THE CUBAN CABLE LAID.

Southland Times, Issue 746, 6 November 1867, Page 3

THE CUBAN CABLE LAID.

Florida and Havana are now connected, by a telegraph wire one hundred and ninety-one miles long — the submarine cable between Key West and Havana having been successfully spliced on the 18th instant. It is proposed to commence immediately the work of connecting the principal "West India Islands by telegraph with Cuba, and ultimately to extend the line to and over the South American Continent. The enterprise, of which the newly-laid cable is the commencement, was conducted by the International Ocean Telegraph Company of this city, which was organized in 1865 by Captain James A. Scrymser, Alfred Peel, Jr., and Gfeneral "William E. Smith. The Company first built a line, 400 miles long, through Florida to Key "West. A cable was made in England, and the work of submerging it began early in August. The Western shore line was first laid, and the end buoyed a certain distance from shore. The Eastern shore line was then laid, the splice of the ocean cable made to it, and the work of paying out commenced. Owing to a storm the course was not correctly followed, and in endeavoring to rectify the error the cable parted on the 7th inst. From that time until the 18th the workmen were engaged in grappling for the lost end, and finally on that date recovered it, when the splice was made, and the test signals established the fact that communication was perfect. The International Ocean Telegraph Company have obtained a concession from Spain, giving the exclusive right for forty years to lay all cables between Cuba and the United States ; the State of Elorida also granted a similar concession for twenty years, which was ratified by the United States Grovernment; the Venezulian Grovernment has contracted for a cable between that country and Cuba, and is to pay 30,000d01s for thirty-three years ; a very liberal grant has been made by the Argentine Grovernment for a line between Buenos Ayres and the Chilian frontier, which, in connection with the telegraph system of Chili and the projected coast line of the Hispano- American lter- Communication Company from Valparaiso to Panama, will place the Southwest and Eastern coasts of South America in immediate communication with the West India Islands, the United States, and Europe. The importance of these lines to merchants is incalculable. The trade of the West Indies alone amounts to nearly 500,000,000d01s annually, and the Isthmus is the natural focus of the whole trade of the Pacific. With the rapid means of communication now at their command, our merchants will be enabled to increase their already large business with those sections to an unlimited extent. — JVeio York Spectator.