2-889-297 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Submarine Electric Telegraph between Dover and Calais - Temporary Station at Dover - Steamers preparing to Start, 1850. Ships laying a telegraph cable between England and France. 'The only conjectured difficulty on the route was at a point in mid-channel, called the Ridge, between which and another inequality called the Varne, both well known and dreaded by navigators, there is a deep submarine valley, surrounded by shifting sands, the one being seventeen miles and the other twelve miles in length. Here ships encounter danger, lose their anchors, and drift; and trolling nets of fishermen are frequently lost. The submarine telegraph line was, however, successfully submerged'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.