Episode 1 of 2
First Line Across the Channel
- When
- August 1850
- Where
- English Channel
John Watkins Brett's company laid the first line across the English Channel in August 1850 using the tugboat Goliath, securing a concession renewal.
The English Channel Submarine Telegraph Company, having obtained a concession from the French government, laid the first line across the English Channel in August 1850. The operation used the converted tugboat Goliath. While the experiment itself was not a permanent success, it served to secure the renewal of the concession, allowing for future protected cable installations.
Sources
- Submarine communications cable Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-05
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.