What Is It With This Direct United States Telegraph Cable?

By Derek Cassidy
January 18, 2026

This is a short essay on the establishment of the direct United States telegraph cable and finding it still intact near its original position, although this is incorrectly marked in various sites and will remain a secret to keep it safe.

To tell the story correctly I will have to lead into the crossing of the Atlantic by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company and their many attempts culminating in the successful 1866 trans-Atlantic Telegraph Cable and ultimately why the direct United States telegraph cable came into being. This will then lead onto the discovery of the shore end of the DUST cable and the question marks about the shore-end that has been found.

THE ORIGINAL TRANS-ATLANTIC CABLES

In 1852 the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company was established by Frederic Gisborne. This was to establish a new telegraphic link from Newfoundland to New York that would allow for faster communication between Europe and America by intercepting the telegraphic messages from the vessels as they sailed past Newfoundland and then transmitting them via telegraph signaling to New York. This would help to shorten the time for messages to between Europe and America by at least three days. Cyrus Field met with Gisborne, in 1854, and was very interested in his plan of joining Newfoundland to New York with a telegraph cable, both overland and underwater. Cyrus Field soon joined the board of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company and that same year Charles Bright, and John Wilkins Brett also became signatories, and this created a position where two members were from Britain(1). With the establishment of this new board the company agreed with the Government of Newfoundland, a new charter, giving the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company sole rights over all telegraphic transmission and its use for 50 years until 1904(2). This caused a lot of problems over the years as it denied access to Newfoundland to other submarine telegraph companies and even for Marconi and trans-Atlantic radio service from 1901(3) who first established a radio wireless station on Signal Hill, St Johns in 1901 but had to move to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, all because of the agreement and charter for single right of use of Newfoundland as a connection for all trans-Atlantic Telegraph traffic(4). In 1856 the Atlantic Telegraph Company was established with Cyrus Field, Charles Bright and John Wilkins Brett along with sixteen members from Britain, eight members from the United States and three from Canada/ Newfoundland(5). This came about when Cyrus Field decided that if a cable could be laid from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia, why not from Newfoundland to Europe and so the idea got traction and soon after seeking others to offer financial support the Atlantic Telegraph Company was founded(6).

With the establishment of the Atlantic Telegraph Company the project to connect Europe with the Americas got underway. Cyrus Field started the process of raising monies on both sides of the Atlantic. The Atlantic Telegraph Company took control of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company in 1856 to form one company responsible for all trans-Atlantic telegraph traffic between London and New York, once connectivity was possible and completed.

Read the full article from issue 146 of the SubTel Forum Magazine