2-995-620 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Proposed route of the North Atlantic Telegraph, 1860. 'The concession for the Danish territories on the proposed route was obtained by Colonel Shaffner in 1854, and since then he has been energetically advocating the practicability of the enterprise for commercial telegraphy. With a view of ascertaining the physics, so far as pertained to the laying of the cable, he chartered a barque of some 200 tons, and sailed from Boston on the 29th of August, 1859, for Labrador, Greenland, and the Northern Seas, accompanied by his family and. a few friends. This preliminary survey was one of importance. The practicability of laying the cable, particularly with reference to Greenland and Labrador, was ascertained, and increased confidence is now entertained in the early realisation of the projected means of electric communication between the Old and the New Worlds'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.