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Cables, Ocean

The first permanent Atlantic cable was laid in July, 1866, from Valentia Bay, Ireland, to Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. In September of the same year a cable lost by an unsuccessful attempt in 1865 was recovered, and its laying completed, thus making two lines between the two points named (see Atlantic Telegraph). These lines constituted what was known as the Anglo-American Cable, managed by a company of the same name. In 1868 the French Atlantic Telegraph Company was formed, and the following year it laid a line from Brest, France, to Duxbury, Mass. The fourth Atlantic telegraph cable was laid from Valentia, Ireland, to Heart's Content, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, in the summer of 1873, and a few months later the Brazilian telegraph cable was laid from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to a bay on the coast of Portugal. In 1874 the Direct United States Cable Company was formed and laid a line from Ballenskilligs Bay, Ireland, to Rye, N. H., via Nova Scotia. The same year a sixth line across the Atlantic was laid from Ireland to [17] Newfoundland. Another French line was laid from Brest to St. Pierre, an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in 1880. The companies owning all these lines having formed a combination and pooled their receipts, to keep up rates on the transmission of messages, a competing company was formed by James Gordon Bennett and John W. Mackay. This laid in 1884-85 two lines from Ireland to Nova Scotia, having also a connecting line from Ireland to France. In 1900 plans were perfected for a Pacific cable, to extend from San Francisco to Honolulu, thence to Wake Island, Guam Island, and Manila, all United States possessions.

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