'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia' [‎578v] (1158/1386)

4
SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
" obstruction,” that Colonel Stewart determined to go straight to London
to push on the main and original portions of the project, viz. the Baghdad-
Fao land line, the Fao-Gwadur submarine cable, and the Gwadur-Karachi
land line, leaving Major Champain to go over the Teheran-Baghdad
route, and then follow him to London.
The Convention with Turkey having by this time been signed, steps
were at once taken to get the manufacture of the Fao-Gwadur cable
begun, and the materials prepared for the Baghdad-Fao and Gwadur-
Karachi land lines. When these operations were approaching completion,
news was unexpectedly received of the signature of a Telegraph Conven
tion at Teheran, which revived the all but abandoned project of an
alternative line through Persia. As the main line through Turkey
ultimately fell into practical abeyance, and the Persian line became the
main channel of communication, it is of some interest to recall the terms
of this first Persian Telegraph Convention. The idea of our erecting and
working a line in Persia was by it entirely set aside. On the other hand
Persia undertook, on our providing the wire and insulators (the cost of
which she was to repay by instalments), to make and work a line herself
from Bushire vid Teheran to Baghdad, and to allow us, at a tariff to be
fixed afterwards, to have our Indian messages transmitted by its means.
The only intervention on our part provided for by the Convention was
the presence of one English officer for a limited period in Persia to advise
as to the best method of construction. Unpromising as such a Conven
tion was, it was decided to take action on it, in the hope that something
more practical might therefrom be ultimately evolved.
By the middle of 1863 the manufacture of the cable had been all but
completed ; the sailing vessels in which it was to be conveyed to the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. had been chartered and fitted for its reception ; the Mekran
coast land line had been fairly begun ; and the materials for the Meso
potamian and Persian land lines had been got ready for shipment. The
staff of the various sections had also been appointed—some in England,
some in India—and all started for their several destinations before the
end of the year.
The year 1864 was almost entirely spent in construction work on the
different sections. The cable was successfully laid in the spring the
whole way from Fao to Karachi, with intermediate stations at Bushire,
Mussendom, and Gwadur, the portion east of Gwadur having been added
to the original scheme as an alternative to the Mekran coast land line.
The process of laying the cable was not so simple a matter as
such operations have now become. The Suez Canal had not yet
come into existence, and the cable had consequently to be conveyed
round the Cape of Good Hope in sailing vessels, which, during the
actual laying of the cable, were towed by steamers of the old Indian
Navy; the Karachi-Gwadur land line was completed; and the necessary
buildings for the accommodation of the staff were erected or adapted at the
different stations in Beluchistan, at Mussendom, at Bushire, and at Fao.
The Baghdad-Fao line was completed in the course of the year, so that
the project of a telegraph from London to India had by the end of 1864
become an accomplished fact. But there are telegraphs and telegraphs,