One of the most seminal advances of the 19th century was the invention, and development, of the electric telegraph. This new and revolutionary form of communication opened the way for all the other new ways of communicating which have brought us to where we are today - here on the Internet!
I have long been interested in the development of various forms of communication in Jamaica, and I have brought together a considerable body of information on the subject over the years. On these pages I will try to set out what I have found about the early decades of the electric telegraph in the island.
I have long been interested in the development of various forms of communication in Jamaica, and I have brought together a considerable body of information on the subject over the years. On these pages I will try to set out what I have found about the early decades of the electric telegraph in the island.
manual telegraph systems
naval signalling
Both before and after the invention of the 'electric' telegraph the word 'telegraph' was used for a very different means of communication, which had only appeared seriously in the later 18th century -
- various forms of optical telegraph, which were used to create very effective communication networks in England, France, Spain, Sweden and other countries, in the late 18th and early 19th century.
I have tried to find out something about the forms of semaphore/optical telegraph which were used in Jamaica, but with only limited success. I will use what I have found, and hope to find more later!
The Royal Navy
1809: 'There being no other man of war then in port [Port Royal], the Vice-Admiral enquired by telegraph when she could be got ready for sea, and was told in reply, that everything depended upon the dock-yard.'
Royal Naval Biography Supplement, John Marshall, in 1820s |
This is the earliest reference I have found, so far, to the use of the 'telegraph' in Jamaica, and it is clearly a reference to naval signalling, by whatever method was then in use. It seems likely that it was a system of flag signals at that time.
There is an entertaining story in Tom Cringle's Log, which was published in the early 1830s, about naval signalling:
'Speaking of telegraphing, I will relate an anecdote here, if you will wait until I mend my pen. I had landed at Greenwich wharf on duty - this was the nearest point of communication between Port Royal and the admiral's pen - where finding the flag- lieutenant, he drove me up in his ketureen to lunch. While we were regaling ourselves, the old signal man came into the piazza, and with several most remarkable obeisances, gave us to know that there were flags hoisted on the signal mast, at the mountain settlement, of which he could make nothing - the uppermost was neither the interrogative, the affirmative, nor the negative, nor in fact any thing that with the book he could make sense of. "Odd enough," said the lieutenant; "hand me the glass," and he peered away for half a minute. "Confound me if I can make heads or tails of it either; there, Cringle, what do you think? How do you construe it?" I took the telescope. Uppermost there was hoisted on the signal-mast a large table- cloth, not altogether immaculate, and under it a towel, as I guessed, for it was too opake for bunting, and too white, although I could not affirm that it was fresh out of the fold either.
"I am puzzled," said I, as I spied away again. Meanwhile there was no acknowledgment made at our semaphore. "There, down they go," I continued - "Why, it must be a mistake - Stop, here's a new batch going up above the green trees There goes the table cloth once more and the towel and deuce take me if I can compare the lowermost to any thing but a dishclout - why it must be a dishclout. The flags, or substitutes for them, streamed another minute in the breeze, but as there was still no answer made from our end of the string, they were once more hauled down. - We waited another minute - "Why, here goes the same signal up again, table-cloth, towel, dishclout, and all - What the diable have we got here? A red ball, two pennants under - What can that mean Ball? - It is the bonnet-rouge, or I am a Dutchman, with two short streamers" - Another look - "A red nightcap and a pair of stockings, by all that is portentous!" exclaimed I. "Ah, I see, I see!" said the lieutenant, laughing - "signal-man, acknowledge it." It was done, and down came all the flags in a trice. It appeared, on enquiry, that the washing cart, which ought to have been sent up that morning, had been forgotten; and the Admiral and his secretary having ridden out, there was no one who could make the proper signal for it. So the old housekeeper took this singular method of having the cart dispatched, and it was sent off accordingly.' |
This story indicates that a traditional naval system of signalling with flags was in operation in Kingston in the late 1820s. Tom Cringle actually outlines the system: 'The admiral, for instance, had a semaphore in the stationary flag-ship at Port-Royal, which communicated with another at his Pen, or residence, near Kingston; and this again rattled off the information to the mountain retreat, where he occasionally retired to careen;'
In his book The life of a sailor, Frederick Chamier, a captain in the navy, wrote in 1833 of the concern over the fate of a young doctor who had accidentally infected himself with lockjaw/tetanus, against which there was then no protection or cure:
' The next day opinions varied again. [Dr.] Chamberlaine, when we returned to Kingston, for I was that day promoted and resided with him remarked, "he will never live until nine o'clock to-morrow morning." At eight the next day a boat from the Isis was waiting for Chamberlaine, and I walked down to the landing place with him. The telegraph in the morning had given some hope of a recovery; but Chamberlaine, as if cursed with second sight, said, "I will go to oblige you, but rely upon it he is dead." He had not uttered the words a minute, before one of the Port Royal boats, for which we had waited to hear the report, announced the truth of the doctor's words. '
This is another indicator of a 'telegraph' system, which predated the 'electric' telegraph, and played some role in the transmission of news and information, at least in Kingston.
' The next day opinions varied again. [Dr.] Chamberlaine, when we returned to Kingston, for I was that day promoted and resided with him remarked, "he will never live until nine o'clock to-morrow morning." At eight the next day a boat from the Isis was waiting for Chamberlaine, and I walked down to the landing place with him. The telegraph in the morning had given some hope of a recovery; but Chamberlaine, as if cursed with second sight, said, "I will go to oblige you, but rely upon it he is dead." He had not uttered the words a minute, before one of the Port Royal boats, for which we had waited to hear the report, announced the truth of the doctor's words. '
This is another indicator of a 'telegraph' system, which predated the 'electric' telegraph, and played some role in the transmission of news and information, at least in Kingston.