The Transatlantic Cable and Communications Heritage

'In the mid 1800’s, the British economy was growing on a global scale, largely due to the empire, while the younger US economy was looking to exploit the burgeoning home market. As the industrial revolution powered ahead, there were many innovative technologies emerging such as the steam engine and the subsequent linking of towns via extensive rail networks. The need for communications along these lines drove the development of another breakthrough technology, the telegraph.

Enabled by the efficient signalling techniques proposed by Samuel Morse, an extensive telegraph network grew across the US and within the larger European countries. Although there were some underwater cables linking Ireland to mainland Britain and onward to Europe, they travelled short distances and in shallow waters.

The Transatlantic Cable which was envisaged by the great US Entrepreneur Cyrus Field in 1854 was a hugely different undertaking as it would require a cable twenty times longer than anything that had existed previously, would require ships the size of which didn’t exist, would require multi million dollar investment, would lay the cable at depths which had never been demonstrated and would require new scientific endeavours to determine if a signal could be sent along such a long single piece of copper wire.

In 1914 a Marine Radio Station was established at Wireless Point, Valentia Island and has continued to provide uninterrupted service to shipping from this location right up to the present day. The primary function of a coast guard radio station is the safety of life at sea.

The records will show that Valentia Radio handled more traffic than any other UK Radio Station during the mid1920’s. This was during the days of the big trans-Atlantic liners when Radio signals were limited to a range of a few hundred miles via Morse Code.

During the Second World War, Valentia Island received a faint message from a civilian liner way out in the Atlantic. Even though the message was faint Valentia Radio coordinated the rescue operation and a great many lives were saved, thanks to the signal of Morse Code. Valentia Radio Station tapped its last Morse message on Monday 1st February 1999, one of the last stations to do so.

The real purpose of the Radio Station is to monitor emergency frequencies in the maritime bands and respond to calls for assistance from vessels getting into difficulties or where medical problems arise. The appropriate emergency services are then activated to deal with the problem.