The Centre of World Communications

A coloured etching of the landing of a cable at Porthcurno Beach in 1870, showing a view across Porthcurno Beach to Logan Rock and out to sea, with a sailing ship just off the shore, and a line of men pulling the cable up the beach.

In 1870, Porthcurno began its life as an important centre of international communications. It was in this year that a chain of telegraph cables linking Britain with India was completed. Porthcurno was chosen as the landing point for the British end of this cable link. The company that laid the cable into Porthcurno was the Falmouth Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company, founded by John Pender in 1869 and one of four companies established to lay the cables in the 'chain' linking Britain and India. The name of the company indicates that the cable was to land at Falmouth and this was indeed the original intention.

However, late in the planning, it was decided to land the cable at Porthcurno rather than Falmouth and hence this remote Cornish cove became the site of Britain's first major Empire communications link in 1870.

In 1872 the four small companies that had laid the Porthcurno to Bombay cable were merged to form the Eastern Telegraph Company. This company went on to develop a world-wide telegraph cable network and Porthcurno was its major station.

Porthcurno's telegraphic code name was 'PK'. In 1929 the company also began to operate world radio communications through a merger with Marconi's radio network and it was renamed 'Imperial and International Communications'. In 1934 the name changed once again to 'Cable & Wireless'. At its height, Porthcurno was the world's largest cable station, with 14 telegraph cables in operation.


Image: World Cable Map of the Eastern Telegraph Company in 1872


Image: Map showing the cables linking Porthcurno to the rest of the world.

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