'The crimson thread of kinship': The Pacific submarine cable, 1877--1902. A study in British imperial communications

A submarine cable across the Pacific provided the first means of direct telegraphic communication between Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. This Pacific cable, that touched only British soil, was the culmination of intercolonial discussion and debate. From the western shore of Vancouver Island, Canada, the cable stretched to Fanning Island, in its day the longest section of cable in the world. From Fanning, the cable landed at Fiji and then Norfolk Island before dividing into two lines, one which landed in New Zealand, the other in Australia.;This study examines the maturation of the Pacific cable, from the earliest consideration of a trans-Pacific connection in 1877 to festivities held in 1902 to honor this imperial enterprise. Sources for this work included the manuscripts of Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian statesmen who advocated the project. This material was augmented by British and colonial government documents, reports and resolutions from chambers of commerce across the empire, and contemporary journals and newspapers.;Submarine cables served as a vital means of communication between Great Britain and her far-flung empire in the later half of the nineteenth century. Britain preferred that private enterprise fund her communications network, but more and more this principle came under question by the end of the century. Heightened concern over the security of her empire in the 1890s converged with colonial calls for a Pacific cable, and the arrival of Joseph Chamberlain at the Colonial Office marshaled support behind this imperial endeavor.;Laid to tighten the bonds of imperial sentiment, the development phase revealed a lack of imperial unity. Colonial partners disagreed over numerous aspects of the project. Their agendas conflicted with the much publicized theme of imperial cohesion. The language used to promote the project appealed to Victorian images of a prosperous, beneficent, and unified empire. Celebrations of cable landings on colonial shores occasioned paean to the British empire and self-congratulation, as the partners sought to channel the prestige surrounding the cable for their own purposes.