| Founded | 1884; 141 years ago (1884) inNew York, United States |
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TheCommercial Cable Company was founded in New York[1] in 1884 byJohn William Mackay andJames Gordon Bennett, Jr.
Their motivation was to break the then virtualmonopoly ofJay Gould on transatlantic telegraphy and bring down prices (particularly for Bennett's newspaper empire). Their most famous ship was theCS Mackay-Bennett, named after the founders.
The technology was well established by this time, and they were able to lay cables fromWaterville inIreland toCanso, Nova Scotia, without the major technical problems of thefirst Transatlantic telegraph cable. Onward connections toNew York City and beyond were initially overland and later submarine. Connections from Waterville toWeston-super-Mare in England andLe Havre in France were soon established by the submarine route after initial use of landlines from Waterville onward to mainland Britain. Commercial Cable also had a relationship with the German Atlantic submarine cable system.
Domestically the cable distributed its cable traffic through its partner firm thePostal Telegraph Company. It had a twenty-five percent share ownership in theCommercial Pacific Cable Company that operated a cable from San Francisco to Manila and Shanghai after 1906. Together these companies were all part of theMackay Companies, also known as the Associated Companies.
John Mackay's son,Clarence Mackay, took over the firm by the early 20th century and led it during World War I. Clarence Mackay andFrank Polk, a senior State Department official, were friends and this enabled the State Department to have access to selected diplomatic traffic carried over Commercial's cables. The company flourished for a time but in 1928, together with other elements of the Mackay System, came under the control ofInternational Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) under a wholly owned subsidiary, thePostal Telegraph & Cable Corporation. This would be reorganized in 1935, with Commercial Cable becoming part of theAmerican Cable and Radio Corporation. The undersea cables remained in use carrying telegraph traffic until 1962. In 1998, cables were briefly visible going out to sea at Waterville and are probably still there.
TheCommercial Cable Company Building was one ofNew York City'searly skyscrapers. Constructed in 1897, it was demolished in 1954.
A two and a half story Neo-Classical brick and granite building inHazel Hill, Nova Scotia built in 1888 was the last trans-Atlantic station remaining.[2] Despite the historic significance — the station helped send cables on the sinking of theRMS Titanic and at the end ofWorld War I) — it was torn down in 2017 due to safety concerns around its state of disrepair. There are plans to build a space port in the area.[3]
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