Circuits in the Sea : The Men, the Ships, and the Atlantic Cable

Rating:
Summary: Atlantic Cable History with Good Research Resources
Review: As we approach and pass significant anniversaries in the history of submarine telegraphy much interest is being shown in the events of almost 150 years ago; Chester Hearn's book on the Atlantic Cable is the third such in as many years. In his preface to the book, Hearn notes that his interest in the cable came from the research for an earlier book: Tracks in the Sea: Matthew Fontaine Maury and the Mapping of the Oceans. Maury, of course, was the oceanographer whose favorable report on the conditions of the Atlantic sea bed encouraged Cyrus Field to pursue the laying of an Atlantic cable, and he continued to collaborate with Field, offering advice and assistance in dealing with the US Navy as Field gathered the resources he needed for the vast project.

Using for its sources both contemporary accounts of the cable story, and archival papers and business records of such participants as Cyrus Field and Samuel Morse, Circuits in the Sea gives a detailed and comprehensive report of the enterprise from it shaky beginnings in 1854 to its successful conclusion twelve years later. The book follows a strict chronology, beginning with a brief description of the origins of land line telegraphy in the US and Britain and the subsequent development in England of the first undersea cables in 1850 and 1851. It then moves quickly to the start of the Atlantic cable story with details of Frederick Gisborne's work in Newfoundland which led to his meeting with Cyrus Field in early 1854, and the remainder of the book takes us through the successful completion of the Atlantic cable in 1866. A brief "Summing Up" chapter mentions the evolution of the submarine cable in the following years, and brings the reader to Field's death in 1892.

For the interested reader, Circuits in the Sea is a worthy addition to the list of cable histories. For the researcher, each chapter has many notes giving the source of information and quoted material, and the book also has an extensive list of sources and a comprehensive bibliography, the only deficiency, perhaps, being a lack of on-line references.