The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-04
ROUND THE WORLD
MESSAGE WILL FLASH
Gable Ship Reaches Honolulu With the Trans
Pacific Cable

and Maintenance Company for the re-
naming sections of the cable from
Honolulu to Midway Guam and the
Philippines. On the 9th and 10th of
April last the steamships Colonia and
Anglia, belonging to the manufactur-
ers, left London with over 5000 miles
of cable in their tanks. The Colonia,
which laid the longest section of the
cable that between Guam and Mid
way 2,606 nautical miles, is the largest
cable ship afloat.
The Anglia arrived at Manila on
May %, and having landed the shore
end on May "a she paid out the cable
through st. Bernardino strait and on
toward the Guam. She arrived at
Guam on June 2 and established cable
communication between Manila and
Guam on June 4. The Colinia had
proceeded direct to Guam, where she
arrived on May q. At that point the
engineering and electrical stats were
transferred from the Anglia to the
Colonia, and the latter vessel began
to perform her share of the work by
laying the cable from Guam to Mid
way. The work was performed with
marvellous precision and success, and
with but a single interruption, at the
rate of 200 miles a day and an average
speed of nine knots an hour. The Co
lonia arrived at Midway on June 10,
and Guam was thus established, con-
Meeting Midway with the telegraphic
systems of the world, and leaving only
the small section between Midway and
Honolulu to be laid to complete the
encircling of the globe. The Anglia
had proceeded from Guam to Midway
and on the arrival of the Colinia at
that point her engineering and cleo
trical staffs were transferred back to
the Anglia, and the latter began to
pay. out the Midway and Hawaii sec
ton of the cable. Waikiki, near Hon
olulu, is the landing place of the San
Francisco-Hon olulu and the Honolulu
Midway sections of the cable, and with
the news of the arrival of the Anglia
at this point the announcement went
! out to the world that the great en-
terprise of bridging the Pacific with
a submarine cable had passed into
history, and that an American Pacific
cable was at last a reality.
| The Commercial Pacific cable is a
work which cannot fail to be of great
/ benefit to the country commercially,
politically and strategically. True to
, its traditions, the Commercial Cable
Company has made its advent 'on the
Pacific the signal for the reduction of
cable tolls. Prior to the incorporation
of the Commercial Pacific Gable Com
pany, in September, 1901, the rate for
| messages from New York to the Phil
| ippine Islands was $2.35 per word: in
November, 1901, this rate was reduced
! by the European cable companies to
$166 per word. The simple announce
ment of the intention of the ComNer-
cial company to lay a Pacific cable
thus effected a saving of SO cents per
word Before entering on the execu-
| ton of its contract the Commercial
Pacific Gable Company bound itself to
! charge but 81 per word from san
Francisco to China; 81 a word from
San Francisco to Manila and so cents
| from San Francisco to Honolulu, the
last named rate to be reduced within
two years to 35 cents a word. This
/ Pacific cable will greatly increase the
value and efficiency of the United
! States navy. 1t will keep the govern
ment in close touch with the military
! and civil authorities in the Philippine
| Islands, and will in many other respects
! greatly strengthen the bond between
the United States and its possessions
in the Pacific. The extension of the
cable TO China will be the next step
in it's development and by no means
| the least important one, since the adj
vancement of American commercial in
terests in the Chinese Empire impera-
| lively demands the provisions of an all
American line of ocean telegraphy.
For all the beneficent results which
are likely to attend the completion of
this great enterprise the country has
TO thank the late John w. Mackay,
whose energy and perseverance had
done so much for commerce by the in
PRODUCTION of new enterprise into the
! business of Atlantic telegraphy, and
without whom it is safe to say that
there would have been no American
| Pacific cable for years to come.