Hodges on the collier
Nero made a ten months survey OF
proposed routes between our western 4
coast and the Asian islands. His OBJ /
1ectives were San Francisco and Yoke /
hama, taking in the Philippines. Guam,
Midway island and Hawaii. Between .
the time OF leaving San Francisco and :
the return the Nero spent 2SS days and ,
70 hours. steamed %. 2S3 knots and put
In go days of actual work. ITO the
best OF my knowledge" reported Com
mander Hodges. 81 do not believe ca
BILE route was ever so extensively and
thoroughly surveyed and developed. l /
believe the result OF the survey proves
the route 10 be eminently satisfactory
and thoroughly practicable
I