History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network

1859 Suez - Aden - Karachi Cable

In 1858 the Red Sea and India Telegraph Company was formed to connect India to London, a concession having been obtained from the Turkish Government to lay a cable across the Suez isthmus and down the Red Sea.

The cable was made by R.S. Newall & Company, using core supplied by the Gutta Percha Company. Three ships were chartered; Imperador, Imperadix, and Berwick, and the cable was laid in two expeditions. Suez - Kossier - Suakin - Aden was completed between 5 May and 28 May 1859 and Aden - Hallani - Muscat - Karachi between 17 January and 12 February 1860. Lengths were 255 + 474 + 627 + 718 +486 + 481 nm.

The cable conductor used seven wire strands weighing 180 lbs per nm; this was covered with four coatings of gutta percha to Chattertons patent (212 lbs per nm.), hemp serving (1½ cwt per nm.), and 18 armouring wires of best selected charcoal iron (16 cwt per knot). Total weight of the cable was 21 cwt per nm.

The cable was lightly armoured, and the contract allowed Newall's to keep all surplus cable; consequently the cable was laid with very little slack and soon failed. The 1859 section had already broken down by the time the route was completed in 1860. Messages were passed over individual sections, but the entire cable never worked as a unit.

All sections were abandoned by 1861, and communication to India was not established until the 1864 Persian Gulf cable was laid.

Information from Haigh, cable drawing from Schellen.

Research Material Needed

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