The first submarine cable landing at Durban in 1879
Umgeni River mouth, Durban This month marks 142 years since the first undersea cable landed at the Umgeni River mouth, on 5 July 1879, enabling the South African colonies to communicate via telegraph with the outside world. I first came across an account of this event in the memoirs of my great grandfather’s brother, William Harwin. This sparked my interest, partly because I hadn’t realised that submarine communication cables were being laid that far back in world history (in fact it all started in 1850). These laid the foundation for today’s communication with the rest of the world via the internet using fibre optic cable. My journey of discovery led me to several helpful online sources detailing the history of undersea communications across the world. These included the detailed records of the Master Mariner of the ship involved in the cable landing at Durban, and information from the Anglo Zulu War Historical Society on the land-based telegraph system at the time. The cherry
