Ship to shore

Irish Arts Review

Ship to shoreAuthor(s): Barbara HodgesSource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 27, No. 4 (WINTER (DECEMBER 2010 - FEBRUARY2011)), pp. 108-113Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20798546 .

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PRINTS AND DRAWINGS SHIP TO SHORE

. Ship

to

shore Barbara Hodges recalls the artists commissioned to

create first-hand impressions of the pioneering cable communications project between Ireland's Valentia Island and America

The laying of the first transatlantic cable from Valentia, County

Kerry 1857/66 coincided with the introduction of new technol

ogy in the use of wood-engraving for mass reproduction of line

drawings. Dramatic sketches of the drama at sea by artists like John

Isaac, Henry Clifford, Robert Dudley and Henry O'Neil gready boosted

the circulation of the London Illustrated News and Frank Leslie s Atlantic Telegraph

Cable Pictorial in New York. The objective of the cable pioneers was to

build a complete global telecommunications network, the final link

connecting Europe to America (Fig 1). In the 1840s Professor Samuel Morse was conducting trials in laying

submarine cables across New York Harbour. With his ground-breaking

morse code system already in widespread use in America, the UK and

other countries, he was steadily proving that it could be possible to send

extended electric telegraph messages across the Atlantic Ocean.

The first two expeditions were conducted by the American steamship

USS Niagara and the British batdeship HMS Agamemnon in 1857 and 1858, when valentia Island became the central hub of all activities involved in

the latest communication technologies of that time. But it was almost a

decade later in 1865 and 1866 when the success of the British

steamship, the Great Eastern in laying the telegraph cable from

Foilhomurrum Bay on Valentia to Newfoundland formed the final link

between America and Ireland, thus creating a global telegraphic net

work throughout the world.

John Raphael Isaac 1808-1870 In August 1857, John Raphael Isaac observed and sketched the first

landing of the shore end of the Adantic cable onto White Strand Beach

in Doulus Bay in Co Kerry The full length of the cable could not be

accommodated by one ship alone, so their plan was

to begin laying the cable from Valentia by the 1 The transatlantic , cable was completed

American Navy s steam frigate USS Niagara. They would in July 1866

WINTER 2010 I IRISH ARTS REVIEW 109 -




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then splice the cable in mid-ocean to the cable carried on the British

Admiralty's ship, HMS Agamemnon which would complete the rest of the

trip to Newfoundland. Unfortunately this expedition was unsuccessful,

the cable breaking and the end lost after laying 380 nautical miles of

cable from the beach at White Strand.

From the notes and sketches he made in-situ, Isaac creates a vivid

impression of the excitement going on in the bay (Fig 10). In his own

words (with sometimes amusing observations), he and the eminent

Professor Morse rowed in a small boat from Knightstown on Valentia to

Beginish Island. From the highest point he had the perfect view of the

Cable Fleet in the bay (Fig 3) and of the steam frigate

Niagara, lowering cable across small boats and onto the

paddle steamer Willing Mind (Fig 4).

They rowed out and boarded the Niagara, observing

all the leading scientific men directing the delivery of

the shore end cable into the boats (Figs 6&7).

Descending back into their own boat they managed

after a few attempts to row beside the Willing Mind and

to board her, scrambling over tarred ropes, coils of

cable and bags of coal. Positioned on the paddle box he

made more sketches of the cable being payed out and

of the cable being hauled onto shore. Further drawings

were made from shore after the cable was landed and

of its reception by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

John Isaac produced and printed a portfolio of

eight tinted lithographs from all the drawings he

made during his visit. He was a draughtsman,

engraver, lithographer and printer who owned

Lithographic Studios in Liverpool. Also an art dealer,

he ran a heraldic office engraving seals and book

plates. Many of his lithographs of the cable expeditions were used by the

Illustrated London News and by Frank Leslies Pictorial as the basis for their own

wood engravings produced by their own team of artists.

