3-066-067 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Whitsand Bay, Land's End, Cornwall, where the new Atlantic Cable was landed, 1881. 'This place, near the western extremity of Cornwall, was recently chosen for the landing-point and terminus of the new submarine telegraph cable across the Atlantic. The cable was successfully landed on the 21st July, by the Telegraph Construction Company's steamer Faraday, on the shore of the bay. It is adjoining the hamlet of Sennen...The name of the place is derived...from the fine white calcareous sand that covers its shore...the slate and granite rocks, which form a junction at this point of the Cornish coast, are plainly exposed, to view under water, in places where the sand is washed away. The land beyond the beach is diversified with rocks and with hillocks of sand, but with scanty vegetation. To the north is Cape Cornwall, with the rocks called the Brisons, and other rocks, off Sennen Cove, bear the names of Cowloe, Bo Cowloe, and Little Bo. The western end of the bay is closed by a granite promontory, 140 ft. high, the Pedn-men-dhu, with a flagstaff on its summit erected by the Coast Guard Service'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.