Abstract :
In 1851 the Channel a telegraph cable from Dover to Calais was successfully laid, the subject of a good quantity of literature. The success triggered many submarine cable projects around Europe. In August 1858 Queen Victoria exchanged messages with President Buchanan. Both at the time and ever since the focus has always been on the cable connecting Valentia in Ireland and Trinity Bay in Newfoundland. Attention has been given to the connection from New York to Newfoundland and indeed whole books have been devoted to it. The position with respect to London to Valentia, and the crossing of the Irish Sea, is entirely different. Bright (1898) devotes about 400 words to it while Garnham & Hadfield (1930) dismiss it in 70 words. This paper is based on original archival research and suggests that the historiography is inaccurate. For competitive reasons there was much secrecy and subterfuge involved in three separate attempts in 1852. One of these ventures was successful in 1853 which then went on eventually to Valentia. The archives suggest that Charles Bright should not however have received the credit he claimed. One of the failed 1852 ventures together with an unsuccessful 1853 laying were re-attempted successfully in 1854.