Henry Clifford 1821-1903 Clifford was employed as an engineer on the first expedition in 1857 by his relative Sir Charles Bright. He helped to organize the manufacture and

workings on board ship of the paying-out machinery, serving as an inte

gral engineer on all of the Atlantic cable expeditions up to 1866. After

the failure of the first expedition he and Bright stayed on Valentia to make

VALENTIA ISLAND BECAME THE CENTRAL HUB OF ALL ACTIVITIES INVOLVED IN THE LATEST COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES OF THAT TIME

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2 The Agamemnon in a storm courtesy of Jacy Wall

3 The ships of the squadron by John Isaac

4 The Niagara delivers cable to the Willing Mind by John Issac

5 Frank Leslie's Atlantic Telegraph Cable Pictorial 1858

6 The Willing Mind with boats and cable towed by H M Steamer Advice by John Issac

7 Paying out the cable from the deck of the Willing Mind John Isaac

plans for the next cable expedition and managed to recover the lost end

of the cable. As an engineer, he would have been skilled in mechanical

drawing, but he was also a good artist working in watercolours and oils,

taking the opportunity of quiet times during the cable voyages to make

drawings of the ships and scenery. Like his contemporary John Isaac,

some of Clifford's drawings were also used as the basis for wood engrav

ings in Frank Leslie's Pictorial and the Illustrated London News in 1858.

On the second 1858 expedition, Clifford was on board the Agamemnon

when it left Plymouth in June. A few days into the voyage the fleet ran

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nto a week of severe gales almost ending in disaster. He managed to

;ketch the ship in the storm, later working his sketches into a fmished

Dainting (Fig 2).The newspapers, however, reproduced highly exagger

ued versions for a more dramatic effect (Fig 5).The cable fleet survived

:he storms, but the expedition had to be abandoned after the cable

Droke on 29 June. The ships returned to Plymouth restocked with more

:able then headed back out to mid Adantic where they succeeded in

jplicing the cable together between ships on 29 July. This time the

Siiaoara laid her cable back to Trinity Bay in Newfoundland and the

Agamemnon returned to Valentia Bay to land the shore end of the cable at

White Strand (Fig 10 ). News of the first Transadantic telegraph mes

sages had been eagerly awaited for months around the world, and cele

brations were held in New York, Ireland and London. Frank Leslies Pictorial

published messages between Queen Victoria and the American

President, James Buchanan on 16 August.

Unfortunately transmissions ceased in October due to unforeseen

technical problems, and during the interim seven years, up to the third

expedition in 1865, Clifford and other cable pioneers worked on the

improvements necessary for its success.

Robert Dudley fl. 1858-1898 In 1865 the third attempt to lay the Atlantic Cable began in July from

England, the whole length of the cable being transported by Brunei's

steam ship, the Great Eastern. This time the shore end of the cable was con

nected to the Irish telegraph network at Foilhommurum Bay on Valentia

Island (Fig 8), which Dudley depicts in his colourful lithographic

prints. He was contracted as the official artist and lithographer on board

ship, working with the news chronicler and news correspondent,

William Russell. They later had a book published by Day and Son, illus

trated with Dudley's lithographs of the expedition. Again, representa

tions of his sketches were reproduced by the Illustrated London News.

Great advances were being made in shipboard publishing and print

ing, indeed early methods of photography had been introduced to

record the events taking place. Some of Dudley's lithographs were

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based on Stereoview pictures taken of the men and machinery in action.

More documentary illustrations by Robert Dudley were made of the

Great Eastern's 1865 fateful voyage when, in August, nearing

Newfoundland, the cable broke and the end could not be recovered

after many days of grappling. The final success was to be made the fol

lowing year.

Henry O'Neil 1798-1880 Irish artist and illustrator of antiquities, Henry O'Neil worked closely with

Robert Dudley on both of the Great Eastern cable expeditions, editing and

printing the ship's humorous newspaper The Atlantic Telegraph. He sketched

portraits of all the leading men involved in the expeditions, producing

illustrated comic journals, music programmes and posters. As an experi

ericed lithographer, he printed documents, diaries, reports and chronicles.

He wrote an account of the voyages from an artist's point of view pub

lished in Blackwood 's Edinburgh Magazine after the return of the expedition.

The technique of wood engraving enabled artists to produce highly

detailed line drawings on the end grain of wood, using a Burin tool

with a V-shaped cutting tip. This method differed slightly from the

woodcut method which used the softer side grain of wood. Since

wood engraving is a relief printing technique, it could be used on

conventional printing presses, enabling thousands of copies to be

printed from the engraved wood blocks. Commercially, this was the

most efficient printing method for newspapers with large circulations

as it lent itself to mass production by the electrotyping process. Large

wood engravings were produced with the collaboration of engravers

and draughtsmen. They created small engraved blocks, composited

together to make larger illustrations then copied via the electrotype

process, producing a (electro-plated) metal printing master plate.

From these, further plates could be made for multiple reproductions.

Correspondents & Reporting Newspapers and journals used independent studios, freelance writers

and lithographic artists, many contracted to firms by Lithographic Printer

Publishers. For example, John Isaacs and Henry O'Neil were independ

ent artists and correspondents. Robert Dudley and writer William Russell

were contracted by Day and Son, one of the largest firms of lithographers

and publishers in Britain at the time.

