'File VII/1. Telegraphic Connection to Kuwait.' [‎259r] (547/574)

RAILWAVS
to employ British engineers in carrying out the operation. In pursuance of
the scheme the Turkish Government applied for and obtained the services of
Lieut.-Col. Biddulph, of the Royal Artillery, who, after prehminary arrange
ments, was able to commence the actual work of erection in August, 1859. He,
however, finding work under the Ottoman administration presented too many
difficulties, retired from the project the following year, but left behind him a
Mr. Carthew and two brothers named MacCallum, all three retired non-com
missioned officers of Artillery, to carry on the construction, which they did in
the face of innumerable difficulties, with the result that the whole line from
Constantinople to Baghdad was completed in 1861. The question then arose
whether the route thence to the eastward should be direct to the head of the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , on which section interference by the Arab tribes was to be feared,
or should be via the Persian frontier at Khanikin to Teheran and thence
via Ispahan and Shiraz to Bushire. Eventually Turkey was persuaded to
construct both routes and in 1863 work was commenced, the line from
Baghdad to Khanikin being completed in October, 1864, and that to Fao in
January, 1865.
In the meantime there had been considerable activity on the Indian side.
During the year 1861 the Government of India instructed Colonel Patrick
Stewart, a brilliant young officer of the Royal Engineers and the pioneer of
the Indo-European Telegraph Department, to make a survey of the Mekhran
coast and of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . In the following year he was able to lay before
the Secretary of State a definite scheme, in which he recommended that a land
line should be constructed from Karachi westward as far as Gwadur, and that
a series of cables should be laid thence to Fao at the head of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
He very shortly afterwards added a recommendation that the cables should
be extended from Gwadur to Karachi, thus duplicating communication over this
section where, it was feared, the cable might be exposed to damage from the
heavy seas of the south-west monsoon.
It is difficult now to realise the boldness of these proposals at a time when
confidence in submarine cables had been badly shaken by the failure two years
before of a cable laid in the Red Sea as part of a cable route to India, but it was
beheved that the causes of the failure were well understood and could be
avoided, and Col. Stewart’s project received the support of the most eminent
electricians of the day, among whom was Prof. William Thomson, afterwards
Lord Kelvin. The scheme was approved and Col. Stewart was ordered to
carry it out. The cable was manufactured at Messrs. Henley’s Telegraph
Works at Woolwich, and its manufacture and submersion was under the control
of Messrs. Bright and Clark, well-known telegraph engineers. It was sent out
in five sailing ships to Bombay, whence the ships were towed by steamers of the
Indian Navy to Karachi and up the Gulf and the cables were laid in the sea
without any serious accident. The section Gwadur to Mussendom was com
pleted in February, Mussendom to Bushire in March, Bushire to Fao in April
1
1