Manuscripts and diaries of the events

taking place on the voyages were repro

duced in multiples by lithographic print

ing on an 'Autographic Press' on board

ship. This early off-set lithographic

method allowed the original image to be

right reading. They used a special auto

graphic paper with a glazed surface, on

which they sketched with an oily ink, then a lithographer transferred the image

onto a stone or zinc plate using pressure

to print copies onto paper.

Engineers, correspondents and

reporters on board were able to have mul

tiple copies made of their reports using this method, ready for despatch. On the

Great Eastern, prepared envelopes were

addressed to the editors of twenty-five

journals in America and to sixty-five pub

lishers in England, Scotland and Ireland,

kept ready for each day's news. They were

put into postal bags and sent by transat

lantic steamers to each continent.

Founded in 1842, the Illustrated London News was the world's first illus

trated weekly newspaper. By using woodcut illustrations, then wood

engravings, it attracted more sales, in comparison to its competitors

who used only text. Its circulation soared in the 1850s when they pub

lished Joseph Paxton's designs for the Crystal Palace and also Roger

Fenton's pioneering photographs of the Crimean War. Circulation

increased by publishing the Diaries of Charles Bright, Cyrus Field and

Henry Clifford about the Atlantic Telegraph Cable Expeditions.

Quite by chance, Valentia Island Heritage Centre came into posses

sion of an original copy of Frank Leslies Atlantic Telegraph Cable Pictorial, a

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GREAT LEAPS AND BOUNDS WERE BEING MADE IN SHIPBOARD PUBLISHING AND PRINTING, INDEED EARLY METHODS OF PHOTOGRAPHY HAD BEEN INTRODUCED TO RECORD THE EVENTS TAKING PLACE

112 IRISH ARTS REVIEW I WINTER 2010



broadsheet newspaper dated 1858, printed in New York (Figs 5&9). The paper reports the latest news about the first ever messages success

fully sent by electronic telegraph across the Atlantic. It tells of the dan

gerous expeditions laying the underwater cable between America and

Valentia, thus creating the final link with Britain and the rest of the

world. The paper had been stored away in a manila envelope in a loft

until it was found in 2008, a date marking the 150th year of the first

telegraph message sent across the Atlantic.

Earlier this year, Valentia Heritage Centre asked me to photograph the

broadsheet, size AO (1189 841 mm)which proved to be a complex

procedure, as the paper was so delicate. Removal from its archival enve

lope without tearing it meant careful manoeuvring by three people

onto a well-prepared floor space with good lighting. Because of its size,

each of its four pages were photographed separately in three sections

with lots of image overlap, taking close-ups of the text and of each illus

tration, as this would maintain the clarity for high-resolution reproduc

tion. It also proved equally difficult returning the paper, sliding it

carefully back into its clear slip-case, as it had been to remove it. On

completion of my photo-montage work the four pages of the Pictorial

have now been replicated to twice their original size, and laminate

mounted onto permanent 10mm thick PVC exhibition panels.

The panels proved to be a great draw for visitors, creating lots of inter

est in the Atlantic Cable Expeditions. This inspired me to suggest to the

Heritage Centre that it would be a great opportunity, as we possessed the

? "HI

F RuA ?|E S L IE ' S

TELEGRAf H CABLE PICTORIAL MMtf at ttm if?Mk MM n

196 THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS

LAYING THE ATLANTIC C ABLE.

HKWVOHJ TBE CAULE AfcH?HC At BALLTUMEtW 8 ).

10

8 The third attempt in laying 9 Frank Leslie's Atlantic 10 The Illustrated London News cable at Foilhomurrum Bay in Telegraph Cable Pictorial 1858 landing the cable at White 1865 by Robert Dudley Strand

artwork, to print replica newspapers as 'keepsakes' for visitors. To make

the pictorial look and feel authentic we arranged to have them printed

by the off-set lithographic process by a company who still specializes in

this, ColourBooks Ltd. Since the first batch of the Pictorial has been printed

it has enabled the museum to raise their profile and raise people's aware

ness of Valentia Island's cultural significance.

Figs1-4 &6-8 courtesy Bill Burns pubtisherAtlantic-Cable.com. Figs 5, 9&10 Barbara Hodges and Valentia Island Heritage Centre.

Barbara Hodges is a photographer specializing in the restoration of old photographs.

WINTER 2010 I IRISH ARTS REVIEW 113



Ship to shore

